bilrus

OK. So much for reliving my excellent meal the other night. I think I'll skip lunch today.

That makes sense to me. While we're at it, we might want to alter the title of this thread to remove the reference to the original whim date.

I am a little tired and not happy to be at work (rolled in at 9:30) after a long but fun and tasty night. Big fan now of the Pink wines. I really liked my salmon entree - especially the cassoulet - and the chocolate and peanut butter parfait, but the highlghts for me were the fried oysters, the onion and chorizo tart and the lamb steak entree. I've never had lamb quite that tender and flavorful - good job John W. Looking forward to the next time we get a whim and my next visit to Firefly. From what I've seen we have a pretty good group of people here. I hope to meet more of you.

Tweaked, Thanks for posting this. I am looking forward to finally convincing my wife, who loves good food but is a little picky about some ingredients (veal, rabbit, duck to name three) to trust Roberto and just go with it. I have seen you on that "other" site a lot. Welcome to eGullet.

Count me in for sure for 1 (of course unless work emergencies rear their heads). My wife can't make it.

I wonder if the previous thread made its way back to Babbo and Mario?

I think I would be in for Wednesday at Firefly, pending approval.

We like mini-rants around here.

I think that's a cool idea. A good way to get out a little more often and try some new places.

I read somewhere that Heritage India delivers, but I don't know if they would go all the way to the Zoo. It does qualify as good food though.

Looking at that list reminded me of The Full Vermonty - Maple Ice Cream with Maple chunks. But better Maple Chunks than in the McGriddle.

My favorite all time was only available one summer - the Peanut Butter and Jelly flavor. My wife's favorite has also been discontinued - Dilbert's Totally Nuts. I lived in Montpelier for about six months and at the time the convenience store down the road from my apartment had a freezer case of factory seconds for I think $1.50. These were cartons that either weighed too little (too much air in the mixture - OK, but still better than a lot of ice creams) or that weighed too much (too many fillers i.e. candy, nuts, caramel, etc.). Some of the weighed too much cartons were the among the best I've ever had. Is there really such a thing as too much candy and caramel in ice cream?

Al, I'd go too, but I am stuck working out in the burbs of Reston. Hope to get to meet you (and other DC area people) at one of the events in the works. And I hope someone responds to you.

I agree with daysee8's first two definitions, but I think the key element of the 'Unscripted Drama' is that pre-editing it starts out similarly to the reality show, but the raw material is then edited to tell a specific story and achieve a specific result, regardless of what the "reality" is.

Sounds very cool, Monica. Thanks for pulling this together.

A lot of posts had said that the fact that Rocco is getting the exposure and therefore more money is worth the potetnial humiliation he is going through. But I don't think anyone says that justifies the way he treated the employees.

I really like the version that was in Cook''s Illustrated about a year ago. It used both lemon and red wine vinegar. They also put a little fresh mint and parsley in the salad and roasted red peppers. I can take or leave the herbs, but love the red peppers.

Fair and balanced. Be careful Jinmyo - you don't want the Fox News Channel to sue you.

I am going to be in the area in November and am going to try to get a reservation for my first time and of course, I am looking forward to it. I'm curious though about something that has come up in several reviews that people have posted. Almost no one's experiences were 100% positive and in your case it seemed like only about half of the numerous courses were outright successes. Yet you still consider the meal one of your best ever evan at the price tag of over $300 per person. Like i said, you aren't the only one who has expressed this. How do you justify ranking it so high in your personal experience or is it just that your expectations were so high for the meal that, although the quality was very good across the board, it didn't meet those expecations?

Great points....IMO, there will now be a group of hard-core food people who will forever exile/shun Rocco but there will be many more folks (who are not close to the world of food) who will now fill his restaurants and watch every minute of every one of his tv appearances. On balance, I'd bet that Rocco comes away from this wealthier and more widely-known than he ever would have been if he'd skipped it and just continued to toil away in 3-Star kitchens. That said, he did come off as a pompous and insensitive ass at times. Frankly, I get the feeling that he considered that eventuality before getting into this and decided that it didn't matter to him. He was ready to get out of the kitchen and this would be his vehicle. I never expect 'true' reality--especially from a major network tv show. Does such a thing even exist? One way or another, there is always editorial bias to consider, even if it doesn't come up and beat you over the head. In this case, the bias is decidedly commercial, but even in a gritty documentary, the filmmaker is starting with a premise that he or she wants to 'sell' to the viewer. =R= Why do we assume that 'the average people' didn't pick up on the fact that Rocco and Rocco's both came off very badly in the show and would still be interested in going there? Plus I don't think the average person who thinks Rocco and Rocco's looked interesting are going to be the same people who would go to Union Pacific or Tuscan. I'm sure NBC is happy and Rocco's may see some benefit of the publicity, but I can't see Rocco or his other restaurants benefitting in the long run.

That's a sore spot. Mother in law actually complained to my wife about this.

who the hell are you inviting to your home for dinner? Family. I'm not sure that I would say they are 'invited'. I am talking specifically about my in-laws who were at our house to 'help out' after my wife had surgery. I certainly appreciated the help, but it is difficult to cook for them. Edited to add: I think in most cases on this thread it has been family members who cause the problems. The people we all invite for meals at our houses are more likely to be similar in taste to us or at least grateful for the invitation. in the case of families, it is likely to be neither of these.

What bothers me is not the idea of cooking what the guests want. It is the fact that the guests then have the gall to complain (or make faces or poke at the food in a sort of passive aggressive way) when you do go along with their desires. When I am forced to eat bad food at someone's house when I am a guest, I always do it with a smile.

I think the Cheesecake Factory's problems are twofold. The first is the interminable waits that, according to an employee on another thread a few months ago are intentional - the company likes the lines because they make the restaurant seem desirable and the hot place to be. The second, and proably bigger problem (and its not a problem for the restaurant, just when comparing it to top-level restaurants) is that the food is acceptable, but is not striving to be anymore than that. The entire concept of providing 200 menu items, across all spectrums of cuisine, at 60 something HUGE locations prohibits the type of cooking that would make a restaurant stand out. That said, the food and atmosphere is better than what you would get at a chain place like Fridays or Applebee's but probably a notch below other, local chains like Clyde's or Rio Grande.

Just outside the top twenty nationally and in the top twenty in urban markets like San Francisco, probably higher in a pretty desirable demo (younger, higher disposable income) and production costs pretty much paid for by advertisers may not make for classic TV, but it does make for pretty desirable summer progamming for a network that is having problems developing new hits.