Gossip´s Kitchen

HA! ...Paint a targt on your rear & get ready for the artillery barrage from the frozen north....

OK. Here´s another opinion from a boy from Mobile who spent much time savoring New Orleans cuisine on countless trips there as a young man and who also enjoyed African and East Indian food while traveling about Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania as well as India in the 60s. Gossip´s Kitchen is one of my favorite restaurants if not my favorite at Lakeside but Dawg does not eat out often and has not tried many Lakeside restaurants. Since it is one of my favorite pastimes to hang out in streetside outdoor cafes in Paris where the traffic noise is deafening, the street noise in Ajijic does not even register on my feeble brain so I consider the somewhat raucous ambience at Gossip´s to be fine and what I would expect and even demand of an eatery in places such as Paris, Kampala, Mumbai, New Orleans and other such places that appeal to me and serve an "exotic" fare. This restaurant is a local treasure and the food appropriately spiced and sophisticated for people who have adventurous palates (Dawg´s personal definition). This is the only place in Mexico outside of seaside Tehuantepec, Oaxaca where I have had the nerve to eat oysters on the half shell and the two times I have tried them at Gossip´s (in May) they were excellent. Dawg also had great oysters on the half shell in Paris during a recent trip but the cost of those oysters was the equivalent of about $3.00US per oyster so bitching about the cost here is an absurdity.

I may like Gossip´s but live in Chiapas half the year where the food is very good but, since we are here only part time, Gossip´s won´t make it on my dime. I´ll do my part while I´m here.

One vote for Gossip´s. See you there Trucks.

You got it Puppy...And I agree...anybody who bitches about the noise here is in the wrong country. We too have enjoyed alfresco dining around the world...people watching with a good drink & meal is a great passtime.

It is not the noise, it is the exhaust from the traffic. It is awful. Really bothers me when I am trying to enjoy a cigarro. chico

Diane and I had a dinner there, she had Cajun catfish, which she loved, and I had the Prosciutto with fresh greens and peaches on a toasted baguette which was certainly one of the best open sandwiches I've had anywhere in the world.
This was a few days ago, yes there was noise, and some exhaust....but damn it was good. If noise and exhaust are going to bother you...do it now in slow season, and catch a small break...otherwise, forget it

I imagine a lot of noise and exhaust in any open air cafe in the downtown core of any city. Maybe Dawg can tell us of some Parisian cafes that are probably charging 8 times the price for the same ambiance.............Geesh

Wanna really get whacked, try the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich.
http://www.google.com/search?q=bahnhofstrasse&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=BvDoT7ykK8SG2gX_o9zRDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CF8QsAQ&biw=1260&bih=674

CanuckBob wrote:I imagine a lot of noise and exhaust in any open air cafe in the downtown core of any city. Maybe Dawg can tell us of some Parisian cafes that are probably charging 8 times the price for the same ambiance.............Geesh

Quite seriously, CB. You would pay eight times the price to eat on the street in Paris as you would here at Lakeside but the food would not necessarily be better. Parisian restaurants typically have three levels of pricing. The cheapest meals are served if you are willing to stand and eat at the bar. Then, the second level of pricing is if you wish to sit inside near the bar. The most expensive pricing is if you wish to dine on the outside al fresco. In any case, the quality of the food served you is the same.

Gossip´s food and the food of some other restaurants at Lakeside, is superior to the typical bistro food one would be served in Paris and the food in Paris at a bistro would be far more expensive than here.

Yet do the locals complain about the noise and exhaust?? Perhaps Gossips needs to double their prices.....jajaja.

Chico wrote:Well, damn. That was a turnoff. Maybe, I won't go back. How do you know they are Canadians? chico

Well in the winter they turn this the bright pasty fluorescent white color, visible because they wear these strange things called "shorts" with socks and sandals while everyone else is covered up. This allows us to see their knobby knees to confirm their identity, that and the gawky look from having flown 2,500 miles without food and hoping for something to happen nearby.

In the summer they look like anyone else, it is not easy to tell them from normal people.

Merry

Merry, Merry quite contrary.........no more beer and back bacon for you. Jajajaja.

CanuckBob wrote:Yet do the locals complain about the noise and exhaust?? Perhaps Gossips needs to double their prices.....jajaja.

Bob, the locals are used to noise and exhayst fumes. They create the noise and the those fumes with the vehicles they drive. People like to dine in comfort without noise so they can concerse at the table without adding exhaust fumes to flavor their meals. jajaja

Anyone can get sick at ANY restaurant either here or NOB.

johninajijic wrote:

Bob, the locals are used to noise and exhayst fumes. They create the noise and the those fumes with the vehicles they drive.

What do you drive John an electric powered golf cart?

Welcome back E-raq!

johninajijic wrote:

CanuckBob wrote:Yet do the locals complain about the noise and exhaust?? Perhaps Gossips needs to double their prices.....jajaja.

Bob, the locals are used to noise and exhayst fumes. They create the noise and the those fumes with the vehicles they drive. People like to dine in comfort without noise so they can concerse at the table without adding exhaust fumes to flavor their meals. jajaja

Anyone can get sick at ANY restaurant either here or NOB.

Dammit...I've avoided the Pile-On-John snarking on this web board, but sometimes you just ask for it...Many of us have dined al fresco around the world with motor scooters, trolleys, busses, cars, mopeds, etc. zipping by & have enjoyed it. I have also had the pleasure of cooking with Ismat, owner & chef of Gossip's on a couple of occasions. He had a most interesting personal history in Kenya that would scare the hell out of you. I have more than a few years in the restaurant & catering industry, and I can tell you that this guy is a real asset to the community. What pisses me off is that you (and others) who have never eaten there would have the arrogance to offer an opinion on Gossip's, as you have done more than once. My suggestion is, until you have tried it, go pour yourself a nice hot cuppa "SHUT THE F--- UP!"

GBATRUCKS wrote:

johninajijic wrote:

CanuckBob wrote:Yet do the locals complain about the noise and exhaust?? Perhaps Gossips needs to double their prices.....jajaja.

Bob, the locals are used to noise and exhayst fumes. They create the noise and the those fumes with the vehicles they drive. People like to dine in comfort without noise so they can concerse at the table without adding exhaust fumes to flavor their meals. jajaja

Anyone can get sick at ANY restaurant either here or NOB.

Dammit...I've avoided the Pile-On-John snarking on this web board, but sometimes you just ask for it...Many of us have dined al fresco around the world with motor scooters, trolleys, busses, cars, mopeds, etc. zipping by & have enjoyed it. I have also had the pleasure of cooking with Ismat, owner & chef of Gossip's on a couple of occasions. He had a most interesting personal history in Kenya that would scare the hell out of you. I have more than a few years in the restaurant & catering industry, and I can tell you that this guy is a real asset to the community. What pisses me off is that you (and others) who have never eaten there would have the arrogance to offer an opinion on Gossip's, as you have done more than once. My suggestion is, until you have tried it, go pour yourself a nice hot cuppa "SHUT THE F--- UP!"

Nice talk in the Mirador section.

If you don't have an opinion based on fact and experience rather than rumor, keep it to your self ...nobody cares.

GBATRUCKS wrote:

johninajijic wrote:

CanuckBob wrote:Yet do the locals complain about the noise and exhaust?? Perhaps Gossips needs to double their prices.....jajaja.

Bob, the locals are used to noise and exhayst fumes. They create the noise and the those fumes with the vehicles they drive. People like to dine in comfort without noise so they can concerse at the table without adding exhaust fumes to flavor their meals. jajaja

Anyone can get sick at ANY restaurant either here or NOB.

Dammit...I've avoided the Pile-On-John snarking on this web board, but sometimes you just ask for it...Many of us have dined al fresco around the world with motor scooters, trolleys, busses, cars, mopeds, etc. zipping by & have enjoyed it. I have also had the pleasure of cooking with Ismat, owner & chef of Gossip's on a couple of occasions. He had a most interesting personal history in Kenya that would scare the hell out of you. I have more than a few years in the restaurant & catering industry, and I can tell you that this guy is a real asset to the community. What pisses me off is that you (and others) who have never eaten there would have the arrogance to offer an opinion on Gossip's, as you have done more than once. My suggestion is, until you have tried it, go pour yourself a nice hot cuppa "SHUT THE F--- UP!"

Couldn't agree more, and think the language is totally appropriate for the Mirador, nothing offensive in the above.
We like Gossips, and I've met the owner also. He's a very interesting man, has a place with interesting food, and we've got a lot of friends that frequent it often. I can't disagree with the exhaust issue, but it's just one of those personal choices we make. I may not like it, but I go there anyway and eat because the food is good. Wouldn't expect him to move very soon as his business seems pretty good.

I'll make another plug for Ismet and Gossips....fine person, good restaurant.
That's why it upset me, when on another thread, someone speculated they had contacted food poisoning there. Now this possibly could have happened, I'm not saying it didn't, but if anyone deserves the benefit of doubt and get a break, it is this fine gentleman...Ismet.

Maybe John doesn't like the restaurant because the owner (Ismet) is Kenyan as he seems to have very low regrard for another gentleman of Kenyan ancestry.

Notice I said "ancestry", not birth.

Besides food preparation, they are pretty good long distance runners, as noted in the just completed Olympics.
Be patient Mr. Obama, I'm sure you can outrun Mr. Romney in a marathon race.