Ling

The food looks really good across the board. I especially like the idea of having a cup of raw egg yolk to pour over your egg salad sandwich!

It certainly is! Although this entire trip sounds absolutely heavenly! I just found the link this evening in your signature, and spent the last few hours glued to the images. Thanks for showing us Prague and parts of France through your eyes! I am also very curious, after reading John Talbott's recent post what you thought of the bread in France. (John said he found the bread in Seattle to be better.) Although I like some of the bread made here very much, I've always thought (perhaps incorrectly) that bread in the US just can't compare, as bread making is traditionally such a honed craft in France. I am wondering how the bread you ate in France compares to what you can get from the better bakeries in NY.

Welcome, Ben, and thanks for all the suggestions. I've heard about their half-price wine on Tuesday. Sounds like that's the time to go! I have a batch of brioche proofing right now so I'm going to have to steal their idea of making blue cheese butter to go along with the french toast until I can make it in for brunch. The goat cheese gnocchi sounds really good, dandelion.

Hi Dorie, I frequently use your books when baking, so it's an honour to talk to you via EG. I'm sure you've had the opportunity to eat many delicious things with many wonderful people thus far, and I was wondering if you could share with us your fondest food memory.

That's what I thought when I saw his dish, but the potato recipe posted on Bravo is very different from the Robuchon potatoes.

The brunch menu looks great. Any recent reports on the food/service?

In the past 7 months that I've been dining with some frequency in Seattle, today was my first time in a Tom Douglas establishment. We had the corned beef hash and the Alaskan halibut dish which came with sweet potato hash with coriander creme fraiche. Both dishes were very good--the halibut was perfectly moist, but I was won over by the bolder flavours of the corned beef (topped with perfectly runny poached eggs) with the chipotle ketchup. Hot damn! I wouldn't hesitate to order it again.

^Thanks Pan. I think we'll skip 11 Madison Park. I looked at some pictures on Cook's Korner and it seems like we can find similar dishes over here on the west coast. WD-50 is a definite, though. We are meeting with FabulousFoodBabe for dinner there, but we haven't made a reservation yet. Plane tickets are booked for Dec. 13th arrival, and we are leaving Dec. 16th. Please PM if you'd like to get together at WD-50.

^Well, I didn't like the gumbo either but I thought that was enough complaining for one post.

Unh....hunh. I can't be arsed to go back to the article to check, but from what I recall, that isn't exactly what they said. They said that the CR guys no longer had a lively, guy-type libido, didn't check out the femmes as a fertile male is wont to do, but still functioned well in the sack. ← You're right. I guess I mistakingly assumed that better performance in the sack = EXCELLENT!!! ( ), and disregarded the parts about lowered overall interest in sex.

Awesome pie, Parmhero! I love pumpkin pie...yours looks luscious. And that's the coolest Hallowe'en cake I've ever seen, Candy!

Again, I read the article and it suggests that people who calorie-restrict feel their libidos have INCREASED, not the other way around. Regardless, I can't imagine using up so much time to calculate one's daily intake down to the calorie, with the "correct" percentages of fat, protein, and carbs worked out. I bet all the extra years these people might live due to their fastidious account of food intake are lost anyway, because it takes quite a bit of time to figure out the exact amount of nutrients they're taking in each day.

I don't think it's the term Paul's looking for, but are you thinking of amuse guele?

Well, we went to San Fran for 2.5 days and all we did was eat non-stop. Does that count? In December, we're going to NY for another food trip. This time, 3-4 days of non-stop eating. We're working our way up...

Interesting... I've never been there for lunch, though my girlfriend has and was quite happy. On the other hand, we tend to like minimalism when it's done right. ← I also like minimalism when it's done right. I just didn't think the tuna sandwich or the scallop and green bean dish were very good, that's all. The pork sandwich was great. My friend who was dining with us also shared my opinion of Matt's.

!!

Interesting... I have heard good things about their chocolates.. but.. I have to say the batch of truffles I picked up at Edible BC on Granville Island were less than stellar. Not sure if this was a bad batch, or just something I was not used to. Very strange texture, hard on the outside and somewhat marshmallowy in the middle. Ultimately, the texture seemed artificial and was not pleasing. Perhaps, just not to my taste, but at $27 a box, I'd think long and hard about buying them again. ← I had a chance to try them at Lord Balthazar's chocolate extravaganza. The shells are indeed very thick--much thicker than standard filled chocolates and truffles.

^I ate at Matt's at the Market for the first time a few days ago. I tried three things--the pork sandwich (with gumbo option), the albacore tuna sandwich, and the scallop special (three huge seared scallops with green bean salad). Of the three, I only enjoyed the pork sandwich. The scallops were underseasoned and the green beans were very old and tough. The albacore tuna was bland...if they had toasted the bread (like they did with the pork sandwich), it would have been a slightly better sandwich. As it is, there is no contrast in texture with the soft tuna and soft Macrina potato bread. I know Matt's is very popular, and my boyfriend loves some of their items, but I'm not anxious to go back.

I was there for dinner last week with a few friends, so we got to taste a large portion of the menu. The kitchen sent out a dish of complimentary wild mushroom risotto, and that was my favourite dish of the evening. (I also had the soup and mini pie--very cute, kudos to the person who came up with that , the squab with foie, and the maple syrup pie with huckleberries.)

^Donut Plant is close to Katz? Sounds like a plan...pastrami, followed by donuts. We had dinner at Mistral last night and Henry asked the chef de cuisine where he'd go if he had a few meals in NY and one of the places he picked was Mas. I tried to run a search for it on EG...I seem to remember someone mentioning it, but the search didn't turn up anything. Any thoughts on Mas?

Good point. I made the two crusts today, and will make the fillings and finish them tomorrow. But I think you're right, I'm going to have a heck of a time "painting" the graham cracker crust. Suggestions?! ← I would just melt chocolate or make ganache, ladle some onto the crust and lift the pie plate and give it a slow turn. The ganache should spread evenly over the bottom.

I read the Eleven Madison Park thread this morning, and am very impressed with the reviews. Everyone seems to love it (well, except for Pan. ) Has anyone had a meal there in the last month? Still wonderful?

^The wild mushroom/foie risotto was on the menu for the last few days, but I just checked it again and now it's risotto with meat juices for an extra 3 bucks. Could you describe what the foie risotto was like...I'd like to try making it at home. Do you think they seared foie and used the fat to enrich it? Were there actual pieces of foie in it? My reservations are for tomorrow. Guess I was a day too late!

I've read that excessive weight gain during pregnancy is not healthy for either the mom or the baby, but my mom gained 70 lbs. when she was pregnant with me! Not because she had any particular food cravings, but because she was quite slender (>100 lbs.) before pregnancy and my dad was afraid she would be too...er...delicate(?) to have a baby. So he cooked huge amounts of food everyday for my mom and my mom would force all that food down. One of the things he made very frequently were these huge hamburger patties that covered a 12" dinner plate, so she could get enough iron. (Of course, dinner came also included vegetables, rice, soup, etc.) My mom still can not eat a hamburger to this day because she gets kind of green whenever she sees ground beef. Luckily, she had a great metabolism and lost all the weight without doing much exercise. She didn't have to diet, either. (My dad relaxed a bit when my mom was pregnant with my sister and my brother and *only* cooked enough food everyday for her to gain 50 lbs. each! )

^Oh good. I'm glad you enjoyed it!