MARIANI’S

  March 8                                                                        Newsletter

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This newsletter is also available on the very comprehensive food site www.sautewednesday.com
which has dozens of other links to food articles from around the world, as well as at  The Grumpy Gourmet at http://www.grumpygourmetusa.com/links.html

 -Readers trying to reach me through e-mail cannot do so by hitting REPLY to this newsletter. Instead, write to me directly at johnmariani@prodigy.net .   

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Cover Story: Dining Etiquette Abroad by John Mariani

New York Corner: Asiate by John Mariani

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DINING ETIQUETTE ABROAD

by John Mariani

-In Hungary never clink glasses for a toast.  Back when Austrian troops occupied Budapest, they'd always do that just before shooting another Hungarian.

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-In Turkey place one half of your napkin on the table and leave                                the other hanging down. Use only the right hand to pick up food and                         wipe that hand on the napkin. Never use your left hand, which in                               Arab countries is used for quite another purpose (see photo at left).

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-Never tip in a British pub.

 -In England always pass a decanter of Port to the left, as done in Her Majesty’s Royal Navy, until it arrives back at your host’s place. Never let it sit in front of you.

 --In England during tea time you should not pour your own, but ask instead for the hostess or waiter to do so.

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-In Arab countries belching is considered a sign of your enjoyment of a meal. So feel free to let go.

-In Egypt pour your tea into the  cup until it pours out into the saucer.

-When served shish kebabs in the Middle East, steady the skewer between the tines of your fork above the food items, then slide the skewer out.

-In Morocco tables may be covered with a sheet of plastic onto which one throws the bones and other inedible parts of the meal

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-In France the only foods you may eat with your fingers  are frites, asparagus, raw shellfish, and frogs' legs.

-In Marseilles, France, the home of bouillabaisse, never eat the fish and the broth together. They are eaten as separate courses.

 -In Toulouse, France, you must break the crust of a cassoulet exactly eight times. In Castelnaudary, seven.                                                                                   
 
-Do not ask for leftovers from your meal at a restaurant to be packed to go. Eat it or leave it.

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-In China loudly slurping your tea                                                                               is considered a rational way to cool it                                                                       off rather than burn your lips and mouth.

 --In China use chopsticks to take food from the serving plate, then place the food atop your rice--never from plate to your mouth.  Do not rattle your chopsticks on the rice bowl, which means you and your descendants will always be poor.  In Thailand  don't ask for chopsticks; Thais use forks and spoons to eat.

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 -In Greece never arrive less than half an hour late for dinner, which never begins before 9 PM.

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 -In Italy do not wait for everyone to be served his pasta before eating yours. “Amici e pasta, se non sono caldi, non sono buoni” means “If friends and pasta are not warm, they are not good.”

-In Italy do not ask for a tablespoon to help you swirl spaghetti onto your fork. Only a non-Italian would do that.

-Never bring a gift of wine to a hostess in Italy or Portugal, where it is considered an insult to the host’s generosity.

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-If you ever find yourself eating with Bedouins, never gnaw the meat from the bone.  Tear the meat off (with your right hand!) and toss the bone away.

-In Japan eat one mouthful of rice for every two of meat. Do not lean your chopsticks on the food plates or bowls.  Never pass food to another person with chopsticks, because at funerals Buddhists pass cremated bones of the deceased between family members.

 
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-In Russia do not sip vodka. Knock it back, and only when the host offers a toast.

-When served caviar, do not ask your Russian host for condiments like onion or chopped egg, which Russians consider a barbaric way to mask the purirty of sturgeon roe.  Caviar is eaten on blini pancakes smeared with melted butter.

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 -In Switzerland when dipping your fork into fondue, never let the tines protrude through the bread or food and touch the fondue itself. Also, bite off the food from the fork without your mouth touching the tines.

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NEW YORK CORNER
by John Mariani

Asiate
Mandarin Oriental Hotel
80 Columbus Circle
212-805-8881

     Fusion Cuisine seems to wax and wane in New York, but at the moment it's all over town, including new restaurants like Oceo, Spice Market, Geisha, Sui, Sumile, Jefferson, Riingo, The Public, Matsuri, and others on the way.  The genre has been rightly called "Con-fusion" for all the obvious reasons--too many mixtures of exotic ingredients, too much going on on the plate, and too little experience in the kitchen to bolster menus composed of totally new dishes, without sufficient regard for refining a single idea. The chef might well have spent a weekend in Bangkok, but that doesn;t mean his kitchen crew has any wokring knowledgle of the cuisine at all.   When a dish works it can be wonderful, but rarely does it work across the entire menu, which is filled with hits and misses, sometimes with deliberate attempts by a chef simply to shock the palate.
      Asiate (right), the first restaurant to open in the new Time-Warner Building at Columbus Circle, got the jump on its colleagues, and, if a dining room packed both day and night denotes anything about the success of this skyscraper's restaurants, the rest one will be getting an initial blast of curiosity seekers that will keep tables at a premium for months to come.  Panoramically Asiate is the most stunning of the new venues here, simply because it's located on the 35th floor (the others are on the third and fourth floors) and surveys all of Central Park, as well as views to the east, north, and south.  It puts one in mind of the glory days of Windows on the World, and I cannot help but think that many people are taking the elevator up to Asiate out of a nostalgic sense of wanting again to seem at the top of the world, even if it's only the 35th floor this time.   In addition, every single table has terrific sightlines through the huge glass windows,  so that  you can be visually assaulted by  a disgraceful sign posted across the way on the repellent Trump International Hotel  that reads, "YOUR VIEWS AREN'T SO GREAT, ARE THEY? WE HAVE THE REAL CENTRAL PARK VIEWS AND ADDRESS. BEST WISHES, THE DONALD."   (Is science working on a cure for this  man?)
     Asiate is also a beautiful room--clean lines, deceptively minimalist, for there are myriad details like a shimmering wall of wine bottles (left) set horizontally across the shelves, toffee-colored leather banquettes, an icy ceiling hanging, and intimate booths as romantic as any on earth.  The reception is cordial, reservations are handled well, and table appointments are first class.  The menu is not very large--only eight entrees--and the price is really rather remarkable for all this glittering real estate: At lunch a two-course meal is only $25, three courses $35, while a three-course dinner is $65, and $85 for a seven-course tasting menu; add $40 for wine pairings.
      The chef at Asiate is Nori Sugie, who worked under Australia's most celebrated chef, Tetsuya Wakuda, and he is trying not to rock the boat too much with fusionary fireworks.  Nevertheless the plates are so overly fussed with as to look like the interior of a kaleidoscope; too much plating can mean tepid food and not enough melding of flavors.  Still, after two visits, I can say that I was happy with a good deal of what I ate, but not wholly unhappy with everything else.
      His grilled prawn (singular) and housemade pasta comes in a paper bag (sounds better in French--"en papillote"--doesn't it?), which is ceremoniously--too much so--cut with a scissors at the table to reveal a steamy tangle of overcooked pasta ribbons and that lonely prawn, dashed with a shellfish XO sauce (a meaningless term that sounds rather like a hair conditioner). A medallion of char sits on an island of dibs and dabs of this and that--veggies and daikon, with a teeny bit of chili vinaigrette, all of which adds up to a shrug.  Likable for its pure flavors is an etuvée of clams with vegetables and a delicious lemon grass and coconut milk broth; Parmesan-encrusted artichoke with truffle vinaigrette was a nice, if uninspired, idea.
       Main courses are much more interesting, including a duck confit with seared foie gras, more daikon, and a Peking duck broth.  Also good was saikyo yaki cod with a mushroom and seaweed salad, the flesh of the fish resembling that of the traditional glazed, grilled eel called unagi.  You'll see a lot of waiters carrying out a jambonneau (another pretty French name for chicken leg), its bone high on the plate, along with caramelized cauliflower and barley risotto.  The rack of lamb here is seriously dull of flavor.
         Fusion desserts are usually on the light side and fairly pallid, like Earl Grey crème brûlée (puh-leeze!), and a raspberry granita with a sour sumac.  Just about everything on the menu could use some perking up and some dressing down. Asiate is not a convincing argument for this anything-goes genre.  There are superb examples I can happily name--The Biltmore and Jefferson in NYC, Azul in Miami, Mantra in Boston, Alan Wong's in Honolulu, and Sona in Los Angeles, leap to mind--but it's a slippery slope on which to set one's reputation, and Asiate, 35 stories high, is not anywhere near the top.

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THEY’RE ALREADY ON OUR SPEED-DIAL

“Though it looks like a Hanseatic League stage set by day, after dark Vecriga, Riga’s Old Town, becomes a thoroughly modern nightcrawler’s playground.  For cocktails in a revealing setting, hit the PuPu Lounge, where the walls are papered with nudes, or try Spalvas pa Gaius, the former tuberculosis clinic that’s now a buzzing nightclub.”—Condé Nast Traveler (April 2004).

  * From now until April 11 NYC’s Molyvos (212-582-7500) is creating a Lenten selection of daily specialties.      To conclude the Lenten fast, immediately following the midnight church services on Easter Eve, April 10th,         owner John Livanos and family, along with Chef Jim Botsacos, will serve a 5-course meal, $55 pp.  The feasting     continues on Sunday with Easter specialties.

* On March 22 the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver launches its Spring 2004 Winemaker Dinner Series with a 5-course dinner with South African wines of Nederburg and Plaisir de Merle; April  19: Quail’s Gate and Cedar Creek; May 17: Petaluma; June 7: Columbia Crest. Call  604 844-6715 or visit www.fourseasons.com/vancouver

* From May 26-30 the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience will be held with more than 100 restaurants and 250 wineries participating, 34 vintners’ dinners, a Royal Street Stroll with live music, 3 days of seminars, 2 days of grand tastings, and a Champagne brunch.  Full cost of registration $435, with tix to individual events available. Visit www.nowfe.com or call 504-529-WINE.

  
     * On March 22 NYC’s Ruth's Chris Steak House  hosts a winemaker's 5-course dinner with Château Ste.             Michelle. $125 pp. Call 212-245-9600

     * Chef Vincent Guérithault of Phoenix’s Vincent Guérithault on camelback will hold his annual Champagne         Easter Brunch on April 11, from 11 AM to 2 PM.  $45 pp,  $15 for children 10 years and under. Call                      602-224-0225 or visit www.vincentsoncamelback.com

 
* New Orleans Grill will hold  its"Wine Wednesdays" seminar and tasting series, on the first Wednesday of every month. Sommelier Michael Scherzberg, will showcase some of his favorite wines, with the series at $30-35 pp. April 7:-Wines of the Médoc; May 5 -  White wines of the Loire Valley; June 2 - Beaujolais & Summer wines; July 7-  White wines of Germany; Aug. 4 - Italian white wines; Sept. 1 - Burgundies of the Côte de Nuits; Oct. 6- Napa vs. Sonoma Chardonnay; Nov. 3- New World red wines; Dec. 1 - Champagne. Call 504-522-1994 .

 * From April 1-4 the Saveur Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival will be held in Austin. For details call 512-542-WINE or visit www.savuer.com/texasfestival.
 

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MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly.  Editor/Publisher: John Mariani. Contributing Writers: Robert Mariani.  Naomi  Kooker, Kirsten Skogerson,  Edward Brivio, Robert Mariani, Mort Hochstein. Contributing Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery,  Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.

 John Mariani is a columnist for Esquire, Wine Spectator, Diversion and the Harper Collection. He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink (Lebhar-Friedman), The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink (Broadway), and, with his wife Galina, the award-winning new Italian-American Cookbook (Harvard Common Press).   To  purchase from amazon.com, click on the image below.

copyright John Mariani 2003