docsconz

Paco Torreblanca is generally considered the greatest pastry chef in Spain and arguably the world. I hope to be able to visit his shop and workshop in Elda in Alicante shortly. Unfortunately it is very inconveniently out of my way, but I will do my best to get there. Assuming I do, what are the absolute must-have confections and what is amenable to travel?

No neighborhood is ever going to be what it was in the distant past. The most one can envision is that the neighborhood becomes relevant again, though not in the way it formerly was. ← You are correct. I wasn't trying to be overly nostalgic, just noting that what was will no longer be - for better or worse. As for the talk about Spring Street and Houston and that general area - that has never been Little Italy - at least not in my lifetime so far as I know. That was always SoHo and so far as I can tell still is. The construct of "NoLita" is relatively recent. If I recall correctly the area of SoHo began gentrifying in the 1960's. Prior to that it was pretty industrial. The Italian immigrants and their accompanying cultural institutions including markets and restaurants skirted the area of Soho with residential enclaves in Little Italy and Greenwich Village.

This is sad. The bureaucrats have won.

Interesting idea. It might be "little." It might be "Italian" and it might even be very nice, but it can never regain the character of a great ethnic Italian neighborhood.

The best slice thickness depends on what is being sliced. For example I love Boar's Head ham sliced very thin. Roast beef needs to be sliced a little thicker. BH bologna is less sensitive to slice thickness though I prefer a little thinner. Turkey I like a little thicker and as for cheese the only deli cheese I buy is Cooper's Sharp, which I prefer slightly thicker. Now a related issue is individual wrapping or lack thereof of certain products.

That is certainly one explanation and may be an element in the development of immigrant ethnic "enclaves" although I think it is a relatively minor one. That is not to deny that "racial steering" has occurred and may still occur or that recent immigrants may have difficulty entering the American mainstream. I think the main reason sizable numbers of recent immigrants create "enclaves" is that they are more comfortable in a culture that is familiar with ready access to their own cultural needs. More important even than restaurants are the shops such as the small food markets that sell familiar products that lend comfort and access to financial and other sources geared specifically towards them. As the recent immigrants children begin to assimilate into the American culture at large, they begin to disperse. So long as the immigration pattern remains strong the ethnic neighborhoods will thrive. Once that dissipates it only becomes a matter of time for the ethnic neighborhood to deteriorate. I think this clearly happened to Little Italy and similar Italian neighborhoods. A more generalized discussion of this phenomenon is probably beyond the scope of this topic unless it relates directly back to the deterioration of Little Italy as discussed here.

Critics like Bruni and Platt have a bias against restaurants that do classic things well. They are bored by old-fashioned cuisine, practically no matter how well it is executed. They also don't enjoy the rituals of formal service. Remember, Bruni's favorite word for that type of service is "fussy," which he never means as a compliment. So Gordon Ramsay has two strikes against it, right off the bat. ← Funny thing is, Bruni doesn't appear to like hypermodern or extremely creative cuisine either, but that is probably a discussion for another topic

While not in Little Italy, but nearby in Greenwich Village, has anyone been to Il Mulino lately? There was a time that it was my very favorite restaurant.

If the discussion on this topic is any indication as to how low the area has fallen as regards Italian food, I daresay that it was that much better in the 80's.

I just caught this article on the beverage program at Tailor with recipes from the April 2007 issue of Food Arts.

I think that it is important to distinguish between someone who is trying to be a critic vs. someone who is just a blogger. The blogger is not necessarily a critic, but is most likely someone who posts about his or her experiences. Most will have an emphasis on the positive because that is what they like to write about. By no means does that mean that those positive "reviews" are not legitimate or that they are "bought" although it is certainly possible that in some cases they might be. I think that this is a salient difference between the professional "critic" and the blogger who is simply enjoys writing about good food. While I don't blog or post about food outside of these forums, I put myself squarely in the latter category.

I have been to eleven of the restaurants including all of those from the US that were ranked ahead of Alinea. Of those, the only one I would rank ahead of Alinea is elBulli even though I think all those restaurants are excellent.

While the owners and staff of Alinea should rightfully be proud of all that they have accomplished, I'm surprised that it wasn't ranked even higher! While the restaurants on the list are formidible,, I don't think that it would have been too much of a stretch for the restaurant to be in the top ten.

This over-simplifies the issue. They changed their mind, but waited until the moment of the reservation to call. Assuming they are anything like most people, they would have had to get ready for dinner. This in itself takes time, so at best they knew they would be cancelling an hour ahead (or however long it takes them to get ready and get to the restaurant). Why they waited until the minute of the rezz doesn't make sense... ← Even if they waited until the last possible minute to decide because they really, really wanted to go and hoped up until the last minute that they could, that last minute probably should have been about fifteen-thirty minutes prior due to the need to get to the restaurant at 7:30 for their reservation. What makes this topic interesting is the situation taking the specific principals out of it. We are talking about a small, popular, very good restaurant run by a dynamic, individualistic chef-proprietor in an out-of-the-way location and a food-loving guest with a family including one or more small children who really wanted to dine at that restaurant, but ultimately felt that they could not because of the condition of their child(ren). I can relate to the parents' desire to do it all - entertain the children with a fun, busy day and then entertain themselves. The problem is with very young children it is difficult to do both and often something has to give. In the example cited here, both parties are at fault to some, albeit explainable degree. The restaurant was understandably rude given the timing of the cancellation, though as a service business that is a dangerous tack to take. The parents could have and probably should have predicted the child's condition unless the child is ordinarily unusually energetic and cooperative with this sort of thing. As such the parents should have either devise alternative plans to begin with such as taking it easier during the day to preserve the child for dinner, planned for a babysitter or planned a more child-friendly evening. In the event that they still wanted to do it all they should have called the restaurant as soon as it was apparent to them that the evening would not work out as hoped. This almost certainly could have and should have been determined before the reservation time of 7:30 unless they were actually at the restaurant and determined then and there that they could not reasonably handle the situation. Although Davecap has taken a lot of heat along with Joe Beef throughout this thread, I am glad that he posted it as it has generated a lot of thought and interesting commentary.

Sorry that it has taken me awhile to get back to you here. Thanks for your kind comments. Another travelogue of mine that you might enjoy was my trip to Mexico in 2006. I also have various reports to Italy, France, South Africa and especially Spain, though not in exactly the same format. If you look through those forums you can find my reports there. Our children are pretty good eaters. That is true. Our eldest has a very broad palate and will try just about anything. Our middle son does pretty well, but tends to be a little phobic when it comes to vegetables. The youngest is a very good eater for his age. He often thinks that he won't like something, but he will almost always try it. The great thing is that he is not afraid to admit that he does in fact like it, even if he thought he wouldn't. We never coddled our children with food. While we never forced them to eat anything they didn't like, we wouldn't cook for them specifically. I also hate children's menus in restaurants. I think children's portions are great but the menus tend to appeal to the lowest common denominator and tell children that it is ok to have limited tastes. I try to avoid them if possible. As for Queens, I don't have a lot of recent personal experience there, but two restaurants I can recommend include Sripraphai for some of the best Thai food in the US and jackson Diner for excellent Indian food.

I'll stand by the statement that, for the typical visiting tourist, and a good deal of the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, the food in Little Italy is perceived to be better than average. That is why the neighborhood has survived in its current state. ← I'm not convinced that the tourists or B&T individuals who are eating in Little Italy think that the food is any better than (their beloved) Olive Garden. Not to mention all of the really great Italian food that can be found in a lot of different suburbs in this country. I think that tuxedoed waiters with exaggerated accents, serenading violinists/accordian players, wood paneling, etc are the reason that people eat in Little Italy. I don't see it as being any different than Jekyl and Hyde- it simply has an "Italian" theme. Little Italy may once have been an Italian neighborhood, but in recent years it has become more of an "Italian" sideshow. I'm sure there are a lot of non-NYers who don't know that the food is going to be as bad as it is, but I don't think great food is what is allowing the neighborhood to survive. ← Do those restaurants really exist in Little Italy now? If so it has changed even more than I thought.

I believe it's not so much the customer base has left, but the Italians themselves. ← Your point is well taken. I had equated the two when that was not necessarily the case.

It is generally frowned upon if the same bottle is on the restaurant's wine list though certain restaurants may still allow it depending on their corkage policy. Corkage policies do vary widely. When I'm dining out I tend to look for interesting wines and good values and leave the expensive wines for home or special corkage occasions.

I had my bachelor's party at a restaurant there in 1986. It was still decent then. I said that it hasn't been vibrant in twenty years. While it has been awhile since it had any real energy as a community, it probably still had some vibrancy more recently than 1987. In those days, Greenwich Village still had a pretty active and good Italian food community too.

It has been at least twenty years since Manhattan's Little italy had any vibrancy to it. The problem is that it is not just Little Italy in Manhattan that is suffering. Even in Brooklyn, the stalwarts may be starting to waver. I think the problem is that Italian-American culture has become very diluted in NY as many of the potential customer base like myself left the city for other areas. I still enjoy going back to the old shops and restaurants in Brooklyn that I grew up with like Esposito's Pork store, Court Pastry and Ferdinando's all in Carroll Gardens when I can. While they have largely maintained their quality, the neighborhood character has changed mightily for better or worse. As you mentioned Steven, fortunately DePalo's remains an oasis there. Ironically, the beginning of the end for Manhattan's Little Italy probably occurred on April 7, 1972 when Joey Gallo was shot at Umberto's Clam House.

Fascinating report Doddie. Tell us more about the food. Korean cuisine is one that I am still a neophyte with. The sliding table is intriguing. Is that unique to that restaurant or pretty standard?

A sad article from The New York Times about the aftermath of the closure of the restaurant in March.

Here is a description and discussion of Ferran Adria's manifesto from Madrid Fusion 2006 courtesy of AlexForbes. It is essentially a summary of the approach and philosophy of the restaurant elBulli at that point in time.

Here is a post that you might find of interest. I will look for more. Southwest France is prime goose and duck country so the dining should be good if you enjoy the products of those birds. A little further to the north, Bordeaux should be an interesting destination as well. An easy day trip from where you are is the Languedoc Roussillon. Banyuls is an area for some interesting wines and there are some Michelin rated and starred restaurants in the area. The area around Carcasonne is known for its Cassoulets. Michel Bras is not to far away and someplace I considered for a trip extension from Rosas in the past, though I never got there. That might be the closest three star in France to where you are, though I am not certain of that. L'Atelier de Jean-Luc Rabanel in Arles looks as if it could be interesting. It has One Michelin star. I'll see if I can dig up some more specific recommendations for you, but here is a compendium of existing threads on the South of France put together by John Talbott, Around the French Riviera, Lyon and The Languedoc. Unfortunately, though I have spent a little time in the Languedoc, I have no specific great recommendations from personal experience.

While I think the situation could perhaps have been handled better, my experience with David McMillan is such that Joe Beef remains the No. 1 restaurant for me to try when I next return to Montreal. My personal experience with him he hasn't been anything but extremely gracious, but Chef McMillan is a passionate man and a passionate chef. I would rather have that (within reason) than an extremely tactful chef owner who doesn't care about his food.