...more recent posts
simple is usually better, lunch today at Marichu another place i never heard of was clean, flavorful, comfortable and well priced,
wine list ok....looking forward to going back....
we watched Lidia of Felidia cooking on TV sunday so when monday rolled around we went right in for lunch. great wine list with lots of super estates but its an expensive place to drink, we settled in on a bargin 1994 Knoll Gruner Smaragd for $66 bucks, awesome!!
I just finished reading Kitchen Confidential. It was a fun read, but I'm wondering how it was received in the biz.
the hardest part about a review is when you drank a wine for 5 years from $45 to $65 and tonight its $160, (even if its worth it), but the smart person over looks and dives smack into the 78 Sfursat for $45...another night at Manducatis, and a great night at that!!
another part of ratings is personal bias, i love Italy and Italian wine, last night we ate at Lupa for the first time in about a year!! (party of 4 completely blown away, they sent out these lightly batter fried squid covered in a hot pepper sause that was "to live" for, the Bavette, a new dish of Farro Spagetinni(sp?) with tuscan chick peas (cecci's) and Bottarga (tuna roe), sardines with citrus peel, a pasta special with duck and blood orange etc ragu, the date dessert!!!--WOW!!!!--brilliant food, fab flavors, very nice wine list, awesome prices......
The 2002 edition of the SF Chronicle's annual survery of the top 100 local restaurants is now on the web. Only seven are south of SF. The other 93 are in SF, Berkeley, Oakland, and points northward. Yet another disadvantage of living in the "South Bay".
how would i rate a restaurant??
innovative brilliant food, and unique texture and flavor are top, presentation is somewhat an issue but surrondings are not, wine either BYOB'd or off the list is important part unless beer goes better with the food, price value ratio is a final point....
thats why below Willi's beats out Veritas, the food is way better at Veritas but the 3 bottles of wine I drank at Willi's costing $190 inc tax and tip would cost $800 at Veritas, hence Willi's is better IMHO, and thats why GSIMidtown could be so high up, the food is brilliant and I can bring whatever level of wine I want, no charge....
I've been having a series of lunches for slackers. Whoever cooks typically does a multi-course meal from scratch. Dishes range from souffle to fried turkey.
My Mardi Gras week lunch featured pane'ed shrimp, tilapia and okra (with light coating of Cajun spiced breading) over roasted corn/lime salsa and brown rice with a splash of fish stock, and a dab of remoulade on the side. But the star was the dessert.
Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding
serves 15
- one loaf sweet french bread, stale, crust removed, cut into 3/4" cubes
- eight eggs
- one pint skim milk, one pint heavy cream
- 1 lb Scharffen Berger semi-sweet, chopped into chips
- 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1/2 cup Gran Marnier
- 1/2 cup Irish whiskey
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp cocoa
- unsalted butter
- melt 1/3 of chocolate chips
- let milk, cream and eggs reach room temperature, let chocolate cool
- whisk melted chocolate into eggs until smooth
- whisk liquor, sugar, nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon into mixture until smooth
- whisk milk and cream into egg mixture until smooth
- fold bread cubes into mixture, let stand for 30 minutes
- pour mixture into large deep pan, or several smaller deep tins (large pan yields custardy center with more cake-like exterior, smaller pans yield more consistent texture)
- while pouring mixture, add layers of the remaining chocolate chips
- sprinkle cocoa on top
- bake at 350 until set in the center, 50-60 minutes
- finish under broiler for 5 minutes, about 4" from hot broiler
- let cool for 5 minutes
- serve with vanilla ice cream, raspberry sorbet, whiskey, or whipped cream
- make note to self about increasing aerobics for a couple of days
back from the Loire and Paris and and one of the most fun and yum meals ever in France was at L'Astrance , some other places get high points some the wine lists are so good the ok food could be overlooked and a fab time was had....
but over all it was
#1 L'Astrance (Paris)
#2 Les Tonnelles (Behuard-Loire)
#3 Willi's Wine Bar (Paris)
*"WINE PROTECTS AGAINST DEMENTIA!" - NY TIMES
"Raising a Toast to the Brain's Health", Tuesday, Jan 5th. - By John O'Neil
According to a 6 year Dutch study,
"People who had consumed one to three drinks a day were half as likely to have developed dementia"
"The gap was even bigger when the researchers focused on vascular dementia, the deterioration of brain function linked to damage of the arteries that supply the brain with oxygen. Whatever it is about alcohol that reduces risk of stroke and heart disease is also helping the brain by improving the functioning of the circulatory system, the researchers speculated."
first of all, my advice is don't even bother to _try_ getting vegetarian food in Madrid; I swear I am telling the truth when I say that at La Gallette, the cute, chic, "best vegetarian" place in town, they have _bacon_ in the so-called macrobiotic special...having said which, man, they have some good bacon in spain...in Madrid we did much better with incredible tapas at La Trutta: octopus, artichokes, squid, etc providing great vehicles for mass quantities of garlic ...Spanish roses -- both Garanacha and Cabernet -- _rule_, even better than the bandols and c.d. provences in southern france... best meal of the whole trip: a perfect, fresh charcoal-grilled whole daurade at a tourist trap opposite the casino in Cannes... in Barcelona, try the Boterofumero, which is a kind of seafood peter luger, with amazing stuffed crab, grilled langostinos, endless raw bar, etc etc...the big barcelona dish is a kind of paella with noodles (i forget the name), which I do NOT recommend, it's a little smelly and boring...i didn't have a single anchovy in spain that wasn't fantastic, and not from lack of experimentation...great white bean soup and fried artichokes at Nino's on the Via Bourguinoni near the spanish steps in Rome, next to which there is a building under construction which is a perfect place for enjoying a preprandial Smoke...oh, and some other important advice: after you've had a shitload of red wine? DO NOT drink a half-bottle or more of grappa. believe me. please. oh yeah, and that debate about where's the best food? italy. in case anyone still has doubts.
roe vs. wade (not to mention gill-netting)
bottom-feeding in the upper crust