weinoo

I like Hearth a lot. Fun place, great wine list. But for a 15th anniversary dinner, there are places I would choose over it.

Contra is quite "modern," whatever that means. Wells reviewed it a month or two ago in the Times. Tough choice. Do Contra for dinner and GT or JG for lunch - that'll fall within your budget .

And don't forget, once you start drinking, your tab can easily double.

I'll ask a few questions that are asked on another board when someone asks the same thing as you... Is that your budget before or after tax and tip? And $100 - $150 is a broad range; can you be more specific? What types of food do you like? Jean-Georges is probably one of the most reasonable tasting menus on the planet. At lunch, especially, it's $39 for 2 courses, and $19 for each additional course. Dinner is slightly different; they do a 3-course prix fixe for $118. Le Bernardin - 3 course lunch is $76; 4-course dinner is $135. We loved our anniversary dinner there this year. Here's my blog post about that meal. Gramercy Tavern's lunch tasting is $58. Dinner is a 3-course menu for $92, or a tasting for $120. Still great food after all these years. Then there are set menu places like Contra, which has been very well received. It's around $60 for their 5-course menu. Or another favorite, because Dave Santos is just a fine chef/cook, is Louro. On Monday nights (if you're here on a Monday), they often do a Nossa Mesa supper club. For example, May 19th is pig & uni, and it's $75 a person. It's also bring your own wine and beer, which makes it an outstanding value. I don't think you can go wrong with any of the first 3; As a matter of fact, you'll have to wear a jacket at Le Bernardin. GT is not quite as fancy; Danny Meyer casual fancy.

Didn't they state on the website that they are trying to work on the shearing problem, which appears to be related to how much use the glass gets in a commercial environment?

It's not actually a "heater." It's a precision circulator.

I think an old-fashioned can be made with any of those spirits. Do you have any of Wondrich's books, Dale's, Gary's, PDT's?

Give the guy a break - there's nothing that was done out of the ordinary or because they wanted to screw over their followers. Anyone that doesn't like the way it was handled - well, don't buy the product.

Both the sulfur and chlorine rinse sound delicious.

Sometimes (and sometimes often) people don't want to listen to those who know more about a specific subject, like the knowledge you and Sam possess about cookware. You just gotta let it go.

That's bull. There's Brooklyn Copperware. There's Rocky Mountain Retinning. There's East Coast Tinning. There's Metal Man Restoration. But please, go on...

This has been explained upthread. I find the same thing to be true of cooks; a great cook can cook on pretty much anything, using available cookware. A not such a great cook needs help from the stove, from the cookware, etc.

When did you upgrade? I always thought you had the 3000...

My refrigerator/freezer. Cause it keeps stuff cold and supplies me with ice.

Does the sorrel leach a lot of liquid inside the bird? And breakfast radishes? For dinner! quelle horreur -

I imagine it's nowhere near as good as a Vitamix or Blendtec.

Not at DeHellerin. Most everything is already scratched and/or dirty.

Funny, with your name I thought you'd be a Mets' fan.

There's something to be said for that, Kerry.

I like to use parchment on the bottom and foil on the top.

Yeah - not enough liquid, in my opinion. 3.5 times liquid for the amount of rice and a bit more won't hurt. Even with a heat diffuser, a paella pan is a bit difficult to get evenly heated, because it's slightly concave (or convex, I forget my science), and doesn't sit flat on the surface. That's why moving the pan around and/or rotating the pan is suggested.

In a never-ending battle to bring sous-vide cooking to people who have no idea they want to cook sous-vide, there's a product in the works that will do all the work for them. It's called Mellow. From the Mellow web site: Have at it.

In my opinion, you're better off buying the cookware you want here in the US. The prices in Paris are not what they were even a dozen years ago, and the exchange rate makes them even higher. You'll do just as well scouring the internet for deals. By all means, go to DeH and Mora just because, and maybe to handle those pans that you lust after, but buy them here.

I've been working on perfecting paella for a while...and still have a long way to go. What type of rice are you using? What is your liquid to rice ratio? The multiple burner suggestion is important; when I use the larger of my 2 pans, that's what I do. When I use the smaller, I find myself rotating and repositioning the pan frequently during its cooking. To stir the rice once it has started cooking is heresy. And I think it's important to cover the pan with a clean dishtowel after at the end - that way the al dente rice has some time cook even further. My last batch (chicken and chorizo) came out pretty nicely...

Yes, quite evenly baked. I covered it with a piece of aluminum foil for the last 15 minutes or so.