montrachet

Apologies for the lack of participation in the Hawaii forum. Although the people who live and visit here do love to eat, there is a definite lack of enthusiasm to share their experiences with others. Although I cannot comment on the two restaurants at the Big Island Four Seasons, I can heartily recommend the two restaurants located in the Maui Four Seasons with Duo being the preferred venue. Newly opened and atmosphere, cuisine and service is spectacular displaying the high standards expected of a Four Seasons operation. The grill choices are varied and superbly crafted and range from elk steaks, Muscovy duck breasts and two cuts of Kobe beef. Start your meal with the Trio sashimi of ahi, onaga and kampachi and you will not be disappointed. Please someone help our visitor with any information on the Four Season's Kona property prior to their visit in December.

With time running out and being a Sunday when most things are closed or close early, the old standby is to get the Deluxe Spam Musubi at 7-11. They bring it in daily from Tokyo Bento and is by far better than the ready made stuff in other mini marts.

Not only the hamachi but maguro chutoro and otoro at mitch's were superb. hamachi is also excellent at tokkuri-tei when the sushi guy filets a whole fish on the spot. you can even ask for the hamachi toro if your system can handle it...rich rich rich!

I've tried all the new Japanese places that have sprung up recently and have to agree with "too early" as to whether I will be a returning customer to many of them. I did return to Tsukuneya a few months after my initial visit and found the portions considerably smaller than during my first experience there. The same formula seems to be applied to all new openings. Spend a nice bundle on the interior, over-staff and start off with decent prices. Diners here love to try out new places and so with so many options available at a given time, initial impact must be extraordinary to drum up repeat business. But then reality hits as servers sniff out new opportunities and the owners are stuck worrying about lease payments, etc. Inevitably, either the dishes become smaller or the prices are discreetly upped to the dismay of the diner. We can be thankful for good ol' standbys like Kai and Imanas-tei.

Pick up a bottle of Kubota "Senjyu" at Tamura's in Kaimuki for under $20 and drink it at ambient temp just like the fishermen in Niigata do with their fresh caught bounty.

I'd have to say that I've had memorable combinations at Northview and Morgan Creek. Watching fellow golfers attempt the approach shot to the green on Northview's Ridge course is great entertainment. If you like golfing Swaneset, their steak sandwich is quite amazing.

I've wondered about this too butter. I think they did achieve bronze a few years back but that was it. Perhaps we all fear the selection of a different winner of gold in this category as it would most definitely initiate ranting and a middle finger salute by the current titleholder. This was witnessed in Whistler last year at a different awards ceremony. I agree with you too that the judging committee has a formidable task at hand.

Or at least at their parent company, Ricky's...

Jason, Too bad about CdeP. I was about to give them a try with their new chef. The Fat Boy Guzzle in your signature sounds interesting. Any reasoning behind the use of Jack AND Wild Turkey? A little Tennessee and a little Kentucky perhaps?

for me, the Vancouver, British Columbia, Western Canada eGullet forum Mike

$20,000 should be just about right for a magnum each of the '76 Richebourg and La Tache that they have in their cellar at Cioppino's. My clients from Japan love old world Burgundies.

I have fond memories of Hoshi Sushi on Main Street near Keefer. That would be at least 15 years ago. A huge sushi counter manned by two chefs, Hoshi-san and Ishikawa-san and quite often frequented by JAL flight attendants overnighting in YVR. Whenver I need the Hoshi fix, I head to Sandbar on Granville Island but the ambiance is not the same.

To tell the truth, I've been 3 times but I wanted someone else to try Ch'i out and post their comments. I like the drinks, I like the wine selection and I like the food. I know they are still fiddling around with the menu so I don't know what the final version will look like but the items I have had were wonderful. Even the reserve wine list has gone through many changes but it's becoming more and more fine tuned thanks to the creativity of the sommelier Kelly. It covers wines from all corners of the globe. The ambiance is very nice as well as the music that they play. They had a DJ spinning nice tunes the second time I went and on all three occasions, the room was 2/3 to 3/4 full with a nice "buzz". Despite the crosstown drive, I think it's worth the trip for a nice and relaxing evening. I never did see a chef-type person around so I never introduced myself but the hostesses seemed to remember my name in the reservation book. Waiting to hear from the rest of the eGullett gang! Mike

I miss having their mixed grill while sitting elbow to elbow with total strangers.

...and salad...

I look forward to your expanded wine list to include regional Italian selections especially from the south. Will be there to try dinner real soon! Mike

How about Bruno Born? I had great lunches at Le Coq d'Or back in the early 90's. Fond memories of the Beaulieu's Georges de Latour Reserve that matched so well with his bold flavoured cuisine. I wonder where he's gone off to?

Minor correction. Tomoko was a server at Tojo's until they opened Dan and yes, Ken Oda is from Sakae Richmond. The two of them met while working at Octopus Garden many moons ago. A lovely couple.

I also second Moosh's vote for Tandoori King on East 65th. For more of a northern flavour, my vote goes to Akbar's Own on West Broadway across from Kinko's. Vij's is my top pick though. Mike

I'm not sure about jackfruit. Maybe Joie will help us out. I plan to try all the flavours. Their specialty drink is the Teatini (tea infused vodka or gin is used I think) which I didn't get a chance to try out last night. Mike

Good afternoon all, After a Friday night house warming party in Kits, we headed to Chi around 9:00 and about a 20 minute drive for us from the West Side. Being unfamiliar with the area, we noticed the nicely lit sign of the restaurant and ample parking along Nanaimo and side streets. It was quite dark but the building itself looked pretty big. Once inside, the reception area/lounge was quite spacious and chic. Nice bass laden music throbbed unobtrusively in the background. The hostess seated us quickly at a lovely window side table and I could see that most of the room was full save one or two tables. A nice communal type table was just to the left of the bar. This Westernized “ozashiki” was a nice touch for larger groups and parties. A very sleek menu and a separate drinks list were handed to us by our friendly waitress. I had a hard time making out the menus as I only had one candlelight to rely on. I quickly scanned the wine/sake/shoju list but decided I wanted a Mojito instead. Nicely muddled mint/rum infusion that I inhaled promptly. My dining companion had the Jumpin’ Jackfruit martini which was light, refreshing and very tropical. The Mojito seemed to be the perfect antidote for my “presbyopia” as I was able to read the menu with little difficulty thereafter. Based on the spiciness of the dip of our starter, “Roti & Dip” I selected the Ironstone Obsession as our wine for the evening. It is a UofC invented hybrid varietal known as “Symphony” and is a cross between Muscat of Alexandria and Grenache Gris. The perfect accompaniment to the bold tastes of the Thai/Malaysian/Indonesian/Japanese/Chinese influenced cuisine. We next tried the Chicken Satay which was slightly undercooked but the kitchen took care of our dilemma without a hitch and even took it off the final bill. We also tried the Spicy Squid with Mango sauce (crisp on the outside, succulent within, paired with a piquant sauce) and the Duck Breast (a nice portion of extremely juicy and tender slices). These two dishes were our favorites and I can’t wait to try the duck with the Carneros “Etude” that they had on the “Sommelier’s List”. I was told that it was the second day of operation for Chi. I hope the service and food standards will be kept at this high level as I don’t mind the cross-town drive at all for such a nice “destination” meal. Looking forward to hearing what others have to say. Mike

Off the top of my head, I can think of Villa del Lupo and Cioppino's but I'm sure others will post a few more. These two offer Italian cuisine with the latter being a bit pricier.

(oops! I hit the send by mistake!!! ) Grant Burge "Miamba" Shiraz was a good buy at $31.95. Mike

Chef Metcalfe, Missed seeing you at the Storyeum tasting tonight but it looks as though you left early. Interesting venue but much too crowded and stifling hot. The Shiraz/Viognier blend is an offtake of the Northern Rhone region wine called Cote Rotie. Syrah is blended with Viognier but this practice seems to have become less and less fashionable as it is a difficult varietal to grow particularly on the steep slopes of Cote Rotie. When done properly though, Viognier adds a floral perfuminess to the robust Syrah component found in this wine and makes it more "elegant" than say the all Syrah wines of Hermitage to the south. I wanted to try the Chardonnay/Viognier blend at the Langanook booth but they never received shipment of this obscure offering. Dunno though, at $36 a bottle, I would probably prefer to spend that on another DOV outing at West Three wines I enjoyed tonight were the Katnook Estate "Prodigy", the "Dead Arm" from d'Arenberg and St. Hallett's "Old Block Shiraz". On the more affordable side, I think the

My sentiments exactly Andrew. I'm not trying to be lazy to say this but you summed it up perfectly for me. Thank you Andrew, Eric and Gail for being such wonderful dining companions. The amuses were a wonderful touch by Chef Hawksworth and his team to compliment a fantastic ensemble of finely crafted dishes. After my Lincourt PN, I matched the braised veal with a Langmeil GSM, a bold wine with lots of fruit and a hint of spice. And of course a well deserved THANK YOU to Pepprye for all the preparation work you did to ensure the success of this event. Oh, should we be calling you Auntie Pepprye?