Bux

Once again, let me recommend the Campsa site for finding opening times as well as phone numbers. Unfortunately the newest restaurants, Cincsentits for example, are not listed yet.

+34 972 22 21 57 +34 972 48 52 59 fax Carretera de Taialá, 40 17007 Girona Spain Are you familiar with the Campsa or Michelin sites. It may take a bit to learn how to navigate those sites, but they're invaluable, if even just for addresses and phone numbers. http://www.guiacampsa.com http://www.viamichelin.com

For the occasional tourist, it may not be a destination restaurant, but for someone who lives in Madrid or expects to spend a lot of time there, it sounds as if it's a restaurant worth the initial investment of one's time for a few early meals for a number of reasons. As discussed in the General and New York forums, it can be wise to get to know a potentally fine restaurant with a young chef, early. The early diner who becomes a bit of a regular, will be noted and remembered. It's also very exciting to watch a restaurant mature when it does so successfully, at least in my opinion. Last night we had dinner at a restaurant we've loved since it opened. It opened to a good start and has been consistenly rewarding to us as diners, but last night the meal took a slight shift in a new direction from time to time. It's a suble restaurant with very subtle food and the shift could not be noticed by a first time diner, nor might it be that exciting a direction had we not been following the food over time.

A toast to all those who stop to smell the roses and not to photograph them. As much as I appreciate the photographs that appear here, I've found that when I've concentrated on taking photographs, I may not have paid enough attention to the food, or appreciated it enough. I'd like to remind all our members that you're free to enjoy your meals.

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Surely, you are kidding me. Would you also like to know where I live? ← A year ago you didn't think that so terrible or sensitive a question. The answer speaks to the credibility of your claims about about what one can, and cannot do in a professional kitchen especially when speaking to professional chefs, whose international experience doesn't seem to support your assertions. Anthony Bourdain is not a cypher, well perhaps he is, but we know he's a real person with a trail. Chefzadi doesn't hide behind anonymity. We profit from their professional opinions even if they go off half cocked and we profit from knowing who they are and from their professional and experienced point of view. One can contribute with examples. One can cite one's experience. Anonymous assertions are generally not contributions to a discussion and may be seen as a violation of a number of points in the agreement under which we all post here.

My butcher loved the article almost as much as my fish monger loved reading about mad cows.

Hmmm... I wonder how many recognize the right to cook anything in another chef's kitchen. No matter, I've interpreted Tony's arguments to say that he believes that if Trotter were a man of his own convictions, he would have refused to allow foie gras to be cooked and served in the restaurant that bears his name and represents his life's work. Perhaps he'd also say that neither of the two guest chefs would have refused to honor his request not to serve foie gras if asked. I don't necessarily agree with Tony on either point, but I find myself forced to defend his right not to have his words twisted into false arguments. Putting "other words" in Tony's mouth is exactly what I see as derailing the discussion by forcing others to correct you before they can get on with the discussion at hand or worse yet encouraging others to argue in a tangent thread. Had the thread not been derailed so often and not required intervention, I might have better been able to respond in a more timely manner to suggest that I don't find it hypocritical for Trotter to decide not prepare foie gras, but to allow guest chefs to use his kitchen to prepare it. I would of course, expect a non-hypocritical Charlie Trotter to speak out in public against any proposed governmental ban just as he spoke out in his restaurant by sheltering the preparation and serving of foie gras. It's certainly not hypocritcal for defenders of the foie to note that Charlie Trotter will aid and abet those seeking to prepare foie gras and give comfort and shelter to them. Actions speak louder than words. He's apparently uncomfortable with serving the delicacy, can't really justify it and finds it inappropriate, yet he's open to the possiblity he's wrong and does not seek to interfere with ability of others to do so.

We aren't and I didn't post about that in this thread. I was speaking to Mark Caro off handedly, but on the record, about my reaction to his article in reponse to questions about why I thought his first article touched nerves. I assume he chose to interject that comment in his article, which was not written as a post for this thread, because he thought it shed some light on one of the reasons some people have reacted strongly to what he quoted in his first article on the subject. Your insistance on putting people on the spot for things unrelated to the thrust of the thread is what I've criticized as a derailing tactic. Good point, and when it came to my attention I also cited that article for its relevance to this thread. There are differences between the two. One or more members already posted opinions on that. There are considerable contextural differences including the fact that Bourdain's "bad boy" character is his meat and potatoes. It's unfortunate that Trotter has cultivated a persona that doesn't enable him to say those things without people believing he's very serious about it. That's not to say that Bourdain is not serious, but his choice of words is undertood differently. I was only struck by the gratuitousness of Tony's comment, but even then, it needs to be seen in context of a discussion on "raw foods," or more specifically "the raw food movement." The raw food movement is quite different in terms of health claims and health results, than is vegetarianism. I don't think there's disagreement on that. Part of the complexity for Bourdain seems to be that Trotter came to the aid of the anti-foie gras forces mildly, but stronger than he came to Manrique's aid. That's part of the contextural aspect. I'd like to offer one more comment in the way of possible correction, I've been told by a spokesperson for Charlie Trotter than his take out shop has liver pate, but not foie gras. Can a resident of the city confirm that the liver pate is not foie gras pate and does not contain foie gras as earlier reported. Not all duck liver is foie gras. Every duck that comes to market has a liver. A liver pate may have pork, chicken, duck or goose liver without having foie gras.

Perhaps, either under biting the hand that feeds it, or as part of a disclosure statement, I should note that I have eaten once at Charlie Trotter and at Tru. At both places I received what I would consider special attention. In both cases it was because of the person who made my reservation and in one case, even more so because of my dining companions (actually hosts). The only relevance I find, is that I thought both were first rate restaurants. The meals were too long ago for me to make exact comparisons, but by no means did I think Tru threatened CT as the only fine dining in town. Chicago is certain big enough to hold both restaurants and if there aren't enough diners interested in haute cuisine, I suspect they can be trained if what I saw as middle class cooking is representative. Good food and good restaurants abounded and there seemed to be great interest in eating well. It's a shame to see the public associate fine dining with this kind of feuding.

I think the human liver aspect is not the heart of the argument. (Offal wasn't that?) It's about the use of words such as "idiot" or "idiocy" and "hypocrite" and "hypocrisy." Let's try not bog the discussion down on technicalities.

You don't watch a lot of Iron Chef America do you? You should see how haute cuisine suffers in the point scores.

You've made two statements that pretend to be facts. They are at best your beliefs, but when you state them as facts, you reduce the value of everything you post in my opinion. Whether or not support is sustainable for foie gras probably depends more on the belief in disinformation accompanied by disinterest and and a loathsome desire to attck that which one can't appreciate. Right, foie gras is poultry and not a hell of a lot fattier than some of the battery raised chickens sold in our supermarkets.

It should be understood that Charlie Trotter, not unlike rick Tramonto, Thomas Keller, Alain Ducasse, etc. appeals to about two percent of the polutation and that 2% is probably heavily into foie gras.

What I don't know is quite a bit. For instance, this seemingly rather gratuitious statement from a review of Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking by Amy Zavatto from the Hartford Avocate of December 9, 2004, has been brought to my attention. I'll leave it the reader to determine if it's personal, or about the food. It comes off as least "heat of the moment" kind of statement than Trotter's, but I think they're both too well aware of the media to make that kind of claim anyway.Edit: I see another member, FaustianBargain has already found and made reference to this review, but I'll leave my post up as it has now been quoted. I will post a follow up in turn.

. . . in the mood for North African cuisine

Michelin has a page of Restaurants avec salons particuliers. I don't know how large or small those rooms might be. There are quite a few very pricey places listed, but also a few one and two fork and spoon places scattered around Paris. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with most of them and don't see one I know and could recommend, but John's Petit Colombier is on the list for the 17th arr.

Finos and manzanillas are much under appreciated wines, especially when they are fresh. They are particularly under appreciated with simple seafood as dinner wines and all too often reserved for aperitifs only. Nevertheless, if not perfect, I've found Albariños from Galicia and Ruedas from Castilla Y Leon are both excellent with fish and seafood. They can be a bargain in the US, which means an extraordinary bargain in Spain. Locally in Catalunya there is Cava and some white Penedes wines.

Having consumed more than a bit of foie gras in France, I've often been disappointed by foie gras preparations in Spain. However, conceptually, the combination of foie gras, pedro ximinez and some form of orange would have captured my attention, particularly in Sevilla. The rapidity with which a meal can progress in Spain is amazing at times, particularly to someone who favors the liesurely dining style of France. It happens even in the most gastronomic restaurants. We've discussed this before in the forum.

The Relais & Châteaux site shows a set menu at 120 €, tax and service included. (Although it's common to leave another 5% or more as a tip -- in cash, not on a credit card.) Dining à la carte could be a little more or less. I haven't looked at the exchange rate lately, but that's probably about $165 or the equivalent of maybe a $130 menu in NY. Of course, wine and coffee will up the bill as will mineral water if you so choose. The Michelin web site shows 110 € and à la carte from 90 to 130 €. I don't believe the Michelin site has been updated with the 2005 information as the star ratings seem to be from last year.

Cabra would be goat cheese and although I understand Cabrales may contain cow, sheep and goat's milk, I've never heard of a pure goat's milk Cabrales. I'm not an expert, but I think that even if there were one, the name Cabrales would be more distinguished than "cabra" and I would expect the name Cabrales to be noted. Cabrales is a blue cheese. Was this cheese blue veined?

For what it's worth, I got confused between the Daily Gullet and what looked like the Daily Gullet. I noticed that one of the very early modifications was to indicate the link to the doorway, portal or the page that most resembles the function of the old Daily Gullet, as "Home." As Johnny implies, that's probably the page most of us will want to bookmark. Home

Having had nothing to do with the redesign and implementation of this, I have to thank those whose dedication and hard work will benefit us all. It's a job well done. Thank you for doing a thankless task so well. As a founder of the site who has sometimes been overwhelmed by the work involved and sometimes been pulled away from my responsibilities here by real life, I'm truly gratified by the way we've attracted selfless volunteers to build and improve this web site.

Paris is an expensive city at the high end. London may be worse, but Paris beats New York I think. If the 2004 Michelin is accurate, the low end at Michel Rostang, another two star in the same arrondissement, begins where Apicius stops.

It was Loiseau who said that, or at least who was quoted saying that. I didn't hear him say it, it's reported by Echikson, in Burgundy Stars that he said it.