Bux

www.nyr4d.com is on the bar's business card, but I don't belileve the site is up and running yet.

I believe DiPalo's has true cotechino.

This is not surprising, if Will is nothing else, he's a thinker. We were out of town when this opened, but I'm pleased to read the good reviews here. They're not surprising either.

Daniel would be two avenues east of your walkable neighborhood. I'm also less inclined to think of that area as a neighborhood, let alone as a walkable neighborhood. I suppose if I lived there, I might have another perspective.

I like the upper east side as well, but no place is perfect.

I'll add DiPalo's, but I think Salumeria Biellese, Sam's first answer, is going to be closer than any other place so far.

I have found that often delight is not in the 'where' but the 'what'. To phrase it differently, what was your order? In Brittany? On Montparnasse? Do you, or others, know of current Paris outlets who do this particular, i.e., your, crepe well? ← For me, the ham and egg galette (and for those new to this forum, "galette" is the term used to denote a crepe made with buckwheat flour and the kind of crepe that should be used for savory filllings) is the one by which to judge the creperie. It used to be the complet, which adds cheese, but all too often, the cheese used is inferior. The ham's not all that special most of the time either, but the egg--which should be sunnyside up peering out of the opening of the floded galette--is often a spectacular farm egg in Brittany, and less so special in Paris. Good farm eggs are not limited to Brittany, and I've had them in Paris as well, just at three star restaurants more often than creperies. On the whole, I'm less pleased with more creative fillings, just as I'm not a fan of strangely creative pizzas. I've seen my son-in-law, who is Breton, enjoy them with interesting fillings, but then again it's always hard for me to object to andouille. I trust "andouille" doesn't bring Cajun sausages to mind in this forum, but for insurance I'll include this link. Louisa, I didn't mean my question as a put down, by the way, I just wanted a reference point. I never would have suggested your name to Tony, if I wasn't a fan of your opinions.

I'm going to agree with Russ regarding the theory that no two food writers seem to have arrived by the same route, but disagree in regard to working in a restaurant kitchen. I've not worked in a professional kitchen, but both my daughter and son-in-law have and and the result is an intense education that doesn't come just from cooking alone by the best books, or going to classes and lectures. I also rate working in a kitchen as more intense that going to culinary school, although a good education will put you in a position to learn faster on the job. It's not that one has to work in a kitchen, I don't think there's one road for all future food writers, but I do see the experience as invaluable and intense. You can learn more in a short time in a short time than in any other environment. This, of course, is not to say that some people will learn less on the job than others will reading a book sitting in a comfy chair. We all have our own limits and abilities.

Of course it's all supposition, but my adivce is to give your name, in a manner that implies they're supposed to know who you are, when calling for a reservation.

People for whom money is no object, often don't care much about good food, though it's true that many expensive restaurants are also good and that expensive markets usually carry quality merchandise, albeit often at poor quality/price point. What's amazing, is not just that so many people disagree, but that so many consider places I'd avoid as being destination food spots. I'm not looking for a personal fight and will avoid naming those places. One thing to remember is that things change rapidly in NY. Places open and close all the time. Restaurants that were a reason for me not to move ten years ago, are now closed or no longer worth my money. The "money is no object" factor can be misleading. Chinatown is a beacon for shopping, but not because it's got the best food, but because the value is good. It's hard to find good veal and lamb in Chinatown. It's all relative. In the meantime, Chinatown is one of the prime pluses for where I now live. I like Union Square, but food is only part of the reason.

Louisa, I have to ask if you've been to Brittany. Admittedly, I've not spent much time searching for a good creperie in Paris, but I've found all I've tired to be lacking in recent years. On the other hand, creperies in Brittany are not what they used to be either. In the sixties, there were a number of creperies to the east of the old Gare Montparnasse. Our favorite was a family place with a view of the streetwalkers on the rue du Montparnasse. It appears to be long gone.

I don't ever recall having undercooked shrimp or seafood in that part of Spain and certainly not at El Poblet. On the other hand, I don't know that I would recognize (or perhaps acknowledge) undercooking of such wonderful wonderful shellfish. They fare favorably with the prawns I've enjoyed raw and alive in Japan. As long as the chef knows what he's doing, I don't think it would be a mistake to serve these red shrimp raw, or almost raw. I would not turn my back on C'a Sento to go to El Poblet, and perhaps the other way around as well. Both Denia and Valencia have destination restaurants and Valencia is the far more interesting place to be when not eating--especially when it's not beach season. Then again, I'm not a beach person and I've just returned from Puerto Rico where gettting undercooked seafood is never a problem. Hell for me, is a beach resort where the seafood is overcooked.

It's certainly published in hardcover. I have a copy. The layout is interesting. I suspect most people would find it handsome. I find the layout and praphics a bit distracting myself. I'm enjoying the photographs, which, for the most part, are not photographs of completed recipes, but of the raw food, the markets, the chefs and the ambience of Spain. What I like best about the book are the sidebars, comments and texts that accompany the recipes and which are at least as useful to me.

I disagree with some of what Ed Perkins has to say on the subject. To his credit, he notes that charges in constant flux and it's obvious we could both be right or wrong and not agree simply because we've gotten our information at different times from different sources at the same bank. Honestly, the bank reps don't know the details. Years ago I had an interesting conversation with the V.P. in charge of credit cards for one of the very major banks. He had no explanations for why my card would, or would not work at ATMs in Tokyo. The other thing that was evident to me, was that the logo on the machine was not a valid clue. Sometimes I couldn't get cash from a machine with my bank's network logo and sometimes, I could make a withdrawal at a machine without that logo. I believe my HSBC cards do not add a surcharge. I will note that HSBC has changed the wording on their agreement so that it's not as clear as it could be. I tend not to make any distinction between ATM, debit and credit cards because in my experience, if the charge shows up on one card, it's usually going to show up on all of the bank's cards. Many years ago I stopped using a Chase credit card in favor of their debit card simply because a rep told me the surcharge was only on credit cards. A careful examination of my accounts when I return, suggested a loss of about 2% on average from my debits and withdrawals. I opened an account elsewhere. The fee to use a foreign ATM is usually tied to the size of your deposits at the bank. Premium accounts with larger minimum balance requirements usually waive such fees at many banks. It is against Visa and MC policy for a bank to charge a fee to overseas users of their ATM. In NY you will see notices to that effect on ATMs. No fee if you're a bank customer, using that bank's card and no fee if you're a foreigner. Others get hit with the fee. Canadians pay like a native, or so I assume as I was charged a fee in Canada. Most of all, I disagree that merchants are free to use any fee. As I noted above, it's the bank and not the merchant who sets the fee and keep the ill gained percentage on dynamic conversion. I agree with Perkins when he says "you should never accept dynamic conversion." To answer to VivreManger's "How in the world do you know whether or not "dynamic conversion" is being imposed?" it's simple, if the local currency is not the one that appears on the bottom line of the slip you sign, dynamic conversion is likely the reason.

To the best of my knowledge, CapitalOne and HSBC do not add to the Visa or MC 1% on either credit cards, debit cards or ATM cards. I believe Commerce Bank cards are free of surcharges. Of these, CapitalOne may be the only nationally available card. The other two may only be available regionally if there's a bank in your area. I got hit with the dynamic conversion thing a year or so ago in Spain because I hadn't heard about it and didn't know what to look for. It seems to be on a bank by bank basis. That is, some hotel bills of a particular chain of Spanish hotels, had the charge in dollars, while others had it in dollars because they used different banks to process their accounts. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that all charges handled by certain banks were in dollars. There is a little note at the bottom of the receipt you are given to sign saying the charge has been converted to dollars, but it didn't dawn on me that it was by the originating bank and that the rate was in excess of what my bank would have charged. On a recent trip to Italy, all charges were in Euros, with the exception of one charge of about ten dollars for which my wife signed and which wasn't worth arguing about. However, I am under the impression that you have the right to have the charge made to your account in the local currency and that if you are presented with a slip in dollars in a euro country, you can demand the cherge be reversed and a new charge made in euros. Perhaps the best thing is to inform the waiter, clerk, etc. that you want your charge made in local currency before he takes the card, once you discover you are in a country where the dynamic currency conversion scam is prevalent. The sad thing is that most bank executives in the US really have no idea how this all works and what happens to a traveler abroad carrying the bank's cards.

Wait, if you could get pregnant eating oysters, it could wipe out sex. Just kidding.

I'm told the central market is not what it used to be, but if it's convenient to you, it's probably a good place to start. It's certainly worth a visit anyway.

Thank you both for recommending Il Rigoletto. We ate there in October of last year and have finally got around to posting our comments here along with some snapshots of our dishes. It was a most enjoyable meal. Just as people have trouble picking their favorite child, I have trouble ranking superb meals. If were to rate the meals on my trip, this would have to be a strong contender for the best food. I'm glad the information about the adjoining hotel has been set straight. A room at the Hotel Nabila is less than the cost of Cy's taxi ride, and while it's far from a plush hotel, I supsect it's a lot more comfortable than the taxi. It lacked none of the amenities I absolutely need and we found the service and welcome to be most gracious. The location, a few steps from a superb hotel, can't be beat from the gastrotourist perspective.

FWIW, I think the "molecular gastronomy" movement started in France with Herve This & Pierre Gagnaire. ← Whenever I hear the term "molecular gastronomy" I think of Hervé This explaining mayonnaise, but Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking would be a better example. No outcome of an ICA show should ever surprise anyone, unless it appears designed to decrease ratings. spelling

The best French terrine is little more than excellent meat loaf. There may be a risk in eating oysters, but there's a risk in crossing the street and I rarely feel as good to have crossed the street as I do after a dozen oysters. I've not noticed an improvement in my sex life directly related to eating oysters, though I think the idea that oysters are an aphrodesiac sometimes helps the mood for many. Liquor on the other hand, works wonders for many people's sex life. If nothing else, it helps make any partner look better, thus increasing the chance of a successful mating session.

Ever read the labels on anything served on an airline that comes in a sealed container? I've bought paint remover that seemed more organic as well as more appetizing.

← Without even reading the article, "scampying" my shrimp is an interesting concept and a far more complex one, no doubt, than producing "jumbo shrimp." Most of the shrimp that gets slathered with cocktail sauce is overcooked and devoid of taste. The combination of texture and cocktail sauce without much added shrimp flavor is what most Americans find appealing in my opinion.

Good question, and whether we like the shop, or the organization, whether we hate it, or like myself, we simply regard it as another source good for certain foods, is irrelevant to the question. For the record I shop there regularly, but have learned to simply bypass many of the aisles. My daughter buys more food there in the hope of reducing the additives in her son's diet. I've found the help friendly, but as Mimi notes, not terribly informed. I most often shop at the Fourteenth Street store in Manhattan, and as it's across the street from the Union Square greenmarket, I don't think about buying fish. It's not going to be as fresh as at the greenmarket fishmonger or as inexpensive as in Chinatown, I think Sandy pretty well nailed it in his first response. Bleachboy may have summed it up more succinctly. Truthfully, and I don't care if the name was thought up by a bunch of zonked hippies or a corporate think tank, I think the implication and connotation of "whole" was probably more important than any "real" meaning. I think we can trace this use of "whole" back at least as far as the Whole Earth Catalog, although that may predate most members. In that context, I think it brings a connotation of "whole" as "universal," implying a kind of control or Renaissance empowerment. We are at the center of the world that provides our diet and we can control what we eat. But also as Sandy says, the food is whole, not in the sense that nothing is missing, but in the sense that nothing undesirable has been added. Language is not science and it's particularly not mathematics. It's not unusual for a word to mean the opposite of what it used to mean or what its face value seems to be. As much as anything else, I suspect the kind of thinking that assumed consumers would finish "whole" as "wholesome" in their minds.

My rule of thumb has generally been that a glass of wine should be priced at about one fourth the price of a bottle in a restaurant, at least that's what I've generally experienced. In most cases the restaurant gets about five or six glasses to a bottle. Just as I can justify a mark up on a bottle simply becuase a restaurant has costs not incurred by a retailer, (glasses, washing glasses, sommelier, and a dozen other related costs) so I can justify an increase in the cost of wine sold by the glass instead of the bottle. Waste is one of those costs, but there's simply more service involved in selling three or four glasses to a diner than in selling a bottle. Oddly enough, there seems to be a greater concern about the price of a glass than that of a half bottle or wine. Can we accept the simple concept that there's a savings in buying bulk, even if it's a bottle of six, or so, glasses? For what it's worth, my wife ordered a glass of wine at Lombardi's pizzeria the other night. I forget which reds they had on the list for seven dollars a bottle. When she made her choice, the waiter noted "red." Out of curiosity alone, she ordered another varietal for her second glass. Whatever variety (or blend) it was, she swears both glasses tasted exactly the same. My point here is that the bottles went for $20, or three times the price of the glass and I'd say those glasses could be filled to the brim about eight times from a standard 750ml. bottle. Bottled beer, which I prefer with pizza, was a much better buy at five dollars a bottle, especially if eschewing Bud Light. Then again with bottled beer, they don't incur the cost of stocking or washing glasses. You don't always get what you pay for, but you never get any more.

We once arrived on a flight from London that was about as delayed. My recollection was that we were scheduled to arrive in time to have a liesurely dinner after some tapas, but didn't land until after midnight. Fortunately this was Barcelona and there were some pretty good tapas in a bar still open just a block from our hotel. It's really amazing what a couple of finos, a few well chosen tapas amd a pleasant barman can do in the way of changing one's mood. I was so glad we were in Barcelona and not anyplace else. By the way, that particular bar stays on my list, but in fact, it's hardly one of the most significant bars in town.