Bux

Even if it's the least significant factor, it's still very significant. I sometimes think dining is a concept that's not fully appreciated in the US. We'll tell a great chef we want the sauce on the side or a change of garnish for a dish whose ingredients is part of a complex creative work. Some Americans really love ordering the staff around, but we don't even think of protesting when we're told to arrive at a certain hour as if it was to mess in the army. There's no consideration for the unexpected in one's day, the inability to hail a cab or anything. Then we come to the factors that have been discussed--the odd hours from which one is forced to choose and the knowledge that your time is limited. Forget the star ratings for a minute, there are many members who don't get that the change in star levels should mean anything but better food. Dining at a two star restaurant in Paris is likely to be a more gracious and relaxing experience than at a four star in Manhattan. The one other fact that's barely been touched on here is that size matters as well. There's a difference in the food when you're serving three hundred people a night and when you're serving sixty. I'll be the first one to defend the premise that a great kitchen can served a thousand covers better than a medicore one can serve fifty, but give that same great kitchen a smaller number of diners and they can do even better.

Actually it's more often referred to as AD/NY, Alain Ducasse/New York. Ducasse's restaurant in Paris is referred to as AD/PA for Alain Ducasse/Plaza Athenee.

In June of 2002, we spent under 60 euros for two at Can Majo eating seafood and rice st a pleasant outdoor table by the beach. We drank inexpensive, but good, wine and while we didn't order the most expensive things on the menu, we didn't skimp either. We've been there twice and I've written about the restaurant several times here on eGullet. You can do a search if you need more information. Many of the tapas bars are Basque style, or at least style themselves as Basque. This is especially true of a few places with outdoor cafes north of the Placa de Catalunya. I don't recall the price range, but these are probably not the cheapest places around as it's an area of chic shops, expensive hotels, etc. The Boqueria market in Barcelona may be one of the best in Europe and certainly the most colorful and best known in Barcelona, but both of the two other markets we've been in were also terrific. The Sant Antoni market and the one up on Mallorca and Villareal by the hostpital were both great markets. There are others--the Michelin city map seems littered with markets--and they may be great as well. Where are you coming from?

My first reaction to the page was to wonder if a machine translating site wouldn't render it back perfectly. I liked "Tart Tatin, freezes vanilla." It sounds like the headline for a news story about a hockey shutout. The photo looks quite nice. I like a simple well lit room where the emphasis appears to be on the food. It's a web site of some charm, but not necessarily the way it intends. I wonder whatever led these restaurateurs to trust the site designers. You are correct Margaret, some things just don't sound as palatable when translated into English. "The Dung of warm Chavignol on toast" for 5,95 euros at the wine bar le Sancerre in the 7th, for instance. I'm glad to see le Pharamond is still featuring the "traditional fashionable guts of Caen." Neverthelss, it's a bad machine that translates "gratin" as "cheese toppped," especially when it comes to fruit desserts.

First step is to run the restaurants in NY. Soon we'll be taking over the world. While few chefs have the time to log on and post regularly, it's not a big secret that most NY chefs know all about us and many chefs, owner, managers and other staff read here regularly.

I was pretty sure the closing was posted on eGullet. I also liked the concept, but never made to the restaurant. Unfortunately, I've never heard any reports that were better than lukewarm and some that were less postive.

We had lunch at the Mazarin on the rue Mazarine. It was recommended to us as a place to have andouillette and other solid old fashioned bistro dishes. I had a very good pate de sanglier, but the rest of the meal was disappointing and emminently forgettable, in spite of the fact that the recommendation was from a generally reliable source. They were not serving andouillette and looked at me with such bewilderment when I asked if they had any, that I wondered if it had changed hands recently.

It's all relative. At least one diner I know will swear the French are most tolerant and friendly of non smokers. Just ask, and without fail, any dafe waiter in Paris will replace your ashtray with a defense de fumer sign and declare your table a no smoking section.

It's hard to comment on a review without having some familiarity with the food being reviewed, but it seems here that Amanda Hesser has managed to write much more objectively while allowing her tastes lend a depth and personality to the review. If that's the case, I'm encouraged.

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I'm sure I've referred to Mike as "Mike," on eGullet. Well there goes my reputation for being a meticulous restaurant connoisseur with keen powers of observation. My only excuse is that we've put ourselves in the chef's hands the last three or four times we've been there and have hardly looked at the menu. Maybe I should say chefs' hands as Mike Anthony who's now in the kitchen with Dan is making his own contributions to the menu. I find the food at Blue Hill very simple, but the kind of simplicity that only results from a lot of thought. I found this, early on. I'm almost sure I've heard Dan call him Mike as well and that goes for people who have worked with him in the past. Of course Mike's too nice a guy to correct me if I was wrong.

We took a look at Bar Jamón from the outside and read the menu on the blackboard. I didn't think the offerings were as interesting as at Casa Mono, but don't know if that's the full list.

I guess it's been more than 10 years since I've been there. When my father lived in the neighborhood, it was a sometimes spot for dinner. Then it was nothing special and little more than one of the more okay places within walking distance. It's possible it's improved and it's also possible that much better places have opened.

As in "I've got a weak idea and I can find the statistics to prove it."

So what. I was in a rather ordinary hypermarche in a small town in France and and saw half a dozen different varieties of garlic in the produce section. There were about the same number of different kinds of lemon and they were all noted as to whether they were treated with pesticides or not. There were as many prepackaged luncheon meats as I've seen anywhere else, but in the fresh charcuterie section they had rillettes of pork, rabbit and duck as well as rillettes of a special breed of pork, all at different prices. Maybe the author is only looking in his backyard for what's special about the US. It isn't special, it's the 21st century that's different than the 19th. When Henry Ford build the model T, there was an economy in allowing the customer no choice in color. When Alvin Toffler wrote Culture Shock it was as cheap to print the paperback edition of the book with a choice of covers and so they did that to prove his point about change. The 21st century is happening just as fast outside the US as inside, not that USA Today would notice.

Welcome indeed, Sumontana. That was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to read. I hope we see more of your comments here.

I once saw our own Steve Klc do a chocolate demonstration under the banner of some manufacturer--it was probably KitchenAid or Cuisinarts--and he pulls out this odd little turquoise mini blender from some southeast Asian country and starts extolling the benefits of a machine he picked up at some offbeat shop. That the damn good handouts of his dark chocolate encased foie gras and ice wine jelly, made my day.

I suspect guacamole made in northern climates may need more doctoring than those made in Mexico or southern California. We recently returned from a trip to Puerto Rico and the only food that made a real impression, and it did so consistently from dive to elegant restaurant, was avocado salad. The problem with avocados in New York is that even when they're not hard, they never have the taste they have where they're grown. Glocono delta lactone, along with other sequestrants, probably travels very well. We may laugh now, but I avoided antioxidents until I learned they were good for me.

I thought I was clear earlier about the danger of a reviewer, especially a reviewer for a journal whose reviews carry great weight regardless of whose byline they carry, making his or her subjective tastes public. Anyway, I'm back from a lunch at Casa Mono. The short review is that we thought the savory food was compelling. I think we were exceptionally pleased with each of the seven dishes we shared. Desserts for the three of us, were just alright. As my brother-in-law had to leave for the airport by one-thirty, we arrived at noon precisely and the room was empty. The tables are all the same size, and that size is small for two people. We were shown to a table set for three. By the time our glasses of water, fino and bottle of red wine were on the table it was getting crowded. The restaurant was never more than half full and after suffering trying to share and pass a selection of fish dishes, I asked the waitress if it's usually more crowded at lunch and why we were sharing a table for two. She smiled, said it was an oversight and suggested we move to a double table for four. God helps those who help themselves. It's easy enough to build a meal out of two or three dishes, or share dishes. An ideal way to dine here might be to have your favorite dish for a main course and share a bunch of dishes before that one. We shared and ordered three seafood dishes first and then four meat dishes which we asked to be brought in two courses. I thought we'd actually eat one or two more dishes, so I never got around to order some things I wanted to try. I like anchovies and I like fried food. I liked the batter dipped anchovies very much. The calamares fritos were unusual in that they weren't in rings and were dusted with paprika. I've never had them quite that way in Spain, but I wouldn't complain either here or there. All that the squid and anchovies needed was a spritz of lemon. The small scallops in their shells with chorizo were a much heartier dish and a good contrast. They went well with a fairly light syrah from Albet I Noya, winemakers in Penedes who I believe make organic wines. I'd not had this particular wine of theirs, but it was as good a choice for a variety of foods as I hoped it would be. The Lustau Fino "Jarana" was particularly nice as well, but the glasses were very small. The sherries are not served in a cuartino. Although piquillo peppers stuffed with oxtail are a traditional way of preparing the peppers, I've always had them filled with dried cod in Spain and the Pays Basque in France. Casa Mono's oxtail version was rich and succulent as was the tripe, chickpeas and blood sausage. On a cold night, I'd easily welcome two bowls full as a main course. As it was, I was happy to share and get a taste of the crisp and light sweetbreads served with caramelized baby fennel. The wild boar was a surprise and one of the few dishes to command $15 a plate. Most dishes are in the 10-15 dollar range with a some appetizers and vegetables in the 4-10 range. The boar arrived as thick slices of fairly pink and very tender roast meat on a bed of escalivada--a combination of vegetables not unlike ratatouille--peppers, eggplant and onions--which here was prepared with cayenne pepper and saffron honey and like the fennel with the sweetbreads an exceptional combination. There was not a bad dish, or even a questionable one among the ones we had. It's not that any particular dish reminded me of something I had in Spain, but the overall experience was much like one I had in a wine bar somewhat off the beaten track in Madrid. Americans also often have too narrow a view of tapas. Customs vary from province to province and it's often possible to get raciones, media raciones or tapas in different areas and depending on the nature of the dish. The dishes at Casa Mono tend to be about media raciones size.

I would think the definition is subjective and relative. I think it's territorially relative, but suspect its also subjectively relative and different for each person, but it's hard to communicate without some broad definitions. Towards that end, I offered my idea of what "fine" dining or "fine dining" might be in Manhattan. We need to understand that even the four star rating is going to be subjective. We all won't agree on whether JG or any other restaurant deserves that rating. We can debate whether the category of fine dining includes both Babbo and JG or just JG. I think fine dining has to encompass more than just food. I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion even as to whether Babbo or JG has better or finer food, but I think JG aims at being a "finer" restaurant, albeit, not necessarily a better restaurant for everyone. My point here is that I believe JG is seen as operating in a different plane than the other three restaurants in some ways, but of course that's subject to personal opinion and debate.

I am about ready to stop eating, for health reasons. For what it's worth, and I note on the page referenced by Pedro that there is a "higher incidence in areas where raw fish is eaten (e.g., Japan,)" I have, in the distant past been diagnosed, as having intestinal worms which I was told were "fish worms." As I had been in Japan within the year, my assumption was that it might be sushi/sashimi related. My doctor told me that they were fresh water parasites common to lake and river fish from New York State and that my condition was probably the result of cross contamination in a restaurant or market where someone handled the raw fish. He also told me that the Japanese only eat raw saltwater fish. It was later that I discovered salt water fish also harbor parasites and I'n no longer absolutely sure that some fresh water fish aren't eaten raw as sushi. I have from time to time also been served raw fresh water fish and only hoped the cook knew what the hell he was doing. By now, we've all lost our appetites anyway, so I'll let on that the way I was cured was to poison these little critters in situ. To the best of my knowledge, the buggers were only in my digestive tract. It did, at the time, seem a bit like cutting off my nose to spite my face. This thread has given me greater respect for my chef's reluctance to eat seafood he has not prepared himself.

Both Jean Georges and Gray Kunz have a hand in this restaurant. Is Kunz actually in the kitchen? is he here now and will he be here when his brasserie opens in the Time Warner Building? Is Stanley Wong not the day to day executive chef as Marcus mentioned earlier in the thread? Both Jean Georges Vongerichten and Gray Kunz have considerable experience working successfully with Asian, European and American products and flavors. They are both four star chefs with great reputations for what they can do, whether or not I like every restaurant they've ever opened or every dish of theirs I've ever eaten. Kunz may even have grown in stature without a restaurant because everyone has been waiting for his reappearance with baited breath for years. (If they haven't, they should have been.) It would be interesting to know who was responsible for what and how they arrived at the opening menu dishes. Sam Sifton, unless I'm mistaken, is not just one of the interim restaurant critics for the New York Times. He is also the editor of the Dining section of the NY Times. I assume he needs to know what he knows and what he doesn't know and that he needs to oversee what's published and know who knows what when he's assigning articles. To an extent, the buck stops at his desk when errors are reported as fact. However, while it annoyes me that a reader might come away thinking Sriracha sauce was Indonesian rather than Thai, I doubt that little bit of misinformation is particularly relevent to any appreciation of Spice Market. Maybe I'm also getting old enough to sympathize with momentary lapses of memory, if not with the absence of fact checking. My point here would be that anyone who needed to know if the food was authentic, is probably missing the point of the restaurant and probably too much a hostage of his prejudices, to enjoy Spice Market, which, by the way, seems an entirely reasonable thing as long as such subjectivity is not expressed as an objective opinion.

Interesting point. I'm familiar with those three restaurants and they all serve excellent food, but I can't say that by NYC standards any of them aim at "fine" dining. That is to say, none of them appear to have pretentions to four stars. Jean Georges is another story. This is not to say it necessarily succeeds.

In terms of cured pork and fresh seafood, not to mention dried cod, a Spaniard would not be sad to return home or question his culture, but I would sell my soul for daily access to the cheeses of France.

There is much to see in France and if you spend the time to travel slowly, you will learn that it is, in its way, a very multicultural country. The corners of the hexagon are heavily influenced by Italian, German, Flemish, Celtic, Basque and Catalan cultures. Even the interior of France is rich in differences.