jaybee

I'm on my way!

Delighted by trying to decide...or by being seating while doing so? You can't make this stuff up?

Oh dear, this can become addictive. Is it really nice to know that?

duplicate post removed.

To amplify my previous post, which used a rather large number ($10K) to be dramatic, what I meant to suggest is that buying a smaller number of bottles of very good wine that is drinkable now may be preferable to tying up one's cash in wine that won't reach its peak for fifteen or twenty years. Perhaps when I passed the fifty year mark, my orientation changed to gatherings rosebuds while I may. Although I admit that the wines I laid down in 1970 has been giving us great pleasure these days. One wine I did buy to lay down is a 1997 Chianti Classico, which I was told was a great year that would develop vey well and could be had for $150 a case.

How much are you willing to spend? If you want to spend $10,000, I would buy some great wines that are drinkable now from a reputable dealer in rare wine and drink my way through these, rather than buying young wines now and waiting 15-20 years for them. The days of buying really cheap futures for great wine are gone. Look at the 2000 Premier Grand Cru prices. I'd rather buy really great wines for $150-300 a bottle and lay it down for drinking now to the next ten years. At an average price of $200 per bottle, you can buy 50 great bottles for $10K. Drink one a month and you have nearly four years of supply. Fill in the gaps with good, more modestly priced wines.

2000 Bordeaux. Need 20-30 years in cellar to reach peak?

Simple recipe for very fresh prawns or shrimp. Clean and devein, remove heads. Reserve shells for shrimp stock. Boil shells in water to cover for 15-20 moinutes. Discard shells, add herbs or seasoning to stock to taste, or leave unseasoned. 2 oz cognac or armagnac. Peel and chop 2-6 garlic cloves medium mince. Sprinkle shrimp with cayanne pepper to taste. add 2 tbs butter and 2 tbs olive oil to saute pan. Heat to near smoking. Add shrimp to pan and stir until they are slightly brown. Remove pan from heat and pour cognac in. As it steams, place back on fire to burn alcohol off. Do this carefully as flames will shoot quite high. Continue to shake pan until flames go out. Add minced garlic to the pan and saute until golden brown. Remove all from pan and place in a bowl to keep warm. Deglaze pan with some of the shrimp stock and boil down until liquid is thick. Pour this over the shrimp in the bowl. Shrimp may be served over greens, over pasta, over rice or with scrambled eggs.

A similar argument is made by gun control advocates.

Leslie, as you may know, the Sturgeon King (Moe Greengrass) died several months ago and his son Gary took over the rein (long live the Sturgeon King). Gary is my next door neighbor and a lovely fellow.

Sunday night, with a succulent roast leg of lamb, we opened these two promising bottles from our cellars. The '61 St. Emilion Grand Cru was laid down in 1974. The labels on the bottles washed off in a cellar flood several years ago and the bottles were covered with a layer of dried mud. The cork and capsule were intact and undamaged. On opening, the wine showed good red color and clarity. It was surprisingly closed, even after decanting, for about 30 minutes, when in the glass the flavor began to bloom, It is subtle, but very good fruit. Overall a small wine but enjoyable. I will have to drink up the remaining bottles, as it won't get any better. The '82 Cos, raved about by Parker, was even more closed and required nearly an hour to show any real bouquet and flavor. It is a big wine, strong, fruity and dark. It has a slight astringency, but reveals different layers of taste as it goes down. I think this wine wil benefit from at least five to ten more years in the bottle and will be very good.

I didn't downplay this. I noted it as an exception to the generality. This is probably the biggest qualitative difference from the days when transportation was a barrier to freshness. Though the super rich had greenhouses and orangeries to grow out of season fruits and veggies.

My impression is that the rich eat as well today as they ever have. The poor eat as poorly as they ever have. The nearly poor eat so much starch and carbohydrates that they get fat quite young. One has only to sit in a parking lot of a suburban mall to witness this. People live on average ten or twenty years longer than they did 150 years ago, and nutrition may have something to do with that, though I suspect sanitation and vaccination from diease are the main contributors. Industrialization of food production has taken quality down a peg in some respects, but competition for the disposable income of the upper middle class has forced quality up. Ice cream is one example. It used to be great, then became drek, now is coming back to great for a super premium price. If I knew when I was 20 as much about food as I know now, and I could have afforded to indulge myself as much as I can now, I could have eaten just as well (with exception of the availability of certain foods "out of season"). My answer to your question is no.

Better than it used to be? When was "used to be?" yesterday? last month? ten years ago? 1897? Please clarify your question. If you mean are the tomatos we eat today better than the tomatos of yesteryear--no. Chickens?--no. Hot dogs-no. Corned beef--no. Meals like Ferdinand Point prepared?-no. Steak--yes. ...??? Your question requires a lot of work to answer FG! Are you just trying to distract the troublemakers so we don't start any controversial and "subversive" threads?

Jordyn wrote about his recent meal at A. Another restaurant in the UWS that gets good reports is Gennaro's (90ish and B'way).. Any opinions on this place?

That is a fascinating response. I would have expected Boulud to have gone ballistic at some of the details, but then to pull back and look at it in perspective and realize what a wonderful and powerfully positive picture one gets of the restaurant and his perfectionism. Your book makes clear how one man's talent, creativity and standards are translated through many cooks, sous-chefs, service staff, buyers etc. to deliver what he wants to his customers. The "Jekyl and Hyde" aspect of his persona is also fascinating. I worked with creative "geniuses" and know how difficult they can be. But, in the end, their impossible standards produce unique results. It seems Boulud's is a case in point. I will never eat in a three (or four) starred restaurant again without envisioning the scene behind the swinging doors as you describe it!

Oh dear! I was forced to read this thread with my eyes closed.

Why not ban yogurt while you're at it. It is sour, goppy, tastes bad and looks horrible spilled in your lap. Ban ketchup? Are you serious?

Speaking for myself, as I am fond of doing, I very much appreciate your posts and that of other chefs. For one thing you help clarify the difference between cooking as a hobby for a few people now and then and cooking for a living. A chef, it seems to me, has to blend praticality, efficiency, economy and availability of ingredients to get the best outcome for his circumstance. I am delighted to know about buying premade puff pastry, which up 'til now I've avoided out if some weird guilt. I use Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts when I'm too pressed to make my own dough. I found that if I use lots of really good sweet Normandy butter, the crust winds up tasting delicious. Putting a blop of creme frais into some soups and sauces really brings them out and creates a great mouthfeel. So what's the issue here?

Killing my own steer and telling BBQ guests it is Black Angus. Making venison stew and telling guests I got the deer myself with the right front fender of my Land Rover. (actually I don't own a Land Rover). Well, seriously, I have on rare occasion served very good store-bought carrrot soup as a starter to an otherwise laboriously prepared multi-course meal and didn't let on it was store bought.

I checked out their cheese room. It is awesome. Some one nearby ordered the epoises (either that or Tommy had an accident at table) and it was really ripe. If the quality of the cheese is as good as the selection, I suggest bringing three or four bottles of really great plonk and ordering wave after wave of cheeses until you slid slowly off your chair on to the floor with a smile on your face. Are you game, Wilfrid? Advice from Southern girl noted.

JC, have you owned a Tichbourne knife? I'm imressed with the sales pitch, the prices and like the chef's knife and the vegetable parer. I'm quite happy with my Dehilleron carbon steel and inox knives for the kitchen, but I collect custom folders and go to the knife show here in NY once a year in November, so I know the quality and beauty of custom made knives. (Last year I bought a beauty in damascus steel which i just love to look at). So what's your take on Tichbourne?

You're right and I'm wrong, so there. Say goodnight Gracie.

Discussing the economics and motivations of BYO from the perspective of the diner make's sense to me. Discussing it from the perspective of the restaurant doesn't. They make whatever decision they make because they think it will be in their economic interest. Some get it right, others don't. Big deal.

To use someone's favorite word, this debate seems dopey. It's moot to question Daniel's policy of no BYO, just as it is moot to question their prices for caviar. You either pay it or not. What does the restaurant's business model have to do with you? If drinking great wine is important to you and you own some, you'd want to eat someplace that allowed BYO at a reasonable price. As someone said, whenever I've brought a really good bottle, the service staff are excited and make me feel that they admire my taste in wine. How wine BYO came about in the first place is an interesting question. Does anyone know its history? Does it date from prohibition?