...more recent posts
Bayard's old review from previous chef will be expensive and new chef is even better i hear....check out thier web site might have to call and get the pearl room
Here's a familiar looking group blog about food. And here's a strange one about not eating food. "You can eat if you want to; that's your prerogative... I used to play that game... I know what it's like... But I'm
just not interested in it any more..."
a flood destroyed the crops of my favorite organic team at the Green Market but still plenty to choise from. bought 3 kinds of tomatoes and two types of corn and cranbery beans....
had lunch at the infamous Gundel (art nouveau building and restaurant since 1896) in Budapest today--very old world--but ok and finished with a 1964 Tokaj!!--the baths here are great, i dont think i will see much of the city besides restaurants and my hotels mineral baths (there are 140 mineral baths in budapest and my hotel/baths were also built in the late 1800's)
great food in the famous wine region Tokaj--more details later
new absinthe in prague called T.H.C.--nice color too--most absinthe's here are clear green and suck flavor wise--this one looks translucent and may taste better cant find a shop open selling it--also in berlin we saw a super absinthe shop--looks like my favorite spanish brand has released a red colored one (why??)
prob not understandable but this could be one of the finest tea shop in the world--wish we had this kind in nyc (they dont do mail order:>(
one of the best middle eastern restaurants i have ever been to, as expensive also...
we had the scarious meal in a long time in an old world (but cool) speak easy-ish super fancy restaurant**very good wines luckly**it was rough (for example brussel sproats au gratin was cold watery and cover in two slices of american style cheese...)we are in prague
Wiley has really done it this time. The white gazpacho and clam appetizer, new to the menu at 71 Clinton St., is quite possibly the greatest thing of all time. I'll try to get a picture next time, and maybe weasel some info out of the chef himself. Best bet: go without a reservation at 6:00 sharp, grab a seat at the bar, and order this app. Get out before the Upper East Side fully takes over. I guarantee you'll be licking the plate (bowl?) clean.
I admire from afar the world of fine dining and hate to muck up the page with my petty, pedestrian miseries but today coming off the roof to avoid torential rain I went to hide and dine at the neighborhood TacoBell and a notice on the door is giving me three days, Aug 13, to deal with the shutting down for renovation of my favorite eatery, I daresay, my shack of sustenance. Is there no end to the hardship? Speaking of hardship I contemplated the life of crime this morning at 6:20 walking the isles of a Save a Center grocery store, having already purchased my heat n' serve lunch (crawfish fettucine), I curiously wandered to the liquor isle to spy the single malt and this particular store had them all behind glass and key, and no wonder, with probably forty varieties, including beau coup Glenns, and a bottle of 18 year-old Macallan's, priced at $71. I became dizzy with desire and saw myself doing a bold smash and grab routine, but instead proceeded calmly to the checkout and paid for my banana, two glazed donuts, bag of peanuts, and the aforementioned fettucine.
6 de 8 de 2000--Visrestaurant Lucius--very very visre!!--
best mussel's ever
so far so good in amsterdam
great exotic fruit markets. fresh fish dinner (i say too much butter, lkb was pleased).
sipping 1996 chambolle musigny premier cru by vogue on the house boat deck, watching the gay pride celebration and water boat parade.
wallse @ 344 west 11th st--super yummy--we ate every fish starter, some we asked for another right after finishing--i heard that the chef was so impressed that he came out to who we were, i missed that cause i was out in the other room bonding with the owner--the fish main's were even better--dessert were just ok but we didnt try enough--the meat dishes smelled and look good too and overall the dishes were light on the butter and very well flavored--worth every penny!!
Does this constitue a post? I sat next to Drew Barrymore last night (at El Teddy's.) She was drunk. Didn't look anything like her.</gossip>
if in need of a good glass of wine in brooklyn heights go to Tinto @ 60 henry st. lots of good wine by the glass!! food needs to move a notch or two up!! they need a sherry list asap!!
A big chemical company wants to sell you an "all natural" solution to clean the chemicals off of your produce. I think this is what they mean by "synergy".
Ancient Wine Artifacts on Display at New York Museum
Posted: Thursday, July 27, 2000
By Jacob Gaffney
The Jewish Museum, on Manhattan's Upper East Side, is offering a look at the role of wine in the ancient world. Opening July 30, "Drink and Be Merry: Wine and Beer in Ancient Times" gives visitors a chance to gain insight into winemaking and drinking in early civilizations.
"We wanted to take us into the new millennium with a glass of wine," said Michal Dayagi-Mendels, the curator of the exhibit, which originally opened last summer at Jerusalem's Israel Museum, where she works. "When I first started the exhibition, I knew only white wine, red wine, rosé. But the Talmud talks of 60 different types of wine; Pliny, the Roman historian, mentions 80 types; another writer mentioned 130 types; and so I have learned."
The collection of wine-related artifacts shows that wine served an integral and complicated role in the lives of ancient men and women. The exhibit traces wine from its first appearance, about 8,000 years ago in the mountains of what is now Iran, to iron viticultural tools made in the 6th century B.C.E. (before the Common Era), around the time of the prophet Isaiah, up to Israeli mosaics, from 600 C.E.
A rare find on display is a three-foot-long leather wine flask from the first century, which was used by Jewish rebels fighting Roman occupants. The soldiers would pour the wine from the flask into their drinking water. The alcohol would kill any harmful bacteria in the possibly contaminated water -- making the wine a true lifesaver.
Even one of the Dead Sea scrolls has been rolled out for display, as the ancient Hebrew text describes the proper way to use wine in religious ceremonies.
One would expect to find artifacts such as wineskins used by Jewish rebels and Hebrew scriptures at the Jewish Museum. But what about the guilded silver containers used by the Roman aristocracy or the pottery beer jugs with built-in filters that were placed in the tombs of affluent Egyptians?
"Normally we don't have a statue of Dionysus in the museum," said Susan Braunstein, curator of the Jewish Museum. "But we believe the ancient period is the formative period of Jewish history. This exhibit gives us an opportunity to expand. Obviously, the use of wine is part of that importance."
"Drink and Be Merry" will be shown at the Jewish Museum until Sept. 30. Admission is $8 for adults and $5.50 for students and senior citizens; children under 12 are admitted for free.
# # #
The Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Ave. (entrance on 92nd Street)
Hours: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., closed Friday and Saturday.
(212) 423-3200
www.thejewishmuseum.org
dave heres the post review of ducasse--New Ducasse Has No Class
NY Post
Steve Cuozzo
July 26, 2000
ALAIN DUCASSE
160 Central Park South
(Essex House)
(212) 247-0300
AFTER two meals at Alain Ducasse, sifting the fine points of a good
tantrum, you start making a list. Exactly what is it about this $200-a-head,
chutzpah-snorting restaurant that makes you boil? Is it that:
* It's the most arrogantly launched eatery in the history of the
world?
* Its $34 pasta appetizer would embarrass the Olive Garden?
* Its hilarious service rituals insult true French professionalism?
None of the above, I decided. What stinks most about this place is
that, like old Vegas high-roller "gourmet" rooms that substituted spectacle
for
substance, it denies money its meaning. Our money, that is, not theirs:
They even tried padding our bill.
"ADNY," as it's stamped with Trumpean pomposity on plates and
silverware, is less about "the world's greatest French chef" than about
franchise
sprawl. Globe-girdling Alain Ducasse means to tap Manhattan's cash
gusher while it lasts, and ADNY is the mediocre, often comical result.
True, Ducasse has dropped his "I am in all my restaurants at once"
act and begun showing his face with a vengeance on Central Park South. You
might even get to meet him in the kitchen, as we did when we spotted him
and conveyed our awe to the staff. But if you want a taste of the real
thing,
stroll down to the Waldorf's Peacock Alley, whose great chef, Laurent
Gras, actually cooked at Ducasse's three-star places in Paris and Monte
Carlo.
Easily America's most expensive restaurant, ADNY has shocked
foodies out of their summer somnelence. They're agog over its $160 prix fixe
menu
and $2 million re-do of the old Les Celebrites. One of its snotty
shticks is to close on Saturday - a practice increasingly rare in Paris -
and serve lunch
only twice a week. It gloats over an alleged 2,700-name waiting list.
All this baloney has had the predictable effect on easily led minds
reduced to aspic by the whisper of Ducasse's name. One normally sane Web
site
proclaims ADNY "America's finest restaurant." Mr. Grimes warns us not to
expect a Times review soon as no tables are available until November. He
might try picking up the phone: The Post got two reservations last week
(one for lunch and one for dinner) just by calling and asking. [See story
next
page.]
ADNY is so full of goofy pageantry, you expect "wine goddesses" to
slide down poles and give neck rubs.
Take the Presentation of Knives. A waiter displays a case made of
rich-smelling leather. It holds a dozen cutting implements of cruel
appearance, in
many sizes and shapes.
The waiter: "It is the knives for the squab. You choose the one for
the bones. "
We choose our weapons. We nervously await a pigeon of prehistoric
dimensions. The squab proves anticlimactically tiny and boneless.
Or take the notorious "courtesy" stools for ladies' purses. These
serve mainly to bring out one's inner klutz, and I tripped over the damn
things twice.
The gimmickry spills over, literally, into "baba au rhum," where
you choose the rum and see it poured, and the wine list whose seal you must
break.
Disappointingly, they were out of the first bottle we selected.
ADNY lays on the laughs early and often. How can you not cackle
over menu language reminiscent of old Chinese restaurants' - pasta "with
tasty
bouillon," berries "with unctuous cake?" Giving you a choice of fancy
pens for check-signing is a side-splitter, when the dough isn't coming out
of your
own pocket.
I drew the line, though, when they tried to charge us $108 for foie
gras served as the chef's-compliments course known as the amuse-bouche. The
puzzling explanation went: "Usually, it is salmon, but one of you
ordered salmon, so we had to do the foie gras, but we took it off." We also
watched a
table-ful of chefs de cuisine from the Four Seasons send back a bill
much too high. The explanation that time? "Wrong table." Whoops.
Despite replacing Les Celebrites' bad art with worse, and
lightening the colors, ADNY still looks like its predecessor: a high,
rectangular rug joint
broken up by two ponderous columns, with rosewood walls, circular
banquettes and miles of gold trim. It's one of the city's most luxurious
spaces and
swell to spend three or four hours in.
The greeting is warm and no one is haughty. But inside, it's a
blizzard of impersonal buzzing, well-meaning but unfocused. ADNY desperately
needs a
ringmaster like Le Cirque's Sirio Maccioni or Le Perigord's Georges
Briquet to lay on the dazzle.
ADNY's floor crew could do with a master of any kind. No one seemed
in charge of the table. One fellow insisted, with Regis' "final answer"
gravity,
that I choose dessert at the exact moment a second man was pouring me
wine to taste. At dinner, we had to ask three times for bread; the tough
mini-baguettes and salty brioches were a letdown after a 40-minute wait.
They're quick to whisk away your napkin when you leave the table,
but need reminding to replace it on your return. Asked to explain the
gynecologically suggestive (and useless) implement supplied with certain
dishes, the best the crew could offer was "asparagus tongs" - although there
was
no asparagus on the table.
"Is the Arizona beef a house specialty?" we wondered. "No." Our man
did not elaborate. What the hell is Arizona beef, which Ducasse calls
"astonishing?"
In fact, his comments on what he's up to in New York sound
patronizing. "What I discover on each of my visits to the United States
gives rise to
much more than simple curiosity," he has said. "In San Francisco, I
tasted the best preserved apricots of my life." Thanks, dude.
ADNY's chef of record is Didier Elena, Ducasse's "accomplice" of 12
years. (Boy, do these guys need a translator.) The place has been open a
month, but they don't seem to have the hang of the fiber optically smart
kitchen, anchored by a 3,000-pound Molteni stove and bristling with gizmos
like
built-in woks that can boil water in 7 seconds.
Lunch (the $160 tasting menu), enjoyable enough, fell shy of
brilliant. Dinner (a la carte) was bad enough to disappoint had it cost $300
for three,
much less $600 - and some dishes were outright debacles.
The menu is middle-of-the-road classic, with a nod to
"Mediterranean" influences and lip service to the Great American Bounty.
Don't expect a
cavalcade of the "luxury" ingredients foie gras, truffles and caviar.
In high summer, most everything had a wintery aspect; even
"tomatoes: a cocktail of tastes" looked dour on the plate. Some sauces were
acidically
harsh, others lacked their alleged themes and oversalting was rampant.
Two "signature" dishes, lifted from Ducasse's places in Paris and
Monte Carlo, were remarkably dull. Indifferent breading was no help to
spongy, $74
veal sweetbreads in their own juice. Worse, spaghettini "al dente" ($34)
with olive oil and sauteed vegetables - a sticky lump in a small bowl - was
as
congealed as bad Chinese takeout, drenched in a puddle of "crushed black
truffles" oddly without taste.
Far better was "delicate velouté of sweet peas, their pods and
radish greens," poured at the table, with two breaded crab fingers. But $28
for pea
soup?
Santa Barbara spotted prawns "in a chaud-froid, citrus fondue"
($42) were plump, sweet and nicely aspic-glazed - but near-inedible citric
ooze stole
over the dish like a plague. So did shrill "peppered vinegars reduction"
encircling "wild" salmon ($62) that was both mealy and bland.
The best a la carte dish was seaweed-steamed halibut filet ($68), a
firm slab atop lovely green herb sauce and accessorized with "sea urchin
cappuccino" and Asian-scented greens.
The tasting menu at lunch, when there were empty tables, showed
signs of life. That tomato "cocktail" came with marvelous tomato sorbet that
reminds you it is, after all, a fruit.
Promiscuous laying-on of butter bailed out a blurry swirl of
farfalle with ham and vegetables. Filet of sole, in the shape of a tube,
might have been a
tube of butter, so drenched was the fish - but it afforded pleasure with
cranberry beans and delectable crawfish.
Best was the squab - a pristine sliver that was simplicity itself.
It was topped with "thighs in pastilla," an earthy game-and-spice mix in a
cigarette-shaped phyllo crust of Moroccan inspiration, and black
truffle-foie gras red wine reduction that, for once, delivered the goods.
Camembert was chilled enough to have been refrigerated. Pastry
director Frederic Robert's desserts ($22), like a warm glazed feuillantine
served with
almond ice cream atop apricot compote, were winners. A trolley laid on
fun goodies like lollipops and cookies that took forever to be served.
Once during lunch, I remarked to my colleague on how late it was
getting.
"You can't rush mediocrity," he observed.
Maybe not, but they sure could discount it 40 percent. Thanks to
ADNY, everyone else can raise their entree prices $10 and boast, "See how
much
cheaper we are than Ducasse?"