Ambitious Failures

[Jinmyo]

You have often stated that you are not a "top chef" and so on. Whether this is modesty or not, would you mind telling about occasions when hubris overtook you? What kind of dishes were you trying?

[bourdain]

Oh God...thanks for reminding me of bad old days...At WPA in Soho in the 70's I was besotted with what I believed to be "nouvelle cuisine". This led to Criminal Misuse of pink peppercorns, Assault with Kiwi , Large Plate Syndrome...various unseemly attempts at "fusion"..Later overreaching involved a giant raviolone of brandade, crabmeat and lobstr in a tomato beurre--a nice dish in a ravioli size--but tough like shoes draped over the plate when Dino-sized..I dimly recall  (shudder) some hideous spring rolls...In my defense, by the 90's I was smart enough to stick with the old school...steal recipes outright..and downscale or strip down the presentations to the kind of high volume, less fragile, less fin stuff I'm better at.  I still insist I make a king-hell osso bucco ..and my daube of beef provencale (made with "paleron") I'll put up against anybody's.

[Jinmyo]

Oh God...thanks for reminding me of bad old days...

Later overreaching involved a giant raviolone of brandade, crabmeat and lobstr in a tomato beurre--a nice dish in a ravioli size--but tough like shoes draped over the plate when

I still insist I make a king-hell osso bucco ..and my daube of beef provencale (made with "paleron") I'll put up against anybody's.

Uh, sorry.

As I was reading, the filling sounded quite good. (I'd just made brandade a few days past). But I see what you mean by the size.

Is the paleron shoulder cut commonly available?