Trotter's and Trio lately

[Steve Plotnicki]

The last time I was at Charlie Trotter’s was in 1994. The reason that I can remember the exact year is that the occasion was the 40th birthday of my oldest friend. It’s someone I went to sleep-away camp with when I was a kid. After we got too old to go to camp, we stayed friends through our high school years (1969-1972) doing things like riding the subway (he from Ocean Parkway, me from Bayside) to see music in the city. But we were also budding foodies and we managed to sneak in eating the latest junk food rage before or after shows. Now here we were, 22 years later, having graduated from Blimpies and gyros to prosciutto and Foie gras. Well the end of that story is that while we had a fun weekend, our meal at Trotter’s was sort of a bust. It was a Friday night in February and along with one other table with two people at it, we were the only people in the dining room. I can’t remember much about the meal other then we thought the food was uninteresting and repetitive. Charlie himself was there and he was fawning over the other table and he often poured what looked like a clear liquid out of a little pitcher over their food.

My first experience didn’t whet my appetite for more. For years I both avoided and spoke poorly of Trotters. But on occasion, someone would say that it was great and that I needed to go. When that happened, I would pursue that line of thinking on some wine board or with friends who had been and ask them if they thought if I should go? The answer was never a resounding yes. It was sort of a combination of yes and no. And one time when I had to go to Chicago on business I actually toyed with the idea of going back. So I posted a note on one of the wine boards seeking guidance. The responses were all over the place. But my favorite one was somebody who said, “look, you’re in NYC, you have Daniel, Bouley, Le Bernadin etc. there. With those places you don’t need to go to eat at Trotters. I live in Minnesota so Trotter’s is a big deal to me.” Well that took care of that and for the last couple of years I hardly had the urge. But this past summer, good friends of ours went and said it was “phenomenal.” And these are people who we trust. So after a short discussion with another couple it was agreed we would take a weekend in Chicago so we could give Charlie Trotter one more chance to win us over.

The dining room at Trotter’s was exactly as I remembered it. It was as if nothing had changed. And as soon as we entered, there was Charlie Trotter himself (and you know how I am about the chef being in the house.) They sat us at a table in the corner on the left near where you entered the kitchen. I gave the sommelier my wines and he inspected them with great care. Then our waiter handed us menus. As she started to explain the various tasting menus, she saw that I was trying to tell her something so she stopped. I explained that we were here to see Trotter’s at their best. So she said she could take the menus back and they would be glad to cook for us. Waiter, we’ll take four of those. Then the sommelier reappeared to discuss how to serve the wines I brought. He had devised a complete strategy including serving temperature.

They started us with an amuse bouche of a bay scallop that was coated with sesame seeds and then sautéed. It was served on a bed of chopped red onion with some wasabi that was on the mild side but which had a little kick to it. It was a nice way t start to the meal and the wasabi opened our palates up. We continued on with an assortment of various potatoes, which were tossed with some thinly sliced raw Vidalia onions rings. Then a slice of celery leaf was laid among the potatoes and then the entire dish was showered with white truffles. Terrific dish. I can’t think of being served a truffle/onion combo before. With these dishes we ordered a NV Egly-Ouriet Blanc de Noir off the list. For some reason I’m never as impressed with EO as other people are. But it is a winey champagne, and it played a decent enough foil for the food.

We moved on to fish. They appeared with a square of steamed turbot about the size of a brownie. It was white as snow and served with an olive leek sauce. Lovely dish and it transported us to Provence for the moment. But the fish was slightly overcooked. Thirty seconds too long? Okay we will cut them some slack on what was a busy night. The next dish, filets of imported dorade, served with chopped chestnuts and pineapples, was fishy. I hate fishy fish. And it was served with a sauce where the primary ingredient was chopped pineapples. Let me tell you that fishy flavor and citrus/sweet is sort of a deadly combo. And to make things worse, the dorade was even more overcooked then the turbot was with the flesh (fishy flesh that is) being fairly dry to the taste. This dish was a bust on every single level. With our poisson we drank a 1989 Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeots. The sommelier told me it was a little stinky on the nose on opening and that the stink hadn’t completely blown off by the time it was poured even though he had decanted it at the beginning of the meal. What a huge and intense wine, too huge and intense. Still in the slightly painful stage. Of course I had let some sit in my glass until the end of the night and by then the stink was gone and the nose was beautiful and fragrant. Oh what time does for wine. This wine needed a good three hour decant and probably needs at least three to five more years in bottle to be ready to drink.

Meats were up next. They started us with some roast squab that had a portion of Foie gras sitting alongside it. Nice, but what I will call a standard issue upper middle game dish. If I had closed my eyes, I could have been dining almost anywhere. But as I typically find, game despite it’s reputation for being flavorful is often mild and blandish. In fact in my experience it is more likely bland then anything else. Then they served us three slices of partridge that were served with large cubes of red beet and golden beet and some Minnesota wild rice. It had a lightly smoked flavor (we later found out that is was grilled over wood) and the meat was medium rare, juicy but just firm enough and each slice had a nice layer of crispy skin on top. And the beets were cooked perfectly, firm yet soft enough to cut with a spoon. It didn’t take me long to learn that a small slice of the partridge paired a paper-thin slice of beet was culinary perfection. Clearly this was the dish of the night (with the potato and truffle dish a firm second) and everyone at our table agreed. We were then stampeded by a serving of three thin slices of loin of bison, a first for me. The meat was very lean and was roasted rare. As with the squab, it was nice but the point of eating bison was lost on us. They could have told us it was gorilla and what would we know? We asked them to add a cheese course to our meal. It featured an exceptionally good Camembert and we asked the waiter what brand it was. She appeared a few minutes later carrying the box. It was Camembert des Normandy’s Les Perreles I believe. Perfectly ripe and packed with flavor.

With these courses we drank a 1975 Trotenoy and I can’t begin to tell you how good the wine was. It came from a case I bought in London about 6 years ago. It was maybe the fourth or fifth bottle I’ve had from the case. But I have to say that I haven’t had it in a few years, but when I did have it, the wine was always very good but was in a slightly dormant state. But once again time proves that it can be a wine’s best friend because the transformation here was magical. This wine was so concentrated, so searing (not tannins but intensity) and was such a big mouthful of wine that on first taste every person at the table made a noise that was somewhere between an mmmm and a grunt. Just super and this will easily hold and improve for at least 15 years or more.

I’m not even going to write about the desserts because we hated them all (although we finished them.) Every single one played on the same theme and they were loaded with off- spices, cloves, and in general, combinations that played on a savory/sweet contrast. Why are pastry chefs obsessed with this style these days? Where is the brilliance that a Herme shows when he makes a simple macaron, raspberry and lychee pairing? That tastes like dessert. I wish there was more of that. Soon someone is going to try and serve a beef dessert.

I have to make a special mention of the service. It was astoundingly good. Both our waiter and the sommelier did not miss a beat. There was never an empty glass, the courses were paced perfectly, the wines were at the proper temperature and decanted at the appropriate times and they seemed to anticipate our every move. I’m sure one thing that allows them to offer such good service is that they aren’t turning tables. Our table was ours for the night and it made our meal nice and relaxed. In fact we got there at 7:30 and we didn’t leave until after midnight. But the all time great service award has to go to whomever at Trotter’s relayed to the kitchen that I had wheat flour intolerance. Because during the first course our waiter showed up with a basket of wheat-free corn muffins baked especially for me. I have to tell you that in 12 years of having this condition, this was the first time any restaurant ever prepared special breads for me, including places where I am a regular. And I can honestly say that there is nothing sweeter for me then to be able to schmear some good quality butter on good bread. I should also add that when M. Trotter saw me standing near our table and looking into the kitchen, he grabbed me by the arm and motioned to everyone at our table to come take a tour of the kitchen.

My overall impression of Trotter’s is that it is a restaurant that is the equal or better then the top upper middle places anywhere. Is it significantly different or better then a place like Gramercy Tavern? Maybe from the standpoint that the small size of restaurant allows them to put a finer hand on the cuisine. But if I had to compare it to other restaurants I would say it is closer to a place like Gramercy then a place like Daniel. Maybe Bouley Bakery (the old one) is a better comparison but the cuisine did not hit the heights (at least on this night) that Bouley Bakery used to hit. And though I am not jumping on the next plane to go back there, I certainly wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to go again and to see if I could become a little bit more familiar with the cuisine. I actually wouldn’t mind going and saying to them that they should cook me all of the dishes they consider signature dishes. On balance, an overall criticism, and this is particular to my what turns me on about a place, it didn’t really express a strong cuisine to the extent that I would have liked it to. Yet there seemed to be a cooking philosophy at work albeit in a subtle way and I would probably need to take in a few more meals to get a better understanding of what M. Trotter was trying to tell us all. But it isn’t the type that screams out at you. I should also add that we thought the portions were rather small. And certainly the number of courses they served with a chef’s menu wasn’t an overwhelming number. So there could have been a little improvement there as well. So all in all, let’s call it a B+.

People speak of Trio like it’s in Chicago but its really in Evanston, Illinois. That’s like a drive to Great Neck if you are a New Yorker, Walnut Creek if you live in SF (or maybe Mill Valley) or maybe Sherman Oaks or Paso Robles depending on which part of the sprawl they call L.A. you live in. So it’s in the burbs. When we got in the taxi and showed the driver a piece of paper with the address, he actually said he knew the street its on. 25 minutes later we turned onto Hinman Avenue but it was a residential street with rather nice houses on it. We couldn’t imagine it was going to be in that location. But about a half dozen long blocks later we saw the lights of the small residential hotel that houses Trio. I was even more surprised when we entered the restaurant and it was completely full. Since I was warned about the extremely modern nature of the cooking, I couldn’t understand what all these suburban looking people were doing in a place that was going to foam everything in site? I mean the chances of a restaurant with a modern menu and modern technique making it in a place like Great Neck are probably next to nil. But here we were in the Chicago suburbs and the people looked primed for it.

Trio offers three tasting menus. The Prix Fixe Tasting Menu, the Chef’s Tasting Menu and the Tour de Force Tasting Menu. Big eyes that we all had, we opted for the Tour de Force. And when I called to inquire about BYO, the manager of the restaurant strongly discouraged my doing it (despite the fact that they allow it) on the basis of the cuisine being so unusual that it was likely that a wine I brought would be a mismatch with the cuisine. He continued on by telling me that they offer a wine program with the cuisine for $95 a person and he emailed me the menu and the pairings. It was 21 courses of food and 13 different wines. Yowza. After a quick confab with the other couple we decided to let Trio do all of the driving.

I think based on the volume of dishes and wines, the best way to approach reporting on the meal is to list the food and wines and then discuss them dish-by-dish. If there is no wine listed under a dish that means they gave us another pour of the wine from the prior course. So take a deep breath and……..

Caramel Popcorn

Blandy’s 5 year old Sercial Madeira

Watermelon-Smoky Paprika Ice

Raclette et Pommes de Terre

1999 Trebbiano

Shaved Bottarga/Sea Urchin Custard

Parsnip Soup

2001 WillaKensie Estate Pinot Gris

Black Truffle Explosion

L’Uvaggio di Giacomo Arneis

Sashimi Fluke flavors of the sea

Rihaki Nigori Sake “Dreamy Couds” Shimane Prefecture

Oysters and Beer

Campari-grapefruit

Roasted Alaskan Halibut parsley, olive, vanilla

2001 Heidi Schrok Ruster Muscar, Burgenland, Austria

Maine Lobster with Rosemary Vapor

2000 Hubert Lamy Saint-Aubin 1er Cru “Les Frionnes”

Poached Venison Loin butternut squash, four flavors grated

2000 Carmenet “Dynamite Vineyard”Merlot North Coast 2000

Braised Pig Tail and Crispy Cheek

Elysian Fields Farm Lamb cardamom-coffee, lentils, shallot, date

1999 Zenata “Ripassa” Valpolicello Superiore

Cap of Prime Beef white truffles, pink peppercorns, mache

Champagne L. Aubrey Brut, Joey-les-Reims

Icy Pomegranite yogurt, mint, chiles

Pushed Foie Gras bosc pears, sauternes, salt roasted pear sorbet

1998 Bechtoslheimer Beerenauslese Ernst Bretz, Rheinhessen

Passion Fruit Lassi cumin foam

Roasted Pumpkin Crème Caramel bacon, curried pineapple, carrot sorbet

“Don PX” Pedro Ximnez, Bodegas Toro Albala Montilla-Morilles

Tea Smoked Chocolate crystallized nori, Asian plums

Burmester 1989 Colheita Port

Hucklebery-Juniper Soda

They serve the caramel popcorn and watermelon ice as amuse. The caramel popcorn was sort of like sucking candies with a gooey caramel center. Like a hip version of the butter candies that my Bubby would have had in a crystal dish on the coffee table in her living room. I’m glad to see how far those candies have come. It was a rather sweet way to start things off. But then they ripped your palate back in the other direction as the paprika dominated the watermelon and the dish was more about the spice playing against the coolness of the ice then the taste of watermelon. Neither amuse made much of a statement to us. But the Madeira was great and we sucked it down quickly only to be served another pour.

Things improved dramatically when they brought us the raclette. It was a small soup bowl with sliced potatoes and a creamy raclette sauce. Dotting the bowl were small pieces of pickled vegetables. A great dish that other then being a pinch of salt short, made us complain that our portion was too small. Next they brought out a tray that contained a soup bowl holding a small pile of clove sorbet and next to it on the tray were additional ingredients including some shredded prosciutto, prosciutto gelee and chopped pistachio nuts. It was a deconstructed parsnip soup. The waiter poured the soup into your bowl from a small teapot and then you were supposed to put the rest of the ingredients on the tray into the bowl. Although it could have been a hair hotter, the soup was comforting and made for a tasty appetizer course. My sea urchin custard didn’t have the intense taste of sea urchin I had hoped for. Actually I had the sea urchin because the shaved bottarga had some bread in it. But the people who ate the bottarga reported it delicious, served on a lightly set parmesan gelee. I’ve designated that the wine we had was a Trebbianno based on the waiter announcing it while pouring. I didn’t write the name down at the time because they had emailed me a list of the wines in advance and I figured I had the name at home. But now that I look at the list of wines it isn’t identified as a Trebbiano. Whatever, the wine was terrific. Not a large wine but terrific acid and more then sufficient fruit. Perfect to cut the richness of the raclette.

We moved on to the black truffle explosion. It was a single ravioli, filled with black truffle juice and what appeared to be thinly sliced vegetables. You were supposed to eat it by taking the entire ravioli onto your tongue and then pressing it up against the roof of your mouth. When you did that, the truffle juice was released as it broke though the thin ravioli wrapper. By the way, they announced they had made mine using a little buckwheat flour. Ah it’s those little things. Well this dish was a treat that was sort of in the style of Chinese soup buns. It’s too bad it wasn’t an amuse because that’s the perfect spot for it. It was served with an Arneis from California, a first for me. And the wine held true to it’s New World form as it was as ripe as could be and tasted as if it was injected with steroids. But it actually wasn’t bad with the food but I’d hate to drink it all by itself. Sashimi of fluke was not among our favorites nor was the follow up course, which was Oysters, served in a beer foam. Both dishes were unpopular across our entire table. We drank an imported sake where prior to serving it they shake the bottle up and the liquid becomes cloudy, hence the name. I’m still not deft enough at being able to identify sakes. Then they brought us a little sorbet of campari and grapefruit as a way to refresh our palates.

The roasted halibut came with a little vanilla custard and some chopped olives (nicoise?). The square of fish was perfectly roasted with the meat being slightly flaky to the fork. It laid a perfect foundation for the chopped olives, which gave it a little crunch and saltiness and the vanilla custard, which added sweetness and a satiny texture. But on the whole, what came though it all was the taste of olive oil. To me this dish was modern cuisine at its best and in the spirit of the great French chefs of the 80’s. On a side note, it’s funny how two of the best things I’ve eaten recently pair olives/olive oil and vanilla. This and Pierre Herme’s Olive Oil and Vanilla Macaron. We moved onto a service of a shallow soup bowl filled with clippings of fresh rosemary. In the middle of the bowl was a small dish filled with a warm lobster and wild mushroom salad. After they set the dish down in front of us, the server poured boiling water from a small teapot onto the rosemary, which released an intense aroma of rosemary vapors. Every time you bent over the dish to scoop us some lobster you were emerged in the aroma of fresh rosemary. Okay it’s a little gimmicky but the dish was great. They ratcheted up the viscosity of the wines even more with an oaky and buttery chardonnay from Hubert Lamy. I’d rate is as fair even though it was fine with the food. These courses would have benefited from a wine with a little age on it.

Some poached venison loin was next served with butternut squash and Brussels sprout caps filled with four different spices, Jamaican peppercorns, ground hazelnut, cocoa powder and black truffle. Lovely presentation but not something I found memorable. More about a sampling of weird/off flavors then being enjoyable. That was followed by some braised pig tail and crispy cheek, This dish wasn’t bad but didn’t bowl us over. It was sort of like a confit of pork that was shredded and then formed into a round with a layer of crispy cheek served atop a layer of the braised tail. They served it with a merlot from Carmenite that had us scratching our heads at the choice. This was a typical Ca. merlot with a vegetal thing showing. There are so many better choices that this one left us a bit puzzled.

The Elysian Fields Farm Lamb was a square (I believe they told me it was shoulder) of flavorful lamb that was coated by finely minced shallots that were toasted crispy. A real showstopper. We all agreed that the shallots reminded us of dried onion soup or dried onion flakes. It was a perfect foil for the juicy lamb, giving it some crunch and some bite from the onion flavor. It makes me want to pan roast some lamb chops and then finish them off in the oven with a coating of chopped shallots mixed with some finely chopped nuts like walnuts or pine nuts. And then the flavorful quotient was raised to an even higher level with the cap of prime rib. I’m a skeptic when it comes to steak, especially outside of New York City. In my time I’ve suffered far too many mediocre steaks after promises of greatness. But these three small strips of cap of prime rib, which had extremely thin slices of white truffle on it, which made the taste of truffle be ever so subtle, were just divine. More flavor then any of the game we had on either night. Unfortunately we didn’t love the Zenatto Ripasso. I’m not a fan of the Zenato wines to begin with and this wine seemed a little bit off.

Six different courses for dessert sort of made it a meal within a meal. The passion fruit lassi with cumin foam and the icy pomegranate with yogurt, mint and chilies were both interesting and sort of palate cleansers. I particularly enjoyed the cumin foam but then again, I have a thing for cumin. To me the interesting desserts were the pushed Foie gras and the tea smoked chocolate. The Foie gras was pushed through a tamis and it looked as it they had served you a large spoonful of chestnut puree. Have you ever seen what a Mont Blanc dessert looks like? This looked the same but the strands of Foie were thinner in size then what you get in a Mont Blanc. Alongside the pile of pureed Foie was a sort of pear puree. Kind of like apple sauce but made out of pear. The purpose of the Foie is to add body, texture, and a fatty component to the dish. It doesn’t add much flavor and if it does it’s very subtle. But the tea-smoked chocolate was probably the most creative dessert. It was a bar of what appeared to be milk chocolate that was sort of a mousse like consistency. It was separated into quarters by a piece of dried nori which was placed between the quarters. And each section of chocolate had a small sliver of hot red chile pepper on it. It was quite unusual. From an intellectual perspective it was interesting but I’m not sure if it overcame intellect and offered pleasure. I didn’t love the huckleberry soda, which was more like ices that were melting in soda water. I passed on the wines with this course.

It took us until the next morning to be able to speak about the meal with some clarity. After all, 21 courses, most with some type of twist isn’t exactly easy to digest. It wasn’t until we were in the taxi on our way to the airport the next morning that we pretty much all agreed on the following. There was too much going on in the meal for us. We all found that we would have preferred a meal with fewer courses that featured slightly larger portions of the dishes that worked well. I also have to add that I thought the gimmicks take away from the food. This whole business of, take the ravioli and press it against the roof of your mouth, strikes me as silly. As does the hullabaloo it causes when they pour the parsnip soup in your bowl and then tell you to put the rest of the ingredients in. What is the point? How about if I was led to the kitchen to chop my own vegetables? Even the rosemary vapor, which I thought lent substance to the dish, didn’t need the ceremony of the pouring of the boiling water. I just want to eat delicious food. Everything else is cherries jubilee prepared tableside to me.

But if one can strike the theatrical excesses from their mind and look at them as an affectation, they certainly can cook up a storm in this place. We longingly spoke of various dishes and even though it was less then 12 hours after we departed, we put together a menu where we would have slightly larger portions so we could get to know the dishes better. In our dream world our meal would be;

1, Truffle Surprise

2. Raclette et Pommes

3. Parsnip Soup

4. Pushed Foie Gras (prepared as a savoury course)

5. Roasted Halibut

6. Maine Lobster w Rosemary Vapor

7. Lamb w shallots

8. Cap of Prime Beef

In fact I have no trepidation in saying that if there was more focus on serving the above, and less on the flash and what I think of as excess dishes, with time, Trio could be considered among the best, or even the best restaurant in the country. Grant Achutz’s cuisine is in many ways less flashy than the French Laundry (where he was sous chef I believe) and the places in Spain that obviously influence him. But in spite of its modernity, there was something wholesome about the food that came though in the dishes I singled out. Because ultimately there are two ways to serve fish flavored with vanilla. You can do it and make the diners remark about how unusual it is, or you can do it and make them remark how delicious it is. I’d say Trio is 80% about the latter with the other 20% lost due to the distractions due from the clutter in the meal. But of course, the type of clutter I am reacting negatively to is fashionable these days. So I’m not sure how much this type of criticism would influence things.

Te service at Trio was nothing short of stupendous. The wait staff had to be the most knowledgeable wait staff we have come up against in this country. Let me tell you, those dishes are difficult to explain (let alone remember) yet they did it perfectly and the staff was able to handle rather difficult follow up questions about the food. And just like the previous night, they anticipated our every move. And I don’t know how this happened, but right around when they served the first course the showed up with a plate that had a half dozen toast points of bread made from rice flour that they baked especially for me. Could it possibly be that after 12 years of not eating bread in restaurants that special breads were prepared on two nights in a row? Now what are the odds of that? And the wines were a good deal except we were disappointed with the red wine choices. But the non-red wine choices were great and all in all the wine program is worth the money (huge pours and refills too.) So I’ll give Trio an B++/A- and it would have gotten an A if there was a little more focus and a little less clutter. But it is definitely a place I’d like to go back to very soon and one that also has the potential to be rated at A++.

[Jinmyo]

Steve, your report was worth the wait.

[jparrott]

I gotta say, that's a remarkably lame set of wines for such an--allegedly--serious menu at Trio.

Jake

[jaybee]

I see you're reading your handiwork. Very excellent report, SP. You've taken me to two places I am unlikely to go. (I have an aversion to Chicago from my advertising days). Thank you.

Will your dinng companions chime in, or have they left history to you?

[Steve Plotnicki]

Yeah if I had to do it again, I would try and cut some type of deal with them and BYO the chardonnay and red wine. But their white wines like trebbiano and sake etc. were fine accompaniments to the food. But considering how exquisite my beef course was, the Zenato was a step down in quality. That dish needed a dal Forno or something of that magnitude.

Edited December 2, 2002 by Steve Plotnicki (log)

[jparrott]

Steve, do you think the fact that you were a group of four people aided your view of the Trio meal as cluttered? I wonder if you had been in a two-top you would have been able to focus (be focused?) on each thing?

[Steve Plotnicki]

The clutter comes from threee things. Too many course, too many flavors on a single plate during some courses, and the disparity in quality between courses. That's why my recommendation is to reduce the size of the meal and focus on the best courses. But I don't think it matters how many people are at the table.

[Ron Johnson]

Nice reviews.

[robert40]

Great report Steve.

I had a chance to do a six month externship at Trio last spring but do to poor health I was unable to go.

So I enjoyed your post very much, As I believe Grant has great talent and a bright future.

[Robert Schonfeld]

Enjoyed the report, Steve. Thanks.

[Jaymes]

Great report.

And the opening flashback was a hoot.

Thanks.

[marcus]

Steve -- Outstanding report. You confirm my own observation regarding what I characterized as Trotter's "sloppy preparation", with your report of 2 out of 2 overcooked fish dishes. I also found problems with overcooking of some meat dishes as well. In my experience, Trotter's offers only 2 menus in the main dining room, regular and vegetarian, with no choices. Do you believe that you received different dishes than those on the menu, or has Trotter changed formats?

[Steve Plotnicki]

Marcus - When I was putting the review together I used the Trotter's website as a way to refresh my recollection. And one of the things that became apparant was how much and extensive the changes were. Turns out, it was a mix of some ingredients that must have been fresh that day, mixed and matched with ingredients and preparations from the chef's tasting menu. But it wasn't a radical departure from the norm. I think other places serve tasting menus that are a greater departure then what they served us at Trotter's.

[nightscotsman]

Excellent report Steve! I really feel like I was a member of your party. Thank you so much for the detailed write up.

[tommy]

so i can finally stop holding my breath.

[maggiethecat]

Steve: Just excellent! Thanks for your detailed reports.

[Beachfan]

I'll add my voice to the chorus of appreciation. Now I can sleep better, knowing that I'm not missing the best meal ever.

I'll keep my domestic strategy the same - save my money for NY (and a little for SF.)

[Fat Guy]

Plotnicki, I agree with you about game in general as served at American restaurants. I think the reason is that much of it is farmed, and therefore calling it game is a stretch -- indeed it's a complete misunderstanding of the whole point of eating game. In the battle for best farmed meats, beef, lamb, chicken, pig, etc., won out long ago. There's no reason to eat farmed venison, for example. Now when you get into wild game, you definitely get some intense flavors. Delouvrier gets this stuff at Lespinasse -- flown in from Scotland -- for a short time every year and it's the polar opposite of the flavorless farmed crap most places serve. But it's tough by comparison to farmed game, so you either accept that (like in his wood pigeon dish, which requires a lot of customer participation to eat) or you eat it in slow-cooked dishes (like the hare stew with sauce civet).

Now what I disagree with you about is the whole savory-and-sweet dessert thing. The problem isn't the style; it's the inability of some pastry chefs to execute it effectively.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Now what I disagree with you about is the whole savory-and-sweet dessert thing. The problem isn't the style; it's the inability of some pastry chefs to execute it effectively

Personally I like desserts with savoury spices. I'm the one who loved those curry dusted truffles at Vosges in Chicago. And I love that cardamon iced coffee they serve at Hampton Chutney. But it's this obession with mint and clove that is killing me. It makes everything taste like Listerine. Some of the things they give you today are really on the edge. I'm an old fashioned guy. I'm happy with a nice banana split.

[Suvir Saran]

Now what I disagree with you about is the whole savory-and-sweet dessert thing. The problem isn't the style; it's the inability of some pastry chefs to execute it effectively

Personally I like desserts with savoury spices. I'm the one who loved those curry dusted truffles at Vosges in Chicago. And I love that cardamon iced coffee they serve at Hampton Chutney. But it's this obession with mint and clove that is killing me. It makes everything taste like Listerine. Some of the things they give you today are really on the edge. I'm an old fashioned guy. I'm happy with a nice banana split.

Who would not want Banana Split? Seriously.

I am not old fashioned.. neither am I American, but even as a kid, I loved Banana Split.

When my parents wanted me to do something, Banana Split or Hot Fudge Sundaes were two great ways of getting my complete attention.

[Jinmyo]

Who would not want Banana Split?  Seriously.

Me. Seriously.

Steve, I think that you're absolutely right about farmed "game".

I'd like to hear more from other diners (such as awbrig) about what both Steve P and marcus have remarked upon about over-cooked fish and meat at Trotter's.

Edited December 2, 2002 by Jinmyo (log)

[hollywood]

Nice writeup, Steve. Now, if we could just get Jason to tell us about Lotus of Siam and Rosemary's......

[Steve Plotnicki]

But I would find it refreshing if a pastry chef would recalibrate a banana split to incorporate something savoury. Like making it with Kulfi and a sauce that was spiked with something savoury. After eating 10 dessert courses in Chicago I went to Boston the following Monday night. And overall I enjoyed the kulfi and banana cinammon ice cream I had at Vanessa's in Cambridge more then my fancier desserts in Chicago.

[Suvir Saran]

Who would not want Banana Split?  Seriously.

Me. Seriously.

I was talking of mere mortals.

Not immortal beings with perhaps nothing mortal.

[cabrales]

I didn't think the fish and meat was overcooked at Trotter's. However, I did not find the meal he offered inspired (note also, as always, meals in North America are evaluated by rating standards that are markedly lower than those for France.)

http://forums.egullet.org/ibf/index.php?ac...36&t=11291&st=0

However, note that I find many NY restaurants with high guide ratings to be uninspired, and would eat at Trotter's over Jean-Georges for sure, among other restaurants.

Edited December 2, 2002 by cabrales (log)