pim

There's been plenty of wagon circling alright, but it didn't start with the 'culinary establishment'. The wagons began to circle right here on eGullet, by its very own establishment, and it's still going on today. Just pointing out the obvious.

What do you think it was? I based the name on what they told me and what the menu says. ← It looks like Bar to me, but not entirely sure. Rouget has a very distinct look -red skin and all that- and this certainly wasn't it.

I'm sorry you are still not getting it. It is not me you should apologize to. Just because you are willing to take abuse doesn't mean you should expect others to. Whether the runner personally got Doug Psaltis fired was immaterial. The action itself -not to mention the liability it could incur for the restaurant- could have gotten him fired, regardless of what the runner himself might have wanted. I still don't see a reason to call that runner anything, light though that "jab" may be in your mind.

No, it is the rush to blame the victim that is sad. How do YOU know he was a jerk? Hitting someone is wrong. Period. Making it sound like the poor guy had it coming is just low.

(emphasis mine)If you are going to delete innuendos you might as well begin with this one.

Think of the lost confiture as the universe telling you to go back, soon. I don't know Bux, a bitch pate sounds like a lot of fun to me.

This photo might help. The three baskets on the left are Plates, the others are creuses. The creuses were meatier and saltier than the plates, which seemed to be a little more delicate in taste to my palate, a little sweeter even. I prefered the plates, my companion the creuses, so to each his own, as it appeared. The numbers corresponded to sizes and not quality, though the price did seem to get higer as the number lower. You might also see some labeled Huitres Sauvage, those are wild, uncultivated oysters. The ones we tried did taste a little gamier than the others. They were bigger too so perhaps that contributed to the taste. We also looked for Pied de Cheval, old, huge (hence the name) oysters that are sometimes served at Ducasse. We did find some, but they looked rather dubious, like they had been waiting for unsuspecting tourists for quite a while, so we gave them a pass.

Yes, thank you for the correction. I should have known better. ← Rouget is Red Mullet but that fish in the photo was not Rouget. Nice review though.

Got some photos from Gaig on my Flickr.

Alkimia photos, more on my Flickr.

Pierre Herme is open Sunday, so do many neighbourhood patisseries. And if you are in that hood you might want to walk down to Blvd Raspail to the organic market. There are plenty of stuff you could buy, milk, cheese, vegetables, fruits, etc. It's open until about 1pm.

Harbor Village is either already closed or will closed its door for good very soon. Sad, really. I liked to go there after the farmers market on Saturdays.

Not 3 anymore, lost one this last guide. Not that it should matter all that much, but they did.

What a loaded issue? You're going to have a tough time mediating this one. The main problem is the concept of the word "curry" as used in English doesn't have a direct counterpart in the Thai language. "Curry", as used in English, is a sort of close approximation of the meaning of the Thai word "Gang, or Gaeng". Though the sound itself must have come from the word Gari or Kari. Gang (or Gaeng, or Geng,) refers generally to a liquid-based dish. There are many types of Gang with coconut milk in it, and there are also many without. Gang could be spicy or mild, based on paste or stock, eaten with rice/noodles/roti/even alone. Kari, or Gari, in Thai, refers to a particular type of Gang that is influenced by Muslim cooking in the South. It's quite mild and contains coconut milk. Examples of Gang with coconut milk: Gang Ped, Gang Kari, Gang Kiew wan Gang without coconut milk: Gang Pah, Gang Som, Gang Lueng Mild gang: Gang Jued and on and on and on.....

I've never been to Cyrus yet, and look forward to going, but I need to chime in about that Farmhouse Inn meal. It seems we were at the same table but had vastly different takes on the meal. I remember the settings to be lovely, the service knowledgeable and very well done, and the wine list quite interesting, but the food was rather average. There was nothing that stood out as particularly delicous. What I had was rather vague in my memory, New Zealand lamb or something like that. That it was so vague is probably a bad sign.... What I remember pretty well, on the other hand, was that chicken demi-dueil, chicken stuffed with truffles under the skin and in the sauce, which I found utterly inedible. The quality of the truffle was pretty bad. I understand that it must have been tough to find truffles of good quality for a main course that was about $25 a plate, but if that was the case then it shouldn't have been on the menu in the first place. The name of the place was the Farmhouse Inn, but I didn't feel that the ingredients they used were particularly pristine or fresh, not that they were bad, but they were certainly not great. It felt more like a mid-level San Francisco restaurant more than anything. If I happened to be in the area, then I might stop by for lunch or something, but I'm not sure if it was worth the special trip up, not on account of the food alone.

We had one, but it did no good in keeping us out of trouble, you see, since it was sitting happily on the bookshelf in Paris! There is no way anyone could miss Bras once you are in Laguiole. Yes, that Starck's Laguiole Knife factory/store is on the way, and you could see that other unmistakable Bras building perched up on top of a hill from miles around. And if you are really directionally challenged and manage somehow to get lost, ask anyone in town, in fact, you could probably ask any Aubrac cows roaming the hillside, and it could point you to chez Bras.

Oh Moby it's not that difficult, really. We took a rental car from the most unhelpful Hertz counter ever at the Montpellier train station. They had no maps, nor any idea how to get out from there to Laguiole. We ended up with a very vague direction from the lady next door at Europe Car, who told us the way out of town and then to follow the sign eastwards to Millau. Along the way we picked up a map from a gas station and found our way to Bras. Once you are in Laguiole it's impossible to miss Bras. If we figured it out, so could you.

I haven't been, but have heard from reputable sources that they are quite lovely. I hope to get there in the next month or two.

Was that amuse this dish?

I agree with Felice and Pierre45. I also agree with Pierre that the examples John posited at the beginning of this thread were not all equal. When the same diner experiences meals of varying quality, that is likely inconsistency. But when taking into account reports from different diners whose experiences are vastly different, perhaps what is more at play there is personal taste and experience. I am not saying that not all individual experiences are valid, but they are certainly not created equal. Inherent in each review - amateur or otherwise - is subjectivity and personal judgement. That's why comments like, this is the best/worst dish I've ever tasted are - I find - far more revealing about the diner than about the dish. Nor am I saying that a great or highly praised restaurant can never have a bad night or a bad dish - I've been to Pierre Gagnaire far too many times for this to be true. What am I saying - and I am finally getting to this - is that it is not easy comparing reviews of restaurants. Like dosconz said, it is also important to understand the context, the taste and experience of the reviewer, upon which the review is based. Also, the more descriptive and less prescriptive the review, the better for us readers. Descriptors such as overdone/underdone, over-seasoned/underseasoned, bad ingredient quality, or incomprehensible pairing (albeit somewhat subjective still), help to unpack ambiguous prescriptions such as bad or wrong and make them more understandable by readers, and easier for readers to exert their own judgement of the meal. One more thing I have got to say. A relationship between you and your servers at a dinner, like any other relationship, is a two way street. Bux has said many times that - and I am paraphrasing here - he had never received an ugly American treatment because he's never behaved like one. Again, I must state here that I am not implying that everyone who has ever received a bad service deserved it. But I am saying that, when reading a review, perhaps one needs to also glance at the demeaner of the reviewer himself during the meal. Reading the review that precipitated this thread, I could hypothesize that, perhaps, the service staff at the offending restaurant were perhaps stiff not because they were normally that way, but because they were unsure how to deal with customers who were so displeased, and who made his dissatisfaction and unease so very apparent to all, including chiding the chef tableside for a dish that, in his words, was just wrong. Seen in this light, this stiffness on the part of the staff was still in itself a flaw in service, mind you, but a completely different flaw than what was described in the review. ..à chacun son goût...so true, in so very many ways...

You certainly should give Alkimia a try next time you are in that area, Bux. Alkimia was quite lovely. On the subject of getting to elBulli, I recommend taking a cab from your hotel in Roses, the ravines are far too scary for me even before all that drinking at dinner!

It's good to hear someone French explain the horrid condition of French coffee and confirm why I always note which restos serve Illy. Luckily my Monoprix has Illy and I don't need to go farther. ← Popping into this old thread to recommend another great coffee place (a rarity in Paris) in the Marais. Cafe Amazone on rue Rambuteau. The old gentleman who runs the place roasts the beans himself in that little shop. He sells a number of single-origin beans and will grind them to any specification. That's my first stop when I get into Paris, usually, together with Mariage Freres in the same neighbourhood for tea. My blend there is half Maragogype and half Bresilien, grinded for a press pot. I am with Ptipois and John on coffee in Paris. They are generally horrible because of the quality of the beans. And don't get me started on those Nespresso capsule thingy! Another problem with coffees in French cafes is the type of milk used. Often the cafe creme is made with sterilized milk, because the milk could be stored without refridgeration, and has a much longer shelf life than regular pasteurized milk. Sterilized milk is sold almost everywhere in France, and often at corner stores it is the only type of milk to be found! Having grown up in Asia and suffered through the unmistakable stench of sterilized milk since I was a little girl. I can usually identify if the milk was sterilzed with a single whiff. Ugh. [edited to add: Comptoir Richard on rue St.Dominique also has good coffee, but they forgot to girnd the beans for me when I bought coffee there last time, requiring a return trip to get the coffee grounded, another ugh.)

Also, has anyone tried a little place in the Marais called Piccolo Teatro? I walked by it the other day and saw a sign that said it's a vegetarian restaurant. I snapped a photo of the front door with this phone number. Piccolo Teatro 01 42 72 17 79

Does anyone have any idea if Passard's vegetable dishes are entirely vegetarian. The French do have a habit of cooking or finishing off vegetables in stock or preparing them with animal fats. ← You are right, Bux, many of Passard's vegetable dishes are certainly not entirely vegetarian. John, contrary to popular belief, L'Arpège is absolutely not a vegetarian restaurant. There are plenty of land and sea animals on the menu, even pork (I've been served something flavored with German ham hock), just not red meat. [edited to add: sorry, I didn't read through the thread before posting my reply, so ended up saying pretty much the same things Louisa already did!]

Indeed, the route would be Barcelona - Perpignan - Narbonne and the north towards Laguiole. Sd ← I just drove from Laguiole to Barcelona, we went from Laguiole toward Montpellier then follow the sign that said Barcelone, with a little detour to Couloire to get some anchovies for lunch. The route from Laguiole to Montpellier took us by Millau and right over the fastastic bridge. I haven't written up the meal yet but the photos of the place and food, and the Viaduc de Millau are on flickr. Michel Bras Viaduc de Millau