Talked down by Mrs Superior - who couldn't pronounce wine properly

[Barefootgirl]

Arguably, if you like steak sauce, you like steak sauce, and the taste of the meat is a bit irrelevant. After all, if she'd asked for peppercorn or Diane sauce on her steak, i don't think she'd have tasted the steak before adding the sauce either. However, Ruth's Chris is usually quite an upmarket place and the steaks are good, so I agree, it is a dreadful waste of a good steak to cover it in that stuff.

Wine pretentiousness is one of the funniest things to watch. People who say "mer-LOTT", or "PIN-ott"...

[Sofar]

I have in the past asked the waiter how to pronounce an item on the menu before ordering it.

[AirHostess]

I just love Nouveau riche passengers who shriek at you to be careful with their fake 'designer' handbag by a designer they cannot even pronounce correctly. Sigh.

[rvdammit]

Really? I thought I read somewhere cooking wine is wine not fit to drink.

Plus I can't imagine spending hundreds of dollars on a bottle of wine to use for cooking.

My understanding, from watching Keith Floyd* mostly, is that if you wouldn't drink it why would you want to impart its flavour to your food.



*British TV chef famed for drinking and cooking when presenting.

[tollbaby]

The waiter looked mollified.

I don't think "mollified" means what you were trying to convey there... From Merriam-Webster online...

1 : to soothe in temper or disposition : APPEASE <mollified the staff with a raise>
2 : to reduce the rigidity of : SOFTEN
3 : to reduce in intensity : ASSUAGE, TEMPER

Sorry.... english major / usage nazi.... shutting up now.

As for wine, in Canada anyway, you can get many very good wines (I'm partial to Valpollicello and Chateauneuf du Pape, but those are special treats... I also like White Zin, so my tastes are quite varied LOL) between $7 and $15/bottle I would never cook with "cooking wine", because it tastes horrible, and doesn't give your food a very good flavor. I often get a good chuckle out of people's pronunciation, being francophone, but then I figure I'm as bad in any other language