OPTION 1:
I think it would be easy to reduce crime if you told people that heaven were like dining at Orange Shabu.

OPTION 2:
I HAVE HAD WAGYU BEEF SHABU SHABU: BEHOLD MY WORKS YE MIGHTY AND DESPAIR.

SO GOOD

A few blocks away from Taipei 101, this place is a chic Japanese take on traditional Chinese hot pot. The receptacle was a copper pot heated over a gas stove in the center of each table. Tables were separated by linen blinds. While I’m not entirely sure I am even qualified to list all of the stuff that went into the hot pot, a couple of things stand out.

• Oh my god wagyu beef. Soooo delicious.
• We had a special kind of pork, but the language barrier prevented me from understanding what made it special. It was served with a creamy sesame sauce, though, and that was phenomenal.
• Fresh shrimp and fish balls made by plopping the raw materials straight into the hot pot out of a piece of bamboo.
• We were served a special kind of tea, which tasted kind of like echinacea, but gentle and not medicinal. Its intention was to cool the body down after the hot pot.
• The almond tofu was like no almond tofu I’ve ever had. It was still silky and delicious, but held together much more firmly than almond tofu from a box.
• Instead of putting cellophane noodles into the broth at the end of the meal, they made it into porridge. Who was too fat to eat a lot of the porridge? This kid. However, we reserved a ton for breakfast tomorrow.

I was treated to hot pot because my aunt insisted that I should go easy on the greasy disaster on day one. Taiwanese food is less flavorful and more gentle than mainland Chinese food–she was worried that the broth would be too light for my boorish American taste buds. However, the broth we made (using, among the other ingredients, a combination of napa and white cabbage) was aromatic and complex, and made an excellent porridge at the end of the meal.

Tomorrow: the adventures of Chinese barbequed sea cucumber, aka, Jo’s most favoritest dish in the world.

Lunch bonus!: Taiwanese beef bourgignon is not nearly as good as Sophiese beef bourgignon.

Warning: There are no photographs in this review for three very important reasons.

1. The lighting was low and romantic.
2. No room in my classy purse for a camera anyhow.
3. Totally distracted by a boy who was both adorable and treating me, so it would’ve been maximum rude. (I am looking at you, Miss Wright.)

Given Mike Isabella’s notoriety and recent booting off of Top Chef to return to his delectable hunting grounds of Zaytinya in DC (one of my personal favorite restaurants), it is understandable that even several days in advance, their reservation-friendly tables were packed until 10:30. So after that failure, I forfeited my restaurant-choosing duties to the person who would be paying for it, and he selected a restaurant owned by the same conglomerate, Cafe Atlantico. Words cannot describe how much happier your life will be after going to this upscale casual neuvo latino eatery. But they’ll try their damnedest.

Drinks

Do yourself a favor and get them. Not off the wine list–go for their signature cocktails. Their mixologist is some kind of genius. I had a special for the night, the Mississippi Manhattan, which as far as I can remember included Maker’s Mark whiskey, meyer lemon juice, and tupelo honey syrup. The server actually lit a bit of lemon zest oil on fire before dropping the zest into my drink. I was in love by then. When I tasted this divine, unintimidating lemonade, I was in love forever, with a passion that only Bella and Edward can truly understand.

Kyle got a Salt and Lime Air Margarita, which was a normal margarita with light salt and lime foam on top. You think it wouldn’t make too much of a difference, but all of that divine lime taste and just the interesting texture of the drink made it tears-of-joy-inducing. Oh, I also hear that their mojitos are the best in town, so that’s something else to keep in mind.

Guacamole

Everyone and their mother will tell you: Jo is not an avocado person. I try to avoid it in sushi. I definitely try to avoid it in my Mexican food. I’ve had two good guacs before in my life, and I’m telling you now that this is one of them.

They’re made tableside in a stoneware bowl with just two wooden spoons. First the server asks how hot you’d like it (we went for medium and I barely tasted the heat). Then he rubs the bowl down with lime and puts in some diced onion, peppers, and other stuff I couldn’t see due to the aforementioned dim lighting and distraction. Then he just takes three avocado halves, drops them in, and mashes away. No mayo, no nothin’. I was completely stunned, especially when the bowl was handed to me and I swooned at the taste of it. Sometimes, all it really takes is the right combination of fresh ingredients–don’t let no one tell you different.

I ordered an appetizer (scallops and squid with puffed coconut rice), and while it was cooked perfectly, the thought of it was totally trumped by…

My Entree, the Best Entree Ever

Kyle got a skirt steak, which was a perfectly delicious skirt steak and I will not fault him on it.

I got the duck confit, which was served with parsnips, dried cherries, fresh herbs, almonds, and horseradish yogurt. The parsnips were sliced long and thin and looked like fettuccine, and they were served tossed with a bunch of fresh parsley. But the duck… oh my good lord the duck. The meat flaked on my fork like fish meat, and I just pulled it off and ate it like that. The skin had the dried cherries on it, adding a little tartness, but was otherwise lightly glazed with sugar. The sweet burst of fatty skin plus the perfectly brined duck just exploded in your mouth with just completely overwhelming levels of flavor.

I was entirely undone as a human being.

Dessert

We got quince sorbet with rosemary in it, and it was good. But not as good as that duck.

Cafe Atlantico: go there, but bring your smelling salts, because I guarantee if you pick the right things off the menu, it will give you the vapors for certain.

Anyway, we really wanted to go to Uva, my favorite place in SF ever—it’s an Italian small plates/wine place (an “enoteca”) in Upper Haight. Cav was much closer to Davies Symphony Hall, so we ended up eating there instead (after deciding Bistro Clovis was not “for us”). I had never been or had any reason to believe Cav would be any good, but it was amazing. The waitress had lots of opinions and advice to offer, and she was SASSY as all get out. (Also I’m pretty sure she was flirting with Chris! the hussy!) We took her advice and had a selection of the appetizers, followed by the cheese and charcuterie plates. No pictures of the appetizers, unfort (*sniffle*) but they were:

• Braised baby octopus with roasted garbanzo beans and cherry tomatoes. Delicious! The garbanzo beans were still somewhat green; this gives your teeth just enough resistance and keeps its flavor “nutty.” The other stuff on the plate was really good too.
• Beer-batter tempura squash blossoms with mahi mahi ceviche and tempura zucchini. Good, but honestly was somewhat over-fancy. Maybe I’m just not easily impressed with $12 plates of “deep fried stuff,” but it was definitely the best of this time-honored appetizer genre I have tasted. Also, I’m not a huge fan of ceviche, mostly because I can never tell if it’s too citrusy.
• Crispy pig trotters with poached quail eggs, frisée, pickled vegetables, and mustard vinaigrette. Om nom nom. I was scared they were going to bring us a whole pig foot, but no, it was three circular disks of deep fried pork… and it was oh so good. The quail egg went perfectly with the pork (though I was sad there were only two of them), and the vegetables also matched quite well. The vinaigrette might have been a tad more sour than I would like in an ideal world, but in our imperfect world this was a formidable appetizer.

The cheese plate! (A choice of three from the list.)

(Picture was on Chris’ phone, which was not made by Steve Jobs… for shame.) There’s lots more than cheese on the plate, obviously. The cheeses were (from left to right)

• Queso Azul de Cabrales. (The cheese of my people!*) A Spanish blue made from a mix of sheep and goat milk! Ours was this interesting deep brown color, and true to both its blue cheese and Spanish cheese roots, it was very very strong. Chris figured out that you have to close your mouth and just let it sit a while, because the pungency sort of tingles your tongue and stimulates different taste buds as it melts… some sort of interesting, unfolding evolution of flavor. The wikipedia entry reports that some cheese tasters report a “numbing sensation” to the tip of the tongue after eating it, and I totally believe this. A++, would buy again.
• Brillat Savarin. A triple cream brie from Normandy named after a French political figure and gastronome (thanks WP!). The texture was amazingly rich and velvety, and it tasted like heaven. It reportedly pairs perfectly with champagne, and I’m going to have to try that sometime if I can hunt some of this cheese down. :9 Maybe the Cheeseboard stocks it? Preparing it en croûte (baked in a pastry shell) would make it even better I imagine… it would come out all nice and oozy. (Oh god.)
• Québec Seven Year Vintage Cheddar. The name says it all… this was our waitress’ choice, and she did not disappoint us. Certainly you all know the difference between the cheez-its white cheddar and the much tastier stuff you can get in blocks at Whole Foods—this cheese was light years away from all that. It was set seven years ago and this is definitely reflected in the taste.

The charcuterie plate!

I have less to say about the plate of meats, though it was also quite good. Cheese is just so interesting and fun to describe (despite the difficulty of conveying gustation and olfaction through clumsy ol’ words). Anyway! Counter-clockwise from the center bottom: (1) Prosciutto, (2) Coppa, (3) Leonese chorizo (The sausage of my people!), (4) Duck prosciutto (I think), (5) Salami, (6) Pancetta, (7) Duck liver pâté, (8) Pork liver terrine, (9) Roast beef tongue with horseradish, (10) Another liver pâté (?), (11) Head cheese, (12) Pheasant gallantine. If it’s not clear, (1-3,5,6) are pork and (11) is beef. In the center of the plate are a bunch of garnishes, including pickled pearl onions, shallots, gherkins, fig jam, and olives, and three mustards: A smooth dijon, a whole grain with crème fraîche, and a whole grain with apple cider.

Steve (the one on the left in the first picture) is from England, so he got to eat most of the stuff I wouldn’t touch (Chris is braver than I), including (11), which sounds pretty gross already (if you don’t know what it is, I do not suggest looking it up). I also shied away from (9), only because I don’t really like the texture of tongue. Everything else was very good though! Number (12) was probably my favorite (first time eating pheasant!), and (4) definitely wins the “decadent sounding food product” prize. I also discovered while in Germany that I really like mustard now. My favorite on this plate was the apple cider one. :v

Unfortunately I had to run out the door before we got to dessert (Chris and Steve only got port, though). But I will definitely be back to see what’s on that menu. =D Also, the wine list looked fantastic, even if none of us were in the mood.

Oh, brunch was tasty, too. (And much cheaper.) We went to Sugar Café where I had the “Tex Mex Scramble,” which I ordered because it involves fresh avocado. (Om nom nom.)

* Well, a bit further north from my people… but close enough. I do have cousins who raise pigs and turn them into chorizo and jamón serrano, though. Apprenticing to one of them is Escape From Grad School Plan #344.Lower

Take:

• some hardboiled eggs (2)
• some bacon (3 strips, but then I ate some while I was making it)
• fresh basil, chopped (or chiffonaded, if you are me and obsessed with chiffonading basil, also think that ‘to chiffonade’ is a real verb)
• a good-sized spoonful of light mayo
• more black pepper than you think you need
• also I put in a little garlic, because I am incapable of making things without it.

Mix! Consume! Rejoice!

For bonus points, I am currently enamored of le Pain Quotidien, which is like Panera for New York: fancier, more Belgian, costs 1.5x as much, once you go there all other variations lose their appeal. So New York is not particularly Belgian, but otherwise. Specifically I am a fan of the way they plate their pretentious sandwiches open-faced on three pieces of bread. Why would anyone do this?? But it’s so good.

Chima is a restaurant in Tysons Corner with a format along the lines of Malibu Grill. You pay a set (mostly expensive) fee, and strong-armed men bring you pieces of meat, as much as you can eat. There is no pressure to leave, or even to eat quickly–everyone is fat. I would recommend going there with an empty stomach, but one that you’ve toughed through. You definitely need to pace yourself, because, to make your 50 (or 40, right now) dollars worth it, you will eat as much as possible.

First of all, the ambience is wonderful. It’s not too chic, and we didn’t have to dress up to go into it. The wait staff was polite and friendly, and the meat bearers called me ma’am. After our somewhat disastrous run in with Asia 9, some pleasant wait staff was much appreciated. The walls are lined with wine bottles, with rolly ladders to access the top racks. I never saw a waiter on said rolly ladders, but I was romanced by the possibility. The restaurant is a twee bit loud–not invasively so. I’m just saying that it’s apparently a popular birthday place, and the well-wishers are boistrous.

But the food… The food is the highlight. The salad bar is unlimited, but we only really made it down there for a full plate once, at the very beginning. I had a delightful creamy vegetable soup (there was definitely pureed potato and red pepper involved), the caesar is plain but inoffensive, and there are a LOT of cheeses, including small balls of I guess fresh mozzarella. I wouldn’t say that everything from the salad bar was phenomenal, but then again, that’s not what you came for.

If you’ve entirely stuffed your face and the end is in sight and you haven’t had any lamb, hold out for it. Ask a waiter. The lamb is out of this world. We tried both the lamb chops and the leg of lamb (one long, pink slice), and they were so well-flavored and so moist that it was almost hard to deal with. Eyes bulged. Pants tented. Et cetera. I had ordered a pinot noir, and the lamb gave it almost a sweet, velvety flavor. Other favorites were the bacon-wrapped filet mignon and the parmesan pork, which kind of melted in your mouth with delightful creamy texture. Oh, als o the fish (swordfish or salmon). They both come with a white, almost tartar sauce, which are flavored. The salmon one was a caper-flavored sauce. It’s a shame that that was the last meat my poor, shattered body could handle, because I’m sure it would’ve been mind-blowing otherwise.

A final discovery: Brazilian Lemonade. This is delicious. Spanky ordered one at the very end of our carnivorous indulgence, and it absolutely destroyed us. We were looking for a palette cleanser, and it was so thick and delicious that it ended up causing my dinnermates to tap out of ordering more meats. We’ll definitely have to make this at some point. I insist.

Go with a small group of people with whom you can have an easy two-to-three hour conversation. You’ll want to slow down and try again, so there are plenty of good, long pauses during which to make good conversation. Also, make sure you have a study Indian fellow to drive you home. If you go entirely with tiny Asian girls, they will all drop into a food coma.

1. FUCK YOU, GUATEMALA.  For the love of God, don’t go to Guatemala anticipating a beautiful meal that tastes delicious.  The local meats are no good, and cow doesn’t have ‘cuts’ so much as ‘parts that probably came off of a cow somewhere.’  The water is undrinkable, which means the salad is untrustworthy.  The Spanish word for “hummus” is apparently “homma,” which sounds so damn different from “hummus” that if you order “hummus,” your Spanish-speaking waitress will not understand a damn thing you say.   (This isn’t fair. My mom had a truly extraordinary shish kebob, which had onions and beef and eggplant, but the beef was nothing to write home about, and you have to work magic to make a shish kebob look beautiful enough to photograph.)

2. Fanta made with sucrose is the most delicious soda.

3. The national beer of Belize, Belikin, is truly delicious if you have spent all day baking in hot hot direct South American sunlight.  It is kept in the thickest damn bottles I have ever seen, so much so that you can’t tell if you’ve finished your beer or not.

4. It is incredibly hard to cook spaghetti properly on a boat.

5. If a crazy tanned man ever hands you homemade mango vinegar, accept.  I can guarantee you that it’s incredible, flavorful but still light, and emulsifies beautifully with a little mustard and olive oil for a simply perfect vinaigrette.

6. On the subject of mangos: DON’T TRUST CHILDREN.  You think you have to pay one quetzale for a mango.  In truth, you can get 10 mangos for 5 quetzales!  According to this handy chart, I had common mangos.  I could not shut up about mangos. Corellary to #1, you can go to Guatemala for the express purpose of eating mangos.

7. Allspice leaves smell just like allspice seeds, if not moreso.

8. Corellary to #6: If your boat’s bathroom decides to spontaneously break, then mangos are the worst food to have.  Seriously.  It’s like woo WOO, all aboard the express train to your worst goddamn nightmare.

9. Thanks to the Restaurant Villa del Chef in Flores, Guatemala (also home of the delicious shish kebob), I have discovered my new greatest hope for the Obama administration.  I want him to mend ties with Cuba and stop making Cuban goods illegal, so I can have a Cuba Libre.  It’s just a rum and coke with some lime, but godDAMN.  The Cuban rum I had was the most amazing thing I’ve ever tasted, and I can’t wait until that shit is legal stateside.

And finally, the most delicious food I had during my Spring Break:

10. A fucking ham and cheese sandwich.  NOT KIDDING.  We went on a five-hour hike through Tikal, Guatemala, which is the site of a very famous Mayan ruin.  We had five minutes before our tour to eat, and half of the sandwich survived to be eaten after climbing 80,000 perilously stupid steps.  It had thick-sliced white bread which was just a little crusty, and had a normal piece of American cheese and a normal slice of ham.  But there was some spiced mayonnaise on it which I will endeavor to reproduce soon, which made the whole thing taste both fulling, aromatic and savory.  My mom saved hers all the way to the last temple complex, and we were all really, really jealous.

And now, since I didn’t take any food pictures, Mayan ruins! Wooooo!

This is my new favorite New York restaurant. It’s a little trendy and hipster, but they will put goat cheese on a burger for a reasonable price (for Manhattan), and other things are delicious as well.

There are three kinds of mac and cheese, though I have only tried the basic one.

There is also blackberry lemonade, which is a genius invention.

The french fries are kind of subpar: edible, but nothing special. The burgers, however, are delicious, and the goat cheese is the perfect texture and taste to go with them. There are also about four other kinds of cheeses you can get on your burger, as well as avocadoes and more normal things — but why would you put other things on your burger when there is fancy cheese to be had?

]]> http://omnom.foobeh.com/2009/03/cafeteria/feed/ 2 http://omnom.foobeh.com/2009/03/awwcrepe/ http://omnom.foobeh.com/2009/03/awwcrepe/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:28:04 +0000 Joshy http://omnom.foobeh.com/?p=399 Excuse my French.

I feel like avoiding the world but love preparing sweet, lemon-y foods, so crêpes it is! Crepes are the best bought off of street corners in Paris, but, being both classy & delicious, one can’t go wrong making them on your own.  I’ve seen a few recipes for an incredibly runny egg batter but I stole a more forgiving recipe from Alton Brown. I’ll experiment with others later on.

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup flour
• 3 tablespoons melted butter

This is basically no work to create as all of the art is in the flipping. Mix everything together; the batter should be homogeneous and without air bubbles. I used a blender for the mixing and refrigerated the batter overnight to allow it to settle. Reduced the air bubbles allows for easier flipping without any ripping.

I added two tablespoons of sugar, a teaspoon of Vanilla & a dash of Lemon Extract to turn my concoction into more of a dessert dish. The batter smelled strong, but the flavoring was just about perfect; distinctly lemon without overpowering any toppings.

Coat a small pan in non-stick spray or butter and drizzle a thin coating of batter into the pan.  (Thin crêpes tend to taste better, cook faster & you get more of them. Win.)  The outer edge of the crêpe will cook faster than in middle; after ~60 seconds, the batter should change from a light, runny consistency to a darker, solid state. The cooked portion will keep its form enough to allow you to flip the crêpe without too much disaster…

Add a topping, roll them up and enjoy. Alternatively, terribly crass, very hungry people, like me, also enjoy eating them plain.  Yarrr.

]]> http://omnom.foobeh.com/2009/03/awwcrepe/feed/ 1 http://omnom.foobeh.com/2009/03/dear-coastal-flats/ http://omnom.foobeh.com/2009/03/dear-coastal-flats/#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:31:49 +0000 Jophine http://omnom.foobeh.com/?p=348 I love you.  I love your delicious seafood which is not the best, but flavorful and warm, like food that you yourself could make, but don’t want to right just now. You are a little expensive, but otherwise the essence of a great comfort food restaurant.  I want to express my deepest gratitude for not abandoning a certain aspect of your restaurant that Sweetwater Tavern, another in the series, has.  Thank you for still having devastatingly adorable waiters and cute hostesses.

I appreciate you bringing back the crab fritters, now with delicious shrimp.  Those were always a highlight of my visit.  Also, you’ve added a lobster mac & cheese!  The cheese sauce is divine, and the lobster made it extra creamy. Your soups are mediocre, Coastal Flats, but I think that is something you can be easily forgiven for.

One beef, though, Coastal Flats.  I love your lobster roll.  Huge amounts of lobster, what seemed like two lobsters, tossed with a light mayonnaise and wedged into a thick Texas toast.  This was the food to make one feel kingly.  This was a worthy endeavor.  This was my Staple Food, the one food I get over and over again at a restaurant.  Where did it go?  I understand that lobster probably goes in and out of season, but if you have large chunks of decadent lobster for mac & cheese, why not spare some for your lobster roll?

Thanks,

 Jo

]]> http://omnom.foobeh.com/2009/03/dear-coastal-flats/feed/ 0 http://omnom.foobeh.com/2009/03/recent-bird-related-sandwiches-i-have-eaten/ http://omnom.foobeh.com/2009/03/recent-bird-related-sandwiches-i-have-eaten/#comments Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:44:56 +0000 George http://omnom.foobeh.com/?p=271 I am having trouble coming up with an intro to this post, so screw the formalities. Here are some places I ate at this week past!

---

Gregoire

Our apartment is conveniently close to Berkeley’s “Gourmet Ghetto,” where places like Chez Panisse (the one-star-in-Michelin birthplace of “California cuisine”) and the Cheese Board Collective (delicious communist pizza) are located. One of my favorite places down in the Gourmet Ghetto is Gregoire, a self-described “artisan takeout” joint. While the term ‘artisan’ makes me barf from over-pretension, this description is pretty apt: During lunch, they principally serve tasty sandwiches with weird ingredients, salads, and quiche. The menu changes monthly, so I try to go at least once every month to try the item that sounds most delicious.

Three cheers for distorted iPhone pictures.

February’s choice was easy: Duck breast and jícama and blood orange salad on Dutch crunch (the Dutch actually call “Dutch crunch” tijgerbrood, which means “BREAD OF THE TIGER”). I was not disappointed—the delicious and unmistakable smoothness of duck meat paired well with the crisp jícama and tart blood orange. Here are some pictures:

My sandwich!

Real ginger ale! Behind the ginger ale, a gaysian couple.

Your food is made for you by attractive short-order cooks with full-sleeve tattoos, and then served through the window. Innovation in the extreme.

---

Bakesale Betty

I do not live so close to this next restaurant, but my non-grad student friends Caylin and Duncan do. Bakesale Betty is located in the Temescal area of Oakland, one of the more gentrified areas of San Francisco’s scrappy kid sister. Bakesale Betty mainly offers (1) baked goods, (2) fried chicken sandwiches, and (3) iced lemonade. I don’t really know what the deal is with restaurants in this area having limited menus, but the results speak for themselves. I mean, just look at this line:

Here is a shibainu that was in line, not because it was food, but because it was fucking adorable.

The line snakes right past a window with tantalizing sights of the joys to come.

Once inside, you see the sandwich assembly line. Fall to your knees before your new gods.

I got a fried chicken sandwich and two scones: pear-ginger and apricot-almond. I was already full from ricotta and orange pancakes just an hour earlier, so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish my sandwich, but this theory proved to be incorrect. This is what the sandwiches from Bakesale Betty look like on the inside:

And oh my god, but are they fucking amazing. Someday I will reverse engineer this sandwich, but for now I can really only conjecture as to what goes in it: Thin patties of fried chicken breast, seasoned with the usual suspects (black and red pepper, mostly, I expect). This is accompanied with a salad which I believe consists of shredded fresh cabbage, sweet pickled red onion, thinly sliced jalapeños, minced parsley, and possibly some oil and vinegar (not sure). I do not know how these sandwiches are so good, but trust me when I tell you that all other fried chicken sandwiches are pedestrian crap.

The scones are delicious too, though I didn’t eat them until later. :v

]]> http://omnom.foobeh.com/2009/03/recent-bird-related-sandwiches-i-have-eaten/feed/ 5