ActorDan

Best potato(es) ever tasted were: 1. A Lyonnaise-type prepared by my friend Bob Morgan's 90 year old grandpa from Crete wherein potatoes are first parboiled, sliced and skined when cold then combined with onions sauteed earlier to carmelize together. See recipe in Mimi Sheraton's "From My Mother's Kitchen." 2. Gratin Dauphinoise served at any honest Parisian bistro.

For those who might know about counters, here is our case history. We are at the end of the choice phase of our kitchen renovation. We need to pull the trigger on counter top material. The cabinets are inset doors from Woodmode painted white, floors are 2.25 inch quarter-sawn oak slats. We prefer an historic, sedate white Vermont marble with low veining which looks great but may not be as impervious to stains as granite (generally too busy for our taste) or white quartzite ("Luce de Luna" at Stone Source in NYC) which is hard to find in the proper width. Any advice would be appreciated.

El Paso Taqueria, Lex/104: muy authentico. Dinerbar down the street at Lex/100: eclectic & inspired, pan cooked fish is super.

As for reproducing that ineffable Parisian bistrot effect ici, c'est impossible. There is absolutely nothing in NYC like the following quartet of our Paris favorites: Le Trumilou, quai de l'Hôtel de Ville. Cafe du Commerce in the 5e Le Rouge Vif in the 7e Not to mention La Coupole in Montparnasse where the ambience outshines the cuisine and, after a certain hour, the air converts to nicotine. What gives one pleasure in these places cannot be easily exported.

One of the most amusing culinary essays ever took as its subject, boiled beef or tafelspitz. Please see below. In late 19th and early 20th C. Vienna, tafelspitz was as integral to a certain sector of society as a table at Nobu. One was in fact sized up by the maitre d', upon entering the most famed tafelspitz establishment, as to which of the 53 varieties (based on the cut) of the specialty one would order. There was a hierarchy. Calling boiled beef "gray meat" would to an aficionado of tafelspitz be tantamount to labeling beluga caviar fish eggs. For more on the foregoing, try this book: "This essay form is a genre of writing for which M.F.K. Fisher is best known and for which Joseph Wechsberg is perhaps best remembered in his Blue Trout and Black Truffles (1953), a book with perennial charm and great literary polish - one of Wechsberg's essays, "Tafelspitz for the Hofrat," is now considered a classic and is widely read in American universities."

Thanks Project for your clarification. When I make this dish, I shall give you a report. My day job has been time intensive. Best regards, Dan

What a wonderful conclusion to my year-long search for these highlights of my first fabulous feasts in NYC. I am going to make time to re-create them. T'is not in fashion that make man better be (to parphrase B. Jonson). And a Happy Valentine's Day to you!

Does anyone know the recipe for these seafood crepes farcies with a Mornay type sauce? They were a specialty of Le Valois restaurant on 58th St in NYC.