chuckyoufarley

The Modern? I would never have picked that place of the six. I think the point here is that all awards given to the arts (Oscar's, Tony's, Grammy's, etc) are totally subjective. Without eating at all six of these places, I am going to assume that each is so different its damn near impossible to line them up together and choose one who stands out over the lot. The big problem I have with these "awards" is that that now the perception is made that "The Modern" is the best of the group. Which, I think we all know is not a valid assesment. Thats the real crime. Shaun

My wife and I have an extended weekend trip to San Francisco scheduled the first weekend of June. I have stacked a massive schedule of restaurants and would like to photo-document our dining experiences for egullet. I have tried on occasion, very unsuccessfully, taken photos of meals in restaurants http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=79589 (SiseFromms pics were posted from what we could salvage from my work). The problems I have are a combination of perceived nerdiness, and difficulty with taking photos without a flash in low light situations. I feel terrible snapping flash photos in restaurants with other folks around me and my party. I have a really good micro size digital camera that takes great photos when all things line up. Anyone have any instructional experience, advice on protocol and the mechanics of getting a few good non obtrusive snaps during dining? Shaun

True-Dat! It strikes me as funny that the place has not got more play in Egullet. L.A. food has been a bit of a dead zone for a while. I guess it stems from L.A. restaurants being more places to be seen rather than food destinations. A lot of folks had reviewed/been reviewing Providence as a poster child for a foodie destination renaissance in southern California. I hope so. When we ate there It felt like my experience at Patina (ironically in the same space) back in 1992. Something far greater than it peers in the area on a steep incline, hitting its stride

I rest my case on how good a chef Ciramusti is. I also have met him and you could not meet a more unaffected guy. The entire time our table was praising him, he deflected all of it to his Sous and kitchen staff. Shaun

Water Grill is fantastic and close to where you are staying. I have not eaten at NOE at the Omni but I have eaten at Chef Robert Gadsby's restaurants before. I have always had great meals there. If you are looking for a real seafood treat and can splurge a little on the drive or cab fare, I'd highly suggest making a small trip up the 101 to Melrose to eat at Providence. www.providencela.com The meals I have had there have all been very great to exeptional. Chef Michael Cimarusti used to be at the helm of the Water Grill before moving out on his own. Heavy seafood focus there. The James Beard awards have nominated Providence for the 2006 best new restaurant. If you decide to go make sure you arrive early to imbibe in a few drinks at the bar before dinner. Vincenzo Marianella for my money is the best bartender I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Ask him to be creative and suprise you. He will not disapoint. . I cannot even describe how good he is at creating drinks. The guy is a master mixologist Shaun

There are a few very good Chinese restaurants in Millbrae and it is just across the I-101 freeway from SFO airport. I am very disappointed at Hong Kong Flower Lounge from a recent visit. Their quality has declined. You can tell from their patronage. I arrived there extra early 10:30 am on a Sunday anticipating a long time if I arrive any later, only to see that there was no line at all at noon and there were still vacant tables in the dining room. (This was about a year ago.) Their dim sum now is just so-so. I like Fook Yuen and Zen Peninsula, both of which are along El Camino Real within a mile of HK Flower Lounge. Very good food. ← I am flying out of Oakland. Shaun

Thanks for the notes. I probably should say that we have 3 boys at and under 3 years old at home. That said, when we arrive, I am sure a period of decompression would be welcomed. I picked the slanted door to stay close to the hotel. We get in at 11am and figured we'd probably just like to grab a bite and park it with a view for a few hours. I figure the view for leisurely noshing and getting a few drinks in us can’t be beat there. I'd say I chose the slanted door for it ambiance/leisure/closeness ratio. I am sure we will stroll through the ferry building but initially we will probably just want to park it and get a little afternoon buzz on. As far as the Haute overload, I consider Coi the closest, maybe only, restaurant of the bunch to Haute. At least my interpretation of Haute and its "Hautieness". My wife and I tend to spend our entire trips in San Francisco leisurely strolling through the city. It usually goes meals then hoofing it all over the city for hours on end. Doing so tends to lend the ability to go full throttle on the eating and drinking. Our flight leaves at 1:30 on Sunday so Yank Sings proximity and our timeline make it tough to venture out to Daly City. Shaun

Good ideas. We have an 8:30 reservation at Chez Panisse so swinging by Cesar is easy. We are also staying at The Hotel Vitale across from the ferry building so we'll check out Boulette's. Maybe even have breakfast there or just load up on room snacks. Thanks for the leads... Shaun

Yeah Ive heard that as well. I have been to yank sing a few times and it is my wifes favorites. really neat place good food and nice atmosphere. Daly City is a bit farther then I would like to venture out. We are footing it and doing the taxi thing in SF. Shaun

Good ideas. After going onto yelp.com and taking a look at the Coi reviews I think I have to make that a must do. So maybe a-16 for lunch Friday then Canteen for lunch Saturday. Zuni I will pass. I am really excited about eating at a place that is only a month into its life. I am sure the chef will have all the food kinks worked out. Very excited now. I am going to need to fast for a week after the weekend for sure. Anyone else eaten at Coi and have a review? So heres the revised schedule... Thursday Lunch Slanted Door Thursday Dinner Chez Panisse Friday Lunch A-16 Friday Dinner Quince Saturday Lunch Canteen Saturday Dinner Coi Sunday Dim Sum Yank Sing Shaun

My wife and I have planed a trip to San Francisco in early June. On previous trips we’ve eaten at a few high end places of note. Danko, French Laundry, Rubicon, Masa's, Aqua, etc This trip I have planned as follows. Thursday Lunch Slanted Door Thursday Dinner Chez Panisse Friday Lunch Canteen Friday Dinner Quince Saturday Lunch Zuni Cafe Saturday Dinner A-16 Sunday Dim Sum Yank Sing My wife and I felt we'd like to do some great restaurants that have a real feel for SF food culture. I kind of want to stay away from a Danko or Michael Mina type place. I have been to the Laundry, Danko, and a dozen other such places and right now I am in a place where that caliber of restaurant just seems contrived and a bit ridiculous if you will. Not to say I don’t believe those places are not the very best but I'd like to eat somewhere that provides something of a real food passion experience. Also, I have eaten at so many of those type of places that I tend to be a bit numb to the experience. I am ashamed to say I have never been to Chez Panisse. I have also heard wonderful things about Quince as well. I have never eaten at Zuni Cafe in all my travels to SF and feel that I should. However, I have seen many recent reviews that were less than glowing. I understand what the food at Zuni is all about and don’t expect anything other than a great Bistro type experience. But if the service and quality has gone down I'd like to avoid the let down after Panisse and Quince. I have heard many good things about A-16 and it seems to fit into the theme of our desired food destination. All that said, I think the meals on Saturday's are probably flexible if I can find something better. Something that has that Quince/Panisse thing of quality of product prepared and presented simply and with intense care. If anyone has any reviews, advice or suggestions Id love to hear about them. I'll take photos of all the meals too. Shaun

I am eating at Providence with a few friends on New Years Eve this year. There is so much positive press and word of mouth in the Southern California food community about this place that I hope I am not setting myself up for a let down. The thing that excites me most is eating at a place that is firing on all cylinders with a seriously talented chef at the helm before there are and distractions of expansion and empire building. It’s an exciting time when a restaurant destined for great things is striving to carve out its niche in the upper echelon of the culinary landscape. I can’t wait. new year’s eve 2005 market menu amuse bouche ~ nancy’s diver scallops american caviar, apples ~ foie gras parfait spiced pumpkin, pedro ximenez sherry, pumpkin seed oil ~ maine lobster parsnip-pear puree ~ rouget de roche eggplant, red wine, crispy chorizo ~ quinault river steelhead red beets, salsify, tender dandelion greens ~ turbot crispy confit pork belly, lentils, truffled jus de poulet ~ market cheeses ~ blood orange sorbet ~ chocolate truffle tart candied kumquats, vanilla bean ice cream ~ petits fours

Wendy, Thanks for the props on the frenchyfeast. Looks like a great way to turn cupboard staples into a satisfying meal. Most of the time I "black box" it with the stuff I have on hand I tuck into a dish I can finesse into something special. If I lived in Seattle I'd just bop down to Batali's dads place Salumi http://www.salumicuredmeats.com/ Toss in some of the Lamb Prosciutto that they make there. A lot of the meats they do there are cured with a hint of Nutmeg or Cinnamon, which would be a great match with the spinach and ricotta. I don’t know if you’re ever down by the stadium there but its well worth the trip. Weird daytime off-hours and a line out the door make it kinda a pain in the kiester to get in and out during business hours. But if you can swing it its worth it. Shaun

Pinot Bistro is a pretty good local place to eat in Studio City. http://www.patinagroup.com/pinotBistro/ Max is also pretty good and local to Studio city. http://www.maxrestaurant.com/index.html Senor Fred is pretty fun, good, and local http://www.senorfred.com/ Also If you can swing a 15 minute cab ride to west hollywood your options are limitless there. Here is a looksie of what available in West hollywood... http://www.calendarlive.com/dining/search-...words=&x=14&y=7 If I was going there I'd eat at Lucques, Providence or Meson g. http://www.lucques.com/ http://www.providencela.com/ http://www.mesongrestaurant.com/ Any one of those places are worth the trip. Lucques hands down is worth the extra cost of the ride. If thats out Pinot is a pretty good option where you are. Good luck. Shaun

Sisefromm Im sure can take care of you. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showuser=12732 Toodles

Hey Guys. I just posted the pics of our dinner last saturday in the dinner section. Figured it would be more applicable there. Heres the link... http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1059921 I aplogize for the clarity of some of the photos. Freaking learning curve with new digi cam+many wines=Blurry photographer and Pictures. Shaun

A few days ago I created a topic in the wine section inquiring about a wine pairing selection for French Onion Soup. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=77433&hl= Got much advice and was requested to post some pics of the dinner. Figured this topic was the applicable place to post the pics and then add a link on the wine site. Also, I would like to apologize for the inconsistent clarity of the photos. My wife just got a new camera that has a low light non-flash function but to take a clear photo you have to have the stillness of a champion Bi-athlete. So here goes. Saturday myself and 9 other folks had a winter-influenced dinner. With 3 cooks doing a sort of potluck. The dinner was very heavy. My buds and I always love cooking wintery comfort food, this being our first stab at it this season we went a little bonkers. Apps were Gougeres, Brie, Foie Gras pate, Imported Maille mustard Sisefromm's mom brought back from France, Lucques Olives, Cornichons, and Jamon de Paris. Champagne for the women and Fischer Amber beer for the guys. First Course done by me was a classic French Onion Soup. I have made many FO Soups but for this occasion decided to used a lot of the technique Thomas Keller uses in his Bouchon Zen patience 11 hour Marathon recipe. Basically the soup consisted of Beef stock, a sachet the onions and butter. The crouton I made much thicker than he suggested to avoid and problems with sinkage. And frankly the cheese crust on the side of the bowl and the bread are my favorite part. The cheese I used for the crust was a 50/50 mix of cave aged gruyere and 15 month aged Comte' If you are nuts like me and have the time the results were absolutely worth it. Best FO soup I have ever eaten. I paired it with a pretty good Alsatian Pinot Gris. The wine was an adequate match as I went into detail on the wine post I linked above. Heres the pic of the soup. Second course done my buddy Chris He made Niman Ranch Crispy pork belly with a morel cream sc and some asparagus and Fleur de Sel. The belly was braised I believe until it had the texture and pliability of carnitas at service he torched the little squares under the broiler and crisped up the fat cap. Then he plated the pork on a few asparagus spears and topped the pork with a couple whole creamed morels and a smidge of demi glace. Very, very good. HE had dried morels he got from a high-end market and I was hesitant about what the outcome would be but they were tender and super concentrated in morel goodness. Here is the pic, which I might add was taken in the dwindling second of my cameras battery dying. The camera actually took an mpeg movie. Which Jason(SiseFromm) thankfully converted to a gif file. Terrible resolution. Sorry. I think Chris brought a pretty good burgundy, which I am, going to assume was mostly Pinot the way it tasted. Good match with the Shrooms. Here’s the pic… Sisefromm who posts a good amount on the Gullet and is more than possessed with eating did next course. Jason and I dream about food all the time. He did a rendition of the Balthazar cookbooks Duck Shepherds pie. As I understand it the duck part was braised shredded leg meat bound with demi glace and topped withm ashed celery root and potato puree then gratineed till a slight crust formed. Top shelf stuff to say the least. Jason spent I think close to 6 or 7 nights making everything from scratch. In the end, and partially because I did not have to do anything but eat the dish, the effort was worth it. A fine way to take all of us to the brink of bursting. I can’t remember what wine Jason served. Im sure he’ll chine in when he sees this. At this point in the evening I think the ten of us had finished 12 beers and close to 10 or a dozen bottles of wine. My memory of the events from here on out gets a little fuzzy. Here’s the pic of the Shepherds Pie… Lastly for dessert Jason made chocolate pots du crème. One of our guests brought a bottle of Banyuls, which sent the dessert into the stratosphere. No pics of the dessert as we just plain ass forgot to take a photo. Note the wine again. Shaun

I just finished the book. Interesting read for sure. Personally, the only fault I found in the book was feeling robbed that my previous perception of the French Laundry has changed. I worked in a restaurant then overextended group that had a meteoric rise and fall in the 90's and after reading the chapter I was left with the same sinking feeling I had back then. I understand that the book was one person’s account be it factual, faulted, biased or jaded. My previous perception of the French Laundry was infallible in a world of average restaurants. There is a part of me now that wishes I could have that back. Shaun

Howdy folks. The dinner was a success. The pairing was adequate My assessment of what to pair with the soup would be nothing or whatever the hell you feel like drinking. The Friday before the dinner I did a test run to suss out a match. I tried a dry Alsatian Gwertz, which I thought was good but had too much Lychee and sweet happening in the nose ( although the wine was very dry and almost racy) to make a valid pairing. I tried an Alsatian Pinot Gris. Which was a good wine with not a lot of complexity. The wine almost had a NZ Sauv Blanc thing happening. The wines moderate nose and balanced acidity paired well with the sweet richness of the soup. But overall it just did not have that seamless give and take a good wine pairing should create. I tried the Cidre which was again close. The sweet and tart worked pretty good. The pairing was more like interesting than a great pairing. I then tried a Fischer Amber beer. An Alsatian beer that had pretty good maltiness without being sweet and not overly hoppy. I kind of preferred the beer but decided against serving it to the group during dinner. I assumed it might be slightly too pedestrian to serve beer after all the champagne the women were drinking during apps. Also tried a good Manzanilla sherry which was a decent fit but like the beer just figured it was a little odd to serve to a few of the folks that were joining us for the first time. Lastly at the dinner we had one guest bring a couple bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau.. Again a good but not great match. So what I found out was that of all the stuff I tried (which were all high quality classic versions of the varietals) just did not seem to make a pairing that elevated the parts of the sum. If that makes any sense. All of the booze played well together but did not have that rare give and take chemistry that collectively creates something completely new and thrilling. That said, I am sure there is a great accompaniment to the soup. I just did not find it this weekend. In the grand scheme of things it did not really matter. The food was so over the top delicious that no one noticed. Burning through 16 bottles of wine and champagne didnt hurt either My buddy Jason (Sisefromm) is going to post some pics and I'm sure give a review of some sort if you are interested. Sorry I couldn’t close the loop on this quandary. I tried, just ask my punch drunk liver and kidneys. Shaun

Jason, I appreciate your advice. The menu is a bit rich. We are doing tiny portions to keep the cost and distended bloat down. All my friends and I tend to have a deep lust for "winter" cooking. This is going to be our first cold weather (I live in Southern Cal ) get together and none of us tend to finesse anything. I am going to try a sherry as well as a bottle of Manoir D' Apreval Cidre I picked up today. Nothing like being able to take one dinner and booze and turn it into two nights in a row. Shaun

Yeah, I would say Sherry as well. Perhaps something on the light end of the scale. A Cidre Bouche might not be bad either. You want something with high acid content I think to break up the oilyness and fattyness of the Gruyere cheese. Busboy's Alsace reccomendation is also solid. I'm not a huge fan of drinking big ass boistrous reds such as Burgundies with Soupe L'Oignon (particularly because most of the recipes I have seen call for deglazing the onions with white wine, sherry or cognac or a combination thereof before the stock is added) unless of course you plan to serve a meat dish as your main course, like Steak Au Poive or something like that. ← The soup I am making is basically a really good beef stock, sachet and onions. then the crouton and cheese. No deglazing with any other booze. The menu is going to be 1. French onion soup 2 Crispy Pork belly 3. The Balthazar Duck Shepherds pie 4. Choc Pot de Creme Frankly, I cant freaking wait. I live for these dinners. We do a pot luck thing. My two other buddies are ex-chefs as well so it almost turns into a whos got the biggest jimmy type of thing. The food is always classic simple stuff but with a big effort made by everyone to bring out their A game.

The more I am thinking about it the more I am leaning towards a dry Alsatian of some sorts. I think a dry Alsatian will play nicely off the sweetness of the onions and the deck of Gruyere crust I'll have there. A few of the dry alsatians I have should also be able to rip through the richness of the cheese as well. I am going to most likely ditch the port on top of the cheese. To much going on. The night before the dinner I am going to try 3 or 4 different glasses to gain an assesment of what works. We'll see.

I need some help here. My friends and I are going to being having a dinner party this weekend. I have been given the task to serve a classic French Onion soup. Rather than going the regular route I have taken it upon myself to commit to Thomas Keller's Bouchon cookbook, 2-3 day, 8 hour stock, 6 hour Onion carmelization Zen patience endurance test. I also have some intention to float a whisper of port on top of the crust. That said I also need a libation to pair with the soup. I have done some research that has produced suggestions of Merlot, Beaujolais Nouveau, a sherry, and what was suggested as the traditional accompaniment, a Dry Gewürztraminer or Pinot Gris. My assumption is that the soup will be really sweet with all the time invested with the onions. I also am going to go with a Gruyere for the crust. I have a pretty decent relatively low pungent sample I’m going to use. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Shaun

Place my vote for GR and Alton Brown please! Now there's a blood bath the Contender or even the Ultimate Fighting Championship couldn't touch!

I was hoping Bourdain would chime in on the "abuse" in kitchens aspect. My assumption when I saw this show advertised was that it would cause a sh!t storm of outrage at how GR treats his cooks. I also assumed the group most vocal against all his bulldog pistol whipping would be comprised of folks that wouldnt last a day in a kitchen striving for perfection. A kitchen is such a different beast from any type of work enviorns on the planet.