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victornet

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Posts posted by victornet

  1. I'm not sure how soon this expires (definitely over by the end of the weekend) but Barnes and Noble is offering 50% off any one print book if you "like" them on facebook. I did this at lunchtime and was able to purchase Modernist Cuisine for about $310.00. Still a hefty sum, but a great deal. Can't wait to start cooking from it.

  2. I'm jealous too. I'm still holding out on a long shot at a table at the end of May. As to what you might get Chef Adria to sign, how about a sardine? You'll never forget it but it will soon be just a beautiful memory. When Adria was in NYC last month I got him to sign the polaroid photo he took of pop artist Richard Hamilton (who's been a fixture at El Bulli since before Adria arrived - first invited to Cadaques by Marcel Duchamp) in Hamilton's book Polariod Portraits vol. 4. He loved it.

    I vote for Pinotxo Bar in Barcelona. Just keep ordering, you can control yourself when back in NYC.

  3. Glad I posted the sale (right after I ordered one for myself) and that we all did our bit to stimulate the economy. I had been eyeing the Blendtec and Vitamix around Christmas, but talked myself out of the $400 expense. This sale made the decision easy.

  4. Thanks so much for the description of the meal. I've been twice, both times early in the season, and it is great to read details of how the menu is radically altered by the day, the week, the month, not to mention the season. While I'm despondent about the new announcement that new requests are not being accepted for 2011 (after I respectfully waited for months for the current season to end) I feel nothing but gratitude for the opportunity to have that experience.

  5. Based on a meal last Spring the fried chicken is still the bomb. I was luck to have a (non-working stiff) friend who hit the reload button on her computer each morning for 2 weeks running to get the reservation.

    Had another great dinner art Ssam bar a week ago, and tried the excellent deal of the price fix lunch at Ma Peche in September. As far as I can tell all is well in the Empire of Chang.

  6. I can say, with no objectivity whatsoever, that the Sarabeth book is a killer. My wife edited it, and our friend Tracey Zabar was midwife.

    I can't tell you how many evenings over the last couple of years that Sarabeth has called up and asked "Why is that lunatic wife of yours still at Rizzoli?.....(i.e. not home yet to eat my cooking)".

    No element went untested on this project - it should be one of those books you can cook from every day.

  7. I'll have to admit I was disappointed by Citronelle. Nothing was bad, but there was no magic for us, as there needs to be at this price point. I really did not like the height of the chairs, and this made the entire meal somewhat uncomfortable. It was a little 'fancy' and old fashioned for my taste.

    My son is studying at George Washington University, so I only have a tourist's experience of weekend dinners.

    Besides Minibar (where we last got a reservation in 2006 - we're dialing tomorrow morning for Oct 16) I've enjoyed Jaleo, Oyamel, Rasika, and Bombay Club. The food at the latter 2 is somewhat similar. Choose Bombay Club for a more formal and quiet atmosphere and Rasika for a more happening vibe.

  8. Schwa rocks. Take full advantage of the BYOB policy and stop at Sam's wines and bring something good. We're off on our biennial trip to Chicago this weekend and are hitting Alinea and Moto (first time for Moto). The wife is less into the rock and roll vibe of Schwa than I am, though she certainly liked the food.

  9. I actually worry a lot more about chipping my gyutos, and specifically reserve my deba for cleaver like tasks. In my amateur kitchen this mainly means breaking down chickens. I find my relatively inexpensive and heavy (ca. $75.00) deba is fun to use and perfect for the tough tasks but not for the longer periods of precise cutting I do with the gyutos. .

  10. I have not been able to get a table my last 2 trips to Barcelona, but based on one visit Alkimia is my #1 choice - try to book asap. For breakfast or tapas I highly recommend Tapas 24 - be sure to have a bikini sandwich. Inopia has unfortunately closed - I had a spectacular meal there in June. I second going to Bar Pinotxo in the Boqueria - totally worth the wait for a seat. Go for an early lunch - items sell out as the day progresses - we got the last of some tiny succulent clams. I've enjoyed Sauc, but I prefer Hisop. If you want one of the new 'bistronomic' places (intimate restaurants with multi course meals based on what is seasonal) I really enjoyed Gresca's ca. 55 euro prix fixe and someone over on chowhound is also touting Gelonch, which I did not make it to.

    pinotxo.jpg

    I also had a very expensive and very good meal at ABAC, whose new chef is on his game, but there are spectacular meals to be had in Barcelona without this level of expense. (Photo shows their suckling pig dish.)

    ABACpig.jpg

  11. I've stayed at the Almadraba Park in Roses twice and its quite nice. It's out of the center of Roses. We went for the superior room this time (an extra 20 or 30 euros) which meant it was overlooking the sea. It was great to hang out on our porch and unwind from the meal over cigars. Excellent breakfast buffet as well.

    I think the drive to Cadaques after the meal would be a bit long and that is a very windy road. I'd highly recommend a visit to the Salvador Dali house museum in Port Lligat (the edge of Cadaques) which requires advance reservations as places are limited.

    The hotel is fairly private, but you can walk down to this beach in a couple of minutes:

    beach.jpg

  12. The funny thing about the pine nut shabu-shabu is that there was another component not in the photo that we were told to finish the dish with - sort of a pine leaf (I know leaf is not exactly right) - and it was by far the best part of the dish. The progression of little envelopes was a little precious and did not have the flavor payoff of the dish's closing note.

  13. Here come the photos of the final savory courses and the sweets section. By this time we had finished a wonderful bottle of 1989 La Rioja Alta 890 Gran Riserva and were well into what started as a glass of Bodegas Farina Gran Colegiata Campus 2001 but soon became the whole bottle. Which is a partial excuse for the more shaky quality of some of these photos. Of course we also had no natural light coming in through the window by this point.

    One of the dishes that was presented as a bit of a challenge in terms of identifying what exactly we were tasting was roses/artichokes:

    roses:artichokes.jpg

    This was folowed by sea anemone with te:

    sea anemone with te.jpg

    Then came the delicious eel sandwich:

    eel sandwich.jpg

    This was followed by the complex abelone with iberian ham fat:

    abalone with iberian ham fat.jpg

    Then came one of my favorites, a take on a spring roll called suckling pig tail (sorry for the photo quality):

    suckling pig tail.jpg

    The next dish was something of a repeat from my 2007 meal, "hare juise with apple jelly-cru with black currant marinated", which was simply called "hare juise" last time. Anyway, the meaty flavor of the jelly was as rich and satisfying as a steak at Peter Lugers.

    hare juise.jpg

    We began to depart the weight of the savory section with a return to the frozen theme of the snacks in parmesan frozen-air with museli:

    parmesan frozen air.jpg

    This was followed by pond and puff pastry of pineapple:

    pond.jpg

    puff pastry.jpg

    We knew the end was approaching with the passion fruit marshmallow, the stupendous chocolate handkerchief, and so-called shellfish:

    passion fruit marshmallow.jpg

    chocolate handkerchief.jpg

    shellfish.jpg

    We then moved back outside to the porch and leisurely enjoyed the morphings:

    morphings.jpg

    As full as I was, I managed to taste each of these incredible morsels. We drove back to Roses floating in air, and enjoyed our cigars on the patio of the hotel, trying to extend the experience forever.

  14. As far as the 'american' name goes, what you say makes sense, I'm just giving the titles from the English menu they gave me at the end, and some of the names are idiosyncratically translated from Catalan.

    We also started with a bunch of cocktails. Perhaps because I'm a wine oriented guy (rarely drink anything over 15% alcohol and I'm happier near 13%), these were not my favorite part of the meal, though some were plenty terrific. It just felt like too much alcohol at that point. When I ate at El Bulli in 2007 I believe we had only one cocktail (cosmopolitan-mallow) and it was a killer start to the meal.

    Anyway, the first cocktail was the one I really did not like, dry martini. You sprayed it onto your tongue and the overwhelming taste resembled grain alcohol.

    dry martini.jpg

    The other drinks were sugar cane mojito - caiprinha:

    sugar cane mojito.jpg

    after the strawberry came snow-fizz:

    snow-fizz.jpg

    then gin fizz:

    gin fizz.jpg

    This was followed by the Gorgonzola Globe, which kicked the meal into a much higher orbit for me.

  15. Since the earlier report has garnered no feedback, I'll just quickly post more images from the meal for those who might be interested:

    flower nectar.jpg

    flower nectar

    tea buscuit.jpg

    tea buscuit

    ham and ginger.jpg

    joselito ham and ginger canape

    tartar of marrow.jpg

    tartar of marrow

    montjoi lentils.jpg

    Montjoi lentils

    prawn two firings.jpg

    prawn two firings

    mimetic almond.jpg

    mimetic almond

    pinenut shabu shabu.jpg

    pinenut shabu-shabu

    soya milk with soya.jpg

    soya milk with soya

    asparagus with miso.jpg

    asparagus with miso

    miso soup.jpg

    miso soup

    This brings us into the full-on savory portion of the meal, which I'll post later.

  16. I purchased a Hattori petty from CKTG - great service, and Mark's presence on the 'In The Kitchen' forum at Knife Forums is really helpful. He's always looking to bring cool goodies to market, even when he sometimes has to accept very slim profit margins. His current project, commissioning a semi-custom carbon knife by Devin Thomas at an affordable price is just one reason to support him.

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