Margaret Pilgrim

I have to agree with Bux on all counts. Breyer's Natural Vanilla is the cleanest flavor we have found. We make all manner of fruit, herb and spice flavored "frozen desserts" and seldom run into trouble unless we combine a heavy substance like chocolate with a rich custard, which produces too rich a product for us. We make frozen custard or simply frozen flavored cream, or frozen super-rich yogurt, depending on whim, and find that the final product is more dependent on the flavoring agent, i.e., how flavorful the fruit is, than on the kind of dairy base. We never try to duplicate a commercially available flavor. I mean, what's the point? My one caviat: be very careful with the amount of alcohol in any recipe. I had to remove a prune/cognac custard from the machine and freeze it in a pan, ala parfait. It simply had too much alcohol to freeze in the machine. Also, as already mentioned, sugar is necessary for a creamy finish. Imitation, eg Equal, will result in a rock-hard ice.

I keep it on hand just for those baking occasions when the recipe says, "Grease and flour pans". You get a beautifully sheer coating with no thick-thin spots. Also, salted and peppered, for dusting fish before putting through egg-wash and panko crumbs.

Steve, am I being too simplistic in suggesting that the absence in France of the level of dining you describe is a direct result of the Michelin star system? In the US, a restaurateur can, theoretically, serve up the same excellent level of food and casual service over a long period of time without becoming increasingly formal, providing that he continues to satisfy a large enough customer base. It is simply casual restaurant that serves excellent food. In France, a restaurant that opens to raves is expected to be awarded a star, and begins to increase formality as it looks for its second macaron. There is an axiom, "Do not dress for the job you have; dress for the job you want."

The SFWeekly reviewed Roxanne's this week. www.sfweekly.com/issues/current/dining_toc.html

Pillows filled with lavender from the back yard and organic buckwheat hulls (purchased from SF Herb Co), and lavender bouteilles, those sachets made by weaving satin ribbon among lavender stems, creating a wand filled with the lavender blossoms.

Am I alone in wondering whether this discussion of the continuum from Schonfeld's respect for simple perfection to what Steve P calls dazzling technique deserves a separate thread? Perhaps in General?

Thanks, LESider for including Liguria Bakery. This one shop is quintessentially SF to me. I'd also suggest the Green/Embarcadero farmer's market for your first Saturday breakfast. Besides fabulous bread and cheese direct, several restaurants set up kitchens and offer a range of brunch items (sometimes grilled salmon, various omelets, crepes, mexican, etc.) Don't let all these easterners "whistling in the dark" scare you. You're going to love it here! PS I think that SobaAddict's Divisidero restaurant is called "Phuket". I jest not.

Sea Lions, no seals.

I think that ngatti is on the right track. I personally wouldn't consider booking at either CP or FL any longer. They are both, for me, useful icons and have taught me a lot about how to think about food, shopping, cooking and eating. They are not places where I would go now for a fabulous or "Wow" factor dinner. They are, instead, kitchens I would think about as I planned to cook a stunning dinner at home. Unfortunately, their singularity is not apparent to most first time diners who, because of their fame, expect a much more experimental, daring and even commercial or customer service oriented experience.

Nickn is correct about Cafe Miranda. Unless it is one of their (frequent) sro nights, Kerry can cook variations on anything on the menu for you. The menu suggests everything that is available, and since everything is cooked to order, he can mix and match staples, fresh produce, sauces, catch of the day, etc. to create tremendously interesting dishes. One night when I suggested that he move to San Francisco, he grinned and confided that he started at Chez Panisse. We've only been to Primo twice since it changed from being Jessica's. We traditionally host a small dinner party for friends in the area when we are there, and request a separate dining area if possible. They give us a lovely little room upstairs, our own crew of waitstaff and let us close the place. The food has been even and service has been well paced. The menu and dishes are what I would call country-excellent. They do not, I think, come up to what you'd expect in town or in France.

My husband asked for his first eggnog of the season yesterday afternoon. I gave him our usual single serving concoction: Beat 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of sugar into 3/4 cup half and half until frothy. Add a half jigger of rum and half jigger of brandy. Pour into a goblet and dust with freshly grated nutmeg. Don't drink too many during the holidays if you have a cholesterol or weight check scheduled in January.

Okay, Scott, I'll bite. What is different about teal that won't let you use any recipe you'd normally use for wild duck? Thinking back on it, when I've been given a duck by hunting friends, I've never bothered to ask what kind of duck it was! I have taken into consideration drake or hen, old or young.

Whow! Where was this question 40 years ago? In the course of that many years we have experience/endured/been sucked into many situations in which we should have simply walked out. 1) The waiter who was so obvious sick that he could barely take our order. To make matters worse, this was a seafood restaurant on the northeast coast, and we ordered cold food. Needless to say, four days later, both of us were sicker than dogs three thousand miles from home. In the same vein, I remember two times when people making me ice cream cones sneezed during or shortly before making my cone. Moral: If the server looks sick, walk out and/or dump the cone/any food in the nearest dumpster. 2) When you arrive and they can't find your reservation, but find you a cubicle somewhere between two support columns and a supporting wall. It's just not going to get better during the meal, and you can only sit humped over for so long. 3) When you sit through two courses in such overwhelmingly deafening noise that you can't carry on a twosome conversation. At this point, we do walk out. Often, the noise escalates as the meal progresses, and it's hard to pinpoint it early on. Most of the really awful meals I recall didn't have any red flags, just a succession of poorly executed courses. Because all of these occurred in places with top or near the top reputations, we stayed to the bitter end, simply resolving not to return. This number includes a good dozen of the top restaurants in my town. I must assume that these were simply "off nights", but the numbers are really troubling. I guess my best thought is that if you are really unhappy, cut your losses and leave. It probably won't get better. Also, I must encore Beachfan: an empty dining room is never a recommendation.

I can only answer in regards to my experience at one-star (Astrance) and two-star (La Galube) restaurants, and in both these instances I had ordered a tasting menu. I simply left all or most of the dessert, after at least attempting part of the cheese course. In these and a couple of other similar level meals, I have just told the server that the meal was delicious, enormous and very rich. They have, in all cases, agreed with me. When ordering off the carte, I have often coerced my husband into ordering one or both of these courses, and in such instances, we're always provided with a second plate and utensil. When neither of us can face another bite, we explain our satiety, consider an unplanned afterdinner beverage and leave a larger than usual amount on the table.

Cabrales, I'm looking at my last statement, and note that the three 500 euro withdrawals that have come through so far were charged at 496.84, 499.50 and 499.50. This was at a time when the dollar and euro were dancing around parity. There may be better exchanges out there, but adding in convenience, these rates of exchange are good enough for me to continue using this card at an ATM.

Yes, we had two small misadventures in October. The first occurred when our major credit card was refused after dinner one night. My husband called the number provided by the card company (a collect number was the only one provided, and making a collect call from France around midnight is, in itself, an interesting story), and was told that the account had been frozen because of a flurry of activity outside our residential area. We were advised to always notify them that we are travelling in order to prevent such disruption of service. This precaution is new, since for many years this same card issuer has relied on our predictable travel to a half dozen locales to make distinctions in fraudulent card use. The second problem occurred when an ATM machine ate my brokerage debit card. It appears that a previous customer had a problem that the machine had not finished digesting. It took me several hours to get my card back, a situation that would have been very troublesome had we been catching a plane or train shortly.

Graham, many, many thanks for bringing "Qu'est-ce qu'on mange ce soir ?" to our attention. Because the Young Turk dining rooms are the ones we have sought out for the last five years, I lost no time in ordering this book. Amazon France assures me that "It's in the mail".

Saturday lunch, actually. Dungenous crab season started a week ago, so we decided it was time for a crab orgy: 2 people, 2 crab, loaf of ciabatta, cube of sweet butter, sliced heirloom tomato and mache from the garden served with just salt, pepper and lemon infused olive oil. Choice of mustard-mayo or lemon-horseradish cocktail sauce for the crab. NZ sauvignon blanc. Soulfood. (Stuffed!)

As the ad says, "When you get it, you get it!" You're right. The room determines all. We far prefer to come back to our room, relax, sit at a table near a window and watch the world go by as we enjoy our afternoon treats.

I'm very interested in the responses so far. I have never considered ordering anything but pastries at Laduree. It seems my naivete has saved us much disappointment. Because we stay close to this Laduree outlet and therefore are apt to pass it almost daily, I was happy to find a convenient place to pick up afternoon treats en route to our hotel. (We are probably in the minority in prefering to enjoy this afternoon break in our room with either coffee sent up or a glass of already on hand wine.)

Since we've resurrected the Herme thread, I thought I would add that just four blocks north of Herme on rue Bonaparte at rue Jacob, Laduree has opened a shop that is a belle epoche jewel box with a small tea room looking out onto rue Jacob. The decor is quite fitting in this Beaux Arts neighborhood, and the look could not be more different from Herme's slick chrome and glass shop on Bonaparte off St. Suplice. It is good to have the option of sampling their wares in the shop rather than taking them back to your hotel and ordering up coffee or tea. On our several visits, it appeared that one of the most popular purchases was a box of individually selected macarons, a tidy snack at 42 euros the box of 12.

In the event that you will be traveling north to get to Strasbourg, I will repeat my suggestion of Bernard Antony's fabled cheese cellar in Vieux Ferrette, due south of Strasbourg. Antony is the cheese purveyer to many of France's leading chefs as well as some of America's best dining rooms. He offers degustations by reservation on weekends. Were I as close as Strasbourg (some 100 odd km), I'd go in a heartbeat. 17 rue de la Montagne, Vieux-Ferrette 03.89.40.42.22

DS, you could do a lot worse than simply freeze pumpkin pie filling, which is, when you think of it, spiced pumpkin custard. You can tweak the results by increasing either/and/or egg yolks and heavy cream.

Cabrales, I really hate for you to go to that area and not sample the extraordinary hospitality of the Table des Freres Ibarboure in Bidart, only several km away from Biaritz. We stayed there in March and loved every minute of our stay. Marie-Claude Ibarboure, wife of one of the brothers, manages the 8 lovely rooms which they finished only last summer. She also choreographed our excellent dinner. While we did have a car, she told us that it was only an inexpensive 15 minute taxi ride from the Biaritz station. We would return in a heartbeat, and in fact may do so next spring. The room she gave us is the coral one shown on the home page. http://www.freresibarboure.com/hten/Page1.html

Robert, we enjoyed Bamboche last fall. It is very small, but tables are angled so as not to provide the thigh-to-thigh-banquette experience. Service was attentive but informal. Entrees ranged from 15 to 21 euros; plates from 27 to 37; fromage and desserts all 9. The 5 course menu decouverte was then 49 euros: Raviole de homard et creme de coco en amuse abouche; Foie gras tiede et cremeux, sirop de truffe noire et boise de reglisse; Thon roti au poivre de Sichuan, filet de vieux balsamique; Pigeon roti au four, sirop de betterave; Croustillant de cacao amer, glace a la fleur d'oranger. I ordered the veloute de cocos et ravioles de homard, and pigeon roti, sirop acidule releve au poivre sichouan a la carte so that I could also try a mille feuille of spiced tomato confit with mascarpone and basil. I don't know what changes if any the year has made, but we would go back.