Busboy

Karen, Hi.... From the point of view of research, only one difference and that relates to the fact that women have a better statistical chance than men of being super-tasters. This has been discussed many times I am sure, so I won't go into it here, except to note that recent research (2002) at the University of Montpellier seems to demonstrate that this is as true among wine tasters as teetotallers. From another perspective, some have speculated that women tend to be more sensual in their evaluations of wine while men are more oriented towards the analytical. I for one do not agree with this, the sensual-analytical dichotomy between men and women as a group being a rather artificial one. ← Anyone ever heard of a sex-segragated tasting panel? Ten men and ten women, tatsing the same wines, with the each groups' results compared and contrasted? (Reb -- that event would get your group in the papers, I'll bet).

Not books but I did score an immersion blender, ice cream maker and rice cooker for a grand total of 20 bucks from some guy named "Shorty" at a flea market next to the Italian Market in Philly.

I beg to differ as tomatos came from the new world. A US source. http://www.tomatofest.com/ also http://www.heirloomtomatoplants.com/ ← (I believe he was referring to the language of the website, not the origin of the tomatoes sold thereon.) The perfect way to much heirloom tomatoes, of course, is as part of an only-in-summer-can-it-taste-so-good BLT, preferably made on artisanal bread and apple-smoked bacon.

I think you should begin by explaining this phrase: "women’s tastes are still poorly represented." Does that mean that women prefer different styles of wine to men? That a group of women wine tasters, on average, would score a wine differently from a similar group of men wine? Thay they would taste/smell different things in the glass? That, just as Robert Parker has been accused of leading the industry towards a bland, "international style" of wine geared to winning high WS scores (an issue I believe you're familiar with ) a generation of powerful Roberta Parkers will pull the wine industry in anorther direction based on their scoring preferences? That objectivity in wine tasting is a myth and that, furthermore, bias is gender-based? That there are varietels and styles that suffer -- whose dedicated producers are punished, economically -- because of the testosterone-heavy nature of the tasting world? (I can ask almost as many questions as you ) Or, are you trying to wedge your way into the Boys Club (go for it!) and trying to organize to do it more effectively? Edited to add: not trying to hijack the thread...ignore, delete or move as you see fit. But, looking at some of these questions will help you with question #2, "what is our goal?"

I will be making the base the day before, but I appreciate the offer.

Well this wasn't a sit-down dinner. It was a tasting menu. There were 18 courses in all, 16 appetizer/entree type things and two desserts, so there was plenty for me to eat. If I'm doing a sit-down dinner, I wouldn't make something I don't enjoy because it would look very strange for me to sit there with nothing on my plate while my guests ate. They would probably have second thoughts about what I was REALLY serving. PS - I enjoyed the cheese, I'm just not a fan of sea/shellfood and cheese combined in one dish. ← I guess the real question, then, is what the hell were you doing laying out 18 courses on a Monday night, when you should have been sipping beer, eating takeout pizza from that great place you Staten Islanders are supposed to have, and giggling at Hell's Kitchen? If you're doing all that work, though, you may as well play to the crowd a bit, in the name of diversity if nothing else. You can even throw in the pig spleen in that case.

Unless I'm dealing with a special request, I cook what I like. Seems strange to me to do it any other way -- the guests have the rest of their lives to cook what they think they want. For one night, they can play on my turf. Let's look at this. You didn't like (a) the main course, (b) the cheese course, © the dessert. And you sound damned ambivalent about the fish. What's left, the salad? What fun is that for you? Your enthusiasm will encourage people to like what you like -- dare to cook for yourself. On the other hand, pushing stuff you know they will dislike is another story. Experiment with the pig spleens or wild nettles on another night. Or serve them late, after the tequila shots.

Hate to think what you would have done if it hadn't been a favorite place - throw a plate across the dining room? I wonder if the management made the waitress pick up the tab for your food -- not an uncommon way for restaurants to protect their bottom line while dealing with walkouts (though illegal in many states). Did you mean to cost her a substantial portion of her shift's wages? That will teach her to deliver luke-warm thali! Oh, and "slouching out" never goes well with important declarations of principal. "Speaking out" preferably to management, and then striding out full of righteous indignation plays much better to the crowd.

There are still seats at the table for the Great Brining Challenge and Side-dish Exhibition, with the clash of egos and techniques sure to result in extraordinary birds being brought to the table ( that is, unless I crash and burn under the pressure of competition with a Professional Chef like some early-round Hell's Kitchen reject). But wait there's more! Chef Alain Ducasse, who has more stars than most known galaxies once said that "desserts are like mistresses: they are bad for you. So if you are having one, you may as well have two." And in that spirit we offer not only the Farmer's Market vs. Supersave Market ice-cream comparison (does ice cream taste that much better if you spend three times as much for organic ingredients?) but Simdelish's signature (and highly praised) Chocolate Royale. We're looking forward to a relaxed mood, pink wine and good eating among great eGulleters so, check the calendars now and if you have a chance, drop by. (Special encouragement to newer members. We don't bite. Well, only if you're a chicken.)

I had planned on picking up goodies at JB's and at another place, probably Randy's, but time ran short and we only had a chance to repeat at JBs. Once again, the visuals screamed "authentic." What you see is what you get. But this time I thought the rib sauce tasted better. This could be because someone seemed to have hit this batch of sauce with a significant dose of vinegar. Or it could be because food always tastes better when you know who did the cooking, and this time around I stumbled across JB himself, a gentleman whose accent suggests he's never lived much more than walking distance from his place of business, and whom all the locals address as "Mr. B." We had only a brief chat -- we were late for Willie Wonka -- but he was almost painfully polite and helpful and clearly proud of the work he does, everything that his food suggests. Mr. B, himself. I continue to think that the pulled pork is exceptional, but found the molasses in the baked beans to be almost overwhelming.

Wheaties claimed to be "Breakfast if Champions" but they get soggy way too quick, so have assigned the title to my preferred breakfast food. It may be worth noting that in the Kurt Vonnegut novel of that name, "breakfast of champions" referred to a martini. The health aspects of bran muffins may be dramatically overstated, btw, as the bran tends to be held together with massive amounts of sugar and fat. My guess is that, after generations of "Continental Breakfast" a certain percentage of people are just saying "what the heck -- why not have a muffin?" as a change of pace.

For those moving in and out of The Valley via Front Royale, the Washington Post gives new arrival "Apartment 2-G" two stars. Review here.

Is that why you reccommended an Italian place?

This maneuver is what is known in the Reality TV biz as a "Trump". Tuck the winner away somewhere out of sight and hope people forget about him or her. Trot them out when you need to promote the next edition of the show, but otherwise neutralize them. Even if Michael IS really working at an important Ramsey restaurant, one must suppose he's not going to get near Ramsey personally all that often, no matter how much ass kissing he does in that kitchen. I suppose there's also a motive that they are praying he might actually become a bit closer to the "Master Class" chef they proclaimed the winner would be by the end of the show, which he probably is not. By the way, apparently some propaganda supposedly written by Michael will be posted on the FOX Hell's Kitchen site after the show airs on the West coast. They had a notice up tonight that the winner would show up there. Did you really see Michael as more likeable? I saw him as a huge weasel and ass kisser. I actually respect the first more than the second. ← I thought is sounded a little suspicious. Whether Michael is near Ramsey or not, though, I suspect I'm sure a year in one of GR's kitchens will be good for him, and his eventual customers will eat better for Michael having done that. And definitely more likeable -- Ralph was arrogant and bossy, and moronic motivational handbook did he get that seven steps to greatness (or whatever) chant he kept holding in front of his team? It was like a Dilbert cartoon adapted for the kitchen.

I'm second to no one in my admiration for a crust ficelle or buttery croissant, but Cheerios with fresh fruit truly is the breakfast of champions. It has a heft and, dare I say it?, a nutritional component that white bread, fat and preserves just don't have. If they're having Froot Loops for breakfast...then I can get on my high horse.

I'd shy away from "is this the state of parenting today"-type generalizations, as they tend to be based on the one family that is doing a bad job and not on the many more families whose children were so quiet you didn't notice them, or who decided to leave their children at home. Not long ago I had a spectacular meal at Sushi-Ko here in DC and a little way through the raw fish a baby started crying, and the parents fussed with him a moment or two and then carried the little fellow out. It was maybe three minute worth of distraction (I'm sure it seemed longer to the parents) and then nothing. But, it turned out that one of the adults at the next table was one of those ass-hat blowhards you get seated next to every now and again, who had to tell the whole restaurant about his partnership, his children's private schools, his new house...whatever. He was annoying as hell for well over an hour. And the juxtaposition of the two events got me thinking: how many times has a meal been damaged by kids, and how many times by adults. Fortunately, I can count the problems in either case on one hand, my experience has been that if somebody at another table is going to annoy you over dinner, they're drinking wine, not milk. Not that there's any excuse for parents who let their kids run amok, but many years' at the table tells me that cruddy service, bad food, foul-mouthed drunks and over-amplified blowhards all rank ahead of kids in terms of dangers to a decent meal.

I predicted that they'd find a way to choose Michael unless his team totally fucked up -- just a more likeable guy and gave the show a happier ending. I'm trying to figure out if the "come back to England" moment was utterly pre-scripted or not. I assume that you couldn't pay Ramsey enough to drag deadwood back to his own restaurant, so maybe not. It was heartening to see Michael answer "yes;" makes me think that he may actually be a real chef, and a real good chef, some day. I think Ralph "woulda' took da restaurant and run."

I'm betting that the dinner in the nursery was a pretty rare phenomenon, limited to a small number of wealthy and haute bourgeoise. I'm pretty sure no one in my family, going back many generations, had their children fed in the nursery.

A good compromise between Type A micromanagement and free-spirit drifting - -and between formal fine dining and picnicking with the kids -- would be to commit John Whiting's excellent Paris Bistro Guide to memory and spend a few meals eating very well, informally. I have only been to one of the places on the list, Au Petit Tonneau, but it would be hard to picture a place that was more French and more likely to welcome three small American children with a smile (and, it's in the 7th, not too far from the Musee d'Orsay, your chocolatiers and the Tour Eiffel), and the tripe sausage I ate was nothing if not authentic (and very good). If the rest of the places on the list are equally warm and tasty -- I suspect they are -- you can be assured of making the most of a Paris jaunt, food-wise -- with kids in tow. Have a great trip!

I can only add that, as helpful as the information you'll get here will be, I hope that you'll spend a good deal of time wandering half-buzzed and aimlessly around the most beautful city in the world (as far as I know), rather than racking up an inflexible itinerary. It strikes me as almost the reverse of the Paris vibe to plan too closely -- so you get stuck with a cruddy meal, at least you weren't worrying about your reservation when you should have been sucking in everything "Winged Victory of Samothrace" had to offer! Also, since you've got kids, take advantage of the fact that you are at the bread and cheese center of the world and picnic on the quais. Camp out south of Notre Dame, in the 5th, and have an after-dark picnic. Cheap, delicious and you'll never have a better view, ever, anywhere...and no worry about how the kids will behave.

My wife and I used to pick up a close cousin of broccoli marketed under the name "aspiration." Aside from how stupid the name was generally, it always reminded our addled brains of Jimi Hendrix's untimely demise.

Hah! You're own fault for living in Kansas. Take comfort in the fact that you can live in a massive free-standing home for what we coastal-types would pay for a 2-bedroom apartment. Which is the largest city, Witchita or KC-KA, (or Lawrence?) btw (and, if KC, can't you roll into Missouri for gourmet foodstuffs? My wife's colleagues tend to paint KC as a fairly sophisto burg...though I don't necessarily trust their judgement, it sounds better than the picture you paint). Everyone gets to DC at some point...to "citizen-lobby", see the cherry blossoms or chaperone the school trip. PM when you get to town, we'll get you some foie gras and some raw oysters , and make a Bernaise sauce or something. Just pack some of that good Kansas beef and BBQ for barter purposes.

Are you from Des Moines (Home of the do-it-yourself Iowa Beef Steak House)?

Didn't anyone else snicker over this? File-sharing, I mean. (And I though obesity was now officially a disease ...) together, you can find time to do it. If you really don't, you find excuses. ← I think there were a couple tongue-in-cheek moments, both that and: Apparently subject he takes seriously, though, given what appears to be his virgin post on his new blog, www.dinnerwithdad.com. As for me, my daughter is at camp and my son, now 16, has plans to run amok tonight with friends. But I told him he damn well better be home for dinner tomorrow night...

You may be too exhasted from driving and too close to the end of your travels to want to deal with big city traffic by the time you hit Miami, but you might consider pulling off to stock up on Cubano Sandwiches if you're not. Here's an NYT article that runs down the joys of Cubanos and gives the names, if not the exact addresses, of a few top purveyors.