Bux

And on Mosco Street, there's a decidedly downscale two choice--dumplings or buns--and no tables dumpling place.

There's a slightly larger than hole in the wall with a pretty large menu (all things being relative) on Mulberry Street, north of Mosco Street, across from the park, that warrants a second taste. Superficially it seems a little more upscale, but it's got the same plastic fork and two sauce gestalt. Some of the pancakes seem rather enticing. It probably has a name. If it's not Fried Dumpling, it may be Tasty Dumpling. The kitchen seemed pretty big in comparison.

ankimo is delicious and tends to pop up on the menu at Trio from time to time I've heard it's on some Amerrican restaurant menus (other than Japanese restaurants) but I've never been lucky enough to run across it. I've also seen it in markets in Galicia and Brittany, but again not seen it offered in any restaurant in which I've dined in either area. My only experience with it has been in a few Japanese restaurants and on an open sandwich in Paris. There I'm afraid it was canned and I think from Denmark. It was an acceptable spread for the tartine, but not so special.

I may not be addressing the important question of the thread, but it seems to me that in France today, as in the US and I suspect in the the UK, what you have is anything but a monolithic cuisine. It is not even monolithic in a small town in France where part of the population shops in stores that favor artisanal producers and part of the population shops in the supermarket where the supply may run a range of choices in terms of quality and style. Some small percentage of the population eats in fine restaurants and a larger percentage looks for value in terms of platefuls for the money. It is rather difficult project an image when one speaks of French cuisine. It's more likely one just raises a preconception to the fore in the listener or reader's mind Admittedly I thought it was more monolithic in the sixties, and it may well have been, but in answer to whether the cuisine trickled down from the aristocracy after the revolution or whether chefs refined the techniques of their grandmothers I suspect you will prove neither or perhaps you will be able to prove both. In France today, you have Alsatian food, Provencal cuisine, Southwestern dishes, grandmother's cooking, etc. and a class of dishes referred to as restaurant food. This speaks not only to my first point that it's not a monolithic cuisine, but also to the fact that it's filtered down and been refined upwards, but that there are always gaps. Who invented French cuisine is a question that can only be answered after you define French cuisine.

It certainly looks like it has a good feel to it. It looks like the kind of place that should offer good traditional food. You make it sound as if the cassoulet would be worth going for, along with the atmosphere--assuming the atmosphere is not a lot of tired old folks being served by a bunch of tired old waiters. Slightly sub-par food is a description that make me wonder if you don't mean food served from a kitchen full of tired old cooks. Michelin recommends it for cassoulet, confit and tripe. True enough it's at the bottom of each of those lists, but that's as much a factor of its simplicity--one fork and spoon--and its place in an alphabetical order. I'm not sure why, as the heyday of brasseries seems to have passed, but I'm becoming enamored of the lot. Perhaps it is that they seem to be a dying species. Maybe credit goes to a few good brasserie meals and a few unrequited brasserie meals.

You got me intrigued. With the Spanish text I've got a translation from someone who speaks new world Spanish. The first paragraph is fine, but my source offers "soles (of the foot)" as the more likely alternative to "plants" for "plantas." The dictionary concurs on that definition and also offers "wood louse" for "cochinillas" but my source goes with "fleas and cockroaches" or "fleas and lice" as good poetic translations. For the latter and harder paragraph I am given: "Sugar, syrup and honey. It penetrates the areas most tightly closed and the barely or scarsely inhabited highest peaks to take possession of the honey." Hard to say if the chef is speaking of the ant, his own taste for sweets or his clientele.

Peter you're so often down on America that this looks upbeat, so I won't dwell on it, but I recall looking up a college professor in Stockholm--someone who had taught for a term in an American university. We had lunch and then went someplace for coffee. As we approached the pastry display case, he must have realized he found something that would touch my American sensibility. He pointed to some pastries and with a big smile said "You know what we call these in Swedish?" and after a pause he continued with "danishviennese." It seemed to speak to the Swedish neutrality. Now what the hell is a "hot," in terms of anything one might order in America? I'm in New York, admittedly far from "America" at times in some people's minds, but I'm without a clue. I've never ordered a "hot" or a "hot pizza." Cold pizza is a favorite breakfast food of American college students who remember to put last night's pizza in the fridge before they pass out.

Good question. There appears to be an hommage to the ant in the Flash introduction. Unfortunately it's in Spanish and I don't speak Spanish. I can't copy and paste the text from a Flash media web page. Web pages are fascinating. This one has links to other restaurants--exactly six at this date--two Spanish restaurants, three French restaurants and one American restaurant. "Enlaces" seems to be the word they use for links.

elyse, yes, when I hear "macaroon," I think of coconut macaroon. When I hear "macaron" I think of the very light and delicate little (well sometimes big, these days) French petit four. Where are you and how widely are French style "macarons" available in pastry shops in the U.S.? One can often do something about a recipe that's gone astray, but quite often the final result will be a more than a compromised version of the intended result. Professional chefs usually have a pretty good idea when something they are doing will not become something fabulous and they may have good reason to regard great food as something other than what is created by chance or accident. They may also see the cost of the ingredients as a minor factor in relationship to their time and decide the best advice is not to throw good time into a botched start. They will also see the finished product as reflecting on their professional reputation. You are of course entitle to disagree with them in relationship to time and ingredients. I just question the vehemence of your opposition. But I actually responded to let you know that when you quote an entire post, you can edit the post in the lower box, or even in the text entry window if you do a preview, and delete text that's irrelevant to your reply. All that we'd ask is that all who do that remember to try and keep the context.

David you make a good distinction about office workers and the non effect of their absence from work on daily life. Butchers' closing will affect the daily life of the resident perhaps, but not the tourist's. When the patisseries and worse yet, cafes and restaurants close, that's a problem.

Clearly Otto's price point is aimed at the broader market than Babbo's. Is there a broader market than those who watch him on TV or buy his books? Babbo is, at best, a minor label under the Mario brand. The last I thought I read here was that Bourdain suggested to him that he appear, but that he was busy. It's often hard to to see the gossip for the rumors. Fortunately for me the innuendos go over my head.

The one point being made in these last posts that I will agree with is that Otto's pizza does not satisfy my craving for "pizza." This is not to say, that I left Otto on either occasion still craving pizza. A full stomach will generally dull any food craving. What I am saying here is that let's say I've been craving some meat-loaf sandwich from my childhood all afternoon long for some unknown reason. If I go to Blue Hill, I will not get anything like that meat-loaf sandwich, but when I leave the restaurant I will not crave more food of any kind. Nevertheless, back to Otto, diners may not only have a craving for the pizza they know, but will arrive with the full expectation that their craving will be satisfied. They are likely to be disappointed and that is likely to color any appreciation they might have for the product. In that regard, one might suggest Mario made a marketing mistake. Mario's track record is such that he doesn't need the word "pizza" lit up in the window of the shop to draw in customers. His name will do it. Had he said I'm going to take a chance on a rustic southern Italian dish that's hard to find in Italy and unlikely to appeal to New Yorkers, he would have had the same lines and waits at the bar for a table, but he'd probably have had reactions that went along the lines of "This stuff ain't bad. It kinda reminds me of pizza." I know the pizza of my teenage hangouts, I know New Haven pizza and I have a fair knowledge of the upper middle level of current NY pizza (John's, Lombardi's, a few of the halfway decent slice places, etc.) That's not what Otto makes. Those who have decried it as party food, or even snack food, may not be so far off the mark, but that doesn't make it a bad buy or a bad place to have have a heavy snack of light supper. The gelati alone are a draw and for all the complaints I'm beginning to hear about service, it's a more comfortable place than Lombardi's, John's or anyplace I know remotely like it downtown. It also offers, if not authentic NY pizza, a wider variety of food than those places. I can only hope sociologists correctly interpret the length of this thread as an indication of the strength of people's opinion on pizza and not as symbolic of Otto's importance as a restaurant. By the way, the room temperature octopus has drawn some high praise and some scorn. I thought the red sauce was delicious, but the stewed octopus had a consistency that was reminiscent of canned octopus. Not a bad dish, but it has more potential for disappointment than the pizza if you have hot fresh grilled octopus in mind.

You know there's ankimo--monk fish liver. Has Charlie touched that yet? Foie gras of the sea. Kind of a cross between foie gras and uni.

That may be. I'm relying on Ed Behr's description of a goose farm in Gascony. Most North American foie gras is duck.

This all reminds me that I've been watching the progress of a shop on Spring Street across from Lombardi's pizzaria in NYC. The name on the storefront is Rice to Riches, if I recall correctly, and a more recent sign in the window announces that it will be offering rice puddings. As the fixtures are installed it looks much like a potential gelateria. I don't know if there will be any tables. They seem to have installed a few stand up counters. I suspect they may be offering take away rice pudding in cups. Look out for a new trend. In a year or two we may have rice pudding trucks all over Manahattan. Watch out Mr. Softee.

I have mixed feelings about the hard liquor, but generally it has little place in my meals until after dinner. I just don't get the foie gras thing. Vegetarianism I get, but I haven't been convinced the ducks and geese don't fare better than the average poultry in America, though I don't suppose Charlie uses factory raised chickens either. On the other hand, free range chickens may be considered an endangered species.

You are kidding. Has he spent any time on a farm that raises geese or ducks for their fat livers? I've been told the geese flock to the feeder. They can't get enough feed and remember geese don't really like people. Either he knows something he should share in public, or he's lent his ear to the wrong people. In Defense of Foie Gras.

It gets hot in August, but since neighboring Roses, the closest place to stay, is a beach resort and many Europeans take their vacation in August, I would expect demand for reservations to be high then.

Not knowing whether he was coming or going or if it was a temporary situation, I'm loathe to mention the hotel whose front desk was very helpful when the concierge wasn't there. I don't have the web site handy either.

Rue de l'Harpe is just a block east of the St. Michel Metro station and just a block into the 5th arr. It's black full of inexpensive gyro joints and other places catering to students and student tourists. We've used EasyEverything in Brussels, Barcelona and Paris.

We've generally had more goose fat that duck fat. I'm not sure which is more flavorful. Unless you find the flavor too strong, I would use it straight. Try it that way first or work your way into it slowly. In a country such as Japan where there are such subleties in flavor and texture, it might seem overwhelmingly to some. I don't know. In the Gascony region of France we had a sauce that was similar to bearnaise, but duck or goose fat replaced the butter.

My experience with eggplant is that the more seeds, the more bitter. I've been told that one can tell which are the female (more seeds) and which are the male by the shape or the mark at the end. I don't even know if it's accurate to call these male and female or if those tricks work, but I've found the Japanese egglants have fewer seeds, are rarely bitter and taste better. (Sorry I couldn't work "butter" into the last phrase.)

Duck and mushrooms? There's a Moroccan/north African meat pie that's usually made with pigeon. You sometimes see it in France. Look for recipes for pastilla, bistilla, b'stilla or something like that on google.

We were there for dinner at AD/PA after having aperatifs at a friend's place already and declined an offer from the hotel sales rep my wife knew, to join her for a drink at the bar. It was not so much that we were late for our reservation--no one would minded that--but I already had as much as I was willing to drink before that kind of meal. We did regard her suggestion that we stop in and look at the bar on our way out as an order. Ice blue and ice cube cool as well as "cool."

Lou, can you offer us a good description of a what is meant by "praline" in French? I've looked for the definition and recipe I thought was posted by Klc, but possibly, I wasn't looking in the right place.