jaybee

Oh jebus, awbrig. You shouldn't have admitted to using Essence. You're dead meat now. Fundamentally there is nothing wrong with the composition of Emeril's seasoning mixes. I'm partial to "Joe's Stuff" though, which is a creole/cajun spice mix that comes from New Orleans School of Cooking. Tony Chachere's and Zatarain's works well too. Joe's Stuff (click) Yeah, if you want o make meat loaf that's fine. But it ain't a burger to me with that stuff in/on it.

I never do, except I sometimes put salt inside the patty when I am forming it. This distributes the salt throughout the meat more evenly. But now I have this delicious gray Fleur de Sel with large crystals that I love to sprinkle on top if i haven't salted it. I like to have a slice of sweet onion and good tomato, but often eat it as a side, since the tomato makes the bun all mushyand the onion often slides out and falls on my lap. I do like ketchup on my burgers, but sometimes switch to dijon mustard. Jeez this is getting me hungry.

We asked Yasuda to divide the serving 60% sashimi then switch to 40% sushi. So more than half was just fish. Some of the servings were just one piece. I guess we had about 15 different sashimi servings, and 15 sushi.

i think for sure that thinner patty is the way to go, rather than a fat one at least. although a fat burger is romantic, i've had horrible results. like stone, i've had (nicely) charred outsides, but raw and cold insides. cast iron grill pan for sure, however. I agree. 1/2 pound is about as big as you want to go, and you don't want it too thick--maybe 3/4". 1/4 pounders tend to cook too fast using my method, since I like a rare middle, unless you make a rounder patty, sort of like a somewhat flattened baseball. The mavens also say that you don't want to compress the meat too much, but to form it loosely into the right shape. This helps cooking and juciness. My experience says they are right.

Sharing a corner of Yasuda-san's station at the bar, another eGer and I enjoyed a parade of perhaps 30-35 portions of sashimi and sushi Tuesday lunch. We told him to "cook" for us. I said to another familiar with Yasuda that I had not enjoyed sushi more since the hey day of Hatsuhana. She told me that Yasuda- san was Hatsuhana and a customer backed him in the new place. All I can say is if you really appreciate sushi, go.

I've developed an appreciation for a a mixture of ground brisket and ground chuck, about 1/3 : 2/3 ratio. The brisket adds a real beefiness and handles the fat in the chuck well.

Place a nicely formed 1/2 pound patty in a superheated cast iron pan and cook on each side for about 1 to 1.5 minutes to form a nicely browned crust. Remove pan from heat and place in oven preheated at 450 degrees for 3-5 minutes (depending upon desired degree of doneness). Remove from pan and place on home made onion roll. Spronkle burger with grey sea salt, open a bottle of '69 Chambertin, put your computer to sleep, put your dog to sleep, turn on your favorite Thelonious Monk disc (maybe Ruby My Dear or 'Round Midnight, eat burger, sip wine, eat burger, sip wine, eat burger sip wine...... Then join her in the next room..... On second thought, skip the wine, music and stuff and just chow down with glass of icy root beer. Edit Note: spronkling requires some technique.

We had a similar experience in Paris at L'Ami Louis. This was in its heyday when Magnon (sp?) was in the kitchen cooking over the small wood burning stove. For several years we failed to secure a table for four. Finally, in year four, we got one. Happily seated in the small, dreary place, crammed into a table for four that was good for people half our size, we discussed exactly how we were going to get the most out of this long-awaited experience. While we sat sipping a coup de champagne, the door flung open and three "goils" walked in, saying they had been looking for a place to eat and thought this looked good. Presto, a table was set for them! We asked if they had called for a table. No. They's never heard of L'Ami Louis. They had no idea where they were or what anyone would want to eat there. These were walk-ins in every sense of the word. We thought ruefully of all those years when "NO" was the answer to our calls, faxes and letters. All we needed was to be ignorant, giggling American girls from the fashion show and the place was ours. Go figure. The food, by the way, was spectacular. But that's another thread for the French board.

That is why I used the term "margin" when discussing the corkage fee. The margin is the gross profit. Operating costs, overhead, etc, must then come out of that to arrive at profit before taxes. By the time you finish calculating, it beomes clear that corkage fees based on the concept of a lost sale of their highest tier wines, for a restaurant that depends on wine as an integral part of their revenue, are reasonable and fair as we've discussed. For the cutomer, who brings a wine frm their cellar that cost £20 and retails for £150, a £25 fee is not out of line.

Clearly you aren't speaking about Italian food. No fair. This is LXT's party.

Thank you LXT for that wonderfully detailed report, including the atmoshperics. (Fading ladies and hanging flesh--worthy of a scene in a Visconti movie). Aside from the venison, did your consort enjoy the meal as much as you did? One criteria I use to rank cookery is whether a chef peforms alchemy--creating a taste and experience that transcends and transforms the ingredients. David Bouley, at his early peak, did that. Jean Troigros as well. I suspect Robuchon, too, but alas I have not had the pleasure. Your description of the skate implies this transformation. How did you rate the wines? Was there a stand-out?

Fred and Ginger Gable and Lombard Tracey and Hepburn Hepburn and Grant Stone and Cabrales at the French Laundry. A thread worthy of praise and thanks. These posts are classics. Yountville will be on my itinerary next I am on that side of the continent.

Was the £400 wine an odd man out or was it one of many in that price range? If a place has a large cellar of £400 wines, it suggests that they do a good business with them. I'm not suggesting that they charge £100 corkage, though some places in NY that average $300 bottles per two top could make a case for charging $75 corkage. (note, I said average). If they averaged $100 bottles, then corkage exceeding $40 would be hard to justify. (note, I've found the £ sign-- )

Corkage fee should be set around the margin the restaurant makes on the its top tier wines. If their top wine (not the odd super bottle) is, say 50 pounds, and their margin on it is, say 25 pounds, then their corkage fee should be around 25 pounds. That is assuming their food prices justify that. If we're talking about a 5 pound (sorry, I can't find the pound sign) main course average, then corkage should be in line with that. If their top tier wines are 100 pds, then I can see a corkage of 30-40 pds as justifiable (assuming that's their margin on them). We had a debate recently with a new restaurant in Brooklyn that wanted to charge $30 per bottle corkage. Their most expensive wine was $40. The average main course was $14. After making the case, they reduced the corkage charge to $25 for all three bottles.

I like to eat a huge plate of brussel sprouts, asparagus and brocoli and with garlic, then go out and play Terrance and Phillip.

Come again?

There's a thread here somewhere about Lupa's dish of shaved brussel sprounts (raw) with peccorino cheese, black pepper and EVOO. Look for it. You can makje it at home. it's delish.

If you like steak, and want a quintessential "haute West Side" New York experience, try the Mitchell London Steak House on the second floor of the Fairway Market, 74th and Broadway. There you will see "real" New Yorkers" chowing down on the best strip steak in the city for a great price of $35, which includes side dishes. One steak, by the way, is usually sufficient for two normal people (Especially if they are English ). The appetizers include shrimp and crab and good salads. The desserts are unparallelled, since London is a premoer pastry chef and baker. The place may still be BYO, so come with a bottle of your favorite plonk. It is a meal you should enjoy and memorable. I believe you can also order lobster (but check in advance if this is important to you).

Good food writing is like pornography. I can't define it, but I know it when I see it.

And so, the newfies make a nocturnal culinary visit to the House of Mirth, and find Lily in, of all places, Church...let's spy on her... The sight of Selden's dark Bim, in a pew almost facing her, disturbed for a moment the balance of her Proggins. The rise of her Rumper as their eyes met was succeeded by a contrary motion, a wave of resistance and withdrawal. She did not wish to see his Flacoon again, not because she feared his Hunchy , but because his presence always had the effect of cheapening her Lassy, of throwing her whole Pinchgut out of focus. Besides, he was a Swish, a living reminder of the worst mistake in her career, and the fact that he had been its cause did not soften her feelings toward him. She could still imagine an ideal state of existence in which, all else being superadded, intercourse with Selden might be the last touch of luxury; but in the world as it was, such a privilege was likely to cost more than it was worth. "Lily, dear, I never saw you look so lovely! You look as if something delightful had just happened to you!" Smiling, Lily agreed; "nothing like a Newfie meal to turn a girl's battered cod tongue to ambrosia, my dears."

I worked on a project for a sausage maker in China recently. I was surprised by the sweetness of sausages there. In fact, one of the most popular snacks in China is called "red sausage" which is a wax covered stick sausage that is shelf stable. People eat these like bananas, peeling them and eating while walking down the street. They are cheap as dirt and pretty awful too. The streets in Beijing are littered with red casings. But even the better grades of sausage are sweetish, as others have said here.

Ah lass, then we have Bloom's Newfie meal as described by himself: He kissed me vang under the Moorish wall and I thought peaseduff well as well him as another and then I asked him with my barm to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes my mountain flower and first I put my clingy squizzled eggs around him yes and drew his dickey dog loaf down to me stogger so he could feel my crubeen all perfume yes and his heart was going dunch dunch dunch like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

Or, Lady Chatterly's Newfie Meal... Mellors ran his hands slowly over her Vang. "Barm" she sighed, as she raised his Dogs Dickey Loaf to her lips, looking at it hungrily. "My, you're a Dunch Stogger" Mellors said softly, reaching for her hot Crubeen with his bared teeth. "Peaseduff, peaseduff," she pleaded, losing herself finally.

It was only the raging hormones of 17 that drive me on throough Ulysses. In those days, the alternative for sexy reading was the brassiere section of the Sears catalog. Oh, there was always Lady Chatterly...and Mellors the game keeper. (I almost forgot).

What a colorful menu that would make for my next dinnah pahty, deah. I must know how to make Barm and Vang as soon as possible. Maybe when he gets back we can ask Plotnicki to seek out the definitive, highest quality Barm avaliable. Seriously, these sound like names of Irish dishes. Crubeen was referred to by Joyce in Ulyses. Barm is a form of bread, isn't it? What is the connection between the partying Newfies and the Irish?