Bux

Frenchman's saucy with steak - Daily News review of April 8,2004 by Pascale Le Draoulec

I've been seeing soft shell crabs in Chinatown seafood markets. I saw then on Grand and Chrystie and I think it was late last week--southwest corner.

No! Absolutely not. Has anyone seen that thread in the Iberian forum, It's Official: Percebes at 125 Euros a Kilo? A later poster chimed in to add that "the current price for elvers (angulas) is 550 euros/kilo." Docsconz says "I expect the prices have gone up as delicacies such as these have become more desired outside of their traditional zones. They are in effect victims of what eGullet represents - the burgeoning interest in all things food." Pass the word, when your neighbors go abroad, tell then they won't like andouillette. To Picaman's " Amazing how andouillette is often not only the best thing on the menu, but the least expensive," I say let's keep it that way.

I'm typing in English. How does it appear on your screen. Miguel, by the way, would most likely be typing in Portuguese when he's not typing in English. The text you see is the text we enter. There's no magic artificial intelligence at work here translating posts from one language to another, if that's your question. One need only try running some text through one of the online translators to see the state of that art.

The recipes--the final results, not the wording--cannot be copyrighted and there's many a restaurant that still serves it's version of the original chef's dish long after he's gone. They may even serve a more authentic version of the dish than the original chef now prepares at his new restaurant. More authentic, not better as the original chef may have made improvements.

What about the 50 or so restaurants that he reviews while he's on his "learning curve"? Will it be insignificant to them? Robyn You're familiar with the terms "expendable" and "collateral damage." On a more serious note, my understanding is that we're getting a guy who's demonstrated some passion for eating and has shown he can write. The star system has been wounded so well by past reviewers that I wonder what sort of damage Bruni can do while he's getting up to speed. I agree with the recent suggestions about passion except that I don't believe it need come at the expense of analysis, that there's any trade off or that either must necessarily weigh more heavily. I should think one can be passionately analytical about food and write engagingly and successfully.

How is the position of King of France better than than of King of Andorra. My guess is that it pays better and that you get to eat in better restaurants. But that's just my prejudice. I've never eaten in Jacksonville.

Okay. And I am less concerned about whether they liked it or not, but I'll refrain from saying that's a difference. I suppose this depends on who they are and how well I understand their taste, for me. I am not alarmed and think of it not as disturbing the location, but as shifting it to a more accurate spot. Waiters are like people. Some are reliable and some are not. The definition of a good restaurant should include having reliable waiters, however. I am looking forward to having what has been touted as Madrid's, or maybe Spain's, best tortilla de patatas. Can't get too much more basic than that, I think.

Foie gras seems to have become more plentiful and less expensive, but eating certain seafood is becoming a bit like going to Mecca. Something one hopes to do at least once in one's lifetime, but not something that's an everyday occurrence. Perhaps I exaggerate, but just a bit, or maybe I'm accurately predicting the future.

Day two of Gary Marshall's journal is in the Mon Vieil Ami thread and equally enjoyable reading.

What the Hell do you think that was about? Pan, there are a number of reasons a restaurant might turn away a walk in diner when there's an empty table in the house. The most obvious one is that the table is reserved by a no show. To understand this you may need to be familiar with the differences between NY and Paris when it comes to find restaurants. In Paris you don't reserve a table for a specific time at a fine restaurant. You reserve the table for the evening. You may say you expect to arrive at 8:00 PM, but if you show up at 9:30, or even 10:00 PM, you will be assured your table is waiting for you. Tables are not turned and you will not be asked to sit at the bar because some party is taking too long to pay their bill, or have just ordered a second cup of coffee or a cognac. The only honorable recourse for a respectable restaurant with any pretense towards being in the "fine restaurant" category, would be to suffer the loss of a no show quietly in private. Paris is not NY and every time an American thinks lightly of not showing up at his reserved table, he makes it harder for Americans to get a reservation, harder perhaps than the boor who shows up, speaks in a loud voice on his cellphone and orders Coca-Cola as an aperatif. You may well ask if at some time it doesn't appear that the no show if obviously not coming. My answer would be yes, but that time would be when it's too late to serve that party a full meal without keep the kitchen open past the time the staff deserves to go home. That's another difference that is, or at least used to be, between Europe and the US. The bottom line here has been the bottom line, whereas in parts of Europe, they've clung to that quaint idea that the quality of their life is not based on the amount of their paycheck. I understand that kind of reasoning. That may even play a part in wanting to discourage walk ins under any circumstances. There's a greater control and order to one's life when a chef knows in advance how many covers he will handle that evening. France is also a nation with a more tightly defined sense of propriety and a more formal code of manners. It's considered respectful to call ahead with a reservation at a nice restaurant. We might see the demand for a phone call as pretentious, but the French live by different rules and enjoy order and control. In the end, it all amounts to the fact that owning and operating a restaurant is not the easiest way to make a living, so if one is doing it, why not enjoy it to the maximum rather than worry about the empty table.

We hit the fall Fermier show a few year's back and enjoyed it immensely. In a way it was a condensed version of the kind of food collecting we do when we're driving in the countryside. That is we buy artisanal products such as jams and preserves to bring home. The advantage to the Fermier show is that you can taste before you buy and thus know what's in the jar. The disadvatage is that you don't get to relate that great jam to the area in which it was made.

It's frequently true that a deep appreciation of one thing, may hinder an appreciation of other things. It's possible to become such a connoisseur of certain things that things to the right and left of the scale just have no meaning or interest. I know I have had a narrower range of tastes than I do now and that at one time my range was narrowing as I developed a greater interest in that range.

I enjoyed that all, especially as I didn't have to actually endure being lost without a map and late for dinner. One of the best pieces of advice I've ever been given was the suggestion, or perhaps "instruction", from a friend living in Paris at the time, to purchase a Paris par Arrondissement, or a small book containing maps of Paris by arrondissement and an alphabetical list of streets with coordinates. We're on our third one right now as Paris has continued to be developed and redeveloped since our initial visit. The initial purchase was made on the basis of which publisher offered the clearest maps. As I don't ever leave the hotel room without it, the last purchase was of the lightest and thinnest version on the market. I see that the sticker says it was less than five euros and well worth the price and the weight in my pocket. Certainly worth the price of the cab fares it saved. When our daughter took a term off from college to live in Paris, it was the most important thing we gave to her. She said she was never without it in her pocket. Every taxi driver has a copy, although not always a pocket version. What I enjoyed most however, was how a pleasant dinner saved the day. I have so many memories of our early travels in France when the day was snatched from misery by a lovely dinner before my head hit the pillow at night. That "The stress of the journey prompted another bottle," reminded me so much of the evening my wife neglected to account for the fact that I was forced to make a turn because a one way street went against us as we were driving through some town and therefore assumed we were headed south and not east as we were, as we left town. A map is useful only if you can determine exactly where you are. We arrived hours late at our destination hotel and most of the diners were well into dinner then and close to finishing when we sat down to dinner. In the last two hours of driving on dirt roads lost in the dark (and no taxis to fall back on) I had lost not only my appetite, but ability to smile. I ordered some soup and an appetizer. That potage was an excellent restorative and the wonderful friture de la Loire that followed was magical. When the waitress returned to take our dessert order, I asked for the guinea hen and a half bottle of the local Chinon. All to her amusement and delight.

I'm at a loss to understand why. There are any number of members who have touted one Times writer and bashed another. Or are you saying that she'd find a different more receptive audience in another publication rather than that the same people would be more receptive if they didn't read it in the times? By the way, the Mr. Latte articles all ran in the Sunday magazine section and not in the food and dining section. Those two sections have different editors.

The last time the NY Times picked a restaurant critic, liking to eat well seemed too much to ask for. As I recall, Grimes had never really written about food or restaurants and professed to neither being an expert or particularly enjoying eating out.

bux, you've almost convinced me. but what exactly is the difference in your mind between "liking" and "appreciating" the food? i'm not saying there isn't one but i'm wondering what it is for you. me i'd rather like food than appreciate it any day, but i take the point that a reviewer can't really predict whether i, as an individual, will or won't. Truthfully, a reviewer can't tell you if you'd like the food or not, but he can offer some clues so that you can make an educated guess. Definitely a part of a reviewer's job. To really know if you like the food, you have to taste it. Oddly enough you don't have to taste the food to begin to appreciate it. Appreciation has a mental or intellectual, if you will, aspect to it. Tell me the chicken is good and the lamb is not and I will know enough to order the chicken and not the lamb, assuming they're both on the menu when I get there. Tell me the fried chicken is over cooked and greasy, but the brasied lamb shank is perfection and I may know that I might be wise to order the short ribs over the filet of sole, because I have some understanding, or appreciation, of where the chef's talents or capabilities lie. Perhaps you've pinpointed a difference in attitude between us. I'm always unhappy when I'm doing something I don't enjoy doing, but I'm absolutely miserable when I can't figure out why I'm doing it. Or to put this back in food and restaurant terms, years ago on an early trip to the south of France with my wife, I ordered a certain dish. My wife asked what I had ordered. I told her what was in the dish and she asked why the hell I ordered a dish that was composed of things I had never eaten together with things I didn't like. I told her it was because it was a traditional dish of the region. The plain and simple fact was that I could have stayed home and had food I liked, or even food I enjoyed. I was a third the way around the world, (which at the time, was as far away from home as I had ever been, more or less) why not take advantage of that and why let myself be stopped by not liking what I was going to eat. The long(er) version of that story would also include some moralizing to the effect that I eventually developed a taste for tripe and even somewhat for lambs feet, if they are well prepared. Anyway, appreciating that I was eating a dish I might not find far from where I was, gave greater meaning to my voyage. There's no end to what a reviewer might say to expand my appreciation for food, if not life, but that's only what I look for in a review.

I fail to see any evidence of Keller or anyone at the restaurant being a control freak with his customers. I'm glad to see this thread is no longer full of complaints that Per Se is not issuing daily updates to the press. The funny thing is that when Per Se had no idea when they could or would reopen, everyone was clambering for press releases. Now that they actually could issue a release saying something new, no one seems to care, everyone is bitching that Per Se didn't leave a message when they last called and they didn't answer their phone. I will however agree that everyone has the right not to answer their phone unless they recognize the caller number, unless the caller shows a number or just because they want to monitor their phone calls. However, I also respect the right of any caller not to leave a message. Electronic communication is a two way street. I'm not sure they're doing the right thing now, but I'm also not sure anyone has made a good case they aren't. The thing I really admire is that they're not handling this via a team of press agents issuing releases designed to make friends, influence people or keep their name in the papers. They're contacting the people who held reservations and they're doing it one by one and directly with a phone call from someone in a position to make the reservation right then and there. I fully understand why they don't leave a message with a phone number. The sad fact of life is that neither the French Laundry or a number of other rather small destination restaurants just can't handle the numbers of people who want to make a reservation. When he can't get through or is always told the restaurant is solidly booked when he gets through, what can be done to please that unrequited diner?

We had a thread here about that Slate piece and it's worth noting in this context.

I will assure you I read your post thoroughly with great interest. Detailed accounts of exactly what was eaten can be a bore at times, although I have been guilty of exactly such posts and will probably do it again. Some people ask for that. Nevertheless, with Adria, it's often necessary. I think you had a good balance of informative reporting, objective opinion and enlightening subjectivity. I join Fat Guy in looking forward to your continued participation here. Welcome to eGullet and to the Spain and Portugal forum. It was interesting to read that. My one meal at the Fat Duck was most interesting and enjoyable and my impression is that the overall mood of the site is rather pro-Blumenthal too, but he's had at least one detractor who felt he was an Adria/Martin wannabe. My sense is that Adria must regard him highly to use his recipe and credit him on the menu. I know they are both involved in Inicom. My apologies for taking so long to comment. I will swear I had responded a couple of days ago, but it appears that message was never posted.

What's the English equivalent of "steak house" and "let's go out for a hamburger?" Steak houses usually serve salad, potato, desserts and often enough, a lobster or two. When we go out for a hamburger, we often get fries and possible any number of other things to eat and drink at the hamburger place. A good sushi place should be expected to have some impeccable raw fish and a chef with a talent for slicing, (that's one of the marks of a good sushi chef) thus it doesn't seem unreasonable to order sashimi there.

Nigiri is a form of sushi. Sashimi is not, although it may be ordered at a sushi bar. A sashimi course will usually play a role in a fine Japanese meal. Sushi will usually not appear, except at a sushi bar. When it comes to sushi, or sashimi for that matter, I strongly suspect that the overwhelming majority of Americans, including those "hicks" in the "sticks," have access to raw fish as prepared by a Japanese chef. Having such access is not the same as actually trying it, which in turn is hardly the same as eating it with any regularity. Proximity to a sushi bar is no guarantee one has had raw fish.

There's no problem with the definition of the word. There's a problem with the misconceptions held by Americans. Sushi refers to the vinegared rice. A simple tamgo (egg) on sushi rice nigiri style meets the full definition of sushi. A slice of raw fish all by itself is sashimi and doesn't meet the definition of sushi. Many people will opt to have sashimi at a sushi bar. So what? It's not that I'm a purist in terms of either correct sushi making or language usage, but there's really no point in trying to communicate if we allow the words to have any meaning and therefore no meaning. We need to be able to recognize other people's mistakes so we can attempt to understand them, but should we promote the misuse of food terms on eGullet? Edit: but we should promote the misuse of food terms on eGullet. was edited to read but should we promote the misuse of food terms on eGullet? Thanks to mongo_jones for his sharp eyes and ability to recognize other people's mistakes and understand them.

I had a more old fashioned definition of mentor in mind. I suppose I had a more old fashioned notion of career goals as well. You're right about a lot of awful newspapers and magazines who have a ready audience with cash in hand.

When you speak of "any sense that the writer's preferences are inherently the Right ones," I think you also hit on the reason I've not liked her restaurant reviews. My sense has been that they are too much about her taste. I had a similar problem with much of her earliest writing in the Times. She made assumptions about, or ignored, the facts of culinary life before her time, as if her position at the Times allowed her to dictate custom, etiquette and history. A kind of "narcissism" may be the common fault. I've always held her editors responsible to some degree. There should have been a mentor there for her.