Say CHEESE!!!

Wine and cheese. I'm sure you've all heard the phrase before, but what does it really mean? Do you really know why wine and cheese famously go together? I'll admit, my knowledge on this subject is a bit handicapped. But I'd like to share with you a few things I've learned here and there so you are better equipped the next time you go out to such a function.

Here in NY, just a few blocks from where I'm temporarily staying right now, is the COUNTRY'S BEST cheese store/ restaurant. It is called Artisanal Fromagerie, Bistro, and Wine Bar. (Fromage is the French word for cheese). It is a restaurant serving French bistro fare by Chef Terrance Brennan, who owns several places around town. More importantly though, what you need to know is that Chef Brennan is obsessed with artisanal cheeses made from small producers around the world. He is often credited for putting the spotlight on the infamous "cheese cart" rolled around fine dining establishments after your main course, an age-old tradition in Europe.

You can order cheeses from them and have them shipped to your door.

Last Wednesday I had the chance to visit his bistro for a late 4pm lunch (bistros are typically open all day). I enjoyed an octopus dish, a skate main course, and then a tasting of 3 cheeses--each paired with a different wine. *insert mmmmmmm noise here*

I ordered a great California beer I had never tried before called Stone Levitation Amber Ale. I've tried their IPA and it knocked me out. But as for this ale, imagine a Sam Adams without some of the bitterness, but all the flavor, and smoother. It was delicious and I highly recommend it (if you can find it). 

For an appetizer I had an octopus dish. It had several grilled octopus tentacles, fingerling potatoes, smoked paprika, a frissee salad, and a tomato sauce with what seemed like sherry vinegar whisked in. If you’ve never had octopus before, try it! I’m sure many people are scared of the texture being chewy, crunchy, or gooey. But it actually has a meaty texture and the grill adds a nice charred flavor and crispiness to it.

For my entrée the waiter sold me on a sautéed skate wing. I wasn’t convinced at first as I don’t order fish often, but I took his recommendation and was pleasantly surprised. What made the dish for me was the brown butter sauce with blood orange juice. It had the perfect balance of savory (butter) and acid (juice). It had small croutons, shaved cauliflower, and blood orange segments, as well. Next to the fish was a small velvety mashed potato that was very creamy. The fish had an awesome crunchy texture on the outside and moist flesh on the inside. The recipe for this dish can be found here. 

For dessert, I asked for the cheese and wine flight menu. Artisanal is the only place in the country I know of that has an entire dessert menu card devoted to cheese and wine pairings. This card was most likely created by Max McCalman. Max is an expert fromager who helped Terrance Brennan establish the famous cheese cart at Picholine. He came up the ranks as a sommelier and became an expert on pairing wine and cheese. There is probably nobody that knows wine and cheese better in the country than Max. He has written several books on the subject, for those interested in learning more. Artisanal goes as far as to age some of the cheeses they have in house inside this cave:

If a cheese is out on the floor, be assured that it has reached perfect ripeness. Otherwise, they wouldn’t serve it. The cheeses are stored on beechwood at 41 degrees Fahrenheit.

It didn’t take long for me to pick the fromager’s selection, as it had several cheeses I had read about many times but never tried (specifically Monte Enebro from Spain and Epoisses from France).

More on Wine and Cheese…

To compose a cheese plate, you pick 3-5 cheeses. Starting at the 6 or 12’oclock position, you put your mildest cheese and then move clockwise around the plate to your strongest cheese. The plate should have a variety of flavors and textures, and also come from different milks. These are typically cow, goat, or sheep’s milk. Each has its own flavor and funk to it. Bread, crackers, nuts, figs, and jellies often accompany cheese plates. Between cheeses, have some bread or crackers to bring your palate back to neutral, and have some wine and water to wash everything down. This way you can fully taste the next pairing. Serve the cheeses at room temperature. 

The wine should match the cheese in several ways. In the case of my plate, the first cheese on the bottom, a Pierre Robert (Cow, France) went with a Champagne. Champagnes are good for soft cheeses with nutty flavors, such as Camembert and Brie. The toasty flavors of the Champagne match well with the nutty flavors of these cheeses, and the bubbles do great with the texture of the soft cheese.

For harder cheeses with stronger flavors, you need stronger wines. In this case, the semi-firm Monte Enebro (Goat, Spain) was paired with a red Bordeaux (Cabernet Sauvignon from the Bordeaux region of France). The Monte Enebro had a strong flavor and a surprising zing of acidity. For this reason, the strong Cabernet with its strong acid component was paired with this cheese. I’ve also had great success with hard, salty cheeses—such as a Parmesan—and strong red wine.

The last cheese, Epoisses (Cow, France), was very creamy and very strong in flavor. When I say creamy, I mean it is literally oozing all over the place and cannot stand straight, like a pudding. This wine was paired with a Sauternes, a fully sweet dessert wine also from the Bordeaux area of France. Sauternes also pairs extremely well with Roquefort (and foie gras/duck liver), a horribly smelly and salty blue cheese from France. If you’ve never had a high quality Sauternes and Roquefort in your mouth at the same time, you haven’t lived yet.

Other famous wine and cheese pairings include Port and Stilton, Cheddar and Pinot Noir, Roquefort and Sauternes, Champagne and Camembert, etc.

So, the next time you decide to have some wine and cheese, think twice. Don’t just go for the Kraft Cubes. Spend a few dollars more and get something you and your guests can truly enjoy. Don’t be afraid of the funky smells! The strong cheese is not intended to be had on its own—it’s meant to go with a wine, some fruit, jam, or nuts. Experiment and have fun!

I'll have the 1982 Lafite, please

So the sommelier pours you the wine to taste. You smell and taste it, but how do you know it's good?


Let's talk some wine, shall we, more specifically how to properly taste wine. These are the absolute basics. It would take volumes and days to document everything about wine. I just want you readers to understand the ABC's so you gents can impress your girls. Anybody with an ability to smell and taste can become a great wine taster. You're able to tell which beers you like, right? Then why not be able to distinguish wines?

First, take a look at what's in your glass

Tip your glass at a 45 degree angle and hold it against a white background, such as your napkin or table cloth, to truly see the "color" of your wine. There are 3 areas to look at: the core, the rim, and the highlights. The core is what's in the middle. The rim is the top edge, and the highlights are the left and right sides. Each will tell you something about the wine. For example, bright green highlights indicate a very youthful, energetic wine. A brick colored rim will indicate an aging red wine.

These are both white wines. One is young (left), and one is aged in the bottle many years (right). Not all white wines have the same color. Just like there are different colors of rum and tequila depending on barrel aging, white and red wines can similarly be barrel aged and change color. Chardonnay, for example, is typically put in barrels because it would otherwise taste/smell like not a whole lot. The barrel aging imparts a darker yellow tone than if it were otherwise not aged. 

Colors for white wines can be pale yellow, straw, green, gold, brown, etc. Reds can be ruby, purple, brown, brick, dark red, blue, etc. Typically when young, the stronger the wine, the darker the color will be. A Pinot Noir will be light, and a Cabernet will be dark. Upon aging in the bottle for many years, the colors will transform. Whites will darken to a gold and later brown color (as in the picture above). Reds will lose color and become brown and brick colored.

As you put the glass back down, take note of the droplets that cling to the sides of the glass. These are called "legs." Many legs can indicate either high alcohol content, or a high sugar content.

If you find strange things floating in your wine, such as small filaments, a haze or clouds, or sediments, it can indicate improper bottling at the factory. This is called the "clarity" of the wine.

Next, take a sniff...or two...or three...

Most of our sense of taste comes through our sense of smell, so pay attention here!!!

To smell, swirl the wine around in the glass vigorously. This breaks the surface tension and allows oxygen to interact with the fruit (fermented grapes) to release aromas. Smell the wine several times. You will pick up more things each time.

What is a Corked wine?

This is the first thing you should smell for--the "condition" of the wine. The best restaurants will have the sommelier taste the wine before you do to see if its condition is good. But at most restaurants, the waiter leaves the decision up to you. A corked wine is one where oxygen has leaked into the bottle and aged the fruit improperly. The wine will smell like damp, wet cardboard in a basement. I've also seen corked bottles that smell like wood.

You can tell the wine is corked before even smelling it by looking at the cork (hence the name corked). It may look like this:

It will have streaks of wine running from pole to pole. This means a faulty cork. Have an expert taste it to see if it's good, since there's a possibility it's still drinkable. 

Experts disagree on smelling the cork (some say it tells you nothing, others say it does). The cork is presented for you to judge the storing of the wine, and its age. Some waiters will not give you the cork if you look clueless about what to do with it. A cork should be very wet and stained to indicate contact with the wine (a bottle stored on its side). If it is old, it will have tiny pieces of sediment stuck on. This is a good sign you're in for a treat!

Other signs of a poor wine may be the smell of sulfur (who farted?), rancid nuts, mold, sweaty animal fur, rotten eggs, and bruised fruit. Sulfur is used to preserve the wine at bottling, but an overdose causes a funk. Some of these smells can be released by letting the wine sit in a decanter and breathe a while. 

Continuing with the "Nose"

After you determine your wine is not corked, determine the intensity of its smells (nose). Is it difficult to pick up scents, or can you smell the wine from across the table? "Intensity" can be low, medium, or high. (For example, in order, a soave, chardonnay, and then a sauvignon blanc).

There are two basic smells to indicate the maturity level of the wine--aroma and bouquet. "Aroma" refers to young wines, while "Bouquet" refers to older, aged wines. After a wine peaks at its bouquet, it goes downhill and becomes vinegar. The best wines will age decades. Most can only last several months or years.

For white wines, aromas will typically be things like grass, apples, citrus fruits, stone fruits, tropical fruits, herbs, minerals or rock. Bouquets will be things like spices, earth or mushrooms, caramel, butterscotch, or even vanilla.

Red wine aromas will smell like black or red fruits, plums, cassis, vegetables, cherries, blackberries, licorice, vanilla, earth, jelly, etc. Bouquets will smell like dried fruits, autumn leaves, wet forest leaves, spices, and herbs.

Strong wines will have stronger smells. For example, a Shiraz from Australia will smell like dark blackberry jelly, because it's a strong grape with a high sugar content due to the intense ripening under the Australia sun.

The vanilla/dairy smell is a dead giveaway that a wine (either red or white) was aged in a barrel. Almost all reds are barrel aged, and some whites, such as Chardonnay. Too much barrel or a poor quality wood will give the wine a fake smell, woody taste, and strong alcohol content.

A wine with a high alcohol content will smell like what else...alcohol! Think of smelling a bottle of vodka. It burns your nose! The wine will be difficult to drink and match with food. The taste will be overpowered.

On to the Palate

Put the wine in your mouth and swirl it around vigorously. Many experts will even lightly suck in air through their mouth to increase oxygen flow and contact with the grape juice (wine). When sucking in air, you can enhance the fruit flavors. Also, you will be able to feel the alcohol burn a bit and sense if there's too much alcohol.

Your tongue has 5 receptor areas of taste:

Aside from sweet, salty, sour, and bitter, there is a new taste called "umami," which refers to meaty, earthy tastes, such as tomato or a portobello mushroom. Don't worry about umami for now, though. 

I'm a very patient person, but I'm annoyed when people say they want a "sweet" wine and point to what is in reality a dry wine. 95% of the wines you see in a store or restaurant are dry. There are several levels of "sweetness" which you detect with the front of your tongue: Dry, Off-dry, Medium Sweet, Sweet, and Dessert (Fully sweet). Most of the times, these people mean they want a "fruity" wine, one with tropical fruit notes and lots of acid. A sweet wine is not riesling, or chardonnay, or sauvignon blanc. These are dry and at best off-dry. A sweet wine is something like Port or Sherry. A dessert wine is a Sauternes or Tokaji. If you're talking red and you want a sweet--ahem, fruity--wine, go for something with low tannin, like Pinot Noir. Ok! Now that that's over with...

"Acidity" is reflected on the sides and bottom of your tongue. An acid wine will literally make your mouth salivate, or even pucker (think of a sour grape). Levels range from low to high. Acidic wines go best with food because they cleanse your palate as you eat.

"Tannin" is that astringent, drying sensation you get around your gums when drinking red wine. It comes from the skins and seeds of red grapes. It can also come from the barrel. A highly tannic wine needs high acid or sugar to balance the wine in your mouth. For example, the tannin dries your mouth, and the acid makes your mouth water. Whites do not have tannin. The stronger the red wine, the more tannin you can expect. 

"Body" refers to the amount of alcohol present in the wine. You can feel this with your tongue. Think of several levels like this: water, skim milk, whole milk, cream, heavy cream. If you can differentiate those, you can differentiate a Pinot Noir from a Cabernet or Shiraz. High alcohol is OK if the other components balance it out. Usually, the presence of high alcohol is where you can most easily distinguish cheaply made wine from good wine. You can also distinguish the body when you swallow the wine. If it burns your throat, there's too much. If you swallow and then breathe in some air and feel your tongue cool, it's the alcohol evaporating on your tongue.

Pick out now the "fruit character" of the wine. Is what you smelled similar to or different than what you taste in your mouth?

Finally, the grand finale, the "finish." Is the taste in your mouth short, medium minus, medium, medium plus, or long? A short finish is kind of like water, it's there and it's gone once you swallow. A long finish indicates a great wine. It can last well over a minute. I've had a wine or two I tasted for 15 minutes! It goes on and on, sometimes even giving different flavors as time passes.

Conclusion: Is it Balanced?

You're done! Well...not yet. Think of how all the components above match together. Does one thing really stick out, degrading your enjoyment of the wine? Or is everything balanced? A good wine will be balanced in all components. Is it a good value for the money? A $5 wine will not drink like a $100 bottle, but it may well be good compared to other $5 wines.

Once you do this a few times, you'll be able to tell how old a wine is, how long it was on the vine, under the sun, and eventually even where in the world it came from. It's fun to try a new wine every time you go out. For the next time, I'll share how you can use these tools to match with food! I promise a shorter read! Lol.

Brasserie Les Halles of Anthony Bourdain fame

It would be unfair to say this was the first restaurant I tried in New York--I'll leave my review of lunch at Per Se for another day when I get a copy of the menu I had that is currently tucked in a box in Miami. However, Les Halles was one of the first places on my to do list that I had the privilege of visiting on one of my first nights off in New York.

Located in the Murray Hill area of Manhattan (midtown on the East Side), it is most known because of the chef that used to work there--Anthony Bourdain. He was kind of a nobody who happened to write a book called Kitchen Confidential, where he writes about the truth occurring in restaurant kitchens, and was launched into the public eye. It resulted in him landing a job on the Food Network, which he left because of its censorship. He moved on to the Travel Channel where his show No Reservations documents him traveling the world trying new foods.

Les Halles serves typical French Brasserie food--things you would find in just about any Parisian bistro. The restaurant has no flashy decor or anything of the sort. It is pretty dark inside, and has a broken in neighborhood feel with lots of wood panels and tables. The outside looks like almost any other corner place in New York. But inside the food is anything but commonplace. I saw Tony, the famous waiter, as well Carlos, Bourdain's traveling buddy, inside.

I sat at the bar and decided to have a couple of appetizers and an entree, along with some wine. First up was escargot and foie gras. Escargot is an age old French dish composed of snails cooked in garlic butter. Foie gras is fattened duck or goose liver. It is very controversial, which I'll detail another day. It can be cooked in many ways, such as pan seared, poached, or even roasted.

On the left is the escargot. I know eating snails sounds gross, but it's actually very good. They have a slightly earthy taste with a slightly chewy texture. They're great. Next to it is the foie gras. This one was pan seared to a medium temperature, served atop a small brioche toast (bread with a high butter content). Next to it are slow cooked apples cooked in calvados (apple brandy). Foie is usually served with brioche and fruit (to provide acidity to balance the fat of the duck liver). The texture and taste is extremely rich. It literally does melt and coats your mouth with duck fat, leaving you to chew on the soft apples and bread. The apples were a bit too rich and didn't provide much acid, but altogether the dish was very satisfying. The only drawback was that the foie was not deveined properly. A waterfowl's liver is composed of two lobes that are meant to be broken apart and then have small veins removed. This one had a vein not removed that was quite annoying to take out, but it didn't distract me much.

The entree was duck confit. Confit is a term that you will usually see in two ways: 1) to cook something in its own fat, or in fat, and 2) to candy something, typically fruit. Here a duck's leg is preserved in duck fat, and when called to cook, it is roasted and the skin is cooked to a crisp. The meat falls off the bone and the skin is like a nice crispy chicharron. It's very, very good. Next to it is a small salad with crispy potatoes cooked with truffle oil. Truffles are a mushroom-like food item that grow in Italy and France during the winter and summer months. Typically white ones come from Italy, and black ones from France. Their short growing season makes them very expensive (1 truffle can be $75+). They are usually eaten in shavings atop or within dishes. However, it is common to infuse olive oil with white truffles for cooking. It adds a nice aroma and taste to whatever you put it on.

What is Fine Dining, and why you should care about it

Welcome to my blog! Thank you for coming by to read. I never thought I'd have one of these because I'm not the journalistic type, but I figured it was a cool way to both document my personal culinary adventures around New York and provide friends and family back home with a link to receive updates on my life alone (sort of) in the Big Apple.

I figured what better way to start things than by explaining what is sort of a mystery to many back home--fine dining. What is it exactly, what's its place in society, and why should it matter to you? 

First, a Bit of History

The United States only has a few cities at the forefront of gastronomy: New York being #1, followed by San Francisco/Napa, Chicago, and you can now include Las Vegas and the Upper Mid-West area of Oregon and Washington. Notice I didn't include Miami, which is still catching up. Having lived in Miami over 20 years, I can easily say the restaurateurs and the city's people are more into trends and design than they are into food. In other words, you're more likely to visit a place in Miami because it has flashy decor and a nice view and arrive to find the same dishes as you would at any other place in town (crab legs, snapper with mangos, corn fed filet mignon, for example). The other driving force in Miami is steakhouses, such as Morton's, Capital Grille, Ruth Chris, etc. Although they have white linen and fancy waiters, they are only serving you steak and lobster. This is not fine dining--you can find filet mignon anywhere in the world. This is simply heating up a piece of meat--it involves no creativity or real cooking.

Fine dining in America first emerged by a lady named Alice Waters back in the 1970's at a restaurant in California called Chez Panisse. Alice found amazing "haute cuisine" (high cooking) in France during her travels and decided she could recreate this food in California due to the similar climatic conditions, which ultimately yielded amazing crops and produce. After only a few short years, Chez Panisse was revolutionizing the food world. Soon after, places such as Spago (Wolfgang Puck) and Stars (Jeremiah Tower) opened in California, further revolutionizing cuisine. 

In the 1980's, the trend really picked up in New York, Chicago, and D.C. You had places such as Le Cirque, the Quilted Giraffe, Le Bernardin, Windows on the World, and Gotham Bar and Grill opening in New York, Charlie Trotter's and Frontera Grill in Chicago, and The Watergate by Jean Louis Palladin in D.C. All of these places were headed by young, hungry chefs with French training or French origin. Unfortunately, along with many of these came the stigmas of elitism and haughty, uptight service. 

In the mid 1980's, this stigma was broken by a gentleman named Danny Meyer who opened Union Square Cafe in New York City. He offered fine cuisine and wines, but with warm hospitality and smiling service. Since then, restaurateurs of every level in the USA have realized a smile is just as important as the proper decanting of a bottle of wine.

Miami saw its own slew of haute cuisine in the late 1980's and early 1990's as well. Most known are the "Mango Gang," a group of chefs who introduced tropical flavors to haute cuisine. These were most notably Norman Van Aken (Norman's), Mark Militello (Mark's), Douglas Rodriguez (Yuca), and Allen Susser (Allen's). Several of these were in Coral Gables, but have since closed. Each chef is active in some form, though.

What do the Stars Mean???

There are several important rating guides that restaurateurs and foodies take seriously.

The first is the Michelin Guide. The Michelin Tire company created this travel document to rate restaurants from 1 to 3 stars in France. It was a handy tool for people traveling the countryside to know if a restaurant was worth a stop as they rode around in their new tires. Getting just 1 star is a big deal, and there are only 50-odd restaurants in the world with 3 stars. The Michelin guide started in France, made its way around Europe, and is currently featured in New York, California, and Las Vegas. It will soon hit Chicago.

Two other notable ones are "Relais et Chateaux" and "Relais Gourmand." These are two separate "clubs" of sort of French origin. They are highly selective associations that allow only the best restaurants and hotels around the world to carry their name by their door. They do not rank. They only invite you to their association if you prove you're good.

Finally you have the New York Times. Every Wednesday, the NY Times food critic will put out reviews on the restaurant he/she has recently visited. They get 0 to 4 stars. There are currently only six places in NY with 4 stars. Dining at a 4 star place is about equivalent to a Michelin 3 star, or Relais et Chateaux. A rating by the NY Times can literally make or break a new restaurant. A bad review means you will soon close, whereas a good review means you hit the jackpot.

So, Finally, What is Fine Dining???

Fine dining means to take fresh, organically grown ingredients, that are in season and cook them with incredible precision. They are then put together in creative ways to blend and contrast flavors and textures in your mouth in ways you thought unimaginable. Due to the high cost of these ingredients and the labor to prepare them, they will be expensive to the end buyer. Consequently, if you are paying top dollar for your food, you will want top service to go along with it. 

It is of upmost importance that the ingredients meet all the criteria I mentioned: fresh, organic, and in season. If it's not fresh, it has lost its flavor and texture. If it's not organically grown, it will lack taste due to the mass volume of production (when's the last time you commented positively on your micro-waved vegetables at Applebee's?) And finally if it's not in season, the produce will not burst with flavor. Would you eat a mango in January? No, because it will taste like grass, bark, and water. But eat one in the summer and it will burst in your mouth with ripeness. Many chefs are willing to pay high shipping charges to ensure fresh products. For example, don't be surprised if your lobster was caught yesterday afternoon in Maine and you are dining in LA.

Lest I forget to mention the wine. The wine is just as important to the meal as the food. Wine is drank with food for many reasons I'll explain in another post someday. But for the meantime, just know that it's important.

Why are the Portions so small???

The small portions exist for several reasons. First of all, there is probably not enough supply to warrant large portions. If the chef was able to source enough, he'd have to charge you even more to justify his fixed costs. Secondly, this food will fill you up. If the chef has sourced everything correct, the food will be rich in calories and nutrients. You will get full after only eating a bit. Lastly, the plates are small because you are meant to have many plates during your meal. Eat two little 3oz portions of fish, and you go home hungry. Have 3oz portions of soup, fish, duck, squab (pigeon), cheese, sorbet, and chocolate dessert, and you will go home satiated. Many chefs offer "tasting" or "degustation" menus. These are menus where you sample anywhere from 5-30 small plates over a 2-3 hour period. The menus progress from light dishes to heavy, often finishing with cheese that is paired with the wine left in your bottle after the meat course, a sorbet to cleanse your palate, and then 1-2 desserts.

In addition to the above, you will also get many extras at the best fine dining places. Your meal will start with an "amuse bouche," or mouth pleaser (boca-->bouche; amuse-->please). This is a small hors d'oeuvres meant to awaken your appetite. At the end, you will have mignardises and petit fours. These are small candies and confectionaries meant to accompany your coffee at the end of the meal. These are all freebies--you don't order them. Finally, many kitchens will send you extra courses for free if they feel like impressing you. For example, if you have some wine left in your first bottle, they may send a course out for free to accompany the rest of the wine. 

Why Should I be Interested in this?

You don't have to be. It is true not everyone is lucky to afford eating out at places like these, or sees the value in it. You may prefer quantity over quality. I love the chicken tenders at Friday's and the 2-for-1 beers at Chili's, I won't lie. Grog 25-cent pitchers are delicious because they are 25-cents. However, once you've driven a Ferrari, do you really want to drive a VW van? Similarly, once you've tasted fine wine, can you really cherish a $3 box wine? If you've had kobe beef, will you settle for a McDonald's hamburger? I certainly can't. 

The truth is for most of us with average wallets, going out to places like these are special moments. And the staff there knows that. Therefore, they make the dinner an experience for you instead of a just a meal.  Who doesn't like to be pampered? The smart people working at these places value food as a gift. They recognize keeping a chicken in a cage is not humane. They work with local farmers to support their efforts, thanking them with their business and paying top dollar for their product. Why wouldn't you support that as well? 

Are you vegetarian or have allergies? Guess what--just tell your waiter. Chances are they have a 9 course vegetarian menu already prepared, or a substitute for nuts and dairy. 

There is a time and a place for all kinds of dining. Those who look down upon others that don't spend big money when going out to eat are not true foodies in my opinion. They're fake and have only found a medium through which to flaunt money. A fan of food can find pleasure in the chinese hole in the wall just as much as they do in the 3 hour grandiose meal. The trick is that the chinese hole in the wall will have a grandmother making recipes by hand like her family did in the Chinese countryside.

Sometimes you only have 10 minutes to eat and $5, in which case fast food is an attractive option. Or perhaps you've had a few beers and it's 3am and Taco Bell is the only thing open. It's ok. Just remember there's a time for quantity, and a time for quality, and each should have its place in your wallet. 

I hope you were able to understand a bit more about what fine dining is. See you next time!


EDIT: I wanted to be clear about something else. It is perhaps best to say what fine dining IS by saying what it IS NOT. It is not about putting a bunch of green stuff on a plate and giving it a weird name. It's about the quality of the ingredients, presented to you in unique ways, and cooked so perfectly that each ingredient's taste stands out on its own on the plate. Each ingredient complements or contrasts with the others.