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Hi !

In the following, I am not America bashing –really, I love America; I’m asking in order to learn / discuss a point!

I am from Denmark, and my lover and I just had a great vacation in America (N.Y. , L.A. S.F. and Napa Valley). We had so much fun. As we are great fans of food and vine we off course planed to dine out at some of the nicer restaurants. To my big surprise all the food seamed uninspiring! It was as if everything was nice – but boring – mainstream sort of … When I dine out, I like my food to be inventive, new … it’s not that I have to like it all, actually I prefer not to … that way I know that it’s selective, as opposed to mainstream. There is a saying in marketing “If you try to please everyone, you please no one” … and that’s what I think most of the restaurants did. To mention some of the places we tried, “Aureol” in N.Y. was the worst most pretentious snob place I ever did visit! Actually the best place we found was a “hole in the wall” Creole place called “T.J’s gingerbread house” in Oakland, California.


What do you think ??? I’d like to hear some opinions.

Best regards Jacob

Hi
As your new princess was born 'down under', why not come and try Australia's 'fusion' cooking, which is an innovative way of combining the many different cooking cultures which flourish here.
Because Australia extends from the cool temperate to the tropic zone there is scarcely anything that is not in season somewhere and is flown to the capital cities within four hours of picking.
Dine on the waterfront in Sydney, overlooking our fabulous harbour, stroll Melbourne's Ackland Street where the coffee and cakes are to die for (not die-t for!), come to Adelaide where the red wines are legendary, stuff yourself with fresh mangoes and free-range beef in sunny Queensland, try the fabulous fish restaurants of Fremantle (on the coast near Perth), eat fresh oysters along the coast of island Tasmania. And Australia has some gorgeous-tasting 'bush foods' which were used for thousands of years by the aborigines and are now being farmed for rerstaurant use.
Our dollar is pretty good at the moment, so come on down.
Cheers.

Bien entendu!

Allez -y! Nous habitons pres de la plage quatre-vingts kilometres d'Adelaide. Nous avons de place pour un ami.
Autumn is the best time here. Your spring.You will be moving fast to see half of what Australia offers in three weeks. Four days in Sydney, a week in Melbourne with your friends, four days in S.Australia, cross the Nullarbor to Perth? .....Mmmmm. Pity to miss the tropic beaches and rainforest of Queensland, the McDonnell ranges with white ghost gums twisting out of the red rocks...oh, shut up, Anna.
Have you seen 'La Turbulence de Fluides'? A Canadian film. It was shown on our multi-cultural channel and was very good.I could actually understand quite a bit of the French when the actors did not speak too quickly.

I can do the accents, circumflexes, umlauts and tildes on my Word 2000 but not on this format. Pretend they are there!
As we say here 'Haveagoodweekend.'

In Denmark a deacent meal out starts around 20 US$ for an entre and a great fixed price meal can be had for 60 US$ and up if you go to a micheling class restaurant we are talking 158 US$ for 1 person without wine ....

What should I expect to pay for the kind of chef you vere talking about "Reckless"?

P.S. - I dint speak french - sory!

Around here we're less likely to find an 'upscale' place. We tend to feature restaraunts of character, many of which feature locally acquired seafood, etc. In addition, there is the North Carolina twist. We are somewhat noted for unique presentations of pork, even to what part of the state in which the pork is presented.

If you happened to visit my favorite watering/feeding hole (City Meeting Place) you may find specials like 'surf and turf' which will revolve around what is currently available and in season. I've enjoyed a repast there which was complete with wine and desert for less than 30 USD.

In my traveling days it was easy to find the 'upscale' restaraunt in whatever place I happened to be. What was difficult was finding the 'good' restaraunt. On the other hand, I often found the good place in the most unlikely little towns and burgs. I'm reminded of a little place in 'nowhere' Kentucky where I enjoyed absolutely the best pork loin sandwich I've ever tasted for under 4 USD. The establishment had previously been a Dairy Queen or something like it. It was a hole in the wall but it presented great food for a decent price.

Reckless, does this count as a rant? ;-p Hope I haven't bored you guys.

I think the point that Flash was trying to make was that Upscale doesn't necessarily equal exceptional food. Although it does seem to me that some of the pricier restaurants do take more risks with their menus.

To ease some of Jacob's disappointment - typical american fare is pretty boring. It takes some searching to find those exceptional places. I'm not surprised that best place you found was a Creole place, as it has regional origins rather than national. It does surprise me that you didn't find any other interesting places on the west coast. Perhaps you will have to travel further north if you make it over again. "Pacific Northwest" cuisine - as it has been labeled - is what is referred to as 'fusion' style - not sure how to explain other than typical ingredients, but cooked with an asian flair. And that explanation is pretty limiting.

These messages have made interesting reading. Don't you also feel that presentation has a lot to do with an excellent meal? The first thing we like to say is :'That LOOKS great.'