Bux

No, but hardly an unenviable position from someone who loves to eat fine food more than talk about it as well as someone who prefers to talk about it rather than criticize it. It appears to be a nice site, by the way. Looking forward to greater examination.

Yes I realized Rosie is from the Garden State and that NYC is one of the least condusive places to BYOB. I was not aware of how common it is in NJ.

Yvonne, the question is would you hire Preet to work for you. :) It's not a whisky story, but this seems appropriate here. Many years ago we traveled in France on a tight budget. We often stayed in little country inns, but skipped breakfasts which always seemed unreasonably expensive and made it a habit of stopping at the first cafe for coffee and croissants. Sometimes the first cafe was a ways off if one were in a rural location. One morning in Normandy we seemed to ride for miles before we spotted a simple stone blockhouse. We spotted the fuel pump first but slowed down enough to spot a cafe sign. We entered into a room more spartan on the inside than the out. Six bare tables and a bartop with a rack that contained a few small bags of nuts and potato chips. Shelves behind the bar were bare except for a few odd bottles. Someone appeared and asked what we wanted. My wife and I made our request for a cafe au lait and an expresso. It seemed pointless to ask for the carbohydrates I find essential in the morning, but the woman asked what else I'd like, so I aksed what she had. As if I were some sort of fool, she rattled off "Calvados, Cognac, Rhum." Not wanting to offend by forcing the recitation for nothing and as we were in Normandy, I had a Calvados.

It's petits fours and yes mignardises are sweets. From the French dictionary, petits = small and four = oven. Petits fours are little cakes or cookies or any little thing out of the oven. A mingardise is an affectation in French. It's not a great stretch of the imagination to understand how the term became synonymous with the little candies that come from a great confiserie or at the end of a meal in a very fine restaurant. I've tended to think of the baked goods as petits fours and the chcoclates as mingardises but I'm not sure the last is limited to non-baked little affectations. (Edited by Bux at 5:48 pm on Aug. 5, 2001) (Edited by Bux at 5:50 pm on Aug. 5, 2001)

By wine bag, do you mean when you bring your own bottle to a restaurant? I assume so, as I've never seen a waiter bring a wine and leave on the table with the cork in it. In NYC, it's very rare that one has the chance to bring one's own wine.

I think you over simplify the Japanese people whose culture by American standards may be quite complex. The Japanese side of Japanese culture has not so much adapted all things foreign as much as it coexists on another level with the international side of Japanese culture. When an American grasps the sense of open and closed surrounding him in Japan, it's a much shorter jump to think in terms or parallel universes or science fiction that deals with additional dimensions, in my opinion.

I tend to agree with Michelle that the Iron Chef show, is not for the serious gastronome. That some people develop an interest in food after watching it is much like the argument that wine coolers lead to serious interest in wine. Maybe it does and maybe they do, but so, what there's a more direct path. I think Michelle's posts are a bit heavy on the racism aspect, which while it may be there, is probably not more than a side issue and in that aspect it'sreally the exoticism that draws most viewers. I have friends who were fascinated by the show and those who could barely watch it once. I probably watched it a good half dozen times before I didn't really care at all if it was on and at this point, it has outlived almost all entertainmnet value for me. The dubbed-in English is a scream. I have a bit of knowledge about Japan and its food and it took a while for me to stop wondering about fwahgra and realize it was foie gras and not a Japanese ingredient. I am led to understand that the translators are clueless about many aspects of food and cooking and thus I have no choice but to assume this was exported as entertainment not education. Nevertheless, the chefs who competed, both Japanese and Western were often serious and talented. At the same time, Bobby Flay was not selected to represent the best of American chefdom, but for his capacity to entertain and draw an audience. An American cooking show of dubious serious intellectual and educational quality will still draw top serious chefs if there's the promise of a large audience. It's often noted that there's no such thing as bad publicity and the great chefs of NY and France who own and run their own restaurants are also business men. I can't get upset when they seem to prostitute themselves outside of their own kitchens. When they start to pander to base tastes in their restaurants, I will complain. As to whether the American show will be a success, I'll not venture a guess except to say that I predict it's success will be in reverse to how much I enjoy watching it.