Bux

Generally speaking andouille are large and eaten cold, sliced thin. I think they are all smoked, but I may be wrong on that count. Many cities in France are known for their andouille. The best looking and most expensive ones are rolled in concentric rings and look much like a tree trunk when sliced. Of course some just consider that a bit of esthetic affectation. Andouillettes are smaller, and eaten hot. They may be nicely formed like a professional sausage or they may be rather course misshapen objects. They may be pork or calf. Them may reek of the barnyard so much as to disturb your tablemates, or not have that much of an aroma. They may be simply grilled and served with a bit of mustard or they may have a rich cream sauce. Fries or mashed, your choice. I am probably more of an aficionado than a connoisseur as I've enjoyed all I've had, with the possible exception of the first one. I wasn't quite sure I was enjoying it until I realized I had almost finished it. After the first few bites, I thought I'd just have a few more tastes out of curiosity. In fact it had all the charm of road kill at first, but by the time I was finished, I learned that one taste was really not enough to form a meaningful opinion.

Some people find steakhouses the epitome of dining out.

I respectfully disagree Bux. Cleanliness has nothing to do with the "cardiology" comments. There has been enough press about the pros and cons of eating beef over the last 20 years that to "waste" space on this type of "humor" is pointless. There's where we find common ground. While I understand that some people found a puritanical edge to those comments, my sense was not at all that Bruni was lecturing on how to eat a healthy diet. I am convinced it was a feeble attempt at making jokes and can more easily accept the criticism that he should have been providing more information, or even just opinion, about the restaurant. I think a member or two have commented that he doesn't appear to have much to say about steakhouses or doesn't take them seriously enough to warrant more than he's said. I think we could hold a lively debate on whether a steakhouse deserves as high a rating as a haute cuisine restaurant or as much column space. The latter may be the more interesting topic. I can usually tell how important a restaurant is in the eyes of the GaultMillau guide to restaurants in France, not only by the rating (based on a perfect score of twenty) but by the length of the text devoted to the restaurant. Where the quality is at the same level, I get the sense that the restaurant with the longer review is the more important one. Perhaps Bruni would be happier to write less about a great steakhouse than a good French restaurant. Perhaps there's more to say about a creative restaurant than one producing the same excellent food it has for years on end. I didn't mean to imply that cleanliness and cardiology were related other than that they can both be applicable to a review of food or restaurants as can so many other topics.

Rue d'lEpéron intersects rue Saint-André-des-Arts, and right about where I recall Allard to be, on my map. Perhaps it's some sort of snobbism on Pudlowski's part, unless they've moved the entrance door. Those are the "yellow" pages and not the "young" ones, are they not. I trust everyone knows les Pages Jaunes web site. It will not only provide the address and phone number, but locate your restaurant, or other business, on a map and in many cases offer a photograph of the facade. I believe it's useful all over France and not just for Paris.

Especially since Blanc doesn't brown the meat, I would think it would be great cold the next day in a salad with some homemade mayonnaise. Thus a larger bird could be good for two or more meals.

From the White George restaurant! At least i can add "elutriate" to my vocabulary.

These are not your usual Union Square Hospitality Group employees. You want to teach them science. Huh.

If the health aspects of food are not germane to a restaurant review, what would you say about cleanliness? Of course health concerns belong in a food review and as oakapple already noted, reviewers have great license in where they can go in making their points, or even just to entertain. Personally I found the cardiology references trite and the jokes just stale, but I suspect he thought he was dealing in commonly accepted folk humor. Maybe his residency in Rome left him out of touch with American vernacular or in touch with an out of date attitude. Nevertheless, I thought he made it clear that he doesn't find too much to talk about in regard to a steak house. Did Craig Clairborne ever review Peter Lugar? This is all part of the initial period where we get to know Mr. Bruni and it strikes me that some people here are looking for insight while others are just looking to put him down. The most irrelevant stuff in this thread is the comment about his paper's political leaning. That came in a paragraph that accused it of both leaving NYC and being the only paper left representing one extreme of the political spectrum, both of which would have no bearing on the quality of its restaurant critic's reviews even if they were'nt in conflict with each other.

Many years ago, in a Chinese restaurant on the upper west side of Manhattan, in a restaurant not particularly known for authentic or even particularly great food, I observed a young woman who held her chopsticks very far towards the back end. I could barely notice any movement in her fingers at all, but the ends of the chosticks opened and closed around bits of food. It's all about leverage I suppose, but at the time I was mesmerized by the grace with which she ate. She was, naturally enough a lovely woman with an exceptional hand, but it was the way she handled her chopsticks that got my attention.

This seems to be a relatively new hotel and restaurant, or one recently made over. We'll look forward to your report.

My guess is that the Shake Shack is a seasonal operation. they also only serve beer. You may need a stiff drink some days. I always keep my eye on the upper floors for chairs flying out the window when I pass Washington Irving H.S.

I thought the bread basket bread was Sullivan Street Bakery bread. I don't recall seeing anything like a brioche roll at Sullivan Street, or anything that looked as if it would work for a hamburger. My guess is that they have another source.

Ruth Reichl is editor of Gourmet magazine. Some people travel to find their roots. Italians come to New York to find their branches. Most Italian tourists seem to want to visit Little Italy. Crazycow, if you come to Little Italy, stop in at DiPalo's shop on Grand Street. Little Italy, however, is no longer a thriving Italian immigrant community. All that remains is a street of Italian restaurants of varying quality, but mostly serving tourists. Along Grand Street there are three or four old time shops, of which DiPalo's remains my favorite by far, among a sea of signs in Chinese for shops catering to the new residents. Albie - Fettucine should be wider than tagliatelle and linguine should be narrow than either, as far as I know, although I'm sure some people may not agree. I'm not aware if there's a standard width for each, but this is from a web advertisement for a Tagliatelle and Fettuccine Attachment: However, The Food Lover's Companion, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst, claims "Tagliatelle" is the name used in northern Italy for fettuccine.

Is the bun of some special quality that it can't easily be replaced? Somebody had a burger near us and I strained to see what it looked like, but I couldn't really get a good view. A burger place within walking distance is always worth knowing. We really like the burgers at Balthazar, but it's not serviceable as a walk in place most nights until very late. I had almost the reverse problem last night at Balthazar (twenty minute wait for a table at 9:00pm without a reservation, by the way). They use an English muffin which is too small.

It was a great event. I was there both Saturday and Sunday and I look forward to attending next year. There was a huge crowd, but if anyone noticed, Union Square and Washington Square, nine twnety blocks south respectively were both also densely crowded with people. Union Square had NYC's most popular Greenmarket on Saturday, otherwise all those places had to offer was good weather. Eight million people is a lot of people and the majority really don't escape to the Hamptons for the weekend, at least not this early in the season. They gotta go someplace. That said, the event was well attended and there were even more potential attenders who were just scared away by the crowds and lines. Considering NY's appetite for foreign food and "ethnic" food, it's really surprising we don't have better and more barbecue around all year, until you listen to people describe how difficult it is to install a proper pit in urban areas of North Carolina and how local zoning and buidling codes are killing traditional BBQ and then take a look at the density of New York compared to the cities with a barbecue tradition that having a hard time keeping barbecue.

I don't know it, but it looks very nice from the web site--great looking bar.

I suppose "alta" is relative, but the essence of haute cuisine or alta concina is one of very labor intensive work and it can't really be both the highest quality and cheap. There is a lot of cooking that can be done in advance and that can be described as "fine," but there's always some small loss when it's done in the quantities that are necessary to see a real savings. Soups lend themselves well to mass production, but I was looking at a dish of mixed vegetables on the Iboo web site. To produce that dish in a fine state is not going to be easy in a franchise set up.

I'm older than most of you, and I remember a lot of frozen custard from my youth. Unfortunately, I don't remember exactly where I had it. Coney Island seems a natural, but where else? I can't really say. Maybe Woolworth's, they always had a soda fountain and maybe some place in downtown Brooklyn. It's hard to remember exactly when frozen custard disappeared and I suppose with ice cream around, I never noticed it was gone. As best as I can remember, if was always served soft out of a machine and into a cup much as most frozen yogurt is now. It was always very smooth, or so I remember. I had the custard at the Shake Shack on Saturday and Sunday of the bbq block party and it brought back a memory of the old stuff. The texture was harder in the cone, but it was closer to what I remembered in my mouth. I liked it a lot and consequently am glad to hear it's all natural. I recall reading about the difference between frozen custard and ice cream. My guess is that That the Shake Shack sells beer is an added bonus as this is my grandson's local park and playground. I suppose there are some limits as to how far away from the Shack I can carry my beer without breaking the law.

My first impression of Landmarc is that it was okay, but definitely a neighborhood restaurant. We'll probably return because it's a walkable distance from where we live, but I have trouble thinking of it as a destination. The deep fried squid and a cucumber and white anchovy salad were both good appetizers. Mrs. B seemed happy enough with her sweetbreads. While not the best she's ever had, she thought they were well priced and enjoyable. I can almost swear I've had great liver in NY. Maybe I haven't. Maybe the foie de veau persillé I had last fall at Aux Lyonnais in Paris for 18 euros [less than $22 at today's terrible exchange rates] a la carte, and on the 28 euro Menu du Jour three course dinner, just spoiled me for life. The meat itself, although cooked well enough, at Landmarc just didn't hold a candle to it and at $22 plus tax and service made me wonder why people say Paris is expensive. The liver was mushy. In Paris it had a much firmer texture and was served quite a bit rarer. Here I went with the waiter's suggestion of medium rare and the meat couldn't have been served any rarer. Three dollar desserts are almost as great an idea as low wine markups. I really enjoy a bit of dessert, but often don't have room after a filling meal and Landmark's portions are not small. Three bucks for a small taste of sweets is terrific and if you want more, order two or three desserts. Mix them; match them; eat them in series or parallel. Low wine markup presents a small problem. Do I pocket the savings or drink better? We probably ordered a bottle at about what I might have spent at any place in the price range, but drank a bit better wine. I didn't much care for their clunky glasses and that might stop me from ordering a really expensive bottle, but I appreciated the temperature of the red wine. At too many little restaurants, the wines have been too warm lately. A couple of weeks ago, I asked a waiter at another neighborhood restaurant to put the red wine in an ice bucket, it was so warm. The service was good, but I wish they could train runners not to ask if we're finished until we're obviously finished. It strikes me that with wine in the bottle and food on my plate it wouldn't look as if I had finished eating, but I suppose so few people know how to place a knife and fork to signal the staff when they are finished that it's not easy for runners to second guess. Sorry to odd man out here, it's a nice place, but others seem to enjoy it more than I did. For what it's worth, I was far less pleased with Prune. As much as I was disappointed by my liver at Landmarc, I could see myself being a regular once I got to know the menu, although I didn't like the music and it was too loud for music I didn't like.

The texture and quality of a cooked potato may depend more on the quality of the raw product than on the cooking. I find the potatoes in Spain to be much better than the ones in the states, especially when one wants that waxy boiling potato rather than the starchy potatoes best for baking. A Google search for Ensalada Malguena gave up only two results both in English, but a second search on Ensalada Malgueña brought many links in Spanish as well as other languages. including a desroption of a cold nueva cocina soup--una crema fría de patatas, sorbete de naranja, cebolleta, palomitas de bacalao y aceite

I'm among those who consider Mario Sandoval more than promising. He certainly delivered when we had lunch at Coque with Victor. In a two week trip when it almost seemed as if every two days we hit a new high, and we began on a high note with our first meal, Coque, in a nondescript town about a half hour from Madrid was a highlight of our trip. That restaurant was full and everyone came from Madrid. He couldn't make more profit by moving that restaurant to Madrid and his rent would be higher. It seems few chefs are content to suvive with one restaurant these days. So whether it's money or the idea of a new challenge, chefs drive themselves in new ways. On paper, or in this case, on the web, the idea looks good. It seems he's interested in offering fast, good and healthy or at least the appearance of healthy with whole wheat breads and salads, but Madrid is full of places where one can eat well and quickly. Tapas is a way of life and it serves to provide quick tasty snacks and even meals in quick time. Both Iboo and Adrià's projects seem better suited to France or America, where bad fast food is already well entrenched. What the are offering is modernity however and that should have some appeal as long as Spain's economy does well. Overcooked pasta and and the absence of a proprietor who cares about welcoming his guests is going to work hard against the concept and as Pedro says, the middle ground can be a treacherous place where you please no one.

Foreign and exotic are both synonymous with sophisticated. Don't let on otherwise and milk it for all you can. Life is tricky with small boys in the picture, but rather interesting. When being received at a Japanese inn, one is almost always given green tea in one's room. One hot day on our first trip to Japan we were served a cold drink that was very refreshing and appealing. It turned out to be Mugicha. It seemed unique and unlike iced coffe or tea, or any other infusion we knew. It's available in NY's Chinatown and I suppose other Asian markets in the US. We drink it unsweetened as it was served to us in Japan.

I was in Lille just two months after 9/11. It was a unique time to be seen as an American. It may well have colored the recptions we got. Nevertheless, we found l'Huitière warm and friendly. It may just have been our waiter, and it may well have had to do with the times. There is no question that it is an old fashioned, bourgeois restaurant, and I rather enjoyed it for that. I am almost sure I posted a long review here, but I can't find it. Here is the draft from my hard drive. Remember this is two and a half years old. In terms of restaurants recommendations, that's probably too old to be very reliable. Although I have very fond memories of the evening, it's a lukewarm recommendation of the food at best. However, Mrs. B preferred her langoustine dish to the one she had at Marc Meurin's two star restauarant the day before. Here is my brief write up of our Marc Meurin evening. That meal was memorable largely for one excellent dish and that dish alone would be worth the trip from Lille if you had a car. We stayed at the Carlton hotel. We liked it very much. I found the staff exceptionally warm as I usually do at Concorde hotels. The hotel is, or at least was, part of the Concorde group. We're partial to Concorde hotels whenever we think they are in our budget. I've heard great things about the Alliance.

It's been my experience with food that very often the things that appear very simple are the most difficult to make and often appear far simpler to prepare than they really are. As for the butter, I think Vermont qualifies as relatively local. The Vermont Butter and Cheese Company is exactly the sort of artisanal organization invovled in sustainable agriculture we should expect Blue Hill to be using.

There's no accounting for people's tastes and I'm the first to express my understanding that taste in food and restaurants is subjective and that there's nothing wrong with that. Of course a paid reviewer needs to address a wide audience. You, your wife and everyone else are fully entitled to tell us as much or as little as you choose, but I tend to draw people out if I think they've said something that will be more interesting with a fuller explanation. That something, may also be exactly the kind of thing that will enable a future diner to choose between two restaurants of similar quality, but different styles. I think it could be a bore to sit down to a dinner of successive pure tastes, but that one such assault is likely to be a tastebud awakening experience. That your wife and I disagree on this is of little significance. That we both agree Blue Hill can achieve this is probably information that's useful. That's interesting about the butter. My guess is that Dan would love to find a local artisanal creamery to supply him with butter. His commitment to local producers is very great, but his commitment to excellence may be greater. I've been a real fan of Blue Hill and thus a booster. If I've helped anyone get more enjoyment out of a meal there, I'm happier than if I've just talked them into going there.