synaesthesia

Naked sushi in LA Brings new meaning to Sunset Strip.

Went to Ame last night. Allegedly this place is supposed to be pretty good. I suppose it has to do with the only ordering stuff from the sashimi bar. The first was hamachi with ponzu and wasabi tobiko. This was decent, but watching it getting prepped at the bar made me nervous. I know that a lot of stuff needs to be preprepared, but I saw them take it out of the mold that had been sitting in the fridge. This stuff had already been seared. Something about that just seems a little bit wrong. Still, it tasted pretty good, but the other ingredients overpowered the yellowtail itself. The second was avocado and tuna tartare with some kind of foie gras shavings. A little overegging the custard there. And all of it was too salty. When I complained the server pretty much didn't care. Oh well... you've been warned. Zuni Cafe this afternoon. The atmosphere is gorgeous, despite it being in a slightly odd, slightly scary area. Wished I could have found another person to come along, so I could have ordered the roast chicken, which smelled amazing. I ended up getting a hamburger with grilled onions. Very yummy with aioli, although the ciabatta could have been slightly heartier to stand up to the juicy burger. Nice pickles and pickled onions. Shoestring fries or potatoes, I can't remember what they were called, but they were closer to potatoes than fries, since most of them were fried til they were entirely crisp. There's a pretty cool newsstand on Market St., Fog City News. They sell over 250 types of chocolate bars - a number of them I've never seen before. Worth a visit if you're at Ferry Terminal Building, since it's about two or three blocks away.

Like dcdavidm, went to Tadich Grill, since it was the closest place open for lunch at 2pm. Service was actually pretty nice. Although I have to wonder if he thought I was my boss' young paramour. We had fried calamari, which was a bit on the flavorless end. Then I had a grilled branzino lunch special. It was cooked rather nicely, and was moist. However, it too was lacking in flavor, and seemed to be missing the "lemon drizzle" promised in the description. This morning headed to the Ferry Terminal Building. Tuesdays and Saturdays they have the outdoor farmers market. Fresh, organic strawberries. The best is the nut lady, who was giving me handful upon handful of samples. One of the really yummy things was dry roasted almonds in the shell. She also gave me some almond butter for my apple sample from the apple guy. I wish I could have had more time to stick around for burgers and some of the other good stuff. Inside, Miette has their excellent macarons, and hopefully soon will have their fleur de sel caramels, which they have allegedly been selling out of like crazy. More to report back later...

Hog Island is great. It's not formal at all though, in the Terminal building. I really enjoyed getting the mixed plate, which allows you to sample three different types of raw oysters. They were really nice to me, gave me an extra type since I was a noob. They really took care of me, and the oysters were really great. But I don't know what the recommendation is since you're going in May, unless you're going for cooked. I think the rule is only have raw in months with the letter 'r'.

Great job Matt! I think you write better than your dad =D.

But it was damn easy to get a parking space back then.

Not that anyone will really care, but this place is closing according to a post on Chowhound. Yay! Now no one at work will force me to go eat at this crabhole.

I think we'd kind of like a few details, aside from generalizations. The food didn't taste good? The service was poor? I think any response positive or negative, it's helpful to have elaboration. This isn't about getting the dirt, but about understanding and making our own determination.

I think there's also a little something called a delete button.

Edible Ads Hmm... sounds pretty darned cool.

O'Hare is decidedly not anyone's friend. Wolfgang Puck my @$$... in an airport? I didn't try, but I can imagine from the limp salads and nasty sandwiches in the refrigerator case. And I think I should have known better, but Burrito Beach takes the bad elements of Chipotle and makes them worse. It's hard to mess up a quesadilla, but they managed. Lesson learned: buy your food before you get to the airport. They could do well with a Garrett Popcorn in the airport. ORD

Spent a few days in Chicago... Japonais - Clubby sushi place. Place to see and be seen is my guess. I did not see any Japanese people there. Stuff not that authentic, but not bad. Had some uni, which made me realize I had some uni that was truly off (my first experience) at Kotobuki. Great spot if you're into trendy. But not if you want the real thing. Cuatro - Nuevo Latino spot not far from McCormick Place (convention center). Had a fantastic room for a group dinner. That's all it had going for it, and unfortunately I was the one who made the selection. Had a ceviche that had a tomato sauce which reminded me a lot of tomato soup with a lot of lime juice in it. Disgusting. Pork chop marinated in sugar cane juice, with what I am guessing was mashed yucca and green beans. Chop was not bad - I liked the sweetness. Yucca - a little dry. Green beans - undercooked and underseasoned. Hazelnut flan with chocolate cake. Flan was iffy, cake was disgusting and porous but tough. Like it had been moist once and sat drying out all day. Chicago was starting to look a little grim. Which is a darned shame, because I know there are a lot of excellent places. The last night, went to Alinea. Called and asked for a reservation the week before, and got in on a weeknight. Made a few adjustments and it was easy-peasy. 12 course + 2 gratis courses. Perfect intersection of art and craft. All this talk of "molecular gastronomy" is a joke. They are just a few techniques implemented in a whole range of solid basics that would stand alone very well by themselves. The man knows how to cook, it's not just the illusion of it.

Can I work from your home?

Is it just me or has shad/shad roe turned up EVERYWHERE lately? Is there some kind of shad lobbying/PR firm or something?

Interesting that you picked out two of Cindy Wolf's restaurants. Pazo's atmosphere is more noisy, club-like. Charleston is more quiet, more upscale. If I wanted to go somewhere for a five-year occasion, I'd go to Charleston. More focus on seasonal menus and the like. Since you seem to be into these Cindy Wolf-type restaurants, Petit Louis Bistro is also quite nice.

Aside from Dino, and Rosa Mexicano (unconfirmed), are there any other restaurants that host Passover meals? Need to change subject, but if they are seder meals also, that would be cool too.

There's a small parking lot for the place. I believe there is actually a garage further back. I think there is also street parking, and a Safeway catty-cornered from there... which yeah isn't totally legal, but just go in and buy a soda =D.

Walked past the old Trattoria Liliana spot on Connecticut Ave. There's a new sign for a pizzeria over the top that must have gone up over the weekend. Yeah... looks like another crap shoot for Van Ness. Just what we need... more pizza. =p I don't think that's the correct name for the place though.

We also the crispy salty eggplant, which had jalapenos and scallions. I thought it was really good, despite pretty much tasting like a salty tempura-ed potato. It's the whole fried philosophy: fry it and I'll eat it.

Pictures from dinner: http://flickr.com/photos/synaesthesia/tags/pekingcheers/ I am too beat to write anything. Someone else please do it. And the rumors are true. I did eat a fish eye. And for the record, DininginFrederick gets the next carcass.

Was conversing with some folks over dinner. It was agreed that I should throw out some clarification of a dish at dim sum =D. Pineapple custard buns do not contain pineapple. It's a reference to the look of the cookie crust that is on top, which looks a bit scored in the way that a pineapple does. That's why it's called a pineapple bun. They're one of my favorite sweet dim sum treats.

Has anyone who's been recently had a natto roll there? I went in today and asked about it, and they said they don't make it.

Restaurant Kolumbia bar lunch - 12:30 today.

That's pretty close to Corduroy... 12th and K... so it's not much further than Taro. Yeah.. other than that... Nage is at 16th and M... not too bad. Palette is also near there at 15th and M. My experience at Palette was so so, but it was during the holiday season and I think they were working with a skeleton staff. Il Mulino isn't too far either.

I'm going to throw out Teddy's Roti Shop out for next Tuesday, Mar. 13. More of a reconnaisance trip than anything else, since it is so close to a number of other events. I love me some roti.