Honkman

Full review and photos: Fooding around in LA with Laurent Quenioux at Starry Kitchen Fooding around in LA with Laurent Quenioux at Starry Kitchen There is probably hardly anybody who wouldn’t agree that music, art, books or food are an important part of our life and that everybody is enjoying it in one way or the other. We all like to listen to music or read a book to relax, visit a museum or gallery to look at paintings or remember fondly certain dishes made by our parents when we were younger. But once you start asking different people what are their true favorite bands, artists or restaurants there will hardly be any agreement and everybody has their favorite band or restaurant often based on certain memories or connections they feel to them. Over the years we have visited many different restaurants and often came repeatedly back to some because we like them so much. But if anybody would ask us what was our favorite restaurant over the last 1-2 years our answer would be without doubt – Bistro LQ. It is always hard to describe what makes for us a good dish to become special or a chef to stand out, but with Chef Laurent we felt from the very first visit at Bistro LQ a unique connection/resonance how he interprets food, creativity and execution which is very close to our idea of a perfect meal. Rooted in French cooking techniques and preparations he hasn’t limited himself to any style or country anymore and takes ingredients, flavors and conceptions from anywhere and combines them in his own, unique way. He constantly challenges common notions which flavors and ingredients shouldn’t work together and every dish tells its own story, and it is quite stimulating for us to try to come up with our own interpretation which is part of the appeal of Bistro LQ. And so it is no surprise that Bistro LQ became our second “living room” on our frequent trips to LA and that GM Eric Bouty even mentioned to us that we were among the most frequent guests of the restaurant. Unfortunately excellent cooking and good reviews don’t guarantee success especially if you are cooking far away from the mainstream in a style that might be better fitting with restaurants in San Francisco. This together with issues with the landlord led to the closing of Bistro LQ in March of this year – a very sad day for us. After a very short time Chef Laurent appeared back on the culinary scene as Executive Chef at Vertical Wine Bistro in Pasadena, at collaborations with Chef Walter Manzke, and perhaps most interesting with a pop-up like concept LQ Fooding Around in LA at Starry Kitchen. What appears at first as an odd combination is actual a nicely matching one. Not unlike Laurent Quenioux the owners of Starry Kitchen, Thi and Nguyen Tran, took an unconventional approach to realize their ideas. Starry Kitchen originally started in their Hollywood apartment in which they served home cooked meals. Once their home restaurant became too successful it got shut down by the health inspection for not having a commercial kitchen. Despite this setback they didn’t give up but decided in the beginning of 2010 to open their “official” restaurant in Downtown LA. Starry Kitchen serves lunch throughout the week but only dinner on Thursdays and Fridays, and so it was a perfect match to have a Bistro LQ pop up from Sundays to Wednesdays. And it was no question for us to visit LQ Fooding as soon as we had heard about it. Starry Kitchen is located in downtown LA at the California Plaza The restaurant has more a feel of a lunch place, but the team around Nguyen did a great job to make it a very welcoming and relaxing place for dinner as well. Starry Kitchen has a partly open kitchen and you could see Chef Laurent and his staff busy at work. A few items like the water glasses seemed to have come from Bistro LQ as well as their signature cucumber-lemon water. The bread from Bread Lounge was perhaps the weakest part of the meal but good enough to sop up some of the sauces throughout the night. It was served with good olive oil instead of the more common butter. Amuse Bouche: Sea snail, soy butter French meals often start with escargots, but the whole dinner had Asian influences and so it was just fitting to serve a sea snail as a starter and accentuating it by pairing it with soy butter instead of garlic butter. The sea snail had a slight rubbery texture not unlike geoduck and tasted sweet and was faintly reminiscent of the ocean. 1st Course: Summer vegetables, hamachi, lemon miso curd, black sesame soil, yuzu kosho, herbs and sea weeds The hamachi had an impressive marbeling and a smooth and buttery taste. At first the summer vegetables, like peas, corn, fava beans, seemed like an unusual pairing but with their natural sweetness and the tartness of the lemon miso curd and yuzu kosho the whole dish was perfectly balanced. The sea weed added an interesting textural crunch to the dish which reminded us of a spring dish. 2nd Course: Carlsbad oysters and mussels, kimchi sabayon, Chinese celery, cauliflower Both the mussels and oysters were very tender and had a similar consistency as the cauliflower. The kimchi sabayon had a slightly sour flavor but also some hidden spicyness which kicked in after a short while. The fried Chinese celery leaves added an unexpected flavor which brightened up the dish. 3rd Course: Mu shu foie gras Mu shu is a staple of Chinese restaurants in the US which are heavily Westernized. It often consists of shredded pork and vegetables wrapped in a pancake. In Laurent’s playful interpretation, the pork was replaced by a perfectly seared piece of foie gras. Foie gras is often paired with strong sweet or savory flavors to counterbalance its richness but in this dish the subtle flavors of the vegetables and the hoisin sauces created a nice balance so that the foie gras was always noticeable in every bite but it never overpowered the other ingredients. We easily could have eaten several of these wraps. 4th Course: Squab, veal feet, ginger cone boudin noir, mashed potatoes, apple This dish featured two ingredients Chef Laurent used regularly at Bistro LQ – squab and boudin noir. The outstanding boudin noir was always a highlight and this was no exception. Served in a cone with mashed potatoes and apple puree it reminded us on dishes from Alsace. The squab which can easily be dry and tough was cooked perfectly. Both main ingredients were brought together by the veal feet which were small morsels of gelatinous meatiness. 5th Course: Rhubarb, hazelnut soil, curacao cubes, sour cream sorbet Rhubarb has often a very tart flavor but here it was cooked until tender with spices like cardamom and was in itself already tasty. The sour cream sorbet mellowed the tartness even more and proved to be the right balance - a strong finish for the tasting menu. Tasting menus at Bistro LQ always provided rollercoaster rides through the culinary world with its different flavors, and this pop up incarnation was no difference. You often read the menu and wonder how these flavors could work together but once you taste the dish it becomes clear and obvious and you wonder why nobody else might have thought about that before. It’s not very often that we have a tasting menu in which every single dish worked, and after every single course we talk about that we wish we could get a second portion. Before this event we were curious if a pop up of Bistro LQ would change anything how Chef Laurent would cook, but beside a bit more Asian influences than before, perhaps as an homage to his hosts, the pop-up concept was an extension of his regular Bistro LQ. The ambience and service was even more relaxed and laid back than before but was always professional and fitting for the occasion. It was interesting to see the energy of Nguyen while he talked with every guest and explained different dishes, and hopefully even once LQ Fooding around LA stops at Starry Kitchen Nguyen will continue do similar concepts in the future as he, his team and the location seem to be a good match for such events. He definitely made us curious to stop by at Starry Kitchen itself in the near future. It was great to eat dishes from Chef Laurent after the painfully long break since March, and we realized how much we missed it that we seriously considered to ask for a place on the patio of the restaurant for the sold out second seating at that night to start the menu over once more. Not unlike as with your favorite band it’s nice to listen to a single to remind yourself why you like them but what you are really interested in is to be able to listen to a complete LP/CD to be able to really dive into the music. Restaurants are no different and pop up events are a welcoming “snack” but what we really hope for is to have the possibility to again taste full blown tasting menus with Chef Laurent, and it was great to hear from him after dinner in the kitchen that he is planning to open a restaurant in Pasadena. We can’t wait for that to happen and will be among his first guests !

Depends on the restaurant - If it is an innovative, creative restaurant with very unusual flavor combinations I tend to smell it to get a first idea about the food and the thoughts of the chef how he composed the dish. If it is the mom and pop shop around the corner for a quick lunch/dinner not so much.

If you like seafood than Passionfish in Pacific Grove is a very good option. You should give a few more hints for what type of food, price, ambience etc. you are looking for as there are many, many different options at all three locations.

New reality shows/whatever competitions are as interesting and important as

Perfect timing for this thread as I have the same kind of question. I would be also interested to get opinions on Cookshake electric smokers.

For us life is too short not constantly playing around with any dish. Yes, mac and cheese in a classical way is good but why not playing around with it. One interesting variation was duckaroni with duck confit, arugula and small amounts in blue cheese. It's always nice eat the classical version but only using it ? That would be boring. Same with any dish you could imagine.

Full review and photos: Restaurant at Rancho Valencia Resort (San Diego) Several years ago when we were planning to get married in San Diego we were searching for a good location for the reception dinner with our families coming from Germany. We were looking for a quiet place with very good food and a certain “California” feel. We had compiled a list of several places which looked promising and as part of our “survey” of all these places we also decided to visit the different restaurants to get a general feeling of the quality of the food and the capabilities of the kitchens. One of the possible locations was the Rancho Valencia Resort. The resort is situated in a beautiful part of Rancho Santa Fe and has a relaxed feeling and was overall close to something we were looking for. Unfortunately when we visited the Restaurant at Rancho Valencia Resort the experience and food was very underwhelming and perhaps one of the most overpriced dinners we yet had in San Diego. Obviously we decided to have our reception somewhere else and tried to forget about our restaurant experience. Fast-forward several years to 2011 – you always hear that a new chef can have a tremendous effect on the quality of a restaurant kitchen but that didn’t originally impress us when we heard that the Restaurant at Rancho Valencia Resort had hired Chef Eric Bauer as new executive chef. But over the last few weeks we read on several occasions very encouraging reports that he had completely overhauled the menu and really stepped up game to bring the quality of the kitchen to something you would expect for such a well respected resort. Chef Bauer was born in Chicago and finished his culinary training in 2000 at the School of Culinary Arts at Kendall College in Chicago before he started working at the city’s Ritz-Carlton. He then joined the Four Season hotel chain and worked at different locations, including Carlsbad, Westlake Village and Costa Rica moving up the ranks. He left the hotel chain in 2007 for his first executive chef position as opening chef at the Morel French Steakhouse in Las Vegas. In May 2009 he moved to San Diego to become chef at Anthology were he stayed for a year before finding his current position. Executive Chef Bauer works together at the kitchen with Chef de Cuisine Aaron Martinez. Chef Martinez completed his culinary education in 2003 at the Arizona Culinary Institute in Scottsdale, worked as sous chef at the Addison in San Diego, at In de Wulf in Belgium and staged at famous Martin Berasategui in San Sebastian before coming to Rancho Valencia last year. All these indicators of significant changes at the Restaurant at Rancho Valencia Resort gave us hope that it might be worth changing our mind and giving it a second chance. As usual, a tasting menu would give us the best chance to really experience a “new” restaurant and kitchen team by giving them all creative freedom. Together with a few other San Diego foodies we contacted the restaurant and found out that even though there is currently no tasting menu on the official menu they are willing to create one for everybody who is interested, and so we finally settled on an 11-course tasting menu at Restaurant at Rancho Valencia Resort. After a few cocktails outside on the patio we went into the rustic and old looking but still comfortable dinner room to be greeted by some snacks to start the night. Snack 1: Cheese & Crackers An interesting mix of a cheese cracker and krupuk – dehydrated cheese wafers with a consistency of krupuk but the taste of a mild cheese cracker. Snack 2: Chicken skin, fava beans, herbs What again looked like a regular cracker was compressed chicken skin which had an addictive salty flavor and was supported by the earthiness of the fava bean puree. Really outstanding finger food and we could have easily eaten a large bowl of such “crackers” Amuse Bouche: Veggies We recently have seen in several upscale restaurants in San Diego very interesting takes on some of the best ingredients one can get in this city – fresh produce - and this amuse bouche was no exception. Showcasing the pure and fresh taste of vegetables as romesco, peas, broccoli, cauliflower and adding a surprising twists with some lettuce granite. A good palate cleanser which also set the right tone for the tasting menu – clean, natural flavors accentuated by unexpected, modern twists. The bread service showed a wide variety of different breads but most of them lacking the quality of really good bread, often too soft and more reminding us of sandwich bread. This was particular disappointing as the bread was accompanied by outstanding ramp and horseradish butter which would have deserved better bread. 1st Course: Cucumber, mackerel, verbena, borage A very popular dish in the northern part of Germany is Soused Herring, and this dish with its strong, oily flavor of the mackerel reminded us of it. The cucumber sauce and the borage with its cucumber-like flavor added some freshness, and together with the slight bitterness of the verbena helped to balance the richness of the mackerel. A very strong dish and it was good to see that the kitchen didn’t shy away to use bold flavors. 2nd Course: Carrots & radish, flowers, herb infusion The roasted carrots and radishes had a very good balance between the “grilled” flavor and the inherent sweetness of vegetables at their peak of ripeness. But what really put the dish together was the use of ham flavored foam. Foam is often seen as a useless gimmick but here it was cleverly used to bring some saltiness and additional layers of flavors to the dish. 3rd Course: Coriander, RV escargot, seaweed, zucchini Escargots are one of these ingredients one unfortunately doesn’t see often on a menu and if they are part of it they tend to be rubbery because they came out of a can or are completely covered in garlic flavor. These fresh local snails actually showed nicely the natural flavor of escargots and were perfectly cooked. Unfortunately the kitchen tried to add too many other different flavors to the dish with the seaweed, coriander flowers etc. which didn’t cover the flavor of the snails but tried to pull the whole dish in many different directions so that it appeared unfocused. 4th Course: Potato, lovage, peas, marrow This seemingly simple dish of potatoes turned out to be another highlight of the tasting menu. Perfectly roasted young potatoes with some pieces of fried potato skin highlighted the simple but satisfying taste of a potato. Potatoes are often eaten together with butter which was here substituted by bone marrow crème. Lovage is in Germany also known as “Maggi” spice as it has a similar flavor profile and added some depth to this dish with its umami-like flavor. 5th Course: Halibut, mussel, salsify Perfectly cooked halibut had a mild taste but the “sea” flavor was accentuated by the slightly smoked mussels. The salsify and the pickled shallots added some freshness to this simple but satisfying dish. 6th Course: Veal tongue, asparagus, rocket, mustard It was a good idea to serve green and white asparagus next to each other – both tender with the white having a mellower and less bitter taste. The perfectly cooked veal tongue was classically accompanied by some mustard and the rocket brought a second, different level of spicyness to the dish. A well composed dish even though the tongue could have been cut thicker as the subtle flavor was nearly covered by the other ingredients. 7th Course: Foie gras, red onion, beet, eel mousse, sorrel Foie gras is normally either served with savory or sweet fixings but this dish went into both directions. Both the red onion and the beets are normally savory components but by their preparation showed also some sweetness. The eel flavor of the mousse was hardly noticeable and didn’t add anything to the dish. Chef Bauer seemed to incorporate too many different ideas in this dish without any of them really thought through and so the dish appeared aimless and was perhaps the weakest of the night. 8th Course: Morels, ramps, lamb, barley Lamb in restaurants is often unfortunately served in such a way that its characteristic slight gaminess which makes it unique isn’t too pronounced as chefs seem to fear it would otherwise not be ordered by guests. So it was refreshing to see that this tasting menu included not the ubiquitous lamb rack or filet but lamb neck which especially if not all fat is cut away like it was the case here has a wonderful “natural” lamb flavor. This rather rustic cut of lamb was fittingly served with barley ramp risotto and morels to underline bold flavor - One of the highlights of the night. 9th Course: Apple foam, celery We had recently several examples of palate cleansers which use combinations of vegetables and fruits and this was another successful one – Refreshing celery granite was well balanced with some slightly tart apple foam. 10th Course: Fennel meringues, chocolate, licorice The strong licorice flavor of the ice cream and the related anise flavor of the fennel meringues were successfully balanced by the chocolate ganache. This was a nice example of a chef taking some risks by using strong and unusual flavors like licorice and at the same time counterbalancing them enough so that they are subdued enough to not overshadow the dish but still clearly noticeable. These kind of dishes are a prime examples why we prefer tasting menus in restaurants to give chefs the possibility to successfully experiment with dishes they can’t serve a la carte – very strong dessert. 11th Course: Goat cheese, rhubarb, rose geranium Another dessert with rather bold flavors – On one side a tart goat cheese flan and on the other side refreshing, sweet rose geranium sorbet. The rhubarb with its combination of tart- and sweetness connected these opposing flavors. Mignardise: Pistachio macarons A rather classical ending to a tasting menu with some macarons Before going home everybody was presented with a small box for some sweets at home – Salted caramel and orange truffles. Based on our history with the Restaurant at Rancho Valencia Resort we were initially skeptical what we could expect with this tasting menu but already starting with the amuse bouche and the first few courses it became very quickly clear that this was cooking on a completely different level than several years ago. Chef Bauer and his team showed throughout the tasting menu creativity with nearly flawless execution. Even though one might argue that the techniques used here might be founded in French cuisine the influences throughout the night were diverse and added up to an own style. Chef Bauer showed his strength when his dishes honed in on a few key ingredients, e.g mackerel and carrot dishes, potato and lamb courses but sometimes tended to lose focus and tried to add to many ideas to one dish, e.g. foie gras course and escargot dish. The service throughout the night on par with the kitchen was professional and attentive. It won’t be difficult to convince foodies with such kinds of tasting menus to visit the restaurant but the real challenge for Chef Bauer will be to overhaul and modernize the regular a la carte menu in such way that he is still adding his own ideas and style without driving away the regular customers which tend to be not overly adventurous eaters. Some of the night’s dishes like the lamb could be good starting points with some small modifications. At the same time it would help if such a tasting menu or at least a shorter version, perhaps a 5-course menu, would be regularly available on their menu to make this place better known for its high quality food beyond just the resort guests. It will be interesting to see if the team at Restaurant at Rancho Valencia is able to master the balance between cooking interesting but not too complex food for their regular clientele and at the same time attracting new customers interested in high end food with unusal and creative dishes.

We haven't dined at Quince but went to Coi two weeks ago and it was one of the best and unusual (creative) meals in a long time with outstanding service. Highly recommended if you want a tasting menu which is not just following the "standard" tasting menus.

Only the Cheesecake Factory will be open ?

I know I just wrote a disappointed comment about Benu and I don't want to bash restaurants in SF but we visited many restaurants in SF on our last two trips and had many outstanding meals but the two big disappointments were Benu and Dining Room at the Ritz (with Benu the bigger one). The cuisine/tasting menu at the Dining Room felt "old" and boring and was missing any creativity. The most interesting "dish" was the palate cleanser

Just went last week and one of the most disappointing meals overall anywhere in the last several years. Service unbelieveable bad, food was good and some dishes very interesting but also several average/underwhelming ones. For excellent tasting menus are many better places in SF (covering a wide variety of cuisines, e.g Coi, Commonwealth, La Folie, Aziza etc.)

I would skip Bouchon as it is OK but nothing special for the price you are paying and if you want to do a Keller restaurant I would choose Ad Hoc.

I think you can't generalize it without taking into where the farmers market is and the qualitu of the product. Here in SD we have one of the highest numbers of farms (including organic) anywhere in the US and so there is quite a lot of competion. As long as you buy reasonable "in season" (and isn't it one of the purposes of such a market) a lot of produce will be cheaper at the farmers market than in the supermarket and especially (but not only) if you look at organic produce. In addition the quality of the produce will be better, e. g. strawberries picked that morning and the variety is iften better. Meat is often much more expansive but difference in quality is dramatically different. In supermarket you will get your standard industrial meat whereas on the farmers market I can buy for example pork from a farm where I can visit the animals and see how different they are grown compared to industrial meat and you can easily taste the difference. Overall I think the location of the market plays an important role if it is cheaper than supermarkets and difference in quality can't be ignored.

All these observations might be possible but I was wondering how many of them would be "real" under a blind test ? It would be really interesting to see if some people here could ask friends to do some blind test, e.g canned soda vs. bottle soda, Muir Glen tomatoes with and without lining etc.

I don't think that the influence of the US on the "food world" is disproportionately large, more the opposite. Actually, I think you made my point by naming Ronald McDonald. If the vast majority of the world's population is familiar with mass-produced burgers, pizza and fried chicken, cola beverages, etc. it's through USA's influence. This isn't limited to fast food, either. Go to a sushi restaurant in South America and you'll see California rolls on the menu. Ask someone to suggest a French cookbook and if they're able to name one, I'd wager you'd get Julia Child's Mastering the Art 8 times out of 10. In other words, even Japanese, French and etc. cuisines are mediated through USA. If you see the main influence on the food world in fast food I agree with you that the US has a major influence. But I doubt that most people outside of the US (even those interested in food) will known who Julia Child is and any of her books. There are many other cookbook authors and books people would name when asked for a French cookbook, often depending from which country they are.

I don't think that the influence of the US on the "food world" is disproportionately large, more the opposite.

The topic of the discussion was World's most controversial food figure. Americans tend to forget that the US is just a very small part of the world and that somebody like Alice Waters might be reasonable well known in the US (and even this is debatable) but nearly unknown outside of the US. So she's not eligible because she's an American? It didn't say anywhere that she is not eligible because she's an American but I would pick somebody who is well known throughout the world. I actually liked the comment from karlos and agree with him that it is "Ronald McDonald". I don't hardly know a country where the McDonald's fast food chain isn't controversial and their impact on food, culture, obesity etc. isn't frequently discussed.

The topic of the discussion was World's most controversial food figure. Americans tend to forget that the US is just a very small part of the world and that somebody like Alice Waters might be reasonable well known in the US (and even this is debatable) but nearly unknown outside of the US.

I don't see the healthcare business being more trustworthy than the new business or politics etc. But I think we should in general stop this off-topic discussion as it is not really food related and nobody will convince anybody else. We have just agree to disagree.

Full review and photos: Black Truffle Menus at Cavaillon Cavaillon (San Diego) – Two Black Truffles Tasting Menus When we started our food blog about a year ago we hoped that we would be able to write quite frequently new posts every few days. We rather quickly found out that we really enjoyed to document our culinary adventures, might it be cooking at home or visiting a restaurant by photographing everything and writing about it, but at the same time we also started to realize that each post takes much longer time than we expected. As a consequence we have a continuously growing list of to-do-posts which we slowly work off. There is nothing wrong with writing about a restaurant some time after the actual visit since it still provides all the information but we always tried to post immediately after visiting special seasonal restaurant events. Unfortunately sometimes the best intentions don’t turn out to be accomplishable and somehow some special dinners fall through the cracks as it happened last year with one very enjoyable visit to Cavaillon. One advantage of special seasonal dinners are that they most of the time return after a year. Since we always want to highlight the progression and evolution of restaurants and its dishes we felt that writing about the two Black Truffles Tasting Menus at Cavaillon last and this year would be a good start. Fine dining restaurants have of course hardly any limits on what kinds of ingredients they use but there are few which are often directly associated with haute cuisine – foie gras, caviar and truffles. We had many tasting menus where foie gras played a special role or tasting menus which heavily focused on caviar like at Petrossian under Chef Ben Bailly, but even though we often had single dishes which involved truffles we never had a full tasting menu solely build around them which really got us interested in the tasting menu at Cavaillon. Truffles were called “diamonds of the kitchen” by Brillat-Savarin and are in a simplified way underground mushrooms. Since truffle mainly exist in a symbiosis with plant roots they are commonly found in close association of trees. Pigs and dogs can easily recognize their characteristic odor and therefore are predestined for the truffle “hunt”. Even though there are hundreds of species of truffle only two are really of culinary interest – white truffles mainly from Piedmont and black truffles which predominantly come from France, Spain and Italy. Black truffles are harvested and used in many different cuisines but they are still often closely associated with French cuisine. So what would be better than having a truffle menu prepared by one of the most talented French chefs in San Diego – Philippe Verpiand at Cavaillon. He was born in Cavaillon in the Vaucluse region in the South-East of France. Quite typical for the European system he started already at the age of 16 at the culinary school in Avignon and graduated after two years. He then honed his skills by working at numerous Michelin starred restaurants throughout France for the next ten years often only staying for one year. Some of his stations included Café de Paris in Biarritz, La Poulard near Lyon and Hotel Juana in Juan Les Pins. With the help of his friend Patrick Ponsaty, now at Mistral in Coronado, he was able to start in the US as Chef de Cuisine of Tapenade in La Jolla. After working for more than seven years under Jean-Michel Diot he finally was able to fulfill his dream of his own restaurant in 2005 named after his place of birth. Cavaillon is in a quiet unusual location for a restaurant – several miles north of I-56 in the upscale community of Santa Luz. You have to drive on Camino del Sur for some time passing several residential communities until you see the restaurant sign which is the only thing distinguishing it from the surrounding residential houses. The restaurant consists of one big room which even though the tables are quite close and it is often well attended is actually not too loud to have a nice conversation. The restaurant might not resemble something you would find in Chef Verpiand’s hometown but it still has its charm and we like the ambience. First black truffle tasting menu 1st Course: Celery root risotto with black truffles Even though Chef Verpiand is French one of his signature dishes are his risottos. The risottos at Cavaillon are perfect examples of this dish – the rice cooked to the right creaminess but still with some bite, not to saucy, not too dry, the appropriate amount of parmesan cheese to give the desired saltiness. This variation had the unusual inclusion of celery root which gave some slight sweetness and earthiness which worked particularly well with the shaved truffle. 2nd Course: Seared scallops, roasted caulifowers & fingerling potatoes, black truffles, watercress. Wonderful roasted cauliflower and fingerling potatoes in a cream-based sauce form a strong foundation in this dish which helped to accentuate the truffle flavor without overpowering the dish. The watercress added some slight spicyness whereas the perfectly seared scallops showed some of their characteristical sweetness. This dish was a good example for a composition where the whole dish is stronger than the sum of its parts. Bread service at Cavaillon consists of one type of bread roll which is freshly made in-house and comes still warm to your table. It’s perfect to eat with the butter but even better to soap up the delicious sauces of the different dishes. There is hardly ever a visit at Cavaillon where we don’t have at least a second round of bread rolls. 3rd Course: Petrale sole, white bean ragout, tomatoes, olives, oyster mushrooms, black truffles When this dish arrived at the table we were first surprised that hardly any black truffles were included in the dish. Once we cut and tried a piece of the fish we realized where all the truffles were – the fish was cut into two halves and had a thick layer of black truffles in between. But even though this was a fish preparation we would like to see more often in restaurants, the star of the dish was the bean ragout. Perfectly cooked white beans in a very rich broth with olives and tomatoes which added a nice acidity and balanced the dish. We could have easily eaten a large bowl of the white bean ragout alone. 4th Course: Filet Mignon, black truffles, asparagus, potato cake The focus of this dish was clearly on the filet and black truffles. The asparagus and the potato cake were nice additions and completed the dish but taking a bite of the melting tender filet mignon together with some black truffle shavings convinced us that these both were a perfect match. 5th Course: Truffle short bread, vanilla ice cream, truffle honey, shaved truffle Reading this dish on the menu we suspected some truffle overkill but as with all dishes Chef Verpiand understood how to balance all ingredients, especially the black truffles, but was at the same time also able to showcase its distinctiveness. The ice cream with its strong vanilla flavor worked hand in hand with the sweetness of the honey and the earthiness of the black truffle. The short bread which only had a faint truffle taste added some textural variety. Second black truffle tasting menu 1st Course: Truffle “torchon” foie gras, cherry mousse. One highlight at Cavaillon is always the foie gras course and this one was no exception. Chef Verpiand is specifically known for his foie gras au torchon which has an outstanding creaminess without diminishing the livery taste like so many other variations. Foie gras and truffles are always a great pair and here the chef decided to add some cherry mousse which had the right amount of sweetness to cut through the richness of the foie gras without being overly sweet. The dish was accompanied appropriately by some toasted brioche. 2nd Course: Black truffle risotto. No black truffle tasting menu without risotto – and risotto is something Cavaillon is always delivering perfectly. This time Chef Verpiand decided to use a risotto bianco to really focus on the interplay of the truffle, rice and cheese. There is a reason why risotto al tartufo is a dish in Italy reserved for only special celebratory occasions. 3nd Course: Scallops carpaccio, chestnut and celery root velouté, black truffles Velouté means velvety in French and best describes this dish. Velouté is made out of stock and a blond roux to give its creaminess which was in this dish combined with chestnut and celery root. Both components worked perfectly together with the black truffle stripes to give the velouté a luxurious feeling. What really put this dish over the top was the inclusion of scallop carpaccio – slightly warmed from the heat of the velouté this completed the dish by adding some sweetness and texture. The best dish of both tasting menus. 4th Course: Duck breast Rossini, squash puree, port wine demi-glace. Perhaps one of the most famous preparation including truffles is tournedos Rossini – seared foie gras, truffles and filet mignon. Chef Verpiand used here tender duck breast instead of the filet but the interplay of the foie gras, truffles and meat was as good as you would expect from such a classic. We also liked his use of the sweet squash puree to cut through the richness of the dish. 5th Course: Truffle cheesecake We ended this truffle tasting menu with a deconstructed cheesecake consisting of some shortbread, scoops of the filling, truffle honey and shavings of truffles. Somehow this dish didn’t really work for us and we didn’t feel that it came together. The honey made the cheesecake too sweet, the shortbread didn’t complement the fillings and this was the one dish for us where the truffle flavor didn’t add much to the dish. We don’t really have a favorite neighborhood restaurant in the area we are , but Cavaillon is as close as it gets for us to have such a restaurant. We come here fairly regular, enjoy the relaxed atmosphere, and the cooking style from Chef Verpiand reminds us of French bistro and comfort food but often with an interesting twist towards more upscale French cuisine. Even though we also sometimes pick from the regular menu we often enjoy just letting Chef Verpiand choose for us with one of his tasting menus. Based on these many positive experiences here we were really looking forward to have our first black truffle tasting menus in this setting and the restaurant didn’t let us down. Tasting menus focused around a certain ingredient are difficult for chefs as the guests can easily get bored from having the same component over and over again in every dish. It might be even more challenging if this ingredient is truffle with its very characteristic, dominant taste. Initially we were wondering if we would get a truffle overkill after a few dishes but the chef creatively was able to incorporate truffles in every dish in such a way that it was always present but never overpowering. Many of these dishes would have been interesting without any truffles but the addition of the black truffle really put every dish on a completely different and elevated level. Black truffles were the key ingredients in these dishes and the focus of the tasting menu but never the lone reason any of the dishes worked. It was also beneficial that Chef Verpiand only used real truffles in all of his dishes and forbear from using any truffle oil which is an easy way many chefs use to have a dominant, often overpowering, truffle flavor in their dishes but it also gives these dishes a distinct artificial truffle taste. A few years ago Cavaillon had service issues with some inattentive and unprofessional servers but after some significant changes at the front of the house some time ago the restaurant has now one of the better waiting staffs in San Diego. The servers are friendly, attentive and knowledgeable enough to provide an enjoyable dinner experience. The outstanding food with the good service would make Cavaillon one of the most notable restaurants in San Diego and so it was quite a disappointment for us when Chef Verpiand recently announced that he is unhappy with his situation in San Diego and that he is planning to sell Cavaillon soon to move to Texas. Not only will San Diego lose one of the most talented chefs but also a unique restaurant which covered a niche with its mix of French bistro and haute cuisine not seen anywhere else in San Diego on that level. Cavaillon was perhaps one of the most underrated restaurants in San Diego due to its location and the chef not being involved in one of the chef organizations like Cooks Confab important for far-reaching publicity. We can only hope that the new owner and chef will either continue with Cavaillon on such high quality level or find their own unique niche to adequately replace Cavaillon.

We are regulars in San Diego (where we live) at a few restaurants (Cafe Chloe, Alchemy, Linkery, Starlite, Urban Solace) and the staff recognizes us and we sometime get an extra dish or something for free. It also helps that some of the restaurants don't take reservations or reservations are hard to get and they often help us to get still a table. We also always like to have a very slow paced dinner anywhere we go and it is often necessary to explain this to new restaurants but at these places everybody knows our preferences and we can have a relaxed night. It also happens from time to time that a servers "warns" us that a particular special is not realy good if we are planning to order it. We are also making a lot of short weekend trips to LA (much better restaurant scene than SD) and several restaurants there are starting to recognize us also and some of them call us some of their best customers (Animal, Bistro LQ (which hopefully will reopen soon), Providence, Hatfields, Tar Pit)

Agreed that my response was perhaps too much of an generalization but based on my work experience a large majority of small molecules drugs tend to have lower absorption when taken with "full" stomach. But as you mentioned there are drugs with increased AUC. As I mentioned before one other key reason why you often prefer human taking drugs on empty stomach (and we using fastened animals) is the more consistent behavior of the drug exposure.

It usually means to take the dose at least one hour before or two to three hours after eating. This will help to have a relative consistent oral exposure of the drug. If you would take your drug with your food most likely the oral exposure of your drug will be lower and therefore the drug much less efficacious

These were just two examples. In California are many restaurants where you can get excellent tasting menus for $8-14 /course. If you go on my blog there are a few reviews of such restaurants as Bistro LQ, Blanca, Hatfields

It's always good to see new restaurants opening with different ideas. But I have some problems with the idea that serving interesting or "amazing" food is only possible in high-end/high-cost restaurants. There are today many exceptional restaurants everywhere which serve very creative food on a high quality level for reasonable prices. Just two examples for two cities where I eat often - San Diego and Los Angeles. In San Diego one of the more popular restaurants, Wine Vault, serves creative food often as a 5-course tasting menu for $30 or 10-course tasting menu for $40-60. One of the most talked about restaurants in LA for very unusual flavor combination and creative cooking at the highest level is Bistro LQ which again serves everything at very reasonable prices including a 10-course tasting mneu for $90 which might be the best deal in town. And there are many more examples everywhere. I like your idea to serve creative food for reasonable prices but it is far from a novel concept