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Showing results for tags 'Tasting Menus'.
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BL-4th grader has decided his goal in life is to have dinner at Victoria and Albert's at Disney World. But before I commit to that with him (and I have some time as he has to be 10), I thought I might start him off with something local, smaller and less expensive. And where an enthusiastic 9 year old foodie would be welcomed at 5 pm seating. Mr. BLB hates, hates, hates everything about tasting menus so I've let all the options completely fall of my radar. I'm probably willing to spend $100-ish per person. Suggestions?
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Oh my.
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I've heard numerous diners say they're "over" tasting menus, and I'm asking myself what, exactly, this means. Prix Fixe menus (which are nothing more than multi-course meals) have been occurring in France for probably a couple hundred years, if not longer. So what exactly is it about tasting menus that gets on peoples' nerves? Is it that every 25-year-old CIA graduate wants to play Thomas Keller? Is it that you have 30 bites of food and leave hungry? That last question reminds me of this post I made over ten years ago in which I said: Is it: 1. The young-amateurish chefs who cannot orchestrate a symphony, but insist on doing it anyway? Or is it: 2. The modern-day leave-hungry lab-experiment visual-textural food-as-art experiences (Minibar, Rogue 24, Riverstead, Moto, etc.)? As a reference, here's the divisive article written by the snotty Corby Kummer for Vanity Fair: "Tyranny - It's What's For Dinner" which is like reading someone lambasting operas because you have to sit there and watch for four hours and shell out two-hundred bucks for the privilege. I've come up with a very simple solution to this problem, btw (it has two words). How many restaurants *really* force you to have a tasting menu? I say, "Not that many," and if you've grown "weary" of tasting menus, you're either going to the wrong restaurants, or you've simply ordered them too many times (grand tasting menus are not designed to be a daily, or even weekly, experience). --- Subject Change --- Now, if you'd like to discuss wine pairings? Done it. Done *with* it. It is the almost-nonexistent meal where I've had a wine pairing that fared better than me simply purchasing a wine from the list, and it's for both reasons, #1 and #2: 1. The young-amateurish sommeliers who cannot orchestrate a symphony, and 2. Fixed-amount pours that require me to have the exact same amount of wine with each course (I *hate* running out of wine in the middle of a course without the ability to fill my glass, and some courses simply demand more (or less) wine than others). A 2-ounce pour of Grí¼ner-Veltliner with my carpaccio, and a 2-ounce pour of Nebbiolo with my venison? I'd rather order a bottle from the list, even if it means paying close to double-retail (now you know why I drink rosés so often at restaurants - it's like tuning a piano with equal temperament: It isn't perfect, but it's the best you're going to get - and double-retail with a rosé means you were only nicked for twenty extra bucks).
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