Ondine

I should probably add right now that, sadely, Eminem has closed its doors. The chef has cited "unforeseen circumstances" and hinted at family and exhaustion issues. Which I am definitely sad about.

I have a few guidelines for things I wouldn't eat. I won't eat anything that isn't delicious enough to be worth the trouble, that is alive as I eat it, or that is likely to make me ill (as in food poisoning). Under the first category falls things like brains or marrow - I find the bland fattiness too insipid to be worth it. I also find the flavour of most insects to be uninteresting, and the pesky legs and wings get stuck in your teeth. Under the second falls (barely, I admit) things like live sashimi or balut. I'm quite happy to eat something just-killed-and-still-twitching, like lobster sashimi. I won't eat wriggly cheese! And raw oysters sometimes show up here too. The third category is the largest. I won't eat whole raw animals, like raw oysters, as I really don't like eating uncleaned digestive tracts. This residual discomfort means I tend not to like eating tubey innards like intestines. I also tend to be wary of fermented high protein food like shiokara, stinky tofu or natto - the smell seems to tell me instinctively that the food is hazardous. Strangely, fish sauce doesn't seem to trigger this. I avoid drinking milk, though, not due to the taste but due to a learned aversion to the lactose-intolerance bloating I get. I must admit to not liking rubbery food textures too - stuff that you chew and chew, and minutes later it's still there sticking to your teeth. Things like stomachs, or raw squid. Am I just intellectually rationalising my dislikes, do you think?

I finally found out what cornbread is. (Hey, go easy on me - I'm in Australia and had absolutely no idea. I thought it was some kind of wheat bread with sweet corn added to the dough. How wrong I was..) Now I want to make some. Can I use fine polenta (which I have a lot of) or do I have to go and specially buy maize meal/flour? Cheers. *ducks head sheepishly*

Hi there everyone! My friend just gave me a duck that she found clearing out her freezer. Apparently she had too much food and had to get rid of some. This duck dates from her abortive attempt to raise livestock in her (large) backyard. She gave up when she found the birds were breeding faster than she could keep up with. The birds were lovingly cared for and raised on organic feed and greenery. Said duck is in my freezer at the moment, and is an older bird. The carcass lacks wings or skin (don't ask - apparently there was a bad plucking mishap), and I have no confidence in my duck cooking skills. In fact, I am at a complete loss as to how to proceed. Should I braise it? If so, how, and what with? What if it proves to have that "muddy" flavour that some do, how do I get rid of that? Help..?

Let me just add my two monetary units here. One thing I did find I missed during a shortish vegetarian stint was the chewy texture of meat, and not necessarily the flavour. I found a good way to get the texture I wanted was to get a standard package of water-packed tofu (silken or momen) and freeze it. The tofu will go a deceptively alarming translucent pale amber colour. When thawed, the tofu's texture will have toughened slightly and become spongy. This stuff can be used in stews or gravies (with excess water squeezed out) to literally soak up flavours like a sponge, while giving that meatlike chewiness. I know you can buy the ready-freeze-dried Japanese tofu, but this is a very easy way to make something similar at home. Or am I preaching to the converted?

The very first time I had fresh black truffles. Not bottled, tinned, frozen, vacuum-packed or infused into oil. In fact, it was from one of the first few crops from a new truffle farm south of my city (down in Manjimup) and had been dug up less than a day before. It had been shaved gently over scrambled duck eggs, into which had been folded more tiny dice of truffle. It was a physical shock as overwhelming as being plunged into a bath of sunshine. I blissed out so far that my father, who had failed to get my attention when speaking directly into my ear (it was a Father's Day dinner), had to resort to shaking me bodily to bring me back to earth. To this day I swear I must have ovulated with that one mouthful.:>

I know the smell you mean - the smell of globulin proteins, of tissue fluid. I find a horror in the smell of raw chicken from the supermarket, but not in the chicken from my butcher (who has much higher turnover). Or that damp sticky smell of a discount meat fridgecase. Perhaps its an instinctive cringe at the smell of materials just far too prone to very quick spoilage....an ability to spot the very initial stages of bacterial colonisation? Normally that sort of thing doesn't bother me, although I find the smell of milk (whole or skim) offputting, personally. It's not the dairy odour I don't like, it's the smell of the lactose - I don't like sweet or sugary smells. No, you're not nuts. You're just far more perceptive nosewise than the vast majority of people.

I like guinea fowl eggs. A lady has them often at the organic market I go to and I buy them all the time. The flavour is like that of standard chicken eggs, though slightly stronger and dare I say, a little richer. They're about 60% the size of hen eggs and are a perfect little mouthful. The shell and membrane are thicker and the curve of the shell more pronounced, so bw aware it will take quite I bit more effort to crack or peel them than ordinary chicken eggs. All that being said, I love guinea fowl eggs. They're the best size for snack food - I like to hard boil them and eat them, peeled, one end dipped in smoked salt... Have fun with them!

Thank you balex and kerriar! I was wondering why I wasn't getting any responses to my question, and now I know why. When I said "all budgets" I meant I was asking for recommendations of any kind, from the neighbourhood take-away type to temples of gastronomy. Anything, really, as long as it's good. My brother will probably like 'Le Petit Lyonnais', I think. He's been emailing me with amazed comments about the produce in the markets. He's never seen wild boar before, and here he is having sanglier sausages for dinner! And he'd never seen snow in quantity before either. I definitely heard about that one.

Hi there everyone! I just thought I'd post on behalf of my brother who has uprooted himself from Down Under to fly all the way to Geneva for his new job. He's just started to get settled and has a place to live and a car, and is loudly (by email) bewailing the novel (to him) profusion of snow. He knows I'm a regular on food sites online and asked me to recommend any restaurants/cafes in his area. I personally drew a blank and could only find the odd Fodor link. I really should have come to eGullet first, shouldn't I? So having done a bit of a thread hunt, I was wondering if anyone out there can recommend any good eats (all budgets really) in Geneva? I've seen other threads but they mostly seemed to deal with other Swiss cities like Zurich. He's pretty good with driving and public transport, and keeps normal business hours. Where's good?

Aha! Another example of regional differences! It's a fairly standard dish down these parts. The bits of bone-in pork chop are tenderised (lightly, hopefully) and battered or crumbed, and deep fried. Then they're heated or sauteed in a sweet-sour plum sauce with a touch of chilli. I think. How would you lacquer spare ribs? Don't you need to have skin on the meat to lacquer it?

1. Do you eat brown rice or regular rice, or do you have no rice? I usually steam rice at home and only order the other dishes. I consider fried rice to be a seperate other dish and order it occasionally when the craving hits. 2. Do you put the rice into a bowl or plate and then top it with your entree? Or do you alternate bites of rice and dish? Rice in a bowl and spoonfuls of gravy-wet stuff on top, and non-gravy-wet items on a seperate plate. Then alternate or build mouthfuls of stuff. 3. Are you a chopstick user or a fork and spoon user? Either. I prefer fork and spoon if the rice is either wet or fried, as it then doesn't tend to stick together well enough to use chopsticks efficiently. (Or is it just me?) 4. Do you eat everything, all the vegetables but not the ________, or only meat? If it's something like Peking spare ribs, where the various other bits and pieces in the container are just garnish, then I only eat the meat. Otherwise I eat everything. Except the dried chillies. Those I leave. 5. Are you one of these people who think that fried chicken wings covered in hot sauce on top of pork fried rice constitutes proper Chinese takeout? Um. Not really. I don't tend to eat meat to that kind of level very often at all. 6. When ordering takeout, do you always get the same thing or do you try out different things? Most places have standard fare, but I'm always happy to try any other, different , house specialities. 7. What's your favorite place and your least favorite place, and could you please describe them? My favourite place is in indefinite hiatus as the chef-owners decided to take a rest break after their lease expired, a year ago. They were a self-proclaimed vegetarian restaurant, which means that they didn't use any four-foot meats, but did offer poultry and seafood as well as the vegan Buddhist options. Their flavours were so clear and pristine, with none of the greasy heaviness that can sometimes crop up. 8. Do you have a best takeout experience? Let's hear it. See above at number 7. Also, I got to be such a regular there that I'd ring to order and say how hungry we were, and for how many people, and they'd just put together something for us. Never a bad experience there. *sigh* I miss them. 9. Do you have a worst takeout experience? Let's hear that as well. When I was living in Bangkok in the mid 80's we decided to try eating at every restaurant along our lane/Soi. One of the little chinese restaurants rang us back a little after we placed our order to say they'd run out of rice and would deliver dinner when they'd cooked more. Also, they had such a heavy hand with the meat tenderiser that several pieces of meat were flat out unidentifiable ("Um, is that pork of chicken?" "No idea. It's brown though. And flat..") Definitely not in NYC here. Posting from Western Australia. Edited for annoying typos.

I never really understood the whole idea of 'getting drunk is fun' thing. I have an endogenous disulfiram reaction so I can't get drunk. You know that Antabuse pill that some alcoholics have to take that makes them sick after two glasses of wine? I naturally have that. And yes, it sucks - no wine flights for me. And anyone who would nickname a partner 'Fatty' after theor own projected insecurities deserves to have random body parts stapled to a moving bus! Good of you to have dropped him!

Aww, I didn't mean it in any hurtful way, it was just a joke, honest! And I guess I pounced on it as I've been ribbing my uncle about his accent for years - I swear it gets thicker when he's bargaining with shopkeepers!

The mind boggles - a new aromatic, not to mention tasty, inflight skin treatment! All the glitterati will want one!

I find it interesting that the approach in a lot of high-end dining nowadays is towards degustation or otherwise pre-planned menus, with a lot if not most of the variables in the meal controlled by the chef or establishment. I can see it as a refinement of catering to a chef's artistic sensibilities, as well as allowing a showcasing of the restaurant's resources and reach. Somewhat like the 'cocooning' trend of the 90's, I notice a trend in high-end dining towards having everything taken care of for the diner; you could almost use the "full service" moniker for it. (Or maybe it's just me.) It seems to suggest a new form of cultural blending to me. I once heard it said that in the West, the most gracious host strives to make available the widest possible range of choices for their guest/client, so they can choose what pleases them the most. And in the East, the most gracious host instead makes available one exquisite option only, to free the guest of the burden of choice, and to release them to simply relax and enjoy. Is this plausible? And if so, where do you think we will go from here?

I've actually heard that open toe shoe one! You are sooo irght about everything being up for microanalytic dissection. There is a reason I never brought any boyfriends to family 'dos' until after both sets of grandparents were no longer with us - it would've been excruciating and counterproductive. And my grandmother only gave me a couple of mah-jong lessons before stopping. Perhaps I was learning too fast for her liking... She had a rep in the neighbourhood as a mah-jog shark of sorts.

Now that's what I call packing! I want a box like that. Hell, I want the kit that goes into a box like that. Dave, what are the spices you packed? I can't quite read the labels and can't identify anything past the bay leaves - is that orange powder in the foreground curry powder or am I sadely mistaken?

Infused into a Creme Brulee which didn't survive the night!

They never sent me a copy of mine either. I think it's something you have to arrange with your particular server, as the maitre'd didn't seem to know how. I think it is the server who picks what your degustation will consist of - ours was saying that the management recently declared that none of the tables in a particular server's area was allowed to have degustations that overlapped by more than two dishes, so their creativity was kept fairly hopping. Here's the printed Prix Fixe menu from lunch on Tuesday 19th July: Entree Risotto de Champignons Sauvages Wild Mushroom Risotto or Coquille St-Jacques cuite au four servie avec une puree de Petits Pois Baked scallop with fresh garden pea puree and a bouillabaisse sauce encased in bread dough Main Course Joue de Porc Braisee aux Epices Braised Pig Cheek in spices, with sweet and sour carrots and apple mousseline or Filet de Snapper Poche, Brunoise de Legumes Gold Band Snapper poached in its own stock, brunoise of vegetables, gratinated with a herb crust and mussel sabayon Green Leaf salad with a hazelnut dressing $6.50 Pommes Pont Neuf $6.50 Pommes Puree $6.50 Dessert Bombe Alaska au Citron Meyer Lemon infused cream parfait moulded into a ball and surrounded by baked Italian meringue or Fromage St Nectaire, Auvergne, France. We didn't actually decide on the prix fixe, and went with a la carte instead. Here's what we had for lunch: Amuse: Scallop marinated in yuzu, pumpkin puree, bouillbaisse foam, yuzu oil, potato tuile Entree Him: Wild Mushroom Risotto with ceps, Cep capuccino A glass of Tgallant 2004 Tribute Pinot Gris Me: Seared Strasbourg foie gras with cinnamon apples, peeled grapes and walnuts, Sauternes emulsion, and a sprinkle of seven spices (which I don't remember) (who the hell peels walnuts?! ) Palate Cleanser Basil sorbet with Tomato consomme and fresh tomato gelee Main Him: Confit of Wagyu beef, sweet-sour crispy brisket and tripe, bearnaise sauce, Spring onion and crushed pea puree Me: Crown roast rack of rabbit with cauliflower puree, Pommes Anna, quenelle of sweetbreads (with chicken mousse), ventreche bacon, double rabbit veloute and caper butter Pre-Dessert Lychee foam with chili-strawberry syrup, cardamom-peanut crumble. (sounds bizarre but it worked) Dessert Him: Manjari chocolate fondant with blood orange granita, milk ice-cream, chocolate bread. Me: Pistachio and Valrhona souffle (the souffle of the day) Afters Coffee and Petits Fours: Malteser Ice -creams, lemon-basil meringue tarts, white peach jellies, lime-poppyseed tuilles, Earl Grey chocolate truffle logs. The dinner experience we had was quite similar to the menu that Kangarool posted, except for one superlative course that blew me away. It was a Rack of Hare. The fanned-out rack of ribs was roasted, and placed atop a thick cylinder of the loin, which had been thinly wrapped in a truffled chicken mousse and seared, so the centre was effectively blue-rare. This rested on a cube of polenta which had been crumbed and fried, then hollowed out and filled with a Sauce Epice - a mild curry sauce which worked quite well. A naturtium flower was perched jauntily on top of the structure. A fragrant truffle 'tea' was poured from glass teapots around the base of the stack at table. I want to go back.. Hell, I want to eat there every fortnight for the rest of the year... (drool) I'll just have to wait until I'm over there again. PCL, Shinboners, you lucky ducks - you're at least only a quick drive away! I'll just sit here and quietly turn green with envy..

In my house, you'll smell garlic, red wine and books. This last few weeks as I've bought a new bed you will also smell cedar. And after I cooked dinner tonight you'll smell pesto, braised leeks and lemon verbena. And Carrot Top, I learned long ago that no matter how hot a day it is it is dangerous to cook bacon in the nude. Apron is a good idea.

Sorry to hear that your experience was less than lovely, Kangarool. I am glad to hear non-gushing reports about any restaurant I have been to, as it seems to tell me that I am someplace well away from the main lode of hype. Not that there really is much hype here on eGullet, but there you go. I managed to get into VDM a couple of weeks ago after much plotting and saving up for a lightning trip to Melbourne with my Boy. We had scored a late-seating lunch slot and a dinner slot for the next night(for dinner with relatives with whom we were staying), on the understanding that if the lunch proved it was all hype we would cancel dinner. We didn't cancel the dinner booking. I didn't see too much of the smarmy self congratulation here, either on diners or staff. And the staffers I spoke to were clearly very happy to be doing what they were doing. The closest thing to a smirk I saw was an excited grin on our dinner waitress at the thought that one of us hadn't had truffles before - and had decided on the truffle supp. The cutlery was all Laguiole (I didn't know they made crumb scrapers ..) and handled beautifully. The attentiveness of the staff was pleasantly short of intrusive, and they were all nicely knowledgeable about dishes and wines. It is a testament to the standard of the food that several times we were served items that I have known the Boy to vehemently refuse. But in this setting he was willing to give them a try - and liked them! He later admitted that he was amazed by this. I loved that fact that the kitchen was separated from the dining room by nothing more than a granite prep counter, and so you could see the blowtorching/carcass breakdown etc. This was even more fun after lunch as they'd clearly started dinner prep so I was able to chat to a few as they were doing their thing. I even caught a couple of the pastry folks leafing through the El Bulli cookbook. I did manage to speak to Mister Bennett, and he seemed quite relieved to find out that it was all about the food for me, none of that "i'm so thrilled to be here..!" stuff. He was very nice and before I knew it was telling me how they made their Pommes Souffles, and the chili caramel in the Wagyu dish. It is nice to see a chef who is always in the kitchen of their restaurant for a change. I guess it's inevitable that when a skilled, passionate chef wants to do something slightly different (and break away from the usual Mediterranean menu, in this case) then hype will follow. I'm just glad to have found substance under the buzz.

I'm with Canucklehead on the crustacean sashimi. It's like putting a lump of textural insidiousness in your mouth - it ducks under the teeth so no chewing ever helps you swallow it. I have a very sharp sense of smell so a lot of strong odours make me gag. Some of these include bananas (the peel), guavas, papayas, cinnamon candy, sugar (like the smell of boiled sweets or caramel), aniseed and persimmons. Which means anything with these odours associated with them (like liquorice) send me screaming and running in the opposite direction. Strangely enough though, in my house garlic is a vegetable not a seasoning, and I adore durian to the point that when travelling in SE Asia in durian season I have to be forcibly made to wind the taxi windows up. On the other hand my biological training kicks in to stop me being comfortable eating raw oysters. Raw, carefully prepared and selected slices of animal muscle are fine - if you want me to eat the entire thing raw, guts, gonads and all, you'd better cook it. I've tried very hard to actually overcome this but I've never found the actual flavour payoff to be quite enough compensation. I'm certainly not the only bundle of contradictions revealed in this thread!

okay now you're just being a tease. ← Seconded.

Like Mooshmouse, I grew up with the Asian way of eating - fork in left hand as a pushing instrument, spoon in right as scooping instrument. When I got taught to eat with knife and fork I learned the form that keeps the knife in the right hand, for cutting, while the left hand spears things and conveys them into the mouth(what style is that called?). I only put the knife down and eat with fork in right hand (no utensil in left hand) when eating alone, as my left hand often has a book in it. I was told once that people who 'zigzag' their forks and knives look down on those who eat with utensils in both hands as being somewhat uncouth, as if one needs to have two utensils-worth of effort to inhale one's food. Is that true?