Jump to content

  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

wd-50

speidec

By speidec
in New York: Dining

 Share

Recommended Posts

tommy

tommy

Posted
Posted
Sure, some salads are pedestrian. Some restaurants are pedestrian, too.

But to dismiss them out of hand is shortsighted and thoughtless, especially given the beauty and variety of vegetables on offer in the NYC area.

(At Cafe Boulud on Saturday, I enjoyed the frisee salad with lardons, chicken livers and poached egg. Far more interesting than the ubiquitous tuna tartare.)

EDIT: If this point is to be discussed, it should be removed from the WD-50 thread and moved elsewhere.

clearly your standards are low.

tommy:eats.com
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ron Johnson

Ron Johnson

Posted
Posted
(At Cafe Boulud on Saturday, I enjoyed the frisee salad with lardons, chicken livers and poached egg.

I was going to agree with Plotnicki :blink: , until the righteous Liza reminded me of this particular salad, which I absolutely adore, and will be enjoying at Chez Leon in St. Louis Friday night. Followed by hangEr steak and frites, of course.

and Cote Rotie, Chave that is. :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ruth

Ruth

Posted
Posted

I am with Mogsob. It is beyond me why anyone would go to a restaurant, especially one with a chef who is creative and talented, to order a salad.

That said, I signed up for a class with Wylie Dufresne several weeks ago. The class will be in June and I shall wait till then before trying WD50. His cooking at 71 Clinton Fresh was a delight but the NYT article has made me a little wary. Apparently the current chef at 71 Clinton is doing a superb job and I plan to try it soon.

Ruth Friedman

Link to comment
Share on other sites
g.johnson

g.johnson

Posted
Posted
Mogsob, If you have the time and are comfortable, I'd love to hear your reasons why you despise people who order salads.

One of my favourite Steingarten essays is Salad the Silent Killer.

It's full of toxins. That's why it tastes so bad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mogsob

mogsob

Posted
Posted

I generally cannot order a starter, main and dessert, so I generally order two menu items. Or, if it is a 3 course menu, I generally do not finish everything on my plate. It is called restraint -- look into it.

The problem I have with menu items such as salad (great bistro salads notwithstanding :biggrin:) is that they invariable displace another, more interesting menu item. Moreover, by giving the diner an easy way out with a safe choice, a restaurant like WD50 will sacrifice a bit of its integrity and mission, namely to widen and improve the palates of NYers. Moreover, if the green salad was a financial hit, they might be tempted to add a more pedestrian menu item like roast chicken to the menu.

Not that there is anything wrong with salads or roast chicken -- I had that for dinner last night. The difference is that I can cook that myself or I can go to a simple bistro for that. Why go to WD50 for that?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Steve Plotnicki

Steve Plotnicki

Posted
Posted

I do not believe that anyone's stomach is not big enough to order and to eat three courses. Leave some of it over if you can't eat it all. None of the reasons you gave go to the point of why someone would choose to order three courses, and not to have three unique and different tastes that they can't get elsewhere. It defeats the purpose of going in the first place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tommy

tommy

Posted
Posted
I do not believe that anyone's stomach is not big enough to order and to eat three courses. Leave some of it over if you can't eat it all. None of the reasons you gave go to the point of why someone would choose to order three courses, and not to have three unique and different tastes that they can't get elsewhere. It defeats the purpose of going in the first place.

ah. i see. the "purpose of going" is to have three unique and different tastes that you can't get elsewhere. if that's the theory of dining out, then i almost agree, assuming that all salads are the same at all restaurants.

tommy:eats.com
Link to comment
Share on other sites
bushey

bushey

Posted
Posted
because they don't have a stomach big enough to eat dessert, and entree, and a non-salad app?

tommy, you just described me to a T.

Sometimes it's a survival plan to keep up with my companions while saving enough room for the other stuff. And I'm a sucker for any salad with beets.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jeunefilleparis

jeunefilleparis

Posted
Posted

I can understand not being able to eat 3 courses at typical american food restaurants, but at the places we are speaking about, the apetizers are not generally very large, and mains are a decent size and dessert is dessert, of course when you have an amuse bouche and les petits fours, that adds too it, but isnt that part of the fun?

L

"Is there anything here that wasn't brutally slaughtered" Lisa Simpson at a BBQ

"I think that the veal might have died from lonliness"

Homer

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 5 weeks later...
eatpie

eatpie

Posted
Posted

I've been to WD50 and since Im friends with some folks at the restaurant I don't think it is fair for me to get too involved in this conversation. That being said, IMO the food is definitely an adventure. It stimulated my pallette and made me think (those of u who know me realize this is not the easiest of tasks). Being a non-food industry person that dines out every nite of the week I can confidently say that the menu is like no other is ny.

I get the feeling that there will be 100's of posts on this place in the next few months so I will leave it at that.

"Your girlfriend is a vegetarian, tell her she should eat rabbit...they're vegetarians too" Ali

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bux

Bux

Posted
Posted
I've been to WD50 and since Im friends with some folks at the restaurant I don't think it is fair for me to get too involved in this conversation.

Yes and no. There's probably much you know that might give you some insight that would benefit us. If you're honest and can speak without prejudice, or speak to the facts and not offer an opinion of how many stars it deserves, your contribution may be valuable to us and it may be unfair for you to withhold what you know. :biggrin:

Robert Buxbaum

WorldTable

Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

My mailbox is full. You may contact me via worldtable.com.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
eatpie

eatpie

Posted
Posted

K, Im going to attempt to list some of the dishes. Just note, we got pretty hammered and the combinations of ingredients and techniques are both unusual and plentiful. That said, you would need to take notes to get the dishes right.

Apps

Corned Duck: with some kind of a horseradish sauce and celery root on top. Served on top of crisps.

Oyster: Looked like a few oysters pounded down into a square with mini cubed green apples on top mixed with another ingredient I forgot and some kind of a pistachio cream on the side.

Fois Gras with Anchovies on top: I almost barfed at the thought but I tried it and somehow it really works.

Scallops: Can't remember the ingredients but it was in a very rich broth/sauce.

Squid Linguini: Served with a spicy paprika yoghurt sauce (kick ass dish!)

Octopus: Again, dont remember the ingredients but it was as tender an octopus asI've had. I recall an almost smoky taste but the waitress told us there was no smoking involved. I rember (or more accurately, can't remember) the cooking technique on this dish was really interesting.

Artichoke soup: With tangerine oil, chorizo strips and a quail egg on top

Entrees (at this point my grape intake seems ruined my recall):

Fresh Sable - with ramps and some kind of lentil on top

Lamb - remember the side had tasty little morsels of lamb tongue mixed in with veggies

Monkfish- served in a bonita broth with mint oil and little chunks of monkfish liver

Steak - there are these little pieces of marrow on the side that could convert a buddhist

Pork Belly

Skate

Sea Bass - remember chopped up long beans on top

Desert:

Memory gone at this point

Oh yea, the Pineapple desert did blow me away

Im sure some of my descriptions are just flat out wrong and others have been tweaked but that should give a vague idea of what you are in store for. Portions are pretty moderate in size. Staff has an incredible knowledge of one of the more complicated menus in town.

"Your girlfriend is a vegetarian, tell her she should eat rabbit...they're vegetarians too" Ali

Link to comment
Share on other sites
eatpie

eatpie

Posted
Posted

No salad and No bread. No bread crushed me.

Seriously though, as much as it pains me to admit, I date a vegetarian. I asked the chef what he did when vegetarians come in and he told me WD offers a daily vegetarian special. It is offered upon a diner's request.

Just remembered that the octopus app was confited in grape seed oil?

"Your girlfriend is a vegetarian, tell her she should eat rabbit...they're vegetarians too" Ali

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...