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Busboy

eGullet Society staff emeritus
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Everything posted by Busboy

  1. Busboy

    Sauternes

    No Sauternes expert me, but I have had a few bottles of Giraud (have an '88 in my "cellar" I just noticed the other day) and have never had the oak bomb problem you described. My guess is that you are correct, it was too young and that the better wines usually get more oaking. When I'm getting a sauternes for immediate drinking, I usally tend towards the less expensive chateaux, and as much age as I can afford. In addition, I have found (by accident) that some of them definitely taste lighter and more refreshing, less oaky even, the second day, so you might consider a very long breathing next time. Also, some of the better Muscats de Beaumes du Venice (sp?) are quite sauternes-like, and a fraction of the cost and little risk of wood chips in the glass.
  2. I don't think the increase or decrease in business is the point. The point is that people want -- need, even -- a social milieu in which they can relax and enjoy a little legal vice. People don't go to bars for their health, they go to have a good time. Surely if the demand for non-smoking bars is great enough, people will build them. Or a compromise can be reached -- a special license or something. Banning smoking in all bars (people at restaurants have a much better point, though not as strong as they think) bespeaks an arrogance and a pettiness that rightly irritates many people.
  3. I can hardly claim to have dined extensively in top-ten Italian restaurants, but "Il Laboradorio" in DC's Galileo, was nothing short of extraordinary the night I went. I had the truffle menu, my wife the regualar, so we shared 20 courses personally supervised -- he finished the sauces himself -- by Chef Donna. There were almost more cooks than patrons in the private room and from the carpaccio with truffle oil to the truffle ice cream - not to mention the non-truffle stuff, it was breathtaking. I'd be very surprised if there were ten chefs better than Roberto when he's back in the lab. The main restaurant, by the way, has always gotten mixed reviews and never really blown me away.
  4. Anyplace north of Trenton with red leatherette banquettes and large, dim mirrors, or the lounge attached to an Italian restaurant with a neon sign and a two wiseguys (wannabe's OK) in the corner.
  5. Sarcasm, Tommy, it was sarcasm. now I need a martini and a smoke
  6. I think the next logical step is to ban drinking in bars. As we all know, drinking is linked to social pathologies that affect not only the drinker, but second-hand drinkers, as well -- employers that lose money due to sick days; drunk driving and the related deaths and injuries; the burdens of std's, illegitimacy and divorce; uninsured health care costs, litter and vomit on the streets.... You can say that drinking is a personal choice, but I say that when it affects my wallet, I should have a say!
  7. The whole myth-of becoming "well-dined" (let us please kill this phrase now) is a status marker put down by today's so-called "Bourgeois-Bohemians" -- the hyper-intellectual, hyper-competive elite that, outside the gentry in the Bush Administration, runs the world -- to elevate themsleves above the old-line bluebloods they overthrew and the vast proletariat they pretend to respect. At the upper end, partners, developers, art diectors and financial giants wield their knowledge of the Micheline galaxy and the hot cuisine of the moment in the face of the tired "old-economy" types who made AT&T a giant and dined on steak medium well and martinis, warning them off with the message that "there's a new world now, and we're in charge, gramps." At the lower end, academics, activists, 1st-year associates and their ilk fall back on their taste for doro wat, goat curry and sweetbreads as evidence of their superiority over the teachers, skilled blue-collar workers and mid-level managent who share their income bracket. Od course they -- by which I mean we -- can't appear to revel in pure snobbery. That's what the generation they replaced did, with their country clubs and white shirts and debutante balls. So the "bobos" couch their dining preferences in a vocabulary that implies a superiority, in intelligence, taste and global sophistication, and ramble on about that 3-star in Paris or the new "authentic" Peruvian spot down the street. As with the elaborate banquets Tonyfinch mentioned, too often it's not about the food, it's about status.
  8. Chipotle was born in Denver in -- I think -- the early 90's and had about ten shops and a sometimes rabid following when McDonalds, looking for way to improve an increasingly grim revenue picture picked them up in '98 or '99.
  9. I have a set of steel (not stainless) Sabatiers that I love, especially my chef's knofe, which is roughly the size of a scimitar. They edge goes quickly, but it comes back quickly, too -- a minute on the whetstone and finishing with an electric sharpener. They stain easily and weigh a ton, I think that's part of why I like them: they make you feel like a throwback to the days before somebody like Nigella Lawson could become famous. Plus, you can practically use the chef's knife as a cleaver, cutting up duck carcasses and the like with no damage to the blade. That being said, I use my wife's 8" global for a lot of little stuff these day. Feel light, works fast, cleans easy. She in turn, likes my son's Wusthoff, for the feel and heft (though smaler and lighter than mine) and the curve of the blade. Does that help?
  10. Busboy

    Rabbit Ravioli

    I have seared often and eagerly, but who is this St. Maillard, and why has Father Bryce not mentioned him? He'll dine alone this week.
  11. Busboy

    Rabbit Ravioli

    Rabbit. Actually, I already have duck confit lying around, but I've other plans for that. Be vewy vewy quiet...I'm hunting wabbit this weekend.
  12. Capitol Grille dry ages their beef -- a disconcerting site if you haven't seen it before, their meatlocker has a window near the entrance. Nick and Steph's is pretty good, make sure there's no one playing at the MCI Center before you go. I'm partial to Sam and Harry's Cajun Ribeye, with the horsradish sour cream sauce, as well, and the Palm, but it's about the Palm, not about the meat there. Best steaks I get are when my wife flies back from Denver with the dry-aged primes from the little butcher shop near our old house. Used to walking distance, now I have to pay 50 bucks just to get something almost as good. Ask me about "shaving."
  13. Busboy

    Whole Muscovy Duck

    Cut it up, brown it, rendering as much fat as possible. Braise in a bottle of the best sauterne-like wine you can afford (well, someone else used the phrase "by all means add truffles," so I figure cost is no object) and chicken or duck stock to cover, with chopped carrots, leeks, parsley etc. When the duck is almost done, remove it from the braising liquid. Cool, skim, reduce if needed, and then add the duck back and warm just before serving. Serve on top of wild rice.
  14. Busboy

    Rabbit Ravioli

    My wife, knowing that she would get to play with it often, bought pasta maker attachments for the KitchAid and they are spectacular and addictive. I thought this weekend I might try to replicate the rabbit-sage raviolis I once deeply enjoyed at a local trattoria. But then I realized I have no idea how they were made. My thought is to braise the duck in red wine and the usual garni-type stuff, strip the meat, turn the bones into a rich broth and lightly warm the meat with sage, a little garlic and a little fat before stuffing. But I am wide open to suggestion, if anyone has been there and done that. Thanks.
  15. Busboy

    Tinned Foie Gras

    If you enjoy fresh foie gras, lower your expectations dramatically. Think more in terms of a particularly rich pate and treat it as such. If you try to turn it into a grand stand-alone treat, you'll probably find it wanting. But if you want to serve it with toasted brioch, do a little salad or (as my girlfirend did the first time I tried it) serve it with steak, crouton and a mushroom sauce as a kind of blue collar tournadoes Rossini (bit of an oxymoron, that), it's perfectly tasty. Be aware that it's even trickier to hande than fresh, melting or disintigrating the moment you look away.
  16. We could, if Jinmyo, or you, want to get sassy. I can hear it now "stop dancing, stop dancing, my souffle..."
  17. Suzanne, thanks. Got all worked up by a too-academic string on technique v. ingredients, so I thought I'd vent over here, on a topic very close to my life, if not my heart. I like your approach StellaB: cooking defined by good friends, wild nights and mystery the next morning as you ease your hungover self into the kitchen to see how much damage remains...
  18. Jeez, what an effete bunch of Felix Ungers. If someone's in my way, I throw them out. If they're not, there's always something to slice, chop, clean or stir. It's a dinner PARTY not a dinner MASS, if you can't get out of the kitchen to entertain the guests, be prepared to entertain them in it -- since 90% of final prep can be done by a trained monkey (you did all the art and brain work before then, remember?) have 'em plate the green beans (sorry, haricot verts) spoon a little sauce over the venison or just haul dishes to the table. It's a great opportunity to boss your friends around, and to practice cursing in a French accent ("not lack dat weeth de fucking 'aricots!"). And keep repeating to yourself "the guests are more important than the food."
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