Bux

All of this is moot if in fact, Colgate actually "purchased a giant slice of foie gras terrine from Trotter's To Go a little less than two weeks ago," as he says he has. I have no reason to doubt him although it's hard to believe the press hasn't gotten a hold of this before. Trotter's a hypocrite because he's cooking and selling foie gras and moralizing about the reasons he's not cooking and selling it at the same time, or he's a hypocrite because he's lent his name to a take out shop with whose food he has no involvement at all. I know there are many, and some here in this thread, who can easily separate that scare tactics, damage to property and threats of bodily harm to humans, that have come from the radical opponents of foie gras, from the moral issue they see in raising ducks or geese for foie gras. I can't so easily. Even if I could, I suspect I'd join Bourdain in expecting Trotter to take as great a stand against the threats to Manrique's family as he does to the alleged cruelty to poultry.

Crucial? Define crucial. I think Sam has already said enough on the importance of foie gras and of cheap chicken. The world would go on quite well if we stopped eating foie gras and chicken. Poultry, poultry products and poultry by-products aren't crucial, with the exception of eggs. I'd really miss eggs far more than foie or chicken. As a crutch ingredient, if it is one and I don't even care to argue it isn't, it will go out of fashion. It already has to a great extent, but as it's become less of a crutch in haute cuisine, it's gone populist -- albeit to a very small degree. In Israel I'm told, it's snack food. In the Perigord, it's seasonal and a part of every farmer's Christmas and New Year's traditions. I do think we've gotten off target. The ethics and morality have been debated in a number of threads and we're repeating ourselves here. Trotter and Tramonto are the story here. Of course I only have the author's words to go by, but it seems an awfully great escalation to go from Tramonto's " "It's a little hypocritical" to Trotter's "Rick Tramonto's not the smartest guy on the block." Indeed, Trotter didn't stop there. "Dumb," "idiotic" and "fat" were all used perjoratively referring to Tramonto. Interesting article. It seemed pro-foie gras and fair. Given my sentiments on the subject, there's no contradiction there. Obviously the comments throughout the article were well chosen, and interesting to me.

It's not so simple an answer and I believe it's a matter of opinion that they banned foie gras in California because of cruelty to animals. An excellent case could be made that hysteria had more to do with the ban than serious thoughts about cruelty to animals. I would agree that people supported the ban because they believed they were supporting an anti-cruelty to animal measure and it was one they could support because they could live without foie gras unlike cheap chicken. It's my personal opinion that the majority of activists in the anti-foie gras campaign were opposed to the idea of allowing anyone to eat meat. That the current law gives Guillermo Gonzalez, owner of Sonoma Foie Gras in California, quite a few years to continue producing foie gras not only with immunity, but without having to make any changes in the way he raises his ducks, is as much an indication that there's nothing simple about the reason the ban was enacted. I sincerely believe the average duck raised for foie gras lives a better life than the average chicken raised for consumption by humans in this country. If a law is intended to decrease the raising of fowl in cages, it would logically be aimed at all poultry. I have little course but to believe one side has persuaded enough people to think of ducks as having human throats and gullets. "Ducks naturally swallow grit and stones. The esophagus of a duck is lined with fibrous protein cells that resemble bristles and does not bear comparison to that of a human. The activists attempts at anthropomorphism are understandable when the intent is propaganda, not enlightenment." That's what I wrote over five years ago in response to an article in the NY Times about the cancellation of a panel discussion and tasting of foie gras at the Smithsonian Institute, and what I believe today. It was the tenor of the messages from the self styled "animal rights" activists that led the Smithsonian to cancel the even out of concern for the safety of the audience. It's most unfair to accuse the defenders of the foie as name callers who use guilt as a tactic. The "animal rights" activists were not only there first with these tactics, but as they say, "sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never harm me." Some serious damage to life and property has been considered acceptable collateral damage by some of those activists.

Wing Wong web site. Lafayette just south of Canal Street, and another branch on Mott.

Based on my reading, admittedly of other people's experiences but at least of those I respect, I don't find that gavage is inherently cruel. If there are conditions at duck farms that are unnecessarily cruel they might offer reasons to eliminate these conditions. I've read no evidence, that beyone the controversial practice of gavage there is any practice that is not equally or more unsavory happening at any number of chicken factories, yet we are faced not with a campaign to improve the conditions under which all poultry are raised, but a campaign to outlaw foie gras no matter how it's raised. If the campaign has raised consciousness about all poultry farming why doesn't it shift its target. The answer is simple. The majority of Americans want cheap chicken. They neither need nor want foie gras. It's an easy target and the forces working against foie gras will keep these targets separate. FaustianBargain can reconize the difference between small foie gras producers and large ones just as she can recognize the difference between chicken factories and free range farms. Those who call for the elimination of all foie gras seem to favor politics over morality in this campaign. That a water fowl's esophagus is quite unlike that of a human continues to be glossed over with the lack of understanding given as a reason for dismissal of the difference is far too disingenuous a argument. That geese will run towards the feeder is proof alone that they don't mind the tube. Banning foie gras in lieu of banning factory farming of fowl is simply not going to make farmyards better places for chickens. It sends the wrong message to farmers. Working to improve barnyard conditions and working to get the fowl out into the yards may. It may also provide healthier poultry for us to eat.

And to think I gave you the benefit of the doubt when you said the asterisks are not necessary. I thought you meant you knew what a floppy eared chicken was. Rocky mountain oysters are not a fresh water mollusc.

The problem for me is that based on what you say, I believe you went to Per Se with a fixed image of the perfect restauant as one other than what Per Se is or is trying to be. I'm surprised you didn't either rule out Per Se as a reasonable choice or go there simply to broaden your horizens of what fine dining could offer. If you are convinced that what they did here was wrong headed, I can give you a list of restaurants to avoid that have three Michelin stars. I love raw oysters. That doesn't preclude my appreciation for what a creative chef might do with one nor do I have any preconceptions of what that might be or where limits should be set. I love cheese. I wouldn't expect or condsider it appropriate to serve butter with cheese. In essence, I suppose I am saying I find your subjective standards questionable from my subjective point of view. I found areas in which Per Se might improve a few dishes, but to imply there were fundamental flaws in the design of the cuisine serves only to make your comments all too subjective and it colors the rest of your comments. I'm still trying to understand the context of your cheese course. I had lunch at Per Se and don't remember a cheese course. Is one offered at dinner and not lunch? Is cheese an optional course? Was the cheese listed on the menu as a course? Was it offered as a complimentry course? Although there was no cheese mentioned on the chef's tating menu, I noticed a choice of four composed cheese courses on the carte.

That sort of euphemism is peculiar for a place that offers so much strange meat, or at least meat from animals foreign to the usual diet of New Yorkers. Speaking of the variety of uncommon meat available, I would tend to assume most of it is frozen. For such a small restaurant to offer such a variety fresh would be very difficult, or so I would think.

At one time I though this was a recipe that one must be able to improve or make "finer." In truth it can only be adulterated and debased even by adding such swell ingredients as cognac. I prefer finely minced raw onions to cooked onions, but it has to be made fresh. If you're going to keep it a day, don't put raw onions in it. I also find the hard boiled eggs essential. The yolks contribute to the silkiness and the whites contribute a texture although I also like them finely minced, all by hand. Grinding and the food processor both offer an acceptable product, but not the best, IMHO. I rarely have chicken fat on hand to give it the right flavor and texture. I like it with calves liver as well, if not better.

danfishe, thanks for the menupages.com link. Wildflower is not far from where I live, but I don't often walk that street. I'd not heard anything of it prior to this thread.

I think Americans don't have a great understanding of the regionality of French cuisine and regard crepes as French rather than Breton. Creperies are far more ubiquious today than they were thirty or forty years ago. (Americans tend to think of all flat pancakes as crepes. A Breton knows that a galette is made with buckwheat flour and savory in nature. A crepe is sweet and made entirely with white wheat flour. However, the place that makes and sells galettes and crepes is a creperie.) Galettes always seem to be better in Brittany, although when they were less common all over France, I think they were also more reliable wherever they were found. Not only does every French city have a creperie today, but it seems as if half the creperies in Brittany also double as pizzerias. An honest galette with a sunny side up Breton country egg yold showing through the folds of a square is a treat not to be missed, ham of course and cheese if you insist. It can only be improved by a cup of hard cider served in a small ceramic bowl.

My introduction to French food came via those purple menus of the sixties. I don't know how long they were in existence, or really when they started to disappear. Although the handwriting was better, or at least lovelier, than what appeared, or appears today, on blackboards, it was perhaps even less legible to an American. Although I had taken French language courses in high school, it was by far my least successful academic endeavor. If only I had eaten in France before I went to high school, I might have had more incentive. I credit our daughter's interest and fluency in French to the trip we took before she entered middle school and was offered language classes. Who wouldn't want easier access to those restaurants and their food. Where there's a will there's a way, although oddly enough I had as little interest in food as I did in learning how to speak French as a student. I often pointed with mock confidence to words whose meanings and pronunciation would be unclear if I had been able to make out the letters with any assurance. Usually, I thought I had some idea of what I was eating. Often I was mistaken. I'd like to claim I was brave or adventurous. Actually, I often wondered how the hell a fairly naive, sheltered and largely unsophisticated college student such as myself wound up in Paris determined to "see Europe" in a summer. I was however, hungry, as mother's of growing boys understand, and had no way of expressing dissatisfaction with anything the waiter set down for me to eat. Thus I ate a lot of unfamiliar food and quickly grew to think of French restaurants as the most hospitable and wonderfully comforting places in the world. I embraced French food with an open stomach and the restaurants embraced me with open arms. restaurant. Year's later when traveling in France with my wife, she would ask me what it was I'd just ordered and I would reply "it's a regional specialty." She'd counter with "I mean what is it that you've ordered. What's it made of?" and I'd sit there with an incredulous look not so much to say why do you want to know, but that I didn't understand the relevance of the question. If someone managed to retain the little bit of information that a certain dish was local to the region he'd come so far to visit, wouldn't it be obvious that he'd want to taste it, especially if he's already been conditioned to regard every surprise as a treat in a French restaurant.

Marvelous suckling pig in Spain exists at a level below serious suckling pig. Still at what I consider the learner level of appreciation of Spanish food, I find myself extremely impressed by a dish of roast suckling pig, only to have my standards readjusted at the next restaurant. One sign of the importance of the dish, is how often it shows up on even creative desgustación menus in many areas of Spain. Some years back, (January 1999) we had the roast suckling lamb at Hostal Landa just outside of Burgos. I don't have the experience to place the restaurant in context with its competition, but it was an exceptional experience. I don't believe its even legal to kill lambs this young in the US. In any event, we've not been lucky enough to find such fare outside of Spain. Half a lamb (left or right side, I don't recall which) occupied a small platter not much larger than a large plate. "Succulent" is the relevant word from our notes on the meal. I don't know that it's a word I'd ever apply to veal, but otherwise I'd note that the meat bears a resemblance to lamb as I knew it, as the best veal bears to steak, I.e., almost none. Although the Hostal Landa is not at all a three star restaurant, nor do I suppose are any of Victor's recommendations, this is a dish that is well worth far more than just a detour and it would be a shame to be in the region without having a good example of corderito lechal. I don't believe Landa was one of Victor's recommendations, although it may have been, but I'd urge you to pay attention to his recommendations for little out of the way bars and local restaurants. Casa Teo, in San Andres de Rabanedo just west of León was one of his recs. Mrs. B had an exceptional bowl of tripe with chorizos that satisfied her quest for precisely that sort of traditional food and I had an empanada of Bacalao that still haunts me. There's hardly a dish I've had since that I wouldn't have gladly traded for another slice of that pie. The burnt sugar crust on the arroz con leche didn't hurt the level of comfort food that made that lunch as memorable as one at a multistarred restaurant. This trip, a drive from the Cote Basque in France to Santiago de Compostela, was the one that sparked a greater interest in Spanish food for me and as you can see, I've been taking Victor's advice for longer than eGullet's forums have been in existence.

The Coriscan smoked ham called lonzu appears to be loin and not unlike the Spanish lomo. Lucy, Anton Mesmer would be proud of you. I found myself pausing and staring out your window for the longest time. It's an evocative view and a poetic way to mark each day in the blog. It's a blog that makes me want to share a cup of coffee with you and at the same time makes me want to stay silent and even ask everyone else to shut up, as if they'd be more of you to fill up the space. Of course there wouldn't be and you deserve to know how you touch others with your poetry of text and photos.

Straw mats are part of the dictionary definition of many cheeses. Legally, these cheeses are dead as a dodo. We can also discuss requirements for walls and floors to be made of glazed tile that can be hosed down and sanitized, to prohibit the growth of the natural molds that made many cheeses famous. Look on the bright side. We'll all be able to buy the same cheese in Stockholm, San Francisco and Saumur. It will be made locally from powdered milk and will have an indefinite shelf life. Brave new world. It will also be nutritious. We'll have no need for vitamin pills. We'll take pills for flavor and excitement.

Anyone looking for some background on the book or the author may be interested in Turning the Tables, Diary of a restaurant book revealed, a thread that ran last year. Fat Guy offered us some background information on the project, periodically reported on his progress and responded to member's questions. Some members offered to buy the book sight unseen. Others offered to read it. A few may even have promised to do both. With a little luck we'll eventually hear how much they enjoyed reading the book or at least the reaction from relatives who received an almost mint copy of the book as a gift. Some patience will be necessary as the book won't be available at book stores until August.

The cost of many inspections is passed on to the processor or producer who's required to have an inspector on site and who is required to pay the costs for having that inspector. Nevertheless there are other costs involved in running the various agencies that are not directly passed on and beyond the direct finances there are the responsibilities involved. I noted that there are lobbies involved and I noted that we often take the easy way out, not the cheapest way out. It's not simply a matter of tax dollars or who's footing the bill. By the way, when producers pay the bill, the costs are passed on to the consumer. There's an inherent fairness in having the consumer of the product pay for the costs associated with the product he buys rather than having the taxpayer at large pay for them. This of course, assumes the consumer benefits. I'd be far happier to pay for inspections that make my raw milk cheese safer than I am for inspections that keep raw milk cheese out of the US.

With all this talk of Can Roca, I was beginning to fear a reservation might be getting as hard to get as at elBulli. Apparently that's not quite the case. They were ready to give me a table in April when I asked for May. I'm glad I noticed that the day and date didn't match when they confirmed my reservation or I would have been no-show in April and out of luck in May. I didn't find an e-mail address for them or a web site. Admittedly I didn't look beyond the 2003 Michelin or the current Campsa site, but I included my e-mail address in my fax and they replied by e-mail. I assume e-mail is a reasonable way to reserve so I'm posting it here, along with the URL for the web site. restaurant@cellercanroca.com http://cellercanroca.com/ There appears to be a new high tech hotel in Girona which I don't believe was there three years ago. We also considered staying outside of Girona and closer to the restaurant to make the drive to dinner and back easier, but I was afraid I'd be tempted to hang out at the pool and not do any sightseeing. The last time we asked for driving directions from our hotel and they couldn't explain how to get there so we took a cab, which might make sense again this year even thought I've armed myself with maps from a number of web sites.

There is this expectation by many of expecting perfection in an area which is still governed by subjective taste. My biggest disappointments have generally been at three star (Michelin) restaurants. On the whole, I've left wondering if it wasn't my fault for not understanding the food or being prepared to get the most out of the particular restaurant. Well, perhaps that was not true in the absolute beginning, but as time went on I began to appreciate food on a more abstract level. I had several disappointing dishes at Per Se, but left the restaurant very enthusiastic about my overall meal and feel Per Se is an obvious candidate for Michelin's highest rating. The strong points for us were the simplest appearing dishes such as the caviar with califlower puree. The least effective dishes were the dishes with meat or fish and accompanying garnishes or what appear to be scaled down versions of main courses. We both agreed that in spite of a certain finesse, we preferred the intensity of the way Daniel prepares those kinds of dishes for a tasting menu. Then again, Daniel has had a great influence on our tastes so I can't discount the potential subjectivity involved.

That's what I suspected just as I was about to post.

A random and unscientific check of references to Moo brings up mostly favorable notices for me, although a good number of them are publicity fluff pieces from hotel reservation sites. The commenatry from editorial sites also seems to run heavily towards noting how "hot" the place is. The JP Moser site says the restaurant has two Michelin stars. I assume those are Can Roca's stars. That would make Adria's Fast Good, a three star sandwich shop. What did Victor say above about not believing everything you read on the web.

If Seventh Avenue and 58th Street are close enough, Petrossian Boutique. Their web page. It's too far from where I eat breakfast to pop in for a pastry, but I used to hear very good things about their croissants and viennoiseries

My impression is that squid and octopus have to be cooked differently. That may be true for various species of squid as well. Small squid may be tender after a few minutes over a hot flame in either a pan or on a grille. With increased cooking they toughen as do scallops, shrimp or other seafood. I really don't know much about cooking octopus.

I suppose I'm just offended by the notion that more information than one needs is a waste and that's how I read Thorne's review. I can't think of a greater richness than owning a book with information I just may want some day. I have at times been stingy enough to buy a book that just had the information I needed at the moment, but I'd not imply the other books had too much information for anyone. I honestly think it's terrific that Saveur looked for and found a dissenting voice, but when Thorne asked if McGee's book would be of any help in making gravy when the turkey was already on the counter, I had to wonder what his point was. Perhaps there are many people who already have more information than they can handle, but I'll continue to champion the idea that we can all learn more and put that knowledge to good use. A little knowledge may be a bad thing, but I've never heard that said about a lot of knowledge. Few people probably need McGee's book, but that won't change my opinion that those who read it can profit from the knowledge therein. I don't think it's a good review. I think it misses the point and beauty of the book in it's attempt to find fault with knowledge.

The two posts that distinguished between "experimental" and "complexity" on the one hand and real creativity on the other, made a real point about accomplishment. If a dish was wildly inventive and looked great on the plate, but none of the judges would take a second bite, would it get any points in any category. Should it?