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Nice thread even if a little obscure as to its origens What exactly are "Maya" shrimp? Are they from southern Mexico or Central America or is it a specific preparation? Thanks for the continuing instructions, Vadouvan.

I like the idea. Most fruit that goes to market is underripe. Right now buying fruit at a supermarket is a bit of a crapshoot with the odds definitely stacked in favor of the house. Unfortunately that turns a lot of consumers including myself off. I wouldn't mind buying less than ripe fruit if it was subsequently easier to gauge when it is ripe. Who hasn't bought supermarket peaches and wasted a few trying to figure out if they were ripe yet?

Great report and photos...Clio is without question my favorite restaurant in Boston, so I'm happy you enjoyed it too! We've gone for the tasting menu 4 times--each time it's almost entirely different, and we've never had a bad course. I'm wondering if they keep track of what we've had in previous meals, so we don't get the same thing twice?! The last time we went, we got the egg and foie gras dishes, and they were awesome. How did you set up the wine pairings? Were they from the standard "by the glass" offerings? ← A couple two tables over from us also had the tasting menu. At least half their dishes were different than ours. As for the pairings, I just asked if they had pairings for the courses and they replied affirmatively. While none of the wines were inherently exceptional, they all worked well with their respective courses. I don't know if they were regular by-the-glass offerings or specifically paired for the courses. I believe the latter.

In order to save some appetite for later we actually split a lobster roll. They actually gave us each a full portion of the sides. I was seriously tempted to order and eat more, though given our meal at Clio I am glad we didn't.

Bummer about the heat! I hope that it didn't effect your appetites too much. I'm looking forward to hearing about the rest of your adventures.

We drove to New Haven on Sunday for a tour of Yale. Afterwards we were quite hungry and decided to do a comparison tasting of two of New Haven's most famous pizza places. First up since they were already open was Frank Pepe's Pizza Napoletana. That is one huge oven! I was seriously bummed after having heard so much about them that they did not have any clam pizze that day. Undaunted we figured we would try the clams' replacement - shrimp. I can't speak for their clam pizza, but the white shrimp was absolutely amazing and one of the best pizze I have had anywhere! The flavor was outstanding with a generous supply of succulent shrimp. We also ordered a tomato with mozzarella. This was also very good, though not as ethereal or superlative as the shrimp pie. Needless to say we took home a lot of pie as we were going up the street for more pizza. We arrived at Sally's Apizza about 30 minutes before its 5PM opening time only to find ourselves already far back in line. When they opened there was a steady flow into the restaurant that left us short by a couple of parties. Given that we still had a three hour drive to get home in front of us and that the wait for a table could be quite some time, i decided to get our pizze "to go". I'm glad I did for not only did it save us quite a bit of time, it was fun hanging out near the kitchen waiting for our pizze and chatting with the friendly owner and her staff. Our mouths watered as the pies started coming out of the cramped kitchen. After about a half hour wait our pies were ready. We paid, said goodbye and brought them to our car where we continued our pizza feast. They had clams, though this pizza was somewhat disappointing as it didn't really have that wonderful clam flavor that I was hoping for. The tomato and mozzarella pie, however, was outstanding. It was more flavorful even than the excellent one from Pepe's. Both places are wonderful and have their strengths. based on my limited sample size I would suggest Pepe's for seafood pies and Sally's for tomato based pies. Both were baked with wonderful skill and heart. I also loved the ambiance of both places. despite their fame and the crowds lining up to get in they remain down to earth and committed to their respective product. Now I understand all the fuss about New Haven pizza.

Based on this recommendation I decided we needed to do the tasting menu at Clio. While I can not say if it is the best one in Boston, it was pretty darn good. In terms of comaprisons within my experience, the style of this dinner most reminded me of my recent dinner at Ame at the St. Regis in San Francisco and Studio Kitchen in Philadelphia. While there are many restaurants incorporating Asian influences into western cooking and vice versa I found the styles to be very sympathetic to each other at these three meals. We went Saturday evening. Unfortunately Chef Orringer was not in the house as he is busy getting ready for his upcoming wedding! It is obvious that he has trained his staff well as the food was uniformly excellent both in taste and presentation. Hibiscus and Lemon Verbina Sodas These were refreshing, not too-sweet starters. I had the hibiscus. Tomato Water Martini This was marvellous with its pure, clean tomato flavor as the base with several nuanced notes including caperberry. It reminded me of the first time I had a dish with tomato water. It was raw Taylor Bay scallops with tomato water at the great Union Pacific in NYC in its prime. That meal at that time was still one of the best I have ever had and those scallops were one of the best dishes of that evening. Blue Fin Toro With mignonette pickled mustard seeds 2005 Felton Road Riesling, Central Otago This dish was simply sensational as anything with fresh blue fin chu-toro should be. The tuna was locally caught. None of the paired wines were high end, though they all worked quite well with their respective pairings. I will not be making additional comments on them beyond this. Hamachi Tartare with candy cane beets, Ossetra caviar and liquid yogurt 2005 Naia Verdejo, Rueda Nice dish, but not one of the stars of the evening. Salad of Heirloom Tomatoes with crispy Ipswich clams, minus 8 vinegar and green goddess dressing 2004 Willakenzie Estate Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley The tomato salad was excellent, but I could have killed for more of those perfectly fried clams! Purée of Sweet Corn Soup with morel mushrooms, herbs and linguica 2005 Luzon Verde Monastrell, Jumilla Another winner. Two-Hour Egg with asparagus, ham foam, black truffle and foraged mushrooms 2000 Coto de Imaz Tempranillo Reserva, Rioja This decadent dish was a candidate for dish of the night. Is sous vide cooking more perfectly suited to something other than the egg in its natural vaccuum casing? Wild Cape Cod Striped Bass with oyster emulsion, curry leaves, bitter almond and Vidalia onions 2002 Trimbach Pinot Gris “Reserve”, Alsace This was another great dish. The hint of curry in one of the sauces tied everything together. The one element that I didn't "get" was the sliver of fresh almond. Other than looking interesting on the plate I did not feel that it added anything beneficial either texturally or flavor-wise. Lacquered Foie Gras with angelica, passion fruit and pineapple 2004 Haut Charmes Sauternes, Bordeaux Along with the toro and the egg, this was another candidate for dish of the evening. This was one of the very best foie combinations I have had in some time. The passion fruit in particular provided a marvellous accent to the sensuous foie. Liquid Parmesan Ravioli With fleur de sel, chives and black truffle vinaigrette A nice idea, this rendition was dominated by the pasta and lacked depth of flavor. Aromatic Glazed Shortribs of Beef with farro, szechuan pepper and hearts of palm 2000 Tenuta Santa Maria Merlot “Decima Aurea”, Veneto Delicious combination, although I did not really notice the szechuan pepper. I did not photograph the cheese course. It consisted of two cheeses and two wines. Bonde de Gatine With opal basil syrup and braised pears 2005 Hanna Sauvignon Blanc ”Slusser Road Vineyard” Russian River Valley and Bleu de Basque With spruce syrup and walnuts toasted candied 2003 Dolc De L’Obac Late Harvest Grenache, Priorat. These were very good. Sour Cherry with Sorrento lemon float This contained a very pleasant fizziness throughout. Nice. Milk Chocolate Sorbet with native raspberry, orange, jasmine purée and toasted rice foam 2004 Cuilleron Condrieu « Les Ayguets », Rhône Nice flavors and contrasts. In the absence of Chef Orringer, Sous Chef Rick Edge and their kitchen crew did an excellent job. The service was friendly, professional and efficient. I haven't eaten in enough of Boston's top restaurants to say if Clio has the best tasting menu or not, but if it doesn't it certainly isn't far off. I would happily return.

don't mean to nitpick, but the kubota hekijyu is the first image and the second one is the hakkaisan. i recognize the kubota because right after the niigata earthquake i attempted to drink all the kubota manjyu left in SF. i didn't succeed, but i also don't remember most of that month either, so it all worked out. oh, and the last character on the hakkaisan label (the one that looks like space invaders) is the one for "mountain." you'll see it all around chinatown SF on signs as part of the "gold mountain" (kumsan in cantonese?) name. ← Thank you for the correction and anecdote.

The following morning we had a good info session and tour of Harvard, but we decided to take the "T" into nearby Boston for lunch-time sustenance. Based largely on discussion on this forum I selected B&G Oysters LTD The facade was attractive, but the actual entrance was around back... We sat at the bar directly in front of the oyster station. This reminded me of my recent visit to Hog Island Oyster Co. in the Ferry Market Building in San Francisco. We perused the menu and ordered a dozen oysters, 2 each of six different varieties. While we were waiting we watched the show: It was particularly interesting watching the shuckers throw out oysters that they weren't fully satisfied with rather than serve them. In anticipation of the oysters I ordered a glass of chablis: It was a fine compliment to the oysters when they arrived a short time later. We are lemon-only oyster purists. My favorite was the Wallace Bay from Nova Scotia followed by the small Gigamot from British Columbia. The WB was large, clean and absolutely refreshing, while the gigamot was petite and a totally differrent flavor from the Atlantic oysters. Our main purpose in coming here was to try the Maine lobster roll. It clearly was a very popular dish as it seemed that almost everyone ordered one. It was New England on a plate. The fries were very good as well. The slaw was ok as were the pickles, but clearly the lobster was the star of this show. Were it not already fairly late and with dinner plans a bit later on, I would have ordered a few more items such as the fried clams which looked great as well. The service was absolutely great. Our server (I forgot her name even though I specifically asked her ) was super. She was friendly, prompt and extremely helpful. I had the sense that the other servers in the restaurant were also good. The only downside was an extremely forgettable brownie with ice cream for dessert.

When my son's baseball team was eliminated early Friday morning from the NY State Mickey Mantle Tournament it left a free weekend. While he is only going into his junior year of H.S., I feel that it is not too early to get started looking at schools, especially those more difficult to get admitted to. The junior year is critically important and we want him to see what is out there and get a better sense of what he needs to do in order to gain admission. With that in mind, we thought we would set off to look at a few schools. While the colleges visited were certainly interesting to us, of greater potential interest to this forum is where we ate along the way. Our unofficial start was this past June when we visited Dartmouth for my 25th College Reunion. Being that our meals were all part of the Reunion program, the culinary factor was of limited interest and so wil not be included here. Friday evening my son and I drove through rain on I-90 to get to Cambridge to visit Harvard. I made a reservation for that evening via Open Table at The Elephant Walk in Cambridge. Because the going was slow, I had to push back our reservation. Fortunately, this was not a problem. We arrived in time to check-in to our hotel and get to the restaurant on time for our 8:30 reservation. It took us awhile to figure it out, but the restaurant thankfully had parking in the back. Unfortunately where we sat was too dark for decent photos despite an ISO of 1600. Oh well! The Elephant Walk is billed as a French Cambodian restaurant. We ordered from the four course set menu. We started out with Cambodian appetizers and soups. My son had the These were very tasty and provided great textural and temperature contrasts within the same bite. I had This was good with the spicy salad actually being the high point. The shrimp were tasty, but small and few. Soups were up next. I had This was tasty and very refreshing. While this was a clear-cut winner, my son's soup was the star of the evening. He had This soup had outstanding balance and flavor. It even had more and better shrimp than my appetizer.For our main courses we both swung over to French. I had . The duck consisted of a breast and leg. It was good, though unextraordinary. The potatoes were totally bland. My son had This was good though with minimal roqueforte flavor to the sauce. His spinach and potatos werre better supporting players than the potatoes and orange slices in my dish.For dessert he had an ordinary , while I had a delicious Though the pineapple was insipid the mousse was exactly as billed.The meal was very good and reasonable at $40pp plus t&t. Our feeling was that the Cambodian cooking outshone the French. Should he wind up in Cambridge, this place could become a regular haunt.

ditto.

Funny you mention the spheres! There's this political humor show on Catalan TV these days, where the only non-politician character they regularly spoof is Ferran Adria. He is shown in a high tech kitchen, the highlight of which is so-called "sferificating oven" (forn esferificador or, as Adria pronounces, ejferificador). His sketches normally include throwing some kind of foodstuff into the air, from which it comes back in a completely different, absurd form. Once they spoofed Carme Ruscalleda, too, and it was so good I remember crying tears of laughter. And on another day they had the real Ferran Adria over and interviewed him. He seemed to take it with a grain of salt. If by chance you are over here and can get to see it (the show is called Polonia), by all means wait until he appears, even if you don't speak Catalan. It's that good! (Excuse the aside, I didn't think it was worth opening a new thread for this... but I thought you would find it funny) ← Thanks for the aside. I wish I could see it in the US. It is nearing time to start thinking about another visit over there and to see what I can do about EB2007.

Adam, I appreciate the comments especially given the amazing body of posts and photos you have contributed here on eGullet.

OMG That is Freddie Brash, easily the coolest Chef-Instructor at the CIA! He is easily one of the most talented Chefs at the school too! I would take a bullet for that man, no questions asked. gkc ← Freddie is indeed a great guy and I understand how inspires that kind of sentiment. My wife and I recently met Fred and a couple of other fellow Mexico travellers for dinner at the CIA in Hyde Park. The esteem he is held in there was quite evident. The whole group really was outstanding with everyone having their own contributions.

Guadalajara was my favorite restaurant in C'Ville when I lived therre 16 years ago. I have been back a few times and it has remained good. It is one of the few places from that era that i will feel compelled to return to whenever I go back to Charlottesville. It didn't matter which restaurant either. They were both good. I have since longed for Mexican food of that caliber near where I live. When I lived in C'Ville, Dave Matthews and Boyd Tinsley were up-and-coming local musicians with the bigger name being Tinsley's

This along with the obscene pricing is precisely what shocked me when I visited the restaurant last December. Not all evolution or change is good. That is why some biologic lines die out and others thrive. Even though I believe this restaurant was poorly conceived at its start and for all I know may still be ill-conceived, I would hope that they have been able to evolve in a positive fashion. Given Batali's history and talent I know he is capable of it. Whether his ego allows him to do so is another question.

Doc, How good would it be with white truffle shaved in or/and on top of those ravioli? E p.s. I guess we will have to wait until season to see...repeat trip? ← How good indeed! I have no doubt that it would be worth the trip. Wendy, you and I both! I am sure molto as well

Thanks for the link to the PTa Vallarta event. It looks to be very interesting. Can't do it this year, but something to keep in mind for a future possibility!

As much as I truly love the restaurants that you have mentioned (although I have yet to dine at The Fat Duck), if I had to choose, for a variety of reasons my personal choice would still be EB. Diversity of opinion is one of those things that makes life interesting.

Nishla, thanks for the fine report and the compliment! While the food is fun and phenomenal, one of the things that really makes this such a particularly wonderful and unique experience is the intimacy of sitting at the bar and interacting with the Chefs as they are preparing the food. It makes for a truly great combination. Did your party take up the six seats? If not did you interact with the other diners? That was another feature I particularly enjoyed.

Nice report and photos. I take it that Avenues has reopened after its planned dining room facelift?

Nice report Eliot as usual. I am still bummed that I wasn't the recipient of the truffle dessert. The strawberry/olive dessert was good, but it paled in comparison. The quail egg ravioli dish is truly ethereal - a candidate for the single best dish I have had this year.

This sounds very promising indeed! It appears that they have been therre since at least 2005. I will have to make a point of going there, although I typically don't venture too far south of Saratoga.

Bryan, you may be thinking of La Maison Japonais, a French-Japanese Fusion restaurant that I used to frequent in the 1980's. I have no idea if it is still around or if not when it may have closed. It was in the same general area though. Another possible point of confusion might be the nearby Japonica, a Japanese restaurant at which I had my first date in 1983 with the woman who became my wife. As of a couple of years ago I know that it was still around and apparently going strong.

Based on the lounge price list alone, it sounds as if they have tempered their prices from when they first opened. That would be a good thing. The original pricing was obscene for what they were providing. This sounds much more reasonable. I might have to give it another try if I can find sufficient time to getback to NYC. Unfortunately I have a few places ahead of it on my list for the infrequency of my NYC visits (lately )