Michael’s Seablue, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. I don’t remember what we ordered, so I’m just posting pictures of what we ate. I loved it.
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A critic’s most memorable dining experiences of 2009
Although the article appeared in the LA Times, it’s not limited to restaurants in LA.
I’ve eaten at a few of these places and I keep hearing such great things about Bazaar, by Jose Andres. Jason is determined to prepare one of Andres’s recipes for a party one of these days, and I hope this means he wants to try Bazaar with me the time after the next time I’m in LA.
Any New Yorkers care to weigh in on this one?
10 best non-Starbucks coffee shops in Manhattan
I always just drank coffee at Starbucks. Oh, and at this tiny Greek kitchen on the way from my subway stop to the school where I taught in Chinatown. $1.50 would get me a cup of coffee with tons of sugar and milk (perfect amounts for me) and a hot buttered bagel with a fried egg inside.
Americans prefer chocolate chip nearly three to one over other cookie types.
When I am out and order cookies, I almost always select chocolate chip or some variant of it. But my favorite cookie of all time is Patti’s home-made oatmeal cookies. I love oatmeal cookies, and so I don’t enjoy them when they’re not made perfectly to my liking, and NEVER do purchased-oatmeal cookies taste like Patti’s home-made ones.
Speaking of yummy chocolate chip cookies, my favorite ones can be found in NYC: the best traditional chocolate chip cookie (in my personal opinion, due to my particular tastes) is found at City Bakery near Union Square in Manhattan. I like the chocolate chips to be numerous, melted, large, and I like the dough to be lightly crispy on the outside, but chewy (not to be confused with soft!) on the inside.
A chocolate chip “cookie” that is also very very good is found at Levain Bakery on the Upper West Side. The bakery is very difficult to find unless you know it’s there: it’s in a basement and it’s tiny. There is enough room for about 5 people to sit/stand comfortably, because it’s basically a kitchen with a table and a counter. The people who work there are covered in flour and you can see metal stacked trays of delicious baked goods behind them. Their chocolate chip “cookie” I place in quotation marks because it’s more of a scone than a cookie. It’s this huge round lumpy scone filled with chocolate chunks and walnuts (which I usually don’t like, but they’re delicious in these cookies). They have the same texture as scones, but the good kind, that are warm and soft in the center without being wet. I can’t really describe them as being anything other than really really good chocolate chip nut scones, so you’ll have to go there and try them for yourself.
Here is a photo of the famed “chocolate chip walnut”:
Something I hear often is “you should try this place because they have the best bloody marys.” Everyone thinks they know where to get the best bloody marys. So I’m a little skeptical about this list, but I’m willing to try one at every one of these places. Any excuse for a drink!
The directions are a little strange, so I provided a link to them above. It’s definitely off the beaten path and a fair drive’s distance from Austin, but well worth the trek. Some advice: it’s located in a dry county, so bring a cooler full of your own beer. Once you get seated, enjoy some tasty BBQ and then move to the patio across the walkway to enjoy live music and more beer.
On to the food:
The menu was very simple. You get to pick three out of four: turkey, sausage, brisket, ribs. I chose to ignore the turkey. It came with cole slaw, potato salad, and beans. Texas beans are different. They’re not doused in BBQ sauce or really any sauce. They’re just beans, pure and simple. I prefer BBQ or baked or Boston baked beans. I was pleasantly surprised by the potato salad and cole slaw, which I normally ignore because I hate mayonnaise. These did not appear to contain any mayonnaise. The potato salad was really just mashed potatoes with some vegetables hashed in, and the cole slaw was seasoned with vinegar, I think. I ate a fair amount of the cole slaw, because of the meat overload. I also ate the pickles that were provided with some great crusty/doughy bread.
The meat was good, but the brisket wasn’t as juicy or tender as the brisket at Beaver’s. It had a wonderful pink smoke ring and the outside wasn’t tough or chewy, but caramelized well. I don’t remember the exact flavor of the sausage, but I remember enjoying it, and I think I finished it. The ribs were very good as well, but to be honest, Phil’s is still the clear winner, I think. I did really enjoy the rib, though.
As you can see, nothing is left on my plate but beans, potato salad, and brisket. Jason may have finished my plate for me post-photo. I did make sure that we didn’t leave without dessert.
Blackberry cobbler a la mode! And yes, it was a true cobbler: buttery doughy crust on top and surrounding, and the inside baked to a delicious hot mish-mash of berries and God knows what. I loved it. One of the best I have had, I think.
Pecan pie a la mode!! Wow, this pecan pie was gooooooood. The pecans tasted fresh and were caramelized and chewy and the inside was sweet without being overly so… the texture was divine and I was in heaven. I wanted to eat so much more, but we were already feeling a bit overfed.
This is the walkway you cross to get to the patio from the restaurant. The policemen are there presumably to make sure people don’t get drunk and unruly and also to make sure no one gets run over by cars entering the lot.
This is the entrance to the dining area. Don’t worry, you eat indoors where the sun isn’t blazing across your face. I loved eating here, and it was a wonderful Texas bbqing experience. Next time we’ll be prepared with a 6-pack. The address is a little strange, so I will leave it to you to follow the link I have provided in order to find yourself at a true Texas BBQ.
Many thanks to Mannam and Laura for recommending the Salt Lick to me and Jason. It was our favorite Texas stop on the way to Houston.
Le Comptoir du Relais
5, carrefour de l’odeon 75006 Paris
Ju Yon recommended this place to me and Jason as a romantic final dinner for the two of us. She was right. We tried to set out early, and it was located very close to her apartment, but even so, every table was already full and people were queueing on the sidewalk. The wait staff were extremely efficient and we did not have to wait too long for a table to open up, perhaps, 20 minutes. We sat at a tiny table that was technically outside of the restaurant, on the sidewalk. The tables were extremely close together, so we were pretty much elbow to elbow with the couples on either side of us.
This is Jason’s croque saumon fume. I’m guessing it’s their croque-monsieur, but with smoked salmon instead of jambon (ham). It was delicious, and not overly rich. It came with a small baby romaine lettuce salad.
My carpaccio tete de veau. Thinly sliced veal head, topped with baby romaine lettuce and chives. YUMMY! You already know I love veal head, and it was sliced so thinly and crisped the SLIGHTEST bit. I scraped the plate clean. You can see the ribbons of fat very clearly here.
Jason’s cochon de lait. Milk-fed piglet. Delicious. Fatty, tender, juicy, with the hint of smoky bacon. My stomach is growling just thinking about it. I think it was served on a bed of lentils.
My joue de boeuf. Beef cheeks. It was served in a type of stew, or casserole, with elbow macaroni, potatoes, and carrots. I keep using the same words over and over again, but until I find new ones, “juicy, tender, fall-apart at the touch of a fork” it will be. I really loved this place.
We finished with a cheese plate, but we were really too full to enjoy it as much as we should have:
As you can see, this place is casual and has a cafe-type feel:
I forgot how Jason and I found this place. It might have been on a blog we found of an American ex-pat living in Paris. It may also have been on Chowhound. Either way, this place was about 3 short blocks away from Ju Yon’s apartment. We decided to come here for lunch.
Roast squab on a bed of spinach, served with roasted fingerling potatoes:
I love this photo. This dish was perfect. The squab was juicy and rare, like I had requested, without being undercooked. The potatoes were very buttery and delicious as well. Simple and delicious meal.
Jason’s roast chicken:
Juicy and delicious as the photo suggests.
With a side of buttery, creamy mashed golden potatoes:
The food was simply prepared, and delicious. I highly recommend this place to anyone who wants good, simple, country French fare. Also, beware if you’re allergic to cats. There is an enormous and friendly cat walking around the premises as though he owns the place. As his framed photo is prominently displayed on the walls, maybe he does. He kept me very amused as he would visit each table to see if anyone fancied allowing him to join. I saw a woman wrap a handkerchief around her hand before pushing him out of the seat adjacent to her that he had occupied, he eagerly scanning the table to see what was for lunch.
Sorry it’s been so long. I finally learned how to re-size the pics so that they don’t take forever to upload.
On Day 3, Ju Yon took us to one of my now-favorite restaurants in Paris, Violon d’Inges. We had a wonderful time, and we spent another 4-hour-marathon dinner here. Of course, the wait staff never gave us a hint as to how uncommonly long we stayed.
My first course was an escargot souffle:
Looks like a pretty pastry shell, but otherwise, unremarkable, right? WRONG. Check out the inside (or what was left after I ravenously DEVOURED the interior):
Snails, mushrooms, various vegetables, in a creamy, flavorful bisque of sorts. Ju Yon at first couldn’t believe that there were snails inside, because they were as tender as mushrooms. The best escargot that I have ever had, hands-down. Combine that with the buttery, flaky pastry shell, and I was in heaven. It was my favorite course of the night.
Here is Jason’s dish:
Amusingly enough, he has no memory of what it was, but he does recall that it was a little too rich. I believe it is sliced cheek with layers of foie gras. There is a green bean salad on the side. I don’t recall the taste of his very well because I was too busy stuffing my face with the escargot souffle.
Here is my main dish:
Just like one of Carla’s challenge-winning dishes, it is roasted quail on a bed of fresh peas. The peas were enormous, slightly undercooked for a nutty flavor and they reminded me of edamame. Yes, it is pancetta bacon on top. Delicious, of course. Perfectly cooked, and I love small game fowl. The peas were pleasantly chewy and I think had been cooked with chunks of fatty bacon, if you can see them in the picture.
This is Jason’s cassoulet:
It was good, and supposedly this restaurant makes them especially well. It was the richest cassoulet I can imagine. I think one of the best words to describe it was: Overload. It contained lamb, chicken, beef, sausage, bacon, pork… I’m sure I’m leaving something out. I couldn’t believe how much meat and how many varieties of meat they managed to stuff into this dish. The dish was also roughly the size of an oven roasting pan. After filling Jason’s enormous dish from a huge piece of crockery, the waiter informed Jason that he was only being served half of his dish, and whenever he was ready, they would bring out the second half. They had to stagger the portions I am guessing for two reasons: no table dishware exists that is large enough to accommodate the full helping; they want to keep the dish warm because it is too big to finish before it cools. Jason gave me a piece of the fatty bacon (it reminded me of the thick slice of pork belly that sits on top of ramen) and I was instantly full. I have no idea how Jason managed to finish as much as he did.
My dessert:
I am annoyed that I can’t remember the name. Basically, imagine cream puff filling stuffed between flaky and delicate crisp layers of pastry sheets, liberally dusted with powdered sugar, and then topped with generous helpings of the caramel sauce from Ju Yon’s vanilla souffle. By the way, Ju Yon’s vanilla souffle was one of the best desserts I can remember. This isn’t to say that my dessert was not extraordinarily good. The cream filling was sweet and not overly rich and buttery. It was fluffy but still thick. I think the sauce was my favorite part.
Jason’s dessert:
Neither of us can remember what type of sorbet was on the side, but Jason recalls that the inside cream filling was chocolate. He also knows that the pastry portion consisted of “honey crackers.” You can see that it’s filled with raspberries as well, fresh ones. You can enjoy looking at the picture and fantasize what it tasted like.
We ordered coffee and it was accompanied by these delightfully lacy and crispy sweet burnt caramel crisps:
You can see the nuts along the outside. I would also like to draw your attention to the home-made chocolates sitting underneath:
They were gooey and if you held them for too long, the heat from your fingers made the chocolates droop and stretch. Yummy!!
As always, I must close with photos of my dear eating companions:
You can see a merry old gentleman behind our wine glasses. He was extremely amused at the fact that we kept taking pictures of the food, and I think he was happy that we appeared to like our food so much. He would occasionally talk to us in French and chuckled throughout our meal. We miss him.
Thanks to Ju Yon for finding this place and making reservations!
On day 2, Ju Yon made reservations for us at a tiny yet somewhat formal restaurant called Ribouldingue, one of the most memorable restaurants I have ever had the pleasure in which to dine. Their specialization is offal, and it is unbelievable how good it can taste and feel. The food here was mainly about texture.
Here is what it looks like from the outside:
It’s a tiny place on a tiny street (more like an alley), so you probably won’t find it unless you are looking for it.
Before we ordered our dishes, we received a large amuse-bouche. We still are not sure what it was that we ate, but it was tasty and covered in paprika.
You can see the jelly-like texture. There wasn’t much flavor to it; you noticed the texture more than anything else.
I photographed Ju Yon’s absinthe, because it was prepared the “proper” way:
Sorry the pictures are so dark and grainy: it was dark inside and when I took the first picture, the flash made all of the other restaurant patrons jump, so I turned it off. The glass had a small amount of green absinthe at the bottom. The hostess provided a spoon with holes that was placed on top of the glass, and placed a sugar cube on top of the spoon. She handed Ju Yon a tiny pitcher filled with clear liquid, which Ju Yon poured over the sugar cube, causing it to melt into the glass. You can see that it became cloudy. Although I am still not a fan of absinthe, this was much better than the absinthe I tasted in Prague. Of course, I took the absinthe in Prague straight, and chased it with packets of sugar that Val and Monique had brought from a cafe.
The menus were in French only, and so Ju Yon, Jason and I had to rely on our past years of French to decipher the choices. As we hadn’t spent much time learning about offal, we mostly had to guess based on the few words we did know, and even then, we weren’t sure what would appear before us.
I ordered a dish which read “something of pork, served on a bed of lentils,” which sounded good to me. When the waitress brought out my dish, I could see quite plainly that a pig snout was sitting atop a bed of lentils.
It looked quite horrific, but I bravely cut into it with my knife and was surprised at how easily and smoothly it slid through the meat/cartilage/muscle. It wasn’t rubbery, although it looked rubbery. It was more like slightly firm fat, but almost melted on the tongue with a bacon flavor. It was delicious. The lentils complemented the smoky bacon flavor perfectly. I would order this again in a flash.
We had the same confusion with Jason’s appetizer. We could decipher “veal” and salad. It sounded delicious, so he bravely ordered it. This is what arrived:
As you can see, it resembles thinly sliced beef flank. It reminded me of thinly sliced pork belly, slightly crispy, with lean meat and bits of fat, but no pork flavor. It was delicious, and we still couldn’t tell what it was. We all enjoyed it. After dinner, when we returned home (4 hours later), Ju Yon grabbed her dictionary and looked up this dish. Turns out the word we couldn’t decipher meant “cow udder.”
Ju Yon’s dish was the only one deciphered properly, and it was lamb tongue… we think…
It was delicious. The softest tongue I have ever eaten.
For my main dish, I understood what it was that I was ordering… mostly. I ordered head of veal, and I had no idea what to expect. I wasn’t sure how much meat would exist on a head, or where the meat came from. Was it going to be the cheeks? Were they going to scrape the meat from around the skull and just toss it onto the plate? Here is what surprised me:
Yes, it is what it looks like. You are staring at the brain of a baby cow. It is disgusting to be staring at it, when it is obvious what it is. I was brave enough to taste it, and I ended up finishing it, but I wouldn’t order brain again. I wish I had taken a photo of the cross-section when I cut it open. The inside was creamy white, solid, the way it looks when you cut into raw tofu or raw mozzarella. The texture was like flan, but the flavor was strange. It tasted all right as you chewed it up and tasted it on your tongue, but as you swallowed it, there was a strange sour aftertaste, like cream cheese or sour cream. The taste was fine, but the aftertaste was unsettling and sour. I didn’t like the aftertaste, so I’m not sure why I kept eating it.
The best part of the dish was the head itself:
Do you see the steak on the back of the plate? That was one of the most delicious things I have ever had. It was like braised short ribs in the form of prime rib, only the meat was more tender than any shortrib. There was a good deal of good fat surrounding the meat in a ring. Words cannot do the dish credit. Just trust me that “veal head” is a very good thing. But skip the brain.
Here are the kidneys that Jason ordered, I forgot from which animal:
They tasted like slightly gamey seared liver, but a little more steak-like. Jason was asked how he wanted it prepared, and I believe this is prepared medium. One of the things I miss about Paris is that the French never, ever, overcook their meat.
Here is Ju Yon’s tripe:
It looks like a delicious stew, and it tasted like a delicious stew. I love tripe. It came with wine sauce and herbs and vegetables, and it was a nice, comfortable, country-tasting dish.
Jason ordered French toast for dessert:
Yum!
I had coffee-flavored chocolate pot de creme with a madeleine:
I could probably eat this almost every day with coffee if I had the choice. The pot de creme had such a great texture and fluffy-to-thick ratio.
This is Ju Yon’s rice pudding with orange marmalade:
You can see the jam jar next to the plate. Ju Yon got to scoop the amount of home-made marmalade she wanted to add to the dish. It was a good ratio of sweet to bitter.
We spent 4 hours eating and drinking and having a wonderful time. We were one of the first to arrive for dinner, and the last to leave. Although the place had a slightly formal feel, the servers were extremely warm and made us feel at home. The restaurant had a nice volume level that allowed you to speak at a comfortable level, without shouting to be heard and without making you feel as though you had to lower your voice. Actually, every restaurant in Paris was like that.
This was one of my favorite dinners in Paris. I would definitely come back and do it all again. Just without the brain.
On day 2, we met Ju Yon at Breizh Cafe for lunch. It’s a tiny crepe restaurant on a busy street and we ended up waiting in a park for 30 minutes until a table was free. The owner of the cafe is French, and his wife is Japanese, and there are several Japanese touches to the cafe.
One wonderful thing about this cafe was their specializing in ciders, as opposed to wines. I have never seen such a large cider menu (or a cider menu at all, really) in a restaurant before. The owner’s wife selected one for us, at our urging.
You can see the brand and the type (I’m not sure which is which). I am guessing that it would be difficult to find it outside of France, as it is described as artisan on the label. This is too bad because the cider was delicious! It was crisp, bubbly, and sweet. We were heavily considering ordering more, but we were too stuffed and the place was too busy. You can also see that we drank the cider out of small Japanese bowls, which I suspect are usually used to serve miso soup.
My crepe: L’oignon confit du pommes, fromage, oeuf miroir, jambon (apple-sauce onions?, cheese, soft-fried egg, ham).
The crepe was made with buckwheat flour, which made it taste heartier, but also less cloying. The batter was crispy thin and lacy, as you can see. But it didn’t crackle and disintegrate under my fork (perhaps because of the cheese, come to think of it), much to my delight. It was cooked perfectly: nowhere was it undercooked nor burnt. The egg was also cooked perfectly. I wrote that it was soft-fried, and I have no idea what I meant by that. But it was different from a traditional sunny-side up, that I could make out. It was just fried and nice and yolky, but there was no sign of it having been cooked directly on a pan’s surface. I don’t know how to describe it, other than perfect. When I broke the yolk, it oozed and soaked into the bread nicely. The ham was good, but my favorite part of the crepe was the onion confit du pommes. The onions were grilled and clear and soft, but they had a slight sweetness to them that was unbelievable. I could have eaten a crepe filled only with the oignon confit du pommes.
Ju Yon had the special of the day, a “Crepe Paysanne”: Andouille, oeuf miroir, l’oignon confit du pommes, fromage (Andouille sausage, soft-fried egg, apple-jam onions?, cheese).
Ju Yon’s tasted very similar to mine, but it differed by meat. I rarely order anything with Andouille sausage in it, because I don’t like the grease, but as you can see by the photo, her sausage wasn’t greasy. It tasted similar to how it looks, with the strange addition of a liver flavor and scent. I was more mystified than charmed, but it worked well with the rest of the crepe.
Jason’s crepe was jambon cru, oeuf brouille, fromage (cured ham (cru literally means “vintage”, scrambled egg, cheese):
That ham!! Wow, it was delicious. It was soft and flavorful without destroying your tongue. It’s sliced so thinly it’s transparent in parts!
Ju Yon and I, being shameless pigs and craving oysters, ordered a plate of them. Afraid of how our stomachs would react to having raw oysters in them first thing, we asked the hostess to bring the raw oysters out after our crepes, much to her surprise. She kept asking if we were sure we knew what we were asking and finally nodded, laughing at us.
Check out this beautiful plate!
The oysters were DELICIOUS. So soft and slippery, falling apart on your tongue, and filled with clean, salty juices of ocean and lemon. We kept trying to get Jason to try one, but I think he could tell how much we were enjoying them and refused to partake on the grounds that he didn’t want to deny us even one.
The oysters were accompanied by pickled butter and a spiced sauce that went very well with the oysters:
You can see the Japanese details in the shape of the butter and the serving dishes used.
Yes, we went all-out: Here is our crepe de sucre (sweet crepe, or literally, “sugar crepe”) - poivre, chocolat, amandes, vanille glace (pear, chocolate, almonds, vanilla ice cream).
Yes, we were very full after all that.
One of the best things about Paris are Parisian macaroons, or macarons. I have tried Parisian-style macaroons all over the US and they were almost terrible in comparison. There are two very famous places in Paris in terms of quality macaroons, and they are Pierre Herme and Laduree. Laduree is the more known one, but this may be because they have a sit-down restaurant and cafe in which you can order food and drink as well as desserts. I didn’t take pictures at Pierre Herme because there was a very long line and you ordered at a counter and walked out as quickly as possible to keep from getting in the way of other customers.
We enjoyed a nice afternoon tea at Laduree during our first day in Paris with Ju Yon.
The famous macaroons, in flavors vanille, citron, et pistache (vanilla, citron - no, it’s not the same thing as an orange or a lemon, and pistachio).
Yummy! True Parisian macaroons have a slightly crumbly wafer shell, with lightly chewy and soft “cookies” and a luxuriously creamy center. They are one of my favorite sweets in the world. That is saying a lot.
Jason ordered a vanilla eclair:
I may have been too full to try a piece. Again, Jason should guest-blog.
Here is Ju Yon’s dessert. God knows what it is, but it was good and resembled a super-fancy cream puff with pistachio cream and French country strawberries.
We ordered a cup of the chocolat chaud laduree (Laduree’s hot chocolate), and it was so creamy and rich. It was melted chocolate served in a silver pitcher and poured slowly into a cup. Oooohhhh… I also ordered hot black fruit tea, which was delicious and I wish I could order it here.
The main difference between Pierre Herme macarons and Laduree macarons that I could distinguish was the type of flavors that they offer. Laduree macarons come in very straightforward flavors: chocolate, caramel, vanilla, pistachio, etc. Pierre Herme macarons have seasonal flavors like: jasmine; cassis; olive oil and vanilla; rose; caramel coffee, etc. Pierre Herme macarons are prettier, because they have a pearly finish to the outer shell, and the colors tend to vary between the cream filling and the outer shell. Some of the macaroons have contrasting colored dots on the outer shell for decoration as well.
I can’t pick a favorite between the two stores because it’s like picking a favorite ice cream flavor. Sometimes you’re in the mood for vanilla, sometimes you’re in the mood for Gold Medal Ribbon. Both stores make their macaroons with the perfect ratio of chewy to soft and crumbly.
Our first dinner in Paris was at Le Pre Verre. Ju Yon had made reservations because this place was packed and looked as though it were popular every night. There was a slight mix-up with the reservation, but they were still able to seat us immediately and were very accommodating.
Wine in France is so tasty and costs so little. Ordering wine with meals was pretty standard during our trip. I also like places that include a small dish of tasty olives to enjoy with wine.
Foie gras au citron confit:
I don’t remember the flavor too well, actually. The foie gras part of the dish was very very buttery and rich. I remember the silky texture on my tongue. The vegetables embedded in the foie tasted a little sour and tart. I would have enjoyed the dish more if it hadn’t included the vegetables. The crisp sliced vegetables on the plate neutralized the richness of the foie very well.
Hure cochon grillee, chutney de beteraves (grilled pig head and some type of chutney):
This picture is bigger because it’s such a pretty and delicious dish. I need to have Jason guest-blog if possible. We all made sure to order different items at every restaurant and enjoyed our own dishes so much that after only a sample of each others’ dishes, we’d go on and finish our own, often forgetting the finer points of our friends’ plates. You can tell how tasty this dish is from looking at it and knowing that cochon means pork, right? I believe the thin red wafer atop the dish was akin to a potato chip made of bacon.
Creme aubergines et poivrons, sesame noir (eggplant and sweet pepper cream soup, black sesame):
My favorite appetizer of the night. I don’t know how to describe the flavor, but the subtlety of the different ingredients mixing in and delivering the right amount of each individual flavor was quite the impressive feat. Needless to say, it was creamy and delicious. Jason scored a winner with that one.
Lapin au cumin et puree de patates douces (cumin-flavored rabbit and sweet potato puree):
For those of you who have had rabbit, you know that rabbit meat tends to be tough and dry (presumably because of the muscles and being caught out in the wild). This was the tenderest, juiciest rabbit meat I can imagine. I’ve only had it one other time, at a nice restaurant in Anaheim called the White House, and this Parisian rabbit puts it to shame. The sweet potato puree was a nice touch, too.
Cochon de lait fondant et chou croquant aux …. (milk-fed piglet, melting with crunchy cabbage):
Yum!!! The name says it all. Unfortunately, when I took a picture of the menu to remember all the dish names, I cut off the last part of this one, so I don’t know what type of crunchy cabbage this was or with what it was mixed (besides delicious pig meat). So tender and fatty… Good pork is tough to beat.
Foie de veau au tamarin, polenta grillee (veal liver with tamarin, grilled polenta):
Slightly gamey liver, but not as strong as most non-fowl livers that I’ve had. Definitely not as “earthy.” Caramelized grilled onions were delicious and so was the polenta. I don’t remember if I finished my dish, but I tried to. It was a wonderful first plate dinner to have.
Fraises au persil et sa glace (strawberries on parsley and parsley ice cream):
Very refreshing and very delicious. The waiter recommended it enthusiastically when we asked him for his opinion. We had also seen several plates of this dessert cruising past us en route to other lucky tables. The white dust is powdered sugar, and parsley ice cream is mild and good for digestion after a rich meal. The brownish liquid was originally shaved parsley and parsley juice, but the strawberry juice mixed into it and turned it brown. This did not decrease the flavor in any way. The dessert tasted almost healthy. Maybe it was. I would love it if I could have this during the summer.
Creme caramel poivre et sel (Peppered and salted flan):
Flan is pretty much flan anywhere you are, and rarely is it bad. This flan was very good, and the firmness was perfect, as well as the caramelization on top. The addition of pepper and salt did not ruin the flavor, and it was a unique flavor - the pepper and salt featured very strongly in this dish, but I would prefer to have creme caramel without the seasonings.
It’s so great to be able to categorize an entry under “Travel.” Anyway, you know that Jason and I went to Paris to visit Ju Yon and stuff our faces. Fortunately, Ju Yon was more than qualified to assist us in doing just that. After arriving at her apartment, she took us on a quick tour of the Latin Quarter and then brought us to Cuisine de Bar for our first meal in Paris.
For lunch, we had their lunch prix fixe menu which consisted of a salad (no photo bc you know my stance on reviewing salads), a tartine of your choice, wine, and coffee.
Ju Yon’s tartine: chicken with mayonnaise and anchovies.
Bread was delicious, first of all. It came from a famous bakery next door, whose name I cannot recall, despite Ju Yon having told me twice. I do not like mayonnaise one bit, but mayo in France tastes very different. It is more like a herbed aioli, with a delicate creamy flavor. I liked it, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to order it. The chicken wasn’t dry at all, of course, and who knew how well anchovies would complement chicken?
Jason’s salmon tartine:
Like rich, buttery lox. This may have been my favorite of the three. I forgot what else was in his tartine, but all you could really taste was the salmon.
My sardine tartine:
I had ordered the tartine thinking that the sardines would be whole, so I was surprised when it appeared in the form of a tuna fish sandwich. However, the tomatoes were tart and good, and I do like the taste of sardines. It did remind me a little of canned tuna. I would probably order a different tartine if I were to return.
Delicious French coffee with a cookie spoon:
Maybe my favorite part of the meal. The coffee cup is tiny, and French coffee is so good! There is a chocolate-like flavor to all their good coffees and I will miss it greatly. The cookie spoon also came from the bakery next door, and I regret not buying a few boxes to bring back to the States. The spoon was delicious; it tasted like a Madeleine but stiffer so that it would stir the coffee adequately before getting soaked and soft.
I took a weekend trip with Jason, his sister, her boyfriend, and his family to Lake Mead. We stayed on a houseboat and had lots of fun. Here are some photos:
Julie’s boyfriend, Mike:
Chris was trying to retrieve what he thought was a ping pong ball, but when it accidentally cracked open under his fingers, we realized it was actually a turtle egg:
HOT!!!
In school, I learned to write my name on everything I own in order to prevent loss:
Julie kayaking towards Mike:
View on our way to Hoover Dam:
Hoover Dam:
Chris fishing:
Donna caught a striped bass (it was delicious!):
This is how we spent most of the weekend:
Jason and I went to Phoenix over the weekend to celebrate the engagement of Jeff Critchley and his fiancee, Jessie.
Congratulations!!!
We had a great time (they were excellent hosts and had just bought a new house and had really fun cats to play with). There was much more to do in Phoenix than Jason and I had expected, so much so that we didn’t have time to see everything we had planned on seeing (we’re coming back for Pizzeria Bianco, Roosevelt Row, Roosevelt Tavern, and the Desert Botanical Gardens). We also didn’t know about the cats, and it’s amazing how much time I can spend tickling cats.
We ate very well. I didn’t take a picture because it was dark outside, but our hosts took us to Farmer Joe’s Grill and we ordered a BBQ pizza and a chicken pesto sandwich. Both were delicious. This place was a house that was converted into a restaurant. They specialized in fresh quality ingredients. They also had this crazy bathroom with a TV and dolls on the walls.
The next day we ate brunch at this really popular place called Matt’s Big Breakfast. The wait was insane, but the food was worth it.
I am not a fan of potatoes, and these were the best hash browns I have ever had. Well, half of them were. I was given 2 hash brown patties, and one was really thick and mushy and moist, and the other was like a potato cracker. I got 2 eggs over easy (my favorite way) and thick-cut bacon. The bacon was good quality, but I like my bacon softer, greasier, and less-cooked. It came with a side of toast, and at most restaurants, I ignore the side toast, but this was bakery bread, pain, with a multi-grain crust, thickly sliced. It came with a slab of butter and yummy jam, maybe black currant-flavored? Jason ordered honey lemonade, which was delicious. He ordered a similar dish to mine, but had the home fries and a side of ham that I loved. I’ll let him blog about that.
That night we ate at Cowboy Ciao’s in Scottsdale, which was nice. The restaurant had a nice feel to it, and we ate at the bar, which was cozy, as the bartenders were chatty and attractive. The dishes were pretty creative, but my favorite was the scallops on a bed of beet risotto. This was the only dish that we didn’t choose on our own, but had chosen on the advice of our bartender. The other dishes included a mushroom dish that I had chosen, but it wasn’t too impressive. We also ordered their famous Cowboy salad, which was very good. We cleaned our plates. I don’t remember what type of greens were in it (Jason says arugula and lettuce), but it had smoked salmon, trail mix, cranberries, dried sweet corn, with a dressing that I want to say was buttermilk poppyseed, but I do not remember. There were some other ingredients in that salad that I cannot remember. Oh well. For dessert, we had bread pudding, and I remember an ice cream with bits of orange in it, but I can’t recall the rest. I hope Jason blogs about this place, since my memory is so terrible.
The next day, we checked out a place on Roosevelt Row called Phoenix Ranch Market.
We didn’t know what to order, even though so many things looked and smelled very good. It was a big Mexican grocery store, with a tortilleria and seafood section with fresh ceviche, as well as a bakery and juice stand. I’d like to say that we had an amazing meal, but I’ve had better in LA and SD. I should also add that the dishes that everyone else ordered looked and smelled much tastier, so I’m assuming we just made poor choices while ordering.
This is my lingua gordita:
The gordita bread was very greasy, so I just took a fork and scooped out the tongue and ate that. It was very tender and tasty.
Ranch taco with chicken:
I was disappointed with it, but Jason appeared to love it.
Jason’s torta:
I’ll let him blog about it, since I didn’t like it much. It was strange to me that they used sweet bread.
We finished our trip by stopping in Glendale to the see the Cardinals football stadium.
Well, I guess we finished our AZ trip by stopping at a Sonic in Yuma, but we didn’t take pictures of that. When I see you, I’ll tell you a funny story about the dangers of eating Cinnasnacks.
We are definitely planning on making another trip out here.
So there is way too much to say concerning our trip to Praha. I loved it, would love to go back, and there are things that I miss already about that place, but it’s good to be home. One of the things that I had in Praha that I miss over here is the heated towel rack. It was so nice to wrap yourself up in toasty linens after a shower. One of the things that I was happy to leave in Praha was their toilet paper. It was the color and consistency of brown grocery bags. Next time, I’m bringing several rolls of Charmin.
Here is a picture that may have summed up our flight to Paris (I’m sorry, Jason!):
