dagordon

I just had my mind blown by opting for the "separation of noodle and soup" at Setagaya. Regardless of what the servers there might tell you, and what the descriptions on the menu might suggest, the cha-syu tsuke-men (pork ramen with separation of noodle and soup) is NOT just the cha-syu-men (pork ramen) with the noodles and the soup separated. For one thing, the noodles in the cha-syu tsuke-men bear little resemblance to the noodles in the cha-syu-men. They are substantially thicker than even the thickest of the apparently three different thicknesses of noodles in the latter, almost resembling linguini. They're flat, not round. As for the broth, the broth in the cha-syu tsuke-men is like the broth in the cha-syu-men on steroids. It's like the broth in the cha-syu-men, only with immensely more pork flavor, immensely more fish flavor, something like a vinegary flavor, and, yes, immensely more salt. (weinoo, if you find this too salty you may be pleasantly surprised by the regular ramen.) The pork was cut up into cubes instead of served in slices, there was much more scallion, and there was no egg. It was freaking amazing. I too am a ramen novice; maybe someone more enlightened can tell us whether the differences between the regular ramen and the separated ramen are in some way standard.

interesting... we had a fresh green meadow farm chicken recently and were not at all impressed -- ours was pretty flavorless. apparently the green meadow farm fresh chickens have replaced the meadow run farm fresh chickens, which you and i were both excited about a while ago -- did you ever try a fresh MRF chicken when fair food had them? we tried one, and it was just awful. tonight we made the last of the frozen MRF chickens from last season that we had and it was absolutely unbelievably good. with the plain baby arugula next to it i was pretty much flipping out at dinner tonight. the texture of the breast was pretty spongy because, i presume, of the freezing, but i'll take that texture any day for chicken that tastes this good. maybe this season, for whatever reason, hasn't been as kind to the MRF chickens? i haven't had the poussins from griggstown, but i picked up a broiler directly from the farm and it was mediocre. their quail, of course, is fantastic.

The baby arugula we got from Fair Food today is one of the best things I've ever eaten. I've been eating it as a snack, plain.

FWIW, when we were at Alinea last week one of the staff mentioned to us that Chef Achatz had recently met with the mayor, and that the ban would not be around for very much longer...

I second philadining's suggestion. Where do I apply? ← Hey, you guys are both welcome to apply; keep in mind, though, that whenever we travel the help is fed whatever inexpensive local stuff we can find. We fed the young man who carried our luggage on this trip here:

you're also missing the steelhead roe and the lobster. either the pictures were so blurry that i deleted them from my camera at some point, or we just forgot to take them... sorry. we're already in the process of researching a camera upgrade.

They're in order (though I just realized I forgot the sweetbreads, which I've now added) -- that's the lamb. It was indeed a cheesecake -- iirc we were told that the ash layer of the cheese had been replaced with a truffle layer.

We had a slight variation on molto e and ronnie suburban's meal last Friday at Schwa: (Butter poached lobster substituted for halibut cheeks.) We were in Chicago for a wedding that weekend. Thursday night we did Alinea; Schwa on Friday. Our meal at Alinea started at 7:30; we had a wedding-related event on Fri evening, so our meal at Schwa was over by 7:30. With nothing but a Jamba Juice in between these two meals, this had to be the greatest 24 hours of our lives so far, food-wise. As I said in my Alinea post, sorry for the quality of the photos... couldn't quite master taking photos with the flash disabled. This was just a stunning meal. Flawless, actually. At one point in the meal I attempted to convince Chef Carlson that he'd neglected to serve us the ravioli, but he didn't bite. But as rave-worthy as the ravioli obviously are, the other dishes were absolutely on the same level. The oysters in the oatmeal were "Chef's Cove" I believe (that's what I heard though Google reveals nothing), the oyster in the shot glass was a Kumamoto; these were pristine, and I could have this dish every morning for breakfast. The fava soup was unreal. We've had bad experiences with blue cheese in savory courses in the past; the valdeon and sweetbread combination was delicious. Lamb belly must become more widespread. (And I have to track down this Crawford Farm.) We've actually never understood the fuss about Humboldt fog, but what they did with it was impressive. (Oh, and I should mention that I strongly dislike root beer, but could crave the root bear shot that was served with the lamb; is this what root beer should taste like?) Bacon and chocolate, pretzels with mustard for dessert? Need I say more? The food by itself was exceptional, but to enjoy it in such an intimate environment was a real privelige. Smiley face in my plum

We had a fantastic meal at Alinea last Thursday, our first time there. Below are some pictures. I'm hesitant to post these pictures; the dishes were truly visually stunning, but the quality of our pictures is extremely poor. This was our first time figuring out how to use our digital camera with the flash disabled. Turns out it doesn't work so well. Also, the pictures give but a small sample of the dishes that we had, and the sample isn't in any way representative; we took a picture pretty much whenever we remembered to. As far as the food itself, there's simply too much to say, so I'll not say very much at all. I will say that what impressed us about the meal was that it was thoroughly flavor-driven. (I mean this broadly, to include texture, temperature, etc.) At no point did we feel that the experience of actually eating the food was being assigned secondary importance to looks or to gimmickry of any kind, which is a complaint that we've had at other places that might be thought to be in roughly the same genre as Alinea. I will offer some complaints. Several dishes struck us as significantly oversalted. The fried monkfish pieces (even when eaten with the other components of the dish); the truffle explosion; the short rib. We were most sad about the truffle explosion, as we'd heard about and had been looking forward to this dish, and the overuse of salt really detracted from it. The ginger on the tuna, which was essentially tuna "jerky", we found way too strong. Also, the wagyu (which was one of the best bites of anything I've ever had, apparently this was Japanese A5 grade marbling score 12 beef) was served with a cup over it; the cup was lifted when the dish was served, releasing a generous amount of smoke. Unfortunately, this smoked travelled a bit. The table next to us was being served this dish while we were having the duck, which was served over a pillow that slowly released lavender scent; the smoke from that table was a major distraction while eating such a delicate dish. It was surprising to experience this problem in a meal every detail of which was so calculated. Either some kind of ventilation system has to be installed, or the smoke has to go, I think. (Interestingly, I think it was almost entirely diners other than the ones being served the wagyu that experienced the smoke; when we were served this dish the smoke wasn't very noticeable at all almost immediately after it had been released.) These complaints, while not trivial, didn't, however, substantially detract from an evening that was, as I've said, beyond description. This was more than a meal. Croquette Octopus Duck Black Truffle Short Rib Lamb Hot Potato Coconut Licorice Cake Caramel

Well, lo and behold, I got a phone call from Schwa this afternoon saying that a table had opened up at 5:30! I don't quite understand how this happened (I thought I was way down on the waiting list), but I'm very excited. I'm cancelling Avenues -- I really want to eat there, but I figure the next time I'm in Chicago I'll go; Schwa seems like a much tougher table. I'll report back after.

That won't be necessary. Avenues and Tru both accept reservations on OpenTable. For this Friday, right now it shows openings at Avenues at 5:30 and 6:00, and at Tru at 5:15 and 6:00. I would take Avenues over Tru, but you really can't go wrong either way. Enjoy! ← Thank you! As predicted, Schwa is extremely booked. (I'm on the wait list, with 9 people ahead of me.) So the estimate of a 0.00000001% chance of eating there seems about right. I snagged a reservation at Avenues and one at Tru. (I will decide within the next day which to keep and cancel the other.) I requested the counter/"chef's bar" or whatever it's called at Avenues. I've got one vote for Avenues over Tru; any others wish to chime in? Again, we're going to Alinea the night before, in case that's relevant; my impression is that Tru is substantially more conservative than Avenues, so perhaps Tru would provide a nice contrast with the previous night's meal?

Is there some kind of early-bird special that I'm unaware of?

Friends, We have a wedding in Chicago this weekend, and we only today realized that dinner on Friday is unaccounted for. We're going to Alinea on Thursday; for Friday dinner, we're trying to choose among Avenues and Schwa and Tru. (If there's somewhere else that should be in the mix let me know.) I'm a bit worried that it may be too late to snag a reservation at one of these places, but dinner on Friday would have to be obscenely early -- 5 or 5:30 -- as we have a wedding-related event that evening. I'm hoping that no one else would want to eat dinner at such an obscene hour. So, where should we go?

An acceptable variant spelling of 'espresso', according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Did you really not know what he meant, though?

I'd be surprised if the coffee fluid gel were just ordinary coffee in gel form, though; I suspect some tricks were used to achieve a very concentrated coffee flavor.

We had a terrific time last night. The food was, as others have said, clearly SK-level, and pretty much flawless. This should put to rest any fears that Shola's style of food cannot thrive in a restaurant environment. With the disclaimer that mentioning the following things does not indicate that other aspects of the meal weren't outstanding, but just that I'm a bit rushed: The flavor of the lamb was really great. It's so unusual these days to get lamb that tastes like something, but last night's lamb (Australian) was bursting with lamb flavor. In the case of the loin apparently this was due in part to vacuum marination and sous-vide cooking. And, yes, the smokiness of the chocolate soil. It was pretty uncanny how closely this resembled the smokiness of Benton's bacon. Maybe it's just that I've been having too much Benton's bacon lately, but there really did seem to be something about the character of the smokiness that was Benton's-like. Benton's is hickory smoked, and the soil was (IIRC) applewood smoked, so maybe I am just hallucinating things... In any case, I was worried at first that the smokiness would be too much for the rest of the dessert, but eating the soil with the rest of the dessert quickly dispelled this fear. The wine pairings were really good, though we thought that the white Burgundy (mostly Chard, some Aligote) didn't stand up very well to the corn custard. I think I understood the idea behind the pairing -- by itself the wine had a complex earthiness that you'd think would go well with the truffle, but it turned out that the custard was too much for it. The Ridge Zinfandel was explosively fruity, excellent by itself and with the lamb. We didn't get a late harvest Zin at the end! (maybe they ran out?) we had a Tawny port instead. My only complaint about the evening was that the service was insanely rushed. Food came out almost instantly after we sat down, plates were often cleared while other people at the table were still eating, and the gaps between courses seemed tiny. I feel like we finished the whole meal in a little over an hour.

That is a very serious claim you're making. ← It's possible that there's something I'm not getting about Capogiro, but while it's clearly excellent gelato, I have to confess that I can't recall ever having a "wow" moment with anything I've had there. Believe me, I'd like to be more impressed with it -- I live a couple of blocks away. I should also qualify my earlier statement to the effect that I found GROM's pistachio inferior to Il Laboratorio's by saying that I haven't had pistachio direct from Il Laboratorio in probably two years or so. We bought a pint of pistachio from Dean & Deluco on the UES last week and it was pathetic, overwhelmingly creamy with very little pistachio flavor. I don't know if this is what's being served at the source of late, or if this pint was just not particularly fresh, or whatever.

The texture problems that I experienced my first time at GROM may have been an aberration. The texture of the gelato we had today -- yogurt, vanilla, cappuccino, and extra dark chocolate -- was unobjectionable. Flavor-wise, the vanilla was ok, and the others (extra dark chocolate in particular) were terrific. At least as good as Capogiro fresh from the source, I'd say.

This guy is an utter moron. The article contributes absolutely nothing new to the issue, simply parrots familiar rhetoric, and does not meet minimal standards of journalistic integrity (it does not evidence even minimal research).

Anyone get a look at the "Kobe beef" they were working with? Some of the sorriest looking beef of any sort I've seen... if it was indeed Kobe, if must have been like grade 1 or 2. Makes me wonder about the quality of the ingredients they're working with in general.

Thanks for the heads up, that was entertaining! Perhaps the funniest moment was when the "doctor" called in and informed everyone that the ducks involved in foie gras production are clearly diseased, as a fattened liver is a sign of disease in humans. Presumably waddling is also a sign of disease in humans?

As the aforementioned boyfriend (well, fiancee, but we avoid the word because it always reminds us of that woman in that Seinfeld episode...), I'd like to register my agreement with everything that rae said. I'd also like to stress how different the experiences of dealing with Osteria and dealing with Estia were. It was difficult just to get a phone call back from Osteria about the private room. In fact, we inquired about the private room shortly after Osteria opened, and to this day we have not gotten the phone call back that we were supposed to. When we called Osteria to ask about the private room, the guy who answered was very vague about the details and about the process of reserving it; he told us that we'd get a call back by Monday from the woman who handles things, who is actually at Vetri. This may have been part of the problem -- that the woman who handles private bookings for Osteria isn't easily reachable at Osteria. I'll spare you the details of trying to get in touch with this woman; suffice it to say that it was aggravating. At one point we had just spoken to the woman, and were attempting to call her back to ask her a question. We called Vetri and were told that she wasn't there. "But we just finished a conversation with her twenty seconds ago", we said. They promptly connected us. What's the deal with this? As rae said, Osteria would have required a $1500 food minimum -- that is, this doesn't include wine, drinks, tax, tip -- for the private room. For 15 people this is $100/person. Unless some kind of special tasting menu is involved (which it would not have been), it seems almost impossible to spend $100/person at Osteria just on food. You wouldn't spend nearly this much ordering off the menu. We would have had the option of ordering off of (some limited version of) the regular Osteria menu, but there were special banquet menus also available. The prices of these menus seemed quite high for the food involved -- ordering the food off of the regular menu would not cost as much as the banquet menus were asking. When we asked the woman we were dealing with why the menus were so expensive, she was evasive and mentioned the $1500 food minimum. Of course, this is ridiculous. The room minimum and the cost, per person, of the banquet menus are two distinct concepts. You can't just inflate the price of the food to meet some arbitrary room minimum. Moreover, say you had 30 people in the private room, ordering from the $75/person banquet menu. The $75/person banquet menu includes: Antipasti OR Pizza Meat OR fish Dessert keep in mind that the first course is family style. What's the cost here, if you were ordering off the menu, splitting antipasti and pizza to start? $45-50/person max, probably. But if you charged people $50/person and had 30 people, you'd meet the $1500 room minimum. So meeting the minimum doesn't provide a reason to charge people $75/person for this food. Anyway... The point is that comparing this to our experience with Estia was like night and day. Hilary was completely on top of things, and a pleasure to deal with. She promptly returned phone calls and emails, and, as rae said, she arranged a little wine tasting for us (and even had printed out forms for us to write down tasting notes). The general vibe you got from the restaurant was just really pleasant. And generous. There was a lot of food. And it was all very good. Everyone had a great time. I highly recommend the private room at Estia.

Michael has been at Osteria for a while now, and he was at Pumpkin before that...

Hmm, $13.49/lb for Copper River King? When the supply is apparently extremely limited? Skeptical. Ah, gotta love RTM.

Bruce, You don't have to have someone else make it for you... Follow V's king salmon method from this thread about a year ago this time. You can't get much better than this.