Bux

Perhaps a dissenting voice is in order, even if it speaks of a negative prejudice that may be undeserved. Lipp has never really been on our the list of potential choices. I'm sure it's a perfectly adequate place and a bastion of history, but the voices that have our ear, deservedly or not, lead us to regard it as a bastion of tourism and clelebrities. My prejudice is also that neither of those groups is very discriminating when it comes to food and that a restaurant that caters to either group is not likely to maintain excellence over the years. "NO SALAD AS A MEAL," in English in a restaurant in France, would be a disheartening sign for me to discover. Posted on the outside of the restaurant, I might even find it a deterrent. That said, the food looked like very good traditional bistro/brasserie food. Michelin recommends it for its choucroute and I imagine it might very well make a good introduction to Paris for many. It's certainly a photogenic restaurant. That the chocolate they present with coffee is Valrhona, is one sign that they care about details.

I believe there's also a Spanish cheese that's traditionally covered in maggots as well. I believe these cheeses are illegal to import into the US and the Spanish one may be illegal in Spain as well, but traditions die hard.

Invariably, whenever we check out of a hotel, they ask if we want the bill charged to the credit card we used to secure the reservation. When we haven't guaranteed a room with a credit card, I find many hotels will ask for on when you check in, and that ask if you want the stay charged to that card when you leave. When we're comped at a hotel (an industry perq that happens all too rarely these days) we'll be asked for a credit card anyway to cover room service, minibar and the possibility we'll trash the room like a rock star.

Oh, yeah. It's a Polish thing, you wouldn't understand. I wonder why anyone would say something like this. Did he think you'd comp him? . . . . ← As originally reported, it did sound like a stupid comment, but as someone already suggested, there is at least one spin that would make it an acceptable comment. Sometimes, people say things to express a "solidarity" with another ethnic group. Often they do it when they are self conscious about the differences. It's unlikely, but still possilbe the remark was meant to be taken as "I"m Polish and we also typically use pork and cabbage in combination." Misunderstanding is so rife, not just on the net, but in real life face to face conversations. Someone says "It's very Polish to cook with pork and cabbage," and that's reported back as "Pork and cabbage is a Polish combination not a Chinese one."

Bobmac, there's the possibility that the people running your Thai restaurant are really Chinese.Edited for clarity. ← I find that most of the southeast Asian restaurants in NY's Chinatown offer chopsticks, perhaps for much the same reason that Chinese restaurants in small towns and suburban shopping malls offer forks (or at least used to). It's not out of authenticity, but to please the client or meet his needs or expectations.

Alas, it leaves you not very far away from those who do not use money. Transactions become difficult to make and you are more limited every day in every way. For years after I had a number of cards, I avoided using them partially in the belief that what John said was true. The more people used credit cards, the faster prices increased. I found my little protest didn't have much effect on the economy, and it was a real pain trying to remember to refill my pockets with cash when all I had to do was to carry a couple of thin credit cards with me at all times. My life is so much simpler since I gave in and started using credit cards regularly. Your milage may vary. I suppose you have no reason to ever rent a car, reserve a hotel room or make purchases by phone or over the internet. When, or if, you ever do, or if you will need to reserved a table in a particular restaurant, I suppose you will use plastic. Until then you don't have to. I could suggest why someone might want to establish a credit rating and that getting a credit card might be the best way to do that, but it's really not my place, nor is this the place, to lecture anyone on the subject.

It may not be good business to acknowledge this in public, but the customer is not always right. In the meantime, I'm off to Chinatown to get a bag of frozen pierogi. I like the thin wrapper they use and the fact that they put shrimp in there along with the pork and cabbage.

As much as I've enjoyed watchiing the series so far, I very much agree that it could a better job of exploring its subject. I've been inclined to think it could be more informative, intstructional or educational, but if those are self consciously incorporated into the show, it could have as negative an effect as the positive one I want. On the other hand, Tony could offer greater exploration without lecturing and preaching and that could make the show not only more informative, but perhaps even more entertaining.

The pork belly is very rich. If an order of dense rich ice cream, or a large portion of triple creme cheese scares you, pork belly is not for you. If you don't eat meat, or worse yet, you're the kind that trims all of the fat, you might find nothing to eat here. The skate at WD-50 is quite something else. At first glance it seemed really thick for skate. At second glance, I didn't understand how you could cut a skate and get anything like what Wylie served. Later he explained that it's made by laminating many pieces of skate together and slicing it in a way that produces an unexpected product. The "glue" used to make this "plyfish" is the same stuff that holds the shrimp noodles together. That product, made by the Ajinomoto Company of Japan was the subject of a cooking thread some time ago. Both the noodles and the skate are processed products in the same way that mousse, pate and even a soufllée are processed products. Of course it's just as easy to say that heating a steak over a grille is simply a way to process the meat for consumption. People like Wylie and Ferran Adrià are simply using techniques we might associate with industrial processing, but there's no reason to assume they don't produce food that tastes good. I only had a small bite of Ya-Roo's skate, so I can't comment too much on the success here. As with the shrimp, there is a change in texture, that's unexpected at first, but agreeable in its own right.

Here's what John Talbott had to offer last December. You can follow the link back to the earlier thread, but it veers off quickly.

Quite interesting and a different perspective to add. I enjoyed her take on the reasons why sous vide cooking by professional chefs prospered in Europe before it did here. I'm happy to see her offer some support for the new with the understanding that what's old and good will still be here in time to come even if it becomes unfashionable for a while. That's an interesting group of people with whom she consulted on the article. All of them have contributed to our forums and a couple of them have been major contributors to the sous vide discussions on this site.

So, as with Roger Marris's 61st home run, there's an asterisk along with the Gold Medal for Brie.

There's An Ice Cream Love Story from the Bonjour Paris web site, you may find interesting. It's about Dammann's but there's a list of some other glacières at the end of the page including Berthillon, le Bac á Glaces, Glacier Calabrese, Pascal Le Glacier, not to mention Basken Robbins and Haagen-Dazs.

Ice cream has been the subject of discussion here on eGullet and I recall Margaret Pilgim recommending a place on the left bank not far from Notre Dame that she thought surpassed Berthillon. Besides, I seem to recall that Berthillon closes and takes a good holiday in the summer. This is Paris and not NY. Aha, here it is, Dammann's (fabulous) ice cream in Paris, 1, rue de Grande Degres, 5. It's just off the quai de Montebello towards where it becons the quai de la Tournelle behind Notre Dame.

I understand that at this year's World's Cheese Awards, first class in the Triple Creme Brie category was taken by Marin French Cheese Company with it's Rouge et Noir brand product. I know the cheese was made with pasteurized milk, but I'm not sure if there were separate categories for raw milk cheeses and pasteurized milk cheeses. The literature I have suggests a single competition thought I am suspicious by nature. I've had some exceptional cheeses from this company. In fact I tasted a few at the Fancy Food Show in NY and they were kind enough to send a larger sampling. One of their soft ripened chèvres was bland, the other had exceptional flavor and both were perfectly ripe. I have a brie that appears to still need some aging, so I will wait another week. The variety produced was good, and the best of their cheeses could earn a place on a cheeseboard in France.

'96 is how I read it. It's interesting how we make those corrections automatically to adjust what we read to what we know. Sometimes it keeps us from learning the real truth. 1996 doesn't seem all that early. We first ate there in the spring of '98. Our daughter and (future) son-in-law had le Régalade reccommended to them by the Sommelier at Guy Savoy the year before and I am sure I had already read about la Régalade in an article by Pierre Franey in the Dining setion of the NY Times. I suppose Jeffrey was among the first group of American journalists to know about it however.

A most interesting post, at least for me, as it addresses issues close to my thoughts on food, especially in the US and France. Raw milk cheeses are available, but only in select markets. Raw milk cheeses are not accurately labeled. There is no government control over labeling raw milk cheese precisely because the young ones at least, are illegal. Regarding advancements in the quality and interest of food in the US over the last fifty years, I'd say that if you halve that figure, you'll get the steep part of the curve. American products are not available to a great degree in Europe and when they are, they are not competitively priced. Thus their availability is unlikely to increase right now. The first time you pay more for an inferior cheese may be the last time you try an American cheese. It's not simple provincialism that keeps our products off the market in Europe. Nevertheless, things are getting better here, while in France there's been a decline over the last fifty years. However, there are numerous signs that the decline may be over and that quality is improving again in Europe. So there's not that much hope we'll pass them quickly if we're depending on their decline to meet us half way. Still, I'm encouraged that we were able to put together a respectable meal that included tomatoes I thought were better than any I've had in France, to serve some French people at the spur of the moment simply by shopping at the Greenmarket in NYC. I don't know that I could say that about any selection of American made cheeses, but I've put together respectable cheeseboards to serve Frenchmen in the past and my sources are better today. The raw milk factor still keeps the cheeses below the quality of the best in France in almost every case. Still, the gap decreases. The upside for France as well, is that young people whose parents weren't farmers also consider the production of a superbly crafted cheese to be a noble occupation. Perhaps they are not led away having not grown up experiencing the hardships involved. There's many a hard working farmer whose dream it is to see his kids lead an easier life.

It's fine for a cook to post his professional opinion here that sous vide is of limited gastronomic value and I will take it as a professional opinion, but when a chef knocks my socks off with a mouth watering dish that's exceptionally satisfying and appealingly presented, I have to assume the chef who thinks it's not an important technique simply hasn't investigated its potential. By the same token, once a chef had demonstrated his mastery of traditional techniques, it would be unreasonable to suggest he's using sous vide out of desperation. In fact, if his sous vide dishes were the equal or better of traditionally cooked dishes I've had in Michelin three star restaurants, I shouldn't really care if the chef was led to sous vide by desperation, if the dish I'm eating is as good as any other I've had. The point I'll agree on is that the final product is the most important aspect to me as a diner. I'm not surprised to hear that a great country chef in France, secure in his educational traditions would prefer to think of new techniques in terms of cost saving and stock control rather than a culinary advancement into unfamiliar territory. His response was to say he's hip to the technique as a business tool, but don't worry, no one will ever cook better than I've learned to cook. That may well be why I eat better in Spain than in France these days. Finally, I'll agree that no one technique is the best for all applications. That includes fire. Sometimes food is best left raw. The best fish chefs of France have been taught a thing or two by sushi chefs. Anything that increases the potential for good food should be explored as far as I'm concerned and sous vide cooking has already proven it's ability to add to the quality a chef can deliver to the table, even when cooking one on one.

I should have noted that both of my reporters are industry insiders who known to Jean-Georges, but outside of a complementry coupe or desesrt and perhaps warmer service, I don't think that made a great deal of difference in their meal in a place this size. More worth mentioning is that although this is the same couple who insisted I get to Berasategui in San Sebastian years ago, their preference is probably for excellence in execution before creativity. They noted that the menu was fairly tame. They also commented on the wine list saying it was short, but had a reasonable selection below $60. I think they even noted a few bottles under $40, which seemes reasonable these days for a place like this.

I've noticed that a large number of the cheeses I've liked at DiPalo's, my great NY source of cheese and everything Italian, come from Piemonte. Most recently, I had a nice wedge from a Valtellino cheese. At least that's what I thought Marie called it. I had asked about some goat cheese unlike the soft fresh goat cheeses I usually buy. It was similar in a way to some aged Spanish goat cheeses, although I'm not sure this was all goat's milk. There wasn't much information on the simple label. It was quite good. I believe it's from the Piemonte.

Please note that we've moved some posts that are only, or predominently, about Italian cheese to the Italy forum, where we've started a discussion about smaller artisan cheese producers in Italy.

Two things I like to add: - IMHO, some of the best Italian artisanal cheese (Robiola, cheese from the Piedmontese Alps, Valtellino, Alpi Bergamasci, Trentino, Piave, etc) are produced in really small quantities only and can be found almost only locally in markets, on farms or the better restaurants that care about a cheese selection. - and I'm afraid that the EU regulations are going to do evevn more harm in Italy than in France. Italian bureaucracy can be as predictable as roulette when it comes to the application of regulations and laws. During the last two decades, their former apporoach of "situational" implementation is sometimes replaced by an almost German strictness. OTOH, I have seen production rooms of 100 sqft where 75% of the even knowledgable consumers would call for hygienic regulations (though not at all really necessary andf the goat cheese produced there was of really fantastic quality). But in all fairness, I can understand why some regulators think they are acting in very best interest of the consumer. Both, regulators and average consumers tend to be ignorants and "safety" and "security" are killer arguments, nowadays more than ever. ← I love cheese, I will be in Italy this fall and I can't find a thread on Italian cheeses. I've moved some posts about cheese in Italy from a discussion in the France forum about the loss of many family-produced cheeses. France is my ideal country for cheese, but I've been learning to appreciate Spanish cheeses during my recent travels in that country and I've been doing a bit of exploration in Italian cheese courtesy of one fine NY shop specializing in Italian imports and especially in Italian cheeses. I don't care at all to hear a discussion about which country makes the best cheese. I am simply interested in learning more about the cheeses I can get in Italy and in particular, the sorts of cheese that are likely to be lost to industrialization and bureaucracy.

I've had a reliable report that's quite favorable. It's second hand, so I won't go into detail, but two diners who ate there on Friday, thought I'd like it and encouraged me to try it.

Does the law impose a minimum tip? ← No, but the IRS (our income tax collecting agency) requires restaurants to report gross figures and expects tips to be reported as at least a certain percentage of that. Theoretically, as I understand it, a waiter could actually be expected to pay taxes on a greater figure than he actually collects. Of course most diners in the US who pay by credit card, also tip by credit card, so there's a paper trail that exerts its own force these days.

Just to continue playing devil's advocate -- and my need to do so is based on my opinion that that I am not convinced there is a clear right answer here -- service is less hard to mask than food. A sharp critic's eyes are focused at far points in the room and often quick to note what's happening in the room far from his own table.