hjshorter

Remembered this old thread last weekend, when my husband was forced to check out The Babbo Cookbook from the library (for a recipe for pork cheeks), and after our long discussion in the The Daily Gullet about the dominance of French food. Three years later, I've added several French cookbooks to my collection, but still haven't managed to buy a single Italian cookbook. I have checked out Mario's Molto Italiano, but only got through one recipe before being completely turned off. The Spaghetti Carbonara is the most unbalanced version of that old chestnut we've ever tried - so rich it made me a little queasy after a few bites. So, here I am, still in the hunt. I'll go back through the thread and check out some of the suggestions again. And if anyone has any new suggestions, I'm all ears.

Bikers, beer and patio seating. And at one time, rumor has it, there was a, er, thriving trade out of the kitchen, if you get my drift.

The Olney Ale House isn't dead yet, is it? The food wasn't great, but it was a fun place to sit by the fireplace with a bowl of soup in the winter, or have a few beers after a motorcycle ride in the summer. Edit: Mr T's!

While I agree that Olney doesn't need another strip mall, or the Starbucks that is going in there, I am interested in seeing what the Roots Market will be like. I guess Olney is upscale enough to support an Organic market. They sure could use another nice restaurant or two. Agreed.I'm curious about the market - no sign for it the last time I was through. Here's their website. Now what was the name of the sandwich place next to the Silo? It's still bugging me.

Every child I know in this part of the world does this with adults who are reasonably close friends of their parents. I have always kind of liked it. And you are right, it does seem to be a more or less Southern phenom. ← I thought I would update this...We moved recently to Takoma Park, a more "progressive," liberal suburb of Washington DC (if you can imagine), where apparently no child ever calls an adult by anything other than his or her first name. I can't tell you the number of times adults have introduced themselves to my kids by saying "Hi Emma, I'm Pam." I am fighting a losing battle here. I guess insisting that children who don't know me call me Mrs. Shorter is reinforcing the patriarchy. We still insist on Mr and Mrs (first name or last name, we let the friend choose) from our kids, except for close friends who are Aunt and Uncle. Table manners are coming along here. Emma, now 7 1/2, can order in a restaurant and will behave in a generally acceptable manner at the table. Ian still needs reminding not to shove more than one bite in his mouth, but says "excuse me" when ready to get down and clears his place without asking.

We spent a week based in St-Remy-de-Provence this summer and found Provence Beyond very informative, along with Via Michelin website, and the green Michelin guide for Provence. The Cadogan guide was thorough and I enjoyed some of the tart observations.

Thanks so much! I had found the threads on the 7th, and the other by arrondisement, but had missed the eating with kids compendium. I will be faxing a reservation request to Alt 95. The Tower website is remarkably devoid of menus, reservation rules (30 days before?), etc. I will certainly report back, provided we get in.

Resurrecting this thread... I am taking my almost eight-year-old daughter to Paris in mid-May for five days. Breakfast is taken care of, and we're thinking of foraging picnic lunches, but I would gratefully accept some dinner suggestions. We're staying the 7th, right around the corner from Rue Cler, and will most likely try to have our evening meal not too far away from the hotel. Le Café du Marche is on my list, and Emma would like to eat at one of the places in the Eiffel Tower (probably Altitude 95, as I am not sure she's ready for Jules Verne) She's a quiet kid, very accustomed to eating in restaurants, and would prefer salad and fish to American-style "kid food." ETA: this is the first trip to Paris for both of us.

I remember the Silo - scene of yet another disastrous date (I had quite a few of those ). An old boyfriend took me to a party there, and then left me to talk to his most recent ex-girlfriend while he went out to admire someone's Corvette. There was a sandwich place next door that I can't remember the name of.Anyway, I drove by not too long ago and I think a little strip mall is going in that space. Just what Olney needs.

Cleveland Park restaurants... I felt a small pang when the Roma closed (one of my first "grown-up" dates happened there, with all the dead animals staring down at me. Eddie's Uptown Pizzaria gets a thought from me occasionally, because pizza that craptacular deserves to be immortalized in memory. But "Retching" Palace? Nothing.

Beautiful! Did you make the puff pastry? That's one thing I hate to do at home, with a too-small fridge and no marble work surface.

Jacques Pepin's autobiography, The Apprentice is very interesting, as is The Perfectionist, about Bernard Loiseau. There's also lots of information out there on the web. The brigade is a very structured and compartmentalised system, and I'd be curious to know how strictly it's adhered to these days. Here's a Wikipedia entry describing the brigade de cuisine.* *That Escoffier guy pops up again. He's everywhere.

What issue is that, exactly?I provocatively suggested American Cuisine was made up of hamburgers, pizza, and hotdogs...or fastfood, and the comments followed. So the issue was "is it"I am puzzled, you mention New York pastrami, Chesapeake Bay crabs, and a few other things that you enjoyed here, yet still cling to the "fast food is American Cuisine" cliche?I said: Just to pile on a bit I'd add Tex-Mex, Cajun and Creole, New England clam chowder, Southern Maryland stuffed ham, corn on the cob, blueberry cobbler, tamales, BBQ (Eastern North Carolina, Western NC, Kansas City, Memphis and Texas styles), collard greens, Cobb salad, and the Toll House cookie... You disagree? (er, shouldn't this be in the American cusine thread? Unless we want to discuss the French influence on all of the above.)

What issue is that, exactly?Is anyone else amused by the argument over "fusion," originally a combination of Asian and - you guessed it - French food? That's what editors are for.

But what does this have to do with the pernicious French influence? Kiwichef, what you ate here is our cuisine. Taco trucks. Ethiopian restaurants. Bahn Mi counters. Chez Panisse. Sushi and schawarma. The French Laundry. Pizza joints and hot dog stands. Felafel and french fries. That's the real genius of the USA - that there is an infinite variety of ways to eat like an American. You won't get any argument from me about the Golden Arches, or soda consumption. As far as New Zealand wines goes...I've tried it, and I'll stick with French.

Egg white can be tricky stuff, even with a failsafe method. What was it served with?Thank for the tip, FG. I've not seen that brand at any my local Safeway but maybe somewhere farther out in suburbia carries it. I buy most of our eggs at the farmer's market, unless we're doing hard-boiled eggs and need some that aren't quite as fresh. Busboy, try frisee with lardons, wild mushrooms, and a duck egg. Make a dijon vinaigrette with fresh thyme, heavy on the vinegar. Good stuff.

I'm curious how common pasteurised eggs are in other areas because I've been unsuccessful in trying to locate them in the DC area. Luckily my kids are past the age where I need to care about that anymore.

I'm all over it. Every time I get it served a new way, I end up eating it that way at home. Stephanie just fixed me rice and black beens topped with a runny egg last night. ← Faaaaabulous. Now I want huevos rancheros.I've got a very good recipe for eggs cooked in a tomato sauce with Indian spices. Excellent with basmati, sauteed spinach, and naan to soak it up. Barring the $5/a dozen organic, free range specimins from the farmer's market, eggs are for the most part inexpensive and an excellent background for many flavors (scrambled with truffles, anyone?) And they provide a rich counterpoint to acidity (the ubiquitous salad) or spicyness (the aforementioned Rancheros).

Surely you're not suggesting that this is a bad thing? I'm with Steven. Every restaurant need at least three egg preparations on its menu. Jack, that's quite a feat. It's not hard to do at home, but I can't imagine pulling that off for 200 people.

Amusing, and topical. I am headed to Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend and asked in the Southeast forum for some fine dining recommendations and here's what I got: old-school French, "American" heavily influenced by French and Italian techniques, "traditional" Italian, and a couple of tapas restaurants. Looking at the listings, Spain seems to be on the ascendant there. Maybe in a couple of years we can all start complaining about the undue influence of the Spaniards.

I thought I had made myself clear on that one. I was addressing that to kiwichef. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear.

I think you might need an irony supplement. Maybe a little winky thing after my sentence would have helped? Read the last para of my post again.DocG, I read Mintz's book on sugar (the name escapes me) but I can't say I'm familiar with much else. My focus has been paleo and not socio-cultural anthropology. What else can you recommend? (Although the idea of National cuisines existing in a textual sense but not as a whole sounds a little PoMo and Busboy might get hives if Foucault comes up again. Maybe we should take that discussion to a new thread?)

OK so you decided to pick on a cuisine that you may have no idea about. Have you been to NZ and have you experienced their cusine. Dude, that was exactly the point. Dave, I like the idea of the sandwich being our national food, but can we really take the credit for it? Annecros, many anthropologists consider the domestication of maize from teosinte (or from varieties of wild maize and teosinte, it's still being debated) one of the greatest feats of selective breeding in the ancient world. And since much of the Southwestern USA was part of Mexico until relatively recently, I feel comfortable in saying "We did that."

We are still talking about haute cuisine, not regional idigenous cooking.I'm not going to address Kiwichef's post, as Busboy has alread done so far more eloquently than I could, except to ask - have you traveled extensively in the US? Excellent post, DocG, although it's amusing that Archestratus was considered a corrupting infuence among Greek philosophers, thereby demonstrating that the moralistic, puritanical approach to food, brought up often as a reason for the lack of food knowledge/appreciation in the USA, existed 2000 years before there were Puritans to promulgate it. It took the Romans to really get the Hedonistic ball rolling, and of course we would probably not be discussing the superiority of French cuisine in any form without the Roman conquest/settlement of Gaul, would we?

Thanks. I'll be staying near Southpark, but am not restricted to that area. Have you been to Las Ramblas, in Dillworth? The online blurb in the Observer sounded promising.