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I was asked on another thread if there are any good places to eat, up here where I live. Well, in fact there are. I will mention my very favorite restaurants and producers of quality ingredients and then hope others will add and share (especially for quality ingredient sources). My three favorite restaurants are: 1) Friends Lake Inn in Chestertown, near Gore Mountain Ski area. Inventive cuisine with a killer wine list in a very hospitable environment. Special events such as winemaker or bring your own best bottle themed wine dinners are particularly fun. 2) Chez Sophie in Saratoga. Excellent ingredients, simply, but extremely well prepared in a French Bistro style by Chef/owner Paul Parker. The all-French wine list is full of interesting and reasonably priced selections. 3) Springwater Bistro in Saratoga presents creative American cuisine with a particular strength in seafood prepared by Chef David Britten. The wine list is adequate, but improving. My favorite purveyors: 1) 3 Corner Field Farm in Shushan raise the most delicious hormone-supplement free, grassfed lamb around. They currently sell most of their milk to Old Chatham, but are in the process of making their own cheeses. 2) Flying Pigs Farm also in Shushan raise heritage breed pork. 3) Thistle Downs in Easto raise great organic, free-range chickens, turkeys (including heritage breeds), ducks and geese. They also sell eggs of each in season. There is nothing quite like a fresh goose egg. 4) Van Eyk produce and Arnold Produce both sell at the Glens Falls and Queensbury Farmer's Markets in season. They each have extremely high quality, delicious, organic produce. I can't wait for the market to open. This post is not meant to be exhaustive - just a start. Any additions?

I find Montelena to be one of the most consistently good California Cabs year in year out. Some friends and I did a vertical from 1982 to1997 a couple of years ago. IMO the early 90's were drinking best at that time.

I would go back to Pelermo on my own. I would stay (again) in Massimo Plaza Hotel across from The Teatro Massimo. It is an outstanding three star hotel that is small and extremely comfortable. It loses starts because it has no restaurant, pool or conference facility. The rooms, however, are quite nice. We tried so many wonderful dishes at Ai Cascinari. a few that stand out in my memory include eggplant "meatballs" and fresh cod in a sweet and sour tomato sauce. Other dishes that stand out from the trip include the aforementioned lobster sauce at Sapori di Mare in Mondello, ultra-fresh sea urchins just off the boat at Franku u Piscaturi in Porticello, panelle and arrancini we made ourselves at Regaleali, peperoncino chocolates at Franco Ruta, eggplant "cappucino" at Fattoria delle Torri in Modica, sardines wrapped in lemon leaves at La Foglia in Ortygia and red sauce with a special small shrimp at a private lunchspot north of Taormina. Of course the cannoli were great throughout. The best cassata was at the private lunchplace. Agrigento wasn't terribly crowded while we were there. I enjoyed it. I'm planning to take my next son on a self-guided culinary trip to Campania next November. I'm planning on getting some advice/suggestions from this site. By the way, I very much recommend Peggy Markel's tours. She does an excellent job lining up exciting culinary experiences in great locations.

Trillium, Great Post. Your trip to Sicily was a bit different than mine. You went to different places. I took my 13y/o son on a culinary tour with Peggy Markel last November. It was fantastic! We started in Palermo (The Cathedral of Monreale was stupendous) where my son and I met some distant relatives. They treated us like royalty. We had some great meals in and around Palermo, including a great pasta with lobster sauce in Mondello and fabulous fare at a restaurant in Palermo called Ai Cascinari. Other highlights of Palermo included Madama Butterfly at The Teatro Massimo, the street markets and puppets. Palermo is well worth a visit. From Palermo we spent a few days inland with Anna Tasca at Regaleali. She is a very gracious and talented woman. From there we passed through Agrigento, where we had a picnic on the Greek Temples (Yes, we cleaned up after ourselves!) and continued on to a fantastic Inn called Eramo del Giubiliano. From there we visited Modica and Noto with the incredible chocolate workshop of Franco Ruta. Siracusa was our next destination followed by Taormina and The Grand Hotel Timeo with magnificent views of the erupting Etna. We had incredible and varied local cuisine all along the way. The tour ended here, but my son and I then spent a few days in Sorrento. I can't wait to go back.

I'm not sure that Italy is really any different than anywhere else when it comes to intra-DOCG (or whatever classification you wish to use) diversity. To a certain extent, this is epitomized by terroir - a specific site imparts it's unique characteristics upon the grape juice. In addition, the winemaker makes additional choices that effect the flavor and quality of a wine. There are good producers and bad producers, each of which can have different styles. This is just as true in Napa as Burgundy as Chianti. I believe that all the DOCG really addresses is the geographical source of the grapes and the basic type or blend of wine product (e.g. Chianti Classico vs. "Super Tuscan" table wine). One must as always choose by experience, reputation or chance. I guess I'm just not sure I see that the lack of a real quality "guarantee" is any bigger a problem for Italian wines as it is for any other wines.

There are so many good wines out there. Not toomany restaurants, have outstanding half bottle selections, however. If in doubt and the by-the-glass suggestion is not satisfactory, I would suggest consulting the sommalier They should have a good idea of where the values are on the menu and be reasonably adept atpairing with menu items. If you don't like the price point suggested, be honest and ask for something more economical.

I haven't seen Il Mulino in NYC mentioned. While I haven't dined there in yeasr it was spectacular in the past and continues to be a favorite of Zagat's. Any thoughts?

This has certainly been an "interesting" discussion, however, it has really bogged down into a question of semantics. IMO food may be "interesting" on several levels - intellectual, visual and gustatory. I find a dish may be "interesting" because of the concepts and techniques used to create it. It may or may not taste good. The appearance of food on a plate may also be interesting (e.g. "tall" food before it became a cliche). Once again, it may or may not taste good. Finally, a dish that makes my mouth sing is always "interestin", whether or not it incorporates novel technique or looks particularly amazing.

I would hate to see that happen, especially to a favorite winery.

I keep waiting for high-end wine prices to drop. So far I haven't seen it happen, although I am seeing much greater availability of previously difficult to find wines.

Pricewise it sounds as if they are at least in the same ballpark. It is always fun trying out new wines and comparing styles. I'll keep a lookout for some.

I too very much enjoyed lunch at Bouley back in January. It was a fine value. The dish that really stands out was the mixed seafood appetizer so eloquently described above. The scallop was indeed particularly memorable as was the phyllo encrusted shrimp, however, I can't forget the crabmeat as well. This dish is certainly a "must-have" at Bouley IMO.

How do these California albarinos compare quality and pricewise to the Spaniards? They are such crisp, clean, food-friendly wines that are generally pretty reasonably priced. It is difficult to imagine that the Californians can provide a better value unless they are significantly better. That too is difficult to imagine.

I too had an awesome lunch at Union pacific, only it was a couple of years ago. The dish I remember very vividly was the Taylor bay scallops you so excellently described. They were a revelation. I was back awhile later for dinner and had the chef's premier tasting menu with several friends. Rocco Dispirito wasn't there as he had been previously. While it was good, it lacked the spark of my previous visits. I haven't been back since, not so much because I don't want to, but just because there are so many other places I want to try first. Had that dinner lived up to my previous two experiences, I would probably have returned before now. With your post, I am excited to speed up my return.

Two courses for $29 and three for $36.

My wife and I just returned from a brief, but delightful food foray into NYC. I was supposed to be in China, but didn’t go due to a last-minute illness (better before than after!) from which I recovered. We like to get down from upstate NY when we can to enjoy some of the finer culinary bon mots the city has to offer, so with some free time we decided to come down for a spontaneous brief excursion. We drove into the city Thursday morning for a tour of the Velasquez/Manet exhibit at the Met – outstanding show. Afterwards, we had lunch at Café Boulud. This was our first visit to this restaurant, although we have previously enjoyed Daniel and DB Bistro. The space was elegant, but restrained – not particularly noteworthy, but also not a distraction. We opted for the prix fixe lunch. My wife started with a creamy chilled asparagus soup with marinated maine crab and Japanese citrus. I began with a tatine of grilled Spanish sardines. These were lightly grilled and served on a bed of roasted peppers, tapenade and toast points with a provencal vinaigrette. The sardines, extremely fresh and not in the least “fishy”, were complemented perfectly by the sweet peppers. The dish was exactly what I was hoping for with fresh sardines. My wife and I both had the same main course – roasted atlantic codfish with tiny potatoes, fava beans, watercress and blood orange sauce. This dish was killer – a true “wow”. It was a perfect blend of textures (soft and crisp) and balance (sweet, salt, acid and bitter) with great flavors. This was the best dish of our entire visit and one of the finest fish dishes I’ve ever had. Dessert ws very good, but not quite at the same level. It was a savarin of braised fruits and crème chantilly. The service was professional and invisible. Overall a marvelous experience. Nobu was the restaurant I hadn’t been to in the city that I most wanted to go to. I tried to make reservations for Thursday evening, but couldn’t get them myself, so made a lunch reservation for Friday. My next choices were Chanterelle and Babbo. I was put on the wait list at Chanterelle, but could not get a reservation at Babbo. I did manage to get a reservation at Gotham Bar & Grill. Wednesday, a good friend in the business managed to get us a table at Nobu for Thursday evening after all. I then exchanged lunch/dinner reservations with Gotham. Wednesday evening I got a call from Karen Waltuck at Chanterelle offering us a table at our preferred time. She was extremely gracious. I thanked her, but explained that we hadn’t been to Nobu, but managed to secure a reservation and would be dining there. She was pleased that we would at least be in the neighborhood. I very much appreciate the personal touch from an owner and/or chef. This very much reinforced my desire to return there in the future. We checked into our hotel – 60 Thompson- Thursday afternoon and walked around SoHo before heading over to Nobu for dinner. On arrival, I was slightly disappointed that the space was not as interesting or as elegant as I expected. It seemed to be a fairly typical, trendy, loud NYC restaurant without an overwhelming character (I did not really like the birch umbrellas and I live in the Adirondacks and have birch bark in my home) Nevertheless we were seated at a well-situated table for two and started with a couple of great martinis – I had the lychee martini, which had nice lychee flavor without being too sweet. We had already decided to go omakase. Our waiter came and explained that there are three levels of omakase - $80, 100 and 120. He recommended that as first timers we go with the $80 or $100 choice. When asked he could not say what would be different about the selections other than the chefs have increasing free rein on the exoticness and underlying ingredient value with the different levels. We took his advice and ordered the $100 omakase and sake to go with it. The meal started with a bang –toro tartare swimming in a broth of soy and spicy wasabe. This was delicious and served with a small, red Japanese peach as a palate cleanser. The next course, my favorite, was a stunner. It was new style sashimi – Japanese red snapper over shiso leaf. What a fabulous combination! The next course was my wife’s favorite – sashimi salad with kampeche (sp?) and pressed smelt roe. I thought it was ok, but nothing special. This was followed by lobster tempura with creamy spicy sauce. It was a generous serving and while tasty, it wasn’t fabulous. The next course was a Nobu signature dish of broiled marinated black cod with seared foie gras and grilled Japanese eggplant. The eggplant was my favorite part of the dish, which is ironic given that I love foie gras and generally don’t eggplant. The cod itself was too sweet. I would not order this dish off the menu. We were next served miso soup along with five pieces of sushi: chu toro, live fluke, Tasmanian trout, kisu (my favorite) and surf clam. We were advised to drink the soup as we ate the sushi. It was interesting and good, but once again, not incredible. The dinner itself was very good, albeit overall unspectacular. The dessert, on the other hand, was downright awful. It was a passably good passion fruit sorbet over a bland and tasteless cookie nestled atop a dry and tasteless coconut cake. This was surrounded by a meager drizzle of a tasty shiso sauce. The waiter noticing our unfinished desserts inquired as to how we like them. We told him. He subsequently brought us “bento” boxes of warm chocolate soufflé with green tea ice cream. This dessert was better and adequate, but still less than sensational. The service was enthusiastic, friendly and competent, though it was often difficult to understand the servers as they described each dish. My overall sense was one of disappointment. While the food was good and provided some pleasant new experiences for me, most noticeably shiso (Japanese mint), I was far from blown away. I thought a lot of the dishes lacked complexity, subtlety and precision balance. I would have preferred to be faced with a single omakase level rather than have to choose between three especially without having an idea of what I would be served at the various levels. I would go back if someone else were paying or I was with someone who really wanted to go there, but it is no longer my first choice. After Nobu we met up with friend just off of work. We accompanied him to Patria, where we had a glass of wine and he had dinner. He had a couple of ceviche appetizers (Nobu was better) and roast suckling pig for dinner. While I didn’t taste that, it did look good. We left there and walked back south to check out a couple other interesting restaurant spaces, Woo Lae Oak, which was no longer serving food or drinks (about 11:30 PM). My friend loves that place and then over to Suba, where we had some drinks. I don’t know about the food, but it is a very cool space. Friday, my wife and I got up and made a pilgrimage to Murray’s cheese shop and then over to MarieBelle for chocolates before checking out of our hotel. We stopped for lunch at Gotham B&G. Their prix fixe lunch at $25 really is an incredible bargain. My wife started with an Arugula salad, while I had an amazing white bean and spinach soup that was served with a single, wonderful shrimp. The soup was awesome. My wife had a delicious roasted atlantic salmon over mashed potatoes, while I had pappardelle with a braised pork sauce. This too was outstanding and reminiscent of being in Tuscany having a cinghiale based sauce over pasta ribbons – great comfort food. Dessert was a delicious warm chocolate cake with chicory ice cream for me and a sampling of sorbets including a noteworthy pineapple-carrot sorbet. The service was professional and friendly and I loved the space. All the other dishes served around us looked equally delicious. On the way out of town we loaded up on H&H bagels off the west side highway. While the single best dish of the visit was the cod at Café Boulud, the best overall restaurant experience (food, décor, service and value) was Gotham Bar & Grill.. The best novel flavor (for me) was shiso.

This is my first post on e-gullett. I picked up interest over at Chowhounds. This thread has been particularly interesting as I was recently having a similar conversation with a friend in the industry. While I am not in the industry myself, I am passionate about food and wine. My favorite experiences are when a great meal is augmented by personal attention from the chef and/or owner of the restaurant (particularly the chef). IMO to the extent that a chef is able to balance commercial success and culinary creativity, power to him/her. I'm sure that it must be very difficult and those that do, do so because for some reason they are able to get and keep outstanding help. It is certainly much easier than ever to find great quality and variety of food in the U.S. than ever before. I would bet that a lot of that is due to the high profile achieved by the so-called "sellouts" even if their own products have suffered as a result.