Stone

Well, I went last night. It was o.k., not great, not bad. The room is more downtown-trendy than mid-town steak house. Rather youngish crowd. They stuck 8 of us at a small round table that could have held 5 comfortably, but in their defense, we didn't make the reservations until about 4 p.m. that day. The server looked like Fred Savage, all growed up from the Wonder Years and had an attitude I didn't appreciate. Then again, we were all quite drunk, so mayhaps we deserved it. Much of my memory of the evening is fuzzy due to the most beautiful woman I've seen in ages sitting at the table directly across from me, unfortunately enthralled with some bozo. For apps, we all had a caesar salad. It was good, though the dressing could have used more punch. Some thought it was under-dressed, but I though it was fine. The individual salads were all topped with a large, fairly thick slice of crisp, baked parmesoan, about the size of a paperback book page. That was a good touch. It had a large menu, not at all focussed on steaks. But we all had steaks anyway. I ordered the 12 oz NY strip. It was small, but very, very good. Excellent charring on the outside, the inside was a uniform bright pinkish red. Tender and flavorful. The 20 oz t-bone was also quite good from the bit I tasted, although a tad thin, which made it all a tad overdone. The filet to my right was odd. It seemed to have been roasted or baked instead of grilled. It was a greyish color. This resulted in less flavor for an already lower flavored cut, although it was very tender. Some folks had surf & turf, and the lobster portion looked adequate. For the sides we had mashed potatoes, asparagus, brussel sprouts, and Mac & cheese. The Mac was quite good, very strong cheddar flavor, and a good amount of crisp cheese crust. The sprouts were cooked in, I think, a balsamic something. I didn't love it, but others did. The asparagus were straightforward grilled asparagus, which is always good in my book. I didn't taste the mashed. Desserts came and were eaten, but I was way too drunk to remember that. Wine was drunk throughout. Id say this is a good place if some of your party wants a good steak, but others want more options. If you wall want steak, I'd stick to the usual suspects elsewhere. We went to Samovar afterwards for a little Ruskying. And what the hell is Tommy talking about?

Is this place any good? I'm dining there this evening.

I followed Alton Brown's method. Very good. He uses low heat to get the roast up to temp, then hits it with high heat to get a good browning at the end. Check out the Good Eats Fan Page.

Is Amma doing anything special for Diwali?

"Ex-Daniel maitre d', Bruno Jamais, recently opened an exclusive supper club on the Upper East Side. Membership is $7,000 and the guests are handpicked by Jamais. The advantages: a $6 million wine collection, Pratesi table linens, reservation-only policies, an unlisted phone number, and best of all, no mixing with the vile hoi polloi. "I resent it on a Friday or Saturday night when restaurants have a crowd that isn't particularly 'preferred,'" sniffs Wall Street CEO, Robert Kanter. ("Well, I resent it when Wall Street CEOs have egos larger than their offshore bank accounts," sniffs Gawker Editor, Elizabeth Spiers.) The Post says "ascots are de rigueur," which is a bit confusing. The only ascot-ed man I've ever seen people take seriously is Hugh Hefner, and surely that speaks for itself." Anyone been?

My friend's sister tends to eat only the chicken skin and maybe the first 1/8" of meat. We were at dinner (Mercer Kitchen, very mediocre) and she mentioned that mashed potatoes should be made with chicken skin, not bacon. (Pardon the blasphemy.) Since I'll probably be cooking a meal for this lady and her hubby in the near future, I figured I'd do some sort of mashed potato featuring chicken skin. My first thought was to make the potatoes separately, then cook whole sheets of skin (peeled off a breast most likely) under a bacon press until relatively crisp and laying the skin atop the potatoes on the plate. Can anyone think of anything more creative? How about a good garnish? Maybe a drop of truffle oil? (Yes, I also thought about rolling the skin around some type of dowel, deep frying it like a pasta tube and piping the potato inside. I quickly dismissed that idea as lunacy. I'm not even trying to get this woman into bed.)

I've heard it was a bad season for white truffles this year causing the prices to skyrocket.

I thought cheesecloth was meant to act as a moisture retainer, not a heat shield. If the latter, wouldn't foil be better, less messy, and less likely to ruin the skin? (By the way, my mom brined her first turkey this year, and I assured her that she didn't have to baste once. It was great.)

When I was growing up, Luchows was the one place I always wanted to go. I think because of their commercials, which showed the large room and waiters carrying huge plates of food. My parents always said I had to wait for my 16th birthday. Alas, by then it had moved uptown and was not getting good reviews. (I think we went to Maxwell's Plum instead.)

The White Truffle course was on the ala carte menu -- at a $100 supplement. Regarding the brioche -- The first time I had it, the brioche came out very late, for both me and the table next to us. This time it was on time. And each time they were ready with the extra slices. Free refills of bread is the sign of a top-notch joint. I wish I knew then what a sauce spoon was for. But I used a little ingenuity, and my fork/finger combo did quite well.

After overplanting during the boom, California grape prices have dropped an average of 11%. According to a CNN report, one planter's crop went from $300/ton to $90. Many in the central valley are letting grape fields lie fallow or replanting with almond trees.

The first is a poor analogy. Roxanne's food is not just slicing vegetables and putting them on a plate. There is a huge amount of cooking involved -- it just doesn't use heat or animal products. If Trotter used boiling water as the only heating method, but still had available to him the full range of ingredients and spices, that would be a closer analogy. As for comparing Roxanne's to haute cuisine, I think that for both Roxannes and Danko/FL/CP the diner is giving some price leeway for the labor-intensive preparation. How else could Danko/FL/CP justify their prices? All, including Roxannes, are paying top dollar for the freshest, most interesting ingredients. But you're paying a huge premium for the prep time that's necessary to raise Danko/FL/CP's ingredients to their superb level. Same with Roxanne's. Also, in my $250 bill was two half-bottles of wine. The food prices for Roxannes are cheaper than Danko, which I believe charges $54 for three courses and $75 for five. French Laundry is sui generis. And, I would say that the carrot soup, the masala dosa/kofta, the sea vegetable salad, and the butter-lettuce salad could easily be served at any of those restaurants. After all, FL serves celeriac salad with vinegrette. It's a tiny portion of fresh vegetables in a vinegrette. I'm pretty sure that nothing on the plate has been cooked (I could be wrong of course) and people rave about it.

I have a question for the cheesecloth people out there. I started a thread here to ask whether basting does anything. The general, although in now way complete response was "no." Now I'm setting my sights on the cheesecloth wrapped around a turkey breast on the theory (I suppose) that keeping the skin moist will keep the flesh underneath moist. The few times I've seen a bird cooked with cheesecloth, there was still a good amount of juice/oil on the bottom of the roasting pan. Isn't the loss of that juice what causes the dryness in the breast? Won't any cooking method that releases moisture from the bird contribute towards a dry breast? Seems to me that even cooking the bird upside down and, therefore, soaking the breast in juice oil, ain't gonna do much to get the juice/oil back up into the breast meat. Aren't the only options 1) find a cooked method that releases smaller amounts of moisture from the bird; or 2) increasing the moisture content of the breast prior to cooking (most likely by brining, koshering, or perhaps breeding)?

Assuming that basting doesn't do anything (although maybe we haven't heard the last word on that), what good is wrapping a turkey breast in cheesecloth? Would that do anything more than keep the skin moist? How about cooking the bird upside down? I could see how that might work -- as the flesh heats up and releases moisture, gravity would pull it down. if the bird is upside down, it would remain in the meaty portion of the breast, instead of going down towards the thighs and the junk backbone.

I've made lots of chickens and turkeys where I've basted as instructed. I've made many where I just put the bird in the oven and ignored it. I can't say that I've noticed much of a difference. How much can basting do? You're spooning a few tablespoons of fat over a chicken every 15 minutes or so. I can understand that it will help keep the skin moist, maybe even golden. Maybe it will keep the first 1/8 inch of meat moist. But can the basting juices really penetrate into the flesh underneath and do anything? If it could really increase the moisture an inch and half into the breast, why can't we marinate a chicken breast in 2 minutes instead of 30?

It was certainly good and I had a good time. Saying it's overrated doesn't mean it's not good. But SD is one of the most popular restaurants in San Francisco, a city known for excellent food. That's why it's grossly overrated. SD is about style, not substance. It's an average (not bad, but average) "tricked-out" Vietnamese restaurant clothed by Banana Republic. Take away the wine list, clay pots, and attitude and no one would think it's so great. Take that food and put it in a Tenderloin dive and no one would notice it.

Slanted Door is the most overrated restaurant in San Francisco, if not California if not the United States.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Well, I've said it before, so I wont say it again.

I don't know if they justify the chocolate. They just use it. I'm told they get some flack from other raw food advocates. They use maple and honey. Honey is an animal product, but perhaps it's not harvested from the animal in the way milk or eggs are. I'm just guessing. Don't know about maple. I can try to find out.

Concepts like "best example of cuisine" are somewhat subjective. (Sorry about that.) For example, there are many Chinese restaurants in Chinatown that have predominantly Chinese customers. I've found that my tastes don't necessarily coincide with the tastes of many Chinese, so I wouldn't necessarily choose a Chinese restaurant on that basis. And in fact, I would argue that some of those restaurants serve down-right nasty food by any standard. Although there probably is some measure of "right and wrong" when judging a dish as "Chinese Cuisine" for example, when it comes to enjoying the food, it just depends what you like.

Based on this logic, I'd be eating all my meals at Cucina del Salvador which is in the SRO hotel a block away. Danko, FL and (I'm guessing) Chez Panisse are all more similar to each other than Roxanne's. It may be a little farther away (although if you go down 101 I'm pretty sure Roxanne's is closer than SF) but it's a much different experience.

Oh. The wine was a Mas des Dumaus Gassac. Which is very fun to say. And a red Burgundy. Which is less fun to say, but good.

I had an amazing meal at Roxanne's last night. Roxanne's is a vegan "raw" food restaurant (with one slight exception discussed below). No animal products are used at all, including eggs and dairy. The food is only warmed, not above 118 degrees. The website explains the theory behind the raw food movement. But make no mistake, the restaurant is not about an ideology. It's about fine dining. There are no signs in the restaurant urging you to support PETA, save the whales, boycott supermarkets or stop eating veal. The waiters do not preach the health benefits of raw food, nor do they take a superior tone regarding their vegan fare. In fact, our waitress cheerfully explained that her dinner the night before consisted of meat. Roxanne's is about great food served in a beautiful room by excellent staff. Like any well-balanced person, I first scoffed at the idea of raw food. At first I was trying to pick dishes that would demonstrate wizardry. "You think you can pull a fast one on me? Try it. But I know meat when I taste it." But Roxanne's is not a gimmick. This is not about chemistry or even alchemy. They're not trying to fashion meat substitutes, passing off tempeh or wheat gluten or tofu as chicken or beef. (Although Zen Palate in NY does a very good job at that.) They're serving excellent food with a limited range of ingredients. Don't expect to taste something and think, "hey, that passes as chicken or shrimp or beef." Just expect to think, "hey, that's damn good." Our reservations were for 7:30 and the restaurant was pretty empty all night. My companion is "in the business" and knows Roxanne's sommelier quite well, so we got some extras with our meal that were much appreciated. I highly recommend that you all go out and find someone "in the business" and start kissing ass. It's not that you'll be treated much better. You just get more food. For free. We started with a half bottle of Veuve Cliquot, 1995 Vintage. I'm not a champagne fan, but this was outstanding. The champagne was very soft on the tongue, with the tiniest of bubbles. The finish reminded me of a hint of milk chocolate. Very nice. Roxanne's drink menu offers "herbal potions designed to enhance your mood" (perhaps the only real silly aspect of the experience) along with other drinks and juices. I orderd the Almond Nog: It was very, very good. It looks like frothed whole milk with a sprinkle of nutmeg on top. Of course, there's no milk at Roxanne's. The drink is almond milk -- almonds soaked in water, blended, and strained. It has a touch of honey and maple added to round out the flavor and some nutmeg. The taste is cool, refreshing and delicious. Nutty, of course, but no so much that you would otherwise know it was made from almonds. I would have thought it was whole milke flavored with juggary or brown sugar. Sweet, but not from sugar (they don't use refined sugar either). Really a great start to the meal. Roxanne's offered a multi-course chef's tasting menu. The menu was very new, featuring Indian inspired cuisines. The cost was $100 per person and the entire table had to order it. Neither of us were ready to spend that kind of money. And the dishes, which included masala dosa and the mediterranean plate of hummus, dolma, etc., didn't seem very exciting. My thought at the time was "I'm not going to spend $100 bucks for them to recreate nuts and vegetables into a $4 side dish." Looking back, I have a feeling there's a whole lot more to the tasting menu than meets the eye. I'd encourage those with the cash to try it. The menu is otherwise separated into appetizers, soups, salads, and entrees. You can choose and entree and 2 starters ($44) or an entree and 3 starters ($52). We decided to share everything (which always works in my favor as my mouth is larger than most peoples'), and ordered two entrees and 5 starters. The celebrity bonus got us a few more tastes. Next we received an amuse of grape granita with drop of 100 year old balsamic: This was delicious. Cool and fresh with a strong fruit flavor wonderfully balanced with the tangy sweetness of the balsamic. I received the Sea vegetable salad with kaisou, pineapple yuzu and hijiki vinaigrette: These were relatively straightforward preparations of seaweed salad. Four very good, very fresh portions. Each highlighted a different aspect -- salty, briny, citrusy and salty. A very good dish. And it was at this point that I realized that in many instances, the raw/vegan concept was at all intrusive. Spices, herbs, shavings and most flavorings easily fit within that limitation. This dish could easily have been served in a "normal" restaurant without hesitation. At the same time we received the cucumber wrapped summer rolls: Again, this was a fairly recognizable summer, but the rice paper wrapper was replaced by shaved sheets of cucumber. The waitress explained that they have a machine called a "sheeter" (I think that's what she called it), that works like a cross between a long carrot peeler and an apple peeler. The blade rests lengthwise against the cuke (or carrot, etc.) and when turned produces long sheets of cucumber. Although this was a beautiful presentation, I thought it lacked oomph. The vegies were fresh and tasty, and I don't think the lack of rice paper lost anything at all. The dipping sauces were familiar, but again, needed more zip. A note about service. Our server was one of the best I've ever had. Not only was she friendly and helpful with the menu, her knowledge of the food rivaled that at French Laundry. She was able to explain for each preparation how the special vegan items (such as the cashew cheese) were made. A pleasure. Next was the salad course: Red butter lettuce with cherry tomatoes, avocado, crushed mint and garlic And grapefruit sabayon with avacado and pomegranite seeds: The salad was very good, although again lacking special oomph. A large portion of fresh lettuce with a creamy tangy dressing. I thought the grapefruit was a delicious pairing of the sweet acid from the citrus and the cool creaminess of the avacado. The pomegranite seeds added a terrific underlying tang and tartness to the whole dish. Nothing yet was hot. And nothing needed to be. The house sent over a sample of something off their new Indian menu. Masala dosa with a pressed spinish kofta. As you can see, the dosa was more of a cornet than what I typically expect from a dosa. It was filled with a luscious almond cream. The spinich kofta was cooked pressed spinish that managed to take on a firm, cakey consistency. I wish I had the ability to describe the flavors better. They were each outstanding. Shockingly different from what I expected them to taste like, each with a complex blend of subtle Indian spices. The creme in the dosa was as refreshing as creme fraiche and the added amazement that this product could be produced without dairy was only bonus. Again, this isn't gimmickry. The dish was superb on it's own. No added points for wizardry. The spinich kofta had another wonderful blend of the earthy spinich leaves and indian spices. It was topped with baby coriander sprouts -- something I've never seen before and that appeared a few times. You know how when you plant an herb (or any plant perhaps), the first sprout opens up two, basic long flat leaves regardless of the plant? The next leaves carry the characteristics of the herb? Well, these coriander sprouts contained the two initial leaves and one following leaf that was recognizable as coriander. The sprout was bursting with coriander flavor, much spicier than any I'd had before. The soups: Coconut green curry soup with avocado, cherry tomatoes red chili and green curry oils: And carrot soup with indian spices. (Sorry, I can't remember the full name): The coconut curry is a house speciality. It was also the weaker of the two, but only because the carrot soup is one of the most delicious things I've ever had in my life. The cocunut curry was a mild, flavorful curry, softened by pureed avacado. It had a full range of flavors and carried great aromatics in the broth with fresh herbs and little dots of flavored oils. Again, for my preference it would have had more chili heat, but perhaps that's a conscious choice of the restaurant. I'm at a loss to describe the carrot soup. My only criticism was that there wasn't enough of it. And I'm not just saying that because it was so good. It was a small portion. The pureed carrots were sweet and savory. I wasn't excited about carrot soup because I expected it to taste like carrot juice -- kind of a smack in the face with a big orange vegetable. But this was as full and tasty as sqaush or pumpking soup. Somehow they were able to infuse it with wonderful aroma of citrusy coriander seed and smokey mustard seed. Ordinarily, this would be done, of course, by roasting the seeds or heating them in oil to be added to the soup. But there was no heating here. Yet the aroma was as complex and wonderful as I could imagine. Flavored oils, coriander shoots and some cream-like streaks added to create an amazing dish. And it wasn't hot. But you know what, I didn't even notice that. It was warm. And, frankly, at most of the fine dining I've had recently, the food has rarely gone beyond warm. I had two bowls of pumpkin soup in Napa last weekend, and neither were particularly hot. This was warm -- about 118* I assume -- and if my friend didn't bring up the fact that it wasn't hot I wouldn't have noticed at all. Next up: Tamale with queso amarillo, corn, chipotle vinaigrette, sour cream and molé sauce Again, I was reminded that they weren't trying to mimic meat. There wasn't anything in the tamales that looked or acted like beef or chicken. Instead, the filling was a wonderful mix of sweet corn, yellow cheese and sublte spices. The shells were made out of some type of pressed flax-seed mixture that tasted very good (pretty close to a corn tortilla). The only drawback was the consistency -- they were a bit pastey. Not necessarily in a bad way, but not what you'd expect from a tamale. All in all, and excellent dish with lots of flavor. (The boring old guacamole was also terrific.) The final entree courses were the most ambitious: Lasagna terrine layered with roma tomato sauce, mushrooms, baby spinach, corn, and herbed cashew cheese and Cocunut chow-fun (can't remember the entire dish) The chow fun was amazing. The noodles were made from soaked strips of baby coconut meat. I have to say that if I wasn't told beforehand, I think I would never have noticed that these weren't noodles. They are so soft and tender, that their texture and consistency mimics a thick, rice noodle. Mixed with the coconut were bean sprouts (too many for me, but I'm not a fan of bean sprouts), shavings of napa cabbage, and spicy cashews. Again, I didn't notice that it was cold. It was like a good Thai salad. In the foreground was a tender sliced mushroom, flavored with a hoisin type of sauce. A great dish. I thought the lasagne was weaker, but only because the tomato sauce was out of place with all the other tastes of the evening. The pasta for the lasagne was made from zucchini. I can't say that this really mimicked pasta, but that didn't detract at all from the dish. The herbed cashew cheese was somewhat strange. It wasn't really cheese, more of a paste. I didn't like it much when eaten alone, but in the dish it added a great layer of flavor. We ended the night with valhrona chocolate ice cream sandwich: This was really the only weak part of the evening. And only part of it was weak. I have no idea how the ice cream was made. But it tasted like a cross between ice cream and frozen yogurt. Not quite as creamy as I'd like, but not icy like ice milk. And it tasted like chocolate and vanilla. The chocolate cookie was made from cocoa powder, chocolate fudge and, I think, chopped dates. Here's the exception to Roxanne's "raw" cuisine. The chocolate fudge was "cooked" to make fudge, although it was not served hot. This cookie was also the weak and unfortunate item of the evening. It left a chemical bitterness in the mouth that was accentuated by the crushed oats pressed on the sides of the ice cream. It was not pleasant at all, and unfortunately stuck around quite a bit after the meal. So we were done. I was full. I was sated. I was not at all looking forward to In-N-Out Burger. The bill for two, with two half bottles of wine, was pricey -- $250 (with a generous tip, we were not charged for the extra items). But I think this meal rivaled some of the best I've had, with some dishes (the carrot soup, for example) surpassing almost anything. There is a heavy reliance on nuts, and although I was rarely if ever conscious of the nuts, there was usually an underlying essence to dishes that slowly grew to take on a life of its own. (I think this added to the bitter sensation from them ice cream.) It wasn't really noticeable during the meal, but afterward I feld as if I'd eaten a bag of cashews. One other item must be mentioned. Although there weren't many others in the restaurant, the crowd was as "normal" as one would expect. Until Yin & Yang came in. Or maybe God & the Devil. Good and bad? A couple came in for a late dinner. She was dressed all in black. Perfectly normal, of course. He, on the other hand, was dressed in white flowing clothing and wearing a white skull cap. He looked like the high priest at an EST convention. (I have no idea what goes on as an EST convention.) We both thought the contrast between white and black could not have been a coincedence. I almost asked. But good sense got the best of me. Rock on Roxanne.

I put my coffee beans into a well-washed Swanson's broth can. I use the universal top to keep it sealed.

FL does, without a doubt, do exceptional presentation and taste. I just had a few disappointing dishes and a disappointing ambience. FL doesn't do many swirls and designs in their sauces (like many places do). The main item is usually resting on a puree or small round of sauce. They use many 'sprays' of sea salt or pepper and dots of balsamic. Very minimalist and very nice and very beautiful. Their art is the food. Pan -- the total bill was $960: 4 x 135 (Chefs Tasting) -- $540 3 Foie Gras Supplements -- 60 1 Sashimi Supplement -- 18 1/2 bottle wine -- 99 Corkage -- 50 Tax & 18% service were included. (They include the tip before the tax. I assume they didn't tax the tip, but I didn't check.) Mike -- Don't worry. Wasn't another eGullet person there on Sunday?