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NYC: Gastronomic Capital of the World?


robert brown

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 Dollar for dollar, I take NYC over Paris.
I used to believe exactly the opposite. These days I'm not sure. Both cities seem to have their strengths, and often at different price points. I think you can eat much better in Paris for under ุ-50 than in NY.

Robert Buxbaum

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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.

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Bux I'd say that's true if you don't care what you eat.

Maybe I should rephrase that: I think you can eat better in Paris for under โ than you can in New York provided you are willing to select from a small menu and you have very few strong food dislikes. That seems to work for more Parisians than New Yorkers.

There is also the question of the exchange rate, which makes this a moving target.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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provided you are willing to select from a small menu and you have very few strong food dislikes.
I find the limited number of choices is generally varied enough unless you have many strong food dislikes. I'm also drawn to restaurants with limited offerings that are carefully selected and cooked. I don't enjoy paying for the waste that's involved in menus that seem to serve little purpose than making it hard to decide what to order. Agreed, many of the fine little restaurants in Paris are little and have small kitchens. The economy of the small menu is a plus in my opinion. The epitome of the large menu is at a "coffee shop cum diner" where the choice of style and type of food is unparalled. Frequently all that's missing is one edible dish.

I would not advise choosing your Parisian restaurant without some guidance, but fortunately Paris has one of the best covered restaurant scenes in the world starting with the Guide Michelin Rouge. An open palate, as you note, is advisable if not required and as it's educated, the choices grow larger. I though the American's around us in a Parisian brasserie were missing the point by having roast chicken and lamb chops. I suppose  they may have found them preferrable to the andouille and pig's feet we were having. My wife said the pig's feet were a bit disappointing anyway.

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.

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Bux I'd say that's true if you don't care what you eat.
A second take on that. I resent as well as resemble that remark, but I care very much about what I eat. ;)

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.

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I guess what I'm saying is that there is a near-universal, very Old-Worldish strategy in play for keeping meal prices down in casual French restaurants: Lack of choice. I've seen several places where there is no choice -- just a set meal that every customer gets. That's atypical, but the good economical places tend to have very small menus and the limited choices on those menus tend to be heavy on offal and other inexpensive ingredients.

There is something to be said for cheap ingredients, in that they are very often those that are in season and therefore cheap-because-abundant and not cheap-because-bad.

Of course there is still plenty of choice when it comes to where to eat. I'm not talking about no-choice in a legal sense, just in the sense that you'll be quite inconvenienced if you don't like the particular arrangement of spare parts presented by the chef that day.

Like you, Bux, I'll eat pretty much anything so long as it's prepared well. But I rarely find myself in a group of Americans where all feel the same way. So I suspect it would be very difficult indeed for such a restaurant to survive in the United States. This is all by way of explanation, not value judgment.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Maybe you've hit on something that gives the edge to Paris as the capital--the clientele. That every American restaurant has to placate a host of individual dislikes just to stay in business, has to be a burden. Daniel, Jean Georges, Lespinasse, Le Bernardin, Ducasse, Gagnaire, Arpège, etc. may all be supported by the same group of international diners, but the places where one eats for less than 贄 a person rely on local trade for the most part. Parisians are likely to go out to a restaurant that serves food they like and be content with what they are offered there. Americans, all too often, feel the need to remind the chef he works for them. They're often clueless about how food is prepared and quick to ask if the beef braised for six hours with onions can be prepared without onions for them. Be it disrespect or ignorance, it's not supportive of good cooking. That article in the NY Times some time ago about the guy who goes out to restaurants not to eat, but tolay power games with the staff, seems a very un-Parisian thing.

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.

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My no red meat bias may partially explain my divergent view.  Also, I'm thinking of bang for the buck at at the high end.  For what you pay at Gramercy Tavern, can you get equivalent food in Paris?

Three starred restaurants are much more expensive, even at today's relatively favorable rate.

beachfan

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