Bux

Our visit to Can Fabes was years ago and as we headed south from Madrid, we didn't get anywhere near it. Maybe you'll enjoy my La Broche, or better still, my Las Rejas. In France, I've found that the better the restaurant, generally the less smoking although admittedly there are a few restaurants that not only allow cigars, but encourage then and profit form the sales in Paris. In Spain it seemed that the more expensive the food, the more people smoked. We've been puzzling over the relative disappointment of manzanilla here in NY. The crispness of the manzanillas and finos in Spain reinforced that opinion. I've heard others say that all of the wines of Jerez, including manzanilla from next door Sanlucar de Barrameda are stale when sold in the US. As they're all fortified wines with high alcohol and the product of a solera, as well as non-vintage, I just don't see how they could go stale so quickly. Speaking of sherries, in Asturianos, a restaurante, bar y vinoteca or tasca in Madrid, we were introduced to a PX (Pedro Ximenez) -- vino ducle de postre -- not from Jerez, but from Aguilar De La Frontera. The D.O. is Montilla-Morilles and producer is Bodegas Toro Albalá. It was a vintage wine (2001) with 17% alcohol and, I'm told, unfortified. It was dark amber in color and tasted of figs, raisins and honey. It was superb with a flan de queso. The fresh cheese in the flan added a new dimension to the dessert and was a bit like a cross between a traditional flan and cheesecake. I've never seen it here and suspect it's not widely distributed in Spain.

Claudia Flemming used to make wonderful pannacottas at Gramercy Tavern in NY. I wonder if they are still on the menu and as good.

Just a few months after lissome, we also made our way from Madrid down to Andalusia. This seems as good a place as any to enter our comments so they will be found along with the earlier part of thread by those planning a trip to either Madrid or the south. We spent a few days in Madrid split between sightseeing, visiting Mrs. B.'s local travel contact and eating. The eating included tapas with Victor, who posts here as vserna. I "met" Victor many years ago on the net and we've exchanged views on food and mainly on Spanish food, by that I mean he's taught me a lot and given us great advice on restaurants through our travels in Spain. Our first refueling stop was a visit to the Museo del Jamon on Carrera de San Jeronimo not far from our hotel. We knew it well from previous visits some time ago. It's a tapas bar, not a musuem and part of a small chain. I've never thought of of it as having the finest ham and it probably doesn't, but what we had, which wasn't even their best grade, along with some dried chorizo and acetunas (green olives) was still quite wonderful by most standards and a good introduction to Spain. It's a popular bar with tourists and locals alike and definitely not upscale. It's open on Sundays and not far from the Plaza de la Puerta del Sol. It's worth knowing when you want a quick bite, but it's one of what seem like millions of places to grab a snack and a caña (short draft beer). Bar customs vary regionally in Spain, and also from bar to bar. Frequently something complementary is offered to anyone who orders a drink. Here is was a small plate of chorizo slices. Few places were open for dinner on Suday evening and on the way to one near our hotel and listed in Michelin, we were seduced by a Galician tapas bar/restaurant that proved not to be very special and offered inconsistent food. The Albariño however, was inexpensive and a seafood rice was al dente, perhaps even a bit undercooked, but very flavorful. Among the tapas, some tiny grilled green peppers dressed with a little olive oil and what appeared to be Malden salt were most interesting. Serious eating began on schedule at lunch the second day at Santceloni the one star second restaurant of Santi Santamaria, chef of the three star Can Fabes in the town of Sant Celoni, north of Barcelona. Our impression was that the restauranrt merited it's single star by was far less consistent than Can Fabes. The latter was a true destination restaurant. If there's interest, and I have time, I will post a report of the meal. Our notes are faily extensive. The Menú Gastronómico was 85 euros and there's an even larger Gran Menú at 100 euros. We've learned not to make one o'clock reservations and of interest to those visiting Madird for the first time is the fact that when we showed up five minutes early for our two o'clock reservation, the restaurant was locked tight. We went for a walk and returned at 2:15 to be seated. Many diners showed up at three or as late as four o/clock. This is not unusual for lunch in Spain, particularly at a restaurant of this class. One advantage of showing up early is that you might get through a bit of your meal without having to mix the flavor of the food with that of cigarette and cigar smoke. Many of our best meals in Spain tasted as if they were served on an ash tray. Even in such an elegant restaurant as this which had luxurious space between tables, the room quickly filled with the aroma of burnt tobacco. At Santceloni, as well as at other restaurants throughout Spain, beer seemed to be the most popular aperitif, although we started with a copa de cava here, and later as we moved south, we switched to finos or manzanillas. --------------------------------------- mas luego

It's clear this is not going to produce the rare tuna so in vogue these days. I suspect this is an old recipe. Fashions change. Preparations that were once considered proper may still be enjoyed if you can adjust your mindset. I've had canned tuna that was anything but dried out. We may even forget that a correct tuna salade nicoise is made with canned tuna, now that hip chefs have started to offer an "updated" version with seared tuna. I'll bet that tuna braised in a medium oven will not get dried out. (I'd use a sheet of parchment paper over the food in the covered pot.) Whether you, or your guests, will like it or consider it over cooked is something you may know better than I. By the way, after a few weeks in Spain and having tuna in salads with olive oil and roasted peppers and as a filling for empanadas, I've come to have greater interest in, and appreciation for, well done and canned tuna.

Didn't I say this in my first post? You didn't. The "if" in Robert's post put your words in question. Wasn't that clear?

Where is it? Barcelona? Do you have any links? Okay, I see it's in Barcelona. It appears to have opened in September 2002. Here are some links to mentions on the web. asiancuisine.com Ditto. Balaguer was doing an appearance at a Singapore "Word Gourmet Summit." Wonder what SARS did to attendance.

Re: savory sabayon Full recipe for Pierre Gagnaire's Corolle de saint Jacques et saumon d'Ecosse, suc de clémentine, sabayon au champagne here.

Two nights in Paris? Hell, we just spent two nights in Sevilla -- a town not noted for its restaurants -- and we couldn't make it to most of the tapas bars we wanted to try. Travel is frustrating work, but someone has to do it. Of course there's always the next trip. Even if they never opened another restaurant in the world, I could probably spend a year (and need a mortgage on my place) and not catch all the restaurants that got away.

Steve P and anil put there fingers on the suspicion I've had about dinner and that's too bad. I'm far more inclined to have dinner out. I've never understood lobster rolls, it's the bun.

Based on visits that were not recent -- La Regalade over Chez Michel, but I hear La Regalade has become too popular and worse yet popular with tourists. Chez Michel seems to be out of the way and more local. Le Cinq would be the most compelling of the second group for me, but l'Astrance should be of high interest. L'Astrance is the only one of those three in which I've eaten, but chef driven restaurants usually get my attention before those that reflect an owner's philosophy. Then again that may change as I've found myself enjoying regional and traditional restaurants whose chefs are not stars lately. The joys of eating out are the options, except when you're in a foreign city with many options and you're there for a limited time.

A fascinating story for whatever it foretells. I like your optimism and appreciate your realism. No matter what happens it may be an important move. Whether or not it's a step towards preserving the classic heritage of French cuisine -- at least that of the previous century -- it appears to be a gesture of hommage to the classic cuisine -- and more so to the men who cooked that cuisine -- and who taught Gagnaire and to the relevance it still should have for younger cooks. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. I see there's a article on that site about the closing of Lespinasse as well. That article really doesn't add much to the story of Lespinasse's closing. It blames the weather this winter, threats of terrorism and most of all, the economy for the problems restaurants are having here. The site is in French and not much use to those who have less comprehension of the language than I do, but probably interesting for those who read French, although the articles do not seem to have too much depth. There's an interesting line in one article about reaction of Kurds in Paris to the war. "Elle est contente d'offrir vendredi des Coca-cola, 'pour soutenir les Américains'" it said about one Kurdish restauranteur in Paris. Without this site I wouldn't have learned about the worker's strike at McDonald's de Strasbourg-Saint-Denis in Paris. This is an old fashioned strike and stictly about wages. Damn the web. It really sucks one's attention and time.

I was thinking a bit larger and a bit more formal. Say a Cafe Boulud or Cello type of place, but I could use more down scale myself these days.

"Not too terribly corpulent?"

Robert, what have your sources been in New York? I assume you've probably done some legwork on this and are not content to be using supermarket stuff. What places have you tried and how do you rate them?

I suspect I'd like to see Delouvrier go to a small place where he can control the staff, although I have no idea why the restaurant is closing or why it didn't deliver as it should have. I doubt that the final days will be a blaze of glory. If someone has friends on the staff, they might give us a better idea.

Lucky you. We arrived what must have been the evening after the storm. Imagine leaving New York on the cusp of Spring and, two weeks later, hearing the pilot announce our flight might be delayed because of a snowstorm in New York. Ping himself is evidently a great chef, but my the down slide of my bad luck at his restaurant was ended after a third visit. I've heard the dim sum was better than the rest, but thanks for taking the hit for me. I'll stick to Sweet 'n' Tart and Dim Sum GoGo.

Just once, but in this case it's not a matter of not wanting to return. It was definitely entered into a "keep in mind" list. I recall uncomfortable seating however. I don't think I've ever had a bad albarino -- well maybe one glass of over oaked albarino that wasn't bad, but not to my taste and that was in a wine bar in Santiago de Compostela. You note that it's a good place for solo diners. Although we (2) had lunch there, we wondered if it would be a comfortable place for two couples to dine and converse.

I assume that once you hit a wheel a day, the freshenss of the cheese is only going to be dependant on the amount they buy at one time. I know that DiPalo's does a considerable wholesale business as well. Louis makes several trips to Italy each year and deals personally with his sources. I don't know Teitel Brothers on Arthur Avenue, so I can't make any sort of comparison.

From the Japan Times article: "Neptune 3000 and Mermaid 1000 wines will cost 5,000 yen a bottle, the Katsunuma officials said." Is that about $42 a bottle? I guess they won't have to worry about loss through evaporation.

Well, not liking coleslaw on a sandwich qualifies me as a non expert anyway. Turkey and Swiss on rye with coleslaw? Does it have a name? I could have sworn it was a sandwich with a name.

The difference in freshness should be obvious to almost anyone. If you're asking if anyone can tell the difference between a fine quality cheese and one of lesser quality after they've both been grated and sitting in a store for a while, the answer is probably no. When you buy a chunk, you should buy a relatively small amount that you will use in a reasonable period and you should grate as much as you are going to use at the moment.

It's been quite a while but I have some notes. My wife had what she calls comfort food -- oeufs de poule mollet, panes, mouillettes truffee or something like that. They're my wife's notes and they say "a soft boiled egg (the yolk was almost red in color) which had been breaded on the outside and deep fried. It was served standing on a pool of chopped truffles accomanied by finger sandwiches of white toast with truffles." Well caviar or truffle, whichever egg dish is on the menu is not a bad way to go. I had the feuillantine de langoustine aux graine de sesame, sauce au curry which, at the time I thought was sublime. It was lovely food of the sort that makes no attempt to be cutting edge. I though the staff, although perfectly professional, were a little dour. I hear that's changed for the better and Lizziee has convincingly reported elsewhere on this site that service is at least as professional as ever. I'm a bit jealous although I have no right to be after two weeks in Spain where we had meals that were very creative or very hearty food and sometimes both at the same time, but we didn't have this sort of meal. Oh well can't have everything all the time.

As a born and raised New Yorker, I never got coleslaw on a sandwich like a Rubens, but it's an interesting parallel now that I think of it.

Fat Guy, go talk to Louis at DiPalo's. I'll bet he can give you some useful information. My guess, only because I'm so outclassed when it comes to Italian cheese, is that he knows more about Italian cheese than anyone in NYC. I understand he was hired once to fact check Steingarten's work. Louis jokes about it, not because he might not know more about cheese than Jeffrey, but because, as he says, no one checks his own work like Steingarten.

This is a totally unscientific study, but the one cab driver who drove us in from JFK Monday night said he was having trouble trying to distinguish those people trying to hail a cab in front of bars from those just out for a smoke. I didn't pursue this with any attempt to query him on his opinion of the long term effects on his income or safety cruising under these conditions. We shared the cab with a friend who asked to be dropped off on the corner. The cabbie explained that it would cost no more to take him to his door step. We assured the driver that in spite of the rain our friend wanted to be dropped off on the corner so he could have a smoke before being greeted by his wife at home. It was a long flight and the poor guy had only a chance for a short smoke while waiting for the cab at JFK.