Bux

I didn't mean to imply otherwise, only that it seems easier and more natural to make a close inspection of the fish in Chinatown than in the high end places, which is why I am more likely to be shopping in Chinatown than the high end places, but I have had a few questionable purchses and even a piece of salmon I decided not to cook or eat after I brought it home. Then again, I've been doing the bulk of my shopping for produce, meat and fish in Chinatown for almost thirty years.

Moriawase okudasai, kept me not only from starving, but well fed in many food bars/counters in Japan, particularly places that served assorted things on skewers be they yakitori or deep fried. That and birru. It wiped the smirk off the face of one twelve year old who was sure we were headed back to the hotel dining room before we found three three adjacent beer cartons to sit on at an open air yakitori counter under the elevated train. Basically, it means "please bring me a selection." There are times and places where omekase is just too formal and pretentious. Sushi Yasuda is not one of those places, but Yasuda san is a far more informal guy than one might suspect from the rather elegant interior of his sushi bar, or from the rave reviews. Down home guy or good ole boy might even be better descriptions. He describes himself as coming from the suburbs of Tokyo and then corrects that to the Brooklyn of Tokyo. His English is good, if maybe not as good as he thinks it is. "What's good," seems as appropriate a way to start ordering as anything else and "how ya doing" seems more apt than a deep bow. I'm wondering what the experience is like sitting at a table and ordering a twenty or thirty dollar sushi set and a couple of beers is like. I can't imagine sitting at the bar and doing that, but I can imagine spending more, or less than the roughly $250 we spent for two at the bar earlier this month. It's hard to sit at the bar and not get involved with Yasuda. One of the things I found interesting was his practice of putting two or four pieces of sushi next to each other, often with instructions to eat them in a certain order. I noticed that he often combined a specific fish with different fishes for different diners and that it's quickly an interactive affair, not just a matter of an assortment or even the chef's tasting menus.

Years ago I bought salmon one night at a very wellknown place on the upper west side and then a few nights later in one of the shops on Grand Street for about a third the price. We will swear that the salmon purchased in Chinatown was better tasting, if anything. That led me to start buying more fish in Chinatown. This was over ten years ago. Since then, I've realized that there's excellent value in Chinatown, but that one has to be careful and know one's fish and seafood. A few bad purchaes here and there and the savings are eliminated. Whole fish are far easier to examine than filets. The mussels these days are tagged and you can examine the date on the tag. The only mussels I ever purchased and could not eat were from Balducci's when it had its best reputation. At Chintown prices I understand everything that can possibly be sold, will be sold to a customer. At a store commanding top prices, you should be able to depend on the shop not to sell seafood that's clearly passed its prime. In the end, that's probably why I still consider buying fish in Chinatown. It's expected on both sides that I'm going to be on my guard, question and examine the product. All things considered, we buy most of our fish at the Greenmarket in Union Square these days.

I'm not sure that anyone who writes about food with enthusiasm can help but sound as if they are encouraging others to eat out when they write about restaurants. Even when I read a negative review of a restaurant, I'm reminded that the reviewer has higher standards precisely because there are restaurants that cater to those standards. Then again, I suppose I wouldn't be reading restaurant reviews at all, if I didn't already dine out with some enthusiasm. The only negative thing I can think of saying about your digest is that it's ability to allow me to stay au courant with openings and closing in Paris, just reminds me how far away I am from Paris most of the time and that it's only a virtual currency I have. I suppose one can never have too much information, yet you run the risk of losing some readers if each post gets too long. I think the links are important. Naturally they'd be better if they stayed live, or if you went back and updated them. Come to think of it, you could go back and update old posts as well, but at this point I think you've already gone beyond what we could hope to get. For readers who live in Paris and read this regularly, it must be an almost perfect digest. For those who visit and start reading in anticipation of a forthcoming trip, I'd recommend starting at the end and working backwards to the beginning while being careful to remember the latest information about a restaurant. For more details of any resto, one should search on the name of a particular restaurant and see what members may have posted about it.

It's not the height of the season, but it's not off-season the way January is. Everything is open in May, although you will avoid the major crowds. In January most places take most of the month, or longer, for a holiday. May should be a good time. In France you should have excellent weather, but not hot weather. By the time you get to Spain, you may find beach weather, or so I would expect. I don't know that I've been in that part of France and Spain in the late spring.

This should be the one to which I referred: "au carreau des halles (centre ville): mardi, jeudi et samedi de 7h à 13h, marché tous produits, vêtements et producteurs de fruits et légumes au bord de la Nive." The halles being the central covered market. I'd be a little wary of the market being most clothing and gadgets, as outdoor markets can be, in the dead of winter. That's a useful site for Bayonne. Markets are under "Practique" and and ham and chocolate are under "Culture & Tradition." This reminds me that the hams of Bayonne are justly famous and some of the best in France, although perhaps the disappearance of tariffs and trade restriction in the EU may subject them to the competition with Spanish ham.

I've been to both. Twice to Guérard and once to Trama. All the visits were some years back and two of those three visits were made under less than optimum circumstances. The single visit to Trama was a lunch decision made on the spur of the moment very off season. We called about an hour before we wanted to eat as we found ourselves not far away at what seemed an auspicious time. There was really some hesitation about giving us a table and I suspected they might well be full. On the contrary, they were empty. There was no one in the room all afternoon. I suppose they were deciding whether to both for only two diners. We had the set prix fixe three course luncheon menu. Everything was quite lovely, but there was something just unnerving about being the only one's there. One of our dinners at Michel Guérard was also offseason. In fact it was lunch on the last day they were open for the season. Not everything was available and we felt they were not operating at full capacity. Our other meal at Guérard came on the heals of two meals at André Daguin's old restaurant in Auch where we consumed more foie gras and goose fat than I dreamed possible in a month. I'm sure we arrived at Guérard with our own livers rather enlarged. As a consequence we ate lightly, ha!. I recall a duck and foie gras tourte that was far more rustic than I expected at a three star restaurant and about as good as anything I've ever eaten at the time. I did get quite ill a few days further into this trip and my doctor diagnosed my illness as "crise du foie. Large quantities of foie gras consumed on successive nights may not be recommended to all digestive systems. We stayed at Guérard's less expensive "guest house,"Maison Rose," but ate at the Gastronomic dining room of the main house. I've also heard wonderful things of the more rustic food food at le Ferme aux Grives. All of this is too long ago to have much affect on your plans.

Please check that I'm right about the market being on Saturday and check to see if the outdoor market runs all winter. The Moulin de Bassilour, if I remember the name correctly, used to have a stall in the indoor market where they sold what are perhaps the very best Gateaux Basques, but it's been gone now for sometime. The ones we found in a pastisserie across the street from the open market were good, but not nearly as good as the ones from the Moulin de Bassilour or Henriot, I thought. There's a fromagerie stall in the covered market that I liked. It had its back to the river and was at the opposite end from the covered market. We bought an excellent tomme de brebis from the Pyrenees there. In fact, when we asked about the Moulin de Bassilour and its gateaux, they told us they had vacated the market and when we asked for the best gateaux in town, they suggested the place across the street, but warned it was not the equal. Of course shops change hands, and it might not be there as well. Before I forget, if you want a snack, there is a place called Tarte Julie on the rue Thiers almost across from the Grand Hotel. It's not much more than a fast food place that serves excellent quiches and fruit tartes -- basically savory and sweet tartes, and salads. It's been reliable over the course of two very separate visits. It's much like a similar place in Paris with the same name near the Tour Montparnasse with but one distinction. The tartes are wonderful in Bayonne and terrible in Paris, at least in our limited experience. We've spent but three afternoons in Bayonne, and don't know it very well, not that it's much of a city, but you can see that it left a good impression on me.

I don't know the store, but my prejudice is that airport stores are generally an expensive place to shop as they deal with a captive audience most often desperate to find a last minute souvenir or gift and frequently not at all adverse to getting rid of spare change from a foreign country. The euro will do a lot to remove that incentive. I have of course, willingly paid a severe premium to buy some ham just so as not to be dependant on the food on board.

I have a vague memory of enjoying a pasty in the U.P. many years ago. In New Buffalo this summer, which is as close to Indiana as one can get and still be in Michigan (and thus far enough from the Upper Peninsula for me to have been cautious) I passed a table in front of a church selling pasties at a church benefit. I ordered one. Actually I ordered the dinner plate which came with potato chips and pickle slices and would have been better off just getting the pasty, or maybe not. I was offered gravy or ketchup and when I hesitated, more from surprise than confusion, I was told that ketchup was traditional and the better choice. Yes it was. The pasty itself, besides being pasty, wasn't very tasty with it's lackluster crust and abundance of potatoes in the filling. You win some and you lose some. There was some really great fruit and produce around at the height of summer, but New Buffalo didn't prove to be a gastronomic destination otherwise. I really like meat pies. There's nothing like a good Argentine empanada with chopped beef, onions, olives and raisins, (I hope those were raisins) although the best meat pie I ever had was filled with foie gras and braised duck at a three star restaurant in France. Then again there was that warm slice of a large round flat empanada stuffed with tuna fish, tomato sauce and olives in a not very imposing bar and restaurant just east of Leon in Spain. I was looking at the menu when the owner said there was an empandada de atun almost ready to come out of the oven if I could wait -- canned tuna fish I'm sure, but don't knock good canned Spanish tuna packed in olive oil. It's a toss up between the foie gras and the canned tuna fish. Trust me.

Perhaps because oysters were once much less expensive than they are now, the practice of dousing them with hot sauce, horseradish and other overpowering ingredients became popular. In my humble opinion the best oysters should be enjoyed with little more than some freshly cracked pepper and a few drops of lemon juice or a few drops of mignonette sauce which is little more than wine vinegar, minched shallots and black pepper. One could also substitute a crisp wine (chablis, muscadet, etc.) for the vinegar. I don't think I've even seen them eaten with horseradish, hot sauce, chili sauce or anything of the kind in France. It's usually lemon juice or mignonette sauce and always accompanied by French rye bread and butter. I have had oysters with a drop of caviar and that can be wonderful, but it seems like gilding the lily and something a restaurant does because their prices are based more on labor than on materal. There is one preparation using raw oysters I have enjoyed and that was a judicious blend of chopped raw oyster mixed with raw fish tartar and minced herbs. I don't have a recipe to offer for a fish or herbs that work. Forget the hard boiled eggs. With caviar they extend the caviar, but they really adulterate it, so you have more of a substance that's less than caviar. I don' t know how they'd do anything to or for the oysters.

I haven't eaten at Les Plantanes, but an interest in quality food runs deep in the family. I have had an excellent bistro meal in Biarritz, but I don't see the restaurant listed in Michelin now and I believe the owner cooks in Paris these days. Biarritz and Bayonne have excellent chocolate shops. I think it's Henriot in Biarritz who is also a purveyor of excellent gateau basques. I definitely favor the black cherry filling and it's the more traditional one.

Chocolate, the warm drink, is indeed something else in Spain. I doubt any afficianado is likely to be tempted by the best of Dutch cocoas. Likewise those who love a creamy milky cup of cocoa are likely to be put off by the intensity of Spanish hot chocolate. A Spaniard asking for a cup of chocolate in NYC will be likely to suffer greater disappointment than one asking for coffee at a random luncheonette. In fact, freshly made real espresso is widely available now in NY, though not usually of first class quality. I was also skeptical of that 1780 date, which is why I put a link to my source. I suspect others could find other dates of record. It may well depend on one's definition of "factory" as much as anything else. I really haven't tried much of Spanish chocolate high or middle scale. I shall keep an eye out for the Valor 70% dark chocolate with orange next spring. I've noticed the Valor shops and seen Valor chocolate in grocery stores and supermarkets. My preference for a respite in a cafe is usually for a coffee or a beer. On occasion I might have a fino or manzanilla. Chocolate and churros is a preference that comes only on rare occasions and needs to be triggered by a time or place.

There's a good outdoor market in Bayonne on Saturday, but I don't know how easy it might be to get there by public transportation or how expensive a ride it is by taxi. Neither do I know what's in season if anything at this time of year. Earlier in the fall there would have been tables overflowing with cèpes of all sizes. Traipsing around an open market, may not be your mother's idea of joy in January either. Bayonne has a one star restaurant, Biattitz has two. In Bayonne, it's the Auberge du Cheval Blanc. In Biarritz, there is the restaurant in the Hotel Palais -- the Villa Eugénie -- and Les Plantanes. The latter is not centrally located, but it is much closer to the center of Biarritz, than is Bayonne. Les Plantanes is also owned by by the chef who is the son of André Daguin, who used to have a renowned multi-starred restaurant in Auch. Père Daguin is the one credited with introducing magret de canard, or duck breast cooked rare, as a steak, to diners in his restaurant. It was an idea that's become universal in the world of western cuisine. A daughter is one of the foremost purveyors of foie gras, duck products and charcuterie in the US. Another, I believe, is married to a patissier in Provence.

My turn to be an elitist snob. At the really high end of artisanal chocolate, I think of guys like Pierre Marcolini in Belgium and Bernachon in Lyon as well as a few others in France and Belgium and not of those brands which I think of as top quality but commerical. I am aware of a few shops in Barcelona and one in the southeast of Spain whose names escape me right now, who might qualify, but I've not had the opportunity to sample their wares. Let's see, in the south it's Torreblanca in Elda (Alicante). Barcelona, I understand, was home to the first chocolate factory in Europe (1780). Considering Spain's conquest of Mexico, that almost seems like a late date. In Barcelona Cacao Sampaca comes to mind and they have a shop at C/ Orellana, 4, in Madrid. 91 319 58 40.

I'd like to add my thanks to everyone involved. Foremost our thanks go to Chef Adrià and his team for the time they've taken from what we all know is a very busy schedule, and for the effort to communicate the ideas and philosophies that drive elBulli's restaurant and laboratory/workshop. On behalf of both eGullet Society's managers and membership, I'd also like to deeply thank our own Pedro, host of the eG Spain and Portugal Forum. I'm well aware of his dedication to this project and know that it would have come off without his persistence. For that, we're all appreciative. I'd be remiss if I didn't thank all the members who contributed, and that includes those whose very worthwhile questions did not get answered in the short amount of time Pedro and Ferran were able to arrange together. Without these earnest questions, there would be no reason for the session. Last, but not least, I'd like to thank our many member and nonmember lurkers. Knowing you are reading what's on the eGullet Society web site and that we operate both as an interactive medium for some and as a passive media for reading for so many others is also incentive for us to do what we do here. Nevertheless we'd like to invite you all to join us on the eG Forums. Chef Adrià, this has been a great opportunity for us and you've helped us maximize it, but I'd like to think we can improve the medium of the internet and hope we can invite you back again in the future and extend the potential we have for discussion food and cooking. Thanks again.

There seem to be plenty of recipes for chevreuil on the web. Look for cuissot de chevreuil or gigue de chevreuil. Most, or perhaps all the recipes you will find are in French. Most are French recipes, but there also seem to be recipes from Quebec, where it appears it is a white-tail deer. I suspect venison is the closest English translation. Here's an English language recipe for gigue de chevreuil grand veneur. UK: Roe Deer, France: Chevreuil, Spain: Corzo. Video of a French chef carving and presenting a gigue de chevreuil

It beats the hell out of me. On the otherhand, I don't know what alternative schemes were presented or attempted. On the whole, it was hardly a factor in my appreciation, or lack thereof, in a meal last month for us.

But of course it would still be Mozart and inherently brilliant even if poorly interpreted. Thus Fat Guy is saying that haute cuisine, even when poorly done, is still haute cuisine. It may depend on one's own definition of haute cuisine. Of course there are those who will contend that Mozart poorly done, is not Mozart at all. The challenge might be not to find a universal definition of haute cuisine, but to cover this ground in an even smaller circle and arrive at the beginning even faster.

You make a valid argument and you state it well, but I think it's at best a debatable point and therefore it supports the contention that we won't agree on what is haute cuisine. I suppose it is what we are willing to pay for, but perhaps that's not true either as I might pay more for some simply prepared succulent shellfish, or for that matter some raw shellfish, than I am willing to pay for a lesser quality product that's received skilled attention. Furthermore that willingness has shifted over the years and shifted left and right, as I've developed my own preferences and standards by eating and reading. Is it really of consequence if one is called haute cuisine and the other not? I'm tempted to say who wants to know and why. Tarka's second question, "Should we really even be talking about "qualifying" for Haute Cuisine?" may be the more important one.

I can attest to the fact that Lucy's kitchen is not a normal kitchen. By American standards it is small and might even be considered small by NUC apartment standards. Neither is Lucy a normal cook, but she is also not an abnormal cook by any stretch of the term. I believe much of this side discussion on Ducasse's recipe for a festive Christmas bird and on cookbooks in general centers on the individual perspectives of those involved. A good part of those differences may well be culturally induced. Lucy is an American. My perception is that there's a far wider range in the interests, skills and abilities of American home cooks than of their counterparts in France. I am well aware of the American range, unfortunately my comments on the range in France are based more on hearsay, so I am prepared to be corrected.I'd like to comment on a story I read in spite of the fact that it's credence will be limited as I don't recall when or where I read it, or even the chef's name. It was about the reaction of a chef to a complaint about the American translation of one of his books. He was rather put off about having to explain why a recipe didn't work. What he said was that he was surprised anyone would actually work from his cookbook. In France a housewife wouldn't think of cooking from the cookbook of a famous chef. The implication was that it was a souvenir to remind you of the food you might have loved in the restaurant at best. That's not the case here in the US where there's an army of dedicated amateurs who will reproduce the most sophisticated recipes at home in their spare time. They will shop all week, or order rare ingredients by mail and cook for days. I recall our own youth, Mrs. B and I, of spending three or four days preparing for a dinner party. The first time we made an aspic, it had to be made from calves bones, not powder or sheets. From what I've seen here and in her house, Lucy has a much deeper understanding of food at her age, than we do now. She deserves to have cookbooks written and published for her level of involvement. I am all too aware that the industry itself is dumbed down when if comes to publishing cookbooks. While I am aware that we were not the norm in terms of talent or interest in cooking, I have been humbled by what I've seen and read of the output by non-professionals here on the eG forums. Still, I'm reminded of when our daughter brought home her French chef boyfriend for dinner the first time. Later we learned that he told her she won't eat like this at his home in France and that the term in France for the meal we cooked was "restaurant food." I'm not sure how this all relates to the larger topic about the life or death of French Haute Cuisine. Perhaps more relevant is that it's been a long time since the French were the majority diners in many of the two and three star restaurants in France. In Spain, once you leave the Pais Vasco and Catalunya, the majority of cars in front of the top restaurants have Spanish, and most likely local license plates. The food is not a gastrotourist commodity. In France, there was a post war generation of chefs whose dependence on their grandmother's cooking was obvious and credited at every opportunity. There's a disconnect today between the people and haute cuisine in France. I'm not sure if it's due to more sophisticated chefs, or a less interested citizenry. I'm always amazed by the French cooks have would have me believe we've exported a lower standard by introducing MacDonald's as if their countrymen weren't voting for it with their francs and euros.

It's a worthy contribution for a few reasons. It offers a good impartial definition for one. Even better is it's choice to define haute cuisne in the past tense."It was a refinement . . . Chefs were organized . . . The style was characterized . . . Sauces were used . . . Etc. This is not to say the style no longer exists, but if it does, it no longer adheres to the rigid definition of other times. Even my minimal definition of a cuisine marked by the skill of its preparers is a personal one.

To continue with Ptipois' train of thought that says it is "defined by a level of learning, skill and craftsmanship," I'd say that at its core, it is the most skillful cuisine. Many of the trappings that Pan mentions are just that, trappings. The mailman usually wears a uniform, but he is a mailman because he delivers the mail. The butcher is a butcher whether he's wearing his apron or dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. "Rich food with lots of butter and cream" Hardly necessary at all. This really mark another period in time more than anything else. Lots of butter and cream will date a restaurant. "Luxe ingredients and impressive, beautiful preparations and platings" To an extent bu custom, but even common ingredients handled with the utmost skill will qualify. Christian Parra's blood sausage qualified, but let's face it with so much talent in the kitchen and so many working on the production of a meal, the cost of ingredients becomes a relatively less important factor and at those prices, why not work with and offer luxury ingredients. "Staff dressed impeccably in formal wear, providing smooth, expertly coordinated team service" No to the formal wear. I have service staff dressed in all sorts of manners deliver haute cuisine to my table. That dress includes all sorts of contemporary designer attempts at being trendy, informal or cute. "Customers dressed in suits and formal dresses" It's a rare three star restaurant even in Paris that will not admit you without a tie. It's been quite a few years since Mrs. B has worn other than pants (with a top and often a blazer) to a restaurant serving bonfide haute cuisine. Once out of Paris, a male diner in an elegant sweater would not be treated differently than one in a suit. "Very expensive prices" The most skilled handicrafts are rarely otherwise. "Long, expensive wine list, including a good selection of dessert wines" Probably. Fine wine is closely associated with most haute cuisine, although I've been in restaurants with a very short wine list that still qualify in my book. "Excellent sommelier to recommend wines and do quality control for them" Excellence and skill go hand in hand. "Full-course meal with at least several courses (including amuses and pre-desserts)" Haute cuisine comes to us from the French who have always seen meals as having courses. Even at the most banal level, courses were traditional. I recall a meal maybe thirty-five years ago in a relatively impoverished mountain area in France. The meal was seven or eight courses. It mistified me. Basically, it was a blue plate dinner with meat and vegetables. The meat was served as one course. The vegetables came one at a time. As we finished each one, another was brought to the table. If both French cuisine and haute cuisine are both foreign to us, we need to understand their differences as well as their commonalities. Etc.

I think we're all still waiting to hear of a deal.

Let's face it, any neighborhood can always use a better pizza. Almost wherever you are, you're going to find the best place in the neighborhood and go there for pizza sometime as long as it's even okay. I haven't been to Arturo's in a while, but I seem to recall that it gave Lombardi's a run for the money, so way better than Arturo's is worth checking out.