Busboy

The reason Daniel's question is so absurd and the article so abominably stupid is that there is no evidence whatsoever either that a) hormone levels have anything to do with sexual orientation or b) that sexual orientation is determined after birth. Whatever the effects of soy one one's hormones it will not change your sexual orientation. NO hormone will. Affect your sex drive, chest hair, menstrual cycles -- yes, so hormones can definitely affect your sex life. But they won't have you demanding to be traded to the other team. That being said, I'm going on a high-tofu diet before my trip to Mexico, so I don't have to get waxed for the beach.

Has anybody out west tried 209?

We pretty sushied up in DC, and not junkies as some are, so we're probaly hunting for something a little different. Thanks. though, for this and all the other suggestions. What's the deal with Kevin Taylor? When we left Denver, he had just received a savage review of his flagship spot in the RMN -- they just tore the place to bits as expensive, pretentious and inept. Has it come up? Were the original notices wrong?

Maybe not, for at least two reasons. First, they really don't have anything against the particular restaurant. (they could even be a regular customer?) These people have a crusading mentality. The point is getting publicity and parlaying that into disportionate political clout, not educating restaurantuers. And, you don't want to be too obvious. SB (knows a few things about making trouble) ← "These people..." You talked to the woman? She (they?) didn't try to generate any publicity. Which, of course, would involve getting obvious. Which you say they don't want to do. Which means that there's no political clout, because politicians rarely respondto the subtle. And no co-conspirators. And no reports of multiple monkeywrenching -- no multiple contacts of this restaurant or scattered, systematic contacts of others. Is this the "lone vegan" theory?

Most of these places are using sous-vide, though. Or not always, anyway. Actually, I didn't like the texture of the one sous-vide I had (at Citronelle) the outside seemed like some sort of bathtub sealant.

You are, you know emphatically confirming Andrew's point by dividing people into those whose facts are on their side (by implication you and those who share your views generally, and the liver-eaters in this specific case) and those darn activists who turn their prejudices into quasi religious beliefs and just won't listen to reason. Just sayin'.

I guess I'm with the conspiracy theorists.... I'm wondering why, if she was so concerned about what she might find on a given menu, didn't she check out the menu before she made a reservation? ← I rarely look at a menu before I make a reservation if I'm dealing with a local place of known reputation. In fact, if at all possible I don't look at a menu until I'm sitting in a booth and a martini has been chilled, strained and served to me. FG is still relatively rare on menus. Not unlikely that she doesn't eat out at high-end places that much and isn't quite the food geek many of us are, so it never occurred to here to check until a friend said "you're going there? You know, they torture ducks to make your appetizers at that place." Also, if they were really trying to mess with the restaurant, I'd guess they'd cancel more than one table at a time and that Meredith's original post would have noted that the reservation was cancelled an hour before service in order to maximize the pain.

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.

I was wondering if it had to do with the release of the new Rocky XXVII (or however many) movie. In response to FG and Jackal10's comments, I had always noticed that the more traditional French cookbooks I'd been through had a lot of egg recipes.

Poached, sous-vided, sunny-side upped -- seems you can't hardly get dinner any more without some chef springing a gooey egg on you. Sunny-side up on a truffle pizza at a four-star place, nestled in with the bacon and frisee at a cafe (this salad is now officially inescapable in DC) friend on top of black beans at an upscale nuevo Latino (does anyone still use that phrase? Well, you know what I mean -- a place where foams and huitlacoche meet), drooling over scallop at the top Formal French in town. Hell, I'm even forcing them on my own guests. Thing is, I don't think, outside of a diner, Eggs Benedict or steak tartare, I ever saw raw or near-raw eggs on a menu at all until a year or two ago. Where did this come from? Anybody else noticed a similar phenomenon in their city?

If you want to know what's good to eat, read the reviews. They're archived. Best of (insert name of city) lists are a homework assignment. It's all about finding places to fit required categories and inventing categories to highlight impressive plates. The latter are more reliable indicators of greatness than the former, but that's just the nature of the beast. From everything I've read, you're not looking for an americanized version of a chinese restaurant anyway, so try not to be too cynical. An honest list would include four dozen awards for Frasca, but that's not really what people want to read. Do Kevin Taylor, Mizuna, Z Cuisine, Palace Arms. And for the love of Pete try to enjoy yourself. I'm not a critic, but I know one pretty well. The very best evenings spent at a restaurant are the ones during which you forget you're reviewing it. You wouldn't enter the bedroom of a beautiful woman saying, "This better be good." Having someone cook for you is a pleasure. Just enjoy. ← I'm not cynical. I'm skeptical. I generally trust eGulleters as much or more than reviews, and resort-area reviews (especially) are spectacularly unreliable. And I always enter a restaurant as I would enter the bedroom of a beautiful woman. That is, confident that they're lucky to have me there. But, enough of that. I have actually been going through the reviews, and one thing I hadn't noticed was anything `that seemed mid- or upscale Southwestern/Coloradan (unless you want to drive out to The Fort). Not necessarily a necktie place, but somewhere where's you linger a couple hours over a three- or four-course meal. Seems that the heyday of the Rattlesnake Club/Mansion at Turtle Creek/Cayote Cafe -type places has passed, which is too bad, but if I'm missing something I'd appreciate enlightenment. In the mean time we're probably thinking Mizuna or Z.

This may be helpful. And this.

(Probably don't need this, but) Take care even of the the kids buying $10 wines to impress their dates (and please stock a variety of good value $10-20 wines). And avoid the temptation to push inferior or old product That was me for a long time, and I met any number of snots in wine shops -- and some excellent guys as well. Now, I'm much older and -- due to the expense of children -- still don't drop hundreds and thousands of dollars a shot on wine. But I do spend a reasonable amount and I still remember where I was treated well and spend accordingly. Corollary: when you've spent a lot of time in wine (or any trade), there's a tendency to lapse into jargon and incomprehensible levels of detail. Brix levels and maloctic fermentation and vineyard soils. The best wine guy I ever went to was actually the stock clerk. He'd say, "we got something in the other day you might like," and we always would. So, remember that in the end people just want a good bottle wine and that we may be slow learners. Telling us "if you like California Syrah, you might also like this CNdP" helps us. Telling us that "this wine spent 18 months in French oak before being...." may be less helpful. I know that you know all this. But it seems hard for a lot of wine people to remember.

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. One must ask these basic questions before making generalisations about a counties food. Mind you I do not hail from NZ and am instead an Australian......but i suppose you would like to put us all in the same box. A little research goes a long way when trying to answer a global question from a neibourhood base. Regards Mark ← Ideed, that was the point - to hold a mirror up to Kiwichef's post. Bit of irony, doncha know. (Australia -- aren't you the ones who gave the world Outback Steak House? I'd rather have a sandwich.) .I don't know the details of this so I won't comment extensively except to say that arguments like that tend to get so wrapped up in their beauty of their own academic logic that, like the Aristotelians and the Pope, they never actually drop the balls off the Leaning Tower, lest reality interfere with theory. China, India, France, Italy -- all have great regional varieties to their cooking. But walk blindfolded intoa restaurant and you'de likely be able to tell the difference even before the blindfold came off.

You're not going to bring up Foucault again, are you?

Some thoughts. Cheers.

Kiwichef has embedded a provacative question in this post, the relative portion of which is Now, I have many times spoken of my admiration for the French culinary world, comparing it favorably to the U.S. on more than one occasion. In fact I've been so pro-French lately that I'm getting a little tired of them, and am thinking of throwing my lot in with the Italians, or even the Brits, whom Tim Hayward speaks so persuasively in favor of. However, I thought the question phrased above reflected such breathtaking ignorance, that I'd say a few words in favor of the home team. Actually, my first instinct was to ask "what is New Zealand cuisine except mutton and that crappy Sauvignon Blanc that's gotten so inexplicably popular these days?" But, not having devoted a great deal of time to Kiwi Kuisine, I thought it better not to traffic in shallow generalizations. So, what have we to offer the world, besides McDonalds and a few handy basics like corn, tomatoes, the peanut and potatoes? (This is why Southern Italian cooking isn't really Italian -- the tomato is ours.) First, we have an extraordinary mixing pot of culinary cultures. Though I'm not saying it can't be made, I have yet to hear a credible case for the idea that any other nation has made so many foods its own. Why shouldn't that be so? As an immigrant nation, the idea that you can eat good Chinese food two doors down from an excellent Ethiopian spot is no stranger in an American city than an Auvergnese cafe being two doors down from a Provencal place would be in France. Dan-dan noodles and doro wat are as American as apple pie. (And, as any Italian or Chinese food afficianado will tell you, our versions are generally distinctively "inauthentic," or Americanized though often no less tasty for that). Get me a New York pizza any time. Certainly cities like London (and, for all I know, Wellington) have thriving ethnic communities and the accompanying restaurants and markets, but I'm confident that we do comparatively well in this regard. Of course, we have some pretty good regional cooking, as well. Kiwichef seems more focused on the high-end, but that's only a small part of the picture. Like any number of countries that don't have a long tradition of haute cuisine, we have some great indigenous eating. The list is too long to go into, and I'm hoping that some of our regional champions will speak up for the (mythical ) Creole cusine of Louisiana or that good Tex-Mex stuff. Personally, I'm partial to Chesapeake Bay crabs and the good barbecue that starts showing up about an hour south of DC. And we do some pretty good haute cusine these days. One faction takes advantage of the spectacular bounty of parts of America, doing modest things to glorious ingredients, proving less can be more quite deliciously. The other faction -- a bit more Frenchified -- uses traditional techniques on new ingredients and new combinations. I had a breathtakingly good meal at one of Washington's best restaurants a couple of months ago, and we had some Italian-ish stuff, a course that was distinctively Japanese inflected, a little French-ish, of course. But the sum seemed pretty distinctivley American to me. Sure, we're too heavy. And we have that bad habit of selling people what they want (why do they want it? Ask them). Too many American choos convenience over quality or saltover flavor -- though we are hardly alone in this. And since no other nation on earth can cook a decent burger, it's easy to pick on our national dish. But, we do OK. Indeed, we have a great deal to be proud of, far more than than the cheap stereotyping would have one believe.

Well, not Mexican necessarily, but any food that more or less grew up on its own. As others said earlier, I think that claim for culinary culture can't rest on the shoulders of a few expensive restaurants. It has to reflect quality at every level, at home and in restaurants. Well-made, inexpensive local food (surely the people there before Phoenix's population exploded were eating something) is and important component of any area's dining environment.

I was a little surprised myself that molto e's post didn't include any references to Southwestern or Mexican cooking, which would have been my vehicle for touting the power of the indigenous local tradition. Reminded me a bit of this thread , based on an Alan Richman GQ piece that trashed Las Vegas for basically going out and buying a bunch of chefs and pretending that Ducasse's reputation and Emeril's logo somehow gave it a culinary culture (as opposed to just haveing some good restaurants). Kind of like the stereotypical "new money" who pays someone to fill their house with antiques and art, and thinks that it's the trappings that culture make. Or maybe it's like all those rich English hunting down French chefs, while ignoring their own cooking. At any rate, not to pick on Phoenix any more, but I think a more persuasive defense would include more than a passing nod to regional or ethnic cooking as well as high end dining. In fact, the more humble side of French cooking is one of the reasons I hold it in such high esteem.

This thread is getting personal, generally unpleasant, and repetitive. I'm sending it to time out until people calm down or consider another aspect of the whiny diner problem to debate. --Charles

Although I haven't been there in quite some time, I am surprised to read this about Palena's wine list as I was under the impression that it has been a perenniel favorite of Robert Parker and his associates. It was in fact, reading about it in The Wine Advocate that first put it on my radar.Then again, maybe they bring their own too. ← I haven't been to Palena in a couple of years, but I recall being struck by how limited the list was. I can't speak to the overall quality as learnedly as dinwiddie, but it struck be as short. Maybe that's why they only get 3.5 stars (though I have other theories).

Well, it's their problem then. When my customers ask for something, no matter how much it's going to inconvenience me, and no matter how much it's going to disrupt the planned workflow that I've mapped out for the day or the week, I automatically answer, "your wish is my command" - I really do. If I've asked to be moved to the only table left in the whole place, and it's a four top, and the one that they've seated me at is a two top that happens not to be satisfactory to me for some reason, they will tell me: "I'm so sorry, but that table is reserved for a party of four that's coming in a few minutes", and I'll just have to accept that.... And so, if I ask for a different table in a restaurant, and it means that one waiter has an extra table for a few minutes while another waiter has one less table, I expect them to do what all professional restaurants do - move me gladly and graciously, and deal with it as just another part of doing business. ← I think you're missing a point. No one -- not me, anyway -- is arguing that the restaurant's convenience is paramount. Rather, it is that, often, special requests inconvenience other diners. The reason one doesn't make an (unnecessary) fuss, or behave imperiously or arbitrarily, is that you may be making life worse for others who have as much desire and as much right to a good meal as you do, in ways that have been detailed at length.

True everywhere at some point in time, don't you think? Even with the French, or any other country's culinary culture, at some point in time. Across the world, throughout history, food exchanges and all the ideas that go along with food preparation have had sparks of inspiration through looking beyond borders. Sometimes through travel and trade, sometimes through aggression in the form of wars. What "cuisine" can be said to be pure and of a single culture, really? As far as "national" cuisines go, the idea of the nation-state and the concept of nationalism that occured during the Enlightenment might have a bearing on these concepts of static national cuisines. Boundaries drawn, the mind shaping the nation and what the idea of nation would include, with the "indigenous" food as part of this. ← All true. But I would be very surprised if someone listing the six best restaurants in, say, Toulouse, would click off three Italian (assuming there is such a thing as a nation-state called Italy and it has a recognizable cusisine ) places, a Chinese restaurant and a Wursthaus.

Busboy, I assure you that these chefs are delivering on a National level, don't knock em' until you try them. Molto E ← I expressed myself poorly if that's the way my post was taken -- what I was getting at is that all these great chefs are drawing not so much on an American culinary tradition but on other culinary traditions; that however good individual chefs may be, they still find it necessary or desirable to look beyond our borders for inspiration.

I feel the point that Howard was trying to make is that Phoenix is the 5th largest city in the country and it does have a lack of chef driven concepts. That is not to say that Phoenix does not have some chefs that deliver on a national level. A few examples of chefs that deliver the goods would be: Chef Kevin Binkley of Binkley's Restaurant Chef Nobuo Fukuda of Sea Saw ("Best New Chef"- Food and Wine Magazine, 2-time James Beard Finalist "Best Chef Southwest") Chef Chris Bianco of Bianco's Pizzeria (James Beard "Best Chef Southwest, named Best Pizza in the country..ask Oprah) Chef Bradford Thompson of Mary Elaine's (James Beard "Best Chef Southwest" , "Best New Chef"- Food and Wine Magazine) Chef Brian Lewis of Vu Restaurant Chef Matt Carter of Zinc Bistro Larry White of Lo-Lo's Fried Chicken and Waffles Just to name a few... ← Interesting if we're talking about local food traditions. A pizzaria. Two French joints. An Asian place, featuring seafood. A resort place (usually a red flag, but there are exceptions) whose own website leads with: "European elegance in decor, table settings, ambiance and service characterizes Mary Elaine's, featuring soft jazz in the lounge and a seasonal menu of Modern French cuisine." Soft jazz. And Binkley's (no menu on the website. Though, please, if you like this place have them rewrite the lame-as-hell text on their website). These may be great restaurants, but they are most certainly not an advertisement for a fine indigenous American culinary tradition.