Schneier

I need to know the answer to this question, too.

I ask chefs about recipes and techniques all the time. Just last night I had dinner at Union Restaurant in Seattle. My entree was a sweetbread-stuffed boneless quail. I was dining alone, and had a small table in the bar. Ethan Stowell (the chef) was taking a break from the kitchen, and asked me how I liked my meal. We talked about the dishes I had, and I asked him how he boned a quail. He told me the technique, and we talked about roasting techniques and cooking times. He even offered to sell me a few already boned quails that were in his refrigerator for me to take home. (I would have if I thought I could keep them cold overnight and throug the flight the next day.) I do this kind of thing all the time. There are even times when I am menu planning for my own dinner, and ask the chef quesitons. This is more likely to happen if I know the chef, but I have done it on occasion with random chefs I don't know. I remember one instance -- I forget all the details -- where I was early for a large dinner and planning a menu that I was cooking later that week. The server and I started talking about it, and then the chef came out and talked with me. I have no recollection of the particular cooking problem I was pondering at the time, or the outcome. So my suggestion is to just ask. Chefs like talking about what they do, and there's nothing better than an appreciative audience. They know you're not going to steal their recipes and open a competing restaurant across the street.

As good as the dinners were, the highlight of this visit was Mercado Central. This is the downtown fish market. Yes, it's touristy, but the colorful and chaotic market is filled with locals too. The locals buy fish from the various vendors, and both locals and tourists eat at the many restaurants. These are all small restaurants, many of them very small. They all have hustlers outside, trying to entice you to eat there. But they pester the locals, too, and they accept a polite "no" for an answer. We chose a restaurant basically at random: Marisqueria "Pilas Blanca." (It's in the SE corner of the market, if you want to find it.) It was filled with locals, and the hustler was nicer than most. We ordered a bunch of things. First came the piures, a rust-brown barnacle-like creature, chopped up and served cold in a sea-flavored broth with onions and lemons. It tasted very much of the sea, and was a bit gritty, but I liked it. Then we got a bowl of machos: chopped pieces of squarish clam served cold with lemon juice, onions, and cilantro. We also got a plate on conger eel with a caper cream sauce, and a bowl of steamed clams called choros. Everything was fresh and delicious, and the whole meal -- including three Cokes -- cost 15,000 pesos ($30 U.S). Mercado Central is fun, but here's the real secret: Go North out of the market and over the bridge. There is a chain of other markets, much more interesting and much more authentic. (For example: far fewer tourists, a lot more dogs.) There are meat markets, produce markets, everything markets. No one asks for a tip if you take their picture, and lots of people are buying up the organ meats. (K and I were looking over one display case of organ meats. I recognized everything except one item, and Karen didn't know the Spanish on the sign. She asked, and there was some back and forth between her and the guy as she figured out what he was saying. Beef testicles. Funny all around.) We went back the next day and had lunch at a random restaurant. I wanted some specific Chilean dishes. Paastelera de chocio is a baked dish of ground corn (choclo), meat, chicken, onions, grapes, and pumpkin. Traditionally they're cooked and served in a clay bowl, but this one came in a tin-foil pan. We also had cazuela, a traditional soup with rice, potato, pumpkin, cilantro, and chicken broth. Ours came with goat meat. And humitas, which are a kind of choclo tamale. Everything was good to very good, and the total cost for lunch was 6000 pesos ($12 U.S).

Dinner #2: Astrid y Gaston (Antonio-Bellet 201, +56 2 650 9125). This is a world-class restaurant: by far, the best in Santiago. It's actually the Chilean outpost of a Peruvian restaurant. Gaston is Peruvian, and has a Spanish-language cooking show, and restaurants in Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, and Venezuela. (Astrid is his German wife.) Our waiter said that he's opening up one in Miami, and I would recommend it sight unseen. All the chefs train at the main restaurant in Lima, but the menus are all different because of local ingredients and tastes. The menu is a unique kind of celebrity-chef fusion: all the dishes literally burst with flavor. To start we shared grilled foie gras and mango brochette. Imagine a triangle of French toast with a piece of foie gras, mango, and the flavors of Pisco and assorted herbs. Absolutely stunning. We then shared two mains. First was the Angler's Parrotfish, described on the menu as "Intercontinental fusion of South American-Southeast Asian flavorings with tamarind and ginger. Roughly mashed yucca with Spanish sausage. Creole paw-paw sauce." It was so amazingly good that I didn't want to trade. The other main was roast duck breast on a mashed lucuma fruit, potato pie, and a paw-pay and mandarin sauce. (Lucuma is a local fruit that I had been looking for in the market earlier.) The whole dish was fantastic: great flavors, both interesting separately and together. There were a bunch of interesting desserts, but we settled on sushi. Gaston couldn't possibly be the first chef to have invented dessert sushi, but I had never seen it before. The quince sushi was a thin wrapper of membrillo, filled with maracuya fruit sherbet. On the side was a sweet quinoa dish: basically rice pudding made with quinoa instead of rice. The chocolate sushi was three small rolls: white chocolate with pralines, chocolate with pistachio, and chocolate with raspberry. Astrid y Gaston is billed as the most expensive restaurant meal in Santiago. Our total bill for two, including wine, was 50,000 pesos ($100 U.S.) including tip.

Dinner #1 was at Aqui esta Coco (La Conception 236, +56 2 235 8649). It's billed as the best seafood restaurant in Santiago, and we're not surprised. Delicious fresh fish. And an English menu. To start we had the ceviche mixto, with corvena (Chilean sea bass), squid, octopus, and prawns, marinated in lemon juice, and served with onions, coriander, and chili pepers. We would have liked more chili peppers, but that's a personal preference. We also had the caldillo de congrio: conger eel soup. Amazingly rich broth, tasty eel, with potatoes and spices. As a main, I got the merluza austral: filet of hake, covered with baby eels and shoestring potatoes. (Yes, you could tell one from the other.) Perfect piece of fish, tasty eels -- eat them quick so you don't see the eyes -- and a good sauce. Ask for rice instead of potatoes, though. K ordered the stuffed trout: a grilled fillet rolled around a mound of king crab in a Thermador sauce. This dish was fantastic. We also ordered a side of veggies, two Pisco sours, and a half-bottle of Chilean wine. Total cost: 40,000 pesos or $80 U.S.

We had a great couple of days: delicious food, fascinating markets, interesting sights. Here are the basics that I wish someone told me before we left: "Most of Santiago's sights are in the old city: the barrio called Santiago. Everything is close, and you can see everything in a day. Most interesting are the Iglesia de San Francisco, the Cathedral de Santiago, and the Museo Precolombino. "Take the Metro downtown. It's cheap, and the cleanest Metro you'll ever see. The most convenient stops are Plaza de Armas and Universidad de Chile. "Get a hotel in the Providencia neighborhood. It's an easy Metro ride downtown, and it's where the best restaurants and the good nightlife are. We stayed at the Sheraton, but there are a bunch of other good hotels in the area." Why is it so hard to find a compact useful description like that?

The recipe I was handed from my grandmother is one egg per matzoh. Break the matzoh into pieces about one-inch square. Run cold water over them to soak them, just a little, and then pour it out. Break one egg per matzoh piece into a bowl and beat, adding salt and pepper. Pour eggs over matzoh pieces and mix well. Cook in a frying pan greased with butter, stirring kind of like scrambled egges. It's done when it looks done.

I freeze them all the time. As a kid I reheated them in the toaster oven. Now I use the microwave. It works if you don't overdo it. (I also cook very eggy latkes, which I think work better microwaved.)

At a winetasting some years ago, I sat next to a reseller of old wines. He told the story about a magnum of Bordeaux from, I think, the 1920s. That beats any story I can hope to have.

I did have a hard-boiled gull egg at St. John in London once....

We got ours! For the survey: We sent in an e-mail on the day reservations opened. It was for any date any time with a few specific exceptions. It was for either 2, 4, or 6 people. This'll be a fun vacation to plan.

Vincent is probably your best choice. It's likely to be walking distance from your hotel. One step down is Five (also a taxi ride). On par with Vincent, but also a taxi ride, is Levain. Those are high end, such as it is, restaurants around here. The chefs are all interesting and inventive, and you won't have a bad meal at any of them. I would pick Vincent if I had the choice. Bon appetit.

How could a list of good, cheap Washington DC eats not include the Amsterdam Falafelshop?

Emu and pigeon would be the obvious birds to add. I don't think I can get my hands on a woodcock.

Thanksgiving 2005: “Nine Birds” 1. Partridge Paté, Fig Confit, and Port Wine Reduction 2. Green Salad with Ostrich Jerky 3. Roasted Guinea Fowl Stuffed with Oranges, Garlic, Onion, and Cinnamon, served with Couscous and Fried Bananas 4. Sautéed Wild Pheasant Breasts with Ligenberry Butter, served with Pumpkin Ravioli, Sautéed Figs, Pistachios, Fig Sauce, and Truffle Oil 5. Sautéed Quail with Chesnut Purée and Rose Sauce, Rose Petals, and Snow Peas with Chinese Five Spice and Pumpkin-Seed Oil 6. Wild Duck Breasts cooked in Sauerkraut, served with Corn and Peas Cooked with Bacon and Thyme Butter 7. Roast Goose with Thompson stuffing, Sweet Potato Casserole, and Roasted Beets 8. Deconstructed Stuffing: Toasted Brioche, Onion Jam, Celery Root Puree, Poultry Spices, Sage Leaf Tempura, Turkey Foam 9. Chicken-egg Flan Casero, Cardamom Panna-Cotta, Carrot-Ginger Cream, and Various Baker’s Square Pies

They had more than that. They had a lot of Spanish reds and whites, including a huge selection of Basque wine. That had a surprising selection of old French wines. They had a bunch of other things. I bought the Rioja's, though.

I found a great wine shop in Spain. In San Sebastian, about an hour (or two, depending on your route) East along the coast from Bilbao. It's Vinos Ezeiza, on Prim 16 (+34 943 46 68 14). (Finding it was not accidental. I asked the sommelier at Akelare to recommend a wine store in San Sebastian.) It's a dusty old shop, filled with interesting wines. Mostly Spanish, mostly Riojas, but lots of other stuff as well. (He had a bunch of Vega Sicilia wines that were outside my price range.) And older stuff: wines from the 50s, 60s, and 80s. Some French, even. The old guy who runs it speaks no English, but he's great. He definitely knows his stock. This is what I left with. (I flew to Spain with an empty 12-bottle wine shipper.) 1 x 1964 Vina Albina Rioja 2 x 1982 Montecillo Gran Reserva Rioja 3 x 1991 Vina Real Gran Reserva Rioja 2 x 1994 Vina Real Gran Reserva Rioja 1 x 1995 Vina Real Gran Reserva Rioja 2 x 1994 R. Lopez de Herdia Rioja 1 x 1995 R. Lopez de Herdia Rioja And he gave me a bottle of local Basque white as a gift. I'm going to buy some cod to have it with. Most of the bottles were 20 or 25 euros, with the older three being as much as 50 euros. (My total bill for the 12 wines was 330 euros.) I have no idea how often anyone gets to this part of the world, but if you do happen to get there this shop is worth a trip. He said that he's open from 8:00 to 8:00, without a siesta.

Three restaurants to report on Kuldse Notsu Korts (Dunkri 8, Tallinn). This is an old-town restaurant that boasts traditional Estonian cuisine. The interior is brightly painted and kind of hokey (as were the traditionally dressed waitresses and the long wooden tables), but the fireplace was roaring and the restaurant smelled good. I started with the liver pate, which was a traditional creamy chicken liver. Then I had one of Estonia's famous traditional dishes: blood sausage. There were three on the plate, with sauerkraut, potatoes, and a piece of bacon. Delicious, but way too much food. Eesti Maja (Lauteri 1, Tallinn). It's kind of a rustic kitchy place that also serves traditional Estonian food. To start I ordered marinated eel. My guess is that was the correct English translation of marineeritud angerjas, but the menu really should have said something like: "eel in aspic, with bones!" I might very well have ordered it anyway -- I like eel -- but I think people should know. It was really good, actually. My main course was "mulgi kapsad (sealihaga)" in Estonian, and "a folksy sauerkraut stew (with pork)" in English. It was really good: light and flavorful. The sauerkraut tasted nicely of caraway, and had spelt grains in it. Condiments on the table: a tube of mustard, a jar of horseradish, white vinegar, salt, pepper. I didn't use any of them. Dessert was "pancakes with homemade jam." Crepes, really, with random-fruit jam. A good meal. Olde Hansa (Vana turg 1, Tallinn). This restaurant boasts a Medieval atmosphere, and actual historically researched Medieval recipes. Yes, it was kind of like eating dinner at the Renaissance Faire, but it was actually good. And clever. (The dates on their wine list specify A.D., for example.) There was a lot to choose from on the menu -- bear, deer, elk -- and I really wanted more people so I could try one of the tasting plates, or even one of the feasts. But I did okay on my own. Appetizer: smoked herring. I like herring, and the Baltic is where it comes from. This was a nicely smoked herring fillet, served with some small smoked while fish called kilu, some homemade soft cow cheese, and a hunk of fruit bread. For a main course, I ordered the "bear, marinated in rare spices and cooked over a fire in honour of Waldemar II, the brave Kind of Denmark." Which they were out of. I considered the "Grandmerchant von Wehrem's hunting company's wonderful rabbit roast with forest mushroom sauce and special spices," but I already had wild rabbit on this trip. So instead I had the elk: "Burgermeister's game fillet. Game fillet of the season, favourite vegetable dainties of the honourable Mayor of Raval." (No, I don't know where Raval is.) What I got was a grand plate covered in food. Three elk fillets in a mushroom cream sauce, spelt with saffron, sauerkraut, tiny cooked berries, a bread turnover thingy, and cooked garlic cloves. Really delicious. Nothing on the dessert menu excited me, and I was full anyway. Estonia tries to have it both ways on tipping. They know that locals don't tip, but they actively try to get tourists to tip. Olde Hansa's menu says: "The servants will humbly and with everlasting gratitude accept any squirrel skins or ducats that guests may generously offer." I left some ducats. And finally, from a local guide, "Top 10 very Estonian foods": 1. sprotid (canned Baltic herring) 2. Leib (dark rye bread) 3. Suit (jellied pork) 4. Verivorst (blood sausage) 5. Hernesupp (green pea soup) 6. Seajalg (boiled pig's trotter) 7. Kama (dried grain and pea mixture often added to sour milk) 8. Mulgipuder (groats and potato porridge with fried fatty meat) 9. Soola oad (boiled and salted beans usually served cold) 10. Peipsi tint (dried smelt from Lake Peipsi) I had 2 and 4. I saw 5 and 8 on menus.

I have not heard back. I sent an e-mail request using Rosengarten's code. My wife sent an e-mail request in Spanish. And my secretary sent one with a vaguely official tone in English. No word yet.

I had a stunning meal at Vau earlier this month. This was their October tasting menu: 1. Roasted lobster with fennel, orange, and finocchiona 2. Poached char with mustard leafs and hazelnuts 3. Roasted squab with a salad of wild rape and roasted cepes 4. Beef shoulder braised in balsamic vinegar with figs and mustard 5. 36er cheese with tomato jam and rocket leaves 6. Chocolate and elderberries I was with a vegetarian, and I was especially impressed that the kitchen put together an excellent menu for her as well.

Today: lunch at a restaurant called "Yaroslavana." It's on Yaroslaviv Val, across the street and down the block to the right from the Radisson Hotel. Brown awning, and then downstairs. Next to a cafe. It didn't look like much, but it was convenient and the hotel desk clerk said that it was okay. I had the Ukranian borshch. Best version of the whole trip, actually. I also had "Prince's veal," described on the menu as "veal with vine sauce and prunes." I figured "vine" was either a typo or an honest mistake, and that it was a wine sauce. It was, although very sweet with plums. Veal is very different in this country. My guess is that the calves are a little bit older, and that they're not completely milk fed. But mostly I think the meat just isn't all that good here. Don't know for sure. Anyway, 40 hryvnia for the meal translates to $8. I'm off to Tallinn next. I'll let you know what I find there.

Dinner tonight was at a restaurant called O'Panas, in Shevchenko Park on Tereschenkivska Street. A bit hokey in atmosphere, but definitely frequented by locals. I ordered three appetizers, and didn't finish any of them (not because they weren't good, but because I wasn't that hungry). I ordered the Ukranian borshch, because I want to keep trying it. This was a good one, with a mild beety flavor and a nice meaty flavor. I ordered the stuffed cabbage, because I forgot that I was sick of cabbage. Actually, that's not true. I ordered it because my family recipe is from my mother's mother (Jewish Romanian), and I was curious how this one was different. There were two key differences, both improvements and both not kosher: the cabbage was stuffed with a mixture of beef and pork, and it was served with dollop of sour cream. It was also much less sweet a sauce, and there were mushrooms in the stuffing. A nice dish all around. And I also ordered the deruny: potato pancakes with sour cream. A little greasy, but good.

It's very Slavic here. And very Soviet. Capitalism has won, and there are stores and signs and life everywhere, but there are still many stern-looking buildings and imposing-feeling monuments. (Just look at these three pictures of Rodina Mat: 150 feet from her feet to the top of her sword -- and she's on a hill. The name means either "Mother Motherland," or "Defense of the Motherland," or some such, depending on what you read.) I visited the very Byzantine-looking St. Sophia's Cathedral (named after the Hagia Sofia in Instanbul), every interior surface of which is covered in iconographic paintings. (This guy took some really great pictures.) I visited the very baroque St. Andrew's Church, where I stumbled on a baptism ceremony. I saw far too many matryoshkas. Dinner was at Pervak (the site is in Russian, but you can see an English-language menu). It's a very kitchy restaurant, in that pre-industrial farm Ukraine sort of way. The waitresses wear farm costumes, and there are statues of cows and such. I tried to ignore it all. I did manage to select myself a cabbage-free meal. First a Ukrainian borsch -- beet-less -- with beans, tomatoes, onions, meat, a whole lot of fresh parsley and dill, and a dollop of cream. (Kind of like this, but with beans instead of beets.) It came with some traditional garlic rolls called pampushkas. Then I had "Veal a la Ancient Kiev," which is thinly sliced veal made into a roll and stuffed with cherries. The sauce tasted slightly of honey and mustard. When you order meat here, meat is what you get. Everything else is on the side. I ordered grilled autumn vegetables in garlic sauce. All of this heavy food is starting to get to me. I looking at the salads, but they come with meat. There's a salad with smoked chicken, another with roast pork, and others with beef, salmon, shrimp, and crab. There was only one veggie salad on the menu, and it didn't look very good. Tomorrow night I am going to get the fish. I've also been entertaining myself trying to learn to read Cyrillic. There are enough cognates -- "cafe," "restaurant," and "bar" are three you see a lot -- and I have Cyrillic street signs and their Roman equivalent on my map. The hardest part is that the symbols mean different things. "P" in Cyrillic is pronounced "r," and "B" is pronounced "v." Their "H" is pronounced "n," and their backwards "N" is something like a long "e." But they have a "E" too, which is pronounced -- I think -- "e" too. Tomorrow, St. Michael's Monastery, the old city gate, and other random wanderings around town. Monday: Kyiv- Pechersk Lavra.

I just finished dinner at what my hotel said was the other good Slovak restaurant in the old city: Hotel Perugia. It was an okay meal. A savory cabbage strudel to start, and venison steak with plum sauce and croquettes (tater tots, basically). To tell the truth, I'm getting a bit sick of cabbage. Unfortunately, I'm heading to Kiev next.

The trick to lunch seems to be to get outside the tourist area. Yesterday I ate at a random restaurant near Michael's Tower. I had chicken with paprika, which didn't taste much like either ingredient. Today I picked Restaurant Classic at random. The menu was translated into English, but the English wasn't always helpful. I understood "chicken breast stuffed with fruit," but what's "rustic chicken breast," and what's the difference between "diabolic chicken breast" and "angelic chicken breast"? You kind of want to order them both and see? Or "trout overweight"? In any case, I ordered the "chicken broth with meat and noodles," and the "Slovak schnitzel," mostly because they were out of the "boar with Cumberland sauce." Both dishes were tasty, and it was way too much food. Total cost: $7. One interesting wine note. The menu divided its white wines into two categories: "still white wines from non-aromatic varieties," like riesling, veltliner, pinot blanc, pinot gris, sauvignon blanc, and chardonnay, and "still white wines from aromatic varieties," like gewurztraminer and muscat. Fascinating.