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yellow truffle

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    Chicago steakhouses

    in The Heartland: Dining

    Posted

    Might I would suggest trying the kobe beef at Yoshi's Cafe. Please note that Yoshi's is not a steak house. It is a fusion of Japanese / French cuisine. The atmosphere is nothing like any of the Chicago's true steak house, but if you like steak, give this place a try. AFAIK, this is one of the few places that serves a large cut of the expensive beef.

    The kobe beef filet is just heavenly. As long as you let the chef cook it the way it should be, medium rare, it just melts in your mouth. It is soft and creamy and it is almost incomparable to midwest beef. The plate comes with a condiment of freshly grated wasabi (not the paste, the actual root) and a red wine sauce. The frites are unremarkable, but try the wasabi mayonnaise (order separately).

    Like most steak joints, Yoshi's serves wonderful martini's. Might I suggest the wasabi stuffed olives as a garnish to your martini beverage. Just like blue cheese stuffed olives, you can only find this in the midwest/heartland.

    Yoshi's Cafe

    3257 N. Halsted St.  

    773-248-6160

    Moto Restaurant - Chicago

    in The Heartland: Dining

    Posted

    Ok here goes my first real post. Hopefully not too long or boring.

    My friends and I dined at Moto last Friday, the following are my first impressions.

    Ambience.

    Moto's exterior facade does not present itself as a restaurant, where you can see the diners (unless you put your nose to the glass and focus to the rear) or have any description to what the establishment does. One may interpret it as a bar, nightclub, or even a gallery. I thought it is was a bar that would turn into a club atmosphere as the evening progressed.

    Upon entering, there are a few small tables, perhaps for reservation-waiting customers. The main dining room is an extension of the waiting space at twice its depth. Room is dark and invites a change of moods from the waiting space. Transitioning through brightly lit waiting space, into the dimly lit dining area, allowed us to relax and prepare ourselves for 'the experience.' This is a nice detail. :biggrin:

    The staff, dressed similarly in black, Dr. Evil-esque tops, matched the minimal esthetic to the interior, with its tall beige colored fabric booths and dark walnut venered table tops. The lighting is even throughout the dining area. IMHO, I had wished there to be a series of small/minimal pendant downlights that would accent the dishes. The music selection was varied. Not necessarily techno, more hip tunes that range in beats per minutes. The music was at a comfortable level and did not distract from the dining experience.

    Food.

    We had the ten course and brought our own wine, not knowing that they had just gotten their liquor license. Generally speaking, the food preparation and presentation is expressive of the chef's other interests (read the Tribune article, see below). I want to focus on my two favorites, the amusing "flat" ware with toro and the pacific bass baked tableside.

    The amusing "flat" ware with toro, was a great introduction to "the experience." Flatware it was not. Imagine a long metal rod, pounded out at one end to represent the shape of a spoon and then curly-qued at the base of the to act as a handle with depth. The ingenious part is that a sprig of lavender was inserted into the spring-like coil of the "flat" ware. By default of function, you are forced to use your sense of taste and smell at the same time to experience two different ingredients separately. This reminds me of the chefg's rosemary bath/spa/vapor at Trio.

    Earlier in a previous post "Moto Restaurant", people have been writing about 'herbacious utensils.' I wonder if this is the same as the 'amusing flatware?' If so, I like the sound of herbacious utensils, better. It has a higher hippness factor than amusing flatware, that goes with the overall aesthetic. The chef has taken great care to create these innovative dishes, with (sometimes) custom made vessels, why not continue the fun and play with the name of items on the menu.

    The toro reminded me of Bobby Flay rubbing his special spices on the Kobe beef in an Iron Chef battle with Morimotto in Japan. Everyone gasped at Flay for introducing other flavors to such an incredible ingredient. I was feeling the same way when I heard that there would lavender introduced to the dish. But since fresh fish should not have a strong aroma, the slight and uplifting smell of the lavender made (IMHO) a perfect pairing. The toro was a melt in your mouth experience. The texture was creamy, almost like soft cheese that would melt with the heat of the mouth. It was not as sweet as I thought toro to be. I understand there to be three types of toro. I do not know where this one fits into. Have not had enough toro to know.

    The pacific bass baked tableside was fun. We received the dish a course before we were to taste it. It sat tableside in a soft acrylic rectilinear box with boiling water at the base, a screen to hold the fish 2 inches above and a cavernous top to move the heat around. One would expect there to be an abundant collection of water droplets along the insides of the box, not allowing you to see the ingredient, but there was only a minimal amount. Almost like a bamboo steamer that collects some of the water, perhaps this box does not allow the act of condensation. I assume the box was preheated and because it has some weight, can hold temperature longer. Nice detail. Somebody was paying attention in science class.

    Ohh, and the bass. Perfect texture, wonderful color, flaked in exacting pieces and full of flavor. The bass was another melt in your mouth experience. :rolleyes: I am going to be experimenting this technique at home. :raz:

    Complaints.

    Not all the dishes were on the same level as that of the toro and bass. Some a little better, some a little worse. I wish that I could tell you more about the other dishes, but I dont want to spoil the fun and your experience (read: I have to get back to work). My only real complaint is that we did the 10 course and not the 18. And would have allowed for the wine pairing. :smile:

    Overall.

    I am amazed at the attention to detail that goes into the experience of the dishes. There is an awakening of multiple senses as one goes through each item. The chef is really having fun in creating, experimenting, presenting, naming his works. I hope that my next experience will be completely different.

    Yeah, I would go back. This man respects ingredients and uses minimal, but prime, seasonings. I thought, it's so simple we can all do this at home. Yeah right. This reminds me of Nobu. In his cookbook, he states that even if you were to follow his recipes exactly, Nobu is quite sure that you would never be able to perfectly recreate the same flavors and textures that he makes. "For I always put something special in my food, my heart, or kokoro as we say in Japanese..." :cool:

    Other notes.

    I found out from our sever, that we missed chefg (Grant Achatz) by a couple of days. :shock: I would have paid money to hear those two talk (ohh wait, that's egullet is all about). I noticed that they are both under 30. I wonder if this has anything to do with their desire to think outside the box. The origin of the name Moto interests me. Can anyone chime in on this. I wonder what this means in other languages/cultures. And what does the Kanji character (on the website) mean. For more reading, check out this Triune article:

    Science-minded Moto chef is willing to experiment

    Side bar.

    I called Moto to verify the menu I had a couple of days before. I spoke with a gentleman who was unable to help me. He insisted that he transfer me to the Chef. At that moment, thoughts of Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential raced across my mind. Where Bourdain gets a call from a purveyor during lunch trying to sell him something. Bourdain lets him rattle on until he puts him in check and unloads to the guy. On hold, I was about to hang up for fear that the same might happen to me, but of course I had waited to long. I got the Chef. I had asked him a couple of questions about the menu items, and he relayed the information in as much detail as needed. This was much more than what I had expected. In fact, if I did not call at 4:30 on a Thursday, he would have told great stories about each of the items on the menu. So thanx for your time Chef.

    :smile:

    What Food Network may botch next

    in Food Media & Arts

    Posted

    Has there been any announcements / thoughts to who the bimbo du jour (bdj) will be? We all agree that one of the greatest part of IC is the translation, but I still think that even in the guests' native English it would still be just as fun. Imagine, a Jessica Simpson-like bdj and a Robert Deniro-like as the other guest. Total opposites. It may go something like this (Alton Brown as the food expert):

    jessica: Oh my. :huh: What is he doing. Is he like, like, killing the fish. I cant look. It's so, so, eweh. :shock:

    alton: Yes Jessica, :angry: he HAS to kill the eel to use in his dishes. He nails the eel at the tail fin, gives a whack with the back of his knife at the head and slices the length of the body to gut the water serpent. This technique is very common in Japanese cooking. :wink:

    robert: That is nothing new. :hmmm: I remember when I was in NYC watching my friend and chef Nobu preparing something like that. :rolleyes:

    jessica: Thank goodness I married someone to help me cook, because I could not do it alone. :briggrin:

    robert: You know, I remember a time when I did Raging Bull. I had to gain so much weight. I could not stand the sight of food for a while. :wacko:

    Ohh and imagine what the P.E.T.A. would say after they show animals getting boiled, intoxicated or bludgeoned to death.

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