Steve Plotnicki

What if it's supposed to be about dreck? How would you figure out there is a conflict? I guess it would have to be a good dreck article.

To add to what Fat Guy just said, there are other conflicts a journalist can have besides a relationship with a subject, in this case a restaurant. I mean people have all types of likes and dislikes, biases and prejudices, why is the conflict of friendship worse then any other impairment? You would never see the Globe write an article saying that a food reviewer at another publication doesn't like Kimchee or Sea Urchin so their reviews of Korean and Japanese restaurants are faulty. And to me that is a much more serious accusation then the one they put forth. It all goes to the fact that gossip and sensationalism sells newspapers. And the gritty details about food do not.

After thinking about if for an entire day, I have concluded that this is an non-issue providing a diner calls a restaurant in time for them to rebook the table. In most restaurants, that usually means between 3:00-6:00pm the night of the reservation. I analyze it the following way. If a restaurant is so in demand, they will probably easily resell that table. Either to someone on a wait list, a random caller or even a walk-in. And if it wasn't in demand to begin with, and they wouldn't have sold the table anyway, there was nothing to lose to begin with. And I believe that this system works for most restaurants and because of it, they all have loose reservation policies. But I think this is different then the category of no-shows. I don't see what multiple reservations has to do with no-shows? You can have but one reservation and not show.

You know they didn't exactly put forward a lot of evidence that the reviews at Boston Magazine are substantially different then they are at other publications, including the Globe. They kept talking about the same piece of circumstantial evidence, she is friends with the chefs. What they didn't do was point to excerpts from reviews that would clearly be erroneous. The one specific they pointed to was her choice of "2002 Best Upscale Winelist." Well anyone who follows the world of wine knows how controversial the Federalist list is because the prices are so outrageous. I don't know what the list is like at No.9 Park but the argument that it is a "working list" meaning real people can actually afford to order from it has some traction with me. In reality, the number of good restaurants in a town the size of Boston is a finite number and everyone knows who they are. If the accusations were that she was giving stinkers high marks based on friendship, or low marks based on no friendship, I can see the point of the article. But the allegation of a conflict alone without evidence that the conflict has a significant impact doesn't do it for me.

I have to agree with everything else that has been said to Stone so far, it was great to see him react this way. May he have many more meals in his lifetime that move him this way.

But isn't this really just semantics? The asparagus by itself is not simple tasting at all. It is already complex after a simple boiling or steaming process(sorry to use that word.) And no matter how simple you think it is, pairing it with the starch of the potatoes, and the salty ham, and it isn't really that simple anymore. It's almost like saying a good Aioli is simple. Well it is if you look at it one way, say compared to a bouillabaisse. But it isn't really simple if you look at how complex the flavors are because of the pairings.

As someone who because of my background had a strong aversion to ever going to Germany, and didn't go until the early 90's, I found it a very pleasant place with beautiful countryside. And the people were very nice and helpful. The food isn't very good though. Except in the springtime when fresh asparagus is in season. They have beauties there that they serve simply steamed and which are served with a butter sauce, steamed potatoes, and raw or cured schenken (ham.) It's a terrific dish.

Just the large cities and their suburbs. For example, the Italian section will have sections for Rome, Milan. Florence and Venice (it might actually have more cities) and it will list all hotels and restaurants in those cities. But it won't have listings for anyplace else in Italy.

Actually last year when I was on the TGV going from Paris to Avignon, it was a day they were having the Mistral. And after we passed Valence, the train stopped and sat in the middle of a field for 45 minutes. When the train started moving again, they were able to make the train lean into the wind so it didn't blow over. It was a really weird thing. Doesn't sound as good as melons on the tracks though.

I'm trying to figure out what that story has to do with the three tier system? It's about consolidation in the wine industry, but you could have been describing consolidation in any industry. Typically industries like the wine industry or the music industry or the fashion industry, entrepreneurs with very little money make a success of themselves based on their unique talent and ability to recognize good products. But quite often, after they built their business, they want to sell it to someone else for a lot of money. So let's take this example. A famous importer of Italian wines, who is also a distributor in a certain region of the country, built his business from scratch and is now trying to sell it for $50 million. Who do you think is going to buy it, some small operator? No that is serious money and whoever plunks it down will not leave the profitablity of the business to wine geeks. They will bring in beancounters to make sure they make their investment back and then some. That's just the way business goes. As form availability in your state, come to NYC. We have everything here and the stores all ship. I was in Astor Place Wines today and the selection of Loire, Rhone and German wines was phenomenol.

Well I think the issue here is the realiability of the publication. I once reserved at a small Alsatian restaurant that Pudlo recommended in the 14th arr., but really just at the intersection of Blvd's Raspail and Montparnasse. Pudlo loved it. He even listed a heart next to the listing which means it was one of his favorites. So I booked it for 12 people one Saturday night. When we got there, there was no food. Not only was the menu void of most of the Alsatian specialties I was expecting, it maybe had five choices listed on the menu. And they were out of something like two of the five choices. The restaurant was run by a single women, who seemed to be waiting sll of the tables as well as cooking the food. It was a disaster which was only saved by the amount of beer everyone drank. I don't have time for that sort of thing when I'm travelling. Like Marcus said, it is too idiosyncratic. I need more reliability then that.

I'm actually holding a copy of his 2001 Guide in my hand. It's published by Michel Lafon. It's in hardcover. He lists 33 restaurants in France as having 3 rings, which is his equivelent of rosettes. The 2001 Gault Millau on the other hand lists 20 restaurants at 19/20 which is their highest rating. The 2002 (I don't have the 2001,) lists 14 three rosette restaurants.

If I might ask a silly question, what do they do with all of that VAT money?

Giles Pudlowski publishes a guide to France and there is a pocketsize version called Le Petit Pudlo. He is the food critic for a major daily newpaper, I forget which one. I buy the guide every few years, but to be honest, I haven't had much luck with his recommendations. Gault Millau is more reliable. One good thing about his guide is that he lists food merchants as well. So if you are travelling through the provinces and need a good cheese shop, his book will tell you where to find one.

I have to say that the person I was travelling with in Italy two weeks ago and I decided that the Italian processed pork products, from salumi to sausages, are far and away the best in the world. Much better then what they make in that other country that starts with an F. Though they do excel in the dried sausage category there. But for freshly sliced, raw or cooked, you can't beat the Italians.

Progressive isolationism. Seems to be a big theme of Polanski's throughout his career. And a metaphor for Jews being increasingly isolated thoughout history. It is void of sentimentality because it would detract from that theme. In fact the only time the characters were sentimental is when he spoke with his sister at the train station. There was actually an article on this in the Sunday NY Times that maybe you can dig out online. But Mr. P had it down cold after seeing the movie. And yes it is difficult to show Nazi's as being human. Obviously there must have been some of that yes? But there isn't any good historical precedent to recreate on the screen. So the scenes always seem a little forced. Sorry about late pizza. I mean what's the point of a late pizza?

What about the ribs? Actually the way I came to The Salt Lick was through a piece on the Today Show about barbecue ribs. They had guys on from a half dozen places making ribs in their own unique, idiosyncratic style. The ones that looked the best by far were from The Salt Lick. So we ordered ribs for Memorial Day 2001 and cooked them up (they ship them smoked and partially cooked but you have to grill them for 20 minutes or so.) In general the reviews were that they were a superior product to what BBQ joints usually ship because they were meaty and lean and they weren't heavily smoked. Not particularly greasy either. I've had ribs flown in from Arthur Bryants, Sonny Bryan's and The Rendevous among other places and they are never as good at home and the next day as they would be onsight. Plus the grease quotient is amazingly high. We in the northeast like our BBQ refined . But I will try one or both of the ones you posted. I also seem to remember Fat Guy being in Austin and having a kind word or two for the SL. So where does Dubya eat Q? Does he think they are nukular?

It's hard to be late because of pizza. Were they using the special slow oven that day? And how did you like the movie and what did you think it was about?

For Adaptation you need a very neurotic wine. One that doesn't know what it wants to be. One that keeps changing back between closed, then shows flashes of brilliance, then shuts down again. Almost a schizoprhenic wine. I'm not sure a wine like that exists. But try and find a wine with a bizarre finish.

Yes. It was a post of Rovani's about how nobody knows more about Burgundy then Parker. It was posted somewhere between Thanksgiving and the first 10 days of December. It was a major slugfest as you can imagine and the people who came to the WA's defense made their typically rude comments including numerous personal attacks. But I really nailed Pierre and he got stuck and couldn't get out of it. It was so bad that RP started a new thread trying to deflect the heat that was Rovani was getting because after we pointed out that they misscore Burgundy, people started to pile on. As an email I got from someone in the trade says; Parker has established a set of rules that have served him well. One is to set up the straw man: people who disagree with me are corrupt (or don't know anything), therefore anyone who disagrees with me is corrupt. Rovani knows how to use this and applied it in this instance......... Rovani didn't follow the rule and set up the initial ambiguity to give himself a way out, and you did an excellent job of cornering him. I have to say, it was one of my finest moments on an Internet chat room. So much so that Becky sent me that email. But eventually Squires found a way to lock the thread under the guise of the repetitive nature of the posts. But I wouldn't be surprised if behind the scenes they were looking for a way to shut it down because it was damaging to them. In fact, Rovani exited the thread on a ploy saying something I said was insulting to him. But you will see it for what it is when you read it.

Well I have had the '82 Sori Tilden 3 times in the last 2 years. And I agree it is made in a modern style which includes aging in oak barrels. But some wines are so good and have such breeding that they rise above it and this is a wine that has the stuffing to do so. The Guigal LaLas are also made in a modern, okay style but, the wines can be so powerful and complex that those aspects of the wine are almost like affectations.

Coates, aside from his style which is too abstract for both my taste and then wine market in general, but not bad for graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, rates the negociants too highly and gives them too much lineage in his publications. I'm not sure why he focuses on them to the extent he does? But to read him, you would think that Jadot and Faiveley make the most important wines in the region. He also doesn't seem to spend enough times on smallerwineries that are popular with drinkers like Dujac or Mugnier etc.. So he is focused on the wrong market if you ask me. But speaking of Becky Wasserman, I recently recieved an email from her telling me she loves me (although we never met.) It was because of an online discussion with Rovani where I was hammering him for the poor job the WA does reveiwing Burgs. It was a classic, even if I have to say so myself. And one of her sons (I forget which one) is the roomate of a friend of mine.

I've had Spaghetti Vongole at a number of places along the coast in Italy where the clams are the size of your thumbnail and I know how good they can be. But I was asking for more specificity because I'd like to know good places to eat at when I travel. Although I am also needling you guys because your lists seem woefully inadequate based on your claims about the food. And I have never eaten in Enoteccha Pinchiorri despite three trips to Firenze because I projected the type of meal you have just described. So I get it. I am just looking for a good list.

Craig - Actually Claude is a friend of mine and we are having lunch together next month. But the most in-depth information on Burgundy is to be found at Burhound, Allen Meadows quarterly publication which focuses on Burgundy exclusively. Marcus - Those points are all true but I would submit to you that the only reason Parker rates the '66 Palmer highly is because it is a Bordeaux and it fits in a certain place in his organizational chart. For similary nuanced wines in other regions, even more obvious ones, he typically underscores them by 2-4 points. For example, I recently had the 1996 Meo-Camuzet Vosne-Romanee Brullees and the wine was shockingly good. The WA rates the wine at 91-93. And I believe if it was a Bordeaux it would ring in at around 95 points and possiby higher.

There's nothing wrong with a little romance. And I agree it makes the food and wine taste better. Not in actuality, but that's how you feel about it. But that goes to support my theory that a large part of the reason that people like the food in Italy, is because they like being there. And as a cuisine all by itself, it is somewhat plain, albeit often tasty because of the quality of the ingredients.