sammy

My prediction is that it fails. It just sounds so "Las Vegas" to me, with offshoots of restaurants from throughout the country. The only reason the Las Vegas restaurants succeed is that they are subsidized by the casinos. I don't believe many of the retaurants there (Le Cirque, Aureole, Acqua, etc) could succeed off-site. The investment numbers being thrown around seem too big to recoup. Plus, I don't believe the NY economy is in such good shape to support this many new high-end expensive restaurants at once.

Maybe the service was a little off-possibly. I don't see anyway possible that your last meal at the FL was "a service and atmospheric disaster." TFL is simply to fine an establishment to be described in this way. What do you mean by "atmospheric disaster" anyway?

I've found the key is to be patient until the HearthKit gets really hot (it does come with a thermometer that fits between the "floor" and one of the sides). You probably won't notice a difference if you cook anything before it is pre-heated. Another great use: oven dried tomatoes cooked overnight. Preheat the Hearthkit to 300, shut off the oven and awake to the most intensely flavored tomatoes you have ever had. When ordering, make sure to accurately measure the inside of the oven it is for according to the directions on their website. It is important to be precise as the kits come in various sizes.

When they first came out, they received an excellent write-up in the New York Times. Dishes were cooked using the same oven, both with the HearthKit, and without. I believe thay roasted a chicken, baked some bread and baked either a pie or cake. In every case, the food cooked with the HearthKit won the taste test and was more appealing to the eye. I received one as a gift soon after and have been pleased ever since. Also, it's not that the food is cooked at a higher temperature, it's how it is heated. With the HearthKit, the heat is radiating from the stone, below and up the sides of the oven. Supposedly the effect cannot be duplicated by simply using a convection oven. I had previously made pizza using a traditional stone but the resulting pizza with the HearthKit blows it away. What was the gist of the negative review from Consumers?

Are we sure he isn't Mr WineClip?

Sam, if I recall correctly, your recipe is almost identical to Batali's basic tomato sauce. I use his recipe most of the time. Don't underestimate the importance of the carrot. It adds a hint of sweetness without that cloying sweet taste you find in jarred sauces that contain corn syrup or sugar.

It sounds like you're cooking it at too high a heat. I think it should just simmer which would greatly cut down on the splattering. Also, you can partially cover the pot by keeping a wooden spoon in the pot with the pot cover leaning against it. It still allows the sauce to reduce while cutting down on the splattering.

Approximately how long did it take to get the oil up to temperature for frying?

Bux, "The confusion here doesn't speak well about the depth of your interest in food."

Are you saying Bux is wrong?

I don't agree with that. I know many young people who are passionately interested in food that would not know those terms. I'm with you. I'm not young, I am passionately interested in food, and do not know those terms. I think it is just another note of cedescension if you ask me.

I've had one for over a year and think it's great. We keep it in the oven and only had to remove it once or twice for capacity reasons. The benefits are: 1. Great for browning (roast chicken, potatoes, etc) 2. Great for cooking pizza (great crust and bubbling cheese in under 10 minutes) 3. We don't bake much but it is supposed to help develop good crust on bread Disadvantages: 1. Takes forever to heat up (although will cook for a fair amount of time after oven is turned off) 2. Cuts down on oven capacity

I know this dish had been covered elsewhere but I think it deserves its own thread. We've really enjoyed this dish since the Heartlanders had it for their big gathering. We recently had a few friends over for dinner and had them taste the cauliflower blindfolded and asked them to guess what it was. Three of the four said french fries. The fourth had no idea. Try this at home. It definitely tastes like French Fries, really good ones at that.

I take my dog (black lab puppy) to Starbucks (we sit at the outside tables) and Dairy Queen. I bring along a marrow bone stuffed with peanut butter and she is kept busy munching on that until our coffee or ice cream is finished. She doesn't bother anyone else, as long as she is kept busy with a bone, and enjoys getting petted by people walking by. It is very important to socialize your dog and I've found shopping centers like strip malls (with a good coffee shop with outside tables) are a good place to accomplish it.

This may be a silly question but what if you are planning to fry a turkey for Thanksgiving and it starts raining? Just doing some contingency planning.

Which is better for the cooking vessel, aluminum or stainless steel?

"I Can't Get No... Satisfaction"

Thanks to Klink, I'm prepared. I have 1 1/2 quarts of Smoked Turkey Stock in my freezer just waiting for my fried and smoked turkeys this Thanksgiving.

Either Mark's Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale or Darryl and Olivers in Weston (West of Ft Lauderdale). Both are less than $100 per head.

That's a pretty good sig line.

I guess I don't get your point.

Bux clearly used an analogy comparing a poor attempt at a restaurant review on egullet with a religious parody at a church social. That is SPECIFICALLY what I am referring to.

"No one" is too strong. Many of us, including myself, were laughing WITH Adam. I found his write-up of his experience very amusing and look forward to more of his writings on his food experiences.

I guess this goes to the heart of my objections to your piece, Adam. There are plenty of things -- musical, culinary and otherwise -- that I don't enjoy. But I don't see any reason to "fault" either myself or the creator. I don't much like Phillip Glass' music, but I sure as hell don't "resent" him for composing it, as you say you used to resent Sondheim. I don't like Rocco DiSpirito's food, either, but I don't resent him for dreaming it up. Trotter's offers a particular kind of experience. You don't like it, that's fine. But that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it, anything to resent. If you elect to buy a specific experience -- whether it's dinner at a particular restaurant or tickets to a particular show, or whatever -- the "value" lies in whether the experience lives up to its billing, in how well the experience fulfills the promises it has made. You wanted Trotter's to be an entirely different kind of experience; you're faulting it because it wasn't Babbo. But it never claimed to be. And by your own admission, you don't have the experience to evaluate Trotter's in terms of what it DOES promise. At the risk of reading way too much into your posts, you seem to think that your tastes -- in music, in restaurants -- should define what's offered, and that anything on offer that doesn't conform to your tastes is worthy of resentment. That strikes me as kind of stunningly self-absorbed. I think your missing his point. He's fessing up to initially resenting Sondheim but now he thinks he's the greatest. My take is that he is admitting that the temptation is there to fault CT but he learned his lesson with Sondheim so he won't. Also, I think some of us are taking this site a little to seriously. It's a food site. Comparing it to religion in any way gives me the creeps.

How can that sandwich possibly fit in a toaster?