Bux

My guess is that a lack of respect down the line in the restaurant business is not uncommon. French restaurants don't usually qualify as ethnic. Even in kitchens where respect is earned and there is an appreciation for those on the way up, chefs and owners do not always feel comfortable expressing it.

Unfortunately Violin d'Ingres, along with so many other restaurants is closed on both Saturday and Sunday. It's getting hard to find a "gastronomic" meal in Paris on the weekends. In New York no one goes out to eat on the weekends because the restaurants are so full. [Apologies to Yogi Berra] In Paris they're just not open.

If memory serves, Amat had two stars at Bouliac at one time. He lost one and never gained it back.

Which shows just how far away Jean Troisgros was from becoming an archbishop when that comment was made. Burgundy Stars, a book about Loiseau, says "Jean, snarled: 'If this kid becomes a cook, I'll be an archbishop!" Apparently this was just after Loiseau mistakenly tossed coals into a pan with salmon instead of the fire box for the stove. William Echikson, the author, notes that Loiseau was treated rather miserably at Troisgros. One of his duties was to prepare food for their dog.

No doubt they get around and far better than I do, but that doesn't make them experts nor does it qualify their ability to recommend restaurants on the basis of the food actually served. To a certain extent, as I only know a few of the locations and a few of the restaurants, my comments may be dismissed, but I sense on reading their list of "Hot Tables" (NB: Even they note these are "hot" and trendy, and that's rarely synonymous with offering great food in my opinion.) on the page to which you link, that the list could easily and honestly have been drawn up from press releases received from restaurants about to open.

I meant that I am always a bit depressed under those exact circumstances. I suppose it's about seeing a missed opportunity. It's part of what makes l'Astrance so thrilling. They got the food right without worrying about opulent surroundings or luxury ingredients. But of course that's my orientation. My mother would have clearly preferred the Meurice to l'Astrance unless someone told her the buzz is about l'Astrance. Rest assured, I would probably enjoy lunch at the Meurice, although I am not likely to choose it given the short time I am likely to get to spend in Paris. I would even enjoy the opulence. The "depression" I describe is an intellectual depession, not a mood altering one.

The best way to eat a hot dog is to cut a length of baguette to match the dog, impale the bread on a sharpened broomstick, dip the hotdog in mustard and insert it into the hole made by the stick so that the mustard is forced back along the sides of the sausage. Appropriately enough the first time I saw that act was watching a vendor on the streets of Pigalle.

I haven't tasted the 1999 Hartford Court either, but I often bring Zinfandel. If I was from California, I'd always bring Zin. This has led to a big smile from a charming young woman inspecting hand luggage on an intra France flight when she told me I did not have to bring my own wine as they have plenty in France. A friend of ours brings Zinfandel to his wine making neighbors in the Languedoc and once brought a mixed case to someone who was curious to know what sort of wine they made of the grape in the US as he was experimenting with planting Zinfandel with the government's permission. The French are quite strict about what grapes you can grow and where you can grow them. The other bottle we are likely to bring is Ron del Barrilito, an excellent brandy like sipping rum from Puerto Rico, but this makes sense for us as my wife is from the Island. The truth is that almost everything of quality can be had all over the world and even the French are no longer so chauvinistic that they don't import canned Mexican food. I'm not sure they'd know what to do with the fresh ingredients however. My fallback when I can't think of a suitable food or wine item, is to bring picture books. There's no shortage of good American photographers or books devoted to one aspect of California or another.

Not every meal we eat is memorable. Sometimes we eat for fuel and sometimes we dine for social reasons. We here at eGullet may forget that, but for the rest of the world the proportions are reversed and I suspect refueling and socialization drive the restaurant world far more than gastronomy. An understatement, I suspect. Nevertheless it's an interesting aspect of dining rarely touched on here. It's generally (but not universally) true that one will dine far better at a one star luxurious restaurant than at a plain one and that among unstarred restaurants the food will be "better" at the more expensive ones. This is not to imply that the food improves in proportion to the price. The increase in luxury and the ambience will account for most of the price difference. In fact, even in a three star restaurant, a good part of the bill will reflect these things, only some of which are directly related to the food--a fine glass helps the wine for instance. There is something very nice about a good lunch in an an opulent restaurant, but for me, there's always an undercurrent of depression. While a great rustic meal eaten off a wooden table without cloths and from heavy crockery with my sleeves rolled up in the company of good friends can compete with a fine meal in elegant surroundings with good friends in the best clothes, good but uninspired food in elegant surroundings under any circumstances pales as anything but a social curiosity. In spite of all that, I was fascinated by the details of your uninspired meal.

Steve, that was a wonderful post. As soon as Marco Canora came over to your table I had flashbacks of every nightmare I've had when I hit the "add reply" button. It's hard enough worrying about a chef reading my critical comments online without facing him. Then as I read your post, I realize I've done it all wrong for so long. I've been nice to the chefs I've liked instead of going out of my way to make them prove their mettle. Currying favor is not the way to go it turns out. Intellectually I'm on your side regarding the craft approach to menus and ordering. What I love most about going out to eat are the lovingly composed plates that are set before me. The progress of western civilization since my chldhood can be measured in terms of the sophisticated development of the dishes served in American restaurants starting with the disappearance of the partitions that separated the peas from the potatoes and the potatoes from the meat on the plate. I've never found Penn Dutch dining to have much allure and I always feel like a fish out of water in a steak house. I'm glad Tom made that connection for me. I will however admit that friends who are comfortable on either side of the swinging doors of a French kitchen do not have as much trouble with Craft's concept as I do. In the end, I think it's your exceptional dinner that proves your point. What you got when you left yourself in the hands of the chef is better than what you believe you might have ordered on your own. Of course my admission that I am not pleased to be in a steak house only serves to put everyone on notice that I'm the oddball and there's certainly no reason for Tom not to attempt to devise a restaurant that appeals to the rest of the city's diners. Assuming he's doing it better than others have, the burden is not on Tom to suit my preferred style of dining out, but for me to learn how to make the most of the resource he's offering. Gee, did I just go out of my way to make that my problem again and not Tom Collichio's.

The seafood platter sounded good enough and with the gifted upgrade, a bargain to boot. The menus, particularly the list of appetizers sound alright as well. "Salmon tartare with oysters, salad of haricot vert beans" reminded me of some dishes we had eaten at the Haut St. James in Bouliac. I recall a couple of "tatares" and at least one of them was a mixture of oysters and a fish with perhaps some vegetable or salad base. Although the memory is a bit fuzzy, I recall the oyster and loving it when I tasted the tartare.

Hmmm, I don't think that's really true, but as I haven't been to the main dining room at GT in a long while, I don't know how to best describe the differences. I'd love to see other opinions on this though. I love both restaurants and think very highly of both chefs and both operations.

Munster cheese alone, should be sufficient reason for Alsace to be included among the great cheese producing regions of France. I'm partial to cheese served unadorned by fruit, nuts and special breads, at the end of meal before dessert, but I once ordered a chausson de munster at an in auspicious restaurant in Alsace and was captivated by the taste and aroma of the warm munster flowing from its pastry enclosure. I'm curious to know if one can still get wild trout in Alsace or any other part of France. My well grounded suspicion after our recent trip is that it's unknown commercially in the Auvergne, or at least in the departmants of the Lozere, Cantal and Aveyron and that even the best restaurants rely on farmed trout.

Cabrales, there is a hotel called le Square in the 16ieme. In it, there is the restaurant Zebra Square. I am not familar with either, but Michelin notes the restaurant as "comfortable" (two forks) and the price of a meal at about 38-45 euros. No closing day is mentioned. On Sudays I've often resorted to a brasserie. The very contemporary les Grandes Marches neither looks much like a brasserie not does it have a brasserie menu, but we enjoyed it last summer. There's a mini report on the WorldTable page to wish I've linked. By sheer coincidence there'a a mention of Chez Michel on the same page. Les Grandes Marches is over by the Bastille Opera. Another more traditional brasserie we've liked is Vaudeville. Both of these are owned by the Flo group. Chez Michel is a restaurant that draws people to the area who might not otherwise find themselves there, unless they were at the Gare du Nord. I recall that Chez Michel had a sister restaurant just a block or so away, but I don't remember the name and suspect it would also be closed.

In that case it's completely irrelevant whether or not my derivation is correct or not. I've often wondered if the truth is any better than a fiction if either can serve to stimulate one to think. That thought came to me as I was reading two guide books that offered rather separate and different stories about the same site in my travels.

Of course we are all entitled to our own opinion. Posters reputations will rise and fall in others' minds with the validity readers perceive after reading reviews of restaurants they know or after reading numerous posts. To maximize respect for one's own reputation, one should extol the vitrues of the restaurant they enjoy and refrain from attacking the person with whom they disagree. I've agreed with many here and disagreed with some about certain restaurants. I've never advised those with whom I disagree to be "fair and honest" nor have those who disagreed with me offered that sort of criticism. I find it a peculiar way to defend a view. Mikemkie - perhaps you can tell us more about yourself and your qualifications. Should we take your claim of visiting Tamarind more often than Suvir literally? How can you be sure? Do you know and recognize Suvir?

The only answer I can give is that some eggs taste better than others. I've not found any source that consistently supplies the best tasting eggs. Not unreasonally, flavor seems to vary over the year. We had reasonably good luck at the Union Square Greenmarket where Knoll Krest seems to offer flavor and value. We've not tried all of the others there. Sometimes organic eggs from Farmer Green (or is it Greene?) available at health food stores and supermarkets have been better. Sometimes they take second place. Others may have better sources or have done more exhaustive studies. I've certainly not found a source in NY that provides better eggs than I might find at a three star restaurant in the French provinces or ones raised on a small farm in Brittany.

You might say that a child who was coddled had is life greased with butter. Escoffier codified all the terms and names of garnishes so anyone who knew the code knew exactly what they were getting. Nowadays it's guess work for all the claims that the names describe the dish. We're referring to our soft boiled eggs as oeufs confits henceforth. When they're served on toast, that's sur lit de carpaccio de pain.

Not to turn this board into an online GQ, I've found that when the inner need is to feel less formal, a nice blue blazer with a tie and button down shirt worn with rumpled corduroy slacks will get me a lot further than starched shirt and pressed pants without tie and jacket. It's often the jacket and sometimes the tie that's required. That only works for those who don't have a real aversion to wearing a tie under any circumstances. I have such friends. Corduroys in Paris will usually mark you as a professor or artist and allow you a little satorial leeway with respect.

My attraction is actually for Spanish Catalonia. Admittedly some of this is due to the fact that Spain is exciting simply because I don't know it as well. On the other hand, I didn't enjoy Spain and Spanish food when I first encountered it in the mid sixties. Spanish food, at least in the north has changed and the sophisticated high end owes a considerable debt to French haute cuisine. I've changed too, my tastes are more sophisticated and it's taken a certain sophistication to appreciate the rustic cooking that is uninfluenced by France or haute cuisine. Many of the French olive oils are quite mild and I always favored the butter and cream of Normandy and Burgundy. More recently I've come to appreciate the more robust taste of goose fat and of olive oil that tastes of olives. I'm embarrassed to say that once I thought the flavorful oils were the cheap ones and that olive oil as a condiment added for flavor was a bizarre and greasy habit. Now I enjoy and sop up the oil as a sauce. France has become more homogeneous and Spain offers some regional fare that makes travel a bit more interesting and it has the three star cuisine as well just south of the Pyrenees. What Spain lacks is the cheese. In the week we spent in a relatively small area southwest of Lyon, we found that almost every restaurant in the coutryside (Lyon was an exception) served local cheeses almost exclusively. The slight differences from locale to locale were interesting. It's also an area that makes cow, sheep and goat cheeses. In a way, the cheese alone provided us with the sense of terroir, so I am not writing off France by any means. I understand your interest in a gite. For one thing it's a change as Spain is a change for me, but the kitchen is a big factor. I'd hate to be deprived of the restaurants of France and that includes many of the little ones that are not so special on the surface, but we've also been frustrated by the produce in the market. I often wonder if I wouldn't be more frustrated with the kitchen set up and tools in most rental places after I got home from the market. Of course there are so many prepared foods available that one needn't do much cooking to produce great meals by filling in and around the salad, cheese and pastries. The Languedoc provides that for us in the way of our friends' house near Pezenas. We usually cook a meal for them and get involved in shopping and stuff while we're there.

From the bit I've read, I've enjoyed your articulate responses and look forward to reading the rest. I was interested in how you responded to the "food substitution requests" post. In general I have little sympathy for a diner who comes to a good restaurant for any rason other than to eat the foods the chef serves, but sometimes there are extenuating circumstances. You've noted that advance notice is preferable and, for some things, absolutely necessary. How far in advance would you suggest one make a request and how agreeable do you think other chefs are to special requests? I'm thinking of a diet restricted to steamed or boiled food served without fats and a limited choice of foods at that. Someone with this restriction may be hoping to find a chef who can make his meal interesting, or just trying to get by and enjoy the company of others who are eager to fully appreciate the menu. This issue has been raised on the France board in another way and I'm curious to get a chef's reaction.

Rachel - those are indeed, egg coddlers and thus you must be correct. Another instance of fuzzy terminology? I've thought of baked eggs as "shirred eggs." Could those terms apply differently to eggs baked in ramekins of different heights? Are huevos rancheros shirred eggs? I wouldn't leave out the possibility that coddled eggs were eggs cooked in the shell and removed intact until someone noticed the difficulty of peeling them and invented a cup for coddling the eggs in a steamer. I certainly don't have the definitive answer and it's quite possible that "coddle" meant handling with kid gloves before it meant cooking an egg though my handy pocket dictionary offers: 1. to cook (esp. eggs) in water not quite boiling 2. to pamper Hmm, off topic, but anyone want to invest in marketing a new disposable diaper called "Coddles?"

Steve - I find the printed word is often not worth reading. I find newspapers disappointing. I find the Times disappointing. Etc. Seriously, I find a lot of travel writing to be little more than a report by someone visiting a reasonably interesting place for the first time with maybe a bit of advance research. The only rationale I see, is that the article will prepare the reader for the experience he will have if he does no more research. My suspicion is that there's a good market for this. Tourists just want the name of a restaurant or two and a hotel. People like to read about simple adventures in places that are not really threatening. What can I say? I live with a travel agent and have to listen to her rude remarks when she reads the Sunday Travel section. Travel writing can be worse than food writing, especially in the NY Times and I've not been a fan of much of the food writing there. Amanda Hesser has certainly been the target of much of my criticism. To see her writing informed articles on Spain is a nice surprise. Perhaps she is maturing into the writer others have told me she could be, or perhaps editorial direction is changing for the better at the food desk. I believe Suvir has mentioned that Eric Asimov is now an editor. It's also true that Spain is hot in terms of dining--and not in the way Mexican food is hot. Look at the cluster of Michelin stars in Catalonia and in the Basque region. Suvir - In addition to your work here, do you have a suggestion where those interested in India and Indian food should go for intelligent writing?

Eggs are among my favorite foods. I regret the loss of flavor in mass produced eggs and even the organic ones we find in the supermarket, health food store or greenmarket don't compare with what I remember from my youth or still run across from time to time in France. In France at a top restaurant or inn, a soft boiled egg may be the highlight of a wonderful breakfast or the center of a great first course with truffles or caviar. A nice presentation is always a an added attraction to a flavorful dish of any kind, but there's an attractiveness to a soft boiled egg in its shell and in reverse to serving the egg out of its shell I've had custards cooked in a hollow shell precisely for the visual effect. I suppose one element of visual appeal is seeing the egg presented differently from how you expect it, which is what fashion is about. For me, one of the nicest ways to serve a coddled egg is to remove it intact from the shell and place it on a bed of something like spinach, frisee salad, or just on a piece of toast or muffin in lieu of the poached egg that would normally be called for in a recipe. Cutting the egg, which has a quality akin to a "quenelle" of jello, and watching the sauce pour out is an ultimate table presentation unassisted by a waiter. I don't know if there were differences between slow cooked, soft boiled and coddled eggs. Cooking terminology seems to get fuzzier with time, at least in these times. For me, "coddled" has always had the connotations of an egg that is soft cooked in the shell and removed intact. I believe that's what the French call oeuf mollet and I suspect that's how the term "molley coddle," meaning treated very gently, came about.

My inclination is to agree, but I've never discussed this with a cook or chef and I really have no grounds to give you confidence or lead you to believe it's a problem. I've traveled and dined with a friend who is allergic to seafood and fish. That wouldn't seem a big problem, but when the tasting menu is over a dozen courses and most are fish or seafood, it could be. Nevertheless with advance warning El Bulli was able to prepare a full menu for our friend with meat and vegetables.