Philadelphia

My 4th trip to Philadelphia for the American Society of Nephrology Annual Meeting. City actually has some great food and I have eaten a few of my favorite meals, all-time there (Morimoto's & The Fountain at the Four Seasons Hotel). This go around, I had one memorable meal at "Cuba Libre". The menu is designed to reflect what Cuban food would be like if Castro hadn't fucked everything up...

http://www.cubalibrerestaurant.com/

Restaurant has all kinds of Carribean/South American beverages and an extensive rum list...mojitos are made with fresh guarapo (hand-pressed sugar cane juice). Very tasty!

We got their tasting menu for only $39/each. Don't know how they stay in business. This is what we had

Appetizers-
Ceviche!: Baja bay scallops, blackened tomatillo-truffle sauce, goat cheese confetti, flat bread
Chicken empanada with corn & jack cheese on a tomatillo relish
Guava BBQ Ribs on a jicama-Sambal salad
Black-bean hummus with plantain & yucca chips

Main-
Ensalad del Pais: mixed greens, arugula, jicama, pepitas, orange supremes w/ Sherry vinaigrette
Suntanned Salmon: Chilean salmon with honey-mango glaze with star anise tomato sauce
Camarones con Cana: pan seared sugarcane skewered jumbo shrimp, mango BBQ glaze
Churrasco a la Cubana: grilled skirt steak on roasted garlic mashed potatoes, parsley, lemon and onion sauce, watercress and rosemary mushroom escabeche salad
Cuban black beans and rice
Maduros: fried ripe plantains
Sauteed young mustard greens in a spicy chorizo broth

Desert-
Flan
Coconut rice pudding with chopped coconut macaroons
Chocolate-cinnomin fallen down cake

Best $40 ever spent. My favorite was the ceviche by far. So much so that I went back there by myself at at some at the bar. I wanted Jennifer to try, so I came up with my own recipe that was surprisingly close...I took several short-cuts, but here goes-

Mise:
12 oz bag frozen sea scallops (look for ones vacuum packed without any ice crystals), thawed in refrigerator overnight
1 large naval orange, juiced & strained
4 persian limes, juiced & strained
1 serrano chili, finely minced (flesh only)
1 chipotle chile, finely minced
3 Tablespoons minced red onion
1/2 tsp truffle oil
4 tablespoons store bought tomatillo sauce
About 3 drops of liquid smoke
Crumbled goat cheese

Best to make over 2 daysAfter thawing scallops, combine in non-reactive bowl with juice, chiles, and onion and "cook" for about 4 hours. Strain out most of the juice (or scallops become overcooked and mushy), cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to eat.Before serving, strain again and toss with tomatillo sauce, truffle oil, and liquid smoke (careful with this stuff, I added b/c I didn't want to make my own smoked tomatillo sauce, it worked well). To finish combine with as much goat cheese as you like (I used about 1/4 cup). Enjoy! I also bought some "veggie chips" in the hippie section of the grocery store that were made with yucca, plaintains etc that worked very well.

JW

Destination 10: Clock Bar, Westin St. Francis

This place deserves a special mention because I thought it was such a cool little bar. The inside was really posh with nice decor, and the clientele was sort of upper end hip. We sat right where you see those dudes in the picture. They had a great scotch selection, and played some cool sushi techno music. Definitely a cool place to have a drink, especially if you're going to Michael Mina restaurant (27 points in Zagat's). Sorry, I didn't do that.

Destination 9: Sellers Markets.

This was a cool little lunch/breakfast place that I found next to the BART station as I was on my way out of town. I had a breakfast burrito with chorizo, egg, and sauteed potatoes. Hit the spot. No Z rating yet, but a lot of people had nice things to say about it on the website, and apparently they have good stuff for lunch or takeout.

Destination 8: Mixt greens.

A great lunch place, and the line out the door proved it. 23 points (right, for a salad joint?) from Z. It was one of these places that was tucked around the back of an office building. The concept is that whole restaurant is a huge mise en place of salad ingredients, check out the website to see everything they can put on there. The also have predesigned salads that each one of their 3-4 mixologists prepares and tosses with dressing in front of you.
I thought it was a perfect lunch place, and it gives one a great idea of how to prepare a good fresh tasting salad. The final point of this place was that they had free filtered water in pitchers as you walk into the place. Interestingly, they put sliced lemons and sliced/slitted cucumbers which gave the water a very fresh taste. Great idea!

Destination 7: Campton Place Restaurant

Whew. This was the high-end culinary highlight of the trip. 25 pts from Z, you could imagine that it was at least that. Ultimately, I thought the service, the wine, and the food were impeccable.

We sat right under that flower in the middle of the room. The restaurant is small with 25-30 seats. Let me make sure I get this straight to relay what we had, because it came and went so fast, it was hard to keep track. It started with an amuse bouche of small pastry puff with an herbal foam/emulsion that had an incredible texture. This was followed by a small appetizer soup of ginger ice cream in a fish consomme. This was one of the most incredible dishes we had all night. Very small, and we didn't even order it or the first one, it was just part of it. Appetizer was barely seared scallops with prosciutto chips. Awesome, delicate, salty. My entree was duck with seared foie gras and chantarelle mushrooms and roasted carrots. I don't have any pictures of these, but they were really great. Other appetizers and entrees enjoyed were roasted leg and rack of lamb, shitake mushroom soup, and seared ahi tuna. A pre-dessert was a lime sorbet with watermelon shaved ice. We finished with a cheese plate and some aperitifs. The wine selection was awesome, Crocker Starr cab, 2003. There was a tasting menu that went for 95 bucks a piece, and although we didn't do that (maybe we should have) we still came out about 125-150 a piece. Steep, but sometimes it's worth it. I wouldn't have thought of this place, but maybe I should have.

Destination 6: Ryoko's sushi bar.

This was one of the neatest little places I've ever been. So, I went by myself, and took a chance. But, when in San Francisco, I started thinking about what kind of food would I have the hardest time reproducing in the midwest or back east? Easily, the answer was sushi.

This place looked like DT's down under in Athens. A total dive, you had to go underground to find it. From the outside, it looked like nothing. Again, taking another chance, I sat down at the bar, and ordered (what else?) sake and asked for omakase.

I got abalone, Japanese mackerel, toro, unagi, and sea urchin. I don't think I've ever had this mackerel before, but it was incredible. But, so was the toro. Far better than the other place we went. Then I found out that they had two kinds of toro (chu and O, the latter being the fattier and more prized, as well as pricy), and I had gotten the less fatty of the two, chu-toro. I ordered one more of each, and two more mackerel. Pretty awesome food.

The other charms of the place were the decor (total 70's bar), the music (B-side 80's), and the wait staff who were these cute, young Japanese women who were the nicest people I've ever encountered at a sushi bar. I would definitely go back, but keep it a small group.

Destination 5: Hog Island Oyster Company

This place was the real deal. 24 points from Z, I went with a friend, sat in the back right-hand corner of the image above, and had a dozen mixed oysters. This is a company that farms their own oysters, and they also sell them and will ship. We had small sweetwater, blue point, and Kumamoto oysters. You don't need any sauce, slurp them right out of the shell, make sure you drink the liquor. This was accompanied by a west coast style clam chowder with the clam shells in the soup. It was a white fish broth, milk, potatoes, onions, some herbs and the clams. When the ingredients are that good, don't need to go crazy. They had pretty good beer, although at this point my body was a little upset with the previous night, so I had a pilsner which I enjoyed (OK I had two). Just a word about these west coast oysters: they're super sweet and briny, incredible if you ever get the chance. They're also smaller than you see than the ones back east. Can't miss. Just check carefully to make sure they're open, this is a great lunch destination. Bring your checkbook: dozen oysters, couple of beers, 2 orders of clam chowder, 80 bucks.

Destination 4: Sakana Japanese Sushi

Zagat unrated. We picked this one up off a recommendation from the concierge at the Marriott. Recommended for the different variety of fish that they carry. We had Japanese sea bream, which was pretty good. Their toro was slightly above averge, but not enough to give up anything important to you (see later). I found it to be a little stringier than it should have been, implying lower quality. We ordered omakase (chef's choice) with a couple of rounds of sake, which were actually pretty good. We got spicy tuna rolls (why would you do that?), sea urchin, freshwater eel, abalone, and sea bream. The sea urchin, if you've never had it, wow. Get ready for some scary texture. The cold sake was good, although I admit I don't know much about it. It was solid, but there are better.

Destination 3: the Metreon.

Shopping center right next to Moscone center North. There was Buckhorn's (a steak salad and sandwich place that was pretty tasty), Jillian's, a sports bar that was so-so, and Luna Azul burrito joint that wasn't too bad (chicken pesto burrito). The only reason I bring it up is because the food at the convention center should be pitched into a waste dump, and you have reasonable options right around the corner.

Destination 2: Waterfront restaurant

Waterfront Restaurant. 18 points in Zagat. We found that it had a great view of the bay, including the bay bridge. They had a very reasonable wine list with some nice varietals that might be a little hard to find outside of California. We had a nice Charbono (Summers 2006) and Syrah (Briarwood Reserve ?2003) for under 40 bucks each. Then, we ate the food. And disappointment ensued. Fortunately it was not that terribly expensive. I had a seabass that was horribly overcooked and underseasoned. The fish all came with dipping sauces. That should have been the dead giveaway that I was in for lower quality stuff. The view was 30 points, the food was about right, 18. I would only go here again for the view and maybe the well-priced wine. The other take-home message: try strange varietals, although I don't know how many from California ones are available back east or even in the midwest. Example: Briarwood Reserve Syrah is from a small winery with production of 1000-2000 cases a year, whereas Yellow Tail (don't do it!) is the most common imported wine in this country with production around 50,000 cases a year. The more boutique and obscure, the more popular now in California, so said the sommelier. They make a lot of it, so take their word for it.

San Francisco, a blurry culinary tour

Let me first say that San Francisco is one of the ultimate destinations for anyone that has even a remote interest in food and/or wine. The beauty of a city like this, similar to many of the great cities in the world, is the walkability to so many incredible places to eat and drink.

You could spend the rest of your life exploring this city, and another lifetime figuring out how to pay for some of it. That said, this post concentrates on places that were walking distance from my hotel, The Palace on Market and Montgomery. It's a great hotel, but for the money I think I would have liked one of the Westin hotels better, but what the heck.

The other thing that I did (and highly recommend) is I purchased an online subscription from Zagat's which was really spot on. Just remember, normal humans eat at places from 20-25. Anything much higher than that, and you need a second mortgage. Not that it might not be worth it on occasion.

Destination 1:

The 7/11 on Market street. Pack of crackers and a diet coke. What can I say, I got there late and I was tired. More to come.

New York City

A few weeks back, Jennifer had a weekend conference in NYC. I hadn't been in quite a while, and Jen had never been...so we went! We were unable to secure any hotel for 3 consecutive nights, so we hotel hopped all over Manhattan (South of Central Park). Of course I viewed this as a perfect opportunity to eat myself nearly to death and after 3 days and about $1000, I almost succeeded.

First thing I did is purchase a Zagat guide from Habib. Habib was selling Zagats, falafals, and porn. I chose the 2008 NYC Zagat Restaurant Guide and started to scan any 26 and up joint in the neighborhood. Luckily (so I thought), Esca, a Batali/Bastianich Italian seafood joint was only a few blocks away. Zagat rated a 27... Usually you wouldn't be able to get a reservation at such a place, but you'd be surprised with only 2 people how many openings are available...you will get the worst seat in the house, but hey, you're sitting down.

Atmosphere was about what one would expect. Nice but not overdone. Curteous waitstaff, who actually weren't that knowledgeable. We started with some supposedly fresh sardines. I nearly gagged on these. I don't like sardines from a can, Jen loves them and thought these were OK. We'd had some nice ones in Baltimore that I really enjoyed. These were simple enough. Grilled with some olive oil...that's it. 2 measley sardines grilled in olive oil for about $18. Things weren't starting off well... Until, Jen's second course. She ordered maccheroni alla chittara with lump crabmeat and sea urchin. I cannot begin to tell you how awesome this was! Homemade pasta pressed thru the chittara tossed in a rather robust buttery seafoody sauce. I've never tasted sea urchin before, and I'm not sure my description could do it justice, so I'll just say it was scrumptous. I choked and ordered ricotta gnocchi, the description said light and ethereal...they were heavy and tasted like biscuit dough...they were served in cold tomato sauce that tasted like pureed canned tomatoes...I'm not joking, this was one of the worst Italian dishes I've ever had outside of my own kitchen ('cept maybe Fazoli's, sorry G). I told Jen that I could make these 1000 times better and did as soon as I got off the plane in Augusta, just to prove that gnocchi are good eats...Mario's chef let me down. For our entree, we decided to split the "Ippoglosso" a Digby bay halibut with braised leeks and baby spinach. I was excited about this one, but again disappointed. Fish was pan-seared/pan-burnt on one side and dry as a chip. Totally overdone...should have sent it back, but it was so small, after Jen and I each had a bite the dish was nearly gone... Oh well. The only saving grace to the meal was a reasonable "wine by the glass" menu. Each "glass" came as a 1/2 caraffe. So after 2 each (probably about 3/4 bottle of wine), we didn't care that the appetizer, my pasta, and our entree sucked. Didn't order desert b/c the night was young. I'm thinking about emailed Batali and letting him know that his name is at risk if he doesn't pay more attention to his growing number of restaurants...next thing you know, we'll be ordering frozen/reheated pizzas from Mario Express in Hartsfield-Jackson.

Now for the good. I love Bistro food and Jen loves Tony Bourdain. So we had to drop into Les Halles for lunch the next day (BTW) it's colder than it looks...

What would I order...easy...predictable...perfect. Gratinee des Halles, a nice burgendy, followed by steak au poivre & frites. Enough said, it was wonderful! Nothing flashy, just a relaxed atmosphere & tasty victuals. It really had the feeling of a neighborhood hang out. Actually, we couldn't pin-point any other tourists while we were there...

The remainder of our meals there were nondiscript. Most pretty good. Had a few meals in Little Italy...lunch on Saturday should be mentioned. Jennifer was in her conference and I had all day to screw around. Thought I would walk to the Time-Warner Center and check out Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery. Doubt I'll ever be able to eat at Per Se or The French Laundry, so what the hell, I'll have the man make me a sandwich! Atmosphere total mall. Sitting at a community table with some very annoying locals who felt the need to lecture me on politics...they suspected I wasn't from NYC...wonder what tipped them off? Sitting under a huge Samsung with a beautiful view of the escalators, I ordered lobster/black-truffle mac & cheese. This thing nearly killed me. Nova Scotian lobster, pasta, black-truffle, gruyere cream sauce...rich, rich, rich...loved it...couldn't finish it...could barely walk back to Grand Central Station. BTW-$35 for mac & cheese...should have seen it coming.

Perhaps the coolest thing about NYC was the market at Grand Central Station. They have every ingredient that you could never find in your local mega-mart. Truffles, foi gras, zucchini blossoms, pea shoots, exotic meats, squab etc...they even had ramps! Should stop in if you're ever there and check it out. Finally, the subway is clearly the way to get around Manhattan...sorry for rambling. I'll do better next time.

JW

Maryland Crab Cakes...

Just got back from Baltimore after a fun-filled 2 day excursion at John's Hopkins (more on that later). Only my second visit to Baltimore, the first didn't count as I was there in ?1996 or so at an BoSox/Oriole game. Interesting city, Baltimore. It has a small feel, not unlike San Francisco with tons of stuff...but tons of shady areas and tons of bums. Everywhere you went, it seemed like you were on the edge of "the hood", and you were. Weird place. With that said, as always, I wanted to at least get the most out of Baltimore, from a culinary standpoint, that one could get during a 2 day Hopkins evaluation.

The first night was a complete bust. Jennifer's step-brother lives about an hour outside of town and is nowhere near a foodie. He and his wife picked us up from the airport and took us to some seafood shack that had overpriced and over-greasy seafood. Felt like I was at a $25/plate version of Long John Silver's, except the food was not as good as Long John's...Luckily we were able to ditch the family for the final day and a half.

Day 2: Morning was comprised with some Starbuck's, a trip to a vascular surgeon at Hopkins and a CT angio for Jennifer...Fun! We got out of there around 2:30 hungry and ready for a break. After consulting some of the more affluent appearing locals, they suggested we check out an area of Baltimore on the Chesapeake called Fell's Point. By the time we arrived on foot, it was after 3PM and all the upscale appearing restaurants had closed their lunch service...so we settled on a place called "Shuckers"...not a chain, but very well could have been. We order crab cakes and a seafood sampler and some beers. I didn't expect much, but these crab cakes were the best I have ever eaten. This includes ones eaten at Commander's Palace and Alex Patout's in NOLA. All lump meat, minimal binder, perfect sear...delicious! A nice surprise was the seafood sampler: steamed clams, mussels, shrimp, snow-crab legs (doesn't fit, but GOOOOD). Everything tasted wonderfully fresh and smelled only of the sea. After our lunch, Jen and I agreed that shrimp is the most over-rated food of the sea and it's a shame it's the only thing we can get in Augusta that doesn't taste like mullet...

What to do next? Jen had heard of an Italian bakery in Baltimore's Little Italy called Vaccaro's. There we ordered some latte's and what else, a sampler platter. Came with 2 canolis, 2 cream puffs, a pignoli, a sliced almond, and an amaretto cookie. This was a mistake...everything was delicious, but very filling and the sugar rush wiped me out for a few hours. You live and you learn. You can order this stuff on-line...the pignoli cookies are probably worth the purchase.

http://www.vaccarospastry.com

After the afternoon defilement, we hobbled over to Barnes & Noble to check out the dreaded "Zagat Guide" to "guide" us towards our dinner. After little debate, we knew we would have more seafood and the #1 rated place was again in Fell's Point, called "The Black Olive"

http://www.theblackolive.com

Advertised as a premiere Greek restaurant that is "proud to serve the freshest fish, filleted table side, from all over the world", the Black Olive was described in Gourmet magazine as "A rare dining experience...like something conceived of in heaven." We had no choice but to eat for ourselves. The restaurant was very quaint, but with tables far enough apart to not crowd. The building seemed ancient and the ambience was that of a wine-cellar (not a bad thing). The waiter was above average, and our service began with a "fish tour". After garnering our interest in seafood as opposed to the other Greek food on the menu, we were taken to the kitchen to see the fishes. The fish were laid across a long counter topped with ice...what a yummy selection indeed. All fish had been flown in that morning, with most coming directly from the Mediterranean. After some debate, we decided we would have a very large branzino (striped sea bass) and olive wrapped sardines...and off the menu, crabcakes, of course...The fish came very simply prepared- grilled, filleted tableside and served with lemon butter sauce on the side. The only accompaniment was grilled cauliflower buds (seems weird doesn't it). It was a wonderful meal and makes me want to move to the coast, any coast. Mercury levels be damned! I even loved the sardines- never had fresh ones, only canned nasty ass crap, now I know what all the hub-ub was about. The crabcake was good, all jumbo lump, no filler, some Greek olive oil aioli held it together, but wasn't as good as the one we had at "Shuckers..."

Day3: Another morning at Hopkins. Saw cardiologist, geneticist, and CT surgeon. Great news, not! They want Jen to have her aortic root replaced, soon...cripes. With this sort of news, we had only one thing to do before we got on the plane...eat more crab cakes. Taking another hint from Zagat's, we went to Lexington Market to a mom and pop place called Faidley's. We order jumbo lump crab cake platter. The crab cakes were about softball sized and as were the others delicious...you can order these as well for a nominal shipping fee...the crab isn't cheap either.

http://www.faidleyscrabcakes.com

In summary, Baltimore is a neat city with some really good seafood. However, the place is shady, and for a "border" state, the folks are pretty damn rude. Furthermore, it was cold as balls...and that's what I like about the South.

JW

Goin' out in NOLA

Please don't call it "Nawlins." I guess it's OK to call it the "Big Easy," but even that makes it sound like you've never been there before.

So, CLG and I went to NOLA, left the DOG with his grandparents, and had a little early autumn work vacation. What we found was that there are a lot of great places to eat, andmost of them won't break the bank.

Just a word about New Orleans, post-Katrina. Understand the geography, the closer to the river and French Quarter, the better off it is. The closer to lake, and the further west, the worse. A lot of these restaurants are houses in Uptown and the Garden District that are converted and have limited service availabilty.

Here's where we went:

Classic streetside French Quarter, a little bit of a wait, but everything moves through there pretty quickly. What they do have is char-grilled oysters! Primo, dude. Hard to beat the Po Boys. Solid but not jaw-dropping. Well known for what their name implies.

Apparently the Metairie location has closed. This place is also known for the char-grilled oysters, but they also do a lot of lobster. Prices are reasonable, but it is lobster after all. Highlights were lobster salad, char-grilled oysters with butter and parmesan, stuffed lobster, and whatever combination of fried fish and ditch critters you want.

Classic old New Orleans, went there on a recommendation after everyone and their brother and sister that I talked to said that they were going to August, which was the hot restaurant this fall based on the notariety of the chef on the food network. Galatoire's wasn't what I'd exactly call Creole, although it's possible that I just don't know what I'm talking about. What it was to me was French style versions of the Louisiana seafood/swampfood that we all love. Why did we like it more than anything else we had?

1. The waitstaff. These guys (and they were all guys) knew what they were on about, were confident in their menu (as they should have been), and were spot on with the recommendations. No expert, but read Kitchen Confidential. If the waiter thinks it's good, it probably is, but if he thinks it's bad, then avoid it like the plague.
2. Redfish. Seems to be making a comeback, as there is a limit to what you can catch in the wild. More and more, they're growing them like catfish on farms. Done with a brown butter sauce and covered with fresh crabmeat, it was near perfect.
3. Appetizer with fresh boiled/chilled shellfish. Only qualm was that they included fried oysters, which didn't seem to fit. Again, the crabmeat was awesome, no matter what sauce they served it with.
4. The menu. It looked a little bit overwhelming at first, but then the more you looked at it, it was systematic. There were several meat choices, and they could all be cooked in standard French/Creole fashion. Hard to argue with successful tradition.
5. Desserts. The best thing that they had was a banana bread pudding. Better to me than Foster bananas, but that's just me. More of a comfort dessert.
6. No reservations. Come whenever.

Beard award winner from 2002, this place had a lot of promise. For the most part, it was great. One of the things that struck me about it was the roux and the sauce that they included with a lot of the dishes. The gumbo was some of the best that I’ve ever had, and it started with the roux which was nice and dark. I had sweetbreads for the first time, and I was pleasantly surprised. The way it was explained is that it picks up the flavor of the surrounding sauce, and has a neat texture. Where I went wrong was with the duck. Must admit it was overcooked, and a little bit dry. They tried to get past this by adding the heavy roux sauce. Beef tournedos were great, as was the soft-shell crab. Good wine list. All in all solid, don’t get the duck. Deserts, including the ice cream was fantastic.

Classic, it’s hard to beat a shrimp and oyster Po Boy in the quarter at 11:00 in the morning with Zapp’s Cajun Crawtators.

Final word:
Good food, reasonable price, alcohol everywhere. Hard to go wrong! Sadly, we missed out on the Emeril restaurants and Commander's, but you have to draw the line somewhere. My liver and girlish figure are glad to be home from Vegas and NOLA in the span of 2 weeks. So’s my wallet.

Las Vegas

The wife and I just returned from a trip to Las Vegas. Visited with some friends, attended a conference, and one out for little the night life. This is a really funny place, because every time you come, it looks almost completely different in comparison to your previous trip.

What was good: The meeting was great, I saw and visited with a lot of friends and made several new ones. We stayed in Summerlin which is a few miles off the strip, but it really did not make that big of a difference because we had a car that we could get back into the strip when we wanted. We also went to a new show entitled Le Reve at Wynn which was like O made more abstract on steroids.

What was disappointing: What remains obvious is that good food can be purchased for a reasonable price. However, great food comes at a staggering price and is frequently over rated. I think part of the problem is the typical Vegas mentality that more is always better. We all know that frequently is not the case. For example, a prestigious restaurant at Caesar's palace that has frequently received rave reviews, I and my fellow diners found to be quite average. And that really is a disappointment. The wine list was bizarre, especially for a place that had several steaks on the menu and offered less than a half dozen Cabernet offerings. The service was condescending, and this may be because of the clientele usually received. Not my fault, but despite the number of fantastic restaurants that have opened in several casino hotels around town, there will always be a market for great food with amazing wine that doesn't have to cost over $200 a person served by people who know what they're talking about, and don't treat you like you're in Jr. high.