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NYC: Per Se (July 2012 #1): Dinner with Tad
Authors: Victor and Tad
Restaurant: Per Se
Exec Chef: Thomas Keller
Chef de Cuisine: Eli Kaimeh
Date: July 24, 2012
Tad: Another day, another meal at Per Se. I have to admit that I am somewhat disappointed that we Victortook so many photos. I mean, taking a few for this blog is fine, since it is all part of our mission to evangelize good food. But it makes us seem like we’re tourists. My parents raised me better.
Victor:
-I borrowed my friend’s Fuji X100 (a real camera!), and these pictures are considerably better than my iPhone pictures haha. Also, one of the lights above us was much brighter than it should have been; I liked that a LOT it gave us much more lighting for our photography. The server eventually dimmed the light, though… but not before we were pretty much done with the meal and had taken all our pictures!
LA Kaiseki/Sushi: Urasawa (July 2012)
Author: Victor
Restaurant: Urasawa
Chef: Hiroyuki Urasawa
Date: July 5, 2012
Notes:
I decided to stop by Urasawa once again while I was in town, and I went with two old friends. Here’s an excerpt from my friend’s site about this meal—it was basically his first really good sushi meal!
“This all changed this summer. My friend invited me to join him for a meal at Urasawa when I visited Los Angeles in July. I was able to see the craftsmanship and attention to detail that contributes to each course in person and experience the end result. The sushi really stood out to me. The balance of flavor and the just-right density of the sushi rice just worked so well for each of the sushi courses. Yes, the items placed on top of the sushi rice were exquisite, but Hiro and Ken could have put almost anything on top of that rice and the end result would still be amazing.
The seed was planted in my head. Amazing food isn’t just about the individual ingredients on the plate, but how they are put together. And I wanted to see what else is out there. I started reading more about food online and talking with my friend about other restaurants to try in the future. I then remembered that I have a copy of The French Laundry Cookbook, and dug it out. Suddenly the recipes made a lot more sense. The goal is to make every component that goes into a dish as perfect as possible. I then searched online for “french laundry at home” to find other people’s experiences with the recipes, and stumbled upon Carol Blymire’s blog “French Laundry At Home”. The post that Carol wrote after cooking every dish in The French Laundry Cookbook was extremely inspiring and has a list of great first recipes to try. I decided that this is where I’m going to start my gastronomic adventure.”
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HK: Bo Innovation (June 2012): Chef’s Table
Author: Victor
Restaurant: Bo Innovation
Exec Chef: Alvin Leung
Date: June 28, 2012
Chef’s Table Menu
Notes:
-I had lost my iPhone 4 a few days earlier in Lan Kwai Fong after going drinking, so I used my friend’s iPad to take these pictures. (SAD TIMES.)
-We sat at the Chef’s Table, which is just kind of a “bar” area that sits next to the open part of the kitchen. The seating makes it really easy to talk to Chef Leung and the rest of the staff during the meal!
-There’s only one menu available to those who sit at the Chef’s Table: the Chef’s Table Menu.
Info about Bo Innovation:
-Chef Leung is a Hong Kong chef who is trying to really pioneer Chinese cooking. He’ll recreate popular Hong Kong and Chinese dishes using more modern flavor combinations and techniques, and it’s nice to see and try the dishes he comes up with. His dishes can definitely make you think about the different things you can do with Chinese food.
-He has some successes and some failures. The food itself wasn’t really THAT amazing and could be improved.
-I definitely didn’t regret going, though. From a modernist-cuisine point of view, I definitely enjoyed the meal. It’s nice to see a chef take some risks on, apply modern techniques to, and reinterpret traditional Hong Kong and Chinese foods and flavor combinations.
Monte
Victor
tadv3
Happy Noms 