http://www.tastingmenu.com/ Welcome to tastingmenu - focused on food. My repository for thoughts and notes on my eating experiences. Copyright 2001-2006 tastingmenu.com 2007-01-29T22:14:00-08:00 info@tastingmenu.com webmaster@tastingmenu.com en-us http://www.tastingmenu.com/images/garlic.jpg http://www.tastingmenu.com 82 70 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2007/01-january/20070129.htm I've recently been posting about various chocolate experiences. By no means has my palate developed to where I would consider myself really having a good sense of all the aspects, tones, and flavors of chocolate. That said, I still love eating the stuff. Two boxes of chocolate recently arrived, the first a gift from a friend, and the second a gift from some folks in Pennsylvania... tastingmenu 2007-01-29 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2007/01-january/20070115.htm While nobody but me liked the name (too close to "testicular" apparently), everyone liked the idea of a blind olive oil tasting. My recent trip to the olive rich region of Puglia, Italy, resulted in an embarassment of olive oil riches, and we needed to take advantage of the situation. We all convened at our house one afternoon and got to tasting... tastingmenu 2007-01-15 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2007/01-january/20070102.htm If you haven't tried banh mi (also known in the U.S. as a Vietnamese sub) then you don't know what you're missing. It's essentially a fantastic, fresh, delicious Asian sandwich available almost universally for under $3 (and often about $2). If you're ever feeling like there's no decent food for lunch... tastingmenu 2007-01-02 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/12-december/20061219.htm The power is back on in Seattle, and we're in the middle of the Jewish holiday Channukah. Most people know that Jews eat latkes (potato pancakes) on this holiday (best served with sour cream and apple sauce in my opinion). But not many people (even non-Israeli Jews) know that another traditional Channukah food is "sufganiyot" - essentially... tastingmenu 2006-12-19 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/12-december/20061211.htm Puglia (pronounced Pooleeyah) is located on the southeast coast of Italy - the heel of the boot as it were. I got to spend a week there courtesy of some folks from Puglia as well as Oldways. For me the week ended up being a series of little vignettes and observations. I'll share them (as well as 138 photos... tastingmenu 2006-12-11 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/12-december/20061205.htm Thanks to Alex for pointing this out - Wagamama is finally coming to the United States according to this page on their site. I believe and hope this is likely very good news. Before we analyze their announcement, a few words on Wagamama (which means selfish in Japanese). In my never-ending quest for good food the archetype of the scalable high quality fast food restaurant is rare and wonderful. The folks at Wagamama have taken the concept of the Japanese roadside noodle stand and scaled it with quality. Long community tables evoke... tastingmenu 2006-12-05 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/11-november/20061124.htm I was recently hanging out with a fellow food blogger. We were stuck in a situation where we had to wait awhile and both had a craving for chocolate. When asked what they had gotten, the other food blogger sheepishly pulled out a fancy bar of milk chocolate. The look that followed basically said... tastingmenu 2006-11-28 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/11-november/20061126.htm Each year we get to Thanksgiving and try to figure out some way to inject some originality and challenge into this monster of a meal. I'm not sure we've been entirely successful in year's past. And frankly, there's been a contingent among us that gets prickly at any mention of veering from a most traditional course. This year Michael and Anh took the lead hosting thanksgiving for 46 people at their house. That's right 46 people. Insanity. I will say that in year's past we've had fewer people and not executed as well as we'd like in terms of timing. This year the focus was not only on making a large quantity of high quality food, but also on nailing the execution so people weren't eating late into the night. This invariably requires comprise. In particular it requires a lessening of the number of variables. Dishes need to be simplified. Recipes need to be prepared in advance. All while balancing quality. I hate to say it, but I think we crossed into the world of catering. That said, it was a... tastingmenu 2006-11-26 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/11-november/20061120.htm I just got back recently from out of town (hence the crappy posting frequency). However my time situation has vastly improved. More on my trip soon. In the meantime, I am posing this problem in search of suggestions and help. This year we're co-hosting thanksgiving dinner with friends. Apparently 50 people are coming to eat. My responsibility is... tastingmenu 2006-11-20 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/11-november/20061103.htm We get lots of mail here at tastingmenu headquarters. I had to pass this one on... tastingmenu 2006-11-03 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/11-november/20061101.htm More often than not in life I have found that things are relative. I suppose there are some absolutes, but things are often relative. I often conduct a healthy internal debate in my head over which cookie is my favorite - a chew chocolate chip or an Oreo. I suppose there's no purpose in making that decision as both are so perfect and delicious. That said... tastingmenu 2006-11-01 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/10-october/20061026.htm It's impossible to talk about Balthazar without talking about how it makes you feel. And as desperately as I try to focus exclusively on the food (which is excellent at Balthazar) the atmosphere is so warm, textured, and friendly, that it can't be ignored. Is it wrong to love a restaurant not just because the food is excellent, but because the restaurant makes you so happy when you walk in? If so... tastingmenu 2006-10-26 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/10-october/20061020.htm Where Katz's Delicatessen has cornered the market on Jewish cured meat Barney Greengrass represents the fish end of the spectrum. Saturday lunch belongs at Katz's but Barney Greengrass p0wns Sunday brunch... tastingmenu 2006-10-20 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/10-october/20061019.htm I've said before that I welcome free stuff and will gladly trade a mention on the site for free cookbooks, ingredient samples, and whatever other fun stuff pr folks are now gracing greasing writers with. Of course, I can't personally accept any of these "gifts" because it might compromise my journalistic integrity. I always leave the freebies in a special cardboard box dedicated just for the purpose of letting the interns in the mailroom get some compensation for working here at Tastingmenu International Publishing Headquarters... tastingmenu 2006-10-19 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/10-october/20061011.htm We're going to start a series on a trip we took awhile back to New York. We're trying to catch up on all our reviews, and these have been cooking for some time (as it were). Plenty has been written about Thomas Keller, the French Laundry, and his Manhattan outpost Per Se. Perceptions of Keller and his food range from: pre-eminent haute cuisine chef in America with the best restaurant in the country, to soulless technician building an his empire one expensive restaurant at a time. I really couldn't tell you the reality as I've only met him once at a book signing at my place of employment (yes, Thomas Keller did a book signing in our cafeteria). And frankly, I'm not sure it really matters. Cause ultimately the only question that really matters is what you think of his food. On this day a group of us sat down to try a meal at... tastingmenu 2006-10-11 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/10-october/20061004.htm I may get "judgy" when I see Halloween decorations going up at labor day, or Christmas decorations strung on houses by early November, but it's never too early to start planning a massive Thanksgiving meal. And so our planning has... tastingmenu 2006-10-04 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/09-september/20060928.htm Given the frequency with which I eat out, I sometimes overthink all the factors that go into how I feel about a given establishment. On the one hand, I really try to filter out everything but the food. Even the service, and price are secondary (within reason). Flavor, texture, and freshness are top of mind for me. But I have to admit that even though I work hard to have my blinders on, once I do decide that I am fond of the food at an establishment, I am always curious about the story that led to the food being so great. And truth be told, good stories start to intermingle with good food to the point where the two are inseparable. This is not to say that if all of a sudden the food was bad that the story would be able to support the experience on its own. In fact, a good story without the supporting evidence is just hollow and inauthentic at best. And all this philosophizing brings us to... tastingmenu 2006-09-28 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/09-september/20060919.htm I've found myself with the ability to go out to lunch a lot lately. Combine that with the uprising on the comment thread suggesting contestants for the 2006 Recipe World Championship, and today we get back to our 'bread and butter' of relaying our eating experiences in word and image. Since lunch is an essential meal, and in many parts of the world, the main meal of the day, giving it some visibility on the site seems like the right thing to do. Seattle is filled with many potential lunch destinations. When it comes to small places serving yummy Italian sandwiches... tastingmenu 2006-09-19 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/09-september/20060915.htm Today we're announcing the 2006 Recipe World Championship. This is going to be a fun game we play on the site for a few days. Imagine a 16 recipe field where we pit recipes against each other until one is the champion. The goal is to find a recipe and corresponding dish that's worthy of winning the championship... tastingmenu 2006-09-15 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/09-september/20060914.htm To anyone who's read this site for awhile or browsed our vast image archives my ever improving skill with a camera shooting food should be apparent. Of course given where I started even modest improvement has looked pretty good. I'm no professional, but I am always trying to get better. Since we're in the mood to share our favorite resources this week, I'm happy to point you to... tastingmenu 2006-09-14 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/09-september/20060913.htm For awhile I tried to catalog all of the food related events around the country and the world that I could find, but writing about restaurants filled up so much time that I couldn't really do it myself. The right way to do this of course is to have the community get together and enter the events in a central place everyone can... tastingmenu 2006-09-13 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/09-september/20060912.htm We're finally back from vacation, and thanks for sticking around. I can think of no better way to finish out the summer and ring in the new fall than with the picture (and context) below... tastingmenu 2006-09-12 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/08-august/20060823.htm You've probably already figured this out since posts have been lacking for a bit, but we're taking our annual August-ish vacation. Sorry for the lameness but even the highly paid and super-motivated tastingmenu staff needs to recharge once in awhile. There's only so much caviar you can eat before your taste buds need a rest. In the meantime, feel free to head over to our still shiny... tastingmenu 2006-08-23 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/08-august/20060811.htm As we said in our last post, the main reason to say no is how it increases the value of the times you say yes. And saying yes, especially to customers is (in theory) the reason you run a restaurant in the first place. We've spent so much time talking about how important it is to hold on to your values, stay focused on what you do best, and not get distracted by those who would have you veer off course, that we need to make sure to remember that saying yes is not limited to the times when your customer happens to ask for the thing you've been wanting to give them all along. The key is to figure out how to say yes within the constraints of the core values that are the reason your best customers keep... tastingmenu 2006-08-11 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/08-august/20060809.htm Counter-intuitive though it might be, one of the single most important things you can do is say no. When it comes to focusing, limiting, creating, and succeeding, surprisingly "no" is incredibly powerful. And it's not because you should be negative. Negativity is well... a... tastingmenu 2006-08-09 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/08-august/20060807.htm We've spent some time talking about educating customers in terms of what you're about. This has some consequences that you should know about - you will have fewer of them. Let me explain... tastingmenu 2006-08-07 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/08-august/20060804.htm (Today we have another entry in our continuing "Restaurant Love" series where we're talking directly to chefs and restaurateurs who want to make a superlative eating experience for their customers.) Given how the depressing the state of food in this country is (as detailed in the last post) it's time to turn our attention to what can be done? How do you deal with the fact that most of the population of this country eats horribly? How do you try and make a name for yourself with food that tastes great when most of your customers don't bother to taste their food as it flies from its packaging into their gullet barely touching their tongues? How do you get customers' attention when even the ones that claim to be into food are more focused on the trappings of good food than the reality? While the... tastingmenu 2006-08-04 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/08-august/20060802.htm This is a topic which others have articulated much better than I ever could and for some time. So rather than try and rehash their statements, let's just take a survey of a few of their comments... tastingmenu 2006-08-02 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/07-july/20060731.htm My dad sent me a link to an Israeli cooking show called: "Shum, Pilpel, ve-Shemen Zayit" (Garlic, Pepper, and Olive Oil). A lovely combination to be sure. He pointed out that the show is so nice and normal it reminds you that life can be good and normal over in the Middle East. Here's hoping... tastingmenu 2006-07-31 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/07-july/20060727.htm This is not an original thought or observation. But I did come to this realization on my own. As often happens, once you notice something, it seems to appear everywhere. Much more likely is that I never noticed this truism until I learned the lesson myself, and then all of a sudden I started noticing what had always... tastingmenu 2006-07-27 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/07-july/20060725.htm Tastingmenu has never been just one person's efforts. Even though the bulk of the writing has been mine, the long list of friends, family, meal companions, cookbook collaborators, cooking partners, restaurant staff, and fellow bloggers have all participated in one way or another. And most importantly, you the readers have been participating fantastically through comments both on the posts as well as suggestions of places to eat on each of the city pages. The comment system is fine for posts, but it's straining to support real discussion of restaurants. So to give our readers a real venue for their own contributions today we're unveiling... tastingmenu 2006-07-25 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/07-july/20060719.htm When eating with friends who have trepidations about trying new food, I always evangelize my belief that chefs make the dish, not the ingredients. Now of course high quality fresh ingredients are key to a great dish, but the choice to put those in said dish is that of the chef. For example: when I'm eating somewhere great with someone who doesn't like tomatoes, I always encourage them to try a dish with tomatoes. Not only are there bad tomatoes and good ones (and great ones). But the chef can have an incredible amount of impact on the tomato in terms of how it's prepared and the flavor that's coaxed forth into the broader dish. Certainly there are times when nothing is going to make someone me like cooked green peppers. But I think most people who have a list of ingredients they know they don't like will be surprised at how many they might enjoy when chosen and prepared by someone with standards and talent. And so this brings us to... tastingmenu 2006-07-19 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/07-july/20060718.htm For many years, when I've thought of the restaurant that I would create (I know this is silly given that I'm not qualified to write about food much less create an institution that serves it) I always imagine all small plates made in front of the customers sitting in a sushi-bar-type layout. The dishes keep coming, and the customers get interested in different things just by seeing all the ingredients laid out and the dishes being cooked before their eyes. Then one day I read about a new project from Joel Robuchon, his L'Atelier (workshop) to be specific. The idea of a chef having a place to experiment seemed exciting, and the description of the dynamic was exactly what I'd envisioned. I had to try it. Sure enough L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon is one of my favorite restaurants in Paris. When it opened in Las Vegas, I wondered if it could scale and keep the quality that I'd experienced in Paris. After all, scale is hard as it is. And celebrity chefs like Robuchon can collect the check without trying. I wondered what I would find... tastingmenu 2006-07-18 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/07-july/20060713.htm I've never eaten at an Alain Ducasse restaurant. And frankly, even after eating at Mix I'm not sure I have. The brand extension that's rampant among celebrity chefs is at its most extreme in Las Vegas. Here's how it works. Casino owners pay chefs with notoriety to lend their name and overall creative direction to restaurants in their respective hotels. There are certainly times when the chef actually moves to Las Vegas and cooks every night in the restaurant that bears their name. But this is essentially the exception. By the time chefs warrant payouts by Las Vegas casinos they are running restaurant empires with multiple locations. Not being able to be in multiple places at once means by definition that the chefs that are big enough aren't cooking every night at their own restaurants. So the best case really is that the chef actually hires the people who run the kitchen, trains them, oversees the menu, and then visits for quality control for a few weeks spread out throughout the year. However, in the worst case the chef takes a check, signs off on the menu, visits maybe once or twice, and is essentially done. The truth for most is probably... tastingmenu 2006-07-13 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/07-july/20060711.htm Periodically I have to explain how I judge eating experiences in Las Vegas. Authenticity (in the broadest sense) and flavor are pretty much all that count for me. But I admit that location does matter. I can go on all day that no noodle shop in the United States can compare to the best you can get in Tokyo. But if you can't get to Tokyo that kind of bar simply isn't helpful. There's a balance to strike of course. Just because a noodle shop is the best in Chicago (for example) doesn't mean it's great (or even good). So, here at tastingmenu, in our own admittedly subjective fashion we try to acknowledge that location (or rather proximity more accurately) is a factor. So when it comes to Vegas, given that you're surrounded by desert, proximity is... tastingmenu 2006-07-11 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/07-july/20060706.htm It's been awhile since we've written about specific meals and some readers have written in saying they miss the write-ups. There are still a bunch of entries left in our Restaurant Love series, but we ignore our readers at our own peril. We're doing some traveling. San Francisco and Las Vegas to be exact, and fortunately we found a few places worth writing about. As we've discussed in the past, people can be afraid to recommend restaurants for me to eat at. Luckily, my friend Allie's sister bravely recommended Blue Plate in San Francisco. As Alex and I were headed to that are anyway, Blue Plate became our... tastingmenu 2006-07-06 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/06-june/20060619.htm It's been awhile since we've written about specific meals and some readers have written in saying they miss the write-ups. There are still a bunch of entries left in our Restaurant Love series, but we ignore our readers at our own peril. We're doing some traveling. San Francisco and Las Vegas to be exact, and fortunately we found a few places worth writing about. As we've discussed in the past, people can be afraid to recommend restaurants for me to eat at. Luckily, my friend Allie's sister bravely recommended Blue Plate in San Francisco. As Alex and I were headed to that are anyway, Blue Plate became our... tastingmenu 2006-06-19 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/06-june/20060606.htm Today I got a call from a reporter. She was writing a story on the topic of a particular tumultuous discussion on eGullet. I unfortunately have not had enough time to keep up with all the sites I'd like to frequent, and eGullet is certainly a high quality site. So I had to go look up the thread to which she was referring. This particular discussion is entitled "Sincerest Form, Interludes after midnight". The topic is essentially a discussion of what's appropriate and inappropriate when it comes to various chefs copying food and dishes from one another. We've had our own brush with... tastingmenu 2006-06-06 http://www.tastingmenu.com/archive/2006/06-june/20060602.htm This is a relatively broad title for this post. I won't be able to cover my entire list of how screwed up this country is about food or my even broader list of the things wrong beyond our eating habits. That said, I do have some relatively narrow observations to relate that I believe do a fair job covering at least the world of food as it to relates to life in the United States. And the iconic representation for me at least is the food at... tastingmenu 2006-06-02