kurl

I'm having dinner at 11 Madison Park tomorrow and if the Shake Shack is still open afterwards (and if I can stomach some dessert), I'll stop by and try the custard. As a (reluctant) (part-time) St. Louis resident, I have had Ted Drewes on multiple occasions, and have even had their (quite good) plain vanilla custard at least 5 times. I'll post the results of my comparison tomorrow (or whenever I get over to the Shake Shack).

I loved the roasted sweetbreads at Gramercy Tavern.

Melampo/Alidoro for smaller Italian sandwiches.

I've been to Nobu three or five times, and I kinda agree with you. I have rarely had good service there -- they screw up even the basics (refilling water, etc.) disturbingly often -- and the decor seems a notch below all of the four-star restaurants that I've seen. The food has brilliant moments, but there's a surprising number of clunkers on a menu that's way past the age when you'd expect it to be at least a bit consistent. I still go back -- some of the food there is (to me, at leat) clearly fantastic.

Granted I hardly ever order the things, but I had some at Grand Sichuan (I didn't order them there, either...) and they were pretty freakin' good.

Has anyone been to Honmura An lately? Is it still good?

For those of us who are, say, 20, can you please go into some detail about what particularly you didn't like about the Grimes era? Not being privy to any other restaurant reviewer eras, I ahve no basis for comparison.

Cold Stone's ice cream is poor, poor, poor. I'm not a big fan of Marble Slab Creamery either, nor MaggieMoo's -- though that one is a teeny bit better. I'm surprised that Cold Stone does so much business when Haagen-Dazs serves perfectly competent ice cream all around the city.

There's a long long video of Julia cooking croissants somewhere on the internet -- it was posted in a thread here at one point, but I don't have the link handy. If someone could provide that, it may possibly help. Good luck!

I definitely do the weekly batches thing, though we store it in a saran-wrap-covered glass bowl, which is probably not as good for preservation as a jar with a lid.

Well, thanks everyone -- my trip was totally fantastic. I spent almost all of my time in (mind-bogglingly beautiful) Cambridge, but I did make quick stop at Fortnum and Mason (thanks!), where I filled my remarkably small amount of free luggage space with unique-sounding teas (not Earl Grey!), preserves, mustards (!), chutneys, and honey. I only brought back a tiny amount of cheese, fearing that it would be seized (nothing was), and I'm looking forward to eating it soon. I don't have a digital camera, so I have no jealousy-inducing pictures (sorry?).

Chain restaurants seem definitely to be moving towards the extremes, with the Cheesecake Factory and California Pizza Kitchen experiencing immense popularity at the (relatively) high end of the market and places like Subway and Boston Market growing in popularity towards the low end. Is there still room for an Applebees? Is it intending to market itself as more gourmet-ish (a la Cheesecake Factory)? If so, can it possibly succeed? Is its brand too entrenched in a now-unfertile middle-ground to possible reposition itself? If you can, I'd love to hear anything interesting that is discovered at this meeting.

I would definitely check the "Meet me in St. Louis!" thread, where I posted most -- if not all -- of my thoughts on eating decently in a city where it's hard to do so. Let me know if you have any questions.

That stuff looks awful tempting -- you might want to make the link eGullet-friendly.

NOTHING is better than Jane Austen.

I've been to Nobu a few times, and I don't dislike it as much as many others seem to... There are some utterly lackluster dishes on the menu (which, I grant, is unacceptable) -- the new style sashimi comes to mind -- but there are some great ones to be had if you're not looking for authenticity or anything like that.

The Great Neck location serves pretty much identical food at the same quality level as the Brooklyn location. (BTW, That's where I grew up as well.) Steven -- the tomatoes didn't ALWAYS suck, at least the ones on Long Island didn't. It could be that they use local product there, when they are in season. Has anyone been to both locations enough times to see if the service in Great Neck is consistently better than that in Brooklyn?

Living in Great Neck, even in a stingy-ish highly-non-foodie family, I've been to the local Peter Lugers quite a few (5?) times, and I've always found the service to be very good. Is it possible that the Great Neck location should be considered the preferred one, even if it's not the original?

I just got back about 20 seconds ago. The pizza was, for the most part, very good. The company was wholly superlative -- knowledgable and entertaining. Highlights included extended conversations with members of the family who own the place which included the amusing fact that Lombardi's left its original location because the subways cracked the pizza ovens as well as a brief glimpse of the Totonno's photo archives. Other highlights included a sublime white pie (as well as all the pies' cheeses and crusts) and running into the smallest dog in the world on the way out. Low points were pies with toppings on them, which all seemed too wet.

They definitely have not (thanks Lexis-Nexis!), though they have been mentioned off-handedly in articles about fresh fish and Halvah.

Hah, no apologies needed, I was just pointing out that the referenced movie was as poor as the food. As a Wash U student, I don't know all that much about downtown eatieries, but, if you have a car, it often seems like everything from St. Louis is about 10-20 minutes away from everything else... I'm always amused by hotel conciereges that tell my parents that a certain things is "really far away" when it's like 8 miles. Did any places I mentioned pique your interest? If so, I could recommend more in the same vein.

I would also like to point out that the movie from which the title of this thread is taken is poor as well.

Tony's is stuffy and not-great, IMHO. St. Louis is not a great food town by any stretch. The best pricey-ish restaurant, in my book, is King Louie's -- great ingredients, sometimes-inventive preparations, capable service, and a nice, unstuffy atmosphere. Trattoria Marcella is a fantastic upscale Italian place, particularly good if you stay away from the boring menu items and if you order whatever weird fresh-ravioli items they have on their menu. Their lobster risotto special is ridiculously rich and pretty freakin' good. In Soo is one of the quirkiest restaurants I've ever been to. I discovered it in Feburary, and have probably been 25 times since then. They are essentially a highly competent Chinese and Korean restaurant with bizarre service provided by In Soo Jung (I think that's her name) who has her own unique approach to hospitality that's vaguely creepy though not ineffective. The menu has several clunkers (stay away from sesame chicken/beef, orange chicken/beef, or anything that has the potential to be cloyingly sweet), but the Korean items (in the "Chef's Specialties" section of the menu) are fantastic, their hot and sour soup is one of the greatest food items served in St. Louis, and several of their Chinese items are brilliant if inauthentic (pork moo shu, crispy beef, house special beef, and mongolian beef, in particular). Blueberry Hill, on the loop, serves highly competent hamburgers and bar food (and is owned by Chuck Berry). Super Smoker's is a barbecue chain serving St. Louis style barbecue, which is apparently characterized by its inconsistency in all areas outside of pulled pork, which is highly good. May be worth a trip. Nachomama is a Mexican restaurant that opened in a space formerly occupied by a fast-food restaurant and is probably the only place offering divine drive-thru roast chicken. House of India serves decent Indian food. India Palace does as well, but may be more worth a trip due to its ridiculous location/ambiance (it's on the 11th floor of an airport hotel and is decorated partially with over-the-top tiki bar decor). Mai Lee is an obscenely cheap and pretty good Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant on the Loop. Sidney Street Cafe is supposed to be a nice place, though I haven't tried it yet. If I had three meals in St. Louis, I'd probably hit up King Louie's, Trattoria Marcella, and In Soo for some moo shu and hot-and-sour soup. Unfortunately, I have far more.

I tend to use microwaves for melting butter and melting chocolate (though you have to be careful not do overdo it with either).

Yet another mayonnaise recipe: In the food processor: 1 egg, salt + pepper to taste, 2 tbsp. fresh-squeezed lemon juice, 1/2 tsp. dry mustard, pinch paprika (to taste), 1/4 cup oil*. Turn on food processor, let go for about 3-5 seconds, then pour in the rest of the oil in a thin stream through the feed tube (or until you get the consisntency you want). *I generally use about 1/3 cup evoo and 3/4 cup salad oil. For some reason, the 1/4 cup I initially pour in tends to be the salad oil, I think I saw something on Alton Brown that led me to believe that that was the right way to do things...