jaybee

No.

Perhaps I failed to adequately define the word "dietary," which was meant to apply to allergies and specific health hazzards, such as high salt content for people with high blood pressure. That's all I meant. In some cases, they cannot be accomodated with a particular dish, so they need to change their order. I can imagine a customer asking, "could you make that for me but leave out the hazelnuts?"

By definition Culliere's beurre blanc sauce is not and could not be a commodity. Could it be commercialized? Probably. Would the commercial product be as good as Culliere's at the restaurant? Probably not? Would people who used it enjoy eating it? If it were made well, probably. Would Culliere be interested in starting a business to bottle and sell his beurre blanc sauce commercially? I can't speak for him, but my guess is, yes. (I will ask himthe next time I eat there). If he did, would he be less of a beurre blanc artiste? A less admirable man? That's his call. Do you understand me now? BTW, commoditisable is not a word, unless you like corporate-speak.

What is the reasoning behind this distinction?

John, are you a tiger in lama's clothing? Your article is entitled "comprehending Indian cuisine" and apart from the intriguiing music metaphor and a sentence or two about pulverizing seeds, you set about to bash the use of recipes, western tastes and values. Is the implicit conclusion that if one is to comprehend Indian cuisine, one must free onseself of the corrupting economic values of capitalist food culture? If cooking food is, in part, an art, then the cook-artist must empathise with the cultural and social essences of the cuisine and be able to impart these in his/her food. Spending a few hours in the cramped kitchen of Yves Culliere, owner/chef of La Grille in Paris taught me that there was more to making his superb beurre blanc sauce than knowing the ingredients and their proportions. In fact, the "secret" could not be written down. it had to be absorbed from being with him as he worked. Several years ago I made my first (and only) trip to Thailand. I had virtually no experience with Thai food before landing in Bangkok. Fortunately I had an excellent and knowledgable Thai host who helped me to sample a range of Thai cooking, from lowly street food to the most refined dishes. With a lot of excusions, in a week's time I had a pretty good appreciation and comprehension of Thai food. I doubt that I could have reproduced any of the dishes I loved without a lot of trial and error. And with my best effort, I would have fallen far short of impressing my host. If by "comprehending" food, you mean understanding how its tastes and flavors are arrived at, one has to be prepared to work at it, with guidance from a knowledgable source. If "appreciating" food is what you are writing about, I have no more to do than put in in my mouth. If by "humility" you mean not being an arrogant capitalist pig who thinks he can do anything with enough money at his disposal, your piece belongs in the off-topic chat board.

The best way for me to describe them is to say that everything you like about the taste of eggs is magnified by two. MissJ, seems as we were on the very same page this weekend, egg-ly speaking. I take it you had the experience, so I only preempeted your post. It was a good meal, wasn't it?

Don't we have a case of apples and oranges here? Restaurants where the chef creates dishes of his making are places I go to taste what the chef makes. I wouldn't tell Bouloud to put more lime juice in his sauce or less herbs on his lamb. Not would I order a steak in his place. My take on Jaymes P.O.V. is that when you go to a place the serves "cuisine" as opposed to food, you should expect to eat the food as they prepare it. If you have dietary needs (no salt, use oil instead of butter), you have every right to ask for that. When you go to a steak house, you go because they have great cuts of meat, aged well. You expect to be able to order it to the degree of doneness that pleases you. I often eat with someone who prefers "well-done" meat. Over the years, he has moved from well done to medium rare when we grill really good steaks, or when we order meat in a good steak house. His taste has evolved to appreciate that well done cooks all the juice and flavor out of a great steak. My wife dislikes charred food, and always asks if something is charred befoe ordering it. If the answer is yes, she asks if it can be cooked without charring. Often they say yes and accomodate her. If they say no, she orders something else. There will always be people out there who don't know what good is. Some, when they discover what good is, are grateful for the lesson. Others are defensive and closed- minded and resent anyone who tries to "teach" them. They are best left in ignorance.

Cochin d'Or is a good basic brasserie with a nice outdoor terrace across from the Forum Les Halles near St. Eustache. It is gets a lot of tourits but locals eat there too. There are some excellent brasseries arouind the big "place" intersections. Almost any will serve a good plat de fruits de mer. La Cagouille is a restaurant specializing in shellfish. Steve's description is right. The place is an ultra-modern, industrial design look. The seafood is first rate (perhaps some of the best in Paris) but the place is a bitch to find. They also have a fantastic collection of old cognacs. La Cagouille 12 Place Brancusi (opposite 23 rue de l"ouest) Paris, 14th Ar. tel: 43 22 09 01 I recall a good Brassderie in the Hotel Lutecia in the 6th on Blvd. Raspail that serves what you want. If it is still in business, the Bar a Huitres 112 Blvd du Montparnasse also specializes in the kind of huge tiered shellfish platers you want.

La Cagouille serves some of the best seafood and shellfish and some innovative dishes too.

Well, of course Margaret, if you factor in the cost of gas and tolls from NYC to Stanfordville NY, the price would hit your level. But fortunately, there are still many farms in our neck of the woods (Putnam, Dutchess County), so weekends yield lots of fresh produce. There's a place called Quattros Game Farm on Rt., 44 off the Taconic that sells pheasant eggs very inexpensively. These are even eggier than hen's eggs. edit: good grief. I must average two typos per word.

Though several years ago, I had an excellent platter at Le Cochon D'or in the Halles area.

A new Miranda warning: "You have the right to remain ignorant. Anything you eat may be taken down and used in evidence against you." Suppose someone orders a steak medium rare, and it comes out perfectly medium rare. Then they pick up the salt shaker and empty it on top of the steak. Then they complain to the waiter that the steak is too salty. Is that the same as Adam's situation, except they committed the "crime" with their own hands instead of asking the chef to do it?

No I don't, but I did see this thing called a Nespresso machne that made great expresso coffee from little capsules. I bought one for my office in New York, and when Cam Pagano and Peter Brabeck (now CEO) came to see me, I offered them coffee. They hesitated, since Cam said he could never get a good cup of cofee in New York. When I brought him a cup of expresso from that machine, he flipped. The food at the Nestle cafeteria was pretty good as I recall, as was the view of the lake.

Every time I go to Sarabeth's on the upper west side, I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone. It's like a magnet for midwestern blond girls in their twenties, and their parents who are visiting them in "the City." Remember the scene in Trading Places when Ackroyd goes to the tennis court to ask his soon to be erstwhile fiance for help? It's like, muffins for Muffy time.

Interesting. Your experience fits into the thread I started about fantasy vs. reality. Sometimes when things get built into legends, it is impossible for the real thing to live up. I ate Nathan's as a kid on Coney Island, and as an adult on 42nd St. Last month I stopped at Surf Avenue, after dinner and dessert, and bought a hot dog. Though slightly thinner than the ones I remembered, it tasted just as good. No fantasy, no disappointment. To me, the Nathan's hot dog is one of the top two in a "pure" sense--toppings aside--just the naked dog on a bun with mustard. If Papaya King's were a little fatter, I'd have to say they ran close for first.

I'd have to go with the '61 Petrus. As of now the best bottle I've had was a '61 Cheval Blanc with fifteen years of good cellaring. I am intensely curious about a prime Ausone, since it is such a legend. I've had Mouton and DRC in "good" years so I wouldn't expect to be totally surprised by the '45 Mouton and '85 DRC. I have never had a Petrus with enough cellar age to show its qualities. So that is my pick. I recently tasted a Montrachet ('93?) from Ramonet, and it was sublime. A wholly new taste experience, combining a rich honeyed fruit with acidity and freshness, along with layers and layers of other tastes and smells. I wanted to bury my nose i the glass and just inhale it.

Uh, we refer to these as "recently dead" chickens.

Please elaborate.

Interesting. I noticed how clear and almost "watery" the whites seemed. Given the weight I felt, I wonder if the yolks of these were larger, in proportion to the whole, adding weight to the egg?

Take it from a fraischer, fresher tastes better. Yesterday we were driving near Staffordville New York on our way back from Rhinebeck Antique Show when we passed a sign in front of a farm offering "fresh eggs" and "piglets." While I love bacon and eggs, I was only up for making the latter half of that plate as a scratch meal, so we wheeled in to the barn. The pungent smell of cow manure hit me, along with waves of big black flies circling in the humid air. A sign pointed to a small refrigerator which contained about six dozen eggs packed in assorted commercial boxes, obviously supermarket leftovers. A coffe can on the top of the box asked that I deposit $1.75 for a dozen, $3.25 for two and $4 for three dozen. "Return of cartons will be appreciated" the sigh added. I took one and put $2.00 in, fishing out a quarter for my change as the flies began to zero in on the back of my neck. I lifted a box and was immediately struck by how heavy it was. I had never felt a dozen eggs that weighed as much as these. Quick inspection revealed twelve perfect large bown speckled specimens, (say that five times fast). Hopping into the shelter of the car, we headed for the Taconic Parkway and an omelette. Three eggs cracked in a mixing bowl. Amazing, the shells paper thin, whites were as clear as water, the yolks firm and plump. A shame to mix them up. A simple omelette would be best. Some hot and sweet italian sausages diced and fried up nicely, some onion slowly cooked in the sausage fat. Pour the eggs in the fat-greased pan, add the onions and sausage when the eggs firm up a bit, fold over and slide into a plate. Add some nice fat slices of beefstake tomato, freshly pulled from the patio plants, sit on the porch to eat. How'd it taste? One of the best omelettes ever (sparing the one I had in Sancerre two years ago). Next sampling will be sunny-side ups. Conclusion; farm fresh eggs really do taste better. But then, we discusssed this before, didn't we?

I loved staying at Trois Courrones. My usual room, booked by Nestlé, was in the center on the second floor with a big sweeping terrace and doors that opened out on the lake. I often wondered why half the place seemed shuttered and so many very old people were wandering about at breakfast. Someone told me that the "secret" wing was a clinic where rich (very rich) old people came for series of injections meant to restore their youthful vigor. They stayed for a week or two and paid thousands. The injections were of some sort of embryo cocktail. Creepy no? I was taken to a restaurant that, I think, is the one you mentioned--Le Petit. The restaurants on the hillside across the road were very pleasant. Vevey is a very pretty little town.

Oh, I was in Buffalo once...I think it was 1969. Rochester too. But never Syracuse.

I started a thread on Hudson River Valley dining in the New York board several months ago. There were some good posts. Some of my favorites in the mid-Hudson Valley incude I'l Cena Cola on rt. 52 in Newburgh (nothern Italian), Le Bouchon (brasserie, bistro on Main Street in Coldspring), Cafe Tamayo in Saugerties. Allyns near Millbrook is good. There was also a nice tavern restaurant in Athens New york, right on the river, but I don't know if it still is good. Tim Mulligan has an excellent guide caled The Hudson River Valley which contains some good restaurant listings.

APPS, you don't know how happy you've made me. I made this twice and then lost the recipe. The crust, exactly. It makes the dish. Turned the house upside down looking for it. Great news. I also have a recipe for a rasberry/pine nut tart that is wonderful.. I think I got it from one of the Silver Palate cookbooks. It always knocks people out when I serve it.

I once had a recipe, since lost, for a blueberry tart that was made with a cornmeal crust. I think it had ground almonds in it too. The crunchy cornmeal crust with the juicy sweet berries made a nice mouthful. It was from an old Food & Wine magazine about Italian desserts. Vanilla ice cream is killer with this. If you figure out the recipe., let me know.