Bux

Ageism at fine restaurants where the average diner is likely to be a mature individual, may be a real problem. I've kid a kid older than you are, so ageism is going to work for me, not against me. It's not that I can't relate, it's that I won't see it. I don't know that I ever really experienced it if only because when I was in my twenties, I didn't eat in many top restaurants and when I did, it was at the beneficence of an old individual. Nevertheless, what I've heard from others is that their meal at this class of restaurant, and particularly at Daniel, improved as the staff picked up on their interest in the food at hand and food in general. I'd worry more about being a vegetarian in a restaurant with a French chef. Traditionally, vegetables have played a background role in haute cuisine and invariably they were cooked in a meat stock or finished off with a sauce derived from the fish or meat with which they were served. The average diner paying these prices wants meat, or at least fish. I see but one dish on Daniel's regular menu as posted on his web site which may be truly vegetarian. he does however have a three course vegetarian menu posted and it offers three choices for both the first course and the second course. The third course is dessert, of course and rarely a problem for vegetarians. He will also do a five course vegetarian tasting for the entire table. This interest in producing vegetable haute cuisine is something you're more likely to find here in the US, than in France. Passard at Arpège is the obvious exception. He claims that it's hard to find meat of a quality worth his attention and is much happier with the vegetable he gets. He may not revolutionize French cuisine, but he will have an effect on tastes.

Is there such a restaurant in New York? I think most of the people who are very critical of Daniel (and ADNY) feel that at this price point the restaurant should achieve total perfection. They feel cheated when the restaurant doesn't live up to their expectations. I would say that my best meals at Daniel are probably the best meals I have had anywhere in NY, and my absolute worst meals there were still very good. I rather disagree that Daniel is, or even intended to be "an old-world, old-fashioned, slightly stuffy restaurant." but it's possible that different diners have different views on what is old fashioned. I would say that Daniel is intended to delight the diner who has trained his palate on four star restaurants in NY and two and three star restaurants in France. That's a similar statement in a way, but I believe the slight difference is profound. I suppose only the chef and owner can truly speak for the restaurant's intentions. We each have the right to decide for ourselves if the restaurant meets those intentions and more specifically if it meets ours. Those who prefer the exuberant fanciful leaps of chefs who haven't the technical mastery to land gracefully on their feet and thus look all the more creative because of the near misses, will miss the wow here. It's interesting that lately I've been reading the posts and hearing from many people who miss the wow at places as varied as Blue Hill and Daniel in NY and l'Ambroisie and Arpège in Paris. I don't have enough experience at AD/NY (or AD/PA either) unfortunately to make a full and general comparison, but I found it to offer food that appeals to a similarly trained palate, in a broad sense. Dish for dish, I don't know that Ducasse (in NY) offered any better than the range of food I've had at Daniel. It is a more luxurious experience just in terms of serenity, size of the room and the lack of turned tables. You pay for those things and while they improve the evening and the dinner perhaps, they don't really improve the food. There are those diners for whom just the privilege of being in a room full of people who can afford AD/NY makes the difference in price between AD/NY and Blue Hill worth it. I have found Daniel far more consistent than most restaurants in its class. Of course it has its good days and bad days as well as hits and misses, but for the many meals we've had there, I've not seen the variance in quality of service or cooking I've seen in some other highly regarded restaurants over the course of two separate meals. If foie gras ice cream and hot, but raw scallop slices are "straight out old-fashioned high-end French cuisine," I've still got a lot to learn and have really wasted the last couple of decades and more, of my dining. I was more surprised when the NYT gave them 3 stars! Now THAT was a crime. I've expounded on that more than enough for me to go into my perspective on that yet again at this late date, now that the error of the reviewer has long been corrected. I think the power of the NY Times star awards had ebbed. I feel a bit the same way about the Michelin stars and in both cases it may be my subjective disinterest I am projecting. I am getting less and less interested in comparing restaurants as if they were in a horse race. Lately, I'll follow the lead of someone I know and if I can get to dine with that person, or persons, at a restaurant that enthralls him, or them, it's usually an excellent experience. Their knowledge and enthusiasm usually rubs off.

La Tupina is one of those restaurants that doesn't aim to garner a Michelin rosette or to be a destination restaurant, but it's the kind of place that develops a reputation by word of mouth and eventually winds up in the notes, journals and memoirs of every gastronome who stays more than a night or two in Bordeaux. Should one be lucky enough to visit in the colder months, anything cooked on a spit in front of that wall of fire is a good recomendation, especially a pigeon cooked so that the breast meat is still rosé. Whatever you do, think simple roast meats rather than haute cuisine.

We had a lunch there that was marred by what I remember as fish in sugar syrup as a main course. It was quite unexpected and left us puzzled. Couzil had two stars then, and has continued to have earn two stars from Michelin each year since.

That's what I have in my book.

Fast has another meaning in English. It means to go without eating. Perhaps we are misreading the name of Fast Good.

Yes, but you get fingerprints all over the bowl, whereas with a traditional wine glass if you hold it by the stem or foot you don't. Also, depending on how you hold the O glass (Riedel's name for their stemless line), you may warm up the wine with the heat of your hand. Don't you have wine gloves? BB Of course I have gloves, but I take them off when I'm eating. Otherwise they get all greasy from the chicken.

Many people seem to prefer to hold stemware by the bowl as well. Perhaps there's some sense of voluptuous to that, but invariably fingerprints are left which mar the beauty of the wine and the glass. There's the temperature as well. At any rate, I find it rather unattractive to see people holding a wine glass by the bowl. A brandy snifter is another thing. Brilliant marketing perhaps, but I don't see the O glass as a connoisseur's glass.

I'll be interested to hear about Hautrive St. James in Bouilac. We had lunch there sometime ago and returned another year to stay for a couple of days and eat in both of the restaurants. It's a striking hotel designed by Jean Nouvel, as you likely know, and shares with much of his work that I've seen, inherent maintenance problems. In one room almost an entire wall slides with some effect to reveal a rather small closet. Behind the door, there's a small door stop that hits the side the closet. The weight of the wall and the inertia with which it hits the other wall seems destined to tear down that wall. Damage was already apparent when we were there. The problem is that the walls themselves are a work of art. They're plaster with threads in the mix and it appears impossible to patch or repair them nicely. I suspect that by now, they've had to paint some of them. And then there are the partially glass enclosed bathrooms that look gorgeous, but present their own problems. I like to shower at one temperature and sleep at a much colder one. The high free standing beds offer a great view out the windows at least in some of the rooms we've seem. All in all, they were thrilling rooms in which to stay. I wonder how they are holding up. What made it special for us was Amat's cooking. I see the restaurant still has a star, but I seem to recall hearing that Amat was forced out by his backers, or by the owners. At one time he had two stars and I though he was headed for three, but Michelin thought otherwise and demoted him. I was surprised and others expressed similar opinion, on eGullet, if I'm not mistaken. It's hard to say if Le Vieux Pont, in Belcastel (near Rodez), not Bergerac, is worth a stop for lunch. It's a favorite of ours, but I don't think it's quite in the class of Roellinger's place. It all depends on how convenient it is. It's east of Lacave and it wouldn't make sense to drive back after lunch going east from Bordeaux. If you mean the next day, that's another story. There's also Michel Bras not far north. I didn't mention it, as it's on everyones' list.

But that's a difficult route. It would take you right past Pierre Hermé's patisserie and that's hard to pass up. Anyway, a nice macaron, a simple one like the salt butter caramel, should hold you off until you reach your lunch spot, without ruining your appetite. Apropos other current threads, I still do that. It really doesn't matter what I wear, Parisians know I'm not local from my habit of eating pastry from a bag on the street. I just don't do it often enough.

I will have to admit being the Ugly American on my first visit to Paris when I was a student. I quickly came to realize Parisians didn't walk around eating in the street, but it didn't stop my compulsion to walk into almost every patisserie and eat whatever I bought while walking away from the shop. I wish I had the metabolism now that I had then. The thing about pastry shops in Paris is that they're all over the place. Irrisistable treats are very accessible. The French are very strong willed.

The original Blue Hill, off Washington Square in Greenwich Village, has never had a dress code. Clothing ranges from blue jeans to dark suits with most of the diners falling inbetween in terms of dress. Shirt sleeves and sports jackets are equally common. While Stone Barns is in the suburbs, it wouldn't at all surprise me to see a more formally dressed crowd there, than in a restaurant off Washington Sqaure. I generally feel people should dress in a manner that makes them comfortable, rather than adhereing to an artificial code, but it often seems as if some people have no sense of propriety at all.

We were there earlier in the month and fared much better. We asked for a five course menu and left feeling rather on the verge of being stuffed. Although blessedly all of the individual courses were small, a course less would have been sufficient to sate our hunger. I noticed that courses served at tables having the standard menu seemed much larger than our courses. I honestly don't remember how many course came with $120 menu. I think Chef Boulud may have still been in France when you were there. I know he was when we were there. Daniel is one restaurant that has over the years been so well run and staffed, that I really don't care if he's there or not when I go there. I will note that I've had a very close relationship with this restaurant and with Daniel Boulud himself, although it all stemmed from being overwhelmingly impressed with what I found years ago when he opened the original Daniel. Members of my family have worked for Daniel and I was involved in the layout of his original web site. I have friends and acquaintances in the office, dining room and kitchen. Although my food and service were always superb when I was unknown. It's been many years since then and I can't swear I don't have a better experience than others now, but outside of certain gestures such as a complimentary coupe of champagne or extra dessert, I think I experience the real Daniel and suspect there are high rollers who are treated better. I can't comment on the cocktails. It's something we never order. It may be a generational thing. I only recall sitting on the bar stools but once or twice. I honestly don't recall them being uncomfortable or particularly unusual. I will comment on the adjectives you use to describe the very delicate amuses meant not to feed the diner but to tease and stimulate the appetite. "Petite," "almost lost," "miniscule" "and tres petite," all suggest you arrived looking for a heartier style of restaurant. Interestingly enough, my sense is that Daniel has evolved into a place serving finer, more elegant and more delicate food than it did when it opened. The negative spin might be that the food is fussier, but that's subjective. I don't see the same signs I used to see of Lyonnaise cooking. Then again it may be the season. I rarely look at the menu when I'm there and just let them know how good our appetite is. Mrs. B noticed the zucchini blossoms on the menu and requested they be included in our menu. In fact, tiny ones were part of a plated course for both of us and then they brought her a larger individual serving as a gift. The menu, which I'm reading online, describes them as "crispy." The term "tempura" is used elsewhere on the menu to describe the garnish in a chilled carrot soup. I don't think it was fair to expect a gossamer tempura style batter on the blossoms. The layer of bread crumbs on our peekytoe crab stuffed blossoms was no thicker than an eggshell and about as crisp. In terms of the execution, I thought it was a tour de force. To have preferred another technique seems a subjective criticism apart from the objective quality and they were like potato croquettes as peekytoe crab is like potatoes. Asian influences in haute cuisine, whether in Paris or NY, is hardly news these days, although I think it has passed a peak in some ways. One way is that there's less of it. The other is that some things have been so completely incorporated into contemporary food that I don't see them as influences any more than I see potatoes and tomatoes as new world influences. Nevertheless, I don't really remember much in the way of actual Asian touches and I can't find them on the Daniel web site menu either. Mrs. B had a Vodka and Beet-Cured Hamachi with Horseradish Cream, Baby Beets, Crushed Walnuts and a Watercress Salad, which would not qualify as Asian inspired although hamachi has entered the restaurant vocabulary for sashimi grade yellow tail. That was the least successful dish of the evening in her mind. It was hardly a disaster and nice enough, but too many elements seemed to have a canceling effect. I had the very minimalist dish of thinly sliced scallops and matsutake mushrooms run under a salamander just long enough to heat them without actually changing the texture. They're served drizzled with an herb oil. With the possible exception of the foie gras, this was the hit of the evening. We were surprised to learn this was a fairly old dish in the repertoire. Neither of us ever recalled having it before. I'm glad you were pleased with your foie gras, because that's the one course where we did receive special treatment. I had two small plates on a tray. One contained a thin slice of torchon and the other a piece of warm fresh foie gras. Both were appropriately garnished--with figs or fig derivatives. Mrs. B received the treat of the evening and with the exception of a demitasse spoonful, did not share it. One plate was a slice of the foie gras and (perhaps) squab terrine. On the other was a cup of foie gras ice cream garnished with a fruit compote. There was nothing weird or unreasonable about this, and it was a show stopper. My understanding is that it's prepared at the last minute in a pacojet and that there's some degree of disruption in the kitchen when a serving is made. It is not on the menu and usually served only to those ordering the seven course menu. I am fully aware that your dining experience includes the world class restaurants in France and the US, but like bleachboy, when it comes to the main courses, once again, I'm reading portion size as the major complaint and the overriding factor in your displeasure of the evening. I don't think I've heard that complaint about Daniel before. I don't have an adequate answer, but based on your two reviews here, I suspect you and I look for different restaurants. Many years ago, at the old Daniel, a member of our dinner party had a veal dish that was too salty. It can happen. I trust "gentle" is not a pejorative term. I think I understand what you mean by tepid if you are referring to temperature. A thick steak or a bowl of soup may be served piping hot. Delicate portions of intricately plated food are going to arrive less so.

There must be plenty of places around there. Les Deux Magots brings back some memories as does the Café des Flores, but for the history and an overpriced drink. For a meal, walk a few blocks over to Fish at 69, rue de Seine. it's owned by Juan Sanchez, a Cuban-American. It get's its share of American tourists as a result of appearing in American cooking magazines and it has it's share of expats who may hang out at the bar as well, but it's a pleasant little place and the food is very good in a contemporary way. Juan also owns a wine shop nearby and as may be expected there's a good selection of inexpensive wines, and as I recall some things by the carafe. Almost across the street is Da Rosa. It's really a shop with a wine and small plates menu which might be suitable if you want less than a real lunch. I haven't eaten there, but it was well recommended. Another little place, Machon d'Henri, a Lyonnaise hole in the wall that I think Margaret Pilgrim first recommended is a couple of blocks south at 8, rue Guisarde. It's really inexpensive, but offers good old fashioned food for the belly. The tiny street is full of restaurants, but Machon d'Henri was the only one that appealed to us.

I've been told to hold off buying kale in the late summer and wait until after the first frost. the only explanation I got was that it tastes better then. I'm in NYC. I realize some areas of the country could wait a long time for frost. I suppose next you're gonna tell me pancetta is not a vegetable. I like my kale cooked with shallots and pancetta. It seems a lot healthier than eating pancetta without the kale. It's all relative, but a little pancetta (or bacon) goes a long way. A few spoonfuls of chicken stock is good as well.

I've seen a few French plates on cars loading cases of wine in front of wine shops and supermarkets as well.

As Russ says, they are anchovies. Boquerones which have a white flesh, from the vinegar pickling I assume, have a much shorter shelf life than the more familar browner Anchovies preserved in oil or salt. Good ones are a real treat. I've never found any commerically packaged pickled anchovies in the US that are quite as plump as the ones one eats in Spain. Then again, the ones I've found in NYC have all been imported from Italy. I have had a few prepared in kitchens of first class restaurants in NY, and they have been plump, mildly pickled and every bit as superb as the ones I've had in Spain.

That NY times article also mentioned Alfredo's Barbacoa previous reported on by vserna on eGullet a couple of Times.

That is indeed a valuable piece of information for anyone in the area. It's no less noteworthy for the fact that the less interesting destinations will be packed with tourists. We need to devise a way to be sure that tips such as these are not lost by falling below the radar.

I'm not sure who you are reading. I've pretty well felt that BH offered three star cooking. The restaurant itself is rather casual, though refined and there's not much of a tendency to use luxury materials. The complexity of technique required to deliver such "simple" dishes has always struck me as three star and not that dissimilar to what I'd expect at Daniel in many ways. As for ingredients, they use some of the same suppliers. Anyway, the delicacy and balance, and even in some cases the number of ingredients that go into a sauce or garnish are not at all what I think of as bistro food. I would sooner expect those questions about Arpège (Paris) than Blue Hill. I haven't eaten at Stone Barns yet. I don't recall another two star (that's what Grimes awarded Blue Hill) that's better and most don't come near approaching it in terms of offering serious food. I can think of three star restaurants that are not nearly in the same league. I have been disappointed with the bread at times. Frank Bruni does not seem to becoming the gastronomes restaurant reviewer. The review seemed short and less enticing than I would have expected just from my visits to Blue Hill. I mean either there are kitchen problems or there's some seriously excellent food coming to the table we should hear more about.

There's a tiny restaurant on the south side of Bleeker Street between Sixth Aveneue and MacDougal, or maybe a block east of that, that specializes in pelmeni and pierogies. It might even turn out that's all they serve. I haven't eaten there and don't know if they prepare their own or outsource them, but that's what I have to offer.

This exchange is from the France forum. (For those not familiar with Taillevent, it is one of Paris' more expensive and elegant traditional restaurants.) answer No comment other than that I think I should look into their stock (shares of ownership, not what's in the stockroom or stockpot).

That's a mighty find looking meatloaf. Okay chicken loaf. Seriously, it rather looks like a nouveau gallantine with or without the garnish, although photographs are deceiving and it could be tutti-frutti ice cream frozen in chicken skin. So, fess up, what's in the matrix and is the matrix starch or chicken?

Actually pre-salé is the term for those lambs raised on the salt marshes. One noteworthy bistro and a true bistro at that, is Le Pic, on a nondescript commercial street in a residential area of Lorient. From my notes of July 2001: "A great bistro is rarely a destination restaurant, but it's often the one you most think about after returning home. It's the one you wish were near your home so you could drop in for a good meal at the drop of a hat. It often doesn't have great food across the board, but it has its specials and a local knows which are the reliable dishes. Le Pic struck me as a spiffy taut little shipshape place. I am assured that the proprietor knows his fish and that he has the best and freshest fish in Lorient. He also knows his wines and held the title of best sommelier in Brittany in 1986. The classics are often best in a bistro and the soupe de poissons here was as good as any I've had. It was served with toasted slices of bread as well as croutons and shredded cheese on the side. A dish of fish tartar was okay, but not nearly as pleasing as the same fish served marinated in slices as a first course. I was surprised and disappointed not to find a Pouilly Fume or Sancerre on the wine list in this part of France, but the inexpensive Vouvray sec recommended to us, made me forget about wanting to drink any other wine. Of course a really good bistro will have the perfect wine for everything it serves and have it at a price that brings as much pleasure as the wine. Le Pic has no Michelin stars." Also from those same notes here's an account of my Kouign Amman expedition: "Sometimes I get to have travel companions even more obsessed with food, and this was one of them. Our longest excurion was to Douarnanez in search of what we thought was a museum devoted to Kouign Amann, Brittany's contribution to the panhteon of pastries. Kouign Amman flies low under the radar often undetected by gourmets and foodies. Who would choose kouign amman for the first time when confronted with choices such as barvarois aux framboises, charlotte aux pommes, souffle au chocolat, crepes suzette, etc. it sounds like oatmeal or a not so distant cousin of haggis. Initiates will know however that it is perhaps the ultimate combination of butter, sugar and flour and perhaps that Douarnanez was its birthplace. There was no museum, but there is an "Association des Artisans Fabriquant le Kouign Amann de Douarnenez" and its members all sell their version of the very caramelised and buttery pastry under the seal of the association. We immediately set out to rate all fifteen samples, but as we had already made our first stop of the day at a crèperie, we found ourselves done in before we reached the halfway mark. Subjectivity will always vary when it comes to taste, but we had to throw one panelist off the jury when she said the second sample had too much butter." As we never completed a proper study of all the shops, we threw away our notes determined to start from scratch another year. It would be unfair to judge two pastries made on different days under different temperature and humidity conditions.

Chez Michel on rue de Belzunce just two or three blocks away from the Gare, may be too expensive for a couple of students, but I thought it was pretty inexpensive, yet satisfying. It struck me as very Parisian, although a bit too well known these days. I don't know what I'd recommend to do in an hour or two. I'd be happy to just walk around, but in some more interesting neighborhood than around the Gare du Nord. You won't really have time for a really spectacular meal as better restaurants won't start serving until 8:00 and that's early.