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Mar. 9th, 2010 08:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickSo I wrote about the Missing Girl Babies a while back. It's here if your memory isn't as long as mine. (I had to utilize my happy little lj search engine: grep -H "baby girls" /home/jessica/Desktop/ljdump-1.5/which-chick/* but other that that it was no trouble. I knew I'd talked about it.) Today my copy of The Economist has a cover story on, yeah, the Missing Girl Babies. You can see the cover here but can't read the article b/c they don't allow for that. It's a lot like the lj post I made, though, so you're not missing much.
Stuff like this just makes me wonder how much 'news' is really all that new. Also, reading my lj means you are six years more informed on the missing baby girls thing than readers of The Economist. I also regularly scoop the NYT. :)
I went to the italian place on Pitt Street with my cousin Heather last Saturday night. It was a five-course, forty-buck experience in trattoria-style dining, our latest effort at Foodie living in redneck Pennsylvania. The italian place has a website here if you're interested.
So, how was the foodie experience?
Mixed. They have a single, long table that seats about eighteen people. The dining space is kind of loud -- or at least the people we ate with were loud. It was cacophonous. Annoying, that. I'm more a fan of of the inside-voices sort of dining experience and this was like being at Chuck-E-Cheese, only with grownups.
Also, I was reminded once again why I don't like eating out locally... one of our dinner companions commented that our host (and chef, who is fucking Italian) had been here for three years and still couldn't speak English -- he had an accent, but not a horrible one. I had worse TA's in college. Another dinner companion allowed as how the government should DO SOMETHING so that people would not wear ponytails around killer whales. Damn mouth-breathers.
The dinner is served in the shop, which during the week sells italian foodstuffs of assorted types. The meals are once a week, forty bucks a head, eighteen to twenty people. I figure that makes for an evening's income of $720.00. Save this number -- there will be more about the economics of the thing later.
Due to PA's stupid-ass liquor laws, it's a Bring Your Own Wine establishment. So, we did. I brought one of Joe's efforts, the raspberry wine that had been chatted up by all and sundry. Duncan (age 8) wrote the lables, in marker. Yet another dining companion commented on the *ahem* wine that we brought with us, but I think she was trying to be nice. I should have said that it was a private reserve, artisanal wine, very limited stock. Instead I said my brother made it in his basement. *sigh* I fail at life rather a lot.
Okay. So, five courses. I saved the menu so that I could go over them for you.
First: Crostini with Goat Cheese and Tomato Jam. Two slices of crunchy toast with melty goat cheese and then tomato jam on top. Fresh, bruised basil chopped and scattered around as a garnish. This was good. The pairing of the bitter, redolent goat cheese and the slightly sweet tomato jam was well-chosen. The amount of chewing involved in the crostini was good, felt like you were actually eating something. Appetizer arrived warm, nicely plated, and I enjoyed it.
Service throughout was done by two near-invisible girls who were introduced to us at the outset. They did a stellar job of putting down and removing dishes without being obtrusive. Also, they kept the water (still and sparkling, in decanter-like bottles down the center of the table) in supply unobtrusively. I award full marks for invisible, unobtrusive, subtle table service.
Second: Asparagus Risotto. This was good, slightly creamy, each grain of rice still had a bite-able center to it. Served in a wide-lipped dish with a sort of well in the center where the risotto was placed, garnished with a few very small, perfectly-steamed spears of asparagus. The stock base for the risotto was chicken and it went quite well with the asparagus, did not overpower it at all. I'd never had risotto before, but this was quite tasty. Portions throughout the meal were very well done, the only thing I might do differently would be to size them down just a hair -- I ate everything that was set before me, but I was overly full at the end -- but some people eat more food than I do. This is a difficult thing to get right and can't be done in a way that will suit everyone.
Third: Braised beef in Tuscan Red Wine Sauce
Fourth: Roasted Bell Peppers
These two dishes were plated together and served as kind of the main course deal. Sauce for the beef was served on the side, with bread. (The bread was good.) Minor quibble on the service here -- if it had been me, I'd have put out the sauce first, with the bread, so that people would KNOW there was sauce. (It'd stay hot if you pre-warmed the ceramics that held the sauce.) I know that the menu says "with sauce" but that doesn't mean you get the sauce. The portion of beef was just a bit large for me, but I ate it all anyway. (Wasting Food is Wrong.) This was the only thing that I felt could have been done better than it was... we were served a gorgeous piece of chuck, about an inch and a half thick. Braising is a very correct choice for chuck and the spicing and sauce were well-executed. However, it was my personal opinion that the chuck needed about another hour in the oven to be done. It was cooked through but the magical transformation from tough connective tissues to glorious velvety mouth-feel that you get when collagen dissolves had not happened yet. They passed out sharper knives for people to use. Oops. Had it been done enough, it would have been awesome. As it was, it was acceptable but not what it could have been. *sigh* The roasted bell peppers were yellow and red, served room temperature to highlight their sweetness. (They taste sweeter if they're cold. I don't know why.) The peppers were dressed with a little olive oil, whole-crushed cloves of garlic, and fresh basil. They tasted quite good.
Fifth: Cheese plate with pairings. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the discussion of the cheese plate, but what you got were three small wedges of cheese (two sheep and one cow) and three small things-to-eat-with-the-cheese. Sheep Cheese #1 came with an orange-carrot marmalade thing. That paired up well. Cow Cheese came with fig jam. That was an excellent pairing but I think I would have been happier with more fig jam. The cow cheese was pretty cow-y, like the butter I made from scratch last spring. Very eau-du-cow, there. It wasn't bad, just... In Your Face Cow. I am not that fond of Cow. The fig cut it well, but I would have liked more fig just the same. Sheep Cheese #2 was possibly from sardinia or somewhere. It was a very salty and... dry cheese that was paired with candied pecans. This pairing worked very, very well for me. I liked it a lot. Also, I spent some of the time I was eating the cheese plate thinking about the fact that sheep cheese implies sheep milking and I think that's just way too damn amusing.
Dessert was mascarpone and fresh berry cake. Whipped cream was involved. Berries were raspberry, blueberry, and blackberry. They were surprisingly nice for this time of year, it not being berry season anywhere within five hundred miles of here. I liked the cake part, it was not overly sweet and went well with the berries without overpowering them.
After dessert, we had espresso. I liked that, too.
This is a leisurely dinner. We got there at 7:15 and left fairly abruptly, pleading babysitter issues at 10:15. I mean, we finished our espresso, but we didn't like, linger or anything. I realize that a more European style of dining allows for boatloads of post-dinner lingering but we had a four year old to get home to. Lingering not so much of an option, y'know?
Okay. I said there would be more economics to discuss. Now is the time for that. They had four people there -- the couple whose store it is and then the two girl servers. Figure that they're paying the girls for 3 hours each, that's about fifty bucks for the pair (8$ an hour, straight up. They probably have to pay unemployment and whatnot, but we'll pretend they don't do that crap.) Now we have $670. Rent for the establishment, well, I don't know. It's on Pitt Street, very pretty storefront with a commercial kitchen in the back. I don't know if they rent the building or the store or what, but I'd put the rent at around $600 a month (and that's probably lowball). 1/4 of the rent for a month is $150, so we have $520. Cost of the food -- chuck roast for eighteen people plus risotto plus fruit plus peppers plus imported cheeses and pairings plus mascarpone cake plus berries plus bottled waters... I have no damn idea. For me to make and serve that dinner to five people would be around $75.00 in food expenses but they're dealing in wholesale, probably. Call it $12 a head, $216 for the group we had. That leaves $304 for the week's profit, if you don't count the time of the chef. Times four weeks in March is $1216 a month. (This estimate does not include taxes, utilities, health insurance, yadda yadda yadda) Unless they're doing a substantial business online and in food sales, they are not making as much money as I am at my eight-buck-an-hour job.
Overall grade: 7. They would have scored an 8.5 if they'd done the chuck right. Probably worth another visit. (I am a tough grader for food places. If you can't do as well as I can, you don't get a super grade. Here, the points were for muffing the chuck and for loudness of dining experience.)
Stuff like this just makes me wonder how much 'news' is really all that new. Also, reading my lj means you are six years more informed on the missing baby girls thing than readers of The Economist. I also regularly scoop the NYT. :)
I went to the italian place on Pitt Street with my cousin Heather last Saturday night. It was a five-course, forty-buck experience in trattoria-style dining, our latest effort at Foodie living in redneck Pennsylvania. The italian place has a website here if you're interested.
So, how was the foodie experience?
Mixed. They have a single, long table that seats about eighteen people. The dining space is kind of loud -- or at least the people we ate with were loud. It was cacophonous. Annoying, that. I'm more a fan of of the inside-voices sort of dining experience and this was like being at Chuck-E-Cheese, only with grownups.
Also, I was reminded once again why I don't like eating out locally... one of our dinner companions commented that our host (and chef, who is fucking Italian) had been here for three years and still couldn't speak English -- he had an accent, but not a horrible one. I had worse TA's in college. Another dinner companion allowed as how the government should DO SOMETHING so that people would not wear ponytails around killer whales. Damn mouth-breathers.
The dinner is served in the shop, which during the week sells italian foodstuffs of assorted types. The meals are once a week, forty bucks a head, eighteen to twenty people. I figure that makes for an evening's income of $720.00. Save this number -- there will be more about the economics of the thing later.
Due to PA's stupid-ass liquor laws, it's a Bring Your Own Wine establishment. So, we did. I brought one of Joe's efforts, the raspberry wine that had been chatted up by all and sundry. Duncan (age 8) wrote the lables, in marker. Yet another dining companion commented on the *ahem* wine that we brought with us, but I think she was trying to be nice. I should have said that it was a private reserve, artisanal wine, very limited stock. Instead I said my brother made it in his basement. *sigh* I fail at life rather a lot.
Okay. So, five courses. I saved the menu so that I could go over them for you.
First: Crostini with Goat Cheese and Tomato Jam. Two slices of crunchy toast with melty goat cheese and then tomato jam on top. Fresh, bruised basil chopped and scattered around as a garnish. This was good. The pairing of the bitter, redolent goat cheese and the slightly sweet tomato jam was well-chosen. The amount of chewing involved in the crostini was good, felt like you were actually eating something. Appetizer arrived warm, nicely plated, and I enjoyed it.
Service throughout was done by two near-invisible girls who were introduced to us at the outset. They did a stellar job of putting down and removing dishes without being obtrusive. Also, they kept the water (still and sparkling, in decanter-like bottles down the center of the table) in supply unobtrusively. I award full marks for invisible, unobtrusive, subtle table service.
Second: Asparagus Risotto. This was good, slightly creamy, each grain of rice still had a bite-able center to it. Served in a wide-lipped dish with a sort of well in the center where the risotto was placed, garnished with a few very small, perfectly-steamed spears of asparagus. The stock base for the risotto was chicken and it went quite well with the asparagus, did not overpower it at all. I'd never had risotto before, but this was quite tasty. Portions throughout the meal were very well done, the only thing I might do differently would be to size them down just a hair -- I ate everything that was set before me, but I was overly full at the end -- but some people eat more food than I do. This is a difficult thing to get right and can't be done in a way that will suit everyone.
Third: Braised beef in Tuscan Red Wine Sauce
Fourth: Roasted Bell Peppers
These two dishes were plated together and served as kind of the main course deal. Sauce for the beef was served on the side, with bread. (The bread was good.) Minor quibble on the service here -- if it had been me, I'd have put out the sauce first, with the bread, so that people would KNOW there was sauce. (It'd stay hot if you pre-warmed the ceramics that held the sauce.) I know that the menu says "with sauce" but that doesn't mean you get the sauce. The portion of beef was just a bit large for me, but I ate it all anyway. (Wasting Food is Wrong.) This was the only thing that I felt could have been done better than it was... we were served a gorgeous piece of chuck, about an inch and a half thick. Braising is a very correct choice for chuck and the spicing and sauce were well-executed. However, it was my personal opinion that the chuck needed about another hour in the oven to be done. It was cooked through but the magical transformation from tough connective tissues to glorious velvety mouth-feel that you get when collagen dissolves had not happened yet. They passed out sharper knives for people to use. Oops. Had it been done enough, it would have been awesome. As it was, it was acceptable but not what it could have been. *sigh* The roasted bell peppers were yellow and red, served room temperature to highlight their sweetness. (They taste sweeter if they're cold. I don't know why.) The peppers were dressed with a little olive oil, whole-crushed cloves of garlic, and fresh basil. They tasted quite good.
Fifth: Cheese plate with pairings. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the discussion of the cheese plate, but what you got were three small wedges of cheese (two sheep and one cow) and three small things-to-eat-with-the-cheese. Sheep Cheese #1 came with an orange-carrot marmalade thing. That paired up well. Cow Cheese came with fig jam. That was an excellent pairing but I think I would have been happier with more fig jam. The cow cheese was pretty cow-y, like the butter I made from scratch last spring. Very eau-du-cow, there. It wasn't bad, just... In Your Face Cow. I am not that fond of Cow. The fig cut it well, but I would have liked more fig just the same. Sheep Cheese #2 was possibly from sardinia or somewhere. It was a very salty and... dry cheese that was paired with candied pecans. This pairing worked very, very well for me. I liked it a lot. Also, I spent some of the time I was eating the cheese plate thinking about the fact that sheep cheese implies sheep milking and I think that's just way too damn amusing.
Dessert was mascarpone and fresh berry cake. Whipped cream was involved. Berries were raspberry, blueberry, and blackberry. They were surprisingly nice for this time of year, it not being berry season anywhere within five hundred miles of here. I liked the cake part, it was not overly sweet and went well with the berries without overpowering them.
After dessert, we had espresso. I liked that, too.
This is a leisurely dinner. We got there at 7:15 and left fairly abruptly, pleading babysitter issues at 10:15. I mean, we finished our espresso, but we didn't like, linger or anything. I realize that a more European style of dining allows for boatloads of post-dinner lingering but we had a four year old to get home to. Lingering not so much of an option, y'know?
Okay. I said there would be more economics to discuss. Now is the time for that. They had four people there -- the couple whose store it is and then the two girl servers. Figure that they're paying the girls for 3 hours each, that's about fifty bucks for the pair (8$ an hour, straight up. They probably have to pay unemployment and whatnot, but we'll pretend they don't do that crap.) Now we have $670. Rent for the establishment, well, I don't know. It's on Pitt Street, very pretty storefront with a commercial kitchen in the back. I don't know if they rent the building or the store or what, but I'd put the rent at around $600 a month (and that's probably lowball). 1/4 of the rent for a month is $150, so we have $520. Cost of the food -- chuck roast for eighteen people plus risotto plus fruit plus peppers plus imported cheeses and pairings plus mascarpone cake plus berries plus bottled waters... I have no damn idea. For me to make and serve that dinner to five people would be around $75.00 in food expenses but they're dealing in wholesale, probably. Call it $12 a head, $216 for the group we had. That leaves $304 for the week's profit, if you don't count the time of the chef. Times four weeks in March is $1216 a month. (This estimate does not include taxes, utilities, health insurance, yadda yadda yadda) Unless they're doing a substantial business online and in food sales, they are not making as much money as I am at my eight-buck-an-hour job.
Overall grade: 7. They would have scored an 8.5 if they'd done the chuck right. Probably worth another visit. (I am a tough grader for food places. If you can't do as well as I can, you don't get a super grade. Here, the points were for muffing the chuck and for loudness of dining experience.)
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Date: 2010-03-10 02:36 am (UTC)That sounds like an interesting experience for dinner, but I would agree I am not fond of the whole eat with people you don't know thing. It's one of the reasons I am not actually fond of Hibachi style dining unless you have a table's worth of people to go with.
But I love trying new restaurants and dining experiences.
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Date: 2010-03-10 08:19 pm (UTC)