*Top Eating

The morning of my flight home from Tokyo, I headed to Tsukiji market to find some delicious raw fish. Quick phone research on the train suggested Daiwa was very well regarded and known for their toro (fatty tuna), so I had a plan. Arriving, I saw a line into the street that folded back and forth on itself 8 times. 8. Looking back at the phone, my eyes caught the “only 11 seats at a counter… the wait can be two to three hours” bit I’d skimmed past. With a flight leaving in 5 hours, waiting, eating, and an hour or two on trains back to the hotel and then airport would be cutting it very close… and what if the wait were longer and I had to leave the line, hungry, at the last moment? ...

Striking a few ramen spots around Tokyo opportunistically on the first and last days of the trip (and at the end of the trip finding one amazing one whose name I still don’t know, in Southeastern Tokyo near the Daimon station). Many major train stations have a nearby food alley, and I heard Shinagawa station had a “ramen alley” Shinatatsu. After landing at Narita but before hopping a shinkansen to another part of Japan (Shinagawa’s conveniently one of the shinkansen connection points), I dragged my suitcase out the West exit and then South along a dark sidewalk. It felt like I was in the wrong place– an industrial sidewalk hugging the station wall, with no business or signs of life, and cars rushing by to my right. But just two blocks later, a glowing entrance beckoned me to step down to a wooden boardwalk below street level lined with 7 or 8 ramen shops. ...

This was by far my favorite Thai(ish) restaurant in the US. I like it far more than already good Pok Pok or the (I feel somewhat overrated) Lotus of Siam. First, the “stir fried rice cakes with green garlic”: A surprisingly smooth, creamy, stiff texture almost like a fried rice pudding, with fresh, flavorful green garlic. A good start. And then: The pad see ew was fantastic– their homemade wide flat noodles with just a little chewiness and a smoky flavor, a locally-made tofu, wild mushrooms, and some toothy greens sauteed in soy sauce. ...

I recently had my favorite bowl of ramen in the US, at Ramen Shop in Oakland (edging out Shin Sen Gumi Hakata Ramen): The veggie ramen shown above (“shoyu broth with meyer lemo, chanterelles, salt-cured egg, broccoli di ciccio, shaved carrots, negi, and mizuna”) was very good, and I tend to like shoyu or salt broths over miso broths, but it was the “garlic miso ramen with smoked king salmon, pork belly, shoyu-marinated egg, frisée, gypsy peppers, and shungiku” that blew my mind. Such a rich, creamy, yet not too greasy broth, and noodles with a nice bite. ...

Cross-posting from a tour of San Francisco dumpling shops by bike (highlights: pork+chive dumplings with orange curry sauce from Kingdom of Dumpling, and pan-fried pork buns from Dumpling Kitchen).

The Dandelion Chocolate single-origin bar from Madagascar cacao beans is amazing: bright, with berry and citrus flavors. A+. I like the ingredients list: Cocoa Beans & Cane Sugar. That’s it. This is my new favorite special-occasion chocolate, displacing the Mast Brother Madagascar and the Mast Brothers Maine Sea Salt.

After working late, I dropped by flour + water on my way home to see if there was a seat at the bar, sat down within 15 minutes, and had one of the better meals I’ve had there: roasted duck breast with chestnut, roasted squash, walnut & pumpkin seed I do like the time of year when chestnuts make an appearance in food. And this dish was phenomenal– juicy, tender duck with a slightly sweet chestnut puree and a lot of mellow, well-blended supporting flavors. ...

Among other food adventures last weekend, I went to Noisette, a mix of Noisepop-curated bands (I really enjoyed the new-to-me Pillowfight with Dan the Automator, Kid Koala, and Emily Wells… but I digress from food), Speakeasy beers, and delicious small plates by nine local restaurants. One of my favorites was the rabbit sausage with liver and peaches on a homemade cracker, by flour+water. I’m also a sucker for edible nasturtium flowers. ...

Dumplings around SF. My favorites were the xiao long bao at Shanghai Dumpling King and the Pork and Chive (w/ unusually good chili sauce) from Kingdom of Dumpling. Full details at the bike blog, since this was a food / biking crossover: http://bikeit.tumblr.com/post/26301800287/dumpling-ride-recap

Great food at flour and water, and interesting strangers who it turns out know someone I know (I was just dining alone at the bar to celebrate a special week). The “smoked duck raviolini with charred onions” was phenomenal (dark, smoky, not caramelized-sweet onions in a rich dark-meat duck sauce over raviolini stuffed with duck), as was the garganelli with braised pork, peas, amaranth, and I think preserved meyer lemon. ...

My favorite place in the world to eat lobster is Five Islands Lobster Wharf on the coast of Maine, an hour East of Portland. It’s very informal– you can take live lobster away or have them cook one for you on the spot. Then you sit at picnic tables on a working dock, with lobsters boats coming and going, piles of traps, and the freshest, most flavorful lobster I’ve ever had. ...

One of my friends at the 28-course from-the-cookbook-of-El-Bulli/molecular-gastronomy dinner at Next put this excellent summary image together (you can click through and then click again to zoom in to the full-size image). This is all but one of our courses (it’s missing the liquid-nitrogen-frozen caipirinha): It was a fascinating dining experience and tour through the history of experimental food– with each dish, they told us what year it had been served in El Bulli (for example, the red mullet gaudi was in one of the earlier years– conceptual in terms of its mosaic-like appearance, but without the “magic powders” of later foams and smokes). ...

Well, that was a great birthday dinner, and one of the most enjoyable meals of my life (due to food, atmosphere, and company). Almost five casual hours in The Dough Room at flour+ water with a dozen friends, eating, drinking wine, and chatting. Amazing food, a classy-yet-casual and not too stuffy setting (white tablecloth… on the butcher block table they prepare pasta on, with a meat slicer, a pig-shaped boom box, and a walk-in refrigerator along the edges of the room), and the buzz of conversation without the noise of a big restaurant in the background. Life is good. ...

One memorable evening in Chicago involved a group of 4-5 of us eating at Avec, The Publican, and Au Cheval in succession. Any of their web sites have far better food photos than my quick cell phone snaps below, but so it goes. At avec (a long, cozy, space with a lot of wood and light), the huge “chorizo-stuffed medjool dates with smoked bacon and piquillo pepper-tomato sauce” was one of the best things I ate all trip: ...