shaogo's Profile
New restaurant at Cobb's Mill Inn, Weston, CT opens Mother's Day
Wow! This is wonderful news because it seems like only a year ago I saw a news article that discussed a very elaborate renovation of the property and that it'd be maybe years before we saw anything here.
I can't wait to go! What memories we have of the old days when the Cocchia family had the place. The intervening years were quite rough.
What good news!
Help! Tarragon and Sage gone wild
Bruise the tarragon and cover with vinegar. Store it and you've got tarragon vinegar to use when making Hollandaise (it then becomes Bearnaise 'cause of the inclusion of tarragon - I think purists also add chervil to Bearnaise).
When I see sage I think "sausage." Grind the sage and add it and salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg to ground pork and you've got the most delicious breakfast sausage in the world.
Sage added to a cream sauce is decadent over grilled or baked pork chops. Add finely minced pickled cocktail onions to the sauce for a real Alsatian-style treat.
Looking for the best destination restaurants in RI, Mass, and CT
Chowmensch mentioned several of our favorites. Piccolo, Cafe Routier and the Mill at 2T are, indeed, worth the drive. The Cottage presents great food but the atmosphere's not worth a long drive IMHO. Metro Bis is pretentious and overpriced but, admittedly, is extremely popular.
Not mentioned was the charming Grist Mill in Farmington, or the superb ON20 in Hartford.
Tisane Brunch? Hartford, CT.
Tisane tries really hard, and we try to like it.
It's a place I've taken several people who're vegetarian and they liked it a lot.
I wanted to show-off the delightful hot gorgonzola dip to a friend who loves that dish (it's served here in a little warmer with a tea light underneath). On a Wednesday afternoon visit, the sauce was lacking in flavor and was watery (it had separated). A comment about this to the server was pursued in the kitchen, but the reply was "that's the way it always is." (?!) At it's best it's a hot gooey, creamy nest of deliciousness.
Salads are hit or miss. A steak with fries appetizer was briny salty (and I love salt). Cocktails are good, however, and the coffee's delicious and a bargain.
Final word of warning: the place is consistently mobbed for brunch. If you don't mind a wait for this attractive but very small place give it a try (they really need the seating on the outdoor patio; that makes things work better in warm weather).
New life for Cobb's Mill Inn, Weston, CT
When the Cocchia family had it, it was just superb. Then, eh. I look forward to trying what the new owners do to this landmark. It's thrilling to know that it's going to be a restaurant again!
Exotic Cutlery Question: Pate or Ice-Cream Forks
I was recently gifted a lovely set of forks which look like miniature cake-forks, only the little "knife" edge to the left of the tines is exaggerated. I looked on-line and found pate forks which look the same, and also "ice-cream" forks which look the same. Are there both? I've seen and heard of pate forks but never ice-cream forks. I'll try to attach a photo of the items in question.
Feeling "out of place" at a restaurant
A good friend of mine can't abide places which seat you on top of other diners and can be made to feel very, very self-conscious if seated in close quarters. I don't like it much either but will tolerate it so long as there aren't children scattered nearby.
Sure, there're places where I've felt out-of-place. For me it has to do with how comfortable the staff makes me. I'm not a rich guy and am sometimes made anxious by the kind of places where the ostentatious make a big show. That being said, I frequent several restaurants that are considered by many to be uber-expensive and somewhat exclusive; but I guarantee you that whether regular or new-comer, the staffs at these places will make the diner feel extremely comfortable from the get-go.
Your Favorite Retro Dishes
Wonderful companion mentioned something nobody else did (w.c. is new to Chowhound and is just now getting a demonstration).
Sardines. Who ever sees sardines any more, even on a deli menu?
It's a nostalgia thing.
Me, I prefer mine boneless if I can get 'em. But love 'em.
Hey, me and wonderful companion will, I promise, eat sardines (me on pumpernickel with raw onion) this week. I promise, really I do.
If you don't get free bread at a restaurant do you think it makes them cheap?
Wonderful buddy said to me today that indeed if the bread's on the table it's in his face and he's gonna eat it and then not be fit to devour a whole meal. Me, I have the will-power to resist the bread beckoning me (most of the time). Put it out with dipping oil and I'm a sucker, however.
I'd be very happy to be instructed to have to order bread (free or nominal fee) let's say if I were ordering something covered with sauce (particularly stew or red-sauce Italian).
Fining Dining in Danbury/Southbury Connecticut?
The Inn at Newtown has a private dining room (or two) and the food we had there not too long ago was rather good. I think they have a banquet manager.
Reuben's Deli, West Hartford
Ditto. The Fernwood, on New Britain Avenue, is a "best-kept secret." Do not try anything that's too involved; however, for simple comfort food and sandwiches they're great. I think Fridays they make corned beef and it's just delightful. In particular, it's a great favorite of older diners (nothing too strong-flavored and huge portions). Best to ask whether or not they're offering Karaoke, however. I had to endure the shrieking for awhile one night and now ask (call 'em). The bar's friendly and comfortable with an assortment of locals that're cute and fun to watch.
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Fernwood Restaurant
1113 New Britain Ave, Hartford, CT 06110
"Authentic" Sushi in CT for sushi snob friend?
I think they call this "robataya." My spelling could be off. I've been there; the sushi's good but it's expensive.
The concept is clever, but in this town (West Hartford) everyone wants their food "their way" so they're reluctant to pick something already-made off the conveyor.
That being said, your friend might dig the vibe.
Spicy Etiquette
You're spot on about the two-menu concept. Any Chinese restaurant, for example, worth it's salt is going to have a specials menu, typically in all-Chinese but some places in larger cities actually do a rough translation.
Upon entering the restaurant look at where the hostess/host takes the menus from. There may or may not be a stack of the "real" menu next to or underneath the one they give the rest of us. They'll be delighted to give you one but you've gotta ask, or, in a pinch, just grab one and ask permission to order off of it.
Dim Sum with NO MSG
I ditto this verdict from having been a guest in many, many Chinese kitchens. Some of the old-timers simply ignore requrests for "no MSG." So indeed the OP should use extreme caution.
I'm not crazy about Chinatown Brasserie. And I wouldn't be certain that they're not using MSG, either. A pretty strong statement, I know, but from experience...
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Chinatown Brasserie
380 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012
Your Favorite Retro Dishes
Oh, man! Do you put Colman's mustard in the sauce?
I don't think I've made Chicken a la King in over five years. But you *know* I'm gonna make it either tonight or tomorrow night...
Your Favorite Retro Dishes
Steak Diane is prepared by La Trattoria in Canton, Connecticut -- expertly, at tableside. Really old-skool.
Carpetbag steak is prepared at The Grist Mill in Farmington, Connecticut (abuts the campus of the venerable Miss Porter's School). Carpetbag steak is divine the way they do it with lump crabmeat inside, the steak done just right... I think they stick a little Gorgonzola in there.
Egg Foo Young is something only known to old farts like me.
Remember chicken or seafood "vol au vent?"
Creative, savory/sweet molded Jell-O salads, particularly the one with coleslaw inside (and Pineapple). I *love* this stuff.
Half bottle cabernet sauvignon?
Marinate fresh grapefruit segments in the wine along with a little honey and some tarragon. Serve them with fish that you've grilled. Don't marinate fish in Cabernet Sauvignon. Just don't.
Foods that pair surprisingly well with heat?
My dentist is Hindi and hails from the south of India. Her husband works for the Hilton chain, and is a very, very good cook.
Visits to their home include many similar experiences to what you describe above. Even their (now 12-year old) child eats spicier foods than I can tolerate, as a matter of course.
Your Favorite Retro Dishes
We didn't get the "de luxe" treatment. Chopped boiled eggs in Bechamel, on toast (with the crusts *on*) was the order of the day but oh, so good!
Foods that pair surprisingly well with heat?
Fried green tomatoes and Tabasco.
A recent post here mentioned a chicken with fig puree dish that'd definitely do better with some hot pepper action. I also make an onion relish with sugar and vinegar; some of the jars get hot pepper flakes, those for the squeamish do not.
The wasabi bloody mary at our restaurant has made it a very, very popular favorite. Some even ask me to put extra Tabasco *and* Sriracha sauce into the drink.
Peaches, red onions and tomatoes will delight any pepper-head if you make a raspberry vinaigrette for the salad and then add your favorite "hottie."
Good luck!
Chinatown restaurant for a group of 22 people
The surprise from Amazing 66 and all of its ilk are that, like kathryn said, they're not very assiduous about refraining from using chicken and/or pork stock when cooking dishes that are ostensibly "vegetarian." I'm in the business of Chinese food and know from where I speak.
That being said, a call to the restaurant will help you arrange your meal. Do not surprise them by merely arriving with 20+ persons, no matter how large the restaurant is. If you get a manager who's eager to please, you can negotiate the cost-per-person down to about $6-$7 for lunch that's soup to nuts and very delicious. Don't be afraid to bargain; it's a cultural tradition...
Beside '66', there's also Cantoon Garden, Oriental Garden (yeah, there's lotsa "gardens" in Chinatown) and a couple of other rather new additions to the glitzy, new-era Chinese offerings in that area; all of which can easily accommodate your party.
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Amazing 66
66 Mott St, New York, NY 10013
Oriental Garden
14 Elizabeth St, New York, NY 10013
Any shortcuts to peeling roasted peppers?
I find the fire from my regular gas-fired grill isn't hot enough to char them without first burning the lovely tender flesh underneath.
Resist putting them on the grill and put them directly on the gas burner (take off one of the grates and put 'em right on the lava rocks) or put 'em on the stove. Then follow any of the recommendations hereinabove for removing the burnt skins (I, frankly, soak 'em with a blast of water from the sink and it rushes away all the black bits but also a bit of the flavorful juices, too).
Going to NYC in about three weeks....need suggestions please!!!
There've been mixed reviews on this board of the restaurant (that's also a huge catering hall/wedding factory kinda place) that's actually *in* Battery Park.
You'll be so close to Chinatown, "Little Italy" and NoLiTa you'll be able to just nosh as you walk up and down the streets.
Silly little suggestion... I recall having a memorable lobster roll for lunch at the restaurant about five floors up in the Millennium Hilton, West and North of Battery park but within walking distance. It's gonna be a turn-off if you don't want to be right *on top of* Ground Zero but for a Hilton restaurant, that place was stylish, inviting and the food was very, very good. Just a thought.
EDITED TO INCLUDE: The Hilton's restaurant is called "Church & Dey." They've changed the look from dark to tweedy since I've been there (I looked at their website). One would think that perhaps the menu offerings have become different. But heck, I *really* loved that lobster roll a few years ago.
Going to NYC in about three weeks....need suggestions please!!!
I concur with guts. Cafe Sabarsky (let's check spelling) is a thrilling taste of Austria that's incredibly civilized. the food is presented with a breathtaking flair for detail. But get ready to pay over $200 for a great bottle of Austrian wine. They've got some of the best in the City.
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Cafe Sabarsky
1048 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028
Going to NYC in about three weeks....need suggestions please!!!
I can't believe Le Train Bleu is still open. Yes, it's a viable place to go if you're in the Bloomingdales building, unless you want to go down a few blocks and over to La Grenouille (sp?) for one of the finest lunch bargains in New York; not inexpensive, but a good value.
Coney Island's still a hoot. You can't get a chow mein sandwich any more at Nathan's; but just eat what you can fit -- don't miss the crinkle-cut fries, the hot dogs -- nor the frogs legs. Yes -- they have frogs' legs at the Coney Island Nathan's. There's also a serviceable Italian joint right there in the thick of things (the name escapes me but they're very good).
You've got a great "slice" of the Big Apple planned and I'd hazard a guess you'll love every single choice you make, from food-cart to white-tablecloth!
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La Grenouille
3 East 52nd Street, New York, NY 10022
Le Train Bleu
1000 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10022
Wedding RSVP Card - Entree Selections - list full description or just general category?
Yes. The cheese and pork (pancetta) must be mentioned. *Do* say "gorgonzola" merely because some people are really put off by "mold" in their cheese (we love it!).
Else I'm with the venerable c oliver on the first part -- but not the details. Sure, it's conventional these days to offer guests a choice (how many of us remember the days when weddings were roast beef -- or a tossed salad!)
As an aside, the combination of the figs and the red wine reduction are actually very Italian in inspiration. A fig conserve is quite common on chicken, roast pork and even veal, in some regional cuisines. One of the finest venison dishes I've ever had was at a little Italianesque joint in New York's West Village -- and it included a sauce that was made with fresh figs. We commented on it, and the chef came out and thanked us and told us to appreciate it now because he'd never go to the trouble again. Apparently fresh figs, after pureeing and cooking, turn an awful black color that's completely a turn-off. Apparently no matter how much acid (lemon juice, wine, vinegar) one uses in the sauce it's no good for keeping even more than a few hours.
You're going to have a fabulous wedding! Don't sweat the details and let the caterer deal with the RSVP cards that come back marked up with "I can't have (x) and I'd like no mushrooms with my dinner." They're idiots. As someone up-thread said, you don't go to the wedding for the food. But heck, it's nice, especially with as much consideration as you're giving this special, appealing menu.
Food Related Injury
In the course of cooking... yes, there've been the slices and the burns (some left pretty significant scars and there's no pain worse than burn pain, in my own experience).
The worst was when I was very young and was brand-new in a very busy restaurant kitchen. I was lifting souffles out of the 450-degree oven and was startled. A good three square inches of flesh came off of my right hand after I pressed it to the top of the oven's roof. I didn't care for it very well (the chef put butter on it... not ice) and it got infected and I needed a 2-week protocol of dressing changes and anti-biotics... I still have a scar that looks vaguely like orange-skin (only not the color) on that hand. I've never burnt myself again in a commercial oven (at home, when "relaxing," that's another story -- there've been plenty of little scrapes and burns here and there).
My most serious injury wasn't cooking; it was *eating.* I'd been on the road coming back from a one-day New York-Boston-New York trip. I'd stopped in Newtown Connecticut to get a sandwich at a 24-hour diner. I couldn't choose between a turkey club and a burger, so I got both. I started eating behind the wheel, and balancing a cup of coffee to boot.
I was so incredibly tired I took the exit off of I-84 to head to my folks' house in Ridgefield, Connecticut, to beg a nap in their guest-bedroom. Instead of taking Route 7 I took the "back road;" a treacherous passage called Ridgebury Road.
At some point I spilled my coffee on myself, balancing it with the sandwich. Then, as I was mopping up the soda with a napkin, I noticed the hamburger had come out of its wrapper and was oozing ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard all over the upholstry of my (relatively new) car. The cruise control in the car was set at 45. I turned aside and the next thing I knew I woke up in the hospital.
I'd destroyed the car and -- worse -- because I wasn't wearing a seat belt (this was 1990) I'd been propelled into the windshield. Among the things that probably saved my life were the energy-absorbing steering wheel and also the enormous rear-view mirror containing all the electronics for the auto-dimmers and the map lights, etc. The scars on my forehead are still visible. If I'd not "hung up" on that mirror, I'd have been propelled into the mess that the front end of my car and a sturdy Maple tree, combined, made.
And dammnit, I loved that car. Go figure, I don't drive when I'm very tired anymore, but I still eat behind the wheel.
Spicy Etiquette
Your expectations are certainly not unreasonable.
Also, any Sichuan place worth it's salt (pardon the pun) is going to have the Sichuan "la-jiao" or "ma-la jiang" peppercorns, which have a distinctive flavor but aren't that hot. Then, they'll have one or two cayenne-based powdered spices, and finally the ubiquitous chili paste (both "raw" and also burnt with garlic added). They'll also have red-hot oil, made properly by placing the burnt bits from sauteeing whole chilis in some soy oil and letting it sit for a few months...
There's plenty of flavor action in spices; folks that cannot tolerate a high Scoville level won't be able to appreciate the difference, however, 'cause they'll be overwhelmed by the spice.
Spicy Etiquette
ipsedixit, I've been in the business of spicy (Sichuan) food for 18 years and your answer is the finest I've ever gotten to this conundrum.
Yes, it's all about the chef. What a wonderful idea.
I'll also take a moment to give a ++ to the folks who bring their own spice amalgam/hot sauce, too!
For the OP:
If sweaty-forehead, endorphine-driving spice is what it's all about for you, try asking your local Chinese restaurant (with a Sichuan or Hunan chef) to make these:
重慶辣子雞 Dry sauteed chicken with chili peppers. This is an insanely simple, insanely hot combination of quick-cooked chicken in a dry rub, surrounded by nothing but Chinese celery and mounds of sauteed dry peppers. We just eat the chicken and leave the peppers but you may, as some of my customers do, want to put the peppers on your rice and eat them, too.
干燒牛筋 again, "dry sauteed" -- but beef tendon in a saucy casserole-style dish. The spice plays so well off of the mellow, long-cooked beef tendon it's amazing.
水煮牛肉 "water-cooked" beef sounds innocuous (sp?) but if you *implore* them to use lots of "la jiao feng" (spicy pepper powder) it'll be right up there. And the way they make their red-hot oil is the key to this dish. It's gotta be their own; if they admit they use a prepared red-hot oil then their cuisine's not going to be hot enough.
Point Judith - July 4th
Aunt Carrie's is indeed a standard. For the 4th they're gonna be mobbed. The downside to doing the Naragansett/Point Judith thing on a holiday weekend is that it's going to be more expensive than normal, and far more crowded. The upside is that all of the seafood's going to be extremely fresh and just delightful.
Point Judith's clam cakes are the barometer by which all of our Southern New England seafood delicacies are measured (there's a lot of controversy over lobster rolls, though...). As many times as I try to reproduce those tasty morsels, I can't do it. I guess you have to be there.
Call Spain in Naragansett for a gourmet treat that's pretty good and as romantic as it's going to get out there. They exploit the local seafood, too.
Finally, the Mews Cafe in Naragansett is right in the thick of things. It's not everybody's cup of tea (and they're going to be gnarly to tourists July 4 weekend) but there's nothing like sitting atop the bay eating what's been caught only hours before -- and enjoying a cocktail with the guys (and gals) who caught it!
I'm of the opinion to choose the breakfast spot that you drive by that appeals to you. There're plenty of them.
One last thought... at Point Judith you'll be able to pick up most (if not all) the fixin's for a seafood feast that you can enjoy at your hotel. We've had some memorable meals, watching the sun go down, eating on paper plates and drinking beer from the bottle.
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Aunt Carrie's Restaurant
1240 Ocean Rd, Narragansett, RI 02882
