jaybee

Let me amplify. After the initial discussion and after the meal, the waitress came back and we sort of kidded her about not having the kitchen cook for us. She said she would have loved to advise of what to order. I said, no that's not what we meant. I asked her, "what if we just told you, "go into the kitchen and tell them there are six people who want you to make a menu for them. Let them choose what to serve us." She said, "oh they would love to do that. I would consult with you about allergies and then we'd make your meal." So I suppose it was a case of poor communication. She didn't understand what Steve was asking, and her answers, after two tries, was still not what we were asking. I guess had we persisted it might have worked, but clearly it was not something she was comfortable doing.

Cabby, you are priceless. ...The Girl, The Physallis and The Sommelier...a mini series

The chops were cold because I ordered a pasta course after the appetizers which I split with Toby. No one else had a pasta course. I think the kitchen or the waitstaff didn't bother to time the entrees to come out after we finished our pasta course, so they sat on the shelf for about 20 minutes. That's just plain careless and bad table management.

An empty dining room should be a sure sign to flee for your life. We didn't once and learned to regret it. I laughed that I called from the road to say we'd be late and could they hold a table. There was an odd silence in the backgound when the woman said "no problem." This was Hattie's Chicken Shack in Saratoga Springs. It was written up to have the best fried chcken north of the MD line. McNuggets would have been better! Hattie was 93 and had been bought out ten years previous. Nothing of her remained except her name. It's still there.

Anchor Steam always disappoints. Sierra Nevada on draft never does. But Stella Artois on draft is killer.

After re-reading my tablemates' accurate descriptions, I feel somewhat odd that I enjoyed my food as much as I did. Strange. Everything Steve, Robert, Toby wrote is totally on target. Yet the people were fun and my four dishes tasted good, despite the tepid chops that had to be reheated. So I had a very enjoyable experience. If I want to spend $125 for dinner, I will try another Italian place next time. Lupa is high in my list.

An accurate description of the entire meal with a more negative cast on the place than I feel, since I enjoyed my food very much. (BTW, I asked FG to move my post to this thread).

Pretending we were all StefanyBs, six of us descended (or ascended) to Babbo for a snowy night dinner. We were seated in a cozy corner table upstairs. In keeping with my belief that if it ain't broke, don't fix it, I ordered what I order every time I eat there: lamb's tongue salad in balsamic vinegar reduction, beef cheeks ravioli in a sauce of squab liver and black truffles, and lamb chops. Apple walnut tart with creme fraiche for dessert. Plotnicki ordered the wine, which I will leave to him to identity, suffice to say the upscale Suave was sharp and refreshing and the red was chewy and very tasty, standing up to the food well. Before ordering off the menu, Steve asked if Mario would cook for us, and the equivocal answer put our noses back in the menu. Apart from our lamb chops arriving cold (yes, several were cold to the touch), and sending them back for another blast of heat, I enjoyed my meal completely. I also enjoyed my tablemates thoroughly, and was delighted to finally meet Mrs. P, who is striking-looking and good company. I will leave it to others to out their identities as evil usurpers of a reservation made by another. By the way, the manager told me with a great smile that she was very happy to see the six of us there tonight. The place was buzzing from 6 through 9 when we left. And yes, Molto was in the house, in apron and pony tail. The best part was telling them to send the bill to StefanyB.

I have no professional restaurant experience, so my opinions are formed by eating in them and observing. If you intend to make wine a major revenue source, and you intend to develop an impressive selection, a wine/director could pay for himself many times over in two respects: he will guide your buying to produce a cellar of quality, good value and good margins for you, and he will become a trusted advisor to your customers, increasing the sales of wines. You might want to call him a "wine director" as the French word may scare off some people. In my experience, even a second tier restaurant can have a great wine list and benefit from having a knowledgable wine director in the front of the house. If a place is serious about wine, it is a signal to me that they are serious about their food too.

Serving food that doesn't really taste all that good but making your guests think you think it is something special. (I never do that, of course).

I thought, in my mind that, (just my opinion, mind you), that being redundant, I think, to the English means being fired from one's job, just a thought....

Gigondas Forcas Hockstein Y'quem Y'quem again Suduirat Petrus Oenophile Shatow noof do pop

OK, here's how I loined to make TT. The trickiest part is getting the caramel right. The trick of settingthe caramel in ice water once it reaches the right color was what saved me from an uneven end result. Many recipes call for cooking the apples and sugar together for the carmel. This does not work for me--it produces mushy apples and unsatisfactory caramel. 7-8 Granny Smith apples 8 tbs of good (Normandy) butter Pie pastry of your favorite kind 1 1/2 cups sugar, preferably vanilla'd sugar. 1 large lemon cinnamon nutmeg Preheat oven to 375 degrees 1. The pastry Make a 9" or 11" pie crust to your favorite recipe or use a Pillsbury frozen pie crust. (with a lot of good Normandy butter, this pie crust tastes pretty good. Cut 2-3 small holes to release steam when baking. Set pie crust aside in cool place for later. 2. The apples Peel and core 7-8 Granny Smiths. Cut all but one of them into eight to ten even wedge slices. Cut one whole apple in half lengthwise. Place the sliced apples in a large bowl in which you have put 1/2 cup sugar (vanilla'd sugar is preferable), the juice and the zest of one large lemon. Sprinke the apples with fresh ground cinnamon and nutmeg to taste and stir them to coat with sugar and lemon juice. Let apples marinate in this for at least 20 minutes. Stir a few times to mix and coat the apples with the lemon juice and sugar. Meanwhile make the caramel 3. The caramel Using an "official" tarte tatin pan or cast iron skillet (or other heavy bottomed skillet that transfers heat well) put one cup sugar (I use vanilla'd sugar) and 8 tbs of good butter in the pan and cook over medium heat stirring frequently. Have a shallow pan (big enough to hold the caramel pan) filled with ice water standing nearby. Cook the caramel until it turns slightly darker than the rich brown color but not too far once a really dark color begins to appear. The darker the color the sharper (bitter) wil be the caramel. The trick here is to get a little bitter but not too much. Once it starts to go it goes fast! Turn off heat and carefully place the caramel pan in the ice water to stop the cooking. Watch that no water spills over the sides. 4. Assembly Drain the apples and begin to place them on the now hard caramel. Start by placing the halved apple in the center, putting one half on top of the other. Remember you are looking at the bottom of the tart. Arrange the slices in an artful fashion around the center. working from inside to the outside. You can make the tart thicker toward the center and thinner towrd the outer edges if you like. 5. Stove top cooking Place the apples back on medium to high heat and cover. When the caramel and juices run freely, use a bulb baster to draw the juices up and over the appleas. Repeat every 10 minutes or so. After about 15 minutes, uncover and continue basting for another 10 minutes until the apples are a rich dark color and have a soft texture. Remove from the heat and cover with apples with the pastry. 6. Oven baking Place the pan on a cookie sheet in the preheated oven and bake until pastry is golden btown and firm. (about 20 minutes). remove from oven. The juices should be thick and syrupy. If the juices are too runny, cook on stove top a few more minutes. 7. The flip Place a large serving dish over the top of the pan. Using oven mits, hold the serving dish and the hot tart pan together and quickly but carefully turn the whole thing over. Lift the tart pan off using a knife to get purchase under the rim of the pan. Slowly remove pan, replacing any apples that have stuck to it or fallen out in the process. Let tart cool a little. do not cover. Serve warm with valnilla ice cream or creme fraiche.

Granny Smiths have a firmer texture and hold their bite better, More importantly, they are a tart apple and so contrast with the sugar and butter nicely. Goldens are good but can be mushier and they are also not as tart as GSs. Around here (NY) Granny Smiths seem to be in good supple most times of year.

Suvir, two demerits for not paying attention in class. My "recipe" is posted on the original thread you linked us to. I'll repeat it if you'd like. LXT made a few following this approach and reported excellent results.

That's a PM? How will we ever keep our torrid affair a secret?

There was this dish I used to eat in Topeka.... Thank you Wilfrid for the update on FdS. I have every intention of eating there as soon as possible and would enjoy making a EG party with any who'd like to during a weekday evening. PM me please if you do.

That's like saying anyone can be rich if they have the money.

Baruch, why are you so threatened by the idea that there can be a difference between a great wine and a wine that people enjoy a lot? No one is saying that the Guigal CnP is not a wine one can enjoy, just that it is not worthy of the rating as the best wine of the year. The people who run WS are purely driven by the revenue implications of their rankings and not by any oenophile standards. These are the same people who decided a couple of years ago to turn Cigar Aficionado into a lifestyle magazine "Aficionado" with cigars taking a minor place next to cars, wines, liquors, clothes and jewelry, all of whom are big advertisers. The publisher told me so. I don't criticize their business judgment, but I sure stopped reading them as a serious cigar magazine. WS long ago stopped being a serious wine magazine for the same reasons. You seem to equate being seriously involved with wine, having high standards based on experience and a trained taste as being a winesnob. I suspect that's because you feel that implies you are a wineslob. Not true. No one would attack you for saying you enjoyed a particular wine the most in your life as part of a memorable experience even though it was not the greatest bottle in the world. In fact in an earlier thread where I asked "what was the greatest wine you ever drank?" Many posts referred to the occasion, setting and situation as making an ordinarly wine transendent in their memory. None of the "winesnobs" scoffed. No one's tryng to take away your personal taste. But everything is not relative, after all. There are poor, fair, good, better, best and the very best wines and there are standards by which to rank them. Popularity is not one of them.

Yes, it is amazing. I worked on a project there for La Vanguardia, the "New York Times" of Catalonia. The editorial directors wined and dined me for over three weeks, a differrent restaurant every night--high, middle and low. I never had a more exciting and memorable eating experience in my life. One day, during the first general strike (huelga) since Franco had gone, we were taken for lunch to a top restaurant that was officially "closed." I think the name, in English was something like the "four pillars" or Four columns" We rapped on the metal curtain, and it was raised to allow us in. The place was full and buzzing. I remember eating a wonderful stew of wild hare. I bit into four pieces of shot and I dubbed the dish--"conejo con quatro cojones" The owner loved it and said he would call it that on his menu from then on. One dish that I could not get enough of were those litle anguilas cooked in oil and garlic and looking for all the world like one-eyed noodles. There were Galician restaurants with the most fabulous shellfish. The best black rice I ever had was in a restaurant near the Sagrada Familia. I agree. Barcelona is amazing. And those beautiful Catalan women..tall, black haired, straight-backed, look you right in the eye...the night life there is fantastic too.

How boring.

with apologies to JS

Kammerszell of beloved memory...an upmarket French Weatherspoons...oh no...What, pray tell, Pumpkinowitz, is a Weatherspoons? And an upmarket one at that. Any relation to an American Applebee's?

APPETIZERS Moules Marinieres de l'Ile du Prince Edward $12.00/$24.00 Prince Edward Island Steamed Mussels Suppl French Fries $3.50 Cervelas Poche aux Truffes et Pistaches, Salade Tiede de Pomme de Terre $14.00 Homemade Poached Black Truffle Pistachios Garlic Sausage with Baby Gold Potato Salad Pieds de Porc Farcis au Foie Gras et Pommes, Reduction de Cidre $13.00 Stuffed Pig Feet with Foie Gras, Apple, Cider Reduction MAIN COURSES Poularde Truffee et Ses Legumes Poches $34.00 Poached Free Range Chicken in a Black Truffle Broth and Vegetables Aiguillette de Boeuf au Vin Rouge, Tagliatelle Fraiche au Beurre $30.00 Slow Braised Beef in Red Wine, Fresh Tagliatelle Pasta Sole Meuniere Market Price Classic Dover Sole Meuniere Steak Frites, Beurre Maitre d'Hotel ou Sauce au Poivre $29.00 Sirloin Steak, Beurre Maitre D'Hotel or Peppercorn Sauce, French Fries Tartare de Boeuf, Salade de Cresson $22.00 Beef Tartare, Watercress Salad, French Fries Choucroute Royale Alsacienne $28.50 Assorted Sausages, Pork Loin, Ham Hock, Sauerkraut

If you're trying to make me feel guilty, you've succeeded. But I still can't give you a firm committment as to when I'll be able to make one. Soon though, before Christmas....