JWangSDC
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Posts posted by JWangSDC
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hey guys, I'm heading out to vegas on the 9th and staying the weekend but unfortunately I'm on a strict diet for health reasons. Technically this is all I can eat
All meats (except pork)
Vegetables
Fruits (except oranges)
Eggs
Brown rice (short or long grain)
Brown rice cakes (plain)
Brown rice cereal (hot)
Tea, Coffee
Ideally it would be all organic. I'll be staying @ caesar's palace, does this sound accomplishable at all? I heard the Canyon Ranch Cafe has some pretty good organic eggs so I can have that, but I have to find a way to make sure there's no butter or cream. Other than that I planned a dinner at swish shabu shabu. Would any of the buffet's accomodate me? Are there any good seafood restaurants where i can just get some broiled fish and steamed vegetables?
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A fine grain bread with ricotta cheese and spinach(?) spread
That sounds like one of our courses - I thought the green spread was pretty bitter and I have no idea what was in it (menus? where are our menus?). One of my favorites all night.
I didn't want to do the 5 course because I wanted to taste more things, and I'm glad we made that decision. There wasn't anything I would have wanted to miss. Also, our waiter explained that the 8 courses are smaller portions than the 5, and essentially not much more food.
That dish was delicious. The bread was perfectly baked and the perfect texture and temperature. As was both the spread and the butter. YUM! I talked to my friend who I ate with today and we decided if we hadn't eaten 4 pieces of bread each we would have been ok. One slice of bread next time, but it's hard to control myself with that butter and selection of salts. <3 BH@SB.
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Just got back from dinner here and I loved it. They were very accommodating as one of our guests could not eat dairy. We had the farmer's feast and everything was wonderful, I was extremely worried we would be treated poorly because we arrived late (around 10pm for a 930 reservation) and we were under dressed (3 25 year olds who consider jeans and a polo dressed up). But they were very accommodating and gave very thorough explanations of each plate. Off the top of my head...
Amuses...
Fresh lime spritzer
Pea burgers
Asparagus with sesame seeds
the farm vegetables
Duck(?) marrow with caviar
that's all I remember, might have been some more.
Bread and butter with Horseradish, beet, and arugula salts.
Plates..
Spanish mackerel sushi with some delicious dressings
A fine grain bread with ricotta cheese and spinach(?) spread
Todays pouched egg in a pea soup
Pasta made from ostrich and turkey eggs with grated cured yolks
Pork loin, leg and belly
Duck belly and brain
Desserts
Champagne sorbet with some other fruits
fresh creme with berries
Now I've used very pedestrian words to describe each dish, but the beauty here is in how special each ingredient was. The butter was amazing as were the trio of salts. The fresh creme with berries was more like the most amazing chilled cream ever that taste like gourmet super fresh cheesecake topped with the sweetest assortment of berries ever made. And basically, that's how everything tasted. We passed on the cheese plate because we were too full, the next time I return I will get the smaller tasting menu it was too much for my small stomach. We skipped the tea too which is a shame because they bring the tea leaves to you still alive in water. Now I thought drying your tea leaves was important, but if this place serves them fresh, I'm willing to bet they taste delicious fresh. I thought the experience was fabulous and even a decent value for your money.
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Thanks bill, I didn't even think about checking the hotel's restaurant until you mentioned but it looks fabulous. Way pricier than I'd prefer but if I get lazy/feel splurgy I'm going to head there.
Curlz, thanks for the Cullins recommendation. I think that's exactly what I've been looking for so I'm probably going check that place out.
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Hey guys,
This weekend I'm heading over to Morristown NJ for a big convention at the Westin Governor Hotel. I'm basically curious for any recommendations at all since I have to eat, so I'd prefer to eat somewhere good. Ideally I'd like to eat as healthy as possible but I'm willing to work with what's available. Thanks in advance for any recommendations!
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Not insane, given that I am making a pot of sencha with 5g to 6 oz water, and have used even higher proportions with some particularly nice green teas. At that rate of use, however, you should get several quite short infusions, so that 5 g of leaf is giving you 3-6 cups of tea.
Thanks, I was just double checking because I wasn't sure. Steeping about 2g of leaf for a good 3 minutes has produced the type of tea that I'm used to. I'm going to try the proper way and see how it works.
Interesting, JWangSDC. Do you mean that it looks like and tastes like gyokuro? The ratio of leaf to water (5g:8ounces) is about that for not-organic sencha - and less than for other organic senchas, so it does not seem unusual. But the prices are 4X or more than organic gyokuro. Is it good enough that you find it worthwhile?
I thought it did look and taste like gyokuro, but I'm not very well versed anyway. It sounds to me like it is simply sencha. I am so glad to have found this section of egullet as i"m going to be purchasing many different teas so I can become more familiar. As for if it is worth the price, I really have no idea. My friend is that farms next door neighbor and she gave me the packet as a present, thus far it is the most expensive tea I have had outside of teavana and yamamotoyama tea's.
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I'm drinking some Mauna Kea premium green tea. http://www.maunakeatea.com/our-teas/14/105.
It reminds me of gyokuro green tea, but the instructions suggest 5g of leaf for 1 cup of water. Does that sound a little bit insane to anyone? Especially since it's $1/g and $2.5/g for the first picked.
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I was thinking tax and tip included actually. Thanks for the recommendation, from the website it looks like it won't be big enough for 25-30, but I'm going to stop by today and check it out. The decor also appears to be on the lower side of what I'm looking for, but this is just from the single picture they have on their website.
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Hey I was wondering if anyone knew of any NYC restaurants that are great to have a dinner party/small banquet for? The guestlist is about 25 people with a budget of about $175/person for dinner and drinks. Business casual would be the theme and the atmosphere has to be nice. Any suggestions? Midtown would be the most preferable location but I'm willing to check out any good recommendations.
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And there are some of us who simply cannot live on the no-carb diet. I become very distressed, emotionally and physically, on that diet. It's quite weird.
I'll second Heidi's statements.
Thanks for all the information...I have saved quite a bit of it to read later and have asked for the newsletters available. To be able to look up the GI index of foods quickly would be a boon.
This could be indicative of a larger problem, like a candida infection.
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They are often called broiler plates or sizzle platters. Here is a link to a website that sells them.
http://www.kitchenandrestaurant.com/Sizzle-Platter-11-1-8-X-7-3-4-Oval-8-Gauge-p/jr-4481.htm
I ordered the SS sizzle platter and the iron sizzle platter but I realized these are not what I was looking for. The oval shape is correct, but the ones I'm thinking of are a little thicker and angled more. They are always used in the kitchen, but never brought outside. For instance, usually they'll sear the filet mignon in a pan and then place it in the oval steel object I'm looking for and put it in the broiler for 7 min. Then take it out, and place it on the food plate. Any ideas?
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Thank you so much!
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Sorry if this is inappropriate or the wrong place to ask, but I've worked in several restaurants and they all have this oval steel plate that is used for the broiler. You put fish on it, tenderloin on it or what not then place it in the broiler. Does anyone know what they are called or where I could purchase one? Endless google searches came up with nothing for me. Thanks in advance!
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Koi in the Bryant Park hotel?
Kanoyama used to be called Koi years ago, but then changed it's name to kanoyama. Probably due to legal pressure from Koi in the bryant park hotel. I haven't been, but I assume Koi in BP is trash.
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A couple of months back, I visited Kanoyama and Ushi in short succession, and my conclusion was that Kanoyama was not in Ushi's league. The quality of fish is comparable, but Ushi's selection is broader and more interesting, and the items which required curing/marinating/prep (saba, ikura) were distinctly better.
Kanoyama is still pretty good though, and I'd go back.
I used to go here a LOT when it was Koi. It's not bad and pretty great for all us kasugo lovers but for pure sushi it cannot be listed among the top in NYC. It is a great restaurant though and worth a visit
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it would be a rare day for Yasuda to serve only 7 selections
From the Yasuda website:
"Yasuda is renowned as a tuna specialist—he typically offers seven or eight options for tuna"
I have never once sat with Yasuda and been offered less than 8 options for tuna. In fact all of the times, he has offered more including cuts which were apparently not on the menu that is updated daily.
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I've never been to or heard of Oishi 2 so I have no frame of reference there, but last time I did a tuna tasting at Yasuda he had two subcategories of otoro: shimofuri and dandara. He also had chu-toro. He didn't have anything called just "toro." He also had non-toro tuna from various places on the tuna's body. I believe in all there were seven tuna selections.
I was only explaining what I like to do for toro. I didn't go into the pieces that Yasuda himself has/serves. If you are talking about just tuna selection, it would be a rare day for Yasuda to serve only 7 selections. He has regular tuna meat, akami type meat, toro from belly, toro from cheek, and toro from the lower back. plus he could have 2-5 different types of tuna, that alone would account for 10 to 50 different types of pieces he's willing to serve.
Here's a picture from my last visit to Yasuda as he explains his tons of different types of toro's.
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I've never been to or heard of Oishi 2 so I have no frame of reference there, but last time I did a tuna tasting at Yasuda he had two subcategories of otoro: shimofuri and dandara. He also had chu-toro. He didn't have anything called just "toro." He also had non-toro tuna from various places on the tuna's body. I believe in all there were seven tuna selections.
I was only explaining what I like to do for toro. I didn't go into the pieces that Yasuda himself has/serves. If you are talking about just tuna selection, it would be a rare day for Yasuda to serve only 7 selections. He has regular tuna meat, akami type meat, toro from belly, toro from cheek, and toro from the lower back. plus he could have 2-5 different types of tuna, that alone would account for 10 to 50 different types of pieces he's willing to serve.
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Exactly, which is why I took issue with JWangSDC's comment, initially. He has since clarified that point.
Otoro is the guilty pleasure a sushi dinner. You can never have enough, and of course it's super-tasty and super-expensive. Think about it, fish don't really have fat on them. Where it does, it's pretty tasty, so how exclusive are those small portions of marbled tuna, kanpache, salmon, etc.
However, if you really want to impress a veteran sushi chef, show them you can distinguish a good white fish (shiromi). Of course they'll know you'll like the toro. Everyone likes the toro!
So true, so true. For toro, I always like to go to boston and visit Oishi 2. They serve toro, chu toro, and Otoro. It costs $7, $13, and $18 respectively depending on seasonal MP, but it's for two LARGE pieces and the toro is actually the best tasting! I stop by there once every 3 months and order 24 pieces of toro for my girlfriend and myself.
At places like Yasuda, toro rarely comprises more than 10% of my meal.
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+1. Kuruma's toro is ridiculous and yasuda's toro sucks. But Yasuda as a sushi restaurant is much better.
I have never had Kuruma's toro, but I can't imagine it being so good that Yasuda's "sucks" by comparison.
In the grand scheme of things, I'm hesitant to say that anything at Yasuda "sucks." I have had Yasuda's toro and I found it perfectly respectable.
Hmm, I apologize, what I said was disrespectful to Yasuda. I just meant, I prefer hatsuhana, sushi of gari, 15 east, kuruma, and ushi wakamaru's toro to Yasuda. There is a reason for this. Of all sushi restaurants Yasuda serves the least fish per riceball. This is especially annoying with toro and uni pieces and your mouth cannot fully enjoy the flavor. Yasuda serves his sushi almost like the fish is a sauce on top of the rice. Pieces like toro should be served much differently imo. It suffers greatly from not having a large piece melt in your mouth. By contrast, pieces like engawa are best suited for yasuda's style of slicing them.
But beyond that, Kuruma's toro is also a cut above in quality. Combine the thickness and size of the piece and slightly better quality and that's why I said yasuda's "sucks". I prob shouldn't have used such a harsh word though.
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There's an "if" in my post. I am not conceding that it was worth $1,000—I don't think it was. I'm just saying that if it was, the reasons are beyond my ability to perceive, bearing in mind that I don't have many data points to compare it to. For the most part, I trust my instincts. Rather than say the restaurant is fleecing its customers, I'm leaving open the door that maybe—maybe—there's something in it that I'm not seeing.
Bottles of wine are a similar story. There are plenty of places in town that sell $1,000 wine bottles. I can't really explain the allure that makes a not-that-old bottle of wine worth $1,000 or more, but enough smart people buy them that I can accept there's something going on there that's beyond my appreciation.
This is a perfectly reasonable attitude, and for all I know I too was missing something during my meal at Kuruma. But I deliberately waited to go to Kuruma until after we got back from Japan and had eaten at what are regarded as the best places in Tokyo, so I'd have something of a benchmark. All I can say is that, for me, the greatness of the greatest sushi meals I've had has not been all that subtle. On the contrary, they kind of hit you over the head with their greatness -- the freshness, purity of flavor, perfect balance of components is pretty obvious.
+1. Kuruma's toro is ridiculous and yasuda's toro sucks. But Yasuda as a sushi restaurant is much better.
And these are things that are very self evident. When I eat at Yasuda I think, "Wow, how come all the pieces taste almost the same. Oh, maybe it's because Yasuda slices them so thin and serves them at their perfect temperature with wonderful rice". At kuruma I think "wow, i don't think I've had a more generous slab of ridiculously fat toro anywhere else".
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There's an "if" in my post. I am not conceding that it was worth $1,000—I don't think it was. I'm just saying that if it was, the reasons are beyond my ability to perceive, bearing in mind that I don't have many data points to compare it to. For the most part, I trust my instincts. Rather than say the restaurant is fleecing its customers, I'm leaving open the door that maybe—maybe—there's something in it that I'm not seeing.
Bottles of wine are a similar story. There are plenty of places in town that sell $1,000 wine bottles. I can't really explain the allure that makes a not-that-old bottle of wine worth $1,000 or more, but enough smart people buy them that I can accept there's something going on there that's beyond my appreciation.
This is a perfectly reasonable attitude, and for all I know I too was missing something during my meal at Kuruma. But I deliberately waited to go to Kuruma until after we got back from Japan and had eaten at what are regarded as the best places in Tokyo, so I'd have something of a benchmark. All I can say is that, for me, the greatness of the greatest sushi meals I've had has not been all that subtle. On the contrary, they kind of hit you over the head with their greatness -- the freshness, purity of flavor, perfect balance of components is pretty obvious.
+1. Kuruma's toro is ridiculous and yasuda's toro sucks. But Yasuda as a sushi restaurant is much better.
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Did anyone else notice this article?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/science/...gin&oref=slogin
"In a tale of teenagers, sushi and science, Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss, who graduated this year from the Trinity School in Manhattan, took on a freelance science project in which they checked 60 samples of seafood using a simplified genetic fingerprinting technique to see whether the fish New Yorkers buy is what they think they are getting.
They found that one-fourth of the fish samples with identifiable DNA were mislabeled. A piece of sushi sold as the luxury treat white tuna turned out to be Mozambique tilapia, a much cheaper fish that is often raised by farming. Roe supposedly from flying fish was actually from smelt. Seven of nine samples that were called red snapper were mislabeled, and they turned out to be anything from Atlantic cod to Acadian redfish, an endangered species."
I can tell you I have seen this in practice; it can be a sushi bar whose chef may be lacking in training and/or morals, it can even be a place simply looking to cut cost, but certainly most Japanese can distinguish fish by appearance and certainly by flavor, and I've developed this talent, but it took time..
I heard about this and did a little independent research. Turns out it's a multifaceted problem, some of which has to do with deception and some of which has to do with translation problems and other random factors. As Doc suggested, it turns out to be even more insidious in places that serve cooked fish, with tilapia being passed off as all sorts of other things. High end sushi places are only occasional offenders, and in most cases, the differences are due to translation rather than substitution. I'll do a bit by bit analysis as best I can below.
In terms of "white tuna", the discussion is pointless, as there is really no such thing. Some people refer to albacore as white tuna (in Japanese, I'm pretty sure it's the closest thing, as it's sometimes called shiro maguro, which means white tuna), and others use the term to refer to escolar, while still others use it to mean various other fish, but since there is no actual white tuna, it can't lead to a real discussion.
In terms of the roe (flying fish vs. smelt), restaurants have been making this error for years, even when the two cost the same. In fact, many sushi restaurants carry both (tobiko and masago). For the record, the flying fish roe (tobiko) are the slightly larger of the two, and have a slightly firmer bite. They're also a bit less sweet than the smaller masago. Part of the problem is that saying flying fish roe sounds sexier and more interesting to English speaking customers, even though most of them unknowingly prefer the taste of the smelt roe. As it turns out, many restaurant owners don't know the proper translations and often swap names or call the one they carry by the other name. Personally, I don't think there's any pernicious swapping going on here...it's mostly a case of confusion in translation.
The snapper issue is much more complicated. There are two things happening here. At the lower end, many poor sushi places are, in fact, substituting other things for snapper. This turns out to be even more prevalent in non-sushi places, where almost no actual snapper is found. In these lesser places, a much less expensive fish is usually substituted (often tilapia, which is a good fish impersonator, as it has very little distinctive flavor and can easily slip by most untrained palates). In the sushi world, this is most common in non-Japanese owned restaurants. It also turns out that in many cases, the restaurateurs aren't to blame. An investigation in Chicago showed that many ordered snapper, and unscrupulous delivery places/suppliers were delivering other things. In some cases, they were mismarking the fish they delivered, but more often they simply filled the snapper order with cases of tilapia that were marked as such but went unnoticed by the restaurants.
However, in higher end Japanese sushi places, there were also snapper substitutions for an entirely different reason...the reason of translation. The various Japanese terms that refer to what we think of as snapper (usually tai, madai, kinmedai, etc.) actually refer to various types of bream. Specifically, the sushi known as tai has long been translated as red snapper, but in Japan is actually a form of red bream. True red snapper is very rarely eaten as sushi (even in Japan), and the term tai has actually referred to the red bream for years, without most American people realizing it's inaccurately translated as snapper. Furthermore, red bream costs just about the same as red snapper, so there's no advantage in pulling a switch. The bream also has superior flavor in most sushi chefs' minds. The other (non-red) snappers are actually more likely to be blackeye breams and other related species, again due to translation issues and not deception.
On a related note, I was a bit surprised to see the whole furor attributed to those two high school kids in New York. My understanding was that their "study" was really just a school project knockoff of the similar study that the Chicago Tribune did a little while ago, for a story about the same. In the Chicago article, it was clear from the names of the restaurant owners that most were not Japanese.
Nice, I haven't done any formal research but my own opinion is in line with what you've so eloquently pointed out.
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Just got back from dinner there but forgot to bring a camera...the same waitress who doc has pictured in his photoset served us.
They do have omakase now and when I asked for the price she just said it's $120-$150/person. The four of us opted for it and we received....
1. Edamame
2. Black/White Sesame Tofu
3. Miso Soup with Uni/Lobster - This soup really was fantastic.
4. Hokki Nuta
5. Fig/Uni Agedashi
6. Hirame Ponzu
7. Steamed Tai - this dish tastes exactly like chinese steamed fish. It was awkward to have such quality fish served this way...good but I felt like it was kind of a waste.
8. Marinated Tuna (zuke) sashimi salad
9. Geoduck Clam Salad
10. Miso Cod with Shittake Mushroom - This dish was the best miso cod I've ever had. I've had it at Nobu/Ushi and many other places. It was just so delicate and perfectly poached(?).
11. His signature uni/squid dish - This was amazing.
12. Lobster with uni mouse
13. Chyuu toro tar tar - avocado is too overwhelming.
14. Soft shell crab - This dish had some curry...kinda of meh.
15. Wild Red Snapper Sashimi
16. Aoyagi Carpacio
17. Shima Aji Tataki - This was very good.
18. Kanpachi Tar Tar - Too many pine nuts for my taste
19. Broiled langostine.
20. 5 pieces of sushi... Chu toro, sea trout(like salmon), Kanpachi, anago and one other piece that slipped my mind.
All in all it was a good meal but there were only several dishes I would order for myself. By the time we got the sushi the rice had cooled off a bit, but I found the sushi to be quite good. I'd guess sitting at the bar you'd find the quality to be similar to ushi wakamaru though Soto slices his pieces longer which ushi uses fatter rice balls and wider slices (the overall fish to rice ratio is the same though).
Bill was $680 after tax for 4 people.
Dr. Pepper prescribes sugar
in Ready to Eat
Posted · Edited by JWangSDC (log)
It's really subtle, but you can tell the difference between the cane and high fructose ones. It's not as big as I had hoped. Mexican coke is cane sugar and so is throwback pepsi. I would always opt for the cane if possible. Costco sells mexican coke year round.