docsconz

I only "need" about six servings, although I don't mind having some left over.

I can't say that good butter poached lobster is supposed to be chewy. I don't recall the lobster I had as being particularly chewy. On a more recent example, I had some butter poached lobster at The Inn at Erlowest Lake George, NY. This lobster was extraordinarily flavorful and tender. It was poached in butter with a cook continuously basting it with butter in a pan until it is done. This is different than cooking it sous vide, although I'm not sure why that preparation should make the lobster any tougher.

I need to bake a birthday cake for my wife for tomorrow. She happens to be the primary baker of the family, though. Is there a consensus opinion here for what cake provides the most bang for the skill buck? In other words what is the best cake in this book that is relatively easy to make?

As for sourcing the anchovies, it is a legitimate item for discussion as to where the best anchovies come from. Some prefer the Mediterranean anchovies from L'Escal, while others prefer Cantabrian anchovies. Since you will be in Catalunya, I suggest you get those from L'escala. If you are going up to San Sebastien as well, get those too and see for yourself!

That review was everybit as inconsistent as his claims for this cuisine are.

Thanks to everyone for the Rafa's info. That restaurant is almost as high on my desire list as El Bulli itself. We'll be heading directly to Roses after our Saturday arrival later this summer. Our El Bulli reservation is for that Sunday night. We will leave that area on Tuesday morning to fly from Barcelona to Paris. Any thoughts as to when in that span from Saturday night until Tuesday morning would be the best time to visit Rafa?

I will second Olive Oil. Dauro is a producer that I brought back. It is quality oil. Vinegars are excellent as are wines. There are a multitude of each of these, although since you will be in Catalunya I suggest concentrating on examples from that area. Bring back whatever you try and like. Other possibilities include rice from Valencia, dried beans, anchovies from L'Escala, chocolate, especially from Cacao Sampaka or Oriol Balaguer, piquillo peppers, jarred tuna -esp. ventresca, other canned "tapas". The area is also known for its foie gras, of which, I believe, the canned varieties are legal to bring back. The Boqueria alone will giveyou all sorts of ideas. bring an extra suitcase.

Lesser quality of ingredients might be a significant cost-cutting move. Based on descriptions from you and others, this seems possible. Per Se may or may not be sliding, but I know that last year around this time I and the rest of my party had one outstanding meal there.

It does appear as if Per se is laboring under a spate of negative reviews, one of the first of which was Todd's. The reviews are very much unlike my experience there last year. This is perplexing. The only explanation I can think of is that they are trying to cut corners to save money and it is showing. A shame if this is more than a blip.

Don't forget to report back! Buen appetito!

Was this the same macaroni dish that I posted a photo of upthread? Given the time between now and then, I doubt it, but that was a phenomenal dish.

This sounds like a great idea. I wish that I could partake. Might I suggest photos of the produce. It would also be interesting to compare to other markets in terms of quality and price. I hope this takes off. It will be fun to follow.

Remarkable. I will be there in two weeks with my wife and two eldest sons. The duration of the tour is something I believe I could handle, but I'm not sure about the others. As such, I too am interested in more detail, discussion of this aspect as well as the other menus.

Yes, but "Do Ferreiro" and "Cepas Vellas" is not Spanish. Indeed, the rias Baixas does extend into Portugal and albarinos are made there. I suppose the language could and probably is Galician, but the subtitle could have been incorrect as regards this particular wine.

Is that Albarino from Portugal?

I had dinner with my family at Le Club Chasse et Peche this past Staurday night including our well behaved if culinarily unadventurous 5y/o. When I mentioned to the hotel concierge that that was wherre we were going she was impressed tht we had a reservation as the restaurant has become one of the hot tickets in Montreal. Indeed the restaurant was already full at our 7:30PM reservation. The decor was very nice with a bit of a Moroccan feel to it. The chairs are extremely comfortable, so comfortable in fact, that the 5yo fell asleep in it after having a piece of bread and some scallop. We let him sleep. The service was excellent and the food was expertly and beautifully prepared, nevertheless I was slightly disappointed. My disappointment was not so much the fault of the restaurant as it was circumstance. Firstly, the seasonal menu changed and there was no risotto on it. Given some of the raves recorded on this topic for the risotto, I was bummed. I like to try as many dishes as I can. Because of this and with the encouragement of the waiter we ordered a number of dishes to share. The meal was well paced and I did get to taste a lot of good things, but this food is too beautiful to share in this way. I would have preferred it to have been served in a tasting menu format. The final cost of the meal was enough to have justified this. Openers included 6 oysters from PEI with three different sauces. The oysters were small and succulent, but I tend to prefer them au natural with maybe a squeeze of lemon to capture the briny essence of the sea. These were ok, but nothing special to me. The scallops were delicious and beautifully prepared thy were well caramelized and presented with a creamy lemon and fennel sauce. My wife and I had a glass of a white wine whose name and details were unmemorable, although it was servicable with these courses. The next set of appetizers included grilled octopus, which was the favorite course of one of the kids, my son's friend, foie gras with mushrooms, and sweetbreads with fresh snow crab and favas. The sweetbreads were superb and my favorite dish of the evening. As wonderful as that dish was, to me it was all about the sweetbreads. While the crab and the favas were nice adjuncts, they were clearly supporting players. The foie was good, but given Chef Pelletier's reputation for foie, I was slightly disappointed. This was probably the dish that suffered the most, however, from the sharing format. The octopus was superb. It was tender and flavorful. The seafood courses came next. The fish was beautifully prepared, having been cooked on one side. We had halibut and sea bass. The halibut came with marvellous yellow beets. We also had sides of vegetables that included eggplant puree, asparagus and grilled pearl onions. Our meat course was chateaubriand, enough for a slice for each person. While delicious, this was by far the priciest course that we had - $79. Since it was a special, the price had not been listed on the menu. Our wine was a lovely and versatile St. Joseph from Gonon. Desserts were excellent. I also had a small cheese course that included an exquisite Roqueforte. The total cost of the meal before tax and tip came to $400. This was essentially for four people given that the 5yo really didn't eat anything. Taking away the wine and the chateaubriand brought the tally to around a very reasonable $60pp. Although I think the chateaubriand was a tad on the expensive side, I really can't quibble with the cost of the meal. Overall it was quite reasonable. The disappointment stems largely from the service format. Choosing this was at least as much my fault as the restaurant's. The evening lost a bit of elegance as a result of it. Now I was with my family and a friend of my sons, so elegance may not have been of paramount importance and it wasn't. Everyone enjoye hteir meals and it was a superb experience. It was just that little bit, however, that kept the experience from being truly outstanding to me. I realize that this is a bit of an idiosyncratic critique and mean no disrespect to this fine restaurant with it. My purpose in mentioning it is to discourage othe diners from engaging in this style of service at this restaurant. Thatmay work well at more homestyle establishments. This one, however, calls for the elegance that the food deserves.

I was back at the Jean Talon Market yesterday after a year and a half. I am amazed at the changes. I didn't have enough time to do a thorough inspection or really check prices, but it seemed to have great selection and quality. I did manage to taste the blood orange sorbet. It was excellent. I wish I was in a position to bring some back with me.

Marvellous report. This is absolutely on of the restaurants in the world that I haven't yet been to that I most desire to. Alas, not yet. One of my favorite breakfasts is dipping my toast into the yolk of a fried egg. There is nothing quite like it. The dish you described certainly reminds me of that, although taken up just a few notches Do you usually order off the menu there or typically do a tasting?

Based on my admittedly one visit to Sushi Yasuda, I am surprised by Todd's criticism, especially vis-a-vis the size and quality of the fish. In this post from this past December, I visited both Kuruma and Yasuda within a week and posted photos of my experience at both places. They were both wonderful. Kuruma was considerably more expensive than Yasuda. What surprises me the most about the comments was the one criticizing the quality of the uni. The only time I have ever had better uni was right out of the shell by the docks in Sicily. Given that our experiences appear to be so disparate, it might be worthwhile for either of us to revisit the restaurant. My experience with Sushi restaurants, especially top end ones, is that they are amongst the most consistent around. They generally have very well established supply lines that tend to get consistently good ingredients. It is conceivable that they had an off day when you were there, although I would think the chef still would have steered you to the better fish. It is also conceivable that people have different palates when it comes to Sushi as well as other things. Unfortunately, I have not had sushi at any of the other places you referenced so I cannot compare myself. It is these differences amongst other things that make the world and eGullet such an interesting place though.

Arthur Ave. is a very good choice. I would suggest eating right within the market. The problem, if you could call it that, with each of the boroughs is that they are all good for multiple ethnic choices. For Brooklyn, I would suggest Russian out in Brighton Beach. Others can probably give you more up to date specific recommendations. For Manhatten I can suggest Chinatown for dumplings or whatever else you may crave. In Queens, there is a bevy of fine ethnic cuisine. Perhaps the most lauded, at least here on eGullet, is Sripraphai for wonderful Thai cuisine. Queens would also be a good choice for Indian food. Of course this is but the tip of the ice-berg. Check out this link for links to discussions on the "best of" in New York for various categories.

Fun concept. You have tons of great choices! What kinds of foods are you most interested in eating and what are the limits to your budget?

Another necessary inclusion to this log is Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme, Let's go!. This is eGullet at its best.

The only restaurant that we didn't bring our kids to last week in DC was Citronelle. I want to enjoy my meal, too. Our 15 and 13y/o's would have enjoyed it, but they were needed to babysit for our 5y/o. The other restaurants we chose because they had reputations for great food (well deserved), but less formal and less time consuming. We were confident that the 5y/o could and would handle them and he did. We will be facing a similar situation in Paris this summer. I am planning mostly bistro fare, but I do intend to do at least one restaurant along the lines of Pierre Gagnaire. Obviously, we won't bring the 5y/o. Unfortunately, one of the other boys will need to stay behind with him at the apartment.

I agree with Steve's post. I see it as much ado about nothing. The difference between raisin council sponsorship and things like Niman Ranch or other "prestige" products identified specifically on the menu, is that the latter are identified not so much as advertizinf for or promoting the product, but because that product has a good enough reputation to lend cache to the menu. It is mentioned because customers may ecognize and appreciate tht particular product. Itis marketing, but marketing to promote the restaurant not the product itself.

Any recommendations in Portugal or elsewhere from Miguel Cardoso are worth noting. He turned me on to Ramiro in Lisbo, an awesome place for shellfish.