Bux

Fish is a rather interesting little restaurant with what I think of as a bar americain, especialy as it seems to have a contingent of ex-pat clients--or did the night we had dinner there. The owner is a Cuban-American and also owns a nice little wine shop more or less around the corner. Alas the name of the shop elludes me at the moment and I'm at a friend's computer without access to my files. As we had been introduced to one of the "bar flies" earlier in the day at a neighboring cafe by a mutual acquaintance and as an eGullet member was tending the bar that evening, we took our dessert at the bar and stayed longer than we had anticipated with dessert wines and brandies. The bar crowd seemed to operate quite separately from the dinner table crowd with the exception of our move. Has anyone mentioned Legrande in the Gallerie Vivienne? -- at least I think that's the name of the gallerie in the first arrondissement. It's a nice place for a light lunch/snack as well as for a few glasses of wine. It's not open in the evening.

From le Monde's weekend magazine section today, Mauvaise graisse l'obesite, une epidemie qui gagne la France. Interestingly enough the article is illustrated by a photo of what appears to be a chubby French woman looking at a picture of a american supermodel in her youthful prime. It's the last of a series of articles on le fast-food--McDo Made in France.

Cepes are also found in the southwest of France. I recall the open market in Bayonne one September day. There were mounds of cepes of all sizes covering what seemed like most of the tables. It was by far the dominant product in the market place and some of the mushrooms were enormous. I only wished we had access to a hot pan, some butter or olive oil and a bit of garlic at the time. It did have an effect on our orders in restaurants the following days. It's really a pleasure to experience seasonal foods in their season, and by that I mean more than just eating them. Window shopping in markets, even at the expense of museums, as we travel in France and Spain makes our restaurant meals so much more intersting and rewarding.

There's citrus and there's citrus. A squeeze of fresh lemon juice is just a gentler acid than vinegar, but sections of grapefruit, mandarine, orange, etc. can be downright fruity. It's all about balance and it's possible to have a distinct sweet edge to a dish if it's balanced. There are Alsatian dishes in the "Jewish style"--à la Juive, that often have raisins. I'm thinking of a sweet and sour tongue that was served to us years ago by friends, but online I find the following comment by Daniel Rogov writing about four days spent in Alsace. He says "Roast goose stuffed with bread, carrots and raisins is extremely popular, especially during the winter months and, because Strasbourg has always had a large Jewish community, the dish known as "carpe a la Juive" - Jewish style carp that has been cooked in dry white wine and served with raisins, is also considered a staple of the area." I normally associate dishes with raisins as having either middle eastern or medieval roots. Of course there's the classic sole Véronique with fresh grapes, that I thought was much better without the grapes. With that, I'll note that most of the carpe a la Juive recipes I found online, did not contain raisins. Tastes change and recipes, even traditional recipes, change with the taste of the times.

I'm also eagerly anticipating John's notes on Comment se faire passer pour un critique gastronomique sans rien y connaître.

On the whole, I don't think New Yorkers are much less slim than Parisians. I've not made a scientific study.

Vinsorbes is about 10 k from Vaison la Romaine, just over the border in the Vaucluse. There's a one star restaurant in Vaison la Romaine with a good reputation, but my recollection of dinner there was that it was a one note restaurant. The food was good, but there was no depth in the kitchen. As an example, they served a bit of the garnish for my main course as an amuse. Although well cooked and tasty, it lessened the overall sense of the meal and made my main course a bit of a anticlimax. Clearly you weren't in a gastronomic pocket of France. The Drôme however, has not been entirely devoid of gastronomy. At the opposite end of the department, there has been Pic in Valence and Chabron just north of Valence. The Drôme is home to the wines of Hermitage. A greater question may be why so much of the cooking in French country restaurants no longer has its charms for us and I assume for you. Mrs. B and I were always pleased when we stopped for a meal in France at one time. We have had a much longer history of dining with pleasure at little unstarred restaurants than we have of touring the stars. Today, I often dread the impromptu stop as much as I do in the states. It's just so hit and miss and there seems to be so many mediocre restaurants that are well regarded locally. Have we become jaded or has the continuum that was French cuisine been broken. There's too great a disconnect between nourishment and fine dining, or so it seems these days. For all that, I recall a pleasant lunch in Grignan in a restaurant that was picked without the help of a guide, just because we were there at lunch time and there's not much else to do at lunch time but eat. Perhaps I'm reading too much into your use of "mediocre" as in the description of the restaurant to which you were taken by Guy Gateau.

Except Madrid, of course. Victor's tour of Pescaderias Coruñesas was quite convincing that by and large, even the coastal restaurants get their fish via Madrid. It was almost surreal to see fish coming in from one Galican or Asturian port headed back out to restaurant maybe in a neighboring town. No doubt some fish must short circuit the wholesaler, but the operation in Madrid was impressive.

That might be easily explained. I went to Aux Lyonnais when Jean-François Piège was in charge. The restaurant had been recently taken over by Ducasse, who had put JFP at the commands. The food was wonderful. Then JFP left Ducasse (not in very good terms it seems) and went to Le Crillon. I went again to Aux Lyonnais since then (late June) and the place had plummeted. The bread was dry, the dishes uninteresting, some of them sloppily made, but the prices had, of course, remained at their original heights. A 28€ prix fixe menu didn't seem so high. In fact, it seemed very low for the quality offered in October 2003. I thought Christophe Saintagne was the chef there. I understand he may have been Piège's protegé, but it seems hard to believe Piège was spending full time in the kitchen. It's hard to keep with the latest news as most sites don't have dates on their pages. Somewhere, I saw the name David Rathgeber appearing as chef. It's quite possible he's a replacement for Saintagne. It will be a pity if the quality has plumetted as I've invited a couple of my daughter's friends to join us for lunch there.

Hi Bill. I always thought Thanksgiving was the great American tribute to the love of leftovers. Why would anyone sit around for hours bickering about politics with family unless it was to produce leftovers. Actually, I am not a fan of turkey and it's been scores of years since one has crossed my door. I always feel we've planned a dinner well when there's no more food left when the guests leave. It's never occurred to me, until now, that any of them might even still be hungry. We do cook more than we need for one meal when it's just the two of us and we do it on purpose. A whole roast chicken will become the basis of one hot meal and part of one or two more hot or cold meals as well as snacks and sandwiches. It will be served hot as hash, stuffing, (vegetables, pasta, etc.) in sauce, (tettrazini, curry, etc.) etc. With pot roast, you get to do all those things, but you also get to throw new elements in the pot and add new seasonings to get a new pot roast. Steak, properly cooked rare, doesn't want to be reheated so it's salads and sandwiches for the most part. We're omnivores and cook more vegetables than we can eat at one time. Asparagus that's not been over cooked can be quickly cooled in ice water and served with a vinaigrette or even sauteed quickly and served hot the next day. Ratatouille is at least as good the second day cold with the addition of some very good olive oil and lemon juice. If we're really looking to save time, skip the ratatouille and just under cook up a batch of small zucchinni and yellow squash with onions and go the oil and lemon jouice route later in the week. Corn gets cooked as soon as we can get it to a pot of boiling water. Fritters have been the leftover route traditionally, but last week we mixed the cold kernals with some diced peeled and seeded tomatoes for a quick appetizer salad. Perhaps the trick is not to look at leftovers as leftovers, but to look at the first meal as stealing half cooked ingredients from the real meal to come.

Ptipois, welcome to the forum, now tell us what you like.

I think I sum up my thoughts on value in my Aug 2 2004, 10:42 AM post above. It's been many years since I've eaten in New Haven and I don't know Ibiza. I haven't eaten in too many Spanish restaurants in NY either. There was Meigas over on the lower west side that was very interesting. The food was much subtler there and in some ways more authentic, although without the same quality ingredients available in Spain, Mario's more assertive recipes are probably a more reasonable approach. I've only eaten in Bolo once, we had excellent appetizers, but three of the four of us had the same main course and it was exceptionally disappointing dish and not particularly Spanish. That might be unfair as Casa Momo doesn't have any main courses. Three appetizer size dishes should get you a reasonable meal. You may want more, you may want to share some things. I remember a few old Spanish restaurants around the Village or Chelsea and truthfully these were tired places well over a generation ago. There are one or two Spanish restaurants uptown, but I've never eaten at any of them. The big drawbacks to Casa Momo are the tight seating and the noise level. The food is excellent.

If you found the description of the food at Jordi's suggested restaurant, I assume you will seek out Jordi's food at his restaurant. December and January are less usual months for visiting Barcelona, although truthfully, I would prefer them to August when it's very hot and humid. It can be chilly in January, but that's relative and I have had lunch outside in the sun that time of year. Welcome to eGullet and to the Spain and Portugal forum. I suspect you will have more to read about Barcelona between now and December and I trust you will have much to report during your stay there.

Restaurants probably shoot themselves in the foot by declaring themselves to be a gourmet place. Those who don't want to pay for gourmet food will most likely stay away and those who want to eat gourmet food will definitely stay away. In fact we all know that "gourmet" over the door is an indication of mediocre food in fancy packaging at elevated prices. If that was a NY photo, it would have every indication of a mediocre deli or fast food spot. On a broad boulevard beyond the parc de la Villette I seem to recall seeing many cafes and brasseries in a row and wondering what the food was like here on the edge of Paris. If nothing else, the places all looked old and ordinary in the way of black and white vintage photographs of Paris between the wars and just after the last world war. "How bad could the food be?" he says in all innocence remembering that time when photographs were black and white and it was hard to find a bad meal in Paris. Come to think of it, I might be thinking of some other corner of Paris anyway.

Let me join Jinmyo, Peter and Suzanne is applauding the New Yorker, a literary magazine, for not trying to immitate a food or cooking magazine and for giving us something different. Sometimes it's nice to think about food without actually eating or cooking. I did not appreciate my one meal at Prune, not the only other article I read by Gabrielle Hamilton, but I thought her Kiling Dinner piece was well worth my time to read. I thoroughly enjoyed Adam Gopnik's book review. I found much of what he said fascinating. It was one of the kind of book reviews that are worth reading for itself and irrelevant of whether it leads you to read the book in question or not. It was illuminating in a way that a restaurant review of a restaurant you may never visit is still worth reading. It is the antithesis to reviewing as consumer reports. Fascinating stuff on wine by the numbers and the reasons we drink wine as consumers and connoisseurs. I don't know that he's right on target when he categorizes Americans and the French, but his points are solidly worth considering in terms of how individuals regard wine, as well as in dealing with national stereotypes. And if they don't hold up to further scrutiny, (I think they actually do, but that's besides the point) they make good reading. I look forward to finding more in the issue.

Personally, I'm suffering from overload and indescision.

Le Zouave, it may be that, as I suggested, Savoy has lowered the prices since he's taken over the place. It may also prove to be a move to entice new diners and we may see a rise in prices next season. It could be a good time to check the place out.

Bruni is actually a restaurant reviewer, not a food reviewer. He's also a resetaurant reviewer for a general audience daily newspaper. I don't find it surprising that his focus is all over the map and as often on the social aspects of dining out as it is on the food one eats. I know any number of people who are more likely to choose a restaurant based on who's been reported eating there, than on anything to do with the quality of the food. The NY Times serves a very general public. My guess is that the typical diner who reads the NY times sees dining out as a social experience more than a gastronomic experience. Bruni's reviews may not please or satisfy eGullet members, but it may be what the NY Times wants.

Does that include Holiday Inn and Kyriad whose restaurants are likey to be listed under the hotel? Which is not to say I'd offer either of those as a suggestion. Is Pavillion Puebla in the current guide? It was listed a few years ago. Are there so few restaurants because of the quality or just because the area is beyond the perimeter of streets normally trod by anyone but residents. I suspect it's a combination, but Michelin is a tourist guide as much as anything else and once one leaves the absolute destination restaurants, it's bound to focus on restaurants in destinations. Then again restaurants are more likely to open for business where there's traffic. The cliche about the three most important factors in a restaurant's chances of success are location, location and location. One might expect a restaurant dependent on local traffic to have at least decent food and service if it survives for a few years, but perhaps it only has to be better than the nearest competition.

Is Willi's Wine Bar a wine bar? I suppose you can't judge a book by its name. I've only been in there once and it was too crowded to stay long. I might have decsribed it as a scene more than a wine bar or restaurant. It's certainly a very different sort of place than Juvenile's around the corner and the two are often mentioned in the same breath. What makes a wine bar? Le Nemrod on Chèrche-Midi in the sixth has a plaque on the wall declaring it was named wine bar of the year back in the nineties sometime. It's been a local café for us when we're in the area. We've met friends, had beers and coffee on the terrasse. We've also had croissants and coffee at the bar for breakfast and even a salad or sausage with aligot for an informal lunch. It does offer a nice selection, particularly of beaujolais by the glass or carafe. I've never heard the "Willi's" without the "Wine Bar" and I'm definitely conditioned to think of it as a quintessential wine bar. On the other hand I was flabbergasted when someone referred to Gramercy Tavern in NY as a tavern and not a restaurant.

Appearances can be very deceiving. I hear that's a very old picture.

Yeah, ya gotta get to the really good places before the health department closes them down.

Yep. That's the name. But they aren't there anymore. L'Occitane was next door and now has the space of both stores. Oliviers & Co. have a shop on Bleeker Street west of Sixth Avenue as well. Actually they have an awful of shops in France, and I presume all over the world. It's a large chain. How specific does the product have to be? Of course there are many bakeries that just sell bread, many kinds of bread perhaps, but Rice to Riches sells many flavors of rice pudding. There's a fried dumpling on Mosco Street that I believe only sells two kinds of dumplings and no pancakes. Then there are sidewalk vendors who sell one product. I'll nominate the guys who sell Hong Kong Cakes as archetypical one item vendors, but there are plenty of stands in Chinatown that sell one item of food. Let's not forget the hot dog stands, although they sell drinks as well. I think someone has to set the limits on how restrictive "single item" is applied.

Michelin only lists six restaurants in the 19ième and that includes the Holiday Inn and Kyriad hotels. At least that's all I could find searching the Michelin web site. I don't have the current hard cover edition.

For what it's worth, and Michelin is hardly infalliable, Michelin awards Cave Gourmande a Bib Gourmand.