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Stone

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Posts posted by Stone

    Looking for Closure: Screwcaps vs. Corks

    in Wine

    Posted

    Has anyone actually done a taste test comparing wines with cork to wines with screw-tops? I guess it could be difficult because I assume the same wine doesn't come with both types of closures, so an accurate comparison isn't possible. But I'd like to know if, in a blind taste test, someone could tell whether the wine had been seale with cork or a screw-top.

    Per Se

    in New York: Dining

    Posted · Edited by Stone (log)

    Since I haven't had time to write up my dinner from last week, may I post some bullet points:

    1) Decor: Not nearly as comfortable as French Laundry. I didn't like the two teired effect -- it was like a diner theater. And the dark brown wook reminded me of the faux wood paneling my parents put up in the 70's.

    2) Service: Excellent. Really great, nice, attentative, knowledgable.'

    3) Oysters and Pearls: A little more salty than I remembered, and my sabayon looked like the eggs might have curdled (proper terms?) slightly. Not as creamy as I remembered. But still lovely.

    3.5) Pea soup. Sister ordered it. Perhaps the best pea soup I've ever had. You know how people talk about a great dish that captures the essence of an ingredient? This is it. most pea soup is thick, heavy and hearty. (Not a bad thing at all.) This was more of a gazpaucho and served cool. Each spoonful was like biting into a perfect, crisp sweet sugarsnap pea.

    4) foie gras. Terrific. A good size slice of foie (they had foie in addition to torchon), wonderfully crispy on the outside and smoth and soft inside. The piece left a wonderful effervensence in the roof of the mouth. It accomodated ellipicity.

    5) Hawaiin Moi. Perhaps the most "Californian" dish. A beautifully cooked small filet of flaky, moist fish. the outside was crisp and the inside tender. My criticism is that it sat atop an overpoweringly citrus sauce. Most people would probably enjoy that.

    6) Lobster. Not as good as Peas & Carrots. But not bad. Truffles good.

    7) Sweetbreads. After my Babbo experience, I had to substitute the sweetbreads for the rabbit. They were terrific. Three cubes of glazed sweetbreads, about the size of large dice. They were seated atop perfect rounds of firm fried green tomatoes. The combination was wonderful. The sweetbreads had a similar flavor to those at Babbo, but not as strong.

    7.5) Duck breast and foie gras. Sister ordered this even though she doesn't like either. Good for me. I never understood the ravings about duck breast, and I though this was just an average dish. The meat was tender and tasty, but nothing to rave about. The skin was not crisp at all. The second serving of foie bordered on decadence, but what's wrong with that?

    8) Beef. The memory is failing here. So did the dish. Well, a little. It was a biscotti shaped slice of beef with a small amount of broth and vegetables. My piece was well done -- when it was delivered, I thought it had been braised. When I looked at my friend's servings, I saw that theirs was beautifully rosy red. I should have sent it back, but didn't. It still tasted great.

    8.5) Edit to add the cheese. I'm embarrased that I can't remember what kind of cheese it was. But it was probably the best cheese presentation I've had. The dish was rectangular, with a shallow bowl. A rectangular slice of cheese sat in the middle, just covered with bright yellow olive oil and a small sprinkling of chopped herbs. Slices of beautiful, black-purple olives had been taken and laid in the olice oil, curved side up so that they looked like small dops of balsamic vinegar. The combination was exquisite to look at and wonderful to eat.

    9) Desserts: Much better than I remember at French Laundry. More on those later.

    The French Laundry 2001 - 2005

    in California: Dining

    Posted

    The cult of " French Laundry China" appearing soon at a  store near you. You can't cook like Thomas but you can eat off the same plates. What's next a Tony Bourdain line of knives? Or better yet Signature Chefs clothing. :laugh:  :cool:  :blink:

    Everyone has a line of something. Jamie Oliver has dishes and pots. Nigella Lawson and Nobu have dishes. Emeril has pots. Daniel Boulud has knives and pots. Etc. There's no celebrity apparel in the Chefware catalogue ("The Look That Cooks") - but there are a lot of celebrity endorsements. The strange thing about the Keller line is it's so hard to find it. Robyn

    Not being a FoodTV celebrity chef, Keller probably doesn't have the sales-punch as the others. Less stores will be willing to stock it.

    No Parsley?

    in eGullet Q&A with Mario Batali

    Posted

    In response to an earlier question on what you cook on the fly, you wrote:

    breakfast eggs in a hole with green tabasco

    lunch grilled pecorino toscano cheese sammies with relish, jalapenos and sri racha

    dinner spaghetti aglio olio and peperoncino

    ---

    but beware the odd sprinkle of parsley, it renders all of the above completely inedible

    I was very surprised about the parsley caution at the end. I was trying to find some common theme in these dishes that would clash with the parsley, but nothing jumped out.

    I once heard a chef lamenting the fate of parsley that too many people think it's only a garnish. I find that a dash of freshly chopped parsley helps most dishes.

    I'm curious whether you generally avoid "the odd sprinkle" of parsley (I personally try to avoid the "odd squirt of lemon juice")?

    Thanks.

    Cockroach on the wall - do you never return?

    in Restaurant Life

    Posted · Edited by Stone (log)

    Insects are essentially just extra protein, after all, and if the dish they've contaminated is properly cooked, I don't see how they can really hurt us.

    This isn't the whole story. That humble bit of protein may have crawled across the unclean floor of the restroom before traipzing (?) across your pizza. The fly might have just arrived from a visit to the garbage can or worse outside, picking up all sorts of bacteria. In rural India and other areas, flies spread a great deal of disease as they hop from cow dung, etc., to plate.

    That said, roaches in a restaurant don't bother me.

    Italian Haute Cuisine?

    in eGullet Q&A with Mario Batali

    Posted

    A while back there was a discussion here about what constitutes haute cuisine and what cuisines deserved that title. There was a strong consensus that French fit the bill, and strong arguments for Chinese. Regarding Italian, a few people argued that no matter how good it tastes, Italian food doesn't deserve "haute cuisine" status because the techniques involved weren't sufficiently subtle or complex. Putting aside the obvious response that the label of "haute cuisine" is irrelevant, I wonder what your thoughts on on where/how Italian cuisine compares with French, Chinese, Indian, etc.

    By the way, thanks for the eggplant caponata at Otto and the sweetbreads at Babbo. And I'm sure your gelato has put a significant dent in Ben & Jerry's NY sales.

    Babbo

    in New York: Dining

    Posted

    The tripe parm at Babbo is actually one of the more successful renditions of tripe that I've had in New York. Pity you didn't order it. Guaranteed to make converts out of tripe haters.

    Then again, more for me. :biggrin:

    Soba

    yeah, i regret that I didn't try it. but i wanted to play the odds of enjoying part of my meal. ends up that i liked the sweetbreads more than the tongue.

    Babbo

    in New York: Dining

    Posted · Edited by Stone (log)

    So I’ve lived five blocks from Babbo for years. What finally gets me there? A hankering for organ meat. Sweetbreads to be exact. At 6 tonight I thought, well, I ain’t got nothing going on in my life, might as well eat the thymus gland of a young calf. I mean, why not?

    I walked over to Babbo and got a seat at the bar. I was on the end, which was a tad unfortunate cuz the waiters kept bumping by. But the room, as has been described here often was, well, as described here often.

    I wanted to go for an all offal night. But at the last minute I thought, better make sure you enjoy something. So instead of the tripe parmigiana (which, to be honest, sounds just awful), I ordered the lambs tongue. Then the sweetbreads.

    I ordered a glass of some barbera d’albo. Or something. It was good.

    The lambs tongue was truly yummy. Little grayish brown slices of tongue that you could just picture sneaking of a sweet little lambs mouth. Can you say “baaa?” The slice were served with wonderful morels, scallion and a large 3-minute egg on top. The tongue was tender and fully of a sweet earthy aroma that you tasted high up in the back of your mouth. They tasted similar to the morel, but each had distinct flavor that went perfectly together. I wasn’t a fan of the egg. The yolk was a little too cooked. It didn’t seem to add anything.

    While I waited for my sweetbreads, the table next to me was served their entrees. Meat. My god, what beautiful meat. There were lamb chops. Beautiful golden porkchops. And, best of all, ribeye. For two. A simply erotic hunk of meat, sitting on the carving board like a plump black buttock. The server sliced it to reveal, just under the charred crust, an even rosy pink interior, like sweet young lips, glistening with sweat and just begging to be kissed. It was sliced inches thick and piled atop roasted fingerling potatoes. Oy gevalt and Ish kabible. Gotta get me some of that.

    The sweetbreads came. Wow. Really. These things are good. Three large sweetbreads, golden crisp and plump. Sitting on a bed of two types of caramelized onion and topped with snips of fennel frond and orange jest. Each piece was topped with wonderfully sweet and smokey duck bacon. To start, I tasted just the plain sweetbread. It was terrific. Still crisp, tender – very similar to monkfish in texture. The taste was subtle, like a light – very light – fish. Everything went together perfectly. Nothing unpleasant. No icky texture. No bitterness. It was just good. The sweet onion; the anise from the fennel. The orange was absolutely terrific (giving the dish a little taste of what General Tso’s chicken should taste like).

    I decided to keep going. I ordered the panna cotta with almond sorbet. Ooosh. Good. The panna cotta sat in the middle of the plate like a perfectly formed, young milky white breast. Quivering and glistening under almond syrup and surrounded by plump red nipples of quartered figs. The cool almond sorbet was soft with toasted nutty flavor. Ooosh. (Had to say it twice.)

    I finished the evening off with some Frenette. Tastes like cough syrup, jagermeister and a heavy dash of bile. Mmmmm. Bile.

    (Took pictures, but they didn't work.)

    THE BEST: Sandwiches in NYC

    in New York: Dining

    Posted · Edited by Stone (log)

    Courtesy of www.superpages.com:

    Kalustyan's Orient Trading

    123 Lexington Avenue Frnt, New York, NY 10016

    (212) 683-8458

    Now, what on earth does "Frnt" mean???

    It's the "fart" sound generated by pressing the upper front teeth firmly against the lower lip, thereby creating a seal, and forcibly expelling air from the lungs throughsides of the mouth, thereby cause the lips to vibrate and creating a "frnt" sound.

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