Bux

Jason, oysters are foreplay.

You're all fired.

I really haven't made a study of Parisian chocolate. Of course Hermé deserves mention and I'd think of JP Hévin who has several shops. One is on the other side of the Luxembourg Gardens--rue Vavin off Assas. You might want to search "chocolate" on the France board. I know we've had some posts on chocolate shops. You might also want to say hello to Philippe Raynaud at his shop in the fifth arrondissement--Les Délices de Daubenton (Les Délices du Net) 35, rue Daubenton. It should be just off rue Mouffetard, one of the better market streets. Philippe posts here from time to time and although I've not had the chance to visit his shop, it appears to be an interesting place and quite in opposition to the corporate world of food slowly taking over France as well as the US.

I could swear they opened just over two years ago. At any rate I swear more liberally than I would bet the farm. Lot's of web sites still offer reviews as if it's the hottest new restaurant. I suspect that's an indication of how much of the web is no more up to date than old print media. Worse yet, few of those sites give a review or listing date. The earliest dated site review I find is from 2001. I see that Update for Frommer's Paris 2003 offers this information: "Finally, another stylishly hip place is Korova, 33 rue Marbeuf, 8th arr. (tel. 01-53-89-93-93), recognized for its international cuisine. It's like a private club with Zen simplicity. One of its owners Fréderick Grasser Hermé is known in France for her "shocking" cookbooks. Make up your own mind after you've tried her chicken cooked with Coca-Cola." How out of date can Frommer be?

Louise XIV, welcome to eGullet. What are you doing now and where are you doing it? I don't mean to be personal, but it would be interesting to hear how your career progressed from school, if you made a career of the culinary arts, and how such training affected you if you chose another discipline. We're interested in the view from both sides of the swinging door.

There have been some good posts on roasting coffee, for some reason I think they were in the General Food forum, rather than the beverage forum. And then there's Far Guy's Adventures in Home Coffee Roasting series in Adventures in eating.

I went looking at a few ranges this weekend. Unfortunately it's not for us. The two stoves that looked best were a Wolf and a DCS, both 36" and not all that much different in price. In fact they had a floor model Wolf at a discount and it came out less expensive than the DCS. The couple's current range is 30" and the 30" model would eliminate the need for some extra remodeling of kitchen cabinets. In spite of a major renovation, cost is a major factor and in spite of that, a close to four thousand dollar range is not unreasonable for these cooks. They have plenty of pots and pans that are larger than 12 inches in diameter and with the hottest burners in that fifth burner position, it would severely limit the size of the other four pots. On the other hand, I have six 15,000 BTU burners and I'm not sure how important the 17,500 BTU burner is over the other four 16,000 BTU burners. Someone mentioned that it might be more important when boiling pasta than when sauteeing. No matter, it's just not as useful as the six burner 36 inch range, if you have the room. I don't recall the ultimate BTU output on the Wolf range, but it's low is 500 BTUs, while the DCS will stay lit at 100 BTUs which I find remarkably useful if you've ever wanted to keep a small pot at a bare simmer. The DCS also has what I think is a useful feature--the over door soft locks in an ajar position with about three or four inches of opening. The DCS may be easier to clean, but I'm not entirely convinced of that. Both stoves seem solid. The Wolf seems perhaps a little more solid, but I'm not sure that means anything when you consider that we can't visually compare the important things. Any information on how either does with a little four inch butter warmer pot? While my 60 odd inch Vulcan was impressive when we got it in a day when there was nothing inbetween it and a residential stove that seemed like a toy next to it, both the Wolf and the DCS seem heads and shoulders better to own and cook with than the untamed beast we have. I would say that even the Viking, is a much better compromise. I didn't really get a look at any of the newer residential ranges.

Piere Hermé on rue Bonaparte near place St. Sulpice in the sixth would be at the top of my patisserie list, especially for his macarons, anything chocolate and any of his more creative confections. His croissants were good, even interesting, but not an outstanding calssic croissant. I've read of even better ice cream than Berthillon, but can't verify this from personal experience. Anyway, you want to see Berthillon and try their ice creams if only because they're the ones everyone talks about. L'Astrance last fall was one of the hardest places to reserve in all of Paris. Lunch may be a bit easier than dinner, but it absolutely requires a reservation. If you don't get one, you might consider a last minute check to see if there's a cancellation. We had dinner at C'amelot with friends who reserved the table. The small restaurant was full. I would not attempt a walk in at the last minute. It's customary to call ahead and may even be considered a sign of respect for the restaurant by the diner. If you are able to, I'd call a few hours before if it's a restaurant with any following, even if a small bistro. We were able to walk into la Fontaine de Mars early at lunch and get a table. Note that I don't always follow my own advice. It was lunchtime and we were right near the restaurant. We didn't really want much lunch as we had a big dinner planned for the evening, but when we looked at the lunch menu and realized we could eat very lightly, so we asked about a table. Last fall we were staying in the 1st arr. (I usualy prefer the sixth near the seventh) and procrastinated about making plans for dinner. If I recall correctly we may have had a good lunch that day. Anyway, we wandered over to Willy's Wine Bar a little after the peak dinner times, only to find all of the tables occupied and the bar uncomfortably packed. The far more casual and smaller Juveniles had empty tables. You might also consider Legrand's for a nice, moderately inexpensive light lunch. I don't know if it's my favorite market, but on Sunday's there's an organic (biologic) market on Raspail.

Oh well, they do have alot of good articles about lifestyle, entertainment, and assimilation issues-- check it out!! In all fairness, it was less than a year ago that Korova closed down. My point was only that topical articles on a web site are no different than those in print. The reader always has to separate those things that are likely to remain useful and those things which are timely.

Baruch, I have trouble following some of your posts. In any event I thought mogsob reintroduced civility in this thread by offering information without needing to make personal comments and for that I thanked him.

I find that particularly thoughtful of Robuchon, especially at a counter where you will be next to strangers. André Daguin is no longer at the Hotel de France in Auch, but I have his, Regis Marcon and Michel Bras' tabel tents with polite requests that guests smoke in the lounges and not the dining room. Now if something can done about the perfume I have to endure at times ...

Heston Blumenthal serves a mustard ice cream in a red cabbage broth. I don't know who came first and haven't had Passard's dish, but the mustard ice cream/cabbage soup was a winner at the Fat Duck.

I'm holding out for Breaux Bridge where, by the way, you won't find "New Orleans Dishes and booths."

Unfortunately many web sites are not so different from print media. An article gets published with up to date information and then sits on the site forever. It would really be great if everything on the web were dated. Information about restaurants is short lived in usefulness. Information about trendy restaurants has an even shorter shelf life.

There was a time in NYC when one could buy roasted sweet potatoes (or they may have been yams) from a pushcart on the streets. My guess is that even back in the forties, one could only do this in a few neighborhoods. They were nowhere to be seen where I grew up, but on Saturdays I would sometimes go with my father on his rounds visiting his customers and in one particular area of Brooklyn, we would run across these vendors and I would be treated to a hot roasted sweet potato with a smokey flavor. Another treat was an old fashioned (even for then) ice cream parlor along the regular route. Other than that it was a generally boring day for me, but my mother thought it good to get me out of the house.

Here's one post reporting on the demise of Korova.

I'll be eager to hear what this is all about.

Korova is gone, is it not?

It's none of my business, but I'm curious to know why you thought you were looked down upon by the staff of Leon de Lyon. I assume you referring to les Loges as next door to la Tour Rose. We had a very good meal there, but I recall the service was a bit aloof and indifferent, worse at the top than from the runners who seemed more eager to please. There was an air of urban conceit that I associate with trendy restaurants rather than gastronomic ones, but the food was redeeming.

My thanks as well, for reintroducing civility into this thread. Anytime a member feels he is too tired to be civil to another, may I suggest he take two aspirins and log on again in the morning.

I think the first tarragon flavored sorbet I ever had was six or seven years ago at Arzak in San Sebastian. It was a pear sorbet served with some orange confection. That was dessert. Since then I've had any number of unusual flavors used in ice creams and sorbets for both dessert and savorty courses.

I don't have solid first hand experience with Italian cooking. I've been there three times--twice on a limited budget and even the last trip was long ago, but it seems as if Robuchon is too creative to be typically Italian. On the other hand, my personal opinion is that he's his own man these days and doesn't not fit easily in any particular niche. One might argue that he's not his own man since Apple describes his cooking as eclectic rather than fusion. I dislike the word "fusion" only because I associate it with flavors that didn't fuse on my plate, but eclectic is worse in a way in that it implies a certain lack of creativity. The gazpacho remains Spanish and vitello tonatto stays Italian. The twentieth century has valued creativity above all else. Certainly that's the heritage of art in the past 100 years and even accountants are admired and prized for their creativity--if they can stay out of jail. I've been a supporter of the concept of chef as a creative artist. Maybe Robuchon is telling us not to throw out the baby with the bathwater and that there are centuries of development behind those classics.

Let me highly recommend mogsob's link to R.W. Apple Jr.'s Out of Retirement, Into the Fire in today's The New York Times Dining & Wine section. It's nice to see the Times pick the right man for the right job. mogsob, why do you feel the place sounds Italian? My sense was that it almost sounded Spanish ("'Ibérico de Bellota,' gazpacho and gambas à la plancha" vs "vitello tonnato, spaghetti, and chicken and foie gras cannelloni"). I assume we're both bringing our own prejudices, or at least loves and experiences to this, and that the world, especially the culinary world, is a lot smaller than it's ever been and great chefs, even French chefs who eschew fusion, have a global vision. When Apple spoke of "sweet, tender, transparent disks of raw scampi, filmed with mild olive oil, probably from Provence,' I wanted to ask how he was sure it wasn't Spanish olive oil. But if it was Italian, it wouldn't change my view. We had a superb lunch at a little tasca in Madrid serving a combination of traditional Asturian cooking and contemporary food. There on the table for us to enjoy was an open bottle of extra virgin olive oil from Italy. It's a small world. "In a sense, the Atelier is a first cousin of a tapas bar or a sushi bar, with small plates listed on the left side of the menu and more substantial dishes over on the right" is one of the key descriptions to the style of Robuchon's workshop (l'Atelier de Robuchon) restaurant. I've never seen a sushi bar that offered large and small plates, but the image works, at least for those plates that are quickly prepared and served at a counter. The tapas bar image is better in my mind. Although nothing eludes a precise definition than what a tapas bar is or should be, In Madrid and Andalucia, it can be a place where one can get a snack sized dish, a half order and a full portion of a large variety of prepared hot and cold foods. Often one can order the same dish in three different sized portions and more often than not, the counter is the preferred place to sit or stand even when there are tables. The French may not be ready for haute cuisine cocktail parties (see fresh_a's party above). What Robuchon seems to have done is formalize the eating of haute cuisine on the run (grazing?) by providing stools. It's somewhat a disappointment not to know that I can't sit down at a table and enjoy his cooking at leisure, but I have to applaud Robuchon for providing what seems to be an excellent example of an alternative to the French. My first exposure to food in France, back in the sixties, turned my head so much that I quickly adopted an attitude that when it came to food and dining, the French did everything right and Americans did everything wrong. As for the Spaniards and Italians, well they did some things right, but had a lot to learn. In my defense, I can only say I was young, impressionable and at an age when many join a cult where they are not nearly fed as well. One of the first things we questioned was the paucity of options when one wasn't in the mood for three or more full courses. 'Atelier de Robuchon is too much of a destination restaurant to imagine having less than three course and my guess is that most of us will make a much longer meal of it than should be had sitting on stools, but after it's found it's niche in the neighborhood, my guess is that it's a place many will use the place very freely between its 7:00 PM opening time and 2:00 AM closing as a place to grab a fine snack on the way out on the town or on the way home late at night. That many will use it as a chance to eat good food without having to spend time at a table, is perhaps a sign of the times and one that doesn't please me as much, but I'll credit Robuchon for providing great food for that market and not blame him for creating it. It's also apparently a way for someone to try fantastic haute cuisine food without paying for the ceremony.

I've never eaten in the St. Alban, but I know the name as it was recommended to us by several friends as a good buy, a few years back.

That link didn't work for me, but this one did: http://www.cityvox.com/frontdoor/0,1942,EU...AFRTCIT,00.html for all of France, with links to cities in other European countries as well and this one: http://paris.cityvox.com/fra/paris/accueil.html for Paris.