joshlh

Hi, Thanks for this great resource. I searched this thread for any discussion of thermal properties of stoneware/ceramics, but couldn't find it. In fact, I couldn't find it ANYWHERE. Do you have any information about this that you could share? Specifically I'm curious about how a stovetop safe ceramic pot like Emile Henry Flame Top series would compare to enameled cast iron for browning, braising, roasting in a dutch oven or casserole. Josh

Speaking of great roesti, the Hasenburg in Basel serves up many excellent variations along with an enjoyably typical Swiss atmosphere.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you say "simplicity" ...[snip]... On the other hand I can also say that when the restaurant makes a mistake there is nothing on the plate that can hide the error. ← I completely agree. And my impression was that with the simplicity comes an even stronger attention to detail. In the end, it was the quality in every detail of food and service which really elevated the experience. E.g., at L'Astrance, they served very good bread and butter, about which I had no complaints. At Le Louis XV, they wheeled up a small mountain of sweet butter and carved us a strip right in front of our eyes. We were also given a block of salted butter, and aside from being simply outstanding products, they were served at the perfect temperature for spreading. There were about umpty-zillion different breads we could choose from, and they were exceptional. The salty butter on the fig walnut bread alone could be my last meal.

Quite serious!!. I have wanted to eat at Louis XV for years. I have had the pleasure of dining at ADPA and ADNY as well as his new restaurant Adour in New York. I hope the meals live up to my lofty expectations. I also will eat at Chevre D'or and hope to eat at Mirazur in Menton during my week in the south of france. ← Whoa, five in how many days? I'll also be looking forward to hearing about your experience.

My experience so far in Zermatt and other ski resort towns in Switzerland is that food is pretty much incidental to skiing and partying. There are some nice hot drinks, though: spiked chocolate or tea, and glühwein, which is not to be missed.

How do people feel Le Louis XV measures up? Alan Richman wrote an article for GQ a few months ago where he featured his five favorite restaurants. He highlighted Le Louis XV as the "greatest restaurant in the world, when food, service, and ambience are taken into consideration." I had a great experience there recently, but don't have too many other three star meals to compare it to...

Sounds like the safest bet to me too. Or do they have an answering machine? Unless they explicitly told you they'd be getting in touch at your hotel to re-confirm, I wouldn't worry too much...but a fax and a call can't hurt.

Everywhere says this is Nicoise, but for some reason I didn't notice it there and only tried it in Antibes. What I had was delicious, but I have no reference point to judge it against. I posted in a bit more detail about this and the market in Antibes at NoshALot, but in short: A thin layer of batter is poured into something like a family size pizza pan, and it's slipped into the mouth of a portable (!) wood-burning oven for a shy minute or so. It comes out blistering hot, browned and crispy on top, still moist below. You can have it liberally peppered and salted or plain, but the choice seems clear. It's so simple and surprisingly good that it sticks in your mind long after it's gone from your ribs. As mentioned in another reply, it's definitely more crepe like than cracker like. A hot oven is probably a key requirement for duplicating what I tried. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of pizza-oriented literature out there about how to manage second best if you don't have a wood-burning oven at home .

Just wanted to update this for any future food-frantic Baslers. Thanks, Nick for your link -- I'd actually found your site before, and it's a great resource for Basel eating. Still not crazy about the options in Basel. Sadly, a few favorites came and went: Au Violon was very nice. It's under new management now and seems to be embracing the German influence more than the French. I heard it's slipped a little since the change but haven't tried for myself. The Pie Shop was a great addition to Basel, a nice little place with homemade iced tea and cheap, tasty pies and pasties. It closed down recently, which for me is a sad commentary on Basel's complete lack of interest in good, quick, cheap food options. Bakery Epting is thankfully alive and thriving. It's really a Sri Lankan restaurant disguised as a Swiss bakery, and has very inexpensive all-you-can-eat lunch only menus that are the best and most authentic South Asian food in Basel by a mile. Auberge St-Martin in Kintzheim has dynamite flammekuechen (see my report at jcspress.blogspot.com). Unfortunately, it's not exactly close to Basel. A car and an hour's drive is required. It's fully worth it, and if you can't find something to fill the rest of the day on the wine road in Alsace, then my sympathies to you. Steine Grill near Heuwaage is way divey, but has great kebabs. With all the Turkish restaurants, I still can't find anywhere in Basel that rivals most of what I had when visiting Istanbul. Basel has an embarrassment of great looking bakeries and chocolate/pastry shops, but Cafe Spruengli in the train station is my favorite. The Luxemburgerli (same as the macarons to be found in France), cakes, assorted desserts, and bottled lassis are all delicious. Bernard Antony is a world class cheese-ager in nearby Vieux-Ferrette who supplies three star restaurants and quite a few celebrities, as the pictures on his walls make clear. Car required, but a cheese tasting there is a pretty special way to spend a Saturday lunch. At this point, da Gianni and the Marktplatz sausages are probably my only other standbys. With easyjet and Swiss Air specials, the money just seems better spent getting to a city with better choices.

Just visited there last week for lunch (thoughts and photos at jcspress.blogspot.com). There really aren't too many tables to choose from, and I think I'd be happy with any of them. Sitting up in the loft area might be fun, but also isolates you from the rest of the diners. My first call for a reservation was way too late: Monday of the same week. But I kept at it, and finally got a table when I called morning of the same day. They're a bit brisk on the phone, but nothing to be afraid of even for an English-only speaker.

some updates: restaurant johann is no more. supposedly same owner will open new restaurant in the space. aladin is not too consistent jay's gets worse every time i try it. too bland, and i was served some severely undercooked chicken last time. on the other hand. it's the only indian place i've tried so far that i ever think about going back to. bodega zum strauss has good, inexpensive pastas, and good caprese salad. desserts i've tried are unremarkable. so'up has very nice and cheap soups and salads. unfortunately only open weekdays for lunch and late lunch. the coffee shop at the literatur haus has nice banana shakes; bread, jam, and honey plates; bread, cheese, and meat plates; and a great tee called lady in blue. küchlin, by the new pathe movie theater has a decent croque monsieur. hasenburg is nice for local atmosphere and rösti. cafe sprüngli at the train station is so far my general favorite for confections (esp. luxemburgerli, which are the same as macarons as far as i can tell).

still haven't done a lot of exhaustive searching, but for any others interested, here are the places and things i've particularly liked so far: coffee: cafe zum roten engel, for bowlsfull of coffee and bohemian atmosphere cheap: piadine at Piadina Bar, Romano's Paninoteca kebabs at numerous places (sofra has good ones, but small) sausages w/ bread and mustard at the stand in the outdoor market kiwi-orange juice at the outdoor market the dumplings at the sojaprodukte stand at outdoor market käsekiechli at gilgen bakery low to moderate: jay's indian for good (not great, but far the best out of 3 or 4 places so far) indian xiao lu's for excellent chinese aladin for good lebanese restaurant bali for decent indonesian pizzeria da gianni / restaurant st. johann for very good pizza and pasta moderate to high: johann still looking for a good, mild to medium sharp melting cheese for cooking at home...anybody know where to find something like a tillamook or cabot cheddar here?

Hi, I'm newly resident in Basel, Switzerland and looking for recommendations for restaurants and grocery shopping. I can't find much on EG (or on the rest of the web) at all, and nothing recent. Eating out, even in casual restaurants, is so expensive here that I'm afraid it'll take years before I've found a selection of good options to fit various occasions w/out the help of an active, English language food press or online community. To kick things off, so far I've been disappointed in my few sit-down meals (La Fonda, Bombay Palace, and the restaurant at the Paper Museum). For take away, I've had delicious Wurstwegge (sausage rolls) from one of the outdoor stalls on Marktplatz, and Döner kebaps ranging from bad (Restaurant Volta) to good (Imbiss I think it was called in the Gundeli district). Thanks in advance for any advice! Josh

See this thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=41770&hl=

I never left an update after my own trip; my memory is a little foggy, but I'll do my best now. La Tapa was pretty much the only higher end place we tried. It was very tasty but I wasn't blown away. Woody's seemed quite fine for bar food. We were on a pretty small budget, no rental car and as few taxis as possible. Any cheap place at all within walking distance felt like a blessing. There were plenty of pricey places that didn't seem very appealing. Woody's (and presumably the other bar food places mentioned) really wasn't anything special, but it felt that way for someone on my budget. Another good cheapie was an open air barbecue place (Uncle Joe's?) near the ferry dock. Finally, we had a terrible experience trying to get dessert at Asolare. So, my little blow in return: We stayed at a place right nearby, and the setting and view seemed so nice that we thought we'd drop in for dessert. They were incredibly rude to us, and we ended up just leaving instead. We weren't in grungy beach attire or anything. They just ignored us from the moment we walked in. We had to flag someone down to ask if we could be seated just for dessert. There was plenty of room, but they wouldn't let us sit on the outside terrace, only the bar. We sat down and were ignored; the bartender was busy polishing glasses. We asked if we could order dessert and she told us to wait until she was done. We asked if we could see a menu in the meantime and were told coldly that it was a verbal menu. Maybe this doesn't sound all that bad, but at the time, hearing the tone of voice, it was pretty obnoxious. We decided it wasn't worth it and just left.

I don't have a very comprehensive knowledge of the dining scene there anymore, but a few of my lingering favorites at wildly varying price ranges are Modern Diner, Spike's Junkyard Dogs, Sawaddee, and New Rivers. I remember the Modern Diner as tasty and fantastically cheap about 5 years ago, but prices may be different now, as they seem to be at so many other Providence restaurants. For Thai, I liked Pakarang as well when I went long ago, but it's no longer fresh in my memory. I've been to Sawaddee more recently, and it's very good, possibly a little cheaper? New Rivers is really a lovely place that nails the atmosphere as much as the food. I remember loving the pizza at Al Forno, the first of its kind that I tasted, and being sort of underwhelmed by everything else.

Thanks for your reply -- check out chowhound's florida board for a few more posts on this topic. I ended up trying the pie at Manny & Isa's, Kermit's Key Lime Shoppe, and Blue Heaven. Manny & Isa's was by far the best (also had a nice fresh grouper sandwich; cuban sandwich not very good), and Blue Heaven the worst, made I think with Tahitian limes. Blue Heaven's did have the nicest graham cracker crust, though, while M&I's had a rather disappointing pastry crust.

I'll be driving through the Florida Keys in a few weeks, and figure this might be my best chance to taste a pie made from freshly squeezed key limes, aside from hunting up a source for them and making one myself. So far, my internet search for likely restaurants and pie merchants has yielded little more than unqualified "to die for" recommendations. In Fading Feast Raymond Sokolov reveals that Manny & Isa's Kitchen on Islamorada has a grove out back which supplies juice for its pies, and I've found more current corroborating info online. This place sounds like a winner, even if they do store it frozen between squeezing and baking. Does anybody else have any recommendations for pies traditional or new-fangled, as long as they're made from unconcentrated, preferably un- frozen or pasteurized, key lime juice? Thanks, Josh

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I have the same book, but haven't spent as much time experimenting with herb mixtures. I've made only one naturally carbonated batch of root beer so far, and it turned out somewhat less carbonated than I had hoped. From your experience, it sounds like I should have just been a bit more patient... Are you aware of any good mail order sources for things like licorice root and sarsaparilla bark? I haven't recently checked around too much either locally (in Boston) or on the web, but remember having a difficult time finding them when I made my batch. Josh

Thanks very much for the tip -- I checked it out and walked away with far more than I had planned to buy.

I tried the Butcher Shop for lunch a week or so ago and had a very nice time. Probably my favorite item was the figs poached in honey with fennel (both the seed and the vegetable I think), included on an appetizer platter along with some meats, nuts, and olives, which all sounds sort of pedestrian, but was all very good. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the place. I enjoyed getting up and browsing through the meats and cheeses in the retail section. I believe I overhead the waitress telling another customer that he could order a selection of tastings of cheeses, pates, etc. from there to have at his table. They also had a small but nice selection of beers to choose from.

I don't feel like there are many good options right in that area. My two picks are both cheaper and more casual than Brasserie Jo: Woody's and El Pelon. Woody's serves pretty good thin crust pizzas. I think their crust is better than most of the similar places I've tried, like Figs, Cambridge 1, or Emma's (all in different areas). Their fish and chips are also very tasty, and they serve some other non-pizza items, like meatloaf. I think it's probably frequented by a lot of Berklee and Northeastern students. It's not a place I'd pine over if I left Boston, but the food is good and inexpensive, a rare combination in this city. El Pelon is a bit more of a walk, as it's in the Fenway, but it's very doable. It's a taqueria, and might not be suitable for you if you're looking for a longer, sit-down meal, but the food is excellent. The fish tacos and the tortas are both great -- most of the stuff there is. Probably my favorite cheap eats in Boston. Also a student staple. If you're looking for something a little more upscale, you could walk over to the South End without too much trouble. I'm not too up on the scene there, but I know there are a lot of choices, and I had a great experience recently at The Butcher Shop.

I feel kind of silly asking this, but does anyone know if they devein the shrimp here? I'd like to visit with my girlfriend, who is kind of particular about that, and we usually just get blank stares when we ask on site about that at a Chinese restaurant. Thanks, Josh

I would definitely be interested in hearing about more of your experiences. Will making a trip down there in just a couple of weeks. I'd also welcome any advice you might have about eating in St. John. Preferably cheap eats. Thanks a lot, Josh

Unfortunately no...Boston to Paris by way of Detroit . My girlfriend just happened upon the excellent fare on Travelocity; we couldn't resist.