Recipes

November 26, 2013 Recipe

Thanksgiving Round up of My Favorite Autumn Recipes!

Can you believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner?

It feels a bit odd, Thanksgiving being so late this year. All around me I'm getting the sense that people are anxious for the holiday season to begin, and therefore Christmas trees are coming up, holiday decorations are in full force inside stores, and sales are everywhere. Heck, add to that the fact that Hanukkah is this weekend, the holiday spirit is everywhere!

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite Thanksgiving-related recipes and past posts. I've got everything from Asian-inspired roast duck Thanksgiving meal that I prepared a couple years ago to some of my fall favorites.

Enjoy!

Main Course

I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time two years ago at my new house. I made this well-received Chinese oven-roasted duck, which was made tender by roasting with a beer can. Fill this with Chinese sticky rice for a pretty authentic Chinese version of the American turkey with stuffing.

These savory Chinese pumpkin cakes are a family classic from Bryan's side of the family. His grandmother used to make them in China, and his mom figured out how to adapt it using US ingredients. This totally makes us think of the holidays and especially reminds Bryan of home, since that's the only time he ever eats it (except when I make it, which still weirds him out because he's not at home while eating it).

Side Dishes

This oven roasted kabocha squash (Japanese pumpkin) is one of my favorites right now. I actually prefer Kabocha squash to normal pumpkins. It's like crack for me - I can't stop eating it! It's sweet, roasts up beautifully, and works with so many things. I recently roasted a whole squash and have been enjoying it for breakfast (!) and dinner every day.

These Chinese Long Beans with Garlic are the healthier, crispier, and (in my opinion) better way of preparing green beans compared to the typical green bean casserole. Serve these as a side dish to counter all that rich gravy and mashed potatoes!

Another fun Asian-inspired side is to make something with taro root. I fried these taro "fries" in duck fat - which is delicious - but totally not necessary.

Or to be a bit healthier, you can bake your own sweet potato chips in the oven. Just be careful to watch the chips really carefully - you can easily overcook them and burn them!

I have always loved the Kaddo Bourani (Afghan baked sugar pumpkin) at The Helmand, my favorite Afghan restaurant here in the Boston area. The magical combination of the sweet pumpkin, savory meat sauce, and cool garlic mint yogurt is out of this world.

Why boil gnocchi when you can fry it? Kabocha squash is starchier than pumpkin, and therefore lends itself really easily to being made into gnocchi. I love eating gnocchi this way, just simply pan-fried and drizzled with some truffle oil and sea salt. Click here to see the recipe.

Warm, Hearty Soups

Ahh, autumn is the perfect time to enjoy comforting bowls of warm, hearty soup. I love blended soups, especially when they are made without cream. This creamy kabocha soup with a kick uses no cream yet comes out velvety smooth, sweet, and super addictive.

Maple Butternut Squash Soup

Another simple soup that I like to make is a classic butternut squash soup. Serve in its own shell for fun.

I made this celeriac apple potato soup based on an inspiration from a meal at Upstairs on the Square. It's simple, hearty, and perfect for those chilly nights. It's also a great way to use up those apples you got from apple picking!

Desserts

Who doesn't love mochi? Instead of the traditional pumpkin pie, try this pumpkin mochi cake. Or better yet, make it with Japanese pumpkin (kabocha) for a twist (Kabocha Mochi Cake).

Bryan dreamed up this creative interpretation of the traditional apple pie - inside out apple pies! All you need is a muffin tin and a really sharp knife. They present beautifully and are eco-friendly too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Don't forget to spend some time this long weekend reflecting on all things for which you are thankful. In the hectic nature of these last few weeks leading up to the new year, it's easy to forget!

November 21, 2013 Japan

Ramen Honda (Tokyo Station Ramen Street)

This is the fourth post in the Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka series. Other posts in this series include the intro post: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, Matsugen (delicious soba), and Sushi Iwa.

The past few years have been very exciting for ramen aficionados.

Two words: Ramen Street

It's exactly what it sounds like: eight of the city's top ramen places - in a row - serving swoon-worthy bowls of noodles at one of the most convenient intersections of the entire city. For a ramen-seeker, it's a dream come true. Forget trekking around the city to random out-of-the-way places, just to seek out ethereal bowls of noodles.

Now, they are all right at Tokyo Station - just about as central of a location as you can imagine. It's where both the Narita Express and the train from Haneda International Airport drop you into the city. It's where you pick up the Shinkansen (bullet train) to all sorts of neighboring cities, like Kyoto, Osaka, or Kobe. It's where Japan Rail, the Tokyo subway, and the Keio Line all converge.

Since the original four noodle stands came in 2009 and four additional ones in 2011, there's arguably no better or more concentrated single location for ramen (well, except for maybe the Ramen Museum in Yokohama, but that's far!).

Really, there's almost no excuse not to stop by Ramen Street.

We took the JR Yamanote line to get there, but as I mentioned above, there are countless ways to arrive at this station. The station is huge, and I must confess that the first time I tried to find Ramen Street (about a year ago), for some reason I couldn't find it (thought I did find Character Street, another super fun area in Tokyo Station). Look for exits pointing to the Yaesu Central Exit. Once you exit, turn right.

{Yes, there are "Women Only" areas in the train - much more important during rush hour!).

It's pretty much impossible to avoid waiting in line. It seems like Japanese people love their ramen at all hours of the day. Thankfully, our wait was only about 20 minutes, which isn't too bad.

Oh, you do have to buy your tickets for your order before getting in line. We had just gotten in line when a lady came by asking us for our tickets. Oops! We had to get out of line to purchase them. Thankfully, she came by pretty immediately so we hadn't really moved that far in line before having to step out.

The machines are only written in Japanese, so it's a bit stressful if you don't read the language. I can read a tiny bit of Japanese (plus I can sort of read Chinese), but it was still hard. They do have certain buttons marked as "most popular!" or "No. 1!", so if in doubt you can always choose one of those.

And then the torturous wait begins. Thankfully, there are seats as you get closer to the front of the line.

We were finally seated after about a 20-minute wait. It's amazing how efficient the whole operation is, actually. Once you enter, you don't wait that long before beautiful, hot piping bowls of noodles appear right in front of you.

Here is a Tsukemen, or "dipping noodles" with chashu (roast pork) and a poached egg. Aren't those gorgeous pieces of pork?

You dip the noodles into this rich, velvety "broth" (or shall I call it sauce, it was so thick!), which is made with a combination of fish and pork bone broth. It was deeply rich, superbly satisfying, and overall fantastic.

And slurping is totally encouraged.

We also got a bowl of their shoyu (soy sauce based) noodles, whose broth is made from a combination of chicken and fish stock.

This was also very good, with a perfect, super yellow yolk.

You can order supplementary sides for about 300 yen (about $3) each. Here is a simple chashu over rice topped with Japanese negi (onions).

Here is a more complex side dish, with chashu, bamboo shoots, and a boiled egg over rice. Personally, I thought the ramen provided plenty of food, but I guess if you have a larger appetite it's nice to have some "snack" you can order on the side.

Overall, we had a great time there. Personally, I might give Rokurinsha (also at Ramen Street, but with more than an hour's wait that day) an edge for the flavor of the broth in the tsukemen. However, everything at Honda Ramen was still very, very good.

Most of the ramen costs between $8-$10 USD, with the "sides" costing around $3. Do remember to bring cash though, since I don't think the machines accept foreign credit cards (or any card, for that matter).

The original location of Honda Ramen is an inconvenient 15 minute walk from a train station north of the city. This is most certainly a much easier way to access these delicious noodles.

Tokyo Ramen Street
B1F Yaesu South Exit, Tokyo Station (First Avenue Tokyo Station B1F South Street)
Access by exiting through the Central Yaesu exit and turning right.
General Hours 11:00-22:30 (kitchen closes at 22:00), though hours vary by shop

November 19, 2013 Japan

Sushi Iwa

This is the third post in the Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka series. Other posts in this series include Matsugen (delicious soba) and the intro post: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka.

A popular first thing to do in Tokyo following a long, tiring flight is, surprisingly, to get up at 4AM the next morning to visit the daily auction at the world famous Tsukiji Fish Market.

The rationale goes like this: since you're super jet-lagged anyway upon arriving in Japan, why not take this opportunity to visit the one place where you have to be up at a crazy hour anyway?

I had the same thought.

After all, in the past several visits to Tokyo, I never saw the live auction at Tsukiji. I came close - once - with my mom and sister when I was still in high school. We just missed the actual auction, though we did manage to see up close and personal huge whole tuna fish, vendors cutting up ultra fresh sashimi, and all those interesting wheeled vehicles full of seafood roaming around.

Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder to see the live auction. The influx of tourists made the crowds so unwieldy, there is now a hard limit to the number of tourists who can enter per day. Only 60 people can enter the space at once, in two waves: one at 5:25 AM, and one at 5:50AM. It's first come first serve, so there's a chance you could get up super early, stand in line, and still not be able to enter.

Furthermore, they are renovating and expanding the entire market, so the historic, crowded, crazy market as we know it today will soon cease to exist.

Despite all those reasons to visit now, we still ended up not going. After a long flight from the U.S., it's exhausting to imagine just sleeping a few hours before getting up again super early to watch the auction. We were all starting to get sick and didn't want the lack of sleep to incapacitate us for the entire trip. Plus, the risk of potentially getting up early and still missing the auction would just be too, too disappointing.

So we chose not to go.

Someday. I swear, someday I will make it out there.

At least, as a consolation prize of sorts, we were still able to enjoy the fruits of the market.

After visiting the market in Tsukiji, most tourists eat "sushi breakfast" at one of the many sushi restaurants nearby. The most popular places have insanely long lines (2-3 hours is not uncommon). The fish is fresh and the prices are good, but you do pay for it by standing in line for hours.

A sushi breakfast at one of these places will run you around 3800 yen ($38 USD), a pretty good price considering the freshness and quality of the fish. Don't be fooled into thinking this is the best sushi you can find in Tokyo, though. It's decent, but it's not even close to the best.

For much higher quality sushi, consider heading down a few blocks to a place like Sushi Iwa (one Michelin star), where sushi lunch starts at 4750 yen (a mere $10 USD more), there's no multi-hour wait in line, and you can eat at a reasonable time.

We had a fantastic lunch here. It was nice being able to sleep in, get well-rested, and then leisurely show up for our 11:30AM lunch reservation.

Sushi Iwa is tinywith only six counter seats. I was surprised I was able to make a reservation with relative ease, booking a mere two weeks before my arrival.

Not all sushi places will do this, but Sushi Iwa gives you wakame (kelp) to munch on as well as hot miso soup.

For lunch, the chef gave us a choice of 10 pieces or 13 pieces. We opted for the 13-piece lunch, which cost around ¥8000 ($80). In general, lunch prices range between ¥4,725 to ¥15,750 (roughly $48 to $158), which is much cheaper than dinner ¥18,900-26,250 ($189 to $263).

A sushi tasting usually starts with lighter, white fish, such as Tai (red snapper). Usually, the sushi chef seasons the nigiri for you. The wasabi is nestled inside between the rice and the fish (in this case, Hirame or fluke) while the soy sauce is brushed on the outside. You don't get a separate dish of soy sauce or any dollops of wasabi for dipping.

We also had Kampachi (amber jack), which I sadly forgot to photograph.
You can either eat with your hands or use chopsticks. Though most pieces are nigiri (fish on top of rice), sometimes you'll see this gunkan-style sushi (translated as "warship" sushi, invented at Kyubey!). Here is a gunkan-style Kaibashira, which translates to mean "adductor muscle of a shellfish" (tiny scallops in this case).
We were intrigued by the unusual preparation of Ika (squid) here. The sushi chef sliced crazy thin sheets using just his knife. He then julienned these slices some more, finally bringing it all together like this: It was super tender and delicious. Nothing beats the tuna in Japan, called Maguro or Akami. Iwa ages all of his tuna, which results in a softer, more tender, and more deeply flavored piece of fish. One of my favorites is seared Toro (tuna belly).
I loved the meticulous artistry that went into every piece, like the perfectly spaced cuts in this piece of Kohada (gizzard shad).Aji (horse mackerel), came with a tiny dollop of leek "pesto" on top.Ikura (salmon roe) in Japan has absolutely no element of fishiness, and I actually enjoy it here. Here is a much larger scallop, called Hotate.
True practitioners of Edo-style sushi (serving only seafood that comes out of Tokyo Bay) will only serve Anago (saltwater eel) and never Unagi (freshwater eel). I actually prefer Anago, which I find to be sweeter, more tender, and a bit lighter in flavor. Lime is a common At the end of most sushi meals, the chef will make a maki roll.
Here, the chef makes a maki with Toro (tuna belly) and Maguro (tuna).
Isn't that absolutely beautiful?
It was a great first sushi meal in Japan. We had allowed ourselves to sleep a solid 9-10 hours after crashing the night before (following our reasonably light Matsugen soba meal). It was nice to roam around Ginza just briefly before our 11:30 AM reservation (though it also surprised us that most department stores in Ginza do not open intil 11AM! - late culture!).

The food is very good here. It doesn't quite reach the ultimate perfection of the top sushi places we've visited, such as Sukiyabashi Jiro, Sushi Mizutani, or Sushi Sawada. However, it was significantly better than the sushi we've had at Tsujiki Fish Market (though, to be fair, we've never lined up at the two most popular places).

Like most sushi restaurants in Japan, this one has no English signs out front, so you'll have to look for the Japanese characters (see sign below). Thankfully, this restaurant faces the street (unlike many that are either in basements or in highrises), so it's a bit easier to find the sign!

Sushi Iwa
8-5-25 Ginza, Chuo-ku
Tokyo, Japan
Tel: 03-3572-0955

November 18, 2013 Asian

Birthday Totoro and Domo Fun

We interrupt the Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka series just briefly for a fun post on some Japanese anime inspired dishes I made for my birthday.

Yes, today's my birthday.

It's been interesting looking at my blog and seeing what I've done in past years to celebrate. Time flies so quickly, it's kind of crazy!

Back in 2009, Bryan and I went to New York City to enjoy an exquisite dinner at Daniel, a meal that just felt perfect in every single way.

In 2010 I had the privilege of being in Tokyo on my birthday (what a treat!), where I shopped for fun kitchen gadgets during the day in Kappabashi and then enjoyed a wacky, creative tasting menu at Tapas Molecular Bar in the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo - complete with stunning views of Tokyo down below.

In 2011, we stayed in Boston, enjoying a fabulous white Alba truffle tasting at the Chef's Table at Menton. And in 2012, we were in Australia celebrating Bryan's parents' retirement. After hiking all day in the Blue Mountains, we headed over to Din Tai Fung in Sydney for dinner. Yep, they let me pick any restaurant I wanted and that's what I chose.

What a crazy past five years!

This year I had a bit of fun with some Totoro and Domokun themed dishes that I made. Here's how I did it.

I made the Totoro Carrot by carving out one of my big carrots from my Siena Farms CSA. This mainly involves having lots of patience and using high quality knives. The eyes are cut from the thin root tip of a parsnip (I picked a part of the root where the circumference was the right size).

The belly is also parsnip, from a thicker part of the root. The eyes are black sesame seeds, and the nose is cut out from a purple carrot, though you can use almost any sort of dark colored thin sheet (e.g., eggplant skin, nori, etc). The leaf on his head is cilantro and his belly lines are bits of leeks.

Totoro soba noodles are really easy to make. Once you make the cold soba according to the package's instructions, just lay the noodles down on a plate (ideally on top of some sort of green background, like a bed of lettuce + scallions) and shape it accordingly. The eyes are parsnip, the eye balls are purple kohlrabi skin (though you can use eggplant, nori, etc), and the belly is kohlrabi as well. I used either a sharp knife or a pair of scissors to cut out the appropriate shapes.

I carved out the Domokun from a huge purple kohrabi I had received in my farm share last week. The pink inside his mouth is a thinly sliced watermelon radish, which I sort of tucked inside underneath the teeth. The rest of him is kohrabi. I drew the eyes with edible food coloring markers.

I also made a Domo "Taiwanese Meat Sauce" (lower right corner) by using Shitake mushrooms as his eyes, mashed beets as his mouth, and teeth hand cut from a thin kohlrabi slice. The Domo cake on the left corner was brought by a friend.

Fun times!

Tonight, I'll be headed to Uni Sashimi Bar with Bryan. It will be the first time I'm trying it since Chef Tony Messina joined on. I haven't tasted his cooking since 2009 when he won the S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef's competition in New England. He was working in the burbs for awhile, but just last year joined Uni Sashimi Bar.

I can't wait!

November 15, 2013 Japan

Matsugen

This is the second post in the Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka series. Other posts in this series include the intro post: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka.

It's funny how soba hasn't really caught on here in the U.S., (unlike the insane ramen craze going on right now), even though it's a huge deal in Japan.

The Japanese love their noodles.

They have dedicated noodles houses that specialize in just one type of noodle. Of course there are the ramen shops (the Japanese are obsessed about ramen too!), but there are also specialty udon restaurants, soba places, and even yakisoba houses.

I was surprised at the relatively large number of soba restaurants with Michelin stars (Tokyo alone has eight such restaurants), and the paucity (or shall I say absence) of Michelin starred ramen or udon restaurants (yep, not a single one). Even though in America we view all of these Japanese noodles as reasonably casual, clearly it's not that way in Japan - at least when it comes to the art of really good soba.

We decided to seek out Matsugen for a number of reasons.

First of all, it was close to our hotel in Ebisu. We knew we would be arriving at around 7PM after a long 14-hour flight from the U.S. We figured we would be tired, jet-lagged, and likely wouldn't want to travel far for food (or spend a long time eating it).

Second, this restaurant became famous when Jean George Vongerichten, the three-Michelin star French chef with numerous restaurants around the world, declared Matsugen as his favorite soba restaurant in the world.

"These fresh noodles are the best I've ever had" he proclaimed.

He was so impressed after trying it in Japan, he somehow managed to convince the owners, the Matsushita brothers, to open one in New York.

Sadly, the soba craze never completely caught on in New York, and the newly opened Matsugen closed in March of 2011 after being open for only three years. The brothers moved back to Tokyo, where they continue to run their other restaurants in Japan.

Without good soba anywhere near me (yep, Boston does not have a single soba restaurant), I was insanely curious about this highly revered place that first peaked Jean George's interest.

Matsugen in Tokyo is very foreigner friendly. They have menus written in English and the staff try hard to work with you. Furthermore, the brothers speak excellent English, probably due to the fact that they spent close to three years in New York.

I absolutely loved our first appetizer, Kumiage Yuba, a creamy, soft tofu skin that reminded me of luscious buratta, but with a rich, sweet soy flavor. This delectable, smooth custard was served with freshly grated wasabi and soy milk. It was fantastic.

We had originally ordered grilled fava beans.

The server came back, profusely apologized, and told us that they were out of fava beans.

"Is edamame OK?"

Inside, I groaned a bit. Edamame is so boring. We can get that anywhere in the U.S. - even at your local supermarket in the frozen section.

However, I agreed, not knowing what else to do.

Can I tell you how utterly surprised and pleasantly blown away I was by how good this dish was? Wow. Grilled edamame is nothing like the boiled variety. It's got this char-grilled smokiness that is incredibly good and hopelessly addictive. Add just a dash of salt and you have the perfect pre-dinner snack. I could not get enough of it.

For fun we ordered Soba Daki, which they translated to soba "gnocchi." It was essentially a dumpling made out of ground soba flour that was boiled and served in the water in which it was boiled. It was surprisingly light and not really seasoned at all.

I think the point was to enjoy the subtle flavors of the soba. No one at the table really loved it, seeing it instead as this dense, slightly gummy, heavy blob of not-so-flavorful carbohydrates that would make us too full for the rest of our meal.

My friend ordered a tempura hot soba noodle soup, which came with the crispy fried tempura on the side. This is a nice touch, as it preserves the crispiness of the tempura and allows you to add it at your own pace throughout the meal.

All of their soba flour is ground at the restaurant and the soba is freshly made each day. Soba tends to get soft quickly, so it's important to eat it fast if you're having the soup version. We definitely noticed a difference in texture, and preferred the cold noodles because they stayed nice and al dente throughout the entire meal.

I ordered the houe special, called Matsugen Soba, which included a variety of vegetables, nori, bonito flakes, fresh wasabi, scallions, and Japanese ginger, all topped with a perfectly cooked quail egg. It was refreshingly, healthy, and quite flavorful. The texture of the cold noodles was excellent - nice and chewy.

Bryan ordered his favorite - Uni Soba. The uni was fresh and sweet - none of that "stink" that you get with uni in the U.S. Overall the dish was very good, though Bryan still longed for the super thick cut soba that we had enjoyed at another excellent soba restaurant in Ebisu.

On a whim, right at the end of the meal (after still feeling like he was missing out on really good soba texture), Bryan asked about ordering thicker soba. The server recommended their Inaka Soba, which is soba made from flour that has been ground up with the husks. The resulting noodle has little specs of husk throughout as well as a deeper, earthier flavor.

I loved it.

I am so glad that Bryan decided to order it. It turned out to be my favorite dish of the entire evening (well, maybe it's a tie between that, the edamame, and the tofu). This special type of soba had superior texture to all the other sobas that we had eaten earlier. Why hadn't we just ordered this one instead?

This soba is meant to be enjoyed on its own. You just eat it with a simple soy-based soba dipping sauce.

Honestly, I think that's the best way to go.

I loved this restaurant. It was small, cozy, and felt really authentically Japanese yet was foreigner friendly at the same time. The food is excellent. I would totally go back, order a few appetizers, and just get that simple inaka soba.

We chatted a bit with one of the brothers on our way out. When he found out we were from Boston, he said, "oh yes, Boston. I lived in New York for a couple years. We had a restaurant there."

Although I'm sad that Matsugen is now gone from New York, I'm happy that the brothers were able to return to their home country, which is where they really wanted to be. I think there's still one open in Hawaii, so if you really want to stay in America but still experience their soba, you can try the Honolulu one.

Of course, I'd much rather just go to Japan.

Hiroo 1-3-1, Hagiwara Bldg. 1F.
[on the left side of Meiji-dori going towards Hiroo]
Open 11:30am-3, 5pm-midnight daily.

November 13, 2013 Asian

New series! Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka

I've been dying to share this new series with you.

It's different from all my other Japan posts up to this point.

In the past, whenever I followed Bryan to Japan on one of his business trips, we always had to stay in Tokyo. As a result, I knew next to nothing about any other cities in Japan.

This time, things were different. For once, Bryan wasn't here on business. We specifically planned a separate Japan trip with friends. For the first time, we bought JR Rail passes and ventured outside the capital. Though we only had eight days, we managed to spend some quality time in both Kyoto (gorgeous, gorgeous place by the way) and Osaka, a neighboring self-proclaimed food-obsessed city that's only a 14 minute shinkansen (bullet train) ride away.

Here's a peek at some of the places we visited, to be explored in much more detail in this new series: Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka.

Autumn is the perfect time to visit Japan, especially Kyoto, a city filled with meticulously kept zen gardens.

On our first night - fresh off the plane - we headed straight for this soba restaurant that Jean-Georges Vongerichten loved so much he convinced the owners to move to New York to open another location (now closed).

Instead of waiting in long lines at Tsukiji Fish Market for "sushi breakfast", we headed down the street to enjoy a fabulous and reasonably priced one-star Michelin sushi lunch.

Can you make maki more perfect than this? Seriously impressed.

We tried modern kaiseki for the first time at a very famous three-star Michelin restaurant in Roppongi.

Instead of wine, they paired sake with each course.

We finally made it out to Ramen Street at Tokyo Station (after just missing it last time), and it was totally worth the reasonable wait in line.

Of course, we had to go to Bryan's favorite place in the world, Yodabashi Camera at Akihabara.

We took our friends to some of our favorite places, like this ethereal two-star Michelin tempura restaurant in Ginza.

Though we were unable to book Jiro this time, we did visit his protege, who is still my favorite sushi master in the world.

Bryan's birthday occurred during our trip, so he picked a few restaurants at which to celebrate, such as this fantastic and reasonably priced three-star Michelin restaurant in Osaka that specializes in grilled meats.

In Kyoto, we had fantastic udon right near the beautiful temple called Ginkaku-ji, or Silver Pavilion (pictured at the top).

We tried traditional kaiseki for the very first time on Bryan's birthday. The experience was a fascinating peek into the lifestyle of the nobility of the imperial court.

The food at this three-star kaiseki was exquisite.

In Kyoto, we visited the famous bamboo forests at Arashiyama.

And then hiked (a bit) through the forest to a remote tofu restaurant hidden off the beaten path.

Some say it is the best tofu restaurant in all of Japan.

Our last day in Kyoto, we visited Fushimi Inari Shrine, a fascinating path on a hill lined with hundreds of torii gates, some dating back as early as the year 711 (!).

We tasted the most famous street dishes of Osaka one evening, sampling bites of okonomiyaki and takoyaki at Dotonburi, a crazy, bustling night area in Osaka.

On our last day in Tokyo before our flight, we stopped by one of our favorite tonkatsu places for a quick lunch.

For dinner, we had unusual sushi at a place that's not very well known to westerners, but is highly regarded within Japan. Black vinegared rice, shrimp, and yuzu powder or cod sperm sac, anyone?

It was a fantastic trip. Unlike past trips where Bryan was usually here for business (and thus working a lot of the time), this was a dedicated vacation with friends. It was awesome.

Stay tuned for detailed posts on many of the above mentioned restaurants!

UPDATE: Here are all the posts!
Sushi Iwa
Ramen Honda (Tokyo Ramen Street)
Ryugin, Omen (udon)
Shouraian (tofu)
Dotonbori in Osaka (street food)
Taian (3-star Michelin)
Sushi Sho/Shou (Chef Keiji Nakazawa)
Nakamura (3 star Michelin kaiseki)

November 10, 2013 Boston

Tavern Road

Cochon de lait (deep fried head cheese), Chicken Rillette, Duck Prosciutto, Lamb Salumi, Lardo, Coppa di Testa ($15 for half board, $30 for full board)

It wasn't that long ago when most people in America would be grossed out by the idea of eating chicken hearts, pig's heads, or whole fish.

Growing up in a Taiwanese household, I was no stranger to the likes of chicken feet, pig's ears, or fish heads on the table. However, it wasn't until the last 5-10 years that I have started to see these items appear more often in the American upscale dining scene. In conjunction with the desire to eat local and seasonal foods, the movement towards eating "nose-to-tail" has permeated the food culture in Boston (and many other parts of the US).

Tavern Road, a new restaurant opened in February 2013 by brothers Michael and Louis DiBicarri, most certainly embraces and pushes the envelope of this movement.

Louis DiBicarri, the chef part of the duo, is very serious about this. Louis regularly brings whole pigs, lambs, and birds into the kitchen. He makes an effort to use every part of the animal. Tavern Road often feature an "animal of the day", a special menu of dishes all made from one animal. Louis cures his own meat, makes his own sausage, and invents all sorts of other creations using various animal parts. Tavern Road regularly host whole animal dinners based on an entire locally raised animal.

In fact, the night we were dining there, they had just done a few whole lamb dinners a couple days earlier. Above you can see Chef Louis picking and separating out the meat, eyes, and tongues from several lamb heads. [links lead to rest of my photos from this to protect those that are squeamish]

warm fresh ricotta, cranberry jam, roasted hazelnuts, rye $12

I had an opportunity to check out Tavern Road last week during a media dinner that they hosted. It was a great opportunity not only to taste Chef Louis's current fall menu, but also to have a chance to talk to him and learn a little about his philosophy and thoughts behind the restaurant.

Louis shared with us a very special Whipped Lardo with Fig Jam. The lardo came from a pig that was raised by a local family who only raises a couple of pigs at a time with great care. According to Louis, these pigs are among the most beautiful ones he's ever seen. He has started the curing process for a lot of the meat from this pig, so I definitely look forward to some really incredibly tasting prosciutto and coppa to appear in a few months!

I found the lardo to be rich, buttery, yet light and airy.

The Sun Choke Soup ($12) was a rich, creamy soup anchored by the flavor of curry and accented by roasted walnuts and dried cranberries. It was creamy and surprisingly sweet, probably inherently from the sunchokes themselves. I found the flavors to be unusual yet interesting. I wished for just a tad more salt, though overall the soup was enjoyable.

When asked about favorite dishes of the night, more than one diner chose this soup.

Sautéed Mussels ($14) were cooked with prosciutto in a butternut squash and beer broth and sprinkled throughout with pomegranate seeds. The salty prosciutto did a good job of balancing out the butternut squash and beer broth, which was pretty sweet. Certain bites that didn't have prosciutto tasted too sweet and unbalanced, but the bites with proscuitto were quite good.
I loved the Risotto of Foraged Mushrooms, a dense, creamy risotto made with marscapone cheese and topped with pine nuts and a crispy chicken skin. Even though the risotto itself was already pretty good, the crispy chicken skin elevated it to another level. I loved both the textural crunch and the savory umami that accompanied each bite with the chicken skin.

Louis makes a chicken skin BLT which he serves during lunch at TR Street Foods, the take-out lunch stand adjacent to Tavern Road. Apparently, it has quickly become one of the most popular sandwiches on the menu. I'm not surprised. That chicken skin is pretty tasty.

Entrees at Tavern Road are pretty generously sized and do not include sides. Similar to a steak house model, you order your meat and then order sides that are easily shared. The beautiful Lamb Osso Buco ($24) was perfectly cooked and had beautiful flavors. The meat was super soft and easily fell off the bone. This dish was served over a chickpea puree with harissa and topped with Sparrow Arc radishes. Several of the diners chose this dish as their favorite.

The restaurant had recently hosted a whole lamb dinner the previous couple nights. They had an extra leg, which they served to us. This whole Leg of Lamb is good for 2-3 people and would cost in the ballpark of $50.

It was seriously huge. It's hard to get a sense when it's picture by itself, so I though I'd hold it up so you could see how gigantic it is. The leg was simply roasted and definitely had that characteristic gamey lamb flavor. I'm actually not a huge fan of that gaminess, so I didn't love the lamb. I preferred the lamb osso buco, which was not nearly as gamey. If Bryan had been there, I'm sure he would have loved it, since he loves lamb.

All of the sides at Tavern Road are vegetarian. My favorite was this pan fried White Sweet Potato Gnocchi ($8), which was tossed with Brussels sprouts, apples, and smoked maple. I especially enjoyed the chewy-on-the-inside yet crunchy pan-fried exterior of the gnocchi.
This hearty Spaetzle ($8), baked with Gruyere cheese and cherry peppers, was rich, heavy, and really reminded me of a fancy mac & cheese. It was pretty tasty though I didn't really taste any heat from the cherry peppers. It was hard to eat more than a few bites since it was so dense. Definitely share this one. It may look small, but it's rich!

Roasted Golden Beets and Cauliflower ($8), served with dates and horseradish, was OK but nothing particularly special. The beets were a bit pickled (or maybe vinegared) and the horseradish flavor was pretty mild.

All of their pastas are made from scratch in-house. The meat, of course, can come from all different sources depending on what whole animal is in the house. Pictured above is their House Made Tagliatelle with Smoky Pork Sausage Bolognese ($20). I did not get to taste this dish, unfortunately, so I can't comment on it, though it does look fantastic.
For a long time, Tavern Road did not have an official dessert program, offering just simple ice cream or a chocolate chip cookie at the end of the meal. More recently, they have hired a part-time pastry chef who used to work at Sel de la Terre. Now, the menu is full of comfort desserts, such as fruit tarts with ice cream, chocolate torts, various flavored ice creams, and a generous cookie plate.

Chef Louis said he wanted sundaes and cookies because "I'm a kid and that's what I wanted."

I did want to mention the beverage program, run by beverage director Ryan McGrale. Ryan McGrale comes from No. 9 Park and trained with some of the best mixologists in the world in New York City before coming to Tavern Road. I was extremely impressed with my cocktail, which is saying a lot, since I'm really picky about my cocktails (I hardly order cocktails at restaurants because I'm generally disappointed with them). They often get the overflow crowd from Drink, a craft cocktail bar just down the street, and probably surprise people with the quality of their drinks.

The server recommended that I try a drink that wasn't on the menu. For the life of me, I can't remember the exact ingredients, but I'm pretty sure it had maraschino, lime juice, mezcal, and aperol. It came with one of those huge ice cubes that almost takes up the entire glass. It was fantastic - definitely one of the better cocktails I've had in a long time.

All in all, Tavern Road is a fun restaurant. The people are friendly, the space is fun, and the food is enjoyable. I did find the noise level of the restaurant to be just a bit too loud for conversation across larger tables (though I had no trouble hearing the girl sitting next to me). I'm not sure if it was due to the loud music, the conversation levels, or a mixture of both.

I was most impressed with Chef Louis's expertise on meat. The charcuterie plate was by far my favorite item on the menu, with the lamb osso buco coming in a solid second. The appetizers and sides are fun, creative, and generally solid. The drinks are also excellent.

It's still early (Tavern Road has been open only since February 2013) and Chef Louis still has a ton of ideas up his sleeve for different fun things he wants to try at the restaurant (e.g., more whole animal dinners, a huge rotisserie in the open kitchen, etc). It's refreshing to see such excitement and energy, and I look forward to seeing what they do next.

Tavern Road 343 Congress St
Boston, MA 02210

Disclaimer - the cost of this media meal was paid for by Tavern Road.

November 7, 2013 Wine

Martha's Vineyard Food & Wine Festival 2013

This is the second part of a two-part series about my weekend trip to Martha's Vineyard. The first half of the series is here: Autumn at Martha's Vineyard.

Imagine . . .

A huge tent at which you have unlimited access to delectable bites from some of the best restaurants in and around Boston, artisanal jams and chocolates from local vendors, and all sorts of wine, beer, and spirits from all around the country.

On top of all that, multi-course wine dinners with different themes (opera anyone?), workshops about everything ranging from backpacking through Europe to wine + chocolate pairings, and gorgeous, gorgeous scenery all around.

It was a whirlwind weekend full of activity at the Martha's Vineyard Food & Wine Festival, which was held October 17-20 (just about peak foliage season here in Massachusetts!).

They could not have picked a better location at which to host the events: the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown.

The views from the hotel are magnificent. I loved the walk you can take out to the lighthouse and the beach. It's such a quiet, peaceful stroll and I did it multiple times - often arriving early so I could wander around a bit.

Our day started early.

After catching the 8:15 AM ferry from Woods Hole, we arrived on the island right around 9AM. We found out it was too early to check into our hotel, so we headed straight for the Harbor View Hotel. There's a restaurant right on the ground floor called Water Street, which has stunning views of the water and the lighthouse.
We met up with Rebecca from Foodie with Family and her husband Lindy, who were also in town for the festival. It was hard to pick what we wanted to eat (everything looked so good!), but we finally settled on the dishes you see below.

We all started with some Honeysuckle raw oysters, classic New England "briny" but also sweet and flavorful.

Rebecca and I chose the "Duck Trap" for our main course, which - contrary to what its name might imply - had absolutely no duck in it. Instead, it consisted of hickory smoked salmon, potato pancakes, topped with capers, pickled onions, and rainbow trout row. It was excellent.

Bryan got the "Legs and Eggs", a playful and fancier interpretation of chicken and waffles with a poached egg. The fried chicken was fantastic (albeit a pretty small portion), and went very well with the waffle and velvety sauce from the runny poached egg. Lindy got "The Stack", buttermilk pancakes with berries, which he thought was great.

After brunch we headed over to the very historic Edgartown Inn, a storied inn that has housed the likes of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Daniel Webster, and John F. Kennedy. Built in 1798, the building itself definitely feels old (I could feel the steps creak as I walked up), yet it has a ton of character.

I loved our bright, airy room, which had a little deck outside facing the town street.

After a packed afternoon biking around Martha's Vineyard, we headed back over to Water Street Restaurant at the Harbor View Hotel for the opening reception.

Rebecca and I met up with Marnely, a chef working in Martha's Vineyard who also writes the blog Cooking with Books. Marnely was a gracious host who took super good care of us the entire weekend.

There was a lot of wine being poured. One of the favorites of the night was the Joseph Carr Cabernet Sauvignon. We each received two drink tickets. Since I'm a lightweight, Bryan used my second ticket and went back to get yet another glass of the Joseph Carr Cab.

There were all sorts of fun little appetizers being passed around, such as soba noodles on chopsticks (cute!), raw tuna with popcorn, and grilled octopus (a favorite!).

There were also baked oysters, several different types of cheese, and a gorgeous vegetable spread with heirloom carrots, Brussels sprouts, and grape tomatoes.

After the kick-off ended, Marnely recommended that we go to the brick cellar bar at Atria, one of the best known burger places on the island.

The burgers were excellent here. We ordered four to share. Though all the burgers were delicious, everyone's favorite was the Pay Day, a decadent burger filled with black truffle aioli, arugula, forest mushrooms, red wine reduction, and seared foie gras ($26).

The Dante’s Inferno was a blackened burger with poblano pepper, pepper jack, jalapeño-tomato salsa, and avocado ($16). According to the menu, "the habanero pepper garnish is f’n hot…seriously…fair warning."

Having no fear, Bryan popped the entire habanero in his mouth and proceeded to sweat profusely for 10 minutes afterwards.

"That was hot."

He doesn't regret it one bit, and actually enjoyed it.

We also tried the Fast Eddie, a fantastic burger with avocado, american cheese, sunny side up egg, and apple wood smoked bacon ($16).

We ordered both the truffle fries and ordinary fries, and actually preferred the ordinary fries, which were deliciously crispy and borderline addictive.

By the time we got home it was well past 10PM. Because we had been up since 7AM we quickly fell asleep.

* * * * *

The next morning we drove out to the town of Chilmark (all the way on the other side of the island), to meet Todd from Chilmark Coffee. Todd is a local, artisanal coffee roaster who showed us how he roasts his beans (in this tiny, tiny little shack in his backyard) and also how he taste tests different coffees.

We all went around smelling and then tasting a variety of different beans. I was surprised how little time it took to roast beans. We watched beans go from their native green state to a nicely toasted coffee brown state in just about 20 minutes.

At 10:15 we rushed back to Edgartown in order to make our 11AM Workshop called "Wine 101: the Secrets to Food & Wine Pairing." It was hosted by winemaker Joseph Carr and chef Suvir Saran.

The two were hilarious and they really had great stage chemistry. Not only that, Suvir Saran is an extremely talented chef and the food he made for us was outstanding. It's no surprise, considering that Dévi, where he worked as executive chef, is the only Indian restaurant ever to receive a Michelin star.

These are the pairings that we enjoyed:

1. Joseph Carr Chardonnay with Crab & Salmon Cakes with Spicy Cilantro Aioli
2. Joseph Carr Cabernet with Country Rabbit Terrine with Pistachios and Pernod
3. Joseph Carr Merlot with Braised Kid Shanks and Lentils
4. Josh Cellars Sauvignon Blanc was paired with Farro and Mushroom Burgers

The food and wine pairings were delicious, and the laughter and overall fun atmosphere made the whole workshop go by far too quickly.

In retrospect, Bryan said that was his favorite event of the entire weekend.

In the afternoon, we headed over to the main event - the Grand Tasting.

Housed under a huge tent, food and wine vendors set up stations where attendees could sample all sorts of things.

Instead of individual wineries each taking a tent, we saw several tables that featured several different types of wines. Of course, certain wineries also came to set up their own tents.

I liked how the food and wine vendors were nicely mixed throughout, which meant you could sample a bite, grab some wine, try another bite, and so on.

Most of the food vendors were local, which was a real treat. Effie's, a family business operating out of Hyde Park, Massachusetts, makes the most amazing oakcakes and corncakes.

My personal favorite bite was from O Ya, a gorgeously thick slice of hamachi topped with Santa Barbara uni with a soy-yuzu sauce. It was fantastic. We also really liked the uni cream + ikura cones from the Harbor View Hotel. Scallops from Tremont 647 and bone marrow pasta from Craigie on Main were also super popular.

It was fun to see some familiar Bostonian faces, such as Tony Maws from Craigie on Main and Kirkland Tap & Trotter; and Tim Cushman, Nancy Cushman, and Alyssa DiPasquale from the O Ya family.

Tons of different wine choices.

Here's Bryan trying some more wine from Joseph Carr, being poured by Joseph Carr himself!

There were also open chef demos going on throughout the day. Here is Suvir Saran again, teaching us how to make some classic Indian dishes (it smelled so good, but I didn't get a chance to try the final product).

Finally, on Sunday morning, we went to the last event of the festival: a lovely brunch buffet at Water Street in the Harbor View Hotel.

You could order your own custom omelet, get roasted quail or beef from the carving station, or pick from a large assortment of many other really, really nice dishes. This was definitely not your typical "buffet" spread.

Offerings included things like eggs Benedict, a delicious red potato salad, and rack of lamb with red lentils. I was so excited to see a lobster tail, one of my favorite Italian pastries. Of course, there was also a gourmet salad bar, creamy red pepper soup, and lots and lots of pastries.
And then . . . that was it.

The weekend was over, and it was time to go back.

Back to reality.
It had been an amazingly fun weekend full of food, wine, lots of laughter, a chance to connect with old friends and make some new ones.

On the ferry back to Boston with Leah Mennies, food editor at Boston Magazine and Alyssa DiPasquales, manager and advanced sake professional at O Ya.

I would highly recommend coming to the island to this event. I like how it occurs during a weekend when the weather is still gorgeous yet the island is no longer teeming with people. It was beautiful, relaxing, and just really, really fun.

Thanks Martha's Vineyard for such an amazing weekend!
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Disclaimer: Our lodging and event tickets were provided by the organizers of the event. We paid for our own transportation and any additional food/restaurant costs. All opinions are my own

November 4, 2013 World Travel

Autumn at Martha's Vineyard

There's something serene, quiet, and zen-like about visiting Martha's Vineyard off-season. Gone are the crowds of vacationers filling up the beaches. Missing are the traffic-filled intersections. Sure, some businesses have closed for the season, but there are still several places that stay open all year round.

And you know what?

It's still just as beautiful.

You feel as if you have the place to yourself.

I was mesmerized by the beauty of this island.

Autumn seems to be the perfect time to get away to Martha's Vineyard. It's so restorative just to rest, meditate, and take in the breathtaking scenery. In mid-October, the weather is still comfortable. The leaves are just starting to change color, resulting in gorgeous stretches of foliage.

Bryan and I took the ferry from Woods Hole for a short, weekend trip to Martha's Vineyard the weekend after Columbus Day. Columbus Day weekend is usually considered the last weekend of the season. After that weekend, many businesses begin closing for the winter and the crowds diminish significantly.

We came mainly to attend the Martha's Vineyard Food and Wine Festival, though we also took full advantage of the opportunity to explore the island. I'll be covering the trip in a short two-part series: today's part focuses on the beauty of the island itself while tomorrow's part focuses on all the fantastic food and wine we enjoyed that weekend.

One of my favorite things to do around the Cape and the islands is to bike. There are so many breathtaking and beautiful bike trails that run along the coast and between the various towns. The bike path we took between Edgartown and Oak Bluffs takes you along a route that has fantastic views of water on both sides.

It is stunning.

And peaceful at the same time.

The town of Oak Bluffs is also fun to explore, with its unique architectural style of "gingerbread houses." Bike racks are easy to find, so it's a great place to stop for a snack, such as an ice cream cone!

Edgartown is the largest town on the island, filled with numerous restaurants and shops. We loved walking around the Edgartown Harbor Light and surrounding paths right in front of the Harbor View Hotel.

On the western edge of the island is the stunning Aquinnah Cliffs and the historic lighthouse called Gay Head Light. It's one of the few places on the east coast where you can actually watch the sunset while looking at the ocean.

The lighthouse itself is in danger because it is currently sitting too close (46 feet) from the eroding cliff. A committee has been set up to raise money to move it, which will cost close to three million dollars.

At Edgartown, we witnessed one of the most striking moonrises I have ever seen.

In Vineyard Haven, we marveled at the fiery sunset while waiting for our ferry to arrive.

Night falling over Edgartown Harbor Light.

And finally, one last look at the island as our ferry began heading back towards the "mainland."

Good-by Martha's Vineyard. We hope to be back soon.

Disclaimer: we traveled to Martha's Vineyard to attend the Martha's Vineyard Food & Wine Festival. Our lodging and event tickets were provided by the organizers of the event. We paid for our own transportation and any additional food costs. All opinions are my own.

November 2, 2013 Italian

Pressure Cooker Veal Osso Buco

Brrrrrrr . . . temperatures are quickly dropping here in New England. The leaves have been absolutely stunning outside (I've been posting them on Instagram a lot lately), but it's also getting dark early, which makes me sad.

Daylight Savings "Spring Forward" is one of my favorite days of the year. For a late-riser like me (who doesn't notice that the mornings have gotten so dark - ha ha), I love the extra sunlight I get at the end of my day. Of course, that means "Fall Back" is one of my least favorites, since it means the sun starts setting around 4:00 PM here (no joke - sooo much earlier than what I'm used to in the Midwest).

These cold, dark days naturally draw me back towards the warm, cozy comfort foods associated with winter.

Last year for my birthday Bryan bought me a Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker. I used to be so scared of pressure cookers, but this workhorse makes it easy. Seriously - I have absolutely no fear of anything exploding, and it saves me so much time.

Naturally, I wanted to adapt one of my favorite recipes - a dish I definitely make on a regular basis for guests - for the pressure cooker.

At the same time, I was given an opportunity to create a recipe to pair with wines from this growing Massachusetts-based company called 90+ Cellars.

I was quite drawn to their business model. Essentially, they buy surplus wines from wineries all around the world, re-brand the wines, and then sell the wines at a significant savings (compared to the original price). This allows wineries to sell their excess inventory without having to slash prices on their own branded wines. At the same time, customers of 90+ cellars are able to buy wines at great prices.

There is one caveat - the wines constantly change at 90+ Cellars. If you fall in love with wine, it may be hard to get more of it the following year or season, since their inventory is based solely on surpluses from other wineries. It's a different way of shopping for wine. Instead of relying on the brand name of a winery, you are trusting 90+ Cellars to choose good wines. In fact, I would argue that their ability to pick out good wines at a great price is a crucial component of their success. So far, the business has been growing pretty rapidly, so it certainly seems like they are doing something right.

Since Bryan's a huge fan of Cabernet Sauvignon, we decided to try their 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon from Rutherford, Napa Valley. This wine typically sells for $50 at the source, but is being sold as simply "Lot 94" by 90+ Cellars for $21.99.

The wine's young, for sure. When we tried it immediately out of the bottle, it tasted jammy yet pretty light, with virtually no tannins. There was a slightly bitter finish. It was nice, but lacked depth.

Over time, after some serious decanting and aerating, the wine opened up and became noticeably deeper and more complex in flavor. There was more deep fruit. Overall, however, I would say it's still a reasonably light cab with less tannins than a typical cab. It's perfectly enjoyable to drink and definitely a good value for a $20+ bottle.

I think this wine pairs well with osso bucco Milanese because it's a slightly lighter cab. Unlike a heavy rich steak, I find osso bucco Milanese to be more in the middle of the pack when it comes "hearty-ness" (if there is such a word). Yes, it's a beautifully "meaty" dish, but it also includes a citrus-herb gremolata which brightens up the dish significantly. Plus veal is just a lighter meat than beef, in general.

Now that winter's on the way, I will most certainly be making this dish a lot more - and definitely with the pressure cooker and a nice big bottle of red wine.

Enjoy!

Milanese Veal Osso Bucco
Adapted from Tyler Florence

4 pieces veal shank with bone, cut 2 inches thick
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 bay leaves
1 sprig of rosemary
3 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped
1 cup red wine (can use dry white wine as well)
1 T tomato paste (optional)
2 cups chicken stock (or enough to cover the shanks in the pan)
1 can of chopped tomatoes (14 oz)

In the pressure cooker over medium-high heat, sear all sides of the veal shanks in 1 T oil until nicely browned. Set aside the veal shanks. Add remaining oil and add the chopped onion, celery, carrots, garlic, bay leaves, and parsley and cook until softened (~5-10 minutes). Add the tomato paste and mix well. Add wine, turn up the heat, and deglaze the pan. Add the shanks back in, and pour in the chicken broth and the canned chopped tomatoes. Make sure that the entire shank is covered (or at least mostly covered) in liquid. Cook at the second ring level for about 1 hour, which will make the meat fall-apart soft. It is decent after about 30 minutes, but the texture is much better after 1 hour.

Release the pressure and continue to cook uncovered for about 10 minutes or so to reduce some of the broth.

Serve over saffron rice with gremolata on top.

For a fun twist on gremolata, try this cilantro version!

Cilantro Gremolata
zest of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
minced 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro chopped
splash of lime juice
salt and pepper to taste

Combine the zest, garlic, and cilantro in a bowl. Mix well. Add a splash of lime juice and season to taste with salt and optionally pepper.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: this wine was provided by 90+ Cellars Wines. All opinions are my own.

November 1, 2013 Boston

Let's Go Red Sox!

Dear readers,

I apologize in advance for the lack of posts lately.

Uhhh . . . you see, I've been a bit occupied at night.

I don't usually watch that much TV (which would explain why I usually get so much more stuff done!). But this week, I've been drawn to the television almost every night.

It's been an exciting week for Boston sports fans. I grew up in a city that had no sports teams. I didn't go to my first real baseball game until I was in high school (and that was still minor league - go Toledo Mud Hens!). When I moved to Boston, it just so happened to be the beginning of that era when Boston started doing really, really, well in sports.

Of course, it was infectious. I'd never seen an entire city so passionate about its sports teams.

For example, during the games leading up to the 2004 World Series against the Yankees, our law school professor set aside time to let us watch snippets of important games during class. On my walk back home from the subway station, I walked by restaurants and bars with TVs playing the games everywhere. People talked about it at work. Even if you were a complete sports newbie (which I was), you couldn't help but get caught up in it.

Anyway, it's been (and still is!) a fun ride.

But now . . . back to our regular scheduled program. I've got tons of posts coming up, covering topics such as the Martha's Vineyard Food and Wine Festival, a short series on Montreal, a longer series on my recent trip to Tokyo and Kyoto, snapshots on some of my recent restaurant experiences in Boston, and definitely some cooking posts (I know I've been a bit lackluster in that area lately - I blame it on the ease of roasting all my farm share vegetables this summer!).

Congratulations Boston Red Sox!

October 29, 2013 California

Kamen Estate Winery

This is the ninth and final post in the “An Unforgettable Anniversary Weekend In Sonoma” series highlighting Sonoma Valley and surrounding areas. Other posts in this series include Addendum, El Dorado Kitchen, Basque Boulangerie, A Cycling Wine Tour Through Sonoma Valley, Pride Mountain Vineyards, Blue Bottle Coffee, Sonoma County Wine Weekend, and The Girl & the Fig.

Sometimes your days don't turn out anything like what you expected.

And sometimes, that is a magnificent thing.

Our last day in Sonoma was the date of our actual wedding anniversary. We had started out cycling through a number of vineyards before stopping for a picnic lunch consisting of delectable sandwiches we had picked up during breakfast. The afternoon plan was simple: stop by Figone's for a quick olive oil tasting before heading back to the Plaza in Sonoma Valley for dinner at The Girl & the Fig.

But then, sort of on a whim, we remembered one of the wines that we had loved at Sonoma County Wine Weekend. In fact, we liked it so much we had stopped the people who were holding the bottle and asked them for a photo.

I remember the guy telling me, "Guess what? You've got the man himself right here!"

At the time I wasn't sure exactly what he meant, but it turns out I was taking a photo of the owner, Robert Kamen, as well as his viticulturist, Phil Coturri.

We found out their tasting room was right in Sonoma, just around the corner from our dinner location. Though their website said they closed at 6PM (and we most certainly weren't going to make it by then), Bryan said, "it doesn't hurt to ask."

{Bring Bring}

Hello?

Hi. What time does your tasting room close today?

6PM.

We tried your wine at the Sonoma County Wine Weekend yesterday and totally fell in love with it. We wanted to stop by and see if we could taste your other wines and possibly purchase some. We're probably like 20 minutes away?

Hmmm . . . I’ll have to ask. I can’t promise we’ll be open though, but we’ll try.

It was about 6:10 when we finally arrived. We peered in the closed glass door. There were a few people inside, and one man, who appeared to be the one in control, beckoned us to enter.

“You want to try some wine? Sure, I’ll pour you some wine.”

He immediately pulled out two glasses and began pouring. All made biodynamically, we found his wines to be deep, rich, and nicely complex. We were especially drawn to the Kashmir Cuvee, the special reserve wine we had tried at the festival the day before. The Cabernet Sauvignon was also excellent.

We looked up and saw movie references above our heads. Familiar sayings like “Wax On, Wax Off:, and “I will find you, I will kill you", lined the stark, modern white walls of the space.

It turns out that the owner, Robert Kamen, is a Hollywood screenwriter. He has written tons of films over the last 20+ years, including the Karate Kid series, the Transporter series, The Fifth Element, and Taken. We also met Bianca, one of the wine educators who also worked in the tasting room.

Robert pointed at a pretty photo hanging at the back of the shop. It showed a beautiful sunset with rows and rows of grapevines.

“That’s a photo of the vineyard. If you look in the far distance, you can see San Francisco.”

“It’s so pretty there, especially during sunset. Would you be interested in seeing it? I can take you on a brief tour - we'll just catch the sunset. It’s only three miles from here.”

Bryan and I looked at each other. A private tour by Robert Kamen of his property?

Yes, we were supposed to be at The Girl & the Fig at 7PM. But this seemed like such an incredible opportunity. Thankfully, Bianca was kind enough to help us move our dinner reservation back.

Before you knew it, we found ourselves in Robert Kamen's car, driving up a hilly back road to the vineyard.

It would end up being, by far, the most surreal, beautiful, and fascinating part of our entire trip.

Before long, Robert pointed to a gate on our left. This is the home of one of the band members in Metallica. On the other side of the road stood a piece of property that, until recently, had belonged to Danny Glover.

And then we arrived at the top of the hill. As we entered through the metal gates, Robert began telling us about the history of the property. He had purchased it in 1979 with his paycheck from his first screenplay. The hillside was a blank slate at the time. He put in a ton of work adding dirt roads, piping in water and electricity, and setting up the land for organic farming.

Like these gorgeous vines.

Or these olive trees.

As if that wasn't enough, we spotted a rainbow when we reached the top of the hill.

We were nearly speechless.

We got out of the car.

Robert asked, "Have you ever ridden an ATV?"

Next thing you knew, we were strapped into this tiny little vehicle heading down the narrow dirt paths straight into the vineyard.

"This is how I travel around the property."
Weeee!

The view was spectacular.

Robert explained to us the different types of grapes that were grown and also his commitment to organic and biodynamic farming.

We stopped briefly near some white grapes.

"Try one."

I was surprised how sweet they were. Perhaps it's my own misconception, but I always assumed that wine grapes were really sour and not good for eating. These were super juicy and sweet.

Our next stop was at a fig tree, where Robert picked a few figs for us to eat (you can see the ATV in the back, too).

I have never, ever eaten a fresh fig off the tree. Can I tell you how amazing it is? In fact, my memory of it was so strong that I immediately bought some figs at the grocery store in Boston when I got back.

Sadly, they were nowhere as good as these juicy ones from the Kamen Vineyard grounds.

After taking a brief tour around the vineyard, Robert drove the ATV back up the hill to the house, which seriously has the best view of the vineyard.

The sun was just starting to set, illuminating the sky into brilliant colors.

If you look really hard, you can barely make out San Francisco in the far, far distance.

We stood in silence, marveling at the stunning sunset.

As we drove back to town, the sky continued to turn more and more pink.

It was awe-inspiring.

Even Robert was amazed, pointing out the window during our car ride back.

"Just look at that. Isn't that beautiful? I rarely ever see this here."

It was a perfect way to cap off our anniversary - a gorgeous sunset, a rainbow (!), and a gracious host willing to take a little time out of his day to show us his incredible property.

Truly unforgettable.

* * * * *

Epilogue
We recently received our first shipment of Kamen Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, and we have already finished two bottles. Bryan was thrilled to learn that they ship to Massachusetts (most wineries do not), and therefore it was one of the few wine clubs that we could actually seriously consider joining (and did!). We're saving the Kashmir Cuvee, their special reserve wine that we tried at the festival, for a celebration sometime down the road.

Looking a bit shiny because we had gone for a three hour bike ride earlier that day!

October 24, 2013 California

The Girl & the Fig

This is the eighth post in the “An Unforgettable Anniversary Weekend In Sonoma” series highlighting Sonoma Valley and surrounding areas. Other posts in this series include Addendum, El Dorado Kitchen, Basque Boulangerie. A Cycling Wine Tour Through Sonoma Valley, Pride Mountain Vineyards, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Sonoma County Wine Weekend.

It's always refreshing to find a bistro that just gets it right.

The Girl & the Fig was one of the few places that I had heard of before visiting Sonoma Valley. Owner Sondra Bernstein has done a phenomenal job growing her business. Starting from a small, French bistro in Glen Ellen California in 1997 (which moved to Sonoma Valley in 2000), The Girl & the Fig has since grown into a business that includes the bistro in Sonoma Valley, catering, two cookbooks (Plats du Jour and The Girl & the Fig Cookbook), and a line of Girl & the Fig artisanal products.

Despite the breadth of the business, the actual bistro still feels warm and cozy, like a comfortable neighborhood restaurant. We enjoyed dinner here our last night in Sonoma Valley, and we absolutely loved it.

If it's your first time, you have to try one of their signature cheese plates. We ordered "the works" ($18), which includes three selections of cheese (many are local, though there are cheeses from other places as well), cured meats, seasonal fruit, house-made fig cake, spiced nuts and toasted baguettes.

All the cheeses were excellent (we sort of trusted our waiter to recommend three different ones - a cow's milk, sheep's milk, and goat's milk cheese), and the accompaniments were great as well.

The Grilled Fig and Arugula Salad with Pancetta ($12) is another signature dish. We loved the complementary flavors in this dish - the sweet figs, the peppery arugula, the creamy chèvre, the toasted pecans, and the crispy, salty Mano Formate pancetta all tossed together in a fig and port vinaigrette. It was wonderful.

We also tried the seasonal Fried Green Tomatoes with Corn, which was a lovely dish showcasing seasonal late summer ingredients. Although the flavor combinations were not necessarily groundbreaking, the use of excellent ingredients and solid execution made this dish another winner.

Bryan ordered the Duck Confit, which came with spinach spaetzle, baby whole onions, and carrots. You can either order one leg ($15) or two legs ($24). We actually thought one leg was plenty, since it still came with a generous amount of sides.

I really enjoyed the spaetzle, and Bryan thought overall the dish was excellent.

Sole Meuniere ($25) is a classic French dish and they did it really well. The entire filet was stuffed with cello spinach and then cooked (baked? not sure) in a lemon caper brown butter sauce. The fish was beautifully soft and tender, and I really enjoyed how the bright "pop" from the lemon and capers cut the richness of the rest of the dish (the yukon potato puree and the browned butter sauce).

For dessert we had a Chocolate & Salted Fig Caramel Trifle ($7), which was served with Italian meringue and cocoa nibs. The fig caramel was pretty tasty. Overall the dessert was fine, but nothing particularly exciting.

General Thoughts
I really like this restaurant for a number of reasons. First, I really like how there are many different kinds of options on the menu. You can sample a lot of different little bites, or choose to get one of those larger, heavier entrees. Second, I like how the restaurant itself encourages lighter grazing, even saying on its website "[w]ine flights paired with local artisan cheeses are a popular light meal."

Speaking of wine, the wine list focuses on Rhône varietals from either California or elsewhere. We enjoyed a cinsault from a tiny winery called Frick, which our waiter (who actually happened to be an abstract painter as well) called a "one-man show." This little winery up north in the Dry Creek Valley only produces 1400 cases of wine a year, crafted by hand using traditional winemaking methods.

Finally, I like this place because the food is excellent. I really enjoyed the focus on local and seasonal ingredients executed with solid French techniques. All of the food we had was great, and the restaurant's got a good vibe: it's rustic, relaxing, and comfortable. It's feels like such a quintessential wine country dining experience.

Definitely worth a visit.

The Girl & the Fig
110 W Spain St
Sonoma, CA 95476

Disclaimer: this trip was organized by the Sonoma County Visitor's Bureau. Some of the activities and meals in this series, such as the cost of this meal, were paid for by the organizers of the establishment.

October 22, 2013 California

Sonoma County Wine Weekend

This is the seventh post in the “An Unforgettable Anniversary Weekend In Sonoma” series highlighting Sonoma Valley and surrounding areas. Other posts in this series include Addendum, El Dorado Kitchen, Basque Boulangerie. A Cycling Wine Tour Through Sonoma Valley, Pride Mountain Vineyards, and Blue Bottle Coffee.

Once a year, MacMurray Ranch, a beautiful vineyard high up in the mountains in the Russian River Valley, opens up its doors to the public.This is the Sonoma County Wine Weekend, probably the biggest festival of its kind in this region.

Two hundred wineries from Sonoma County gather together to pour over seven hundred different wines at this historic location, originally purchased by actor Fred MacMurray in 1941. On top of all that, sixty different local chefs prepare delectable bites to pair with these wines.

Then there are the artisanal vendors and the Marketplace, where you can sample fantastic ice cream, delicious cold-brewed coffee, and buy all sorts of artisanal products.It's a full day event, starting at 11AM and ending at 4PM.We totally did not expect to stay for the whole time (who can imagine sampling wines for that many hours?), but shockingly, we did. There is really so much to do, you can easily spend all day there.Here's a detailed look at our day, including many photos of the wines, dishes, and other fun things we tried.

We left at around 10AM, since Healdsburg is pretty far north in the Russian River Valley, quite a distance from Petaluma where we were staying.

You know you're close when you cross this old bridge, so narrow that cars can only cross in one direction at a time. It's a bit scary and I'm not sure how everyone knows what to do. But you basically wait on one end until you think you can go.

We arrived pretty much right at 11:00, and even then, there were already hundreds of people lined up, ready to check into the event.

It was massive, with many outdoor tents full of different food and wine vendors.

It was so big, they even had "road signs" showing you which way to go. Grand Reserve ticket holders (who paid an additional $30 on top of the $165 entrance price) were entitled to taste wines at Club Reserve, where wineries poured their limited production, reserve, and award winning wines.

Personally, I would highly recommend this option if you really enjoy good wine. The prices of these bottles ranged between $75-$200, and there were close to fifty wineries represented in the Club Reserve. It's really a rare opportunity to be able to sample so many good wines at once for only thirty additional dollars.

Plus, if you hate crowds, Club Reserve has a lot fewer people, which makes it a lot more manageable.

We really, really enjoyed almost everything that was poured in this tent.

My favorites were the 32 Winds Pinot Noir, Kamen Estates Kashmir, and the Peter Michael "Les Pavotes" Nights Valley.

Other ones we really liked included Macphail Pinot Noir, Pride Mountain Vineyards Claret Reserve, the Laurel Glen 1999 Sonoma Mountain Carbernet Sauvignon, Clouds Rest 2004 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, Hartford Court 2011 Fog Dance Vineyards Pinot Noir, Gary Farrell 2011 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, Soujourn 2011 Pinot Noir, and Chalk Hill Estates 2010 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon.

Of course, even without trying the reserve wines, there are many, many other great places to visit. You could enter the "Bubble Lounge", where Sonoma's own Gloria Ferrer sparkling wines were being paired with a variety of tastes, such as oysters from The Oyster Girls, paella from The Paella Guy, and other bites from Feast Catering. Come early, though. This lounge had run out of bubblies by mid-afternoon, well before the event was over.

Even if you're not a wine lover, there is plenty of excellent food around to make this even still really, really fun.

After sampling many, many wines in the "morning" (well, from about 11AM to 1PM or so), we felt like we needed a break. Thankfully, there were tons of food vendors serving up all sorts of fantastic dishes from restaurants and caterers all around Sonoma County.

For meat lovers, there was plenty of barbecue, such as these St. Louis cherry-balsamic glazed ribs from Seghesio Family Vineyards and Chef Arthur Chang's delicious southern fried chicken from Drums & Crumbs.

Here is Chef Ken Tominaga and staff from Hana serving their Spicy Tuna Hand Roll (they are such hams!).

We sampled three different fun house-made hot sauces from Bay Laurel Culinary paired with Veracruz Style Fish Tacos from the Gastro Shack.

El Dorado Kitchen served their fantastic Soy Glazed Pork Belly over yuzu compressed watermelon (which we had enjoyed a few nights ago). Jordan Vineyard and Winery served Summer Poke. The Chilled Heirloom Tomato Bisque topped with caviar and creme fraiche from Peloton Catering was refreshing and delicious. There were so many great looking bites, we actually started to get full and had to start making decisions about what we had room to eat!

Bryan, who totally has a weakness for mac & cheese, gravitated towards these Fried Mac & Cheese "lollipop" bites.

We loved this Puffed Rice Cracker served with mushroom escabeche and pickled orange (upper left) from the J Culinary team. Jack & Tony's Restaurant & Whiskey Bar served mini house-cured Gravlax Tartlettes. Bryan grabbed himself a sandwich topped with pickles and sauerkraut from the Sonoma Brinery, and I nabbed one of the last Hamachi Tartare with jalapeno, avocado puree, and grapefruit from the local Healdsburg restaurant Chalkboard (so glad I did - they were fantastic!).

For sweets, we entered the Marketplace. Cold Stone Creamery was showcasing their "custom ice cream" service, where you can custom-order any ice cream flavor you want for about $200. They were serving a champagne sorbet, which was actually quite good.

Bryan loved the cold-brewed coffee at Petaluma Coffee Company, which was smooth, deep, rich, yet not a bit tannic or astringent at all. I think he went back for seconds, or maybe even thirds! We tried the Toddy Coffee Blues Breaker Blend, which was fantastic.

Three Twins Ice Cream was pretty tasty too.

We wandered into this huge barn to explore a never-before-seen exhibition from the MacMurray family about the history of this ranch.

There was open-air "kitchen" which had different scheduled cooking demonstrations throughout the day. We watched one on lamb burgers from Joe Pozzi of Pozzi Ranch Lamb and enjoyed a delicious sample (yes, an entire Grass-Fed Lamb Burger topped with sheep's milk cheese). It was excellent.

Overall, we had a great time and I would highly recommend coming to this event. The grounds are gorgeous, the food is excellent, and the selection of great wines is hard to beat. It's also a great way to really get to know Sonoma area wines, which are excellent. I'm personally a huge Pinot Noir fan, and the climate in this area is perfect for that type of wine.

We left the event happy, satisfied, and very, very full. We ended up not really eating a proper dinner that night because we couldn't imagine eating anymore after our afternoon feast. Instead, we took a fun drive along the Sonoma Coast in our rental convertible and just enjoyed the lovely scenery in the area.

I just love this region so much.

Disclaimer: this trip was organized by the Sonoma County Visitor's Bureau. Some of the activities and meals in this series, such as the cost of the entrance ticket to this event, were paid for by the organizers of the establishment.

October 17, 2013 California

Blue Bottle Coffee

This is the sixth post in the “An Unforgettable Anniversary Weekend In Sonoma” series highlighting Sonoma Valley and surrounding areas. Other posts in this series include Addendum, El Dorado Kitchen, Basque Boulangerie. A Cycling Wine Tour Through Sonoma Valley, and Pride Mountain Vineyards.

{OK, I admit, Blue Bottle Coffee is not in Sonoma Valley at all. It's actually a well-known and very popular series of coffee shops in San Francisco. However, it was the one place we stopped at in San Francisco on our way to Sonoma, so I'm including it in this series.}

Have you ever been to Blue Bottle Coffee?

Their signs are very, very non-nondescript. In fact, you may almost miss the entrance to this Blue Bottle Coffee, evidenced only by a tiny little white sign with a picture of a blue bottle silhouette.

But really, who am I kidding.

You can sniff out a Blue Bottle Coffee location because of the long line out front. It's unavoidable. There always seems to be atleast a 10-15 minute long wait outside of Blue Bottle Coffee.

Or at least that's been my limited experience.

Or maybe I should say it's been Bryan's limited experience. After all - I must confess - up to this point I had never actually gone inside Blue Bottle Coffee Shop.

Though I've had their coffee.

Bryan - my trooper of a husband - used to get up ultra early the morning his last morning of his business trip in San Francisco. He would walk 30-40 minutes to the Ferry Building just to wait in line to pick up Blue Bottle Coffee beans and ACME bread (my favorite!) to take home.

What a guy.

So I'd heard stories from him about the lines. About how you have to set aside a block of time if you want access to their coffee. None of this "grab a cup of coffee before heading out" business.

Finally, the morning before we headed up to Sonoma Valley for our little weekend trip, we stopped by a Blue Bottle for breakfast - my first time.

Blue Bottle roasts its coffee in small batches and promises that coffee sold to customers is "less than 48 hours out of the roaster." At the coffee shops, they make each cup of coffee to order, using a series of ceramic gravity drip "funnels".

This is partly why the lines are long – each cup takes several minutes to make.

However, I was not going to be able to try that type of coffee today.

This particular location was doing something special that day. They were showcasing a different, unique technique: siphon coffee. Blue Bottle had partnered with Ueshima Coffee Company (UCC), a well known Japanese coffee company, to learn about their siphon coffee techniques.

Bryan and I landed the best seats in the house, seats directly facing all the siphoning action. The equipment totally reminded me of the glassware that we used in lab when I was an organic chemist.

The coffee was interesting – less “chocolately”, more acidic. It was strong yet not that bitter. It was pleasant, yet it wasn't my favorite style of coffee either. Of course, so much goes into what defines a flavor profile of a cup of coffee - everything from the origin of the beans to the roasting conditions and also the extraction technique - that I'm still not quite sure what it was that I didn't love.

With just trying this one cup, it's hard to determine whether I like this technique or not.

We also got a normal cappuccino, which was great.

Blue Bottle also serves various breakfast items, such as baked goods, waffles, toast (using ACME bread, YUM), and eggs.

We shared a poached egg sandwich with our two types a coffee. I loved the ACME bread thick-cut toast that they used. The freshly poached eggs were quite good as well.

Overall it was a fun stop and I'm so glad I finally had a chance to visit a Blue Bottle Coffee.

Of course, coming here made me realize how little I really know or appreciate about coffee. I feel like I've just touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to coffee. There's still so much to learn.

While sitting at counter at Blue Bottle, I overheard a conversation between one of the workers and a regular customer. The regular customer had tried many, many varieties of beans and coffee techniques through the years at Blue Bottle. You could tell from the way they were talking, this guy really knew his coffee and could taste incredibly subtle differences between various origins, roasts, and cupping methods.

Now I feel like I need to go back to at least try their normal, gravity drip coffee - the one that most of those people waiting in line are ordering!

October 17, 2013 California

Pride Mountain Vineyards

This is the fifth post in the “An Unforgettable Anniversary Weekend In Sonoma” series highlighting Sonoma Valley and surrounding areas. Other posts in this series include Addendum, El Dorado Kitchen, Basque Boulangerie. and A Cycling Wine Tour Through Sonoma Valley

Bryan and I got married on Labor Day weekend twelve years ago. That basically means any anniversary trip we ever take will fall on one of the craziest travel weekends of the year.

There are most certainly pluses and minuses in coming to an area during a peak weekend. One the one hand, there are tons of cool activities going on. Wineries are hosting special events, Sonoma County has its annual wine festival, and everything is open.

On the other hand, there's more traffic, all the tasting rooms are super crowded, and it seems impossible to book any good wine tours.

On Friday afternoon, after enjoying a scrumptious fried chicken lunch at Thomas Keller's Addendum in Yountville, we had an afternoon free before our dinner in Sonoma Valley. Sitting on the picnic benches in front of Addendum, I spontaneously started calling some of the wineries we had visited in the past to see if we could visit.

It looked grim. Everyone was booked.

And then I hit the jackpot. There was a cancellation at Pride Mountain Vineyards, for 3PM. Could we make it?

It was 2:15PM.

We had to drive up a mountain.
We barely, barely made it. Though the distance is not far, driving in wine country is much slower than you might expect. Something about those single-lane winding mountain roads I guess.

But we made it!

During the first part of the tour, we learned lots of fun facts about the vineyard. For example, their wines have been served at the White House over 25 times in the last four administrations. One that's most often served is the Viognier, which we tried (and loved). It tastes fantastic on its own (bright, crisp, floral but not too sweet), but I could also see it pairing really well with lighter dishes such as seafood.

One really unusual thing about Pride is that it's in both Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley. A brick stoneway county line separates the vineyard into its two parts. Here I am, one foot in Napa Valley and one foot in Sonoma Valley.

Their winery is actually set up so that certain parts of their operations are duplicated on each side. This is because grapes from each county are taxed separately (and may even command different retail values), so they need to keep operations separate, at least until they go into barrels, at which point they all enter the single wine cave (entrance is right behind me in the photo).

The wine cave sits halfway in each county as well.

It's amazing how consistent the temperature inside the cave is. Even though it was near sweltering hot outside, the inside was a steady 50+ degrees. And it stays that way - all year long - which is why it's perfect for barrel aging wines.

We learned a lot of fascinating facts about barrels. Barrels vary a lot depending on the type of oak used, the age of the barrels, and the level to which they are toasted.

The level to which a barrel is toasted can affect the wine's tannin levels as well as the amount and type of oak flavor imparted to the wine. A few years ago some of the barrel companies started naming the "toastiness" level using trade names ("Fruite, etc") instead of the generic toasting degrees (e.g., "heavy, medium plus, medium, light), making it harder for other companies to compete, even though they might make a similarly "toasted" barrel.

All throughout the cave they have random barrels which have been set up with a keg apparatus, allowing one to frequently do barrel tastings without causing too much oxidation in the wine.

Even though many of the kegs were oddly not working that day (our poor tour guide had to try three of them before finding a working tap, splashing himself in the process), we finally had a chance to do a barrel tasting, which was fun.

After the tour, you can wander and explore the beautiful grounds at your leisure. There's a fun volcanic rock at the end of a path that you can visit.

Relax, walk around, and enjoy the breathtaking scenery.

For fun, we did a mini Domo photo-shoot.

General Thoughts
I would definitely recommend this tour. It's got the perfect balance of good wines, pretty views, and a fun, well-organized tour. It's also reasonably priced, at only $10 for the tour, waived if you purchase (I think) three bottles of wine.

We walked away from that tour deciding that we wanted to pick up as case of the Viognier. It's attractive to buy at the winery because shipping is free and the cost of the tour is waived. Unfortunately, they don't ship to Massachusetts. However, our tour guide did give us information about a few shipping companies in the Valley who can ship wine to Massachusetts. We will most certainly look into that option, though we wanted to wait until the weather got cooler (like maybe now!) to ship our wines.

October 15, 2013 California

A Cycling Wine Tour through Sonoma Valley

This is the fourth post in the “An Unforgettable Anniversary Weekend In Sonoma” series highlighting Sonoma Valley and surrounding areas. Other posts in this series include Addendum, El Dorado Kitchen, and Basque Boulangerie.

I’m not sure why, but it never occurred to me that you could bike around wine country. I guess the first few times I came, the wineries that we visited seemed so far apart from each other, I could not imagine traveling between them in any other way except by car.

And then I tried it – in Napa Valley – and loved it.

It turns out, there are a TON of very bike-friendly paths all around wine country. You can easily bike between vineyards on roads that are virtually never frequented by cars. For a city girl like me, these rustic, relaxing bike rides along country roads are a rarity, and thus these paths were a real treat.

If you’re spending a few days in Sonoma Valley, definitely consider setting aside half a day to bike to a variety of vineyards. I was so surprised to find out how easy it was to bike between them, and how nice (and pretty) the paths were.

We rented bikes at Wine Country Cyclery, right in Sonoma Plaza, where they will also provide you with a map showing bike routes to nearby vineyards as well as discounts to tastings at those wineries. They have plenty of parking for cars, so it's a convenient place to leave your car if you want to explore all day via bicycle.

And off we go!

A large part of the path consists of dedicated bike paths, which is great. You get to bike right through rows and rows of grape vines.

The first stop, Ravenwood, is not too far away. It's a large winery and a popular stop pouring all different sorts of wine flights.We used our "buy one, get one free" tasting coupon to do two tastings for $15 (check out that gorgeous view out the window!).

We then entered Bartholomew Park, which included Bartholomew Park Winery. The winery itself was quaint and rustic. Plus they had a free water cooler, which was invaluable because the bike ride up to this winery was not a piece of cake. It was definitely hilly, and we were sweating a bit (and slightly out of breath) by the time we got to the top!

The best part about Bartholomew Park? The picnic benches!There are many of them, and despite the fact that it was one of the busiest days of the year in Sonoma, we didn't have trouble finding an empty picnic table not far from the winery.

It was lovely to just sit, relax, enjoy our sandwiches from Basque Boulangerie, and soak in the view.

After lunch, we headed to Buena Vista Winery, which had beautiful grounds and a large tasting room packed with people. Unfortunately it so packed we were unable to squeeze in and try a tasting. We waited for quite awhile before deciding to move on.

After walking around for a bit and exploring the grounds, we decided to bike back to our starting point. If we had wanted, we could have biked further and visited at least one more winery. However, after having been out for a solid four hours, we decided it was time to head back into the Plaza.
Our last stop was Roche Winery, which is located right in Sonoma Plaza.

What makes this place unique is that you can sample their wine while enjoying food from the Sunflower Caffe.

Oh, and you get to try Roche's olive oil too, which is quite delicious.

At Roche we had an extended tasting where we tried all sorts of wines - everything from exploring the difference between unoaked, American oak, and French oak chardonnay (very different, by the way; we preferred French oak), to sampling their solid selection of red wines.

Bryan's favorite? The 2011 Pinot Noir Carneros. My favorite was the Late Harvest Topaz, a Sauternes style dessert wine.

They even have a barrel right in the tasting room so you can try a barrel taste, which is kind of fun.

We finally dropped off our bikes after a long day of traversing the valley via pedal power. The final bill was $60, not too bad for a long day of bike riding. $10 gets you an hour; $20 for 2 hours; and then $30 for a whole day. We got the least expensive option ("comfort/hybrid" bikes), which was fine. They offer a lot of other options, such as endurance road bikes, race road bikes, kid trailers, and even tandem bikes (ha ha, wouldn't that be fun to try!).

General Notes about Biking in the Vineyard

1. Bring Water and Plan Your Path
Some parts of the path do go uphill, so take that into consideration when deciding how long or how far you want to bike. If it's hot out, bring plenty of water, since you’ll get dehydrated, especially if you plan on doing a bit of wine tasting while stopping at the various wineries.

2. Purchasing Wine
If you do want to purchase wine at these wineries, most of them understand that you can’t quite cart the bottles away via bicycle. If you are staying nearby, some of them will actually offer to deliver the wines to your hotel, which is a really nice service. Of course, you can always buy the wines and then just pick them up later by car.

3. Be Responsible
This goes without saying, but you are operating a vehicle, so treat biking as you would driving. If you feel that you wouldn't drive, you most certainly shouldn't be biking. There are parts of the trail that are shared with cars, and even though the cars don't come that frequently, you will still see them. Stay safe!

That's it! Have fun and enjoy the unique scenery that wine country has to offer.

Disclaimer: this trip was organized by the Sonoma County Visitor's Bureau. Some of the activities and meals in this series, such as the cost of bike rentals and the tasting at Roche Winery, were paid for by the owners of the establishments.

October 14, 2013 California

Basque Boulangerie

This is the third post in the “An Unforgettable Anniversary Weekend In Sonoma” series highlighting Sonoma Valley and surrounding areas. Other posts in this series include Addendum and El Dorado Kitchen.

You can’t stop by Sonoma Plaza without visiting this quaint little bakery, which has been serving up all sorts of delectable baked goods in the area for close to twenty years.

Named after the Basque region in France (the area near the Pyrenees between France and Spain), the original owners wanted to pay homage to the region from which they emigrated. They brought over old world European baking methods, producing beautifully crusty loaves using traditional stone hearth ovens.

I spoke briefly with the current owner, Harman Bajwa, who took it over from the original owners less than two years ago after the original owners decided to retire. Bajwa told me he very much intends to preserve what the original owners worked so hard to build. He has kept the original staff, historic photos, and menu items.

This little boulangerie is very, very popular, and it's not hard to see why. All you have to do is to start looking around.

Loaves and loaves of all sorts of artisanal breads, such as crusty baguettes in various sizes, pull-apart “monkey” breads, and rows and rows of cakes, pastries, and cookies, are displayed around the various walls.

A large chalkboard up ahead lists their sandwiches and various coffee options. They have many of the standards (such as Pastrami, Reuben, Grilled Cheese, and Tuna Melt), though there are also some more unusual sandwiches that you don’t find as often,

Prosciutto and Brie

such as the Prosciutto and Brie (which was delicious) and the Tri Tip Sandwich, served with horseradish-Gruyere cheese.

During peak times, such as morning or lunch, the entire place can be packed. Locals and visitors alike sit at the few available tables , sipping on cappuccinos and nibbling on their morning pastries and savory breakfast sandwiches. An even larger crowd patiently waits in line to order various baked goods to go.

The bakery’s most famous item is the Beehive Cake, a sweet Danish cake made with custard and honey almond praline. Rachel Ray featured this dessert on her show, “Forty Dollars a Day.” You can buy a whole cake or order by the slice.

It’s moist, creamy, not-too-sweet, and overall a very enjoyable dessert. To me, it tastes very similar to a top-notch Boston Cream Pie, without the chocolate, of course.

For pastries, we loved the “Morning Roll”, a gorgeously delicate multi-layered cinnamon roll that has the finesse of a croissant but the flavor of a cinnamon bun.

It’s fantastic, and totally brings back memories of the similar type pastries Bryan and I used to eat at Carberry's in Cambridge (now closed) or at the Pacific Street Café.

Those who love raisins will enjoy a thick slice of their raisin toast with butter for breakfast. They make a huge variety of different types of breads, many of which are used on the sandwiches that they sell.

The ham & cheese breakfast sandwich is satisfying and rich, made with their all-butter croissant. One very fun thing to do is to pick up sandwiches to bring along to enjoy at a picnic in the vineyards (which is what we did - more on that later!).

Pull-apart Sourdough

They are known for their sourdough, which is very good (though I still give ACME Bread Company a bit of an edge in terms of the complexity of the sour taste).

Seed Bread

All in all, this is a fantastic little bakery and most certainly worth visiting if you’re looking for a breakfast or lunch spot (or just a place to fuel that coffee addiction) while in Sonoma Valley. It’s very conveniently located in the middle of Sonoma Plaza.

For fun, order some sandwiches to enjoy during a lunch picnic overlooking the vineyards. It’s a wonderfully relaxing way to enjoy the area.

Disclaimer: this trip was organized by the Sonoma County Visitor's Bureau. Some of the activities and meals in this series, such as this meal, were paid for by the owners of the establishments.

October 10, 2013 California

El Dorado Kitchen

This is the second post in the “An Unforgettable Anniversary Weekend In Sonoma” series highlighting Sonoma and surrounding areas. Other posts in this series include Addendum.

Sonoma Valley is a 17-mile strip of land that includes many vineyards as well as the city of Sonoma. Many people (me included), confuse Sonoma Valley with Sonoma County, which is a much larger region that also encompasses several other cities (e.g., Petaluma, Healdsburg, and Santa Rosa), as well as other wine valleys, such as Dry Creek Valley and Russian River Valley (not to mention the Sonoma Coast!).

Within Sonoma Valley, the historic Sonoma Plaza is where most of the action is, including excellent restaurants, bakeries, tasting rooms, and wine shops.

One of the most popular restaurants within Sonoma Plaza is El Dorado Kitchen, which is located at the El Dorado Hotel. Helmed by Chef Armando Navarro (Larkspur, Auberge du Soleil, Redd), this restaurant's farm-focused cuisine draws both locals and visitors alike. Because it's in a hotel, it's also open almost all day, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

On the day we went, a wedding reception was going on outside, which meant we were not able able to enjoy the typically available outdoor seats. Nevertheless, we happily took seats inside, which were equally comfortable, spacious, yet warm and cozy at the same time.

We began with the Truffle Parmesan Fries, which were excellent. I would almost hazard to say that they were on par with my favorite truffle fries in Boston. These were topped with a generous helping of fresh Parmesan cheese, which made the fries very cheesy, but in a good way. They were hot, flavorful, crispy on the outside but soft on the inside. We didn't expect to polish off that whole bowl, but we did.

I loved my starter, the Dungeness Crab Cakes, which were refined and consisted mostly of crab, not breading. They were served with a gorgeous summer heirloom tomato gazpacho, which was sweet, bright, and full of intense tomato flavor. This was accented with avocados, sweet 100 tomatoes, and pea shoots. I thought the dish was refreshing, with a lovely balance of flavors. I really appreciated the farm fresh ingredients.

The Pork Belly, served with watermelon and pickled ramps, is one of their signature dishes and was executed very well. It was beautifully crispy on the outside yet juicy and flavorful on the inside. The compressed watermelon did a good job of cutting the richness of the belly. The pairing almost reminded me of a summer barbecue, but interpreted in a much more refined way.

Similarly, the Pan Roasted Scallops were very good. In fact, the ingredients and flavor combinations were eerily similar to a scallops dish I had at Redd in Napa Valley a couple years ago. That dish also had a cauliflower puree, almonds, and raisins. Here, grapefruit gelee, a curry cauliflower puree, grapes, Marcona almonds, and a caper raisin sauce came together and similarly worked really, really well to give a nice, balanced, sweet and salty combination of flavors.

The biggest disappointment was probably the Niman Ranch Center Cut Pork Chop, which was served with braised Swiss chard, polenta, torpedo onions, roasted peaches, and whole grain mustard. The server had recommended this as one of her favorite dishes, and we weren't sure why. The execution was fine, but there was nothing particularly interesting about the dish. When I asked Bryan what he thought of the dish, he said, “It’s fine. But I can get this in any gastropub in new England. I don’t think it’s as good as Bergamot or Will Gilson."

Our dessert, the Upside Down Plum Cake, was served with salt caramel ice cream and raspberries. I thought it was OK, though Bryan did not like it because “it reminds me of fruitcake.” We later realized it was the strong flavor of candied orange peels that made Bryan think of fruitcake. The restaurant was very kind and did not charge us for the dessert after Bryan told them his feelings.

Overall, we came away with mixed thoughts about the restaurant. Although some dishes, like the Parmesan truffle fries, crabcakes, and pork belly were quite good, others were fine, but did not blow us away.

All in all, however, the restaurant is solid and I can see why it’s one of the most popular ones in Sonoma Plaza. The menu is very approachable, portion sizes are generous, and the food is enjoyable.
El Dorado Kitchen
405 1st St
W Sonoma, CA 95476

October 3, 2013 California

Addendum (Thomas Keller)

This is the first post in the “An Unforgettable Anniversary Weekend In Sonoma” series highlighting Sonoma and surrounding areas.

You might call us crazy, but we've sort of been on a Thomas Keller hunt the past few years.

We've traveled the country trying to hit every single Thomas Keller institution. We visited Bouchon Bakery in New York (both the Rockefeller Center one and the original one in the Time Warner Building), Las Vegas, Beverly Hills, and Yountville. We’ve eaten lunch and dinner at Bouchon in Las Vegas, brunched at Ad Hoc in Yountville, and enjoyed exquisite tasting menus at both Per Se and The French Laundry.

There was just one thing that kept eluding us.

That's right: Thomas Keller's buttermilk fried chicken.

Probably one of the most famous fried chickens in the U.S., Thomas Keller’s buttermilk fried chicken became famous through his restaurant Ad Hoc (which, incidentally, was itself originally meant to be a temporary restaurant until its wild success changed everything).

We visited Ad Hoc last year, dead set on trying the fried chicken. We were so disappointed to learn that the fried chicken was not a daily menu item, and instead was only available every other Monday, sharing that spot with the BBQ chicken.

The demand for the fried chicken became so huge, Thomas Keller decided to open up a simple stand right behind Ad Hoc. It would sell nothing more than fried chicken, some barbecued items, and a couple of sides.

That’s it.

Seating would just be a few outdoor picnic benches, and the stand would only be open during warmer weather months.

The menu at Addendum is simple. For $16.50, you get half a chicken (breast, leg), their housemade honey cornbread, and two sides: cole slaw and potato salad.

Let’s start with the fried chicken, which was astounding. It was easily one of the best fried chickens I’ve ever had.

The breading was crispy, thick, but not at all greasy. The insides were soft and tender, and the seasoning on the breading is excellent.

The sides, on the other hand, were much more underwhelming.

The cole slaw tasted pretty ordinary, and the potato salad was nice (made from fancy little purple and white potatoes), though the flavors did not really stand out in any special way.

Similarly, the cornbread was fine, but I've had much, much better (such as at this institution in New York).
All in all, I still think it's worth a visit here for the fried chicken, which is excellent. The existence of Addendum means you can pretty much get fried chicken any day of the week. They do a lot of take out orders, and you can even preorder on you smartphone using their app.

However, if you are able to catch Ad Hoc on a day when they are serving that exact same fried chicken, I would try to dine at Ad Hoc instead. You'll have access to a much wider (and likely better tasting) selection to enjoy with your fried chicken, as well as table service and overall more comfortable surroundings.

Of course, if you just happen to be driving by the area and it's not a Monday, I still say it's most definitely worth it to stop by just to try the chicken.

Addendum
6476 Washington Street
Yountville, CA

September 27, 2013 California

An Unforgettable Anniversary Weekend in Sonoma

Even though wine country is only about an hour away from San Francisco, it totally feels like a different world. Rolling hills, winding roads, and expansive, breathtaking views, the pace is much more relaxed.

It's the perfect spot to take a short weekend getaway.

Labor Day is an especially fun weekend to go for a number of reasons. First of all, there's a ton of stuff going on. It's one of the most popular (if not the most popular) weekend in wine country. There are wine festivals, special dinners, and all sorts of different wine tours.

Secondly, the weather is fantastic during that time. We did all sorts of outdoor activities, which was a great way to enjoy the gorgeous scenery firsthand.

Finally, you get to see (and maybe taste!) grapes growing on the vines. I've been to Napa Valley three times already, but always in the spring. I had never in my life seen those juicy grapes growing on the vine.

It was so cool.

And I was surprised how sweet the grapes tasted.

This trip mostly focuses on Sonoma Valley (where I'd never visited before), but has tiny bits of Napa Valley and also San Francisco.

Here's a preview of where we went, each location to be discussed in much fuller detail in future posts!

Bryan had already spent close to a week in San Francisco and Silicon Valley for work. In fact, it was originally his idea for us to spend our 12th (!) wedding anniversary in wine country, since he'd be out there already anyway.

Before we hit the road, we had to load up on coffee. What better place than Blue Bottle, one of San Francisco's most famous coffee shops (and one that always has a super long line). This time we enjoyed something unique and special - coffee made with siphon technology from Japan. My chemist friends - doesn't that look just like a round bottom flask and a Buchner funnel?
We headed out of San Francisco early in the morning in order to beat the traffic, since we had heard the Bay Bridge was closed that weekend.

The last time we were in Napa Valley Bryan said, "the scenery is so beautiful here, I'm totally going to rent a convertible the next time I come."

Yep.

Thankfully the weather was pretty warm . . . most of the time.

I know this was a Sonoma Valley focused trip, but there was just one thing we had to try in Napa.

We took quite a long detour to hit Thomas Keller's famous fried chicken stand, which is only open during the summer months. It was never open when I came in April in years past, though Ad Hoc sans fried chicken was not exactly a bad consolation prize.

We then visited Pride Mountain Vineyard, a beautiful winery in both Sonoma and Napa Valley. You can literally stand with one foot in one county, and one foot in another. The stories they tell are fascinating, and their tour was fun. More importantly, of course, their wines are excellent.

For dinner, we dined at a popular local favorite in Sonoma Square serving things like pork belly over compressed watermelon and some kick-ass Parmesan truffle fries.

The next day, we drove way north (all the way to Healdsburg, still part of Sonoma County) to spend the afternoon at this lovely annual festival called Sonoma County Wine Weekend.

There was excellent representation from all over Sonoma County, including Sonoma Valley, Dry Creek Valley, Russian River Valley, and many, many more. Over two hundred wineries were present pouring wines. We tasted many fantastic wines as well as some great food.

San Francisco is known for having a bunch of micro climates: you can drive ten minutes and see completely different weather from one location to the next. It turns out that Sonoma is quite similar.

After leaving the wine festival, where I was perfectly comfortable in my sleeveless dress, we decided to check out the Sonoma coast. Within minutes, we went from sunny forests . . .

to seemingly hurricane-like conditions!

OK, I exaggerate slightly, but it was really cold! I had to put on my jacket and hood because Bryan insisted on keeping the convertible hood down.

We were so full from all the food we ate at the wine festival that afternoon, we had to skip dinner.

Yes I know, very sad.

The next morning we checked out an awesome local bakery in Sonoma Square, where we tried all sorts of fun stuff including their signature "Beehive Cake", which has been featured on Rachel Ray's $40 a Day.

The weather was fantastic, so we picked up bikes at a bike rental place right in Sonoma Square and headed out on a bike tour of local vineyards.

There are some really nice bike paths that lead to a number of wineries! We stopped at all of them and tasted wines at several.

It's a beautiful path, and there are even places where you can stop and have a semi-private picnic while overlooking rows and rows of grape vines. We enjoyed some lovely sandwiches while soaking in the gorgeous scenery.

After a quick olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting (where we couldn't help but buy several bottles of their top quality stuff), we headed out to the tasting room at Kamen Winery in Sonoma Square. We wanted to go there because we had tried one of their wines at the festival and loved it.

It turned out that the owner, Robert Kamen (Hollywood screenwriter of movies like The Karate Kid, Taken, and The Fifth Element), was actually pouring in the shop that night.

On a whim, he invited us on a personal tour of his vineyard.

. . . . during sunset.

No need for much words - it was stunning and simply breathtaking.

More details to come on that surreal yet amazing excursion, which includes an ATV tour and a few tastes from things growing in his garden and vineyard!

After an exhilarating tour, we headed back into Sonoma Square for dinner at The Girl & the Fig.

The food was excellent and we had a really nice and relaxing evening.

And then it was over.

The trip seemed way too short, but it was time to get back to reality.

Early, early on Monday morning - five hours before our flight - we left Sonoma Valley to head back to San Francisco so we could catch our plane back to Boston.
We marveled at God's creation from the plane.

It was most certainly an unforgettable 12th anniversary.

Disclaimer - this trip was organized by the Sonoma County Visitor's Bureau. Some of the activities and meals shown above were paid for by the owners of the establishments.

September 24, 2013 Cambridge

Kirkland Tap & Trotter

I'm usually not the type of diner who rushes out to try a new restaurant the moment that it opens. Maybe it's because I'm scared of crowds; or perhaps it's because I know things are always a bit shaky in the beginning, and it's usually not a fair or accurate representation of what a place is really like.

But I buckled this week.

I guess I was just too curious. I mean, it's Tony Maws. He's one of the most well-respected chefs in the Boston area. His restaurant, Craigie on Main, is virtually impossible to reserve at the last minute. His bone-marrow infused grass-fed burger became so popular he had to take it off the regular menu and serve just a limited daily number (18) at the bar. We have celebrated several special occasions there, and the food is always phenomenal.

So when Cambridge's darling celebrity chef announces he's opening a new restaurant - a place that's more casual, more accessible, more like "what Chef Maws cooks at home for friends and family" - you listen.

And you show up to taste, as soon as possible.

The Kirkland Tap and Trotter is located right on the border of Somerville and Cambridge, next to Dali and across the street from Bergamot. They've done an incredible job on the space. It feels open and airy, yet rustic and just a bit country at the same time.

I felt very comfortable and relaxed. Sure, the volume of noise was just a tad louder than I would have liked, but overall, the atmosphere was lively, convivial, and fun (yes, it was packed, of course).

The cocktail menu has several fun drinks. I tried their interpretation of a gin & tonic, called The KT&T&T, which was made with Perry’s Tot Gin, Kirkland Tonic, and Montenegro. It was alright, but my favorite is still the one from Jaleo (José Andrés's favorite). My friend got The Storm Cloud, their version of a Dark & Stormy, which was made with Cocchi Americano, Fernet Branca, and citrus. She thought that the drink was refreshing, though she did wish for a stronger Fernet flavor.

They have this fun drink called The Bag or the Bat? Feeling Lucky? For $6, the bartender whips you up something to try. Nobody else, not even the servers, know what's inside those glasses. It's typically about the size of a shot, and you just take your chances.

Bryan and our other friend each ordered one. Both were bourbon based drinks. We think Bryan's (which was the darker one), had elements of almond flavor, while my friend's version, the lighter one, was much sweeter, though we couldn't quite put our fingers on the flavors. It was a fun little experiment, though neither person ordered another one, opting instead for beer.

My friend was really interested in trying the Harpoon ‘Hundred Barrel’ Saison ($7) which he really enjoyed. Bryan tried the Blatant IPA (comes in a 22 oz bottle for $12). Although it was solid, he still thinks the Blatant One (their limited edition anniversary beer) was much better.

The menu is current quite a manageable size, with just over a dozen different choices ranging in size from small appetizer sized plates to hearty main courses. The smaller courses run around $14-$16 while the main courses are $24-$26.

They encourage sharing and ordering things family style. Food comes out the moment it's ready, and it can come in any order. They want you to enjoy it while it's fresh.

Since we had four people, it was easy to order a large part of the menu. The server recommended that we order around four smaller plates and two larger ones, which worked out really well.

We started with one of the specials of the day (conveniently written on multiple chalkboards throughout the restaurant), a Bluefish Rillette ($14), which came with grilled bread (yum!) and house made pickles on the side. It was more on the chunky side and less creamy than I expected. It was solid, though Bryan and I both commented that we actually liked the free bluefish pate at Ten Tables better, which has a deeper, smokier flavor.
The Grilled Root Vegetable Salad ($14) had eggplant (which the server admitted was not a root vegetable), lots of fennel, and golden beets, tossed with pimente d’Esplette vinaigrette. I liked this one. It was one of the few vegetable-focused plates, and it was done well.
One of Bryan's favorites was this House-Made Spaghetti ($15) made with a sauce of chicken liver, pumpkin, and brown butter. The fresh pasta was cooked perfectly and had a lovely al dente texture. The creamy sauce was rich, flavorful, and not too liver-y tasting (for those like me who don't love the strong taste of liver).
I've had skate wing at Craigie before during one of those Chef's Whim dinners late at night. I think Tony Maws enjoys cooking this slightly more unusual seafood. One of the larger plates we had was the Braised Local Skate Wing ($27), which was cooked with little neck clams, smoked tomatoes, and beans. I always though of skate wing as being a tougher "fish", but this was executed very well. It was moist, tender, and quite flavorful. Skate wing is tricky to eat because there's a big piece of cartilage in the middle that you sort of have to eat around. In general this was not really an issue, since the meat was so soft it easily flaked off the cartilage.

Unfortunately, the dish (literally) left a bad taste in Bryan's mouth because one of the clams was filled with a ton of sand, which was a bit hard to clean out.
The unanimous favorite dish at the table was the Grilled Squid ($14), which was one of the specials of the night. It takes skill to cook squid correctly. It can quickly become tough and rubbery if it's overcooked, which unfortunately happens way too often. This squid was phenomenal. Just briefly seared on the restaurant's massive grill, it had the perfect blend of char and tenderness. The flavors, of course, were also excellent. In fact, we thought the squid tasted so good by itself, we actually thought that the caponata on which it was served overpowered the squid, and we all opted to eat the squid sans-sauce.

Another favorite was the Lamb Ribs (around $14), which were served with some sort of pepper (cubano, I think - they weren't too spicy). This was another one of Bryan's favorites, and I agree it was excellent. These ribs were gorgeously charred on the outside yet fall-off-the-bone soft and tender on the inside. The flavor was fantastic, and we were all a bit bummed that one order only came with three ribs, which is always a bit tricky when sharing with four people. If you have meat lovers at your table, it wouldn't hurt to order two.

They offered a few side dishes: a grilled corn on the cob (which we didn't order because we thought it would be hard to share) and duck fat roasted Brussels sprouts. These were solid, indistinguishable from the ones they sell at Craigie at the bar. I personally would have preferred them to be just a bit more crispy, but I'm guessing that you would have to roast the sprouts to achieve the texture I wanted. Overall, they were fine.

We shared two desserts. My favorite was the Taza Chocolate Tarte ($10), which was excellent. You could definitely taste Taza's signature chocolate (which I really like!). What made this dish fantastic, however, was the bourbon cream on top. It was quite strong, and I loved the pairing of the bourbon with the chocolate.

The Market Fruits Crisp ($10), which had a lot of nectarines, came with a walnut streusel and vanilla bean ice cream. I found it to be fine, but it didn't really stand out to me.

Initial Thoughts
Chef Tony Maws has definitely put a lot of thought and hard work into this restaurant, and it shows. The space is beautiful, the kitchen is top notch, and the menu is solid. Except for the unfortunately sandy clam incident, I would say there were really no major misses, which is impressive for a packed restaurant during its first week of service. The service was excellent, the food came out surprisingly quickly, and everything was good. In some ways, I wouldn't expect any less of Tony Maws.

I'm thrilled that Chef Maws has offered a more accessible way of accessing his food on a more regular basis (instead of trying to catch those bar seats at Craigie -always tricky!). I love the small plate concept - it allows diners to really try a wide variety of his food without getting too bored. Oh - I forgot to mention - there is a cheeseburger on the menu, though I'm not sure how similar it is to his famous burger at Craigie.

I do wish there were more vegetable and seafood options, but that is more of a personal bias since I'm less of a meat person in general. Overall, though, the restaurant is doing a fantastic job already and I am confident it will become a new favorite hangout for the neighborhood.

Kirkland Tap & Trotter
425 Washington St
Somerville, MA

September 21, 2013 Cambridge

Alden & Harlow (a sneak peek at Michael Scelfo's new restaurant)

It was huge news when Casablanca, a 50+ year old Harvard Square establishment filled with history and nostalgia for old time Cantabrigians, closed its doors in December of 2012. As the city wondered with anticipation what would take over that space, news came out that Michael Scelfo, chef of the beloved Russell House Tavern in Harvard Square, was planning on opening up his own restaurant in that space.

The Casablanca space means a lot to Chef Scelfo. He says he used to hang out there a lot. It was one of the few places that was open late (important for people in the restaurant industry!).

" I used to dream at Casablanca about what I would do if I opened up my own restaurant. I would look around at the space, using it as a model."

"Never in a million years did I think Harvard Square would be the place for it."

How funny things turn out sometimes.

We are now (hopefully) months away from the opening of Alden & Harlow, Scelfo's first ever "solo" restaurant venture. He named it after the original architects who designed the building, sort of as a homage to the history of the space.

"I wanted to find a way to do my own thing in the space without destroying what was there before."

I had a chance to sample some of the dishes from the new restaurant at a media event last week. We met at the Urban Grape, a fun new wine shop that opened in the South End in 2012.

The owners of the Urban Grape, TJ and Hadley Douglas, paired wines from their store with the dishes that Chef Scelfo made. It was an enlightening and fun evening where we learned about food and wine as well as sampled lots of things!

This is TJ. He is one of the owners of the husband-wife duo that own the Urban Grape. He worked in the restaurant and wine industry for years before branching out to open his own wine shop. He's extremely passionate about wine - you can totally tell when you hear him speak. He was the who created the pairings for the evening, and it was fun to hear him describe his thought process behind some of the pairings.

We began with a trio of snacks which were already on the table when we arrived. One of my favorite bites came from this trio: Hickory Smoked Cashews with Maldon Salt, Rosemary, and Currants. These were extremely addictive (I may have taken three helpings!), and could easily pair with many types of drinks. The first three "snacks" were paired with a lovely, crisp NV Montsarra Cava Brut from Spain. The cava was delightfully refreshing and not too sweet - just the way I like it.

The second part of the "Trio of Snacks" was crostini topped with Grilled Cauliflower and Sesame Caponata, which consisted of a mixture of roasted cauliflower, golden raisins, pine nuts, and capers. The mixture of sweet, salty, and sour created an interesting and balanced mixture of flavors. Raisins aren't my favorite food, so they detracted a bit from my overall enjoyment of the dish, unfortunately.

On the other hand, I absolutely loved the third snack, Grilled Romano Beans with Prune Plums, Basil, and Cojita Cheese. I loved the simplicity of the hyper-seasonal ingredients. The beans were tender, crispy, and really flavorful - as if they had just been picked from the farm earlier that day. I loved how the dish was light, healthy, yet refreshingly flavorful with that light sprinkle of the salty cheese and the sweetness from the plums.

For our first course, we began with a beautiful dish of Grilled Local Carrots, which were grilled in honey, salt and olive oil. These were served with a house buttermilk yogurt (which takes four days to make) and a pistachio "granola" consisting of grilled and dried farro, pistachios, and a house-made dukka spice mixture. A touch of spicy honey tied everything together.

I really enjoyed this dish. Personally, I wished for just a tad more caramelization on the carrots (perhaps I'm spoiled by the roasted carrots I've had!). Other than that, though, the combination of flavors and textures was really unique and worked very well. I enjoyed the Middle Eastern influence, and I appreciate how his dishes reflect influences from a variety of cuisines, which makes for a much more diverse and interesting menu (I hate getting bored).

We enjoyed this with a 2012 Domaine Mourchon "La Source" CDR Blanc 6W, a viognier from the Rhone region of France.

The next course was a seafood dish: Smoked Moosabec Farm Mussels with grilled squash, croutons, and parsley. This was paired with a 2012 Domaine du Paternel VDP Rosé. This rosé is a blend of grenache, syrah, and cinsault and comes from Provence, France. The rosé cut the richness of the deep, smoky mussels really well, while the earthiness of the mussels actually brought out the sweetness of the wine.

The flavors of the smoked mussels were fantastic, and several people cited this as their favorite pairing.

Finally, our last course was an Overnight Wood Roasted Beef Bacon served with late harvest creamed corn and vinegar glazed radishes. Chef Schelfo told us he smoked the beef belly over hickory for seven hours in 4 bottles of red wine. The results were insanely tender. I think I actually was able to cut it with a plastic spoon.

We paired this with a 2011 Pierre Gaillard Syrah 6R from Collines Rhodaniennes, France. This syrah actually had a decent amount of tannins and acidity, which cut the fat of the beef while standing up to the acidity of the vinegar radishes.

Chef Scelfo, who's pretty active on social media, took a photo of his final dish.

We met other members of the team, including Jen Fields (right), who was general manager at Toro for five years before agreeing to join Michael Scelfo in this new venture.

Chef Scelfo also introduced to us his sous chefs,Dave Tollerud and Becca Arnold (behind Chef Scelfo), who were helping out with the food that night.

I'm excited about Alden & Harlow for a number of reasons.

First, I love eating a wide variety of food (I get bored of eating the same thing bite after bite). Alden & Harlow will feature small plates ($8-12 range) that are meant to be shared. Scelfo really wants to encourage a communal style of dining where people sit around a table and share numerous dishes together - family style. I grew up eating this way at home, so I always prefer it.

Second, Chef Scelfo has been getting into a lighter style of cooking lately. He's experimenting with all sorts of fresh, local, and seasonal vegetables.This is the type of food that I like the most, and it's definitely more rare to find a chef who's really good at cooking vegetables.

Finally, the space, location, and hours of operation are great. It's a pretty large space right in the middle of Harvard Square where there's lots of stuff going on all around. For me, it's even better because it's less than a 10 minute walk from my home. Since the space is pretty large, I'm hoping it will become of one those places that isn't always completely booked so that it's impossible to get in.
They also plan on staying open until 2AM - something not many restaurants do. Chef Scelfo had mentioned how he used go to Casablanca because it was open late. Perhaps he wants to offer that same sort of thing to the local community?

They are *hoping* to open by the end of this year, with a tentative goal of sometime in November. Of course, certain aspects of the timing are out of their hands (sometimes you just don't know how long it will take the city to approve something). However, they are actively prepping, planning, and making significant progress.

I think this will be a very welcomed addition to the neighborhood. Can't wait!

Disclaimer
I did not pay for any of the food or wine at this media event. All opinions are my own.

September 15, 2013 Michelin

minibar (José Andrés)

This is the final post in the short series A Weekend in Our Nation's Capital, which covers the few meals I caught in DC while visiting the city for a wedding. Other posts in this series include Zaytinya (José Andrés) and A&J Restaurant (Taiwanese).

In some ways, it felt like we had entered another world.

Like Alice in Wonderland, Narnia, or a surreal Dali painting.

An oversized clock had numbers in all the wrong places, suggesting that in a place like this, time doesn't matter. A single flame flickered fleetingly, dancing around its small glass enclosure as if beckoning diners to come just a little closer.

And then a man dressed smartly in a suit (or was it a tuxedo?) asked if we wanted anything to drink.

"Perhaps an aperitif? Or maybe some cava?"

Cava sounds wonderful, thank you so much.

Soon after, the man came back, this time with something that looked like a large, leather-bound book.

"Some light reading while you wait."

He opened up the book and we gasped. Inside were delicate nori (seaweed) puffed rice crackers. They were light as a feather, sort of reminding me of those Chinese shrimp chips that they serve with roasted duck, yet much, much more delicate.

We munched on these for several more minutes until all the guests from our 6:30PM seating had arrived.

"Hello everyone. Welcome to minibar. Please come in."

They pushed aside a long, white curtain and then we entered in.

Welcome to the "new" minibar.

Minibar was originally a tiny, six-seater, hidden restaurant-within-a-restaurant (that restaurant being Café Atlántico). It was a place where José Andrés executed his most creative dishes, inspired by Ferrán Adriá’s (his mentor's) school of modern cuisine. Reservations were notoriously difficult to obtain. Hopeful diners had to to call exactly one month in advance - at precisely 10AM - to try and secure one of those six coveted spots. Needless to say, many people did not get through.

In October of 2012, Andres announced that minibar had moved locations, increased the number of seats to 12, and changed its reservation system to email only. Prices of the meals also went up, and a new bar serving all sorts of interesting cocktails and drinks, called "barmini", would open in the adjacent space. Barmini opened in February of 2013.

We were part of the first reservation, two of six people. Minibar takes reservations at 6PM, 6:30PM, 8:30PM, and 9:00PM. There are twelve seats, with parties of six being seated at once. After about two hours, guests are ushered into the adjacent "barmini" to finish their desserts. A new wave of diners enter, and the show begins once again.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to the beginning of the meal, which is where I had left off.

We entered into a living, breathing kitchen. In front of us was a flurry of activity as the chefs prepared our first course. From experience, Bryan and I knew this meal would move quickly. Both Samm and é by José Andrés worked that way.

20+ courses in just over two hours.

It seriously takes an entire team to pull that off.

It's fascinating to watch, and everyone has front row seats at a bar facing the kitchen.

We began with a simple Oaxacan Cocktail Marshmallow, which sat on top of a bed of ice. It reminded me of gelato - creamy, herbaceous, with notes of lemon and lime.

Next came these beautiful Asian “Coca de Vidrio”. Coca de Vidrio is traditionally a crystallized sugar covered "glass flatbread." This Asian version was made with a paper-thin coating embedded with black sesame seeds. As we bit into it, the delicate shell cracked like breaking glass.

A maple leaf shaped "cracker" called Parmesan Leaf came next, made from puffed up Parmesan and rice purée and topped with lemon cream.
Fun, whimsical Popcorn Empanadas were a far cry from a traditional empanada, a Spanish deep fried pastry typically filled with meat, cheese, and/or vegetables. These delicate "empanadas" were filled with corn butter and almost melted in your mouth as you ate it.
How cute are these? Named “When Pigs Fly”, these mini piglets reminded me of macarons. They were tart, fruity and chewy. Inside, they were filled with a creamy bacon ice cream.

A single Foie Bomb was creamy and delicate. Though I usually don't love anything with liver-like flavors, I actually appreciated and enjoyed this subtle but sophisticated bite.

By this point it should be pretty clear that José André loves creating food that looks like or is inspired by a certain type of Spanish dish, but tastes completely different. Churros are typically long pieces of fried dough that are dusted with cinnamon and sugar.

This Churro Tendon was a savory version made wth veal tendon. The tendon was surprisingly soft (almost melt-in-your-mouth), yet the crunchy covering was still sweet. It was unique, unusual, but still very good.

We were twenty minutes into the meal, and we were already on our eighth course. The chefs were clearly focused, extremely skilled, and executed the courses like clockwork.

Our next course was an Almond Tart with Blue Cheese. It was like a de-constucted tart, consisting of a flourless Marcona almond crust and a strong blue cheese cream. Those are just pebbles underneath, put there purely for presentation.

The “Waldorf Salad” was a fun play on the traditional Waldorf Salad. Although the ingredients of the filling, apples, mayo, and walnuts were classic Waldorf salad ingredients. The "bread" was an unusual melt-in-your-mouth material that's hard to describe. It was sort of like if styrofoam and cotton candy produced a kjid or something.

It was most definitely unique and in fact, really really tasty!

The next course, playfully called Chicken “Shawarma”, was filled with a delicious crunchy chicken skin and served alongisde a yogurt cream.

You were supposed to dip the "lettuce wrap" in the yogurt sauce. This dish paired exceptionally well with the drink.

The next dish, a soup, had several ingredients that we were supposed to be assemble at the table.

This Thai Soup included an interesting coconut-flavored gel, coconut cream, and a light broth. A delicate leaf topped with herbs, came separately. On the side, they gave us a cocktail that had hints of lime and lots of ginger.

And then we noticed something very familiar.

That ring. You can't miss it. Any MITer would recognize it in an instant.

Bryan waved down the chef.

"Did you go to MIT?"

"Yes, I did."

"What course were you?"

"Course 3." (Material Science)

We told him we both had graduated from MIT - Bryan, "Course 6" (computer science/electrical engineering) and I, "Course 5" (chemistry). He acknowledged that he most certainly wasn't using his degree in the traditional sense in this job. He had realized his passion for food soon after graduation, and had worked in various places before landing here.

Of course, he couldn't chat much (not with the pace of this meal!), so we let him get back to work, plating the whimsically fun dish Baby Carrots with Coconut & Curry.

It looks deceptively simple, but it's really not what you think it is. The little, orange "carrots" were in fact spherified carrot cream made in the shape of carrots. The "carrots" melted in your mouth with pops of intense, carrot cream. The flavors were both strong and complex, the sweet carrot flavor accentuated by black sesame and savory coconut cream.
We both loved the next dish, a Beech Mushroom Risotto with Black Australian Truffle. I was a bit wary of the plastic bag trick, having been disappointed by a similarly-presented dish at Samm in Los Angeles a year ago. I'm happy to report that this dish became one of our favorites of the evening.

Baby beech mushroom and black truffles from Australia were gently cooked in a bag smells heavenly when it was cut open. This bite was phenomenal, with the clean, earthy depth of that pure, mushroom flavor.

I still dream about this dish, it was so good.

At this point I was starting to get a bit full. We were on the thirteenth course and the direction of the tasting was definitely moving towards heavier and richer dishes.

The next dish, Smoked Oysters with Escabeche, came served with a glass dome that captured the smoke. It smelled fantastic!

In this dish, gently cooked oysters were served with chicken of the forest mushrooms, a very meaty mushroom that stands up well the everything else in the dish. We thought it was pretty good, although it was not one of my favorites of the evening.

Contrast that to this next dish, Fabes con Almejas, which became another one of my favorites. There were two types of spherified components on the plate. White bean spheres (the creamy ones) had a delicate skin and "popped" to reveal a deep, flavorful white bean puree inside. The clear spheres are "clams" spherified in their own juices. The entire dish was full of flavor, likely from a lot of ingredients not described (we think they may have mentioned stock from jamon ibero?)

The next dish was Espardenyes with Bone Marrow, their very upscale interpretation of surf & turf with Spanish sea cucumber and bone marrow. This was paired with Krug champagne.

The next two courses paired together oysters and squab in two different ways. The first one was Squab Liver Mousse served on top of an Oyster Leaf.

The second, Roast Squab with Oyster & Seaweed, had an intense raspberry flavor plus the strong notes of oyster sauce. Bryan loved it. I actually found it a bit too intense and I ended up gibing him half.

The next course was a fun little bite called Dragon’s Breath with Hot Toddy Shot. Simple rice cakes were briefly dipped into liquid nitrogen before being served. You're supposed to try to keep your mouth closed when you eat it so you can look like a dragon. Obviously Bryan was much more skilled at it than I was. *Sigh*

Pu-er tea served as a nice interlude.

I loved this next course, which I believe functioned as a palate cleanser in preparation for dessert. Called, Christmas in July, this dish had a Green apple celery slush topped with buttermilk snow.

I found it extremely refreshing, and I was surprised how well celery and green apple worked together.

Again playing with tricks of the eye, the next course, called Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango, looked like a straightforward Thai inspired dessert at first.

I giggled in delighted as I cut into the "mango" only to reveal that it was actually a spherified mango dusted with just enough green and orange powder to make it look like a real fruit (in fact, I thought it was a fuzzy peach at first!). The black dots on the side are black sesame dots.
The flavors were intense and delicious.

Alas, it was time to move onto the last portion of our tasting. We had tasted about twenty courses at this point and it was time to move onto the other side of this chalkboard wall into barmini to finish off our meal.

Barmini is clean, almost stark, and very modern.

I loved the fancy chemistry equipment (who has ever seem a true rotary evaporator in a kitchen??!!!).

Of course we were in a bar, so we had a chance to get cocktails if we wanted (extra cost, of course). The menu is actually quite huge, and there are many, many interesting cocktails that caught our attention. It's really quite hard to choose.

Bryan decided to order a peanut infused rum cocktail, which was fantastic. It was citrusy but not too sweet, and had a nice, strong peanut flavor. It was most certainly unusual, but it was quite good.

One by one, little finishing bites appeared at our table. I loved these Piña Colada Tablets, which were essentially Piña colada ice tablets covered with white chocolate. It was refreshing and acted as an additoinal palate cleanser.

As part of the tasting, everyone does get Jose's classic gin & tonic, which I'd had before at Jaleo in DC and absolutely loved. TerraMisu was a truffle that tasted like tiramisu. It was OK, but like the Jurassic Park did not blow me away.

One of my favorites bites was the Chicarrón [upper left], which were just fried pork rinds covered with white chocolate and passion fruit powder. Such a simple concept, but it was addictively good. It really makes me want to try my own poor-man's version at home.

The “Jurassic Park” [upper right] was bone shaped chocolate with cinnamon with rosemary.

Sablé Bon Bons [lower left] resembled French cookies and had an apricot filling inside.
Finally, the "Matcha Mochi" (different from the type I make!) looked just like traditional mochi but was actually a meringue filled with lychee sorbet and topped with macha powder. The matcha powder was definitely the dominant flavor in this dessert.

We finished off by sharing a French press pot of coffee, which was excellent.

You can stay at barmini for as long as you want, since the original minibar seats are already filled by the next set of diners, who will be there for another good hour or so. We eventually asked for the check, which came in a whimsical matryoshka (Russian) doll form along with a copy of the menu.

We had really, really enjoyed our meal here. I think I'm just a fan of this general style of dining. I generally get bored eating a large portion of the same dish. So it's natural that I think having close to 30 different bites of unusual and surprising flavor combinations is extraordinarily fun.

Furthermore, the pace is reasonably fast, which I actually like (except for the difficulty in taking photos, but that wouldn't apply to most diners, ha ha). In general, I'm sort of a restless person, and sitting anywhere still for 4-5 hours sort of drives me insane. I like how we are here for only about 2 hours, and we're not even sitting in the same spot the whole time.

Finally, everyone gets an intimate bar seat (always my favorite way of dining at a restaurant), where you can watch the chefs execute some pretty cool techniques. I'm a chemist at heart, so a lot of this modern cuisine (molecular gastronomy, whatever you want to call it) actually fascinates me. I love watching it, and I ever tire of learning about it.

So, for someone like me, these multi-course dining adventures are extremely fun. Of course, the food is the utmost important part. Thankfully, José Andrés is a master at flavors. Several of the bites we tasted pleasantly surprised us with their unusual combinations and complex flavors that just worked incredibly well. Even the more ordinary bites were still perfectly executed still tasted good.

I found virtually no misses here and overall I would most highly recommend trying one of these fun tastings.

minibar by José Andrés
855 E St NW
Washington, DC 20004

September 12, 2013 Boston

In Remembrance

I'll never forget 9/11. I was in an airplane, flying back to Boston from my honeymoon in Italy when the captain told us there were terrorist attacks in the US and the plane had to turn around and go back. "The US is no longer accepting airplanes."

It took another 3-4 hours of confusion before we finally found an English-language TV station. It was the first time we were seeing images, and all we saw was rubble.

We ended up spending three nights in Belgium before finally catching a flight back to Canada, where we (together with a group of other New England folks stuck on the same flight) drove 6+ long hours back into our respective states. It turned out later that the airport in Boston would be closed for much, much longer. Though it seemed crazy at the time, flying into Montreal was the right decision.

I'll never forget that feeling of uncertainty, fear, and helplessness. We prayed a lot during that time.

I've posted some photos I took from my visit to Washington DC last year. The Newseum has an excellent exhibit on 9/11, including haunting photos taken by Bill Biggart, a freelance photographer whose body and camera - full of photos from that fateful day - were found in the rubble. I would highly recommend seeing this exhibit.

Bill Biggart's story.

Photos found on Bill's camera.

Bill's camera and equipment.

A preserved portion of the World Trade Center against a backdrop of front page news articles from around the country that day.

A piece of the Pentagon.

A piece of the airplane found in Pennsylvania.

In remembrance.

September 7, 2013 Restaurant

A&J Restaurant (Taiwanese)

This is the second post in the short series A Weekend in Our Nation's Capital, which covers the few meals I caught in DC while visiting the city for a wedding. Other posts in this series include Zaytinya (Jose Andres).

There's something about cozy, simple, and authentic Taiwanese places that just warms my heart. It's not like I grew up with these places around me (I did grow up in Northwest Ohio, after all), yet I feel a sort of nostalgia that probably comes from my Taiwanese heritage.

We had just arrived in DC and it was already pretty late. We were extremely hungry and yet had decided not to eat before arriving in DC, even though it was closer to 8PM by the time we finally sat down.

Our dear friends (who grew up in Taiwan but have been in the US for decades), took us to one of their regular haunts, a well-known chain in Asia that also has locations in Cupertino (Northern California), Irvine (Southern California), and Annandale (Virginia).*

We started out with one of my favorite dishes - this beautiful flaky scallion pancake of sorts, which I believe they call the Thousand Layer Pancake. I think in Mandarin it's called a "chua bing", which literally means a "grab" cake. I think the idea is that you can grab the flaky layers with your hands, but I'm actually not exactly sure why it's called that. (Does anyone have any insight they can offer me?)

What I can say is that this was delicious. It was crispy and flaky on the outside, yet moist and chewy on the inside. Granted, we were starving, so I'm sure it tasted even better than normal.

I love postickers that are made this way - long, sort of stuck together, and fried to a gorgeous golden grown at the bottom. These were very good as well.

Their noodles are handmade (yay!), and you can choose between thin noodles and thick noodles. Bryan loves thick chewy noodles, so it was no question we were going to get that. These had a nice chewy "Q" bite to them, and the accompanying simple sauce of ground pork was satisfying and delicious.

Even though this is a simple dish of just salted mustard greens, edamame, and tofu sheets, I love it. It's one of those dishes that tastes like homestyle cooking and just totally hits the spot. It doesn't hurt that I have a soft spot for anything made with tofu sheets.

For fun we ordered a sesame pancake filled with beef. This dish was solid as well. The sesame pancakes were flaky and crispy but not too greasy at all. The entire thing may have been just a tad dry, but overall the flavors were good (though still not as good as the best beef roll I've ever had).

We both really enjoyed our dinner here. I'm jealous of my DC friends who live so close to this place. It's simple, inexpensive, and serves up very solid Taiwanese dim sum style snacks. The handmade noodles are a huge plus - something that is still pretty rare in Boston (though there are a few places). All in all, it's a solid Taiwanese restaurant and would definitely be a welcomed addition to any neighborhood.

*To be honest, I'm not sure if these are all owned by the same people, though the type of food sold at all the A&J's I've been to are pretty similar.

September 5, 2013 Restaurant

Zaytinya (José Andrés)

This is the first post in the short series A Weekend in Our Nation's Capital, which covers the few meals I caught in DC while visiting the city for a wedding.

If you took a short stroll around the blocks between 7th and 9th street and H and E Street in DC (not too far from the National Mall, also known as Penn Quarter), it would become quite apparent that it's dominated by one very famous chef.

At one corner, you find Jaleo, José Andrés' original Spanish tapas restaurant - still arguably his most well-known restaurant. At another corner, you'll see "minibar", the flagship restaurant where he pulls out all the stops, offering a 20+ course tasting menu of whimsical bites that trick, surprise, and delight the senses in multiple ways (more on that . . . soon!). Walk a little further down and street and there's Oyamel, Chef Andrés's small plates take on Mexican cuisine.

And finally, there's Zaytinya, his Mediterranean place, the place we ended up visiting on our last day in DC.

The restaurant is situation at the bottom of a tall, glass office building - not the first place you might expect to see this type of restaurant. The colorful sculpture outside helps convince the diner that, yes, this is a fun place to relax, not a stuffy, corporate location.

The space is large, bright, and airy. I like how it feels like I am almost sitting outside, with huge potted trees and tall, tall ceilings.

The menu consists of small plates, called "mezze", and they recommend that each person order two to three. Since it was sort of "brunch", Bryan also tried their bloody Mary, which he thought was pretty tasty.
We started out with Htipiti ($7.50) (please don't ask me to pronounce that!) which consisted of marinated roasted red peppers, feta cheese, and thyme. It was fantastic. The peppers were sweet and had a lovely deep roasted flavor. The feta offered a nice, salty balance to the bright dish.

We enjoyed the fantastic mezze with their house made puffy pita bread.
For our soup, we ordered a Tomato Corbasi, a classic Turkish chilled tomato soup made with pomegranate and molasses. This was served with Ayran (Turkish yogurt) granita and cherry tomatoes.

The soup was light, refreshing, and full of that beautiful summer tomato flavor. The soup wasn't too salty at all, which is often a problem for tomato soups.

The next dish was Horta Salata ($8.5), a kale salad (made from blanched, chopped kale), mixed with smoked olives, pickled red onions, and pistachios. The salad sat on top of fava Santorini, a beautiful spread made from yellow split peas and ladolemono (a Greek sauce consisting of an emulsion of olive oil and lemon juice).

I absolutely loved this dish. The flavors were fantastic. I especially enjoyed the flavorful lemony spread and how it paired with the healthy kale and crunchy pistachios.

The Roasted Cauliflower ($8.50) was a simple dish that came with capers and golden raisins. Although it was pretty good, providing a nice balance of sweet and salty, the dish did not stand out the way the earlier dishes had. I felt that the cauliflower was just slightly under-roasted and was a bit soggier than I prefer.

The Octopus Santorini was highly recommended, and we agree that it was fantastic. The grilled Mediterranean octopus was smoky and deeply flavorful yet gorgeously soft and tender at the same time. It came with marinated onions, capers, and a yellow split pea puree infused with saffron and lemon, a flavor combination that's characteristic of Santorini in Greece.

Finally, we had one of the specials of the day, a Greek Lamb Pie made with phyllo dough. Bryan, who loves lamb, really liked this dish. It was hearty, rich, and very satisfying.
For dessert, since we were really full at this point, we opted for the only dessert that was available in a mezze portion ($4 / whole portion is $8). The Galatopita is essentially a semolina custard "espuma" (foam), served with crispy phyllo, almonds, berries, and a raspberry "mastiha" (Greek brandy-based liquer) sorbet. This was fine - nothing particularly memorable, but it was OK.

Bryan tried a Turkish coffee, which was quite strong but pretty good. There's always a tiny bit of sediment at the bottom of a Turkish coffee, so just be careful when drinking it once you get near the bottom. The waiter suggested sweetening it, since most people can't handle the strength of a Turkish coffee. Bryan regretted agreeing, since he found the coffee to be way too sweet. Next time, we'll have it black.

View looking at the bar

Overall I really enjoyed my meal at Zaytinya. I fell in love with any dish with the word "Santorini" in the name. Though I don't really remember eating so much lemony yellow pea puree while I was in Santorini, this delicious spread is clearly a signature flavor of the local cuisine, and I absolutely love it.

Other dishes, such as the octopus and the red pepper spread, were also excellent. José Andrés is a master at bold flavors, and he executes it very well here. We thought six mezzes for two people was quite a bit (we were so stuffed), and I do think you can probably get away with ordering a bit less. Most of the small plates hover in the $8-$12 range, so the bill can add up quickly.

Even though we tried six different plates, the menu is massive, and there are still so many plates we have not tried. It would be fun to come back with a larger crowd so I could share more dishes, thus trying even more! This is definitely a place I'd love to visit again.

Zaytinya
701 9th St NW
Washington, DC 20001

August 28, 2013 DC Trip Report

A Weekend in Our Nation's Capital

We will begin a short series on Washington D.C. based off of a weekend trip I took there over July 4th weekend. Yes, it was another wedding, so we didn't get to eat at as many places as we would have for a normal trip. If you want to see my other DC posts, definitely check out the index (or just scroll down to the bottom of thist post), where you'll find a list of all the links to the different restaurants I've visited in DC.

I was so very torn.

On the one hand, I'd always been curious about what it would be like to sit on the Mall at the nation's capital on the 4th of July. It seems like if there's going to a huge celebration somewhere, DC would be that place.

Yet I absolutely love the fireworks in Boston. If I'm not out of town, I will be there. We always head out there every year to watch the fireworks on the river. I love how the music coordinates with the fireworks show, which is really long! (about 30 minutes). The show is always phenomenal.

This year, because we were invited to a wedding in DC, we had that much more reason to make a weekend trip out of it. So, we flew down to DC on July 3rd and spent a long weekend doing all sorts of classic DC activities, such as visiting the free museums (Smithsonians!) along the national mall (awesome way to escape from the heat you're waiting for the fireworks to begin), heading down to Virginia to see the Discovery space shuttle at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum (so cool!), and (of course), checking out its dining scene.

No July 4th is complete with a BBQ, and we did just that. We visited several friends who lived in the area and had a fun barbecue. I learned how to make salmon on a cedar plank, something I can't wait to try at home!

In DC, we checked out a few restaurants, such as this fun family-owned spot originally from Taiwan that boasts a pretty awesome flaky green onion pastry (among lots of other dishes!).

We're huge fans of Jose Andres (having been to many of his other restaurants), and thus decided to try a few more in his empire in DC (where he started it all). This Mediterranean place had fresh ingredients and lots of fun, flavorful small plates.

His flagship restaurant, now expanded to take more reservations, was a revelation - delicate, well thought out flavors accompanied stunning presentations.

It's a fun experience, as you get a first hand look at the creation of each dish.
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Stay tuned for much more complete posts about each of these places!

Related Posts

Jaleo (Jose Andres)
The Federalist (upscale)
Peregrine Espresso (coffee)
Rasika West End (Indian)
Ceiba (Mediterranean)

Granville Moore's (beer and pub food)

Il Canale (Naples pizza)
Little Ethiopia (authentic Ethiopian food)

Ben's Chili Bowl (tourist perspective)
Ben's Chili Bowl (insider perspective)

**The Source (Wolfgang Puck)

August 27, 2013 Cambridge

Posto Pizzeria

I've always thought there was a shortage of really good Italian restaurants in Cambridge. Sure, there's Rialto if you're looking for something really upscale, or the numerous (and solid) pizzerias in the area, such as Armando's, Area Four, Emma's, and Otto (just to name a few favorites).

But what about something in between? What about the type of neighborhood restaurant that offers simple but well executed pasta dishes, grilled meats and fish, and a warm and relaxing environment in which to enjoy it all? I think we have a shortage of places like that. Case in point: we almost always head out to Boston when we want Italian.

It's reasons like these that current Italian newcomers to Cambridge, such as Giulia in the Harvard/Porter area or Toscano in Harvard Square, are always insanely busy.

And then I found out about Posto.

I'd sort of heard of Posto before. Friends of mine who live in Davis Square told me their pizza was fantastic. We even tried going once, but unluckily showed up on the day of a private party, and thus were reluctantly turned away.

What I didn't know, is that it's not just a "pizzeria and a wine bar."

Far from it, in fact.

Just a couple months ago, the owner of Posto, Joseph Cassinelli, took a bold step in hiring several key people to really make some major changes in his restaurants (Posto and The Painted Burro). He hired Alec Riveros (pictured above) to become the Director of Operations. Riveros was previously general manager of Menton, where he helped open the highest-end restaurant Boston had ever seen from the ground up in 2010.

Cassinelli also hired Chef Wyatt Maguire, previously Executive Sous Chef at Menton, to become Executive Chef of Posto. Vanessa Leesam (pictured at right) is the sous chef.

I was delighted to accept an invitation to try out Chef Maguire's new menu debut at Posto. I was excited for a number of reasons. First, we love Italian food, and the idea of having a Menton-trained chef designing the menu at a restaurant near our home (where there's a general shortage of Italian restaurants) was intriguing, to say the least.

Second, even though it's technically in Somerville, I feel like it's in my backyard because it's really close! Tucked between Porter and Davis Square, Bryan and I could (and did!) walk to the restaurant from home - another huge plus.

Finally, we were excited to see Alec again. We had met him a few times dining at Menton and he's just great. We knew the restaurant could only benefit with him in charge.

Below I've detailed our special tasting of various menu items. Please keep in mind that the portions shown below are smaller than an actual portion on the menu. We were given tasting portions, whereas the portions on the menu are either appetizer or entree portions. So don't be too alarmed when you see an "entree" type price and then the picture shows just a tiny bit of food!

Our meal began with Pane ($2.50)- freshly baked rosemary sea salt bread. It reminded me of pizza dough (it very well might be, actually). It was warm, slightly chewy, and actually had very good flavor.

These were accompanied with Olivas ($5) - warm olives with hints of orange, rosemary, and arbol chile. These were definitely high quality olives, and I enjoyed them as they took the edge off of my hunger at the beginning of the meal.
The wine program is currently being managed by Alec Riveros himself. He has a deep interest in wine and has had a lot of fun revamping it. We tried bunch of interesting wines that evening, all of which were from Piedmont, Italy.

Our first starter was the Fritto ($11), a fried green tomato served with fennel salad and buttermilk dressing. I love fried green tomatoes, and this one was very good.
Our salad was Barbabietola ($13), which consisted of a gorgeous array of baby beets (both red beets and the colorful striped chiogga beets), Sicilian pistachio, and feta cheese tossed in an orange vinaigrette. The ingredients were fresh and the combination of flavors - the classic duo of beets with feta - worked well.
The next salad, simply called Mozzarella ($14), included thin slices of prosciutto, super ripe white peach slices, and a rosemary honey on top of the fresh mozzarella cheese. It's a sweeter, juicier take on a classic insalata caprese, and it's delicious. They definitely use high quality ingredients in this salad (very important), and it shows.
And then the pasta courses began to arrive.

All of their pastas are handmade (yay!). We tried the Tortellini ($19), which is filled with Maine crab meat, radishes, and sweet pea brodo. It's finished with a Parmesan crema and topped with seasonal carrot shavings and carrot greens. I loved this dish, especially its focus on seasonal vegetables. It had just the right amount of substance without feeling too heavy.
Bryan was a huge fan of the homemade Gnocchi ($18), which came with chunks of melt-in-your-mouth soft lamb braised in white wine and vidalia onions. A light topping of pecorino Toscano completed the dish.

Since he and I were sort of sharing the above two dishes, each of us was perfectly happy to finish the one we liked more: I ate the rest of the tortellini, and he happily polished off the gnocchi.

The Trota ($22) is not for the squeamish eater. A whole rainbow trout is served with the head. The inside of the fish is cleaned out and filled with kale, Marcona almonds, and marrow. Our version was a small version of this dish so you sort of lose the effect, but I've seen photos online of the full thing, and it's quite a sight to behold. I found this dish to be OK - simple and fresh, but nothing particularly exciting.
We tried a taste of their Yellow Tomato Risotto, which is currently not being served alone, but instead as an accompaniment to the Swordfish entree.
It was sweet, beautifully bright and vivid (clearly made from uber sweet in-season tomatoes), and had that perfect consistency of being just a bit runny, but still creamy.

Looking at the food we just ate, you may almost forget that we are actually at a restaurant that has the words "Pizzeria" in its name.

Did I already say Posto is not your typical pizzeria?

Posto is the only restaurant in New England that has been certified by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana ("VPN"). The non-profit organization certifies pizza makers around the world who comply with a list of strict standards for making a true, authentic Neapolitan style pizza. Requirements include things like using San Marzano tomatoes, 00 flour, only kneading with your hands, and very stringent size and baking temperature requirements.

According to Alec, the inspectors visit anonymously once a year and then send you the bill after they've come and left.

We had a chance to try a variety of different pizzas. Pictured above is the Caponata ($17), which is topped with eggplant, goat cheese, tomato conserva, cured grapes, and pine nuts.

The Salsiccia ($17) has fennel sausage, whipped ricotta, and a pistachio nut pesto.

The fun summer Mais ($17) pizza consists of sweet corn, fontina, applewood bacon, grape tomato, and basil puree.
The classic Marinara ($11) has sliced garlic, oregano, and Parmesan cheese.
We were so stuffed at this point, but we couldn't pass up the delicious Panna Cotta with lemon basil, strawberry, and shortbread crumble.

The classic Tiramisu was also very good. Simple, but delicious (why mess with something that's already perfect?).

Finally, for our after dinner drink, we had a very unusual and unique drink. It was a Damilano Barolo Chinato - an aromatized dessert wine made from 100% Nebbiolo grapes infused with flavors like extract from the china calissaja tree bark (origin of quinine), licorice, and cinnanom. It's herbaceous, very complex - almost "medicinal" tasting - but in a very good way. It was the perfect way to finish off the meal.

They gave us each a bag with one of my favorite desserts, cannoli from Modern Pastry (yes! no need to go to the North End and stand in those long lines anymore!)

We started heading our way out of the restaurant when I got my first real glimpse of their massive pizza oven.

"Wow, that's an amazing oven. Check out that flame!"

VPN regulations say that pizza must be baked for 60–90 seconds in a 485 °C (905 °F) stone oven with an oak-wood fire. More specifically, the pizza has to be baked at the floor of the oven.

Alec explained to me that they typically start putting wood into the fire several hours before the first pizza is baked, since that's how long it takes to heat that oven up to those crazy high temperatures. They continue to feed it wood throughout the night until the late evening, where they let it slowly die out.

"Do you want to make a pizza?"

"Really??!!" I sort of didn't really believe him.

"Sure, why not?"

I ran into the kitchen to wash my hands, threw my camera at Bryan, and plopped myself next to their best pizza maker - a guy who can apparently churn out pizzas at some crazy rate (like one per minute or something).

Stretching out the pizza dough wasn't as hard I might have imagined (none of this throwing it in the air business), though I struggled to make it even.

We made a simple Margherita, my favorite, with San Marzano tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil, and (surprise!) a bit of Parmesan.

"We had to ask the VPN for permission to put that on top of our pizza," said Alec (since it's not standard).

I carefully slid the pizza into the oven. The trick in getting a successful "slide" is to be confident. Do it all in one motion. Push it in, and then pull out in one motion. It's when people start pushing and pulling the pizza peel back and forth that the pizza gets all bent out of shape.

It was a quick, quick bake - only ninety seconds! It's amazing how quickly the crust starts bubbling at those high temperatures.

Why hello, lovely!

I know, we were beyond stuffed, but Bryan said, "you have to try it when it's hot." He's absolutely right, so we all tasted it, and it was fabulous. Here's Bryan and Rachel from Foodista On Pointe totally enjoying these slices.

Step by step process of me making the pizza!

Thoughts
We really enjoyed our dinner at Posto. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised that a place so close to us served such a wide variety of good, seasonally-inspired Italian food. I really enjoyed the salads and the pastas dishes. We only had one main course, which I found a bit underwhelming, but I haven't really had a chance to try the rest of the menu yet. Our favorite spots in Boston (which, admittedly are significantly more expensive), probably still hold an edge on the pastas and main dishes.

The pizza, however, is a different story.

There's something about the flavor of that pizza crust that we found unusually addictive. In fact, Bryan and I brought home the leftovers of this Margherita pizza, forgot about it, and then ate it a week later. Although it had sort of dried out and suffered quite a bit in terms of texture (OK, it was almost as hard as a rock), we still ended up finishing the whole pie (slowly, chewing for a long time!) because the flavors of everything - both the toppings and the crust - were just really, really good.

So, definitely come try the pizza, but do try some of the other stuff on the menu too. I like how there's a wide variety of food (and price points) from which to choose. I like how the food is familiar and approachable, yet executed with high quality ingredients with just a bit of creative flair.

I could totally see this place becoming a neighborhood favorite (for us!) for those times we're hankering Italian and just don't feel like trekking out to the North End.

Posto Pizzeria
187 Elm St.
Somerville, MA

Disclaimer: This meal was paid for by Posto Pizzeria. All opinions are my own.

August 25, 2013 Seattle

Pike Place Market

It's arguably the most famous public market in the nation.

It's also one of the oldest, continuously running markets, running since 1907.

Pike Place Market is one of the few places I visit every single time I come back to Seattle.

It's a food lover's paradise. Not only are there stands after stands of gorgeous (and sometimes exotic) produce, the seafood is phenomenal and so much cheaper than what I'd pay in Boston (at least for salmon!).

There's no doubt the place is teeming with tourists, craning their necks to get a glimpse of the famous fish market guys who throw fish at each other.

But these places are not just touristy without substance. They actually offer really, really good seafood.

In fact, Bryan and I bought an entire Copper River King salmon at one of these fish markets, and we've been insanely pleased with our purchase.

The market cleaned, de-boned, and cut up the entire fish for us into 1-2 lb pieces. They vacuum-packed each piece and packed them all in ice for us to bring on the plane. No extra charge.

Honestly, we have never had better salmon in our entire lives.

Around the market there are all sorts of other vendors selling everything from dried pasta and artisanal olive oil to kitchen supplies and even clothing. A lot of places will offer free samples, so come with an open mind!

How about some fun flavored pastas? This place like to pass out chocolate pasta for people to sample. Orange Szechuan linguini anyone?

Or maybe this delectable Russian pastry called a "piroshky"?

The original Starbucks is here too, and there's always a line out of the door, even though the coffee is pretty much the same as in any other Starbucks (though there was a time when the Pike Place Roast was only available at this store).

Seems like the folks at Starbucks are getting the "throwing" fever too.

If you're a super coffee geek, consider visiting Seattle Coffee Works instead. On top of offering your typical authentic espresso drinks (e.g., cappuccinos, lattes, macchiatos, and cortados), you can order a drink from the "Slow Bar", where you can sit at an actual coffee bar and watch the baristas brew up coffee in a number of different slow ways, such as "vacuum pot," "pour-over", "chemex", or "French press."

Unfortunately the day I went, they were severely understaffed (apparently the owners were on vacation), and therefore the slow bar was closed. I got a cappuccino, which was still delicious.

I love getting the dried apple chips from the market. My favorites are the ones made from Granny Smith apples. I find that they crisp up the best - resulting in a dry, tart, and crispy chip that's not too chewy or soft.

Pike Place Market has plenty of normal fruits and vegetables, but it also has one of the most diverse selections of interesting produce I've ever seen. How often does one get to see morel mushrooms, sea beans, purple artichoke, and garlic spears at a market?

I was so intrigued by the garlic spears that I bought two bunches to take home. They are different from garlic scapes (a lot of people get them confused) because they come from the elephant garlic, which is technically not really garlic. They cook up much more like a vegetable (reminds me of Chinese long beans or asparagus), and much less like a true allium. I made a fantastic dish at home combining these garlic spears with some gorgeous halibut I had also bought at Pike Place Market.

And the weirdest thing we saw at the market? Ostrich and emu eggs. No joke - you can see them displayed next to the goose, duck, and chicken eggs. Would you pay $25 for an ostrich egg? Or $13 for an emu egg?

All in all, Pike Place Market is definitely a fun place to visit and I think it's a must-visit for any food lover. Oh, I almost forgot to mention - don't miss the house-smoked salmon at the fish market, which is incredibly delicious too. They are happy to give out free samples, but it's dangerous. You will most likely purchase some after tasting it, and it's not cheap! I think we ended up buying a few fillets of those as well to bring back with us.

Bryan carrying our 30 lb salmon onto the plane.

Awww, the Seattle mini-series is over. Hope you enjoyed it. Sorry there weren't more posts. I guess my trip was just too short. I can't wait to go back!

August 23, 2013 Restaurant

Portage Bay Cafe

We continue exploring gorgeous Seattle by stopping in this very popular cafe that's known for its excellent brunch foods ("All-Day Breakfast" they call it), the famous "Breakfast Bar", and a passionate dedication to locally sourced, sustainable, and fair trade ingredients.

Portage Bay Cafe is the type of place that's hard not to fall in love with. It's bright and airy, serves up great food at reasonable prices, and owners John and Amy Fair Gunnar are truly passionate about local, organic, and sustainable food.

In fact, one whole section of their menu is dedicated to listing all the local farms from which they source their ingredients (and it's a loooooong list) . Their menu touts the fact that all their coffee, sugar, and tropical fruits are fair trade; and that they do a lot of stuff in-house - everything from curing their own meat to baking their own bread.

The place is popular and often packed, so don't be surprised if you have to wait. Thankfully, the location we visited near the university campus was pretty large, and thus tables turned over relatively quickly. I think we waited maybe 10-15 minutes for a party of six.

Breakfast is served all day, so you can get those sunny side up eggs, bacon, and hash browns (Phil's Breakfast - $9.50) anytime you want within their hours of 7:30AM to 2:30PM (yes, it really is a breakfast/lunch focused place, although they will do later catering orders).

Everything is fresh, executed solidly, and pretty tasty. I'm not sure if it beats my favorite brunch places in Boston, but it's quite good.

I ordered the Farmer's Hash ($15.50), which is a mix of three eggs, scrambled, cooked with a variety of local, organic, and sustainably grown vegetables. My guess is these vegetables change depending on the season. I had green and yellow bell peppers and scallions. This is further augmented with ingredients that are constant: roasted onions, fingerling potatoes, fresh herbs, house-made toast, and a choice of protein. I went with their house-smoked local wild salmon, which was good.

Part of me wished for a slightly different ratio - maybe less potatoes and more veggies - but then that might be season-dependent (this was in July).

If you don't feel like breakfast food, you can order a few hot entrees, such as this Prawns & Pancetta Linguine ($15), which consists of sustainably-caught wild spot prawns, baked Zoe's pancetta, organic cherry tomatoes, local baby spinach, and organic linguine tossed in a house made pesto finished with toasted pine nuts and Truffle Tremor cheese.
Another member in our party ordered the Pan Seared Scallops over risotto, which looked lovely, though I don't think I actually got to taste this one (you feel bad asking for a scallop when the poor guy only has 4-5 for his entire meal).
Though their hot breakfast foods are solid, the best part is the "Breakfast Bar." If you order certain dishes, you get to take one trip and fill your plate as high as possible with a variety of fresh fruits, nuts, organic maple syrup, and whipped cream.

Bryan decided to get the Classic French Toast ($11.50), which is made from house-made challah bread, egg batter, and a cinnamon garnish. In his one trip to the Breakfast Bar, he piled it high with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, maple syrup, and whipped cream.

It was fantastic. You may wonder why the whole plate is not loaded up with fruit. Bryan decided he wanted one French toast to be more "savory" (he's not a huge sweets person), and therefore kept one fruit-free.

No, Bryan is not eating two main courses. We are sharing - one sweet, one savory. He would never ever order a sweet dish for his entire meal.

Overall Thoughts?
This place is fun. It's a great, casual place to visit with a group (we were a bunch of cousins from all over the US traveling to Seattle for a wedding). Considering the efforts that go into sourcing the ingredients and making stuff in-house, the prices are really, really reasonable.

The food is very good. I wouldn't say it would blow anyone away, per se, but it's healthy, reasonably priced, and all the dishes were solidly executed. If you're in the area anyway, it's a perfectly fine place to stop by for brunch or lunch.

Photo courtesy of Bryan's cousin Jennifer Chao

University District
4130 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105

August 22, 2013 Restaurant

How to Cook a Wolf

This is one of only a couple posts that will focus briefly on Seattle, Washington. Bryan and I took a whirlwind weekend trip there earlier this summer to celebrate (and play music at!) our friends' wedding. I wish we could have stayed longer, but alas, we only had a couple days. Outside of wedding festivities, we managed to squeeze in just one restaurant and an unforgettable visit to Pike Place Market.

The Pacific Northwest is blessed with abundant access to a huge variety of incredible produce. It's no surprise that Seattle has one of the oldest and most famous farmers markets in the U.S. The locavore movement in this area is well established and still going very strong. There are many, many restaurants that serve this sort of Northwest local ingredients-driven cooking.

I love it - especially during the summer, when farms are exploding with produce.

How to Cook a Wolf is a tiny, charming 30-seater restaurant in the Queen Anne district of Seattle. It focuses on Italian small plates with an emphasis on local and seasonal Pacific northwest ingredients. Chef Ethan Stowell, a three time James Beard Award nominee who never went to culinary school, is the chef co-owner of this restaurant, along with his wife Angela Stowell.

Chef Stowell's food philosophy is about "keeping it simple, using fresh ingredients and allowing the food to do the talking."

After sampling some excellent small plates at his restaurant, I couldn't agree more.

The restaurant is named after a well-known book written by M.F.K. Fisher written in 1942 during times of famine and war. Her book focused on the idea of taking simple ingredients and, according to Chef Stowell, "transforming them into culinary splendor."

The dishes at the restaurant most certainly reflect this principle. A quick scan of the menu reveals seasonal ingredients such as morel mushrooms, sugar snap peas, and spring garlic. Local ingredients are all over the menu as well, such as Dungeness crabs and bing cherries.

Our table of four decided to share a bunch of small plates, which (in my opinion) is the best way to enjoy this menu. Seriously, all the items will look so good to you, it will be hard to pick just one or two. That's why sharing a bunch of plates is the best of all worlds.
Soft Cooked Egg ($12) was a simple yet delicious first bite. Barely cooked soft-boiled eggs were generously topped with Dungeness crab, chili aioli, a Pimenton potato chip. The Dungeness crab was tender and sweet, adding a fantastic richness to the soft boiled egg.
The Roasted Beets ($11) were fantastic, simply tossed with fresh ricotta, almonds, endive, and pickled red onion. The pickled red onions added a bright zing to the sweet beets, and we loved the light and creamy ricotta.
Similarly, the Burrata ($12), which was served with an arugula-pine nut pesto and toasted crostini, was delicious. The burrata cheese itself was soft, creamy, and had that beautiful, fresh milk taste.

We loved the Campanelle ($19), thick, slightly curly pasta sheets tossed with sugar snap peas, morel mushrooms, and Pecorino Romano with a splash of black pepper. I like the pure simplicity of the dish, which allowed the inherent flavors of the ingredients to shine. The morel mushrooms gave the dish a gorgeously fragrant and earthy depth, while the crunch of the sweet snap peas served as the perfect counterbalance.

The Scallops ($22) were seared so that they were barely cooked, still complete with a buttery-soft center. These came with cranberry bean, shaved fennel, and Castlevetrano olives. This dish was strongly recommended by the server, and we all agreed that it was perfectly executed and tasted fantastic.
Because we were in Seattle, we felt compelled to at least try one salmon dish. The Neah Bay King Salmon ($26) was good, though overall I preferred the scallops slightly over the salmon. The salmon was lightly seared and served with grilled squash and Walla Walla spring onions.

We ordered two desserts to share. The special - a chocolate terrine - was absolutely phenomenal. I am not typically drawn to chocolate-type desserts, but even this one I found myself wanting more. The chocolate terrine has elements of both peanut butter, chocolate mousse, and a gorgeously crunchy peanut-buttery cookie-like layer that really brings the dessert to another level.

The second dessert, a Lemon Olive Polenta Cake, came with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and was topped with a yogurt gelato. It was also very good, but I think everyone preferred the amazing chocolate terrine.

All in all, our dinner at How to Cook a Wolf was fantastic - an all around perfect experience. The staff was very friendly, all the food was fantastic, and we were with fun company. The closest thing I can think of on the East coast that reminds me a lot of this restaurant is Torrisi Italian Specialties in New York, which we also love.

I would highly recommend seeking this place out if you are in Seattle. I haven't eaten at too many restaurants in this city, but I can already assure you that this is my new favorite.

How to Cook a Wolf
2208 Queen Anne Ave N
Seattle, WA 98109

August 20, 2013 Boston

Whisk at 351 (Whisk Boston)

Right in the heart of Boston's famous bustling North End - just down the street from the jam packed Mike's Pastry and the long lines at Giacamo's - lies a quaint little wine bar that you could almost miss if you were walking a bit too fast (which I'm often guilty of doing!).

Take a peak inside, and you'll see unique, hand-curated wine bottles lining the entire back wall. On the window, a hand-written menu describes the menu for the week. This tiny place - eight tables in total - feels cozy, romantic, and totally invites you in.

And that's when you realize something is a little different.

On August 1, 2013, the popular wine bar called Volle Nolle transformed into a pop-up restaurant called Whisk at 351. Unlike most other restaurants up and down this famous street, Whisk 351 is doing things a little bit differently.

We enter the quaint wine bar and immediately notice that the food is different. A quick look at the menu (African basil, corn truffle demiglace, and foie gras creme brûlée?) confirms that this is not your typical, old-world American Italian restaurant on Hanover Street. Whisk offers tasting menus that showcase local, seasonal ingredients using a combination of classic French techniques and more modern "avant garde" techniques.

We meet the owners of this pop-up, Executive Chef Jeremy Kean and Executive Pastry Chef Philip Kruta, who have a wealth of experience between them. Kean handles the savory portions of the menu, and has worked at Aquitaine, Garden at the Cellar, and Rialto. Kruta is the pastry guru, and trained at L'Espalier under pastry chef Jiho Kim. They have "popped up" at several cafes in Jamaica Plain, as well as at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts.

Though the food is most certainly a highlight of Whisk (and I will go into their dishes in gory detail below), what I find most intriguing about Whisk is its commitment to helping those who have spent time in correctional facilities. Whisk partners with Haley House’s Transitional Employment Program, hiring and training interns by giving them real world experience working at Whisk.

We manage to catch Jeremy for a few minutes to chat a bit about this program.

Jeremy has a heart for these people for a few reasons. First, he admits that he used to get into trouble, and he himself spent a bit of time in jail in a former life. He sees a lot of potential in these folks, many of whom come out of prison 15-20 years later for drug-related offenses they committed in their teens. When they are released, they have absolutely no job skills and have no idea how to re-integrate into the real world.

Jeremy really enjoys training these folks, and has had over ten people go through his training regimen. He says his "success rate" is about 30%, which is remarkable considering the difficult job he is taking on.

Jeremy's eyes light up as he describes some of his experiences. "The first guy I ever trained - this is a great success story - I ended up placing him at Meyers & Chang, where he now works as a line cook."

Jeremy's dream is to set up a couple restaurants: a more casual one where trainees can learn basic cooking skills (e.g., how to fry an egg); and then a more upscale one (like Whisk 351), where the more advanced and passionate students can train even more rigorously.

Jeremy looks at his watch and realizes he should go prep, since a large wave of guests will soon be arriving.

We sit down in this tiny, eight-seater restaurant, and just soak in the intimate, cozy atmosphere.

Pictured behind Bryan on the right is Torri Crowell, one of the owners of Volle Nolle, the wine bar that's currently hosting the pop-up.

Torri immediately makes us feel welcome by offering us a drink to start off the evening. She's just as impressed with these chefs as everyone else. We ask her whether she's tried all the food.

"Absolutely. And it's really good."

She's still amazed at how everything worked out so well. You see, it just so happened that Torri's chef was going on vacation the month of August. She found out from reading Eater that the Whisk guys were looking for a semi-permanent place to set up.

After a few conversations, Whisk at 351 became a reality. Now, three weeks later, Torri is amazed that the time has gone by so quickly. The popup is going full force and has been very, very popular.

We're so deep in conversation we hardly notice the amazing waft coming from the kitchen. They've just taken several hot loaves of bread out of the oven.

"We make all of our bread from scratch. It's baked right here."

There are two different loaves being served: a sunflower seed pistachio bread and a date thyme lemon bread. Both are served with a black garlic miso butter.

The server says to me, ""Phil's an amazing baker - his bread is incredible."

After one bite, I am hooked. The bread is indeed fantastic. Usually I don't try to fill up on bread, but in this case, we get seconds, and then thirds. It's deeply flavorful, soft and chewy, and has that perfect hard crust. How does he manage to pack so much flavor in a piece of bread?

And then the courses begin to come. We start with a Peasant Tomato Salad which includes roasted tomatoes, truffle corn, prosciutto, fennel pollen, mozzarella, and African basil. Artistic drops of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic reduction decorate the plate. Wine pairing: Dibon Cava Brut Reserve NV.

According to Jeremy, "except for the prosciutto, which is imported from Italy, everything else on the plate is local."

We both love the freshness of all the ingredients on the plate. The flavors come together nicely, and overall it is a lovely summer dish.

The next course is a single Sea Scallop served with corn three ways: crispy corn, crumbled corn shortbread, and corn purée. A single sesame topped crostini is sprinkled with "Thomas Keller garlic chips". Crispy pancetta and a creamy corn truffle demiglace complete the dish. Wine pairing: 2011 Domaine Talmard Chardonnay.

The dish is fantastic. The scallop is perfectly cooked, and I love the textural contrast provided by the crispy crostini, pancetta, and cornbread contrasting the soft scallop and the creamy demiglace.

The third course, a Beef Tartare, is served with a crispy crostini topped with a sunny side up quail egg, ginger crisp, and ginger cream. This is accompanied by a salad of brown butter capers and chives. A smear of tomato jam on the side completes the dish. Wine pairing: 2011 Tracce Nero D'Avola.

The beef tartare is well seasoned and very fresh. Bryan is pleasantly surprised at how "gingery" the ginger cream + crisp taste.

"I'm not used to restaurants adding so much ginger to a dish. I like it."
And then a fun, extra "off-menu" dish arrives. These are Mini Beef Caprese Prosciutto Sliders, which come with a tiny side of truffle fries. Wine pairing: 2008 Rimbert. The truffle fries really reminded me of the ones I love from Garden at the Cellar (which may not be an accident considering Jeremy used to work there). The sandwiches include "Phil's sourdough bread", which some publications have referred to as "the stuff of legends." The burger is simple yet delicious.

We then move onto a unique Gorgonzola Gnocchi, which comes with an oxtail marmalade, pickled apples, apple butter, and mustard seeds. Wine pairing: 2010 Donati Claret.

The gorgonzola sauce is not overly strong (which I like), yet it does add a unique element to an otherwise traditional combination of ingredients. I especially like how the apple butter and pickled apple pieces (which seem to have been compressed using molecular gastronomy techniques) add brightness and tartness to the rich and savory dish.

Chef Jeremy then comes out and personally presents us the next course.

"This next dish is a collaboration between myself and Phil. It's not a savory course, and it's not dessert. It's the bridge that ties them together."

This is the Foie Gras Creme Brûlée, which is paired with a 2011 Besitos Moscato.

Wow.

Not only does the creme brûlée itself have a pleasant foie gras flavor, the dish comes with a seared lobe of foie gras on top. Additional accompaniments include strawberry "paper" (a thin, dehydrated sheet of strawberry), fresh strawberries, and white balsamic jam. Even though I don't really like foie gras, even I have to admit this dish is excellent. Bryan absolutely loves it and finishes the entire thing.
For our first "true" dessert, we enjoy a lovely Chocolate Hazelnut Praline Mousse, which is served with chocolate ganache, lemon curd, candied hazelnut, and brown butter. This is paired with an Infantado Ruby Port, which turns out to be a lovely pairing.
And finally, for our last course, Pastry Chef Philip finally comes out.

"I really wanted you to try this one."

This is a modern deconstructed Cherry Cheesecake, which includes a pile of graham cracker crumbs on one side and a caramelized white chocolate pistachio "sandwich" on the other side. Delicate, wafer-thin meringue slices hold together a flavorful pistachio flavored cream. It is not only elegantly presented, the flavor combinations are subtle but sophisticated.

We had arrived early, right at 5:30, to room with eight empty tables. By the time we are ready to head out, the tiny dining room is completely filled up.

We finish the meal sipping on Milla grappa, an unusual after dinner drink that is made by infusing chamomile into grappa made by Nebbiolo grapes. The chamomile most definitely cuts the harshness of the grappa, and overall I find the drink to be herbaceous, soothing, and a perfect way to end the evening.

It's quite clear to me that an incredible amount of labor - mostly of love - goes into each of these meals. You can tell these guys are pouring their hearts into each course. The two dedicated chefs show up in the kitchen at 8:30 AM every morning to begin prepping for the evening's meals. Because everything is made from scratch - from the bread and the flavored butter to the sauces and components of each dish - the chefs regularly work 16-hour days. It's absolutely crazy, but I have a feeling they are having the time of their lives right now.

It's not exactly clear how long this pop-up will be around. We know they are confirmed for at least the month of August and supposedly have this semi-permanent location through September. Where they will be next is anyone's best guess.

They are changing the menu once a week, so you could still go this week and next week, and experience something completely different. Do keep in mind that you have to reserve the 7-course tasting ($75) in advance, though you can still experience the 3-course ($45) and the 5-course ($65) without prior reservation (though why risk walking in when the entire restaurant only has eight seats!). Additional wine pairings can be added for $20, $30, or $40 respectively, or can be ordered by the glass or bottle (you are at a wine bar, after all!).

Considering how much work goes into a meal like this, they are charging a very reasonable price for this meal. Most restaurant serving food at this level are charging much more (e.g, No. 9 Park's 7-course tasting is $112; L'Esaplier's 3-course tasting is $90; 6-courses for $110; 80 Thoreau's 5-course tasting is $75; Craigie on Main's 8 course is $118; T. W. Food's 7 courses is $85). A three-course for $45 is only a bit more than Restaurant Week, and the food is so much better than a typical Restaurant Week meal.

Whisk at 351 is open Tuesdays through Saturdays for dinner. You can reserve at their website here.

Whisk at 351
Volle Nolle
351 Hanover St
Boston, MA 02113

Disclaimer: Whisk and Volle Nolle covered the cost of the meal and alcohol for this dinner. All opinions are my own.

August 16, 2013 Michelin

Nahm (Bangkok)

Thailand has always been known for its street food.

In all my food research leading up to the trip, I sensed one common theme: the best food is found on the streets. Forget going to a sit-down restaurant. You'll just eat subpar food and probably pay a lot more.

In some ways I would agree.

One of the best dishes, period, that I enjoyed in Thailand was a perfect plate of drunken noodles from a famous, open air roadside hole-in-the-wall. Similarly, I will never forget the incredible tom yum noodle soup I had in an alleyway in the old Bangrak area of the city. There's no doubt that some of these street vendors have been perfecting their single craft for decades, and therefore truly create some works of art that are not easily replicated by novices.

But I would disagree about the advice to skip the sit-down restaurants.

As you can see from the posts I've already published, there are definitely some sit-down restaurants that are quite enjoyable.

And then you've got a place like Nahm, which is in a category by itself.

Nahm is the brainchild of David Thompson, and Australian chef who has always shown an extreme interest in Thai cuisine. After spending some time honing his craft in Bangkok, he opened a few Thai restaurants in Sydney before he was tapped in 2009 to open an upscale Thai restaurant in London.

Chef Thompson studied ancient Thai cookbooks and recreated dishes using methods that are hardly used anymore. To some, he is resurrecting a craft that was slowly dying in Thailand.

Nahm in London received its first Michelin star soon after opening. It was the first Thai restaurant ever to receive a star. After years of success, Thompson decided to take the risky move and open a second Nahm . . . . in Bangkok.

It's one thing to be a foreigner in London opening a Thai restaurant. It's a completely different ballgame when you enter someone else's "home turf" and introduce to them their own cuisine presented in a way that's even many of the locals don't completely recognize.

We arrived at the trendy COMO hotel not knowing exactly what to expect. The server was extremely pleasant and spoke excellent English. I think we later found out he was actually from Hong Kong, or had at least spent a significant amount of time there.

The first question is important: How spicy?

Bryan can handle a lot of heat. By American standards, nothing has ever been too hot for him. He frequently dumps hot sauce, chili flakes, or whatever sauce has a "kick" onto his food and has no problem eating it. He loves spicy.

"Thai spicy!" Bryan replied affirmatively.

"Are you sure?"

Up to this point, we hadn't tasted anything we couldn't handle, so Bryan agreed.

Soon, our amuse bouche arrived - a triangular slice of pineapple topped with pork in a mixture made with palm sugar and tamarind. According to the server, this dish was based on a Thai street snack that Thai people eat with their hands.

We each tentatively picked up a triangle with our hands and ate the piece in one bite.

It was alright. Nothing ground breaking. The flavors reminded me of Taiwanese sweet pork jerky.

Food at Nahm is meant to be enjoyed family style, and thus all of the food comes out at once. Though you can order a la carte, a great way to enjoy a bunch of dishes it to order the set menu, which costs 1800 Baht (around $57 USD per person). For this price, you get a selection of "canapes" (small appetizers), followed by a dish of your choice from each section of the menu (salad, soup, appetizer, curry, main dish, dessert). As you can see, our table was hardly big enough to fit everything on the table.

Our first "canape" was a "taco" of sorts filled with bean sprouts and tofu. Consistent with many Thai dishes, each bite had a balanced blend of sweet and savory. The fresh herbs inside added a fragrant element, and we realy loved the light and delicate shell.
Our second canape was Skewered Southern Grilled Mussels. The mussels were covered with a thick, smoky, and earthy sauce, whose deep umami was balanced out by the refreshing cucumber slices.

Our third canape was a Smoked Fish, Peanut and Tapioca Dumpling. I loved the texture of the sticky rice ball, which was filled with both spicy and salty flavors. The heat was most certainly present here, though it was a slower heat that took awhile to gain momentum.

Our fourth canape was a flavorful mixture of Deep Fried Pork with Vegetables Wrapped in Betel Leaves.

The leaf itself was neutral, but the filling, which included pork, generous amounts of onions, and other herbs and spices, was spicy, tart, very salty, and intensely full of flavor.

And then the main courses came all at once!

One of our favorite dishes was our salad course, the Beef Cucumber Mint Salad. It had the perfect blend and balance of contrasting flavors. The salad was spicy, tart, salty, and gorgeously aromatic (from the mint and the basil!).

Unfortunately it was really, really spicy!

It was comical to watch us eat. It was so good we kept on eating it, but my nose started to run, and Bryan began sweating.

Yet we kept on eating because it was seriously so good.

Our soup was a chicken soup flavored with spicy chilies, lemongrass, and basil. It was quite spicy, salty, and very fragrant. I did find the soup to be just a bit too oily and salty to enjoy alone, and thought it tasted much better with some rice (which they carefully spooned onto my plate in the form of a perfect cannelle, like the way fancy places serve ice cream. Seriously).

Another fantastic dish was the red dry curry with pork.

Bryan doesn't eat coconut milk, so the kitchen was a bit limited in the type of curry they could make. Thankfully, we learned there was a type of curry, called a dry curry, which is made without coconut milk.

This curry was intensely rich, with a complex mix of flavors that I can't even begin to describe justly. It was rich, dense, and (thankfully) not terribly spicy. Because it was so rich, I could only handle small amounts of it. Sadly, it was one of the dishes we were unable to finish.

The next three dishes we were supposed to somehow eat together. Perhaps put a bit of each on the spoon and take a huge bite?

The Shrimp/Fish Paste with Scallions was an extremely spicy sauce that clearly needed to be paired with something else.

Fire Roasted Mackerel was savory and had tons of umami.

In contrast, the Sweet Pork Belly when eaten alone was very sweet.

By putting these three ingredients together, we could taste in one bite the salty, fatty, umami of the mackerel, the intensely spicy kick from the shrimp paste/scallion sauce, and taming, sweetness from the pork. Together, it made for a nice, balanced bite.

I was extremely pleased with the quality of the stir fried vegetables, which were cooked with fish paste dumplings. I loved the crispy freshness from these vegetables, which were so tender I wondered whether they were the young tender shoots of a particular vegetable.
As a palate cleanser, we had a classic Thai bite (you see these all over the streets of Bangkok): green mango with sugar.

Remember what I said about Bryan and coconut milk?

Unfortunately, all the desserts had some element of coconut milk, so we couldn't get around that one. Heh, Bryan watched me as I ate ALL the desserts.

I love coconut milk desserts, especially the way they are prepared in Thailand, which often mixes salty and sweet elements into one dessert. This Chilled Coconut Milk Soup was filled with a bunch of goodies, such as various beans, grass jelly, and even corn!

I loved it.

On the side, coconut milk "jelly" and fresh lychee.
And then the most adventurous dish of the night: Durian Sticky Rice with Mangosteens.

I'll have to admit, I'd never had durian before. The closest I came was a sampling of some durian ice cream at a Thai restaurant in Boston, where I proceeded to conclude that durian "smells like trash."

Bryan wrinkled his nose in disgust when the server set the plate in front of us.*

He pushed the dish away from him . . . i.e. closer to me.

It most definitely smelled like trash or sewage. But oddly, in the midst of the trash, I could smell something sweet, fragrant, and fruity.

I tentatively took a bite.

Yes, it was stinky, but it was also creamy, and sort of tasty. Plus, I did love the coconut milk and sticky rice.

As I continued to venture bite after bite, I realized I was growing a weird sort of affinity for this polarizing fruit.

Oddly, it is a little addictive. I can't explain it, but there's something about the flavor that just made me want to keep on eating "just another bite."

I will venture to say that I thought this dish was fantastic (though most definitely an acquired taste!). The coconut milk must have been cooked in durian, because the entire sticky rice/coconut milk portion of the dish had strong hits of durian flavor. Obviously the creamy chunks of fruit on top had the most flavor, but the entire dish was full of durian essence.

We finally ended the meal with a few petit fours: young coconut milk rolled in sugar, sweet puffed wheat balls on banana slices, sweet egg yolks, and traditional madeleines.

It was an interesting, adventurous, (spicy!), and fun meal.

Bryan remarked, "that is the first time in my life that a dish was so spicy I actually couldn't finish it and had to stop."

Only in Thailand, perhaps.

In some ways, I feel a little less qualified than general to comment on this restaurant. I'm by no means an expert on Thai food, and virtually everything here was new to me. I had no concept or true appreciation of how ancient some of the recipes or techniques used to make these dishes could be.

However, other experts have clearly spoken. The new Nahm in Bangkok squeezed into San Pellegrino's The World's 50 Best Restaurants list at number 50 in 2012. In 2013 it climbed to number 32. It's also listed number 3 on the corresponding Asia's Top 50 Restaurants list.

Personally, I do know that there were some dishes that I loved, while there were other dishes that I thought were nice, but didn't necessarily blow me away. In general, however, I was continually delighted and surprised by the novelty and variety of dishes presented throughout the meal. For me, a Thai food newbie, it was all new and exciting.

Although my favorite food memories in Thailand still mainly come from the street, I do hold a special place in my heart for some of the dishes here (namely the Durian Sticky Rice and the Beef Mint Salad!). Frankly, it's hard to get a Michelin** quality meal with so many courses for $57 USD.

I'd still recommend it if you're going to be in Thailand.

It you only have a few days, however, I'd check out the street first.

*This photograph was actually not taken in Thailand, but for fun, I thought it fit the post pretty well
**The London Nahm lost its Michelin star in 2010

August 16, 2013 Restaurant

Sky Bar (The World's Highest Open Air Bar)

We continue an extension of the Thailand series which will focus on some of our memorable dining out experiences. Other posts in this series include Som Tam Nua, and Taling Pling.

Imagine staring down on the gleaming, glittering lights of Bangkok from sixty-three stories high up.

And the only thing separating you from the world down below is a wall that's less than four feet high.

This, my friends, is Sky Bar and Sirocco, the world's highest open air bar and restaurant.

It's really hard to describe how breathtaking it is to be up in this space. I mean, it's one thing to be up on a high skyscraper, looking down at a cityscape through glass walls. It's a completely different experience when there's nothing in between.

I remember gasping when I first saw the view. It was just so . . . unreal.

Yes, it's most certainly a touristy thing to do. And yes, the drink prices are ridiculously expensive, clearly aimed at the farang (foreigner). Considering that you can get an excellent Pad Thai for about $2 USD, or that a $10 bowl of noodles is considered outrageously expensive, it's clear that these $20 USD cocktails are not aimed at the locals.

On top of all that, Hangover 2 was filmed here as well, making it even more famous and even more of a tourist favorite.

Yet I would still recommend going.

Even if you just have one drink and soak in the view, because that view is worth it.

Yes, you may have to fight the crowds. And it most certainly gets a little uncomfortably crowded up there sometimes. There were seriously times when I had trouble moving around or hearing others talk.

If you look in the distance of this photo, you can see the jam-packed bar in the distance. There's just a short, glass wall separating all those folks from the city down below. I don't know if they have similar types of fire codes like we do in the US. It looked awfully precarious to me, and I wondered to myself whether something like this would pass muster back home.

Supposedly a lot of people try to catch the sunset, so it gets ridiculously crowded right before sunset. We came after it was dark, probably soon after sunset, so it wasn't crazy crowded when we initially arrived (though it quickly got worse!).

Lots of tourists come and go, just jostling to the edge in order to take a photo with the stunning view of the city lights. You'll have to deal with all that while trying to find a spot to enjoy your cocktail.

Speaking of cocktails, the cocktails are pretty good, but definitely expensive. Bryan got a fun, spicy one that was filled with different sorts of chili peppers.

If you want a little less mayhem, you can consider dining at the high end restaurant, Sirocco. The restaurant serves Mediterranean food and includes live music every night. Like the bar, the prices are pretty high, and some think that the food isn't worth the high prices you pay. Nevertheless, it's a nice way to get a bit more privacy while taking in the panoramic views.

We stayed for less than an hour, chatting with some of Bryan's coworkers who were in Thailand as well for the same conference.

It was nice being up there, but eventually the crowds got to me, and I was happy and relieved when we eventually decided to leave.

August 14, 2013 Restaurant

Taling Pling

We continue an extension of the Thailand series which will focus on some of our memorable dining out experiences. Other posts in this series include Som Tam Nua.

It's unusual for me to go back to the same restaurant twice when I am traveling.

After all, I usually only have a few days at a particular destination. It's hard enough to squeeze in meals from all the new places I want to visit. Why would I repeat?

There are several reasons why we decided to return to Taling Pling after trying it once near the beginning of our trip.

First of all, it has a huge menu. The menu represents so many different aspects of Thai cuisine. The first time we went, we probably saw twenty things we wanted to try. We may have ordered five or six (the dishes are reasonably small), but we left wishing we could have tried so many more dishes.

Second, the prices are very reasonable and the food is excellent. We loved how different aspects and variations of Thai cuisine were represented throughout the menu. Additionally, we were exposed to so many unusual and interesting ingredients we had never tried before.

Finally, the restaurant has a pleasant, modern decor and the service is fast and efficient. The one we went to was located in a very popular shopping center, which makes it all the more convenient.

For all these reasons, both locals and tourists flock to this place (there are several around Bangkok), which explains why there is often a wait to get in.

Definitely consider getting one of their drinks. I fully enjoyed a tall glass of lemongrass tea, which I believe is just lemongrass steeped (or cooked?) in water and mixed with simple syrup. It was refreshing and I loved it. I actually think I may have ordered a second glass - something I virtually never do at restaurants.

The person who originally recommended the restaurant told me "you have to try the Crispy Pork Lardons Omelette if you've never had anything like it before."

It's basically a deep fried omelette that's filled with crispy pork belly bits and topped some sort of pickled vegetables. The crispy edges of the fried egg were delicious and definitely quite addictive.

Though we had ordered it just to taste a bite or two, we ended up virtually finishing the entire omelette.

Yes, it's quite good.We loved this simple Noodle Roll with Pork and Bean Sprout, which had elements of spicy, sour, salty, and sweet.
The crushed peanuts added a nice textural contrast as well.

We also had another really unusual dish that we had never seen anywhere else before. It's "A23" on the menu and it's a salad made of deep fried kaffir lime leaves, hollow heart greens, chilies, and fried garlic.
Sticky rice is a common side, especially when enjoyed with Isaan (Northern Thai) dishes. We ordered a side of sticky rice, which came mixed with a darker, black rice (maybe forbidden rice?).

We often encountered vegetables we'd never heard of, like "Stir Fried Cowslip Creeper Florets", an unusual green flower stir-fried with vermicelli, prawns, and egg. The dish was quite tasty and not too spicy, which was a relief for me (I can't handle nearly as much heat as Bryan can).

We really enjoyed these Stir Fried Ivy Gourd Leaves in oyster sauce with minced pork. It was lightly seasoned, healthy, and pretty tasty. We actually ordered this both times we went.
Another interesting new ingredient was the Stir fried "Sator", which was served with prawns, minced pork, and chili. This dish was on the salty side but was very flavorful. We ended up eating it with rice, which made it much better.
After trying the reportedly best Pad Thai in Bangkok, it's not a surprise that we were a bit disappointed with the version we tried here. Granted, we did try a modified version, made with glass noodle and crab. This version had a very strong pickled radish flavor, which tended to dominate the dish. It was still good, but not nearly as good as other ones we'd had in Thailand.

Overall, we had a ton of fun trying many of the dishes at Taling Pling. I think it's a great place for a foreigner to quickly gain exposure to many different types of Thai dishes. The restaurant provides a full color menu that includes descriptions in English, which is invaluable for those who cannot read the Thai language.

The food is excellent here and the prices are very reasonable for this level of service. It is very popular, so you may have to wait to get seated. Thankfully, there are several locations peppered throughout the city, so it should be pretty easy to find one that's close by.

I highly recommend this restaurant and most certainly would be tempted to return if I ever visit Bangkok again. In fact, the woman who recommended this place to me told me that she always visit Taling Pling whenever she returns to Thailand.

I can totally see why.

The Entire Thailand Series

Eats!
Thip Samai, Best Pad Thai in Bangkok?
Raan Jay Fai, Best Drunken Noodle in Bangkok
Street Foods of Bangkok, Part I
Street Foods of Bangkok, Part II
Fun Fruits in Thailand

Cool Experiences
Maeklong Railway Market
Floating Markets (Damnoen Saduak)

Cooking Classes + Recipes
Somphong Thai Cooking School
Som Tam (Papaya Salad)
Thai Panaeng Curry Chicken
Bananas In Golden Syrup
BaiPai Thai Cooking School
Golden Bags
Larb Gai (Laap Gai)
Pad Thai

Restaurants
Som Tam Nua
Taling Pling
Sky Bar
Nahm

August 13, 2013 Cambridge

P.F. Chang's Summer Menu

Chinese food gets a bad reputation for being a pretty unhealthy cuisine.

Most people across American associate Chinese food with deep-fried battered meats (often coated with tons of sugar), greasy sauces, and loads of MSG. A Chinese restaurant is the last place a person seeking out "spa food" would visit.

So I was surprised when P.F. Chang's contacted me about their new summer menu. They threw names of ingredients at me that I did not expect, like "heirloom tomatoes", "quinoa", "green papaya", and "cilantro."

Really?

Granted, P.F. Chang's is not your typical Chinese restaurant. In fact, it's a nationwide chain that got its start in Arizona by selling Asian-themed "grazing food". Though it's called a "China" Bistro, its food is actually inspired by all sort of Asian cuisines.

I agreed to try out the summer menu.

Bryan and I took a couple friends with us and decided to try the entire summer menu, literally. The summer menu has six items, so we knew we needed to bring some "help" in order to have any hope finishing all six dishes.

It had been years since I had visited an "American Chinese" (or maybe fusion is more appropriate?) restaurant, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

P.F. Chang's has an Asian-themed cocktail menu, with drinks that incorporate ingredients such as
Asian pear, black tea, coconut, and spicy chilies.

Bryan started out with the Yuzu Ginger Mojito which he thought was not bad - refreshing and not too sweet. He wished for more ginger flavor, though he tends to prefer drinks that have a very strong ginger component.

We sort of freaked out the server when we told her we were planning on ordering every single dish on the summer menu.

"Are you sure? It's a lot of food."

"Yes, we definitely want to order every single item, plus a few more of your classics."

She asked us a few more times if we were really sure, and we confirmed that we needed to try every single dish. She looked skeptical and slightly amused, but went along with our "demands."

Alas unfortunately, they had sold out of the Peking Duck Summer Rolls, one of the six items. We did order the remaining five summer menu items, along with a couple additional classics.

Thought we were sitting at a typical table for four, our server ended up moving another table over for us in order to fit all the food.

I swear it must have been the first time I've had to add a table to fit all the food I ordered.

Crazy.

We began with one of the starters from the summer menu, Heirloom tomato and Thai basil salad ($7.95). According to the description, market-fresh heirloom tomatoes were tossed with avocados, Thai basil and ponzu dressing.

Although the concept behind the dish was promising, the execution was a disappointment. The tomatoes were just not that flavorful and had the texture of refrigerated tomatoes. Perhaps they weren't vine ripen? The avocados redeemed the dish a bit - they were ripe with a nice, soft texture. I'm really not sure if the Thai basil added anything. Overall, we did not love this dish.

One of the better dishes of the evening was the Grilled Prawns with Chilled Peanut Noodle Salad ($15.95). The prawns were grilled perfectly - they were juicy, flavorful, and cooked just enough so that the texture of the shrimp "popped" when you bit into them.

The cold noodles seemed to be inspired by Thai flavors, and were tossed in a red curry-peanut sauce served alongside shaved snow peas, crispy shallots, bean sprouts, carrots, cilantro, and lime. Overall, the sweet, savory, and "peanut-y" sauce was reasonably pleasant, though I didn't really like the texture of the noodles, which were a bit mushy. The dish wasn't very spicy (unlike authentic Thai food), but captured a balance of savory and sweet.

I was really surprised to find a healthy dish like the Grilled Pineapple Citrus Swordfish with Pineapple Rice ($19.95) on the menu (which doesn't really seem Chinese at all). The swordfish is line-caught and grilled, served over a fried rice mixture that includes asparagus, carrots, summer squash, red peppers, and fennel. Unfortunately, the flavors were quite bland, since there's hardly any salt in the dish. Adding soy sauce helped, but overall this dish was underwhelming.

Similarly, their Summer Vegetable Quinoa Fried Rice ($11.95) was another dish that was hardly salted and seemingly a bit heavy on the oil. This dish also includes a variety of fruits and vegetables, such as sunburst squash, mango, tomatoes, and snow peas. Again, adding soy sauce helped make the dish taste better.

The Korean BBQ Chicken Stir Fry ($13.85) consisted of deep fried and battered chicken pieces tossed in a sweet and spicy red chili sauce. These pieces were stir fried with fresh red peppers, onions, and green beans. The entire dish was then topped with a kimchi slaw.

I personally was not a big fan of this dish. The chicken was not particularly tender, and the sauce was too sweet and thick for my tastes. The battered fried chicken + sweet sauce combo sort of reminded me of Chinese take-out, like sweet & sour chicken or General Gau's chicken.

* * * *

Because we were not able to order the Peking Summer Rolls, we decided to order a few of their classic, best dishes. We asked the server for recommendations.

"Basically, if you look at the menu, the top few items are also our most popular items."

She strongly recommended the Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps and the Crispy Honey Shrimp. We went along with her suggestions, as well as ordering the Crab Fried Rice, which just looked interesting.

The Crispy Honey Shrimp ($15.95) consisted of lightly battered and deep fried baby shrimp tossed in a honey sauce with green onions. I found the batter and sauce too sweet for my tastes. This dish reminded me more of Americanized Chinese take-out versus authentic Chinese food.
The Crab Fried Rice ($13.95) caught our eye because the ingredients looked really enticing: rice was tossed in a hot wok with lump crab meat, Shiitake mushrooms, asparagus, egg, bacon, lemon, and Sriracha.

This was yet another dish that just wasn't as flavorful as we had imagined given the ingredients. We needed to add soy sauce to bring out the flavors, which definitely helped.
The Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps ($8.95) are classic and they are pretty good. Ground chicken is stir fried with mushrooms, water chestnuts, and green onions to serve as the meaty filling which you wrap with the iceberg lettuce. The contrast of flavors, textures, and even temperatures is nice, and overall this dish is solid. I can definitely see why it's one of the most popular dishes.
The desserts are pretty standard American desserts, such as New York cheesecake, tiramisu, red velvet cake, and chocolate cake. There's nothing really that Asian on the menu, except for perhaps the Banana Spring Rolls.

We decided to get the Chocolate Peanut Butter Sweet Treat ($2.95), which was a decadent, rich layered dessert that included peanut butter crunch, milk chocolate and caramel layers on a chocolate brownie-cake. The entire cake was then topped with honey-roasted peanuts and served with chocolate syrup and caramel sauce.

I really liked the dessert. It sort of reminded me of a really fancy Snickers bar cake. I especially liked the textural crunch from the honey roasted peanuts. The dessert also came in a really small portion, which was perfect for us, since we were already really, really full.

Overall, it was definitely an interesting experience visiting P.F. Chang's. The restaurant is most certainly more a a fusion type restaurant and quite liberally borrows ideas from all different types of Asian (and even non-Asian) cuisines.

The prices are not crazy high per dish, though the portions run on the small side compared to a normal Chinese restaurant. Our party of four actually managed to finish almost all the dishes (I think we ended up with the rice dishes left over, namely the fried rice and the quinoa).

There are a surprising number of healthier choices on the menu that are inspired by the bounty of fresh summer ingredients. Many dishes are quite friendly for those on a low-sodium diet (though arguably kind of bland for the general public). My favorite dishes of the evening were probably the Grilled Prawns (minus the noodles), Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps, and the Chocolate Peanut Butter Sweet Treat. I would skip anything that is deep fried and comes with a thick, sweet sauce.

I'm not sure how much longer the summer menu will be around (can you believe summer is almost over?!). Perhaps they will try to do something similar for the fall and the winter - continue to experiment, explore, and offer healthy dishes inspired by a broader range of Asian cuisines.

Disclaimer: this post and meal were sponsored by P.F. Chang's. All opinions are my own.

August 12, 2013 Restaurant

Som Tam Nua

Surprise! You thought the Thailand series was over, but I do have just a few more posts. I have already written a ton of posts on street foods, fun markets, and all the dishes I made in the cooking classes I attended. However, I never actually posted about any of the sit-down restaurants we visited, and there are several that are worth mentioning. This final part of the Thailand series will focus on some of our memorable dining out experiences.

It was late and we were desperately hungry. We had spent the whole afternoon exploring the huge MBK shopping complex in Siam Square.

At the time, we had just arrived in Thailand not too long ago and didn't really have a good grasp of the neighborhood yet. You know the feeling - it's your first time visiting a new place and you're still feeling a bit disoriented. Sure, after a couple days, you learn how to catch the subway from your hotel; you figure out the vibes of the different neighborhoods; and if you're in a foreign country, you start to get a hang of basic cultural rules.

But those first couple days are always a bit tough. Even tougher when you've been on your feet for 8-10 hours and really just want to sit down and eat.

Finally, out of desperation, Bryan started searching around on his phone (yay local sim cards and old unlocked iPhone). He found a place that was only a couple minutes away from the shopping complex. It looked promising because 1) it had been named Bangkok's best som tam restaurant by CNN Travel 2) It had incredibly good reviews on various food sites

Though reviewers warned of the long lines, we decided to take the risk. We were willing to wait a bit if the food was really good.

I'm so glad we did. We ended up not having to wait (score!), and enjoyed some incredible food, including possibly the best fried chicken I've ever had in my life.

First of all, before I get to the fried chicken, let me just explain a bit about what Som Tam is. Som tam is a spicy green papaya salad that's common in the Northern part of Thailand (Isaan cuisine). It typically consists of shredded green papaya pounded together with lime juice, tamarind juice, hot chilies, fish sauce, peanuts, and a host of other ingredients.

The salad is addictive because it's the perfect blend of savory umami, sweet, spicy, and tart. It's cool, refreshing, and a delightful blend of textural contrasts: the crunchy peanuts, crispy vegetables, and juicy tomatoes.

At Som Tam Nua, they specialize in som tam, so they have all sorts of fun variations you can try. We tried an unusual version that I believe included crab (definitely not your typical som tam). It was very spicy (everything in Thailand is spicy!) but pretty good.

I honestly don't know what this was called (we were still trying to learn the ropes of all these different types of Thai dishes we had never heard of!) but it was essentially flavorful noodles (sort of like pad Thai but with thinner noodles) topped with a dried pork floss-like topping. I remember enjoying it quite a bit.

Sticky rice is the most common type of rice eaten at Isaan (Northern Thai) restaurants, so we went ahead and ordered some. You can see the Singha beer in the background, one of Thailand's local beers. In general, we found Thai beers to be quite light. I'm guessing that when it's that hot and humid outside all the time, you virtually never feel like drinking a dark, heavy beer.

One of our favorite dishes was the Sour Sausage (sai krok), a grilled fermented sausage that's savory but also has a deep sourness that really adds complexity to the dish.

It seemed like every single review raved about the fried Spicy Chicken Wings, so we knew we had to order it.

Wow, we were not disappointed.

Isaan cuisine is known for its fried chicken. These fried chicken wings were just lightly battered yet fried up to be wonderfully crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. A generous heap of fried garlic completed the dish, adding a strong, garlicky pop to the entire dish. These were so addictive, I seriously wanted to order another basket.

Overall we had a great time at Som Tam Nua. I can totally see why it's so popular. The food is fantastic. There was not a single item that we did not enjoy. Prices were extremely reasonable (almost all food in Thailand is relatively inexpensive) and service was fast. If I were shopping in the Siam Square area again, I would most definitely consider coming back here.

Restaurants
Som Tam Nua
Taling Pling

August 8, 2013 Europe

The Ledbury

This is the third post in the Work Week in London series. Other posts in this series include Hibiscus and Pied a Terre.

It's very unusual that a meal turns out to be perfect in almost every single way. More often than not a tasting menu has a mix of truly incredible courses and "OK but forgettable" courses. For me, the problem is further compounded by the fact that I have a pretty small stomach. I often start becoming full about halfway through the meal, which makes it even harder for me to fully appreciate those final "heavier" courses.

Rare is the meal where every single course truly delights and impresses the palate.

So when I walk out of a meal feeling like I really enjoyed every single point of the evening (especially all the way to the end), you know I've stumbled upon something really special.

And that, my friends, was The Ledbury - by far our favorite restaurant from this London trip.

Open since 2005, the Ledbury has received endless amounts of awards, accolades, and top spots on well-respected lists around the world. For example, The Ledbury is number 13 on the S. Pellegrino list of the world's 50 top restaurants for 2013 (way above The Fat Duck, which clocked in at number 33 this year). It has kept its two Michelin stars since earning them in 2010. It's been named the best restaurant in London by numerous entities, such as Zagat, The Sunday Times, and Restaurant Magazine. Clearly Chef Brett Graham is doing something right.

Our meal started out with a tiny amuse bouche: Squid Ink Crespelle topped with turbot roe and dill. We both absolutely loved the contrast of the delicate, salty "crisp" with the creamy dollops on top.

We nibbled on these long, flat crisps that I believe were sitting in tea-smoked black rice. It reminded me of a potato chip, but obviously much more refined.

Then a server arrived holding a tray full of beautiful bread. It was hard to choose which ones to try. Between the two of us, we managed to try most of them: the crispy malt bread, the bacon brioche, and the sour dough wheat. Though all were fantastic, we were surprised that both of us liked the crispy malt bread the best (pictured on right). It had a nice, warm, "malty" flavor and we loved the crispy topping (was it seeds?) on top.

I know you're not supposed to fill up on bread so early in the meal, but this bread was really, really good.

Next we had the Crispy Quail Egg. This single egg was somehow delicately wrapped, deep fried, adn served with crispy bacon on top of a pea purée. This is best enjoyed as one bite, since the egg pops and out bursts an explosion of warm, flavorful liquid (the yolk!) inside.

Served in a cold martini glass, the next course was the Chantilly and Tartare of Oysters with Frozen Horseradish and Dill. This unusual dish included raw oysters tossed with cucumbers, dill, and roasted seaweed powder and then topped with frozen horseradish. It was cool, refreshing, and quite good.

The next course, Flame Grilled Mackerel came with pickled cucumber, Celtic mustard, and shiso. The server told us it was the most popular dish at the restaurant. The fish has a ton of umami and Bryan loved the cream sauce. Overall, we both thought the dish was excellent - perfectly balanced in both flavors and textures.

This next course was one of my favorites. Creamed Jersey Royals (a type of potato) were served with morels mushrooms cooked in Earl Grey tea. The creamed potatoes were incredibly smooth - they reminded me of the famous Joel Robuchon mashed potatoes. The morels gave the dish a rich and deep mushroom flavor. I can't even tell you what the mashed green sauce was, but it was incredibly flavorful and very, very good.

Living in the US, we are so used to getting fresh salmon from Alaska. In England, it's all about Scottish salmon. Here we enjoyed the season's freshest salmon from Scotland. This was a simple, farm fresh preparation with Mousseron mushrooms, asasparus, sugar snap peas, and a mushroom cream sauce.

At this point the server came out holding a large plate. On it was a pork jowl with a gorgeously crispy skin topped with copious amounts of star anise, along with many other herbs. The smell was intoxicating, it was so good.

The server began explaining.

"This pork jowl has been cooked for eight hours at eighty-five degrees with anise and various other herbs. We then cook it under high heat to crisp the skin."

It looked fabulous.

The server then whisked it away. They were going to cut it up for us.

When plated, we each got a slice of the pork jowel along with a parsnip emulsion, parsnip chips, and walnut crisps. The reddish sauce had a really nice intense kick to it. The dish most certainly had elements of Asian chili flavors - we just couldn't quite place which ones.

The dish was very memorable. The pork itself was very soft, juicy, and incredibly tender. We loved the combination of the tender meat, crispy skin, and accompanying components. It made for a lovely dish.

The waiter had strongly recommended that we try the Fillet of Belted Galloway, a 35 day dry aged beef from Galloway (a region in Scotland). He said that the beef was rare and hard-to-get. The restaurant only gets a small amount, and therefore can only offer it occasionally on the menu. Apparently it was our lucky day since this was the first day it was back on the menu.

The perfectly cooked piece of filet was topped with bone marrow, which Bryan loved. This was served with potato crisps and celeriac baked in juniper and wild hops.

Cheese is an optional course (only £10 extra!) and definitely fun to share. The server rolls a cheese cart out and you get to choose whichever ones you want to try.

We ended up getting an assortment, including a Gruyere, a goat cheese, a blue cheese, and one other. We enjoyed these with honey malted crisps, walnuts, biscuits, grapes, and a pear apple apricot chutney.

For "pre-dessert", we enjoyed a mix of lemon verbena ice cream, orange granita, and pieces of meringue. I loved the fragrant flavors, and the contrast between the cold, icy granita and the creamy ice cream worked surprisingly well. It was definitely refreshing and cleansed the palate perfectly in preparation for our next dessert.

Our final dessert was a Brown Sugar Tart with Poached Grapes and Stem Ginger Ice Cream. The tart was creamy and dense, sort of like an egg custard. The ginger ice cream had a lovely, intense ginger flavor, and I really liked it (even though I typically don't like ginger!).

Finally, they sent some mignardises as a final small bite: Mandarin jelly, dark chocolate, and juniper cookies.

I can't say enough nice things about this restaurant. The servers are attentive, friendly, and not the least bit stuffy. The ambiance is spacious, bright, and relaxed.

The food is excellent. I was delighted and surprised by several courses, and I honestly can say there was not a single course I did not really enjoy. There's a reason why this restaurant is so consistently praised by everyone. It truly stands out.

Bryan and I both have really fond memories of our entire experience at the restaurant. For some reason, the combination of the excellent service, fantastic food, and beautiful space made it nearly the perfect night out.

The Details
The Ledbury is on Ledbury Street in a beautiful part of London called Notting Hall (yes, made much more famous by the movie!). I actually took one of those double decker red buses there. I think Bryan took a cab. You can take the tube as well, but the double decker buses are fun!

You can either eat a la carte (£80.00 for three courses) or you can do the tasting menu (£105.00 (£175.00 with wine)). The set lunch seems like a nice way to try the restaurant without spending too much: £30.00 for two courses £35.00 for three courses. We only booked about a week before dining there and it was not too hard to get a 7PM reservation. For some reason, I've found that it's not as hard to get a reservation in London at a really good place compared to in other cities. I used TopTable (UK's version of Opentable), which worked out beautifully.

The Ledbury
127 Ledbury Road
Notting Hill, UK W11

August 7, 2013 Sponsored

Batch Ice Cream Giveaway Winners!

Wow, I've never hosted a giveaway where the prize to entrant ratio was so good. We had 26 people enter and 20 winners!The winners are below:

Payal Patel
joyosity
Heidi
Inge Yuwono
Daryn S. Berger
RG
Ben Marcello
Katrien
Bianca Garcia
Nancy
Laura
Alvina
kelvarnsen
Denise
Martin
Vicki
Sam
Maria O.
Shannon G
Penny Phoo

Please email me at [email protected] to redeem your coupon for free scoops compliments of Batch Ice Cream!

Jen