Vanilla & Saffron - The Best Purveyor !

For the ones amongst us that like to do some real cooking every now and than, getting certain ingredients can be either very costly or difficult and sometimes even both. The classic culprits amongst the hard-to-get and/or expensive ingredients are; dried wild mushrooms like porcini's, chantrells and morels, spices like saffron and then off course real Vanilla. Today I share a little purveyor secret of mine with you. I use Vanilla&Saffron Imports which are based in San Francisco, California. They are direct importers of saffron and vanilla beans and carry a nice selection of real extracts and dried, wild mushrooms. For 25 years they have been purveyors to Chefs and home cooks. From the very start of their business the main focus was to deliver the highest quality saffron and vanilla. The quality they offer is impeccable but there is another aspect here - their prices! I'm sure you have looked at that big glass from the spice rack at the Publix Supermarket with that one sorry ass vanilla bean inside and a price tag of $7 ! You quietly put the thing back and picked up a bottle of vanilla extract. Well if you want to use real vanilla and not feel bad about, here is your deal. Vanilla&Saffron offers you one pound of vanilla beans at $19.95. Mind you, there is about 100 to 110 vanilla beans in one pound! At Publix prices that would be a $700 value. If you are willing to spend just $10 more, they will ship you one pound of the best and most expensive Tahitian vanilla beans. The same goes for their saffron and also the dried, wild mushrooms. You can order all of these goodies online with them and the best part is that all their products are backed by a Money-Back Guarantee. These guys are a good Chefs best friends - trust me.

Over-The-Top - Menu Items For Big Spenders !

Most of the time we report to you about the best of the best regardless of what the charges for these things may be. Off course when things are very nice or extremely good, they naturally tend to cost more. But then there are the over-the-top menu items. We do not withhold them from you. Consider, the $1,000 breakfast frittata served by Norma’s, a breakfast joint at Le Parker Meridien in New York, or the $100 cheesesteak served at the Philadelphia steak house Barclay Prime. Harry’s Steak & Café, in New York tempts its guest with $14.50 Kobe beef hot dog. You can find some of the same over in England. Gordon Ramsay introduced a $185 white truffle pizza at his London restaurant Maze. Chef Spencer Burge added to the menu at Fence Gate Inn in Burnley, Lancashire, England, a $15,000 steak-and-mushroom pie served with a sauce made from 1982 Château Mouton-Rothschild. Norma’s $100 version of the frittata features an ounce of Kazakhstan sevruga caviar whilst the $1,000 version features several ounces of the same caviar. And then there is my Gourmet Brother Daniel Boulud. He offers you a $29 burger sandwich which showcases a patty stuffed with black truffles, foie gras, and beef short rib meat that has been marinated in red wine for 18 hours. His best seller is the Royale burger, which includes seven additional grams of sliced black truffles, which increase the price to as much as $70. The Super Royale, contains 15 grams of black truffles and costs as much as $120. Boulud’s burgers are served with French fries that arrive in a paper cone tucked in a silver cup. And despite Boulud’s protestations, the waitstaff will pair the Royale with a Coca-Cola if requested. Should you seek an appropriate nightcap after dining on a Royale, the lobby lounge of the Algonquin Hotel next door serves a $10,000 martini, which is poured into a glass that contains a diamond. Hey, just make you aware of the choices out there!

Barclay Prime
215.732.7560
www.starr-restaurant.com

DB Bistro Moderne
212.391.2400
www.danielnyc.com

Harry’s Steak & Café
212.785.9200
www.harrysnyc.com

Norma’s
212.708.7460
parkermeridien.com