Bux

I thought almost every point Simon made would be a great topic for a thread. I just didn't have the time to start them.

I guess you have to have access to the right computer. That was exactly the sort of information I was looking to find on the hotel web site, but didn't see on the public site.

I wonder if restaurants in Paris are likely to have cranberry juice. I think the issue in Paris somewhat different than it might be elsewhere. Sometimes a fine restaurant offers an array of hors d'oeuvres, or "amuses" that really warrants a glass of something to go with it, but all too often, the proposal of an aperitif seems a shake down for a glass of something that's going to be far more expensive that the stuff you may choose to compliment the fine food. I suppose it also depends on one's budget, but I'd often prefer to put the money towards a better bottle of wine with the meal.

I'm sorry, I neglected to add the starting day of the Q&A for those who don't want to check the calendar--November 8.

I'd never think someone churlish because they suggested I wanted, or needed, a drink. I remember a time, and place (America) when and where a glass of tomato juice was considered a first course in a certain type of white tablecloth restaurant. Other choices might have been fruit cocktail, aslo straight from a can. I suppose I overreact to the suggestion in rememberance. I often enjoy a mildly alcoholic drink before dinner and like the idea of an aperitif when I'm in the mood.

The Michelin Guide Rouge is pretty reliable regarding holiday closings, but it's printed way in advance and people change their minds. That information is online as well at http://www.viamichelin.com/

No fair. It's got ham.

As often as not, actually maybe more often than not, we have our main meal in the afternoon in Spain and eat a light supper or enjoy the evening at a tapas bar or two. While Michelin has rarely led me astray in Spain--that is, they've not led me to poor choices--I've not found they adequately reward the better restaurants and I've tended to use the Campsa site first in Spain. Were I searching for myself, I might use both. I'm not sure what drives the Michelin stars in Spain. Certainly they seem to surpress the number of stars, so it's surprising to hear when they recognize a less than outstanding restaurant.

Michelin says the Chilo, in Barcus, is closed on Sundays and Mondays from October til June. The tourist season is over by the end of September there. The Auberge Iparla in Bidarray seems to be open on Mondays. It closes on Wednesdays, at least according to Michelin. I'm trying to recall how reliable they've been on that score.

Are you sure those aren't bloody marys? I have no problem just passing on the aperitifs and asking for the wine list with the menu, especially on an empty stomach.

Give us a report. I live a few blocks away and am intersted in checking it out soon.

Why a hotel dining room? Would Ducasse at the Essex House count as a hotel dining room? The room and hotel are distinguished. Asiate, in the Madarin Oriental, might suit your needs. We had a very nice lunch there shortly after it opened. I don't think it was four star dining, but it was terribly wronged by Amanda Hesser's review. Of course there's Per Se in the same general location of the Time Warner Building. Le Bernardin is not in a hotel, but it's distinguished. I'm not sure what distinguished means. I'm thinking it's a place where I'd choose to wear a tie. Less formal but excellent in terms of food might be Oceana which I think of as being in the range of formality of the places in the last post. Cafe Boulud is there too.

I think that's incorrect. The UK is part of the EU, just not part of the euro currency club. Actually hard to keep the names and acronyms straight in my head. I base my statement largely on the flap that developed over chocolate. Over the objections of both Belgium and France, the UK managed to get the EU to define "chocolate" as a product containing a certain percentage of vegetable fat--think Crisco shortening or margarine--in lieu of cocoa butter. One now has to read the fine print on packages of chocolate in the EU. To a large degree the food laws promulgated by the EU bureaucrats are the product of bureaucracy and heavily influenced by bureaucrats, scientists and public officials, all with political interests and few with what we might call quality of product interest. There are few people in important positions who are willing to represent the consumer's interest and save the consumer from "those interested in protecting the consumer." Bux

Jamiemaw's post was most informative. My only comment on his decision to stop eating foie gras because he is unable to ascertain its source would be to ask if we can do little more than trust our suppliers when we cook at home and our chefs when we eat out as to the conditions not only under which the ducks are raised. Equally as important is exactly how free is the range of our chickens. If some ducks are subjected to appalling conditions, I suspect it's worse for chickens and perhaps the rest of our livestock. I'm far more at a loss to respond to vegetarians who call for an end to the consumption of all flesh, than those who target foie gras.Lalitha, your first link was to a very intersting source. It had perhaps, more information that I could process, but it appears to be an interesting source of much information. The second link didn't work. Either the site is down at the moment, or there's a typo in the URL. I've heard various chefs exclaim a preference for American, French, goose or duck foie gras. In some cases it may just represent a personal taste or the taste for the more familiar product. I met Troisgros père at CT, his son's restaurant in NY and without any promtping, he cited American foie gras as a product than impressed him. I placed little importance on that as well. I had excellent foie gras produced in Quebec and cooked in Vancouver, but there were no scientific controls and it would be silly for me to attempt any comparison. It's enough to say it was excellent product most superbly prepared. Local ice wines may have also affected my ability to have been impartial. These are complex issues. In the meantime it's worth adding that newspaper articles I have since read make me understand why the Sonoma producer was in favor of signing this bill which protects the foie gras producer from lawsuits for the next seven years while he lobbies for better protection.

I see the Campsa Guide lists five restaurants. One of them, Restaurant Alameda, has a sol. I suspect reservations would not be a problem at that time of year.

You should check out a few threads in the France forum regarding your time in the Pays Basque on the other side of the Pyrenees. I've answered your question about the Basque Cassoulet I had at the restaurant Ithurria, in Ainhoa here. Alas, my recommended restaurant no longer has a star. I've also suggested a place in Bidarray in a follow up post in that thread. In Bilbao, the museum itself, would offer a good hike especially if you avoided the elevators. It's a large museum and the space deserves the views to be seen from the stairs. Non hikers might want to walk down, rather than up. I don't know the restaurant in the Parador in Hondarribia, but there's at least one tapas bar down the street in the old part of the city and perhaps several more In the area. There are more restaurants and bars in the fisherman's quarters which really must be seen as I've already noted elsewhere. We arrived in Hondarribia quite sated by our first lunch at Martin Berasategui and never really had an appetite for dinner although I dragged Mrs. B out on the town for a few drinks just on principle.

Another place in the area without a star, but worth checking out if it's convenient may be Auberge Iparla in Bidarray. If I'm not mistaken, this is where Christian Parra has settled after retiring from his Auberge de la Galupe in Urt. That was an exceptional place. We managed one fine lunch there, eating as much as we could, before it closed and from that meal, I would assume he retired in his prime. It was our own vserna who posted that Parra makes the world's best boudin noir and we made sure not to miss it even though I wouldn't have thought to order it in a two star restaurant. In Paris, at Aux Lyonnais last month, we had boudin noir whose provenance was listed as "Iparla." Again it was superb. My understanding is that Parra is making his blood pudding and canning it in Bidarray under that label. If is worth ordering if you see it--assuming, of course, that one likes blood sausage.

This was posted in the Spain forum. The answer is to partially found earlier in this thread. The restaurant in which I had my excellent Basque cassoulet was Ithurria. The cassoulet was distinctive for having red beans and for including a fat slice of boudin noir. My first course at Ithurria was superb brandade stuffed piquillo. My caveat here is that this meal was eaten quite some time ago, too long ago for me to be certain the recommendation holds, though on my last trip through the area (the one referred to in this thread above) I did not eat as well and was sorry we didn't try Ithurria again although Ainhoa was a bit out of the way for us.Here's a description of that meal in September of 1996. By late September, tourism was almost nil in the Basque Pyrenees. I see in the 2004 Michelin guide that the hotel restaurant Ithurria closes for the season on November 1, and even more disappointingly, no longer has a star. Perhaps it's as well that I didn't return.

After just plain bread and sandwiches, pizza seems to be one the most widely available food preparations. I'm not even sure everyone who eats it regularly thinks of it as Italian. Are there many of us who haven't run across a place that sells "real NY pizza," someplace that wasn't in NY or Italy? Authentic in style or not, where in the world, with a focus on the less expected places, have you had pizza of note? One of my memorable pizzas was sold by the square slice by an itinerant vendor in the southwest of France. It was sold off the back of a truck with wood burning oven in the open market of a small village. It was an excellent product made especially noteworty by the Bearn/Basque topping of chorizo and red pepper.

One more point about Robuchon, which in spite of being counter dining, is not inexpensive-people might debate the advantage of sitting at one part of the counter over another for the view of the open kitchen, but there are three or four stools I would not accept. They're against the side wall and your back is the entire restaurant. This is tolerable for the time it would take to eat a slice of mediocre pizza, but not here. When I say not inexpensive, the tasting menu of maybe ten small plates is close to $125 and individual small plates run from $9 to over $30 a piece.

I'd have to re-read Ginor's book and I should look for my copy of Behr's article as well, but I don't think Ginor was saying we've been eating foie gras for thousands of years, but that this is the culmination of a long process that began when man first started to fatten geese. My understanding is that farmers noticed the birds' natural propensity to gorge themselves seasonally for the migration and started in on the process towards modifying that propensity to increase the amount of the birds' intake. I don't think anyone is suggesting the birds mind the amount of food. It seems the funnel and the way the food is applied to the funnel is what's being declared more cruel that what goes on in egg farms. It may be that the 300 g liver and the 600 g liver all both entitled to the name foie gras. If may be that producers aim for the maximum for profit or for quality and flavor. I don't know that answer. Given the need to make a profit, I will assume that the livers will cost almost the same price no matter when the bird is slaughtered. That might mean that smaller livers could cost almost double per pound if they were the legal limit, so to speak. I also don't know if some of the variation in weight between the US foie gras and that of France has to do with breed or feed.

I must apologize for misquoting myself and not checking my source. In 1999 I wrote the following on the WorldTable web site: It seems that over the years, I've confused statements from the two men. I'm not sure if the Fall 1988 issue is also No. 48, but it appears we both have similar quotes. I regard Behr as neutral and generally unimpeachable. I have no reason to doubt Ginor, but he does have a vested interest in the business. I should not have confused statements by those two. It's also likely that there's a difference between the way geese may react and the way ducks react.That appeard on a page containing a review of sorts of Ginor's book and was written in reaction to the news that a panel discussion and tasting of foie gras scheduled at the Smithsonian Institute was cancelled after threats. I also noted:

You seem to speak with some authority on the subject. Wait, this is the Internet, everyone is an authority.

I thought he was just being Steingarten, or Steingarten larger than life. I thought he clearly meant to be an outrageous character. Without saying that I liked his character, I thought he added a creative element to the show. The Japanese original version of the show never offered all that much in the way of interesting, enlightening or even amusing information about the dishes from the panel who seemed overbalanced towards knowing nothing about food. Some has to make something out of the few moments they have to say anything at all. I'm bored with the fawning "this was so good" or "the x was such a perfect foil for the y." The majority of the comments aren't much more interesting than "the salad was so leafy." Who were the other three panelists besides Jeffrey? I tuned in late last night and they never repeated the introductions. I know one of the contenders coming up. Is the list public? I assume not by the comments made above. I guess I'll go back to my source to see if I'm sworn to secrecy.

Define "force-feed." Ed Behr, the editor of The Art of Eating, a highly respected quarterly devoted to food, has written that he's observed geese on a farm in the Dordogne region of France, come running to the farmhand when they show up with the funnel and the feed. Of course he had no way of knowing if these geese had been lobotomized. I don't know what goes on at at larger American farms, but I'm will to believe the ducks and geese at foie gras farms lead a better life than the average chicken in the US. The average American has little contact with foie gras, but cheap tortured chickens are the mainstay of the family food budget.A 350 g. liver is obviously not as large as a 600 g. liver. I have no idea if it's as great a delicacy. I assume it's not as normal goose and duck livers are not. Is the difference worth the suffering of geese and ducks? Do they suffer? I'm told that their gullets are lined with a material that's not unlike that of our toe nails. Waterfowl are not built like humans and the arguments of one side seems designed to garner sympathy for them on the basis of a belief that their anatomy is very much like ours.