slkinsey

Yea? I would think that a rib roast is pretty standard, no?

Good old Marx. I always thought Engels was more interesting.

Hmmm... I don't know, Tommy. Would an electromagnet work as well as a rare earth magnet? One assumes you mean coated copper wire as opposed to bare... otherwise I'm not so sure you'd want to put that metal pipe in your mouth.

Maledetti! Camp, you beat me to it!

It's a no-brainer, I think, that home-roasted decaf will often be better than pre-roasted regular coffee. Home roasting it simply so much better that the decaffeinated beans would really have to suck for a pre-roasted coffee to close that gap. But... I still doubt there is a decaffeinated bean that is competitive with a regular bean of similar quality if both are home roasted.

Pete's it is, then! Edited to add: pork place a definite must for next time.

How many were you, and how do you think that would compare to what you would have spent at BK?

Epoxy a Wine Clip around the neck of that baby, and you're good to go!

I think there are several issues here: 1. Some peopls just don't care for certain tastes or certain foods. There are many reasons a person can "learn" to dislike, say, canned tuna or black pepper. 2. Some things are clearly cultural, where the phenomenon described in 1 above is perpetuated on a huge scale. This can have to do with either cultural taboos, availability of certain ingredients or even just culinary aesthetics. A good example of this would be cheese, which many people from Asian countries find disgusting and characterise as "rotten milk" (which, I suppose, it what it is -- delicious, delicious rotten milk). 3. I think the case can be made that some people simply taste things differently from other people. Perhaps a certain chemical activates the taste receptors in one way in one group of people and a slightly different range in another group. Cilantro would seem a prime example. I don't know too many people who think it tastes soapy, but a number of friends think it tastes like dirt. Now, to my palate, cilantro has a fresh, green, "bright" flavor that is entirely unrelated to the murky, dark, old flavors I would associate with "dirt." This makes me think that these friends and I are experiencing a fundamentally different physiological stimulation upon eating cilantro, and therefore our psychological interpretations of that stimulation are also fundamentally different.

Actually... I've mentioned the site to Scott a few times. His answer is always something like: "How the hell does a working chef find the time to read and post to an Internet discussion board?"

The dinner dishes I recommend are: Butcher's tenderloin of beef. Usually comes with truffled mashed potatoes, foie gras & port wine or reduction sauce There is usually a seared duck breast/confit combination. Sometimes with blood oranges, sometimes with cherries, right now with figs I think They usually have a pan-roasted half chicken (entirely boneless) that's nice The fish dishes are usually good, especially salmon. Also, they sometimes have a seared tuna "deconstructed salade Nicoise that is very good They sometimes have a dish of braised oxtail, montrachet ravioli and marrow bone. This is a very poetic dish as the diner can select from the various items on the plate to mix, match and contrast the earthy, tart and rich experiences provided by the three ingredients Do not miss the Smoked tomato and cheddar cheese tart with chilled tomato soup and mustard ice cream appetizer do try the she crab soup starter when they offer it The lamb dishes are usually very good. If they have the Apple pie with Vanilla Ice Cream and Sauce Caramel, give it a shot. It's interesting: a little apple crisp served with a little bowl of house made vanilla ice cream, a little piece of interesting cheddar cheese and a little boat of bitter caramel sauce. You can mix and match as you please. Like the oxtail dish, it's nicely poetic. As previously mentioned, the hot chocolate is a serious experience, and theirs has been mentioned in print as among the best the city has to offer. It's even better as "Fire and Ice" with a generous scoop of the caramel ice cream.

Yes, exactly... It's things like this you have to watch out for. I won't discount the possibility that they're 100% above board, but I am wary of them given my past exposure to their personnel. Also, I think you have to be naturally a little suspcious of someone who is claiming to sell a 10 quart pan for only 80% more than a generally-accepted great price for a 1 quart pan. It just seems too good to be true, and that makes me naturally suspicious. I'd give them my business after a trusted eGulleter or two reported back a positive experience with their copper -- but I wouldn't want to be the first person.

That "1.0 quart" Mauviel sauce pan is actually a 10.1 quart. That's not a misprint even if it looks like one. I've seen these huge sauce pans listed on several French web sites. Hard to imagine handling something like that with just the one handle! I'd personally go for a two-handled pot in that size if I needed one. Bwah! Right you are. I stand corrected.

Oh yea... those guys. One of their guys shilled on rec.food.equipment several years ago and I' afraid I blocked it out of my memory. There are companies that do that. They are based in America and called things like Bridge Kitchenware and Falk Culinair. Kep in mind that acitydiscount's prices aren't always that great, either. They offer a 1.0 quart stainless lined heavy copper saucepan from Mauviel for 208 dollars whereas a 1.6 quart stainless lined heavy copper saucepan from the American distributor of Falu Culinair is only 115 dollars. The saute pan and frypan prices do seem pretty good. This is an atypical price, if true, and a total ripoff. It is a product that, as far as I can tell, no other vendors carry. This always makes me wonder a little. I'd say it's worth a try, for sure.

jscarbor, that's just the kind of thing I'm looking for! Thanks!

I haven't used it, but you can see some nicely detailed specifications here. The important ones, to me, are: Aluminum wall-to-wall base disk 5 mm encapsulated aluminum disk Optimum sandwich base thickness of 6.8 mm 1.2 mm pan body These are very good, if not great specifications. In general, top commercial lines like Sitram Profiserie and Pagerno Grand Gourmet feature a thicker aluminum base and a heavier body. That said, if you feel it is important to have an absolutely edge-to-edge disk bottom (which I don't feel it vital in most applications) then this line might be very attractive if the price is right. You think Paderno Grand Gourmet is expensive? I think it's one of the most reasonably priced lines available. Demeyere is very, very interesting cookware but personally I don't think it's worth the astronomically high prices they charge. I am surprized you found bad reviews about Sitram Profiserie. I think it's a quality line at a very reasonable price. I am not surprized you found bad reviews about Sitram Cybernox (Sitram's "not-quite-nonstick" line). It's not very good. The differences are explained fairly well in the eGCI class section on different pan designs. Here they are in order from least expensive to most expensive: Sitram Profiserie: disk bottom design with a heavy SS body and 7 mm aluminum base -- least expensive Paderno Grand Gourmet: disk bottom design with a heavy SS body and 7 mm aluminum base (slightly heavier/more reinforced body, heavier lids and more ergonomic handles than Sitram Profiserie) Sitram Catering: disk bottom design with a heavy SS body and 2 - 2.5 mm copper base Demeyere Apollo: disk bottom design with a heavy SS body and 5 mm aluminum base Demeyere Sirocco: casseroles, sauté pans, saucepans and stock pots are an encapsulated disk bottom design with a heavy SS body and 2 mm copper base; woks, “conical sauteuses and simmering pots” and frypans are straight gauge pans of aluminum fully clad with SS havind an aluminum layer of 2.3 mm, 3.0 mm to 3.3 mm , and approximately 3.9 mm respectively. See the eGCI class for more details. Sitram Cybernox is useless crap and you should avoid it IMO. How heavy do they need to be in order to be useful? I think the whole "lid fit and heaviness" thing is a marketing ploy used by some companies to justify higher prices. A heavy and/or tight-fitting lid is only important in things like enameled cast iron casseroles. Most pans do not require a lid anyway. I prefer to buy my pans without lids, as I already have lids that fit most any pan and would rather not pay the additional money for yet another lid. That said, Paderno Grand Gourmet lids are my default "all purpose" lid. But, Amy... no lid is worth an additional hundred bucks. As stated, stay away from Cybernox. Personally, I prefer a straight gauge frypan over a disk bottom frypan. That leaves out Sitram, Paderno and Demeyere Apollo. Demeyere makes good ones for the Sirocco line, although extremely expensive. For that money, you might as well get copper. For less money you might also seek out a good deal on an All-Clad MasterChef frypan. Or, really, think about getting a nice carbon steel or black steel frypan if you don't think you'll be putting a lot of acid into it. You can't beat it for the price.

Couldn't you cool them quickly by blowing them with a vacuum cleaner or even a blow dryer on the "cool" setting?

I think not - I believe Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York and D'Artagnan in New Jersey out produce anybody here on the West Coast. Right. But I have never read of activists breaking into Hudson Valley Foie Gras and "freeing" the ducks. And no NYC, or any East Coast chefs of which I am aware have been stalked, threatened or pressured to get them to stop serving foie and related duck products. My comment is mostly that the protestors and protesting organizations tend to be based and/or founded on the West Coast, and most of the anti-foie activity seems to happen out there.

Perhaps I am missing out on something, but I don't gather than their image is all that bad. Aren't the foie protest things mostly from the West Coast? I also believe someone observed upthread that many, if not most foie protesters really pursued an anti-meat-eating agenda when it really came down to it. As for the general public, I think that most of whatever negative perception does exist, exists due to ignorance concerning the "force feeding" process.

As-is, I agree. But I think they would be selling entirely different food if they were on East 20th Street. I think this is a socioeconomic culture thing. I think one finds in general that the higher up in the class heirarchy one goes, the more importance families put on decorous behavior in children. It is likewise true that higher socioeconomic classes (and especially the older monied among them) tend, on average, to be more comfortable with the idea of having someone else do much of the rearing of their children. Hence, an old money UES family is likely to A) have a full-time nanny, and B) be perfectly comfortable with the idea of leaving young children at home with the nanny when they go out to a restaurant. The main solution for the less-monied, less tradional families in this regard is to do what my parents did: hardly ever go out to eat.

Let's make sure to stay on topic here and not get sidetracked into discussions of slavery, etc. As for Adam's comment that "some people would argue the production of foie gras has gone that one step to far"... I think what he was saying is that some people think the methods inherrent in the production of foie gras, as well as the results obtained, go too far in "modifying" animals and exploiting natural tendencies in animals for our own purposes -- not that they have gone too far compared to what they have been historically. In context, this statement immediately followed Adam's example of breaking the legs of squab to make them more tender, which I think most of would agree "goes too far." Some people think that making foie gras "goes too far" in a similar way.

Yes. The FOH problems are a real Achilles' heel for SQC. But, given the presumed source, it's hard to know what they can do about it. I am a regular there (1-2 times a month when I'm in the City, sometimes more, and I'm usually there with people who go multiple times/week) for dinner and have experienced all the things you describe. I actually don't have a big problem with bumping regulars to the head of the line, although doing so with four parties is a bit too much IMO -- especially when you would appear to be a very regular regular there yourself. In fact, the one issue for me is that they don't treat their regulars with the same deference one would normally expect. Compared to similar restaurants where I have been a regular, it is extremely rare for us to be comped a drink, appetizer or dessert at SQC. This is amplified by the extremely high turnover for FOH managers, so we are constantly having to establish a relationship with someone new. It's really more a minor annoyance than anything else, but I think it is an indicator that the restaurant could be dramatically improved if they ironed out their FOH issues. I keep going back because I think the food is great, it's a good value, I am friendly with the waitstaff and bar staff, and I like Scott and Linda personally. That's pretty much what you're looking for at a somewhat upscale neighborhood place.

Well, yes. But there is a "natural" consequence to that surgery. Right. I see your point here, but I hope we can agree that breaking an animals legs and helping an animal to gorge are quite different in terms of degree. But yes, the question is how far is too far. If the ducks had to be chased down and forcibly gorged, clearly against their will, I'd probably think it was going too far. However, quite the opposite seems to be the case. That actually seems like a pretty good idea. Why do you think they can't do that?

While this is true, I don't think that it is defence of there growers position. The gorging that the geese/ducks under go is far above the levels that the wild birds would do. They have to fly after all and force fed geese are incredibly over-weight. That is taking the natural process much further then "a bit". Many commentators on food of the region state that the meat from the force fed birds is to fatty to roast etc, so this is why confit of these birds is so common. So by trying to sell a half truth, I thing that the growers have put themselves into a weak position. This takes me back to my earlier point that there are plenty of things we do with respect to food animals that are not exactly natural. In the grand scheme of things, there is nothing "natural" about raising animals in captivity and then slaughtering and eating them. The tendency to gorge is, I think we all agree, natural for waterfowl. We take that natural tendency and push it to the limit for our purposes. We do a similar thing when we feed grain to cows. And how about what we do when we make capons? These exploitations of natural tendencies beyond what "nature" intended are not in and of themselves cruel or morally wrong. Thinking of my own field... there is nothing remotely "natural" about a man singing a full-voice high C that can fill a 4,000 seat hall. But certain people have a natural tendency to carry the voice up, and we exploit that natural tendency to an unnatural degree.

Yea, I've been to central market but I was hoping for a butcher rather than a meat counter in an upscale gourmet supermarket. I think (hope) a butcher could probably give me better quality for a cheaper price, too.