rlibkind

Maison du Chocolate has been on Madison Ave. in NYC for at least two or three years. And If you really want high-end chocolates in Manhattan, go to Richart Design et Chocolat on E. 55th just off Fifth. It's a chocolate shop like J.P. Morgan's yacht: if you need to ask how much it costs, you can't affford it. Payard also makes a very good but (slightly) more affordable chocolate than Richart. Keep in mind, both of these establishments make chocolate in the French style. So if you object to Jubilee because of it's style, you will also object to Maison du Chocolate, Richart and Payard. Maron is a treat. I've been buying their truffles since I moved to Philadelphia in 1979. They may not have the finest chocolate you can buy, but it is good and the offers excellent value.

I'm unfamiliar with Sicilian cuisine (since I won't swear what we called Sicilian pizza in North Jersey was truly Sicilian). So, what are is distinguishing characterisitics? Does it have some Greek roots?

Excellent! I'll have to get back to Monks!

The Belgian food thread got me thinking: although Philadelphia offers a wide variety of cuisines, some important and/or interesting cuisines are missing. As I observed about Belgian, food, there's not much around once you get past mussels, beer and frites. And there's been a total absence of Scandinavian fare (Washington Square, even before Samuelsson's departure, hardly counts) since Tivoli disappeared. (Could it be a mere coincidence that the owners of the two restaurants that best exemplified these two different cuisines, Cuvee Notre Dame and Tivoli, up and left unannounced, virtually overnight,to their respective landlord's consternation?) What important cuisines do you think are missing from our local dining palette?

I can't comment on the quality of the food at Eulogy since I haven't been there, but based on the menu they post at the web site, the only items that appear to come close to Belgian cuisine are the mussels and frites. Nothing listed among the entrees is remotely Belgian. And on the appetizer list, while the meatballs may be good, the choice of beer for their braising, Hoegaarden, seems inappropriate. Mussels is a good start, but it's not enough. Where's the waterzoi or cafbonade? The version of moule provençales specified on the Eugology menu would not be recognized in Ste. Catherine. Alas, I know of no restaurant in Philadelphia that offers Belgian cuisine beyond mussels and beer and frites. Now, if I could only find one offering lapin à Gueuze!

You might recall the Belgian Chocolate House on 17th Street, between Walnut and Locust. Although the shop closed about two years ago, the couple that ran it still sells the same fresh, imported Belgian pralines -- on the web. Since their business is still located in the area, even though they don't have a physical store, my guess is that can still get it to you post haste. The website is Belgian Chocolate Online, or you can call 215 877-0374. They sell more than just pralines. Chocolate bars from Valrhona, El Rey, Scharfenberger, and Cote D'Or; oversized bars of Callebaut milk with hazelnuts; and other types of chocolates, candies and wafers. But I like the pralines the best. And at $32/pound plus shipping, very good value for very high quality. You wrote that Jubilee is not among your favorites. I find Jubilee a very well-crafted chocolate, but it is made in the French style which many people do not care for. If it's the style you object to, my guess is you wouldn't like Miel either, which are also made in the French style. Although I haven't tried them, I would suspect the Frederick Ortega chocolates would be the same. There is definitely a style difference between Belgian and French chocolates; I happen to enjoy both (when you're not near the chocolate you love, love the one you're near). Time constraints may prohibit you from using Belgian Chocolates Online, but keep them in mind for the future.

I've yet to find a "natural" cream cheese that doesn't contain carrageenan or a vegetable gum (both are "natural" products), not even at my local Whole Foods store or my high-end cheese purveyor. Do you know of a specific brand or source for such a product? I'd love to try it.

Go with a Fino or a Manzanilla (a subset of Fino, which has a slightly salty tang). Cream is just too sweet for an aperitif, and Amontillado also heavier than you'd want. There's no reason why you can't find a good one for under $15; you might even find something drinkable for $8 or $9. Just be sure to follow RobinAustin's advise and stick to a product from Jerez.

I haven't been by the Millburn Mall for the better part of a year, but Amster's is more than bagels (though the bagels are superb; the direct descendant of the old Watson Bagels; I believe Elmora Bagels in Elizabeth is also their operation). As for Amsters by Syd's, it's a great overall Jewish bakery of the sort that's hard to find nowadays (Amsters is not merely Jewish style, it's Kosher). And I never leave Millburn Mall without some belly (salty) lox from Tabachnik's. Assuming this run includes Syd's, I'll going to bring my cooler bag! OH, NO. THE RUN IS SCHEDULED FOR A SATURDAY SO AMSTER'S WILL BE CLOSED AND, ASSUMING TABACHNIK'S IS ALSO KOSHER (I'm uncertain if they are or not) SO WILL THEY!

The first time you try chicken feet is the hardest. As for me, I just kept telling myself: "This is what makes everyone's grandmother's chicken soup so good." I always make sure the dim sum cart bearing them doesn't pass me by without stopping, and I always add at least a couple of feet to my chicken soup. Chicken feet = essence of chicken.

Russ's piece definitely gives the reader a good idea of what to expect. I do have a minor factual nit: "Hell's Kitchen" was originally produced by ITV in the UK, not BBC.

Always nice to read a follow-up report. Thanks for taking the time to put one together and posting it. Glad you enjoyed your weekend, despite the rain, and Tommy's roast pork. Too bad about about that Alaskan oyster; as a general rule I stick to the ones from New England and the Northeast. Oysters can travel well, properly stored, but Alaska may be pushing it. (I'll have to seek those babies out, though, when I'm in Alaska in early June, even if oyster season has technically ended by then.) Bet they didn't have scrapple at the Residence Inn's breakfast buffet!

I won't pretend to know who has the best bread in London, because I only visit Your Fair City every two or three years. That said, the bread merchant (below) I found in June 2002 at Borough Market certainly sold decent stuff.

You can get a good backyard gas grill up to 600 degrees.

I was at a different restaurant, I think it's "Serbian Gourmet" or something like that, on W Lincoln south of downtown. The bureks were great.

Usingers can be mail-ordered. And I think Best Provision (purveyor to Syd's) will sell you a box (10 pounds, I think) of the 5 to a pound dog if you show up at their door in Newark; I think they'll even ship to you.

Too many f**kng bleeps . . . but they leave "pickle your nuts" in. Must be a new bar munchy.

Thanks for the frank report, Aliwaks. I guess if I'm hungry for a Balkan meal I'll have to wait until the next time I'm in Milwaukee.

All the recommendations above are excellent restaurants. If it's one big blowout you want, then any of those mentioned (Deux Chiminee, Le Bec Fin, Lacrois, the Fountain, etc. -- will be suitably celebratory and memorable. But all are local manisfestations of European culinary traditions. If it's Philadelphia you wish to commemorate food-wise (or at least, American food you will be hard-pressed to find good examples of in Europe), then I think you should look elsewhere. One possibility that gets scant attention on this board is Jack's Firehouse. It's a fun place, the food is very well executed and inventive All-American. And what can be more Philadephian than a rowing scull suspended over the bar mere blocks from the Schuykill? Pasion! If you haven't been there, you'll hate yourself for flying across the Atlantic without stopping here first. Twenty21. Another wrongly neglected restaurant. Better salmon (or California wines) are hard to find in town. And this has got to be one of the more dramatic spaces around. More of a West Coast than Philadelphia sensibility. The only thing European about it is the extensive single malt list. I'm a little reluctant to recommend one of my favs in town, the Sansom Street Oyster House. It's menu is emblematic of Philadelphia, but I'll admit even with its re-do a few years back the dining areas are not the most conducive to celebrations . . . unless you order lots of lobster! Or, how about your favorite steak house? I'm sure others can contribute ideas for other celebratory but less Euro-centric restaurants beyond the few I've mentioned. And you might want to consider taking a short trip to one of the better Delaware river inns up New Hope/Lambertville/Stockton way. Their menus may be too Continental, but the setting should overcome that infirmity.

I may be an Elizabeth boy at heart, but, hey, I'll renew my passport to try a ripper!

Tommy suggests Bergen and Essex counties. I say, you can find as many good dogs in Union County alone as you can in Bergen and Essex together (but this Elizabeth native is just a tad biased): Tommy's, Elizabeth Jerry's, Elizabeth Majestic Lunch, Elizabeth Father and Son, Linden Charlie's, Kenilworth Galloping Hill Inn, Union Syd's, Union (although it's in the Millburn Mall, it's in Union) And it can be organized to meet at the Elizabeth NJ Transit rail station, a 26 minute ride from NYC's Penn Station. I'm in any Saturday in January except the 22nd and I'll be driving up from Phila.

I caught the final episode of this series during a visit to the UK last spring. It was hysterical. Definitely "must see" television. Better than the "Hell's Kitchen" series, which was more like soap opera.

The Four Seasons and the Rittenhouse (Lacroix at the Rittenhouse) offer the toniest hotel brunches in town. I haven't been to the Four Seasons for at least a dozen years, but last spring I went to the Rittenhouse and enjoyed it immensely. For about $40 you can indulge in a fish table (oysters, smoked fish, shrimp, etc.), and a salad table with lots of different hor d'oeurves. Then, you go for either a brunch plate (omelet, etc.) or, you can opt to visit the kitchen, where a wide array of meats, fish, bowl, sausages, bacon, grains and starches, vegetables, and more awaits you. The dessert table is included. Beverages, as I recall, are very extra.

For Pa. Dutch, you have got to have SCRAPPLE. See another recent thread on this board for everything you didn't want to know about scrapple. (Briefly, scrapple is a loaf made from corn meal and/or other grain mush cooked with portions of pig left over after butchering and herbs, which is served by being sliced and fried crisp in fat.) At the RTM, you can have it as your breakfast "meat" to go with your eggs at either the Pennsylvania Dutch Eating Place or the Down Home Diner'; I prefer the Down Home Diner's rendition. Traditionally it's covered with your choice of ketchup or maple syrup; if it's good scrapple (crisp on the outside, creamy inside), I don't think it needs either. Remember the "Dutch" in Pennsylvania Dutch is a corruption of Deutsche, i.e., German. Think heavy German foods with American ingredients prepared by thrifty farm families who waste nothing and you've got the essence of Pennsylvania Dutch cookery. Good stuff, but hardly light. The pork store at the RTM has a decent selection of Pennsylvania Dutch cold cuts, including Lebanon bologna. There are also fresh baked soft pretzels at another Pa. Dutch stand (Fishers) at the RTM. Any number of taverns serve Maryland-style blue crabs. In the downtown area, DiNardo's (Race near 3rd St., as I recall) would be one choice; I'm certain there are others. But I'm not sure if this is really crab season. Generally they are more plentiful in the summer. Local produce is pretty much done for the season, with the exception of root and cruciferious vegetables, i.e., potatoes, rutabaga and turnip, beets and chard, collards, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. Certainly no more local fruits other than some late season apples.

Duh! I shudda just looked at the info under your handle on the message!