Bux

What happens when you freeze cream, or sour cream for that matter? I don't like to do it, but I think I've frozen heavy cream. I know I've frozen milk and butter. I should imagine you'd likely kill any living organisms that gave the creme fraiche its character, but that shouldn't totally ruin its use. I can't recommend what you want to do as good practice, but I really don't know and wonder if it woundn't be worth just making a cup of creme fraiche and freezing it for a few weeks as an experiment. In any event, I'd add that I haven't found "creme fraiche" made by culturing pasturized heavy cream with sour cream or buttermilk to be quite the same thing as real creme fraiche in France. Which is also not to say it's not worth doing or that the product isn't useful to me. We do it.

The first thing that people on both sides of the Atlantic need to understand is that this is a game being played by both sides. It's not fair for the French not understand that the EU is playing the same game, just because their newspapers don't report that side of the story. If people who aren't aware of the whole story are allowed to force you to make excuses, you're going to be on the defensive forever. I like the French, well at least as much as I like the Americans. My daughter is married to a Frenchman, well a Breton anyway. Let's face it however, the majority of the people on any side of a trade dispute won't fully understand what their government is doing or why. With that in mind, you have to understand that no matter where you are, the locals are going to feel adamantly wronged, especially when the local press is going to report the popular short version.

I don't think its that influential, but it can be helpful..if you're in an area that you are not familiar with, you can usually determine the "feel" of the restaurant by the descriptions...I don't put any credenc on the food ratings, but " great chocolate martiniis at the yuppie packed bar" or " peppered with ladies who lunch" descriptions can give good clues to the general atmosphere of a place. Kim, you've been posting here for quite a while (four days less than I have), I've not read all your 1600 posts, but I think it's fairly safe for me to say you're one of our more sophisticated and knowledgable diners and I think our membership is above average in those categories. I won't even attempt to argue why I think it's also above the Zagat readership average, but if you place more regard on the few lines of the arbitrary text that accompanies every listing in the survey than to the rating, that would seem to give lie to the claim the publisher's continually make about the survey being nothing more than a democratic sampling of diners. The editorial power of those few who control how the comments of thousands of contributors are summed up in the published edition of the survey, is fairly significant. I suppose so and it doesn't appear as if there's no editorial input in deciding who get's listed and who's out of the guide. Precisely why just a listing at any rating might be important and why Zagat survey's should want to appear to be above reproach in the manner in which they decide who's in and who's out.

I've been so impressed by roast suckling pig so often at places that seem exceedingly unspecial, that I wonder if I can appreciate the best. What vmilor says about the raw materials here is so true. A good Albariño shouldn't be much of a splurge either. Almost all I've had seemed bargain priced. I don't think I've ever had a bad one. The only one I didn't care much for spent too much time in the barrel and was not a cheap one.

Criticism of that review can be found on the Asiate thread in the NY forum. Fat guy liked the writing, but not the score. I'm not sure if that's anything like liking the words, but not the music. I liked the review as well. What with the expose of the Michelin Guide where else can people turn for a reliable opinion but eGullet.com?

If anyone cares to know what Bryan Miller thinks about the Michelin controversy, they can read Then Who Can You Trust? on the Gayot web site. Miller opines "Then there are newspapers. Whenever I travel, I pick up every local and regional newspaper I can find. When it comes to restaurant “criticism,” 90 percent of those are of questionable value." Unfortunately he doesn't go on to name anyone he trusts.

We had a lovely "Flan de Queso" in a small tasca recommeded to us. It was quite light and a wonderful foil to a glass of Toro Albalá Don PX 2001. If memory serves, maybe it was two glasses. I had never experienced flan de queso before. Is this a common variation in the more traditional flan and does anyone know how long it's been around? We had a flan de queso in San Juan, Puerto Rico recently at a fish restaurant run by an ex-torero from Spain. It was dreadfully gummy and far too sweet. I was disappointed after the one in Madrid.

I didn't get it. At the basic level the review didn't compute. Let me back track. We had a quick lunch there. My initial reaction to the place and my meal was that they were aiming at the high end of three stars. It's even possible that in their own minds they were aiming at four. For a new restaurant, I don't feel it's really fair to complain about inconsistencies, but I'd like to note that I think on numerous items throughout the meal they left impressions of two, three and even a moment or two, of four stars. The bulk of the impression was one of three stars, but it was soft and sometimes you're only as strong as your weakest link. Fortunately, I don't get paid to award stars. It's a good restaurant, or more accurately a very good restaurant that has some weaknesses and some of those are in the food, but it also has some brilliant moments and most of those are in the food as well. The great view and the handsome interior are for the most part a bonus. Prices didn't seem to be out of line with what you'd pay for comparable food elsewhere. The prix fixe lunch menu is an absolute bargain, but you should note that the wine list is pricey, although not unexpectedly so. What I didn't get about Ms. Hesser's review is akin to what bothered Daniel when he said she doesn't back up her criticisms. As a result, the dishes she felt worked, which she described well enough for me to desire, left a much stronger impression than those she dismissed. They also sounded like the ones I'd order anyway. Unfortunately I spotted the lone star well before I read the text and that left me knowing we saw too different restaurants, or that we were two very different diners. Hal Rubenstein seemed very easy to please. Too easy. I disagree that this was one of the best reviews we've read since Ruth Reichl left, which is strange since I wasn't a fan of William Grimes. Maybe it's just that my dining didn't begin with a whoosh. I took a modern hotel elevator up to some upper floor, in a building whose floor numbers I'm told, don't necessarily mark the actual floor. Is Asiate really one of the most elusive reservations in town? Do real New Yorkers think the clouds start this low. My parents lived on the 27th floor (of another building, where they count differently perhaps) and I don't ever recall clouds outside the window. Was I really a fair weather son? I am totally at a loss to understand with whom she felt a cameraderie or why. I've never felt I had much in common with the people who chose the same restaurants I do. I'm not sure cameraderie has ever been a tactile thing for me. Maybe it's just that I was the only one headed for the restaurant in that elevator. Maybe I don't know good writing when I read it. I know what I like and yes, my taste is in my mouth. It's also not good food writing for me, when it's not clear why she doesn't like a specific dish. By the way, one of us had that pasta and prawn in parchment and the criticism was exactly that the prawn was mushy. The pasta, remarkably, was not and the flavor was richly satisfying. There was a problem with the prawn and we wondered about the chef's intentions. Had he wanted it to disolve just a bit more so it would resemble soupe de poisson completely? It was however the biggest problem with the food. The benign-sounding vegetable appetizer looks like a circus parading across the plate, but in the next three sentences dismissing the dish, we don't hear about how it tastes. I gather she felt the dishes are overly complex, but it's too subjective a feeling and we don't get the details that might make us agree. The two dishes she likes, come across strong enough to support two stars. I"m left with the sense that it's a matter of "I'm the reviewer, and I get to hand out the grades." Not good writing, or at least not good restaurant reviewing in my opinion. That overly subjective single star smacked once more of "I'm the new kid on the block and you better understand I'm tough." This time around I have no friends in the kitchen to make me pull my punches. In a lesser setting, I would give the food at least two stars.

It's dangerous for anyone to point the finger when talking about the ethics of trade restrictions. We were quick to jump at banning beef from Europe when BSE was discovered there and quick to complain when other countries banned US beef after it was discovered here, yet we may not be atypical in our hypocrisy. The suspension affects imports of "all French processed meat and poultry products, including cold cuts and delicacies like foie gras." "The measure concerns only processed products, not ordinary cuts of beef, pork or poultry" That would seem to indicate that pate de foie gras is banned, but not fresh foie gras from France. That's going to affect what appears on the shelves of your gourmet shoppes, but not what appears on the table of the very best restaurants in the country. I doubt that the very best restaurants are using very much pre-prepared foie gras. Those who are slicing packaged foie gras would be better off serving a good homemade country pate anyway, in my opinion. I suspect the very best restaurants who are serving fresh foie gras, whether from Hudson Valley, Sonoma, Quebec or imported from France are using the scraps for forcemeat as well. Only those restaurants who are using preprocessed imported foie gras in their recipes will suffer along with consumers who buy the packaged products. Most places using fresh foie gras were using domestic foies anyway.

Michelin's mistakes may be mostly by ommission, but that can be a serous flaw. I suppose it means that the reader is less likely to be led astray, but it also means it's not a great guide to finding the best if those ommission are many. That may well be what's wrong with the guide to Spain. The restaurants they tout may all be fine, but it some areas, you may not find the best restaurant as it's not been rewarded with the marks it's earned. Although the expose was about the guide in France, the faults it mentions would seem to be greater in countries outside France where the concetration of inspectors is lower. One of the shocking aspects of all this is the very small number of inspectors in France. That a place in the guide and even a star rating may be held, or held off, for a year or more based on a single inspection is rather a shock to most of us, yet Derek Brown doesn't seem to refute this. Michelin started out as a hotel guide, and a restaurant guide, but not one offering stars to the restaurants. Over the years, it has remained a hotel guide, but it's importance as a restaurant guide has increased significantly. Not all of it's users need a hotel room. Some live at home and eat out. On the other hand, those who use it for a guide to the night's hotel, may also use it to find a place in which to eat both lunch and dinner. There are few visitors to France who need a room and not at least one place to eat each day.

I prefer the olive oil packed tuna even with mayo, but I'd agree that the tuna-mayonnaise and the tuna--olive oil and lemon juice, are two different things and appeal to too different tastes. There's no problem with one person having both those tastes and expressing a different preference at different times. If my wife has made mayonnaise, my preference might be split. If I have to make the mayonnaise from scratch, I'd probably go with oil and lemon juice all the time. Ditto if only supermarket jarred mayo is available, but as usual, there's no accounting for personal taste. What's really interesting to me is when one's tastes change. If that bar offered mayonnaise as an option, I would have opted for it, but it didn't and I discovered a new taste.

I always preferred oil packed to water packed tuna. It just had more taste. Some time ago we "discovered" Italian brands of olive oil packed tuna and have not gone back to the standard American brands since. Jarred tuna seems to taste better than canned tuna. Currently we're stocking 300 gram (10 1/2 oz.) jars of tuna that cost $6.99 a jar--Pesce Azzurro Cefalù (antica lavorazione artigiana, not to mention lavorato a mano in Sicilia). The interesting thing about the American brands is that the less tasty the variety or type of tuna, the higher the price. Chunk light always tasted better than solid white to me. Hellman's mayo (forget about the miracle whip stuff) has always tasted sweet to me, but ever since a wedding weekend in Brittany where the food was not all that exceptional, but no one would think of serving boiled shrimp with anything by a vat of homemade mayonnaise, I've not been willing to suffer the store bought jarred stuff at home. Consequently, we rarely seem to have any mayonnaise at all in the fridge. This year I had a revelatory sandwich in Madrid of oil packed tuna, roasted red peppers (also canned) and anchovies--no mayonnaise. It was sensational. My tuna sandwich of yore would have been tuna, homemade mayonnaise, celery with minced onion or shallots. Nowadays it's more likely to be oil olive oil packed tuna with whatever roasted red peppers, anchovies, onions, shallots, scallions there are in the house with a spritz of lemon and a bit of olive oil.

Are jowls different from cheeks? In France we've had joues de porc and in the US, I'm sure we've had beef cheeks and maybe pork cheeks. I don't know if they can't be poorly cooked or if they're just a cut that only appeals to chefs who really know how to cook, but the few times we've had either, they were no less than excellent.

Let's continue this discussion in Food Media and News as this is topic with broad interest in terms of News and Media, not to mention food guides in general. To that end, I'm locking this thread and merging all other responses with the thread in that forum. Here's the link to the Food Media & News forum thread - Michelin Man Squeals

Whatever one thinks of Au Pied de Cochon, it, rue Coquillière (home to Dehillerin, that great cookware shop) and les Halles are all on the Right Bank.

I have long thought of Barcelona as far more interesting a place than Madrid, which has always seemed so conservative. Barcelona is certainly leading the way in terms of creative food, but Madrid seems to be entering the ring. Madrid however, seems to be leading the way in terms of "foreign" food restaurant acceptance. Did you see this thread on Asian restaurants in Madrid? There is the one thing NYC excels at, ethnic restaurants, and it's largely because we have the populations that are native to the food.

Pelotari Recoletos 3 28001 Madrid 91 578 24 97 91 431 60 04 information@asador-pelotari.com a la carte meals ran about 32 to 42 euros last year all that according to the 2003 Michelin Guide

Louisa is out of my league too and she's young enough to be my daughter. Come to think of it, my daughter is out of my league as well. I suppose some people would credit me for doing something right.

It's kind of like having options for futures, isn't it? For your sake, as well as Keller's and the rest of us, let's wish Per Se luck in getting back open for business. So many restaurants open less than fully ready to live up to expectations. It sounds as if Per Se was well above the norm until this. I trust there's a lesson here about the economics of opening, running or owning a restaurant. Budget well for insurance.

A reaction like that from the server is an indication of management's lack of care, poor training of staff or a staff that's not interested in the success of the restaurant or a long term position there. I suppose I might add it's also an indication of the server's lack of interest in a good tip. As tommy says, "either way, not good." I once found a particularly nasty piece of metal in a loaf of bread. I returned to the place and asked to see the manager to whom I displayed my evidence. His reaction seemed genuinely concerned enough that I continued to patronize the bakery and won't name the extablishment here. I recall his offering me free loaves, but that wasn't the point of my visit, not could he have adequately compensated me if I sensed a lack of concern.

Michael Romano has been there for quite some time. I'm not a regular there, but I understand they've been revising the menu and making it more exciting. I don't know that there was much they could do about quality as it's always been tops, but I think it's been a place that has appealed more to tourists looking for excellent renditions of unchallenging foods, and New Yorkers not interested in eating on the edge. Hell, I could eat good fried calamari every night for a week and not complain (too much). That the fried calamri was light as a feather and a good rendition, but not one of the most compelling appetizers is perhaps one of the more favorable compliments one could make about any restaurant and probably sizes up USC very well. Restaurants that try to please everyone are going to be criticized possibly just because everyone wants a restaurant to focus just on their tastes, but USC really is a place that can handle a diverse group of people and please them all, which doesn't mean that a visit should wait until you have that hard to please group.

I am always fascinated (and appalled) by tourists who are drawn to the right places for the wrong reasons and thus totally unprepared to enjoy what the restaurant has to offer. Too many tourists, and I'm not referring to the gastronomic travelers who most inclined to read eGullet and to thoroughly read restaurant reviews, skim the articles taking nothing from them except a list of mentioned restaurants and perhaps their rating, without considering why the restaurant was mentioned. Actually, that in itself might not be a problem if one was open to trying new things. It's not always a matter of finding oneself faced with unexpected creative cooking. Tourists will search out the most local sort of bistro or tasca and then find the menu incomprehensible and food too different from the joints that surround their hotel and which cater to those who want food that is not so "ethnic."

Kitchen Arts and Letters, 1435 Lexington Avenue (near 94th St.). 212-876-5550

Lots of sommeliers in the US will give you the cork and many of those new to wine or fine dining have asked what they are supposed to do with it. My wife is the only one I know who with a stright face, will tell you to look and see if there's a web site stamped on the cork. I don't think I've even seen a URL on the front label of a bottle of wine, but many wineries stamp the cork with their URL.

Apparently the writer is a shopper. I think my mother would have related well to directions relative the nearest upscale department store. Six or eight blocks from le Bon Marche would have been far more meaningful than up or down the block from the Eglise St. Germain des Pres or the Beaux Arts.