Bux

LML, most of us will read a book, eat a meal, see a movie, etc. and report back through our perspective. I'm most suspicious of those who claim either an unbiased perspective or that they alone, "got it." I read your post and jayrayner's and have no trouble reconciling them to the same book. "Suddenly editors and producers spread themselves before him offering as much he wants, to do whatever he wants. True to himself he doesn't shirk from doing exactly that" does not appear contradictory to the statement that "It might have worked were Bourdain himself not so terribly unconvinced about the project. In the introduction he announces simply ‘I needed something to do. I needed another idea for a book - preferably while I was still in good odour from the last one.’ Well yes, that is indeed how publishing works." Having questioned jayraynor about the implication that Boudain's career led him through the kitchen of the finest restaurants and that Bourdain speaks for the restaurant world at large--the fact is that the media has let him do that unchallenged and we have to accept that perception--I find his review reasonable. I thank you for additional insight that would make Rayner's review more meaningful, but I have to question how much you are responding to this particular review and how much to some real or imagined unrelated past offense. It's all too easy for online posts to cross the line and appear as personal attacks even when unintentional. Lord knows, I've been guilty of offending without meaning to be offensive. I've offended friends and made friends out of those I've offended. However, Rayner's supposed "Zionist romps" are unknown to this reader and to the large body of members here as well as off topic. Such comments should be seen as irrational in regard to what's been posted here. I hope your political agenda leaves the board, before it also becomes a subject of debate here. I can think of no better way to undermine this site than for you or anyone else to pursue this.

All those who imply that bagels in NYC are not what they used to be, are, if anything, understating the case in my opinion. Bialy's have fared much better at least in the ovens of Kossars. I don't know if they're better toasted or just hot from the shop. I do know that when I buy them, I need to estimate how many I will eat on the way home. Does anyone else like them with fresh goat cheese as much as, or more than, cream cheese?

Magnolia, you are absolutely right about La Regalade. I hadn't intended to suggest it as a replacement for the food, mood or service of l'Astrance, but as another part of the mix after Scottf noted they would be eating mostly in small bistros.

There are several Robuchon cookbooks. ;)The chefs at both L'Astor and Jamin are Robuchon trained and may be described as "disciples," although I don't know if either of them cook as Robuchon did. As Robert Brown says, "There is such a premium today to being an 'artiste.'" Few would want to be known for reproducing their master's work. Disciples are not what they used to be I'm afraid.

Surely, as a lawyer, you realize my legal obligation. ;)

Thanks for the clarification. It was important for me because I suspect many people assume he is speaking of the great, and often, French kitchens in New York when they read his work. His name alone, helps in that regard.

All this talk of sterilization and antibacterial soap reminds me of the recent studies linking alergies with insufficient interaction with dirt as a kid. I think that if you keep you house sterile enough you don't build up immunities. Shaw, we throw our sponges in the dishwasher and I suspect we don't do it often enough. Wooden cutting boards are probably more sanitary than the plastic ones. They don't harbor germs. Of course you should scrub the wooden boards and remove all food particles, but studies have shown the bacteria tends to die off on a wooden board and grow on a washed plastic one. This won't stop health official from demanding that restaurants use plastic boards.

There is nothing like the giant throat irritating bubbles that come from a real factory charged siphon. In truth, the fine bubble of Ferrarelle (sp?) is a better accompaniment to dinner, but real seltzer is an addiction. For years we've had seltzer delivered, mostly by Marty the Seltzerman, except for those years he sold his first business and took off for Burma. Our addiction to the syphon ended abrubtly one day when two of the bottles exploded suddenly, sending jagged glass shrapnel flying forty feet and around corners from where the bottles stood. Had there not been walls and cabinets there, I should easily expect the flying glass to have traveled well over a hundred feet on a fly. My guess is that over a dozen of the pieces were capable of delivering a lethal blow and that it was only a matter of luck that no one was seriously injured. I suspect there was a flaw in the first bottle to explode or that the cap was improperly screwed on. I imagine the second bottle was probably knicked in the first explosion and gave way a half hour later. The first one scared us, but didn't stop us from walking in front of where they were kept. After the second explosion, both cases were discharged immediately into the sink and I cringe when I see the syphons anywhere.

Steve P. also mentioned La Regalade. I haven't eaten there in a few years, but it offered great rustic cooking at an incredibly inexpensive price. It, more than any other restaurant in France recently, reminded me of how I was first struck by French food. It's a restaurant I think about far more often than most starred restaurants. Several years ago, we spent several days in Paris and ate in small restaurants and bistros, saving our budget and appetite for Burgundy, Lyon and the Savoie. Philippe Detourbe in the 15th arr. and Eric Frechon were the other two restaurants besides La Regalade whose meals hold up well against those of the starred restaurants in the provinces. Dutourbe is still there and reports are that it's still good. Frechon is now chef at the Bristol and you will pay three times the price for his food these days. I haven't eaten at Helen Darroze's better restaurant and my idea of the price range came from what's published in the Michelin Guide.

Jay Rayner, My personal thanks. I enjoyed reading your review and am grateful that you posted it here. I'm curious about one thing. You say: Do you mean to say that his book begins with a meal in a first class restaurant or that there's an indication his career included work in top class restaurants?

Well it's impressive in more ways than one. Of the places I've hit, my reactions are usually not so far off your mark until I get to the ones where I disagree completely. ;-) One #### of a post anyway.

To get back to the original post on this, it seems the British still report more new cases of BSE than do the French. The problem seems to have peaked in England where it was first discovered. I've spent some time reading about BSE (the cattle disease) and its connection to nvCJD (a human disease). Many are not convinced there is a direct connection. Steve Shaw published an article highly critical of such conjecture. I am not a scientist and not able to follow much of the highly technical writing on the subject, but I am more inclined to believe there is a direct connection between eating meat from mad cows. However, I am still critical of much of the media. It's been hard to get good information and I've spent a fair time on the web some time back reading all I could find. There were many threads about mad cow disease on the rec.travel.europe usenet newsgroup. Most of the threads contributed nothing to the store of knowledge on the subject, but a few were informative and a few led to hard scientific pages. I'm sorry I no longer have the URLs for those. Mad cow disease appears on it's own in nature, but the incidence is increased by feeding bone meal to live cows. The spread from cow to cow is the fault of humans. In nature, cows are not cannibals. We have made them such by mixing bone meal in their food. As long as bone meal is used in the feed, the disease will not be controlled. The problem is not only in stopping the production of bone meal laced feed, but in destroying existing supplies. It's no secret that plenty of the feed was shipped out of England and that some of it is in the US. Many feel it's only a matter of time before the disease appears here in cows. There appears to be universal agreement that the disease is spread among animals this way. The only questiion is whether the form of the disease found in humans is related to eating beef from mad cows. A variant is already rampant among game in the far west and another variant has been found in sheep here in the northeast. I believe in sheep, the disease is called "scrapies." This is a serious matter and not one that should be dismissed lightly.

I wish I had tips, clues and answers to the question of how to secure reservations in a lot of places. While most restaurants generally hold a table open until the last minute, I'd assume a very small restaurant like l'Astrance couldn't afford to, so even if you knew a friend of the owners, I'd doubt it would clinch a table. In fact we used a connection to get our reservations, but it was to get a reservation before they normally took them. That's a bit easier and I'm afraid the connection doesn't go very far. We were lucky to have a friend who was eating there a few months before we arrived in Paris. Maybe cabrales can ask if they have a cancellation for you when he's there, if he doesn't mind. Sometimes a personal request is more honored than a phone request. Cabrales, my apologies if I've put you in an embarrassing position. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had some clout here at eGullet.com. Otherwise it's the same rules as here in NY. Call again closer to the date or even on the afternoon of the day you want to eat there. I find that hard to do myself as I'm likely to have made a reservation elsewhere and even if that's my second choice, I hate to cancel at the last minute unless I'm sick. The best suggestion I have is to consider lunch. Restaurants that are reserved long in advance for dinner, often have a table for lunch closer to the actual date. It was a long shot to inquire here, but interesting that cabrales had a reservation less than a week earlier. As for alternate suggestions, Margaret Pilgrim was one of the first to recommend l'Astrance, before eGullet was born. She had another favorite, but it's in the suburbs. Here's what she posted in another thread: See some Paris rec's for the rest.I've heard some mixed reports about Darroze. Mostly good about the food, but just about all negative about the service. It's more expensive as well. One that got away--we couldn't fit it in to our schedule is David Van Laer's one star Maxence at 9 bis blvd. Montparnasse. Van Laer's food at La Bambouche was well received and after tasting a sample of his hare rillettes with chocolate at the Chocolate Show, we wanted to try it, but couldn't work it in, so I don't have a real first hand recommendation other than the recognized stars for you there.

In summation, the point is that the current Jamin, whether or not it deserves it's two stars, has nothing to do with Robuchon and is not cooking his food. ;) What about l'Astor? Was the chef not Robuchon's second in command at one time? Is the food similar to Robuchon's?

There's probably good reason to suspect most of the food we eat is poisoning us. It's as true for plants and fish as mammals. I suppose many Americans in France, or anywhere in Europe for that matter, may be a bit self conscious about eating beef. On the one hand it's easy enough to find other foods, especially red meats if that's what you crave in France. Certainly game is plentiful during the winter and lamb all year round. I always keep an eye out for pigeon and duck. The first time I ordered in France after the Mad Cow situation, BSE entered my mind and I steered away from beef. Then I considered that the aspic in the cold lobster dish was certainly made from veal bones and feet, but figured the odds were less. You just play the odds. Or as I said to my wife when she ordered the langoustines with sweetbreads, "You said you weren't going to order veal on this trip." She replied that she ordered the langoustines. ;) This akin to the fact that dessert only has calories for the person that ordered it. Dieters may feel free to nibble away at someone else's dessert. Cabrales, I have heard that some beef parts were taken out of the food supply, at least for a while. I don't know about the current situation. As far as I know, there have been no new reports of nvCJD recently. Have I just been in the dark? Assuming the worst possibility that eating meat from BSE infected animals may cause nvCJD, the odds still seem mighty low. I wish I could remember the article which detailed a number of rare diseases most of us have never heard of, and then went on to tell how much more common all of them are than CJD. It's a scary world out there and mad cows are the least of it, but of course we should all take the precautions that seem reasonable to us and keep as well informed as possible.

La Tupina was the scene of a lovely meal for my wife featuring one of the pigeons spit roasting on a wall of fire in the front part of the restaurant. She was very pleased with her choice. I foolishly went for a menu of Himalayan truffles. I've recently described my disappointment in another thread on eGullet.com. I'd like to return to right my mistake, but I'm drawn to other parts of France.

Tommy: my parents aren't big spenders and don't know much about food. Playing the sympathy card, are you? Won't work here. ;) Tommy: there is something holy about oregano, salt, pepper, vinegar, and onions on a salad. it just doesn't get much better than that folks. i must mention, the lines outside of our local suburban OG are enormous. i can't believe that many people would line up for that stuff, day in and day out. and like i said, it ain't cheap!! Maybe that ain't oregano. ;) NewYorkTexan: The reviews have called it a Hooters with smoked meat. Supposedly, the waitress wear very skimpy outfits. Considering how accessible great barbeque is in Texas, I am surprised that Smokey Bones parking is always full. I'm going to guess there are no beaches or skimpy clothes neighborhoods in your part of Texas. On a more serious note, it's a really bad sign when quality cooking of local foods isn't of interest to the locals.

There's no argument that restaurants don't dumb down for tourists all the time. I only said they shouldn't. Clearly I don't own a restaurant and anyone who knows me, knows I'd turn away customers far too fast to make a living at it. As I noted, I've seen tourists go out of their to way find local food they don't understand, but rarely do they try to learn about the food or understand it first. There are many ways a restaurant can be ruined. A conscious decision by the owner to cater to tourists looking for ambience, but low on discernment will lower the quality immediately. Once tourists take over a restaurant the locals can't find a table, the staff becomes overworked with diners who don't understand the food and may not speak the langugage and service falters. I've spoken to a food writer who had second thoughts about an article on local restaurants. The restauranteurs who might originally have been thrilled to have been included, later complained about precisely these things. Hopefully, the article will become dated, the regulars will return and the owners will once again be able to have the restaurants they had once loved operating. Good restaurants with the best intentions are often ruined by sending the wrong people to the right places. There are times when I question the effect of boards like this one. Sure, you may have a great side street bistro to recommend to me, but who knows what clueless Olive Garden regular is lurking here. Perhaps it's no surprise that 11 Madison and GT are the ones I most enjoy. William Grimes loved Union Square Cafe, as I recall, precisely because it seemed so un-New York to him. Maybe the Times picked him precisely because it sees itself as a national newspaper.

Kentuckians are always welcome in my NYC. I haven't been to Kentucky in a long time, I had a few college friends from Kentucky and their families treated me very well on several occasions. It seems as if Steve P. welcomes them as well. I share what I believe are his feelings to the extent that when dining in Paris, I'm often far more pleased with a restaurant when I don't hear English all around me. On the other hand, I see tourism as less of a necessary evil than a major industry of both New York and Paris. In both cases the great restaurants of the two cities are part of the draw. It's self defeating for a great restaurant to dumb down its food. Ducasse doesn't do it and the others shouldn't either. I don't think Daniel, Jean Georges or Le Bernardin dumb down their food. I don't think Danny Meyer's restaurants do either, although I feel they may be more accessible to a wider range of American tastes. By no means is that the same as dumbing down. They can be most instructive for the less discerning, while fully satisfying the most discerning tastes. Yes, it often appears that GT has more tourists than Daniel, but Daniel seems to have more out-of-towners than Cafe Boulud. All of which proves very little about the food. Discernment works both ways. Provincialism is relative. On my first visit to Kentucky, I recall the mother of a friend talking about some fine hams she had sent north to friends of theirs. Apparently the unsophisticated Yankees saw mold and thought the ham was spoiled, so they threw it out. I nodded appreciatively at the time, though less out of empathy than out of the understanding that almost everyone I knew at home would have done the same at the time. I"m going to guess that a New Yorker would be the last person you'd ask about where to buy a good ham, and I won't take offense at that. The fact of tourism is that a lot of tourists will go out of their way to find food they are unprepared to eat and these people are disruptive. I suspect the eGullet.com audience is not a typical cross section of the larger public and we should all be able to sympathize with each other whenever good food is threatened, be it country food, city food, home cooking or haute cuisine.

I've been known to break an egg in a hot pan, then break the yolk and toss the finished product between halves of a roll or baguette, but when someone's looking, or I'm having a special breakfast with some nice smoked salmon, I go for the slow custardy haute cuisine finish. Break the yolks and minimally beat the eggs. I think forks are best as a wisk is more likely to overbeat the eggs. Melt butter in pan, pour in the eggs and stir with a wooden spatula until desired degree of doneness. Very soft is my ideal. I avoid both milk and cream and toss in cold butter to cook the eggs and stop the cooking when I have them at the proper temperature. Caviar would be even better than smoked salmon, I suppose.

I have not had Urbani's Himalayan truffles, but I did have a menu of Himalayan truffles in Bordeaux. They were short of dreadful. Worse yet there was lots of truffle in each dish. I can't remember the various dishes, but the truffles imparted no flavor although they were the main ingredient in several of the dishes. The price had seemed a bargain, even after I noticed these were from the Himalayas. I recalled having read an article about people substituting these for French truffles, but since they were upfront about it on the menu, I thought maybe it was worth a shot. At best I thought they had the flavor of bread or pasta, though not of really great bread. My wife wisely ordered the game menu for a few francs less and was richly rewarded with a fine grilled pigeon, while I slogged down some heavy sauces designed to make some sort of dish out of the "truffles." Your milage may vary. Good luck. Did you have these at a restaurant or friend's house and do you know who carries the Urbani frozen truffles. Do you know the retail price?

Perhaps this quote from the page in question may be short enough to comply with copyright law and offer some illumination. "The scale of the French epidemic, now involving a total of about 500 animals, is still dwarfed by the overall British epidemic, which has seen more than a million infected cattle. But the fact that numbers have risen so fast in France will be exploited by British farmers who want the export ban lifted."

I have to agree with marcosan that the original story was little more than scaremongering and to the extent that it resulted in a thread here with this title, it was successful. Marcosan is correct in pointing out the difference between animals discovered with BSE and humans being infected with anything that might be connected with these cows. I have a good deal of respect for vegetarians, although vegetarianism goes against my basic instincts. I am dismayed however and lose respect for the movement when I read pieces that are designed only to inflame the already converted. The Veg Source post by Steve Connor, Science Editor, is bad journalism and bad science. One cannot legitimately make projections for coming years based on a short history, nor can one compare the results of finding any condition after it is expected to be found with finding it before anyone was looking. Even the report notes that there are alternate hypotheses to explain the numbers which make the headline a bit unreliable. The thrust of the original story on which Connor bases his post was more about the British faulting France for it's ban on UK beef and looking to defend it's own position. Marcosan was also quite correct in noting that hygiene is neither an issue in the Veg Source post, nor relevant to the spread of BSE among animals. To the best of my knowledge, very recent vCJD in humans that can conceivably be traced to the food chain is almost zero and there are those who are still not convinced about the connection. Marcosan offers some perspectives of his own on disease, but I'd have to note that more people died showing up early for work than may have died from anything that may be related to BSE. That however is not the point of my complaint about this post and the one in Veg Source. If we assume that BSE is the only threat to a long and healthy life, the article is still a scare mongering report painfully short on information and facts. Even so, the numbers in the post, do not support the contention of the author, in my opinion.

Yes, I didn't mean to say the name was changed, just the "official" pronunciation, or more acurately the official romanization.

I'm sorry, I wasn't attempting to give a geography lesson, just a reference to my thinking when I refer to Hong Kong style. I'm pleased to hear that your brother's information is not out of line with what I have assumed Hong Kong style to be. In fact Canton is no longer referred to as Canton, but I get confused between the two names for the province and the city which are now slightly different.