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burun wrote:buying whole cows

Please throw a dinner party and invite me.

connor wrote:Not sure if this is relevant, but I recently ate one of the best meals of my life here (excellent calamari and a french cut pork chop in burgundy wine mushroom sauce). It's a gourmet restaraunt located inside a Conoco gas station in Watauga, TX (just outside Ft. Worth). The chef is a Nigerian man who came to america to train as a pilot.

I am putting this place on the list.

zom-zom wrote:What makes something "gourmet"?. I hate that term.

I don't know. I was trying to establish the fact that it was a "classy" meal in a gas station.

zom-zom wrote:What makes something "gourmet"?. I hate that term.

I do too, because I find it's misused an awful lot. I think of it now as a marketing term, and not an actual useful descriptor.

dictionary.com defines it thusly:

gour·met /gʊrˈmeɪ, ˈgʊrmeɪ/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[goor-mey, goor-mey] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. a connoisseur of fine food and drink; epicure.
–adjective
2. of or characteristic of a gourmet, esp. in involving or purporting to involve high-quality or exotic ingredients and skilled preparation: gourmet meals; gourmet cooking.
3. elaborately equipped for the preparation of fancy, specialized, or exotic meals: a gourmet kitchen.
[Origin: 1810–20; < F; OF gromet, grommes valet (esp. of a wine merchant)]

—Synonyms 1. gastronome, bon vivant.

I've got a rather large porterhouse sizzling on the grill right now. I'm going to broil that fucker until it's half the original size and blacker than the ace of spades. I mashed some potatoes with a ball-peen hammer and have a Miller Lite in hand. I will be eating all these things without the benefit of butter or seasoning. I may not utilize utensils, either.

I can cook for myself far better than any restaurant. Yum. I'm a real bon vivant

Tuolumne wrote: Have Any of You Been to an Underground Restaurant? I was wondering if anyone's ever been to one of these places and what the experience was like.

Well first you wait until a young girl is killed in a car crash or sonething, or dies in childbirth (my favorite). Then after the funeral you get your shovel, take a few belts of whiskey, and get diggin'. You have to eat her in the grave or it's not really "underground," and if you have someone help you then it's not really "indie."

Is that what you meant?

Save me the Slunk!

burun wrote:I saw the Bourdain show about one of the Portland ones (Gypsy, I think it was called) and it looked like fun.

There's a few groups of people here in NYC that do it, but the one organized by people I know meets on nights I work, so I haven't been yet. The night they do haggis - REAL haggis - I am so there.

You know Burun, you never cease to amaze me, but damn kid, I didn't know I had a "haggis friend."
When you find out whose cooking up a paunch, you let me know and I'll join you on one of my NYC trips. I'll bring the Athol Brose if you pack the tatties and neeps.

-A

I saw some of these goons on television flying a cheesy, food-themed "jolly roger" at their stupid "underground restaurant". It's a good scam.

Just an idea, zom, and I genuinely mean this in the most non-confrontational of ways.

Musicians who play full time sometimes like to sit in a circle and just play for fun with musicians they don't know, rather than friends.
The hootenany.
That's the difference between going to a dinner party and going to an underground restaurant.

Also, people like exclusivity sometimes. I don't mean in the country club sense. The underground restaurant lovers would probably happily welcome anyone who wanted to join in. Meaning, they *would* welcome any member who wanted to be in their club, but they also relish the fact that they love food so much that they want to run with each other in a tight circle. The Slow Food movement could have been this, but it became really snobby really fast.

If ingredients are extremely limited, it keeps the chef from having to limit the evening's menu to only 5 plates, even if it's something simple like some sort of fresh bean. It's tough to maintain a restaurant that does one seating of 6 per night. To pay the rent you would have to charge $75 a dish, even if it was just a really good roasted chicken.

Certain things, like freshly shot game, can't be served or sold in most states, even though they are pretty damn safe.

Seeing the kitchen from your seat at the table might actually encourage good health practices. Also, I've been sick from restaurant food, but never from food from a friend's house. Not saying it doesn't happen, but I'm just sayin'...

Last of all, it might be a good place to try out dishes *before* you open a restaurant. Maybe you don't know how the world will respond to your avocado/banana sauce, or if you can handle working 60+ hours a week. I have the option of being a part time musician that plays 10-12 gigs a year. It might be fun to be a restauranteur in the same way - different from just cooking for my wife and friends each night.

-A

alex maiolo wrote:
Musicians who play full time sometimes like to sit in a circle and just play for fun with musicians they don't know, rather than friends.
The hootenany.
That's the difference between going to a dinner party and going to an underground restaurant.

A poor analogue. Even if the "hootenany" was still a common occurence, it was usually people who knew each other, or at least knew of each other. Most people playing similar types of music are accquainted. And it's not a restaurant. It's a bunch of people playing instruments.

Also, people like exclusivity sometimes. I don't mean in the country club sense. The underground restaurant lovers would probably happily welcome anyone who wanted to join in. Meaning, they *would* welcome any member who wanted to be in their club, but they also relish the fact that they love food so much that they want to run with each other in a tight circle. The Slow Food movement could have been this, but it became really snobby really fast.

I think you're speculating. I have no idea. I'm also a member of Slow Food. I don't think it's at all snobby. It's networking and an attempt to preserve traditional food raising/preparing practices. Of course some members may be snobs, I would guess that some of these "underground restaurant" people are snobs as well.

If ingredients are extremely limited, it keeps the chef from having to limit the evening's menu to only 5 plates, even if it's something simple like some sort of fresh bean. It's tough to maintain a restaurant that does one seating of 6 per night. To pay the rent you would have to charge $75 a dish, even if it was just a really good roasted chicken.

Well boo-hoo. It's expensive to have ingredients on hand.

Certain things, like freshly shot game, can't be served or sold in most states, even though they are pretty damn safe.

Bah. I used to make terrines, patés, etc. from wild game that I would get from friends and customers. The Food Police never came to get me. Some customers would give questioning looks when the monkey's head got clamped down at the next table, but a free bottle of good wine usually shuts them up.

Seeing the kitchen from your seat at the table might actually encourage good health practices. Also, I've been sick from restaurant food, but never from food from a friend's house. Not saying it doesn't happen, but I'm just sayin'...

Yes, you're "just sayin'"

Last of all, it might be a good place to try out dishes *before* you open a restaurant. Maybe you don't know how the world will respond to your avocado/banana sauce, or if you can handle working 60+ hours a week. I have the option of being a part time musician that plays 10-12 gigs a year. It might be fun to be a restauranteur in the same way - different from just cooking for my wife and friends each night.

-A

A useless way to see if your bizarre food combinations will be accepted by the public. And playing chef will absolutely not prepare you for cooking for a large crowd every night. It's playtime, you're not anywhere near being a "restauranteur" by cooking for a small group of food-weirdos once in a while. You would get absolutely no indication of what it would be like.

Sorry, but all I see these spurious restaurants to be are funtime haunts for foodies, playrooms for egotistical chef wannabes. I don't care if Mr. Bourdain likes them.