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Cristian Dezso

Cristian Dezso
A friend's cooking a phenomenal pasta dish - ravioli with mushrooms and pancetta sauce - hanger steak, and to top it off, skirt steak.

So...

with the pasta... 1988 Pergole Torte... An exercise in elegance. Typical notes of cherries, twigs and menthol that I encountered now in most of my Montevertines, but the most remarkable thing was the exquisite integration of the wine's elements. It still seems that the wine has ways to go, as there were no traces of tertiary aromas, and the tannins were still well in place.

with steak... 1996 Clerico Ciabot Mentin Ginestra... Was a different story - showier, fruitier, and slightly less elegant. Amazing handling of wood on this wine - the oak is superbly integrated and the nose of sweet spices, incense, menthol and dark fruit... I am sure this will get better, but at the same time, if I had more, I would not hesitate to open it.

Finally, don't recall with what, we opened a 2003 Hudelot Noellat Beaumonts, which as far as I remember was all about trying to find itself among all the sweet showy fruit. But it seemed pleasant and easy drinking in that state of (lack of) mind.
 
What's a salad?
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What was the mantra from the Gallery of Regrettable Food? "The vegetables are strictly ornamental. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to eat the vegetables."
 
I was once invited over to dinner in France. The only vegetable all evening was a salad made of celeriac (it was small) for a first course. The main course was a giant plate of duck breasts and a giant plate of potato lyonaisse. You guys would have love it. So for that matter did I.
 
Meat and two veg is a totally Anglo-Saxon thing. A perfect French meal could be, say, oysters, then boudin blanc, then a piece of meat with mashed potatoes.

Though the cheese course often has the salad with.

But green veg? C'mon.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Meat and two veg is a totally Anglo-Saxon thing. A perfect French meal could be, say, oysters, then boudin blanc, then a piece of meat with mashed potatoes.

Though the cheese course often has the salad with.

But green veg? C'mon.
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True about meat and two veg. But French homes generally eat much less rather than more meat than Americans and English (no new discovery there). I'd say a more usual dinner would be a soup of some vegetable base or a veg in the shape of salad or starch and a main course with a little meat and numbers of different forms of sides. At least that was the case when I lived with a family there more years ago than I will admit to. Dinner parties are of course different.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Meat and two veg is a totally Anglo-Saxon thing. A perfect French meal could be, say, oysters, then boudin blanc, then a piece of meat with mashed potatoes.

Though the cheese course often has the salad with.

But green veg? C'mon.
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Hey, what about salade Lyonnaise? Once you get past the lardons, croutons and poached oeufs, there's something green lurking underneath.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
True about meat and two veg. But French homes generally eat much less rather than more meat than Americans and English (no new discovery there). I'd say a more usual dinner would be a soup of some vegetable base or a veg in the shape of salad or starch and a main course with a little meat and numbers of different forms of sides. At least that was the case when I lived with a family there more years ago than I will admit to. Dinner parties are of course different.
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Actually, the one thing that threw me off when I came back to New York was the more-than-one-side thing.

In France, it's more: first course (sure, could be soup, or leeks with vinaigrette, or else head cheese with vinaigrette, or oysters or whatever), main course of meat and one side (potatoes or green beans or any other imaginable side veg; potatoes considered a veg, of course), then cheese (+ salad), dessert.

The multiple-sides-with-main threw me for a loop in New York, even though I did grow up with it.
 
originally posted by MLipton:
Hey, what about salade Lyonnaise? Once you get past the lardons, croutons and poached oeufs, there's something green lurking underneath.

Mark Lipton
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Mark, that's lunch.

Actually, I was just thinking I should have taken a picture of my dinner salad, two nights ago. A pile of thinly sliced, deep-fried potatoes with minced garlic and parsley, and beneath, a layer of overlapping duck prosciutto and torchon of foie gras (fairly thickly cut); beneath that, feuille de chne lettuce with creamy sauce.

Often, actually, in Paris bistros, salads are more copious than ordinary main courses.
 
Hey, what about salade Lyonnaise?
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I used to simplify this to just frise and (sometimes mustard-spiked) bacon, the latter in both solid and, um, liquid form.

After a bad experience with my sister-in-law, I had to institute a "no guests in the kitchen while I'm dressing the salad" rule.

The upside was wine-affinity through the salad course, yet retaining something green and leafy before the cheese (and sometimes dessert) course. The downside was similar to that of popcorn chez moi, wherein a bowl becomes a delivery mechanism for a great deal more butter than even I would normally eat at a sitting. As a result, I don't make this very often anymore.
 
Actually, I was just thinking I should have taken a picture of my dinner salad, two nights ago. A pile of thinly sliced, deep-fried potatoes with minced garlic and parsley, and beneath, a layer of overlapping duck prosciutto and torchon of foie gras (fairly thickly cut); beneath that, feuille de chne lettuce with creamy sauce.
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At a restaurant called Tourdenos et H. Tassigny a few years back, in (if I remember correctly) Lzignan-Corbires, the specialty is as advertised. I'd skipped both breakfast and lunch, so figured I'd treat myself to a salade de gsirs to start, before I moved on to the (giant) hunk of cow.

That was a...mistake.

Let's not even start on the Alsatian notion of having a few slabs of pt de foie gras before the choucroute, both followed by Munster. Who can do that? I'm a big eater, but jeebus...
 
originally posted by Thor:
Hey, what about salade Lyonnaise?
Click to expand...
I used to simplify this to just frise and (sometimes mustard-spiked) bacon, the latter in both solid and, um, liquid form.

After a bad experience with my sister-in-law, I had to institute a "no guests in the kitchen while I'm dressing the salad" rule.

The upside was wine-affinity through the salad course, yet retaining something green and leafy before the cheese (and sometimes dessert) course. The downside was similar to that of popcorn chez moi, wherein a bowl becomes a delivery mechanism for a great deal more butter than even I would normally eat at a sitting. As a result, I don't make this very often anymore.
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We have found that this is of course also delicious if you substitute Duck Confit for the bacon.
 
I once made it with just crisped duck skin and duck fat, but I slightly preferred the bacon version. Substituting duck confit in its entirety moves it into salade de gsirs territory, doesn't it? Not that I'd complain.
 
originally posted by Thor:
I once made it with just crisped duck skin and duck fat, but I slightly preferred the bacon version. Substituting duck confit in its entirety moves it into salade de gsirs territory, doesn't it? Not that I'd complain.
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Only if chicken breast or thigh counts as chicken gizzard.
 
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