disappearing, much to our chagrin. i work super hard as being an excellent dining companion. when seeking excellence in a dining companion, what qualities does one look for? i turn my phone off. you know? i never put my elbows on the table. really? of course! come prepared with stories. don t drink too much, don t become sloppy. come prepared with anecdotes? absolutely. no elbows on the table? no, it s not proper. i m a total failure as a dining companion. what is that? what s that, you ask? an iconic classic of gastronomy? oh, look at that sauce. holy crap. the devilishly difficult boneless wild hair in the sauce of its own blood, a generous heaping of black fresh truffle garnished with thick slabs of foie gras, seared directly on the top of the cabin s woodstove. oh, damn, look at that. we re in a wooden shack, over 3 feet of ice, over 100 feet of
big fireball. fireball, good. the kind who know how to properly prepare these dishes. sweet. like a goosebump moment. yeah. for dave, another classic, filet de boeuf. a filet mignon, a sauce made of cognac, cream and glace demi. that is nice. look at that. and for fred, scampi newberg. when is the last time you saw the word newberg on a menu? awesome, absolutely awesome. but for me, that most noble of dishes, dover sole. this appears to be one of the few remaining servers alive who knows how to take that fish off the bone, sauce it and properly serve it. thank you very much. a pleasure. bon apetit. merci. man, i love this place. so happy. it s very comforting. there s continuity in this world. across town another thing entirely. the younger, wilder l affaire
one, but some things french have stayed firm, unbowed, resiliently unchanged by trends or history. the continental is the kind of place about which i am unreservedly sentimental. when i was younger, i ate here with my parents and my grandparents. in 1956. classic, unironic cuisine a la siene, meaning dishes you haven t seen since, like, forever, a hipster-free zone of classics, such as caesar salad, tossed fresh to order, tableside, and beef tartar, also prepared tableside, as one must. shrimp cocktail not deconstructed, a shrimp cocktail, the way jesus wants you to eat them, all served by a
in culinary school, we were taught this. i mean, real customers is your final class. we had to do the field of fruits tableside and all that, which would inevitably fly off the fork and land in somebody s soup. i was so bad at it. i would start with the orange, run into trouble, i ll be right back, behind the screen with my teeth, stripping the thing. at least once a day one of the students would set themselves or the customers on fire. the sterno would spill, and there would be this line from the thing down across the floor up their leg. no, that doesn t happen here. like i said, professionals. this is going to go like a big fireball. fireball, good. the kind who know how to properly prepare these dishes. sweet. like a goosebump moment. yeah. for dave, another classic, filet de boeuf. a filet mignon, a sauce made of cognac, cream and glace demi. that is nice.
i work super hard at being an excellent dining companion. when seeking excellence in a dining companion, what qualities does one look for? i turn my phone off. you know? i never put my elbows on the table. really? of course! come prepared with stories. don t drink too much, don t become sloppy. come prepared with anecdotes? absolutely. no elbows on the table? no, it s not proper. i m a total failure as a dining companion. what is that? what s that, you ask? an iconic classic of gastronomy? oh, look at that sauce. holy crap. the devilishly difficult boneless wild hair in the sauce of its own blood, a generous heaping of black fresh truffle garnished with thick slabs of foie gras, seared directly on the top of the cabin s woodstove. oh, damn, look at that. we re in a wooden shack, over