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jaybee

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Everything posted by jaybee

  1. And it is such because the greatest English language writers have chosen, perversely, not to write about such food? Is that the pillar upon which your case rests? You imply that they have chosen not to write about such food because it is not the most interesting to eat, and that this choice proves the opposite case?
  2. Robert, Bux, Lizziee, I am indebted to you for bringing the experience of eating at EB to me in such a graphic and evocative manner. I don't know if I will make the effort to go there, but one never knows what opportunities life will toss in one's path. You have made me aware of an extraordinary place and given me sufficient idea of its essence to add it to my list of "if possible, make an effort to go there" places.
  3. No, it has a question mark after it.
  4. And why, John, do you suppose they have done so?
  5. And the same is true for frozen or refrigerated packaged prepared foods that are sold in supermarkets. The application of "science" and "technology" to food preparation and storage in the commercial, mass market world is staggering. It makes a 3 star kitchen look like a sand box. The same is true for the issue of "complexity." On the other hand, the meal I ate last evening at Blue Hill included dishes with subtle, innovative combinations of ingredients and textures that transformed the basic ingredient (duck, char, cod, scallops, etc.) into a surprising and new taste experience. And I suppose that's one of the things "fine dining" at its best, should do. It should cause you to experience the familiar in unfamilar, and pleasing ways.
  6. I prefer haute-mediocre myself. Why settle for anything less? (or more).
  7. To use Rachel's system of approbation, Jackson Hole sucks. Their burgers are just big gray tasteless lumps of steamed meat. Early on they were good, but either their beef or their system of cooking changed and the product went way downhill. They cover the burger with a metal cup on the grill, but don't remove it so the burger gets charred or even firm. The burger even tasted crappy the last times I ate at the Madison Ave. and Columbus Ave. places. Ugh.
  8. It ain't offal.
  9. Sounds a like a good event. I enjoyed the last one. Lots of drink, some good food and much fun, along with a teeny weeny cigar and a long subway ride back to civilization.
  10. Ah, but Man and Myth, taking the topic so seriously is fun for some. You mustn't take their seriousity so seriously, especially if you wear a bowl of pasta for a hat.
  11. Actually this thread reminds me of an old joke. A man is waiting at the dock for his sailor son, about to disembark from an aircraft carrier after a long tour of duty. A beautiful young women next to him is looking anxiously for her man at the rail. They spot each other and wave. He yells, "FF", she answers "EF", he emphatically yells back "FF", she smiles and nods. The man, curious about this exchange asks the beauty, "what was that all about?" "Oh", she answers, "I want to eat first." Time to eat.
  12. FG. is it your experience that Lobel's quality justifies its substantially higher prices (vs. other good butchers for the same cuts)?
  13. The first time I dined with Steve P at Peter Lugers, he told me that the highlight of the meal for him was the chopped steak. He was disappointed with the porterhouse!
  14. And lots of them would grind the steak up for hamburgers!
  15. Would good quality tripe cost more than lesser quality tripe in Britian? Would an "average" Englishman (excludes Wilfrid and other present company) be able to tell good tripe from bad?
  16. I accept your thesis with regard to quality that can be objectively and quantitatively evaluated (at a base level). Where I, (and I suspect others), have a problem, is when you pronounce something superior based on your qualitative, subjective evaluation and, then, state it as fact. Putting cost aside, as you suggest doing, it may be a fact that you believe steak is better than hamburger, but to objectify a subjective opinion based on your own assessment criteria is objectionable, subjectively speaking, that is.
  17. Leave it to Plotnicki to age his charcoal! Uh, Steve, where do you buy the stuff? Link please.
  18. Well said, JD. The essential point is that "quality" does not exist absent some shared perception in society, as Steve P seems to think it does. It is not like gold content in ore that can be assayed and measured. People buy benefits, as you so well summarized. And it is the benefit they pay for. Some benefits are harder won than others and, so, cost more. The seller recognizes that he/she has something for which more than a few people will be willing to shell out big bucks, so he prices it accordingly. Resale value is but one benefit. admiration of others is another. So are self-aggrandisement, peace of mind, sensory pleasure, momentary fun, extacy, less work and so on. If Mercedes built an S600 that looked exactly like a Chevy Malibu, how many people would pay $130,000 for it? Quality is only one part of the formula. The 21 Club hamburger may be made of more expensive meat than those at Burger Heaven, but you'll have a hard time convincing me that it is worth $22 more. Many years ago, I heard that the selling strategy of gold double eagle coins was debated, following the recovery of a treasure ship's contents of hundreds in MS20 (the best) condition. Prior to this discovery, MS20 double eagle coins sold for $3500-4,000. If all were put on the market, it was feared that the price would drop to $500. Scarcity drove resale value which drove the selling strategy. There was no such thing as intrinsic value (quality/price) in the coin market.
  19. True, My grill has very thick cast iron grates which I season before putting on for the first time. They last about two to three years before they start to break down and have to be replaced. It takes three 9" wide grates to cover the fire box. They really cook the meat.
  20. I have a theory that I could market two small lapel pins, each an unusual color with a hard to copy design imbedded in them. One would sell for $10,000, another for $100,000. With the right kind of pre-marketing, there are lots of people who would buy the $10,000 pin just to show others they can afford to spend $10 grand on a useless bauble. A smaller, but still impressive number of people would buy the $100,000 pin for the same reason. This is the psychology that drives price in high end stuff, which has nothing at all to do with quality. There are lots of Donald Trumps in the world who want others to feel inferior to them, and ability to spend is their flag. And there are lots of schnucks who will fall in right behind them.
  21. In Japan, some melons are absurdly expensive, purely for the act of giving a gift that the receipient will know where the giver perceives the recipient to be on the social heirarchy. In Japanese culture, cost bears little relationship to rarity but to perceptions dictated by social mores. Cuban cigars are $20 or more a stick here, yet I buy them for about $250 a box of 25. These could be resold for two or three times the price. Scarcity, badge quality, bragging rights are more involved than smoking quality, since there are some Dominican cigars that US cigar smokers like more (though they wouldn't admit it).
  22. SB, this isn't to answer your question (I don't know the answer) but it brought to mind a commercial from the dim past for Ballentine Ale. The song went: "Who is the ale man? He could be you. A man with a taste for a manlier brew. Who is the ale man. He could be you. A man with a thirst for Ballentine's brew. Try the smoother, cleaner, fresher taste of Ballentine ale." Chorus
  23. Until someone with the genius of a Bird comes along and creates a possibility no one thought possible. "Discovery" my favorite quote goes, "is seeing what everyone has seen and thinking what no one has thought."
  24. I spent a collective six weeks in Barcelona, Madrid, La Mancha and driving south and up to Seville. I was struck by the richness, variety and quality of the food. Barcelona, like New York, hosts restaurants from all the main Spanish regions. The food from Galicia was my favorite. You comments notwithstanding, I predict a gradual rise in popularity of haute-Italian over the next 5-7 years. Spanish outre cuisine is too far afield from the tastes of all but the most sophisticated eaters, and the quality of ingredients (shellfish) more difficult to obtain with regularity given the small demand. I did not say they were not producing first rate food. I said the cuisine is stagnant. The collapse of "nouvelle" or its integration in to the French mainstream spelled the end of the last wave of innovation (good riddance, IMO). Like Broadway, French cuisine rides on revivals of classics and great bistro fare. Many regional Italian cuisines are unfamiliar to the mainstream of high-end eaters (excluding the gastronomes that post here) and so will be "discovered" and form a new trend. This will take at least five years and will be in full swing by then. Mario Batali is just the first to lead this movement. He is to Italian food as Julia Child was to French cuisine in the 1960s.
  25. Jin, I didn't read Plot's comments. These are based on my own predjudices!
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