Bux

I would assume the fries came with the mussels. Forty years ago the combination was strictly something one would find in Belgium, but the French have adopted it so heartily that there's at least one generation that assumes moules/frites are a French classic. I guess they are by now.

Official - yeah, I guess so - but would that be De Jur' or De Fact'?. Meanwhile, I want the hot home-baked butter, please! Just de fact o'life. I'm sorry but that reminded me of o'gratin.

To be fair, I rarely order cod and I have had a few exceptional examples in NY. I still can't imagine the reason for mislabeling black cod.

I have a Kichen Aid grinder and an old Cuisinart food processor. I prefer the food processor for grinding meat. It also does a good job of mixing in the seasonings. I used the kitchenaid for stuffing the casings however, although there is some instability when the cutting plates are removed.

I'm surprised mescaline salad didn't make the first page.

Assuming you're not saying you haven't seen "du jur" misspelled, it must be that you've eaten in classier joints than I have over your lifetime. Thousand Islands Inn.(Clayton-1000 Islands, NY) Your Early Bird dinner at the Inn includes: Hot home baked bread and butter Your choice of either A cup of our homemade soup du jur Or Tossed salad with your choice of dressing (If you prefer both soup & salad please add $1.00) Your choice of potato and vegetable du jur The Britannia Country Inn. A Taste of England in the Heart of the Poconos. (Swiftwater, PA) A Light Supper Soup du Jur, salad and any appetizer $9.95 Twin Oaks Restaurant. (Sterling, MA) Side of Vegetable Du Jur 1.25 Clancy's. Alamosa, CO A la Carte VEGETABLE DU JUR $1.50 In fairness to them, that could be a typo since their nachos reads: "Corn toµ¾%?äÚ¶'µ`39ï?ü?¶sn®›=× *èŽùo meat, and lots of cheese. Granished [sic] with onion, tomato and black olives." Cafe Michel. Smyrna GA Spicy Sautéed Vegetables over imported Pasta Du Jur and a garlic butter sauce And with the official stamp of academia, I offer this lesson from the Northern Arizona University web page for HA 100 Introduction to the Hospitality Industry Types of Menu: Static - does not change Cyclical - change on regular basis, generally repeat every four to six weeks. Table d’hôte - menu includes all the courses and accompaniments of the meal at one price. A la Carte - menu that charges for each item separately. Du Jur - menu that changes on daily basis. I guess that makes it official. "De Jur" is ready for the dictionaries. Are the dictionaries ready? I was actually surprised to find as many entries as I did (and maybe twice as many as I listed) on the web, and let's face it most diners offering soup du jur don't have a web site. My apologies to those I've omitted.

70/30 Sounds good to me. When I make sausages, I aim for a quarter to a third fat. It depends on what else in the mix like duck, veal, venison, liver, etc. I wonder why he's using pork chops and not some other lean part of the pig. I have no problem with pork chops, but I would have figured there'd be some less requested part that would be more economical to use. I like butt, shoulder, or leg and working with no more than three pounds total, I will chop the meat in a food processor. The leaner the meat the better and I add in fat back. I prefer fresh to salted and freeze what I have and don't use right away.

Could you go into depth on this, here or in another thread? My understanding is that black cod is what's known as sable at Russ and Daughters and other places of that ilk. I rarely eat at Asian restaurants, but would be tempted to order black cod over cod if I saw both on the menu. My most distinct run in with black cod was in a Hunan restaurant in Victoria, BC, of all places. It was the fish, and perhaps the fish dish of a trip that included Seattle and Vancouver. Are we talking about the same fish, or is there some inferior cod that's called black cod in NY Asian restaurants? I've rarely had cod in NY that's the equal of the cod I've had in Spain.

At least not in our hand luggage any longer, but we raise our own foie gras in the U.S. and the rest of that can be, and often is, made here. For sure it's not available as universally as in France, or always at the highest quality, but we can change that.

Extra points for laughing at yourself. I've got hundreds of stories I could tell about other people's mistakes, but it seems rude not to tell the thousands I've made first. Because, if you can laugh at yourself, you can also laugh at other people's mistakes and in the belief they will laugh with you. We are not ashamed. We are amused. No comment on the first, it's just worth repeating. I'm a one man campaign to get the accepted pronunciation changed on shallots assuming what's in the dictionary eventually reflects common usuage. I didn't know the British accent it as I do. Now I've got an excuse. I just need to work on the rest of my accent to support my pronunciation of "shallots." I'm pretty good in French--as long as I'm speaking to an American and only interspersing French words or ordering wine--possibly better than I am in English on some days. My bête noir is Italian which is really quite easy to learn to pronounce. Some day, I will learn to order Barbera wine as if it's not the American girl's name. A little ignorance is a most forgivable thing, unless it's about food and you've alread been trading on your expertise in that area. Most oral expressions of ignorance are forgivable. I can't say the same for written examples, although I was not offended by the hand lettered sign that advertised breakfast specials with "two stripes of bacon" and "oinoins" (note no "g"). I suppose I'm not really offended by such bastardized, and by now, possibly accepted, menu terms such as "du jur" as in soup du jur. They do grate on me a bit, but I suppose it won't be long before they're recognized in an American dictionary. I'm actually afriad to look. Pretentious affectation is not relegated to the English language either. In Puerto Rico, the local custom is to often drop the "ado" at the end of words and replace it with an "ao" (ow). It's not the king's Spanish and although the pronunciation is almost universal, it's recognized as a corruption. Asopao is perhaps the national dish of PR and I've not heard anyone make a legitimate claim it derives from any word or phrase ending in "ado," but once on a nicely printed menu, we saw "asopado de pollo."

I've not spoken to bar owners. In my youth I spent a fair amount of time in bars, but it was the smoke that eventually drove them away. That and the fact that it was cheaper to drink at home. It's actually taking some time for that aversion to bars to go away and for me to feel comfortable at a bar. Funny how we get conditioned. Anyway, I have no idea what the ban has done to business. My only recent point was that smoke free bars existed, albeit attached to good restaurants. I make no claim they were or could have been a majority, or even a sizable minority.

Can you clear this up? There's a flaw in the logic. If smoking was never allowed, then why were most of his bars separated from the dining areas and what was being handled by the ventilation systems providing you a relatively smoke free environment? Where was I unclear? You seem to be working from an assumption that the only reason to separate a bar from a dining room is to provide an indoor place to smoke. Gramercy Tavern had a more formal dining room and a less formal tavern room, although neither had a dress code. The food in the tavern room was simpler and less expensive. The bar in the tavern room was usually packed, as were the tables because the food was such a value. Still is. At Tabla, the downstairs lounge with bar and tables also serves a different menu and a different crowd. Union Square Cafe and Eleven Madison Park follow the pattern, although it's USC that set the pattern. "Could" is the operative word in regard to the ventilation systems. I don't know anything about the heating or ventilating of any of those restaurants. All I said was that they'd be relatively easy to isolate in terms of ventilating. Clearly Danny Meyer, who says he's in the hospitality business, not the restaurant business, had no reason to allow smoking in his bars. If there's a flaw in logic it's in thinking one can't make money selling booze in a smoke free bar in NYC. I'm not making any moral or ethical judgments here. I'm only correcting the misapprehension that "there wasn't one 'non-smoking' bar in town" before the ban, and I'm adding that a string of them were very successful. I will grant that they were all connected with a place that also served good food.

The few meals I had at Lespinasse were among my best in NY. They were certainly the best by far, of anything that could be described as fusion and I might blame Kunz for being the one who gave me hope I might soon find other good fusion food. That led to a lot of disappointing meals. I felt Kunz's identity was all wrapped up in the Asian inspired spicing and flavors until I dined at Lespinasse in the company of someone who had met Kunz professionally. The meal he cooked for us, was almost devoid of fusion influences, although not devoid of creativity by a long shot. Short ribs and short rib sandwiches at lunch doesn't strike me as an unusual way to go for a mature chef who's already proven one kind of point. There's a whole generation of Parisian chefs who came out of haute cuisine restaurants and started a bistro revival movement cooking old fashioned sometimes rustic and always affordable food. It's reported that Yves Camdeborde who owns one of the most notable of these bistros--la Régalade--has sold his restaurant and plans to open a small place serving brasserie stule food for lunch only.

Sounds fair enough and based on what Rogelio says, I would say it was successful on its own terms. I don't think Adria designed it as a destination, although many of us will make one trip out of curiosity just because of its Adria connection.

It's one thing to rate restaurants in terms of relative quality, but food and preferred style of restaurant is a matter of very subjective taste. The most creative restaurants in Spain these days might just mystify some American guests and others may still leave them curious but unsatisfied. I constantly have to remind myself that when I'm off eGullet, the people asking for recommendations might well prefer a great view to a great meal, or rather that a memorable view might make a better meal for them than memorable food. We had our most disappointing meal on our last trip to Spain when we took someone's opinion based on the fact that she plans upscale trips for well educated American groups. The restaurant was particularly lovely and the service was good if too eager to give me an English menu, but the food was rather boring and the meal left us disappointed, but I'm ready to believe her clients offered great feedback about their meals there. I certainly recommend Tragabuches on the basis of our meal there and from what I read, it would be a shame for anyone with a sincere interest in what's happening in gastronomy in Spain to miss it, if in the area, but my guess is that the average intelligent sophisticated diner may not miss the experience and may even prefer a great view. Unfortunately, Ronda was a one nignt stand for us and thus I can't comment on other restaurants in town. I shoudn't even say unfortunately, as the first meal we had the next day was at Hacienda Del Rosalejo (in Villamartin east of Arcos De La Frontera).

There's no question a forty seat dining room is going to serve different food than one with room for 120 diners, but if Kunz plans on serving the kind of food that can be served consistently to that crowd, you should get consistent food. My understanding was that this was not meant to be the high end place that Per Se is meant to be or that Lespinasse was.

In the Spain forum. Where exactly are you going, but please answer in the Spain forum and we can pick up there. There are a few really knowledgeable posters in that forum.

It's good to know one is only as old as one's taste in chocolate.

That "interview" is humor. By the second question it should be obvious that it's satire. for a moment though, I thought it was Hesser putting on the interviewer. After a while it gets a little too heavy and tiring.

There was never any smoking allowed in any of Danny Meyer's bars and most of his bars were pretty well separated from the main dining areas so that smoke could have been handled by ventilating systems to allow diners a relatively smoke free environment. Yet his bars were all smoke free from the day they opened and you claim "there wasn't one 'non-smoking' bar in town." By the way, I've been in several of these bars and it was impossible to get a stool and hard enough to get a drink at certain times of the day, the crowd was so deep at the bar. How do we conduct a rational and civil discussion if you make up your facts?

As long as it's in sealed jars or cans, we have not had a problem in the past either, but there have been some recent changes in the laws about importation of processed meats and this is why Margaret is asking about the current situation. There is a thread about this on eGullet and as far as I know, it is currently illegal to import any processed meat from France. The issue here is whether this ban affects travelers or just commercial importers No more French Foie Gras, U.S. Halts all Processed Meat Imports is the thread with the relevant discussion. Unfortunately the link to the page with the news item no longer seems to work. My comments in that thread with a quote from the news report were: Fresh foie gras is very perishable and I assume no one is carrying that on board with their luggage. I'd be careful about carrying any more foie gras than I'd care to eat at the airport on the other side of the APHIS inspectors.

I have to say that Juanito was a disappointment for us. It came very highly recommended and judging by the crowds at Sunday dinner when we arrived in town, it's got to be exceptionally popular and well liked locally. We found the food heavy in a very old fashioned way that made it dull--pasty sauces. The kid was good, but the pork was dried out, although flavorful. It may have been that it was a mistake not to have had lunch rather than dinner, especially on a Sunday. What really put us off, I think, was the very fast service. We felt quite rushed. On the other hand, we felt that a lot in parts of Spain. This has been discussed in another thread with some comment about a chef who has instructed his wait staff to slow down the service when tending to a table of French diners. Count me in with the French when it comes to expecting a liesurely meal. Condsider that I'm a minority voice on Juanito. It may have been an off-day, we may have ordered poorly, it may be our subjective taste or Sunday may be the day one should have one's big meal at lunch. Juanito seems favored by locals and professional critics alike. There was a wonderful description of lunch there on a travel site, then again, it was lunch.

Let us know what you find. I'll be passing through Alicante and staying for one night towards the end of the month. My sights are set for Casa Paco, which is out in Villena. [edit This is misleading and, in fact, we made the mistake of heading for Villena. Casa Paco is in Pinoso, which may be closer to Murcia than to Villena and Villena is certainly not on the way to Pinosa from either Murcia or Alicante.] While looking for an appropriate post on Casa Paco to cite as my justification for selecting it, I ran across this thread started by Sara W last summer. I'm merging the two threads so as to put the information on Alicante in one place

The next question might be how many days will you be on the road and how many restaurants will you have time to stop at? Although I don't have a good recommendation for either Granada or Sevilla, Tragabuches in Ronda is well worth a detour and I found Hacienda de Roselejo a gem near Arcos de la Frontera. They may be out of your way. Las Rejas in Las Pedroneras south of Cuenca was truly memorable for us. That was a stop on our way from Madrid to Andalucia. There should be mention of all of those places in posts of mine and others have posted on Tragabuches.

It's a rough call. What should or shouldn't have an effect on any reviewer may or may not be what does have an effect. In the end it's not why your reviews may seem to be slanted, it's that they appear to be slanted to other observers. This reviewer and every other's reputation is staked on the credibilty they build with their audience over time. Earlier I, somewhat facetiously, noted that "Vongerichten is only mentioned ten times, not counting the number of times he is referred to by pronoun" and that Gray Kunz was not mentioned at all. It was reported in the Post, a paper whose accuracy I don't trust, that the Jean-Georges organization is reminding the press that Kunz is not an owner. Nevertheless, other reviewers seem to feel his input as consultant and cook in the kitchen is still noteworty. Hesser's ommission of Kunz seems suspiciously as if she's heeding some PR instruction. It's all the more glaring that Kunz is not mentioned here when Vongerichten was mentioned in the review of Asiate. That review might have been an appropriate time for someone at the Times to have raised an eyebrow. I think it's terrific for someone to champion a particular chef--I certainly have my favorites--but I don't think it need be done at the expense of other chefs.