Bux
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Posts posted by Bux
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The only one of those I know is Les Bookinistes which we wandered into shortly after it opened. With so many choices we've never been back. However, not only did we find the food creative and good, but perhaps because it was still new, they were very friendly and most eager to let us know they spoke English in spite of our preference to use French. I remember one of the waiters bending over backwards to serve two young Janapese women who spoke no French and imperfect English. The apparently weren't very familiar with French menus and were having great difficulty constructing a dinner.
Thanks for the post. As valuable as these are as recommendations, I find them even more interesting as a comment on what's cooking in Paris these days. What's on Ducasse's plates and whether or not Passard is serving meat may be the subject of many articles in American journals, but many Americans may not realize how French food in the little bistro and neighborhood restaurant has changed. The French have come to terms with foreign ingredients and new ideas, and mostly without resorting to a forced "fusion." This is true in the provinces as well as in Paris, if to a lesser extent.
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I haven't got the article in front of me, but I though Prial claimed that allowing wine to breath and age was not what one wanted from a cork and added that the ability to store wine upright was an advantage of a plastic cork.
I seem to recall reading that Jancis Robinson supports the contention that 5% of all wine is corked. I also seem to recall that she favored the beer bottle cap as a solution. As a collector of bottle caps as a kid, I rather like that. I find screw caps less than aesthetically pleasing. My worry is that most plastics are unstable and that the chance for them to impart a taste to the wine should be of great concern.
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I believe the 151 proof also functioned to make killer drinks for serious alcoholics, students and tourists seeking to loose their inhibitions. You could mix it with fruit juice and still have an eighty proof drink.
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Most spirits are over 80 proof. A quick look at my cabinet confirms that most malts and whiskies are 86 proof (43 percent alcohol) and most brandies and vodkas are 80 proof. I beleive Bourbon must be 100 proof to be bottled in bond, but I wouldn't bakc that up with even a friendly bet. Anyway, I assume jhlurie is referring to alcoholic beverages in excess of 50 percent alcohol. I recall a 151 proof rum. I believe it's principle function was to float on top of drinks to provde the fuel for a flaming tourist drink.
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I was invited by Mr Blumenthal to give The Fat Duck a second chance on the house. As a dedicated "foodie" it was an offer I couldn't refuse. What follows therefore is not a review of The Fat Duck, circumstances mitigate against that. All food and drink were free of charge, I had lengthy discussions with Heston before during and after the meal, and to top it off, I went to the pub with him after. Hardly a sound basis from which to form an objective view.
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.
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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.
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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)
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Roger Lee - As for asian racial stereotypes, well let's face it, the Japanese are lovely people with a beautiful and unique culture, but a bit odd. Even other asians tend to feel that way about them. After all we are talking about a country that went from keeping all things foreign resolutely out for hundreds of years to adopting and adapting all things foreign in a historical blink of an eye, ...
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.
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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.
Douglas Rodriguez Restaurants
in Caribbean, USVI & West Indies: Dining
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It's been a long time since we've been back. I was not a fan of Patria and would not have looked up Rodriguez' restaurant. Marisol rings a bell. The last time I was there I read an article on the chefs, most of whom were doing "nueva cucina." I recall she was mentioned.
We a couple of good meals at Chayote. The chef was a fiend of my brother-in-law and had worked or done a stage with Robuchon at some point in his life. The food was pretty interesting and on the whole fairly successful in terms of adapting outside recipes to native ingredients and native recipes to ingredients recently available on the island. The clientele seemed to be a mix of tourists and sophisticated locals. On the whole it catered to the locals, who were a regular and stable base of customers. The big minus was that it didn't match the island image I wanted. ;)
I think it's no longer open. My favorite was La Casita Blanca far off in a nontouristy not so classy residential neighborhood. It had some good traditional food in an unsophisticated setting. All in all, the success of my trips was measured by how many cuchifritos I could come by that weren't sodden with grease. Generally I couldn't wait to change my clothes before making a beeline for the huts out by Boca de Congrejos. I'll bet they may no longer be there now that the road is paved.