Andrew Fenton

Okay, V, I've been wondering about this all day, and I have to ask. What do you think about this Keller quote in light of the revelations about the frozen frites at Bouchon?

Very true. I'd make sure I had steak from a cow that had been fed on foie gras, taken from geese that had spent their lives being force-fed truffles and Beluga caviar. So the restaurant screwed up, and they don't have a leg to stand on. What's more, I'm sure they know that. This isn't a lawsuit that's designed to go anywhere: it's designed to get them some more PR, then vanish like the morning dew from the lush fields of the Main Line.

True Andrew but even in NYC, it mainly appeals to those who see the act of getting a reservation as sport, you know those people...the "Financial services - My hedge fund and Salsichon is bigger than yours" ← Of course! But there aren't nearly as many of those people here. (Whew!)

Right. I suspect that this scheme only really works for high-end restaurants. And the high-end restaurant market in Philadelphia just isn't that big. If you're going to be spending a few hundred dollars for a dinner, then a $50 surcharge isn't that big a deal. But how many restaurants are there here that are in that range, and tough for reservations? Maybe 10-15, at a very generous guess? Seems like the really h-o-t-t tables are at less expensive places (like Osteria), where that $50 will represent a much bigger chunk of a night's entertainment. I doubt that too many cheapskate Philadelphians will pony up that cash...

Let's see. You're saying "you'll take what you're given, and you'll LIKE it." And you're accusing other people of being arrogant? Wow. Look: I think a couple of things are clear. First, price matters to people; the question of value for money is a real one, and it's worth discussing. Second, the raves here make it clear that Osteria delivers that value. I'm looking forward to trying it.

That should be http://www.chinagrillmgt.com/blog/ And Chodorow's letter? High-larious. I love how it veers between the rhetorical poles of "all our fans can't be wrong" and "won't somebody PLEASE think of the children, er, waiters".

And coda alla vaccinara on Monday nights! I swoon...

V, I completely agree with you that Italian food in Philadelphia (as in most of the country) has fallen victim to the soft bigotry of low expectations. Mostly it isn't all that good. Even I-- a good, not great cook-- can do better than 85% of it; which is why I've pretty much stopped going to Italian restaurants. So I'm delighted to see a restaurant like Osteria open, I'm going there this weekend, and I couldn't be more excited. $18 for a really good pizza is totally reasonable, as far as I'm concerned. Most of the other dishes, if they're as good as everybody says, seem fairly priced as well. And $10 for a nice bowl of stewed tripe is a bargain. That said, $5 for an arancino is a little bit extortionate! That's the equivalent of a $35 cheesesteak. I'm sure it's really good. But it's no bargain...

There's a golden mean between fresh-from-scratch pizza (delicious, labor-intensive) and frozen pizza (easy, not so tasty). When I make pizza, I'll make a few extra pizza crusts, partially bake them (around 3 minutes in the oven, enough to firm up but not fully bake), and then freeze them. On a busy night when I'm in the mood for pizza, I'll heat up the oven, top a frozen crust with whatever, then bake it on the stone. It's only a little more work than a frozen pizza-- the main time issue, letting dough rise, is taken care of-- and tastes a lot better. Not quite as good as unfrozen dough, but perfectly good for a reasonably quick weeknight dinner.

In my opinion, the cheesesteak at John's is overrated: And for what it's worth, Holly agrees with me; too much cheese. Edited to add: the roast pork sandwich is quite good. But if I'm already driving and am in the mood for an artery-clogging sandwich, I'm heading to Tony Luke's.

I've had a very good slaw from DiBruno's. Not too creamy, with celery seeds, and whatnot. In fact, it was good enough-- and I was craving coleslaw enough-- that I ate the entire container as a snack.

Percy, your meal looks wonderful. But sheesh! you forgot to add the most important detail: where did your steaks come from?

That really looks great. I'ma head over this week sometime, maybe on Wednesday. That tripe looks to be both fantastic and fanatic-- also, at $10, a starter? That's probably for the best. I can persuade the missus to go out for pizza, but she probably won't touch tripe, so I'll have it all to myself...

Trial and error, practiced over a long enough period, will get you pretty far. markk, you asked about coffee: here's the legend about coffee's origins. It's no doubt bogus, but stretch the timeline out over a few decades or hundreds of years, and you've got a more reasonable description of how it came to be used. This one is pretty easy. Of course, people do use coffee in lots of different ways: in addition to the many different sorts of brewed coffee, it's also used for food. (The same goes for marijuana...) I encourage you to try smoking coffee, but I don't think you'll like the results. Similarly, people don't eat or drink tobacco because you can poison yourself if you do. Just look at all the creativity about food that comes up on eGullet. Multiply that creative pool by a few million people and then by a few thousand years, and, well, there you go.

Meh. Stupidity Tracker-dude is reaching pretty hard as he tries to summon up outrage. Yeah, the "naturalness" of the product is marginal-- but it's hardly the worst offender out there. Let's be honest; getting worked up over marketing is a mug's game. And I agree with Kim that the idea is a clever one: not healthy, just less unhealthy. I also like their logo and design: the little angel/devil faces are cute. If the price was right, I'd give it a try.

Marc Vetri, you had me at trippa alla romana... Thanks for the report, V. Osteria sounds great. (Anybody want to check it out with me for Tripe Club 2007? Shoot me a PM.)

Depends on the species of crab, no? (I notice nobody has mentioned what *kind* of crabmeat they're looking for...) Blue crab season is in the summer, right? But as far as I know, Dungeness is available year round, since the species north-south range is so large.

Ooh, good call. I love the bar at Southwark.

Your point is a good thought Katie however since we are a group of friends who get together to cook and eat without being a commercial enterprise, organized protest strikes me as a silly invasion of privacy. I dont think anyone needs to worry about that. Plus, I'd love to see a bunch of protesters standing around chanting outside in that neighborhood. They'd get a leeetle less attention than they would standing outside of Amada, no?

The Chinese aversion to cheese is probably not connected to lactose intolerance. For one thing, most cheeses have very little lactose. Moreover, there are other Asian cultures with the same intolerances who incorporate dairy into their cooking, through the magic of bacteria. (And my understanding is that there is cheese in northern China. Haven't tried it, though.) There are probably all kinds of historic and cultural reasons for the lack of dairy in Chinese cooking: use of land for intensive rice/cereal production rather than cattle, resistance to influence from Central Asian pastoralists, etc. And, like a lot of things that are delicious but that cause cross-cultural eyebrow-raising, cheese is an acquired taste...

Blogalicious seems as interested in the drinks and the "scene" as he does in the food. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) But to that extent, he may be right: James could be a hip, happening place, even if for other reasons than the food. As to the chocolate/olive oil dessert: whether or not it's original, it sounds interesting. And as I'm not likely to make it to Vetri in the near future, I may just head down to South Philly and give it a go...

As always, Katie, I like the way you think! Maybe you could tie the Katie Rating to an annual "Dumas Award." (That sounds... French! and therefore, Classy.) Call me- I may have an investor lined up...

I can't get up on my high horse about the expense of the meal. As Reefpimp points out, expense is relative, and so a moving target for outrage. The difference between flying to Bangkok for a $25K dinner and flying to Napa for a $1K dinner is only a difference of tax brackets. Heck, the $30 dinner I cooked last night would be an unimaginable luxury for lots of people. The problem with this dinner is that it was vulgar. The focus (at least in the AP's sensational version of it) was on expense and excess, rather than creativity. I mean, take a look at this dish: Piling a quarter pound of truffles on a scallop doesn't make the scallop any better: in fact, I imagine it would overwhelm the scallop and ruin it. As the chef said, it's just a way to make the dish more expensive, the equivalent of piling a stack of $100 bills on top.

There is a lot of tamarind grown in Mexico-- though I think most of it makes its way into agua de tamarindo and other drinks rather than into food. Anyway, those ribs look great. I need to get back to El Caballito and make a dent in the menu...

Um, I think what Vadouvan is trying to say is that there are many wonderful restaurants in the city of Philadelphia-- and several of them are located outside of Chinatown! If you could be a little more specific about what you're looking for, I'm sure somebody will be delighted to pass along some recommendations. Alternatively, you could browse the PA forum and see which restaurants have been recommended to visitors in the past; we'd be happy to follow up with you about which are still good.