Bux

I've been going there for maybe forty years. Although it was run by Armenians at that time, it catered to a wide audience and carried a lot of non mainstream non western foods and spices. One of my first visits was with a friend who had lived in India for a year. We were searching for spices he wanted to prepare an Indian meal for us. Over the years, it's been a source for some of the freshest middle eastern breads, but lately I seem to shop on the wrong day, or they are not selling as much and get deliveries less frequently. The pitas and other middle eastern breads are not always fresh. Parathas are another staple. I like to keep some handy in the freezer. Dr. Atkins is not friend of mine. I mentioned their chutney's in another thread. They are also a staple and I prefer them to the brand we used to buy. Our curried dishes are something I'd not offer an Indian. They are neither authentic nor subtle. The closest thing I've found to our chicken curry is a Columbo from the French West Indies and it's more French creole than East Indian. I suppose there's another thread in that--Indian foods, flavors and dishes incorporated into other cultures from the English who picked up certain limited tastes to places where those from the subcontinent have established a significant population like the West Indies.

The restaurant has been open for over two years now. How do you feel your menu has evolved in that time? I see some dishes that seem to have stayed. Have they become your classics? Are there dishes that seem to represent Blue Hill to you to the extent they are sacrosanct or are there dishes that you'd prefer to stop cooking, but are demanded by loyal diners? How has Michael's arrival in the kitchen changed the scope of the menu offerings. I know he's responsible for some of the dishes I've had, but I haven't seen an abrupt shift the general cuisine. Do you think the tasting menu represents your food better than the a la carte menu or is it a question of the diner's mood? Do you find that diners gravitate towards or away from the tasting menu as they become regulars? Are these fair questions? I know that sometimes, if a restaurant comes highly recommended, I'll choose the tasting menu to get a broader picture of what the kitchen can do, but at other times I might wait to order the, usually more expensive, tasting menu until I've come to respect the kitchen more. So maybe it's not a fair question, but I can ask if you tend to regard the diner who orders the tasting menu in a different light that the one who orders a la carte. Please feel free to answer as selectively as you wish or just repond to the general subject matter.

The reason I see this as a witch hunt is Because Suvir used the word "apologize" before asking for "an opportunity to start afresh" in his return announcement. My suspicion is that no matter how he phrases his apology, someone will need just a bit more personal attention and require more of an apology if the first one isn't sufficient. Eventually, if we haven't already, we'll discuss this on the plane of "when did you stop beating your wife." There are accusations that cannot be proven, but that can also not be disproven. I am disturbed as the underlying dishonesty of points made earlier show up as alterior motives come to the surface. Move on. Any single user has the power to disrupt this site and ruin it for everyone. All we can do is prevent someone from ruining it for others by making it in his image. Sabotage and terrorism can never be adequately defended against. All I ask is that we move on.

Saying goodbye once is never good form. Saying it twice is less good and more pointless. It's not about winning, but whatever. If you post half as often as Suvir, I trust we'll see you around plenty in the future. As for your site, it's a worthwhile cause and I hope you keep us in touch by posting updates here, or in the appropriate board.

Wilfrid, you loom scarier and scarier by the day. The only response will be to post "I'm even scarier by night."

Cabrales, I've already taken Whiting to task for speculating and for making assumptions read as facts, but okay, I understand it could lead you to speculate further. My question is really to what end? Is this to become a court where we try those who offend the majority or will it be a place where different opinions, including the unpopular and even the unfair, are heard? If so, how are we to react when one member attacks another by accusing him of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy and then ingenuously complains of an ad hominen attack when the baited party returns the slur in kind?

Cabrales, offhand I can't offer an exact date, but I can tell you that John hastily rewrote the article so as not to be embarrassed by Suvir's reappearance on the site. The publication date would have been just days after that day. I am not sure if John learned of Suvir's appearance online, or if Suvir notified him slightly in advance of his first post here. Can you tell me what this could tell you?

My vote goes to Dim Sum GoGo for the finesse and originality of the dumplings. I also like their turnip cake. I also like Oriental Pearl above Canal for the variety, but have learned to reject any and all fried foods. They're never hot or crisp. This is a huge dim sum parlor that's noisy and crowded on weekends, but the carts provide the ambience requied by some diners. I've not tried most of the others mentioned.

Best and biggest wow factor are very subjective. The might not even be the same for all people. A lot may depend on your previous experience with three star restaurants, Parisian restaurant and certainly your outlook and attitude on food. I'm always surprised how different my reaction is compared to someone else's when in the abstract we seem to agree about food and dining. We have only been to four of the three stars and two of those were two stars at the time. In fact my best advice would be to get to a three star restaurant while it's a two star and preferably the year it earns that third star. Prices will be a bit lower and they'll be trying harder. With the "wow" factored in, Gagnaire gets the nomination from us. My caveat here is that we ate there just before it got it's third star and reservations were easy to get. I can't report on the inevitable changes in attitude, service and price, except that it seems to have gotten more expensive.

I know next to nothing about Indian food. That's my opening disclaimer, there will be more. My idea of a curried chicken salad would be cold poached chicken with mayonnaise flavored with curry powder. The curry powder would be a commercial blend, but the mayo would be home made or why bother. I might have celery in thin slices, dice or chunks, but I'd not use any fruit or chutney. Other inclusions would be savory, not sweet. Nevertheless, I will offer my endorsement of the house chutneys from Kalustyan on Lexington just north of 28th Street. This is a shop I've known since it specialized in middle eastern and Armenian delicacies. Some of those are still there, but as the location has turned into a little India shopping street and the new owners are Indian, the focus is now on Indian food more than the others. I recommend the hot and medium chutneys with and without nuts. Perhaps someone with knowledge of Indian cuisine and Kalustyan can tell me if they're really worthwhile products from a more knowledgeable point of view.

Plotnicki, you are clearly the troll magnet. Most trolls refer to you and your behavior. You are the center of those posts. That the trolls appear to side with him is not his fault, nor does it make their authors his pals. Appearing simultaneously is not the scientific proof we need for cause and effect and I believe you're too smart not to see your own double talk for what it is and the members should feel insulted if you think it will carry any weight. The reason you don't see John ask the trollers (and these trollers do not belong to him as you claim in a continuous stream of groundless assumptions presented as supporting facts) to stop is that you approach this site as your own work of fiction--The World According to Plotnicki. Here are John's words.

My edition is from 1961. I understand later editions have improvements. If they bother to differentiate among the first ten hours it's out of water, I assume freshness is important. I wouldn't bet against Ripert getting it in alive in a tank if he thought it was important, though I can't say it's one of the fish I've seen sold alive in Chinatown. I suspect the freshest skate I can get in Manahttan as a consumer would be in the Greenmarket. I wonder if any is less than ten hours out of the water. In any event, I wasn't thinking of the really top restaurant kitchens or restaurant kitchens in general.

Under "Ray," my copy of the Larousse Gastronomique (English translation) says see "skate." Under "Skate or Ray," raie is offered as the French translation. This is interesting: I wonder how many of us might have access to fresh skate less than ten hours after it is caught. According to the book, skate can be found in shops already skinned, but not in France.

There is gelato in NY, notably at Ferraras on Grand Street and other parts of Little Italy and SoHo. None of it has impressed me or reminded me of gelato in Florence. Is it my imagination or is the gelato in NY totally unrelated.

That train to Sants also goes on to other stops in the city including plaça de Catalunya. In fact, I believe the train up to France can also be picked up at other stations in the city including Catalunya. The train is really convenient especially at the airport end although it also does local duty as a commuter train and alighting at various stations during rush hour with luggage can be a bit of a problem. At plaça de Catalunya the last flight to the surface must be made by stairs--no escalator or elevator as I recall. My recollection is that taxis are not expensive in Barcelona.

Hey that's cool, but I wonder if it has any legal effect. Although I haven't been interviewed very often (the last time was for an article on eGullet and much to my surprise I was not only quoted accurately, but in exactly the context in which I placed my responses) I have used the expression "off the record" both when I've felt I might be quoted and just when I don't want a confidant repeating my words to another in private. Generally however, I think e-mail and private messages are off limits unless in response to an interview.

It that's what you think, it's good reason for me to not reply. I have fully expressed the limits of my dissatisfaction with John's article and don't agree with your view (which seems to boil down to the fact that you feel John was discourteous and his conduct "odd.") at all. What else can I or need I say on the matter. I see no public call for further discussion. I see exactly the opposite. Needless to say referring to someone as a troll magnet does not raise the level of discussion to one in which I am drawn either. I owe you this much of an explanation, but I also understand that by each post in this thread--no matter what I say, or how well I say it--I lose public respect.

We've gone from professional "standard" to what "you" would do and now on (or back) to what "anyone" would do. I don't know if it's the shifts here or just the fact that you are comfortable telling us exactly what the whole rest of the world would do in any situation that convinces me this is not about anything but gamesmanship.

Cabrales has asked earlier about produce from Blue Hill farm, but I know that can only supplement your other sources. You've been spotted at the Union Square Greenmarket (along with a good number of top chefs, especially from lower Manahattan restaurants) and my initial recommendation for Blue Hill came from someone doing an article on ramps as supplied to you by a Greenmarket vendor. In this day and age, it seems almost anachronistic for a chef to be out in the market selecting his own produce. All of this leads to a series of questions. How reliant are you on seasonal produce and to what extent does this place a restricition on your cooking and to what extent does it serve to inspire you? Presumably you have a good professional eye when you shop and you shop early to get the best goods, but do certain producers put away their best for chefs or do you compete with the rest of us in the market? Do you have any opinions on farmer's markets and how the consumer can best benfit from them? How important are your other sources, particularly the ones for meat, fish and seafood? Blue Hill is not the corner luncheontte (a generic term, lest there be a Coner Luncheonette that feels defamed) and diners arrive with an expectation of something special. How important are the ingredients in playing this role?

There is no disagreement over what happened here. Don't tell us that John interviewed you. I found nothing deceitful about John's posting on eGullet as much I as did not appreciate his article. And your complaint is that John "interviewed" you or that he was dishonest in his interactions. Was he more dishonest than other members who do not indicate their real name and professional affiliation with food? John came to the board as a participant, as I assume did the other writers, reporters and journalists that have come and registered or lurked. As a particpant he posted earnestly for some time and in great numbers. I have established that John cam here to participate. The chronology of events will support that as will all of Johh's posts in many threads scattered across the boards. John has been an active member with a point of view long before he was approached to write the article. Of course it's not a very strenuous standard--it's not a standard except in "The World According to Plotnicki." If pig's could fly... Well I suppose they'd by poultry, but in any event, it was not you and it was not me, so we'll have to rely on commonly accepted rules of ethics here. It's the only way a community can operate. If you'd like to propose a change in the form of some revision to the user agreement, I suspect others will offer many arguments as why such a set of rules might not be in our best interests and might have a chilling effect on the possibility we'd get some good press in the future. Terrific, but you've retreated from your original position that you were expecting John to act professionally. Now we are in disagreement. I disagree that it's honest and proper to hold anyone to a personal set of ethics that conflicts with the commonly accepted standards especially when it is presented after the fact. I don't see your comments as expansions of what those others said at all and it's rather disingeuous to line Fat Guy up on your side here. I'd prefer not to see these discussions go on any longer. Members have done well to present their legitiamte criticisms of Whiting's article and move on. I'm bogged down responding to your post not because I enjoy the discussion but because you do an excellent job of presenting opinion as fact and I cannot bear to let it go unanswered. I'm sure I'll get complaints from those who will tell me they don't need my post to see that and I don't mean to underestimate most of our members. Post another brilliant and poetic report on an excellent dinner and I'll follow up as a devoted admirer of both your ability to appreciate food and relate that experience. I personally think you're wasting your time and talents on this issue. For what it's worth, I won't even mind if you write about a bottle of wine I'll never get to taste or one that cost more than all the wine we served at our daughter's wedding put together.

John used his membership here to ask questions just as any other member has. That he used the public answers to his questions as well as what appears in other posts should not cause anyone any concern. Any lurker could gather the same information. Your only "real complaint" is an issue fabricated as a red herring. By the way, there's no requirement that a reporter not use his real life experience in his stories. On the other hand I don't know that John wrote in the capacity of a reporter, journalist, food writer or editorialist. Why you come here for that sort of pleasure is beyond me.

The established pattern for reporting on eGullet has been established before John's article, and what you think any journalist would do is not what a highly respected journalist did. In other aspects discussed in other threads, it's been pretty well established that the journalist in question adheres to a set of ethics most of us consider exceptionally high. Impeachable might be the effective word. As Fat Guy may have stated--I'm too lazy to read back but it doesn't matter if he hasn't, I will state it--I don't recall any question or post that John appeared to make for his article. If you are afraid your words may be seen by a journalist and used, you're in trouble. We are not a private group, but a public forum and one that's been noticed by food professionals of all ilks. You can't be sure any word you post about a restaurant won't be read by the chef--but you knew that already. You know John's a writer. You know other writers have been here and reported. Your concerns are disingenuous. More to the point, there are professional writers here in the capacity of members and staff. I haven't heard them support the bizarre ethical standard you ask us to live by. It may not be as bad as it is bizarre, but I don't find it a professional ethic. This a flamingly transparent attempt to retroactively establish a false standard by which to tar someone.

I don't recall Bill Daley making any sort of disclosure when he first came to the site and I'm not aware that either he nor John came to the site with the intention of writing an article. At one point, Bill contacted several of the founders and moderators and asked questions. He did not, as far as I know, submit a draft of his article prior to its publication. You, and I, have no entitlement to know how our public words are reported and we should be encouraged that journalists find us worthy of notice and articles. Your ad hoc and bogus set of ethical issues serve no other purpose than a personal vendetta and should be seen as such by all. Many of us make mistakes in life, online and in this forum. Most of us recover and go on contributing as best we can for our own and the general benefit. I've already addressed my disagreement with John about his opinions and focus as expressed on this site and in print. I have also expressed my respect for his being honest about what he's said and for posting his words here and taking his lumps from those who disagreed or felt insulted before moving on. I would not blame you for perpetuating the thread. I would however, take you to task for inventing ethical issues which suit your arguments in an effort to perpetuate the thread where you have no legitimate case on the issue. One of the larger issues I see here is when does the negative effect of a member's input exceed his positive contribution. In John's case, the positive far outweighs the negative and for that reason I've told him in pubic when and where I find his contributions most useful. I'm happy to make that suggestion to any member interested. John's overall participation here allowed me to make the assumption that he was interested in hearing what I have to say even if he dismisses it out of hand, but that's part of why I think he's valuable to the site. "Fighting" can be carried on at all levels. There's a level where one shows respect for the adversary and treats him with respect. I think that's the level members call for and when it's lost, they call for a return to that level not a dog fight without rules.

I wonder of one can get mutton in NYC? It's hardly possible to see the word "lamb" without seeing "baby," "young" or "spring" directly in front of it. Is this a factor of the economics or raising sheep, or just changing taste (or perception of taste)? It may also be that sheep over two years of age is still sold as lamb. I guess that would be a matter of mislabeling to appease popular taste for the idea of lamb vs. mutton. I had never heard of "hogget" or mutton ham before. As a matter of fact, sheep may be the one animal whose meat I've never had cured.

I don't know much about the current food. Over the years the cuisine has had it's ups and downs. It's a beautiful property. The public spaces and grounds are very nice as I image the guest rooms are as well. It's not far from where our daughter's in-laws live. Last year when were in Brittany for a wedding, we stayed at a nearby simpler property under the same managment. It suited us fine as we spent most of our waking hours with relatives and would not have had time to enjoy the chateau's facilities. We had thought about going over a for a meal, but learned that there had been a recent and abrupt change of chefs. We ate in Lorient at the newly two star l'Amphytryon which was good, but not in a class with Roellinger.