Archive for the ‘in Philadelphia’ Category
Some Things Old, Some Things New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
t says: There’s seemingly a lot of grown to cover with this month’s post. With so much to tell you about, where do I begin?
The most logical place is to begin at the beginning: we went to Bibou – I mean, Le Cheri. Having caught a “special” two weeks at Le Cheri where they were bringing back “THE bone marrow” and “THE pig’s foot”, we had to go. Just in case you didn’t know, Bibou, long before they were fixed price, had these two wonderful dishes frequently on their menu (the latter moreso than the former). So dedicated was v’s and my love for the pig’s foot, that despite the number of times we went there (probably in the double digits in total), both of us combined have probably only ever not ordered the pig’s foot twice. Seriously. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves, as the picture above is not of the pig’s foot, rather of the bone marrow. This bone marrow is done up a little differently than most I’ve encountered – the marrow having been done up with bread crumbs to form more of a “stuffing” before being reconstituted in the bone – so lovely!
g got a fish dish. shocker, I know. But no matter what I saw, she swears that this dish “won” dinner. How? I’m not sure – I mean it was downright delicious, but could it really compete with … you know …
… the mother-flinging pig’s foot? NO! NO WAY! Because it is perfection. Unctuous meat: check. Dose of foie: check. Fiber (lentils): check. Veggies: … there are some pieces of carrot there … As kp, v, and I have said on multiple occasions: if we could bathe in a single food item it would be those lentils … It’s an oldie, but a damn fine goodie.
Our meal at Le Cheri was wonderful for so many reasons: great food, great friends, great wine. We also hatched a plan, with the help of some very special friends (I can’t go into details), to replicate the beloved dish …
… not bad, right? Well, we can’t take more than 2% of the credit. Those who can know who they are … I hope this qualifies as “something borrowed”.
g, v, a, and I also went back to Tria Fitler Square (damn, we must spend a lot of time with a and v – doesn’t it seem like we go everywhere with those guys?). It’s personally our new favorite brunch, as I love love love their pancakes. This time, however, I ventured their French toast with strawberries over marscapone, and while the French toast, itself, was killer, I have to say that the unripe strawberries and rather boring marscapnoe really biffed it for me. Oh well – better stick with the pancakes if what you desire is carb-on-carb action.
g, however, had more success, going for the eggs benedict carbonara. She threw caution to the wind, forsaking her usual “omelette”, and liked what she saw, calmly remarking, “you know, if more people used pancetta instead of Canadian bacon or ham, I choose eggs benedict more often!” Well if that ain’t some I-talian superiority, I don’t know what is! But in any case, I agreed with her: Tria’s take on eggs benedict was a simple, yet effective, delivery. Nice job!
For some reason, wordpress won’t let me rotate this image, so I’m going to leave it all silly-like – as I feel that that is also representative of the experience that g and I had with my sis at the new restaurant “Southgate”. Advertised as serving Korean pubfare, we were there to check out the Korean Fried Chicken, a dish that even our server (who was kind of weird overall) boasted, “a lot of chefs in Philly who came to check us out, love our wings”. Our take: they sucked. Yes, the skin was indeed very crispy, which is a great accomplishment, but just because you have an inch-thick crust on a chicken does not make it an excellent piece of fried chicken. The skin needs to be crisply fried, with a fun, delicate crunch – not like eating through a layer of cardboard. Furthermore, the underlying chicken wasn’t particularly tender or moist. The pieces, themselves, weren’t even large enough to warrant the steep price! The other dishes were similarly underwhelming, including the steamed buns that were so bland I had to dip them in the above fried chicken sauce, which was terribly sweet. What a sad meal! Fortunately, the company was great and was able to make up for it!
The gang (you know: g + t + a + v) also got together for an outing at Sbraga. Not having gone since our previous “Kia Cadenza Experience”, it was good to give the restaurant another go … you know … to see what it was like when a car manufacturer wasn’t paying for the meal …
Now, we initially made the reservation because they were boasting a “lamb dinner”. Sadly, when we showed up, they had none available – somehow having sold out despite it only being Friday night. Sorry Sbraga – gotta get on top of stocking that fridge! Before we go on, I do want to give props to the service there – our server was very nice and accomodating – so good job on that! Between his attentiveness and the funky music, how could we go wrong?
Well, the meal started off with a bang, as a was really impressed by the foie soup. In his words: “It’s always great when chefs make something heavy, light.” He was less impressed with his lamb tartare (“good, but nothing out of the ordinary”) Then, the above dish hit the table and we were floored! The waiter promised, “the gnocchi dish is more like a lobster dish with a garnish of gnocchi” – and he was right! It was quite scrumptious – although to be honest, I would have loved to have seen more gnocchi (they were ALSO great! it’s a shame there were so few!) But how dare I complain about “too much lobster” …
My dish was straight off the lamb menu – it was the “osso bucatini” (g says: “isn’t the name so clever?”) and it was incredible. I could have sworn that the noodles themselves were made of lamb, the way the lambiness penetrated each hollow piece of pasta. So good.
Meanwhile, g and v ventured a ?crab? pasta that they swore one-upped mine. I mean, they’re wrong, but that’s ok – just so long as they think they won, right? (More osso bucatini for me …)
There are pictures of our main dishes, as well, but the picture quality was terrible, as the restaurant got darker and darker. Turns out, if you show up with three bottles wine for four people, you’re in for a nice, leisurely dinner during which the sun will set, and nighttime takes over. Where did the 3 hours go? I’m not sure that any one of our third dishes (that’s right – I forgot to tell you: each dinner is a soup, three savory courses, and a dessert!) really showed us something lifechanging, and did border on “fussy”, but we do like that chef tries out all different manners of execution, from a homely puddle of pasta, to smears of sauces on plates. The desserts could use a little re-tooling – I mean, I liked that mine tasted exactly like Trix cereal (v swore Froot Loops), but I’m not sure if that’s really going to compete with the likes of finishers like Talula’s Garden. All in all, a very nice meal, and a restaurant we wouldn’t hesitate to try out again.
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SO WHAT’S BLUE?
July-to-August Review!
t says: We’ve had a pretty month since coming back from London – the summer is flying by! We need to play a little catch-up.
V Street! That’s right – we finally did V Street. Well, to be clear, g had done V Street several times before, but I had not. This is one of her favorite dishes, and was demonstrative, in general, of the style of food there. What you see above I think is called their “Peruvian Fries”. In an interseting-taasting aioli, herbs, and peanuts, the nicely cooked potato wedges were fantastic! However, I have to say that I wasn’t quite as blown away as she, as I was expecting something “punchier” – tangier, spicier, louder. The other dishes, too, just felt a little muted to me, not quite hitting the expectations that I had after having eaten at Vedge and reading V Street’s interesting menu. It’s not “bad”, but I’ll leave this place for the vegans (and g).
oh – and don’t do the custard – the texture is atrocious. (unless you’re used to vegan ice cream).
Hop on over to Jersey and visit Vineland, our hometown. It’s a quaint little city, Vineland, with not a lot of the craziest gastronomic advances going on – but that’s fine – that’s just Vineland! That said, I’ve had these pretty amazing ravioli at Larry’s so I just had to give them a shout-out! Often filled with ricotta+vegetable (pea, or caramelized onion, or whatever) and sparsely dressed, it’s my new favorite when visiting our parents!
Ah, yes – the good ‘ol blurry photo. Why bother including it? Because it’s a reminder to one and all that Mercato is still frickin’ killing it, Italian-BYO-style. Remember when Philly was reknowned for its Italian BYOs? When Mercato, Melograno, Modo Mio, and La Viola were all the rage? Before we cared about celebrities and expensive tasting menus. Well, we won’t forget those good ‘ol days (obviously we are old and crotchety and resistant to change). The above is a dish from Mercato during the “Summer Tuesday Tastings” they got going on. Pasta, braised meat, pistachio, and some shreds of cheese? Yes please. God it was good.
It has been a while since we did brunch here on adsz – we just kept going to the usual suspects. But now, check out the newest king of the hill: TRIA! Yes, that’s right – TRIA (the one on Fitler Square). These blueberry ricotta pancakes were absolutely insane! So delicately light and fluffy, (but substantive) and full of flavor. It was incredible. And there were still like three other dishes we wanted to try! Get their early, avoid the lines, order a glass of Riesling (obviously!), and enjoy breakfast!
Now here we go … here we go … Look at these four beignets, sitting in a row. Stuffed with apples or chocolate or crawfish, Brenda’s does the most amazing sweetly fried dough that I have ever had. The catch? Brenda’s is in San Francisco (sadtrombone.com). Consequently, we’ll just have to keep going back every time we visit …
Oh – and Brenda’s does upside-down peach cobbler pancakes, too – imagine peach pie (with crumble topping) but in pancake form. Seriously – blew my head off. So delicious.
Also on a recent visit to SF, I dined at Saru, a place we first visited for lunch some time. As usual, it was delicious, from the charred shisito and daikon salad …
… to the nigiri I chose from the menu. Now, because I dined alone, I had the chance to make a few observations. The first one was weird. I arrived at restaurant opening, which meant there was a line. While there were parties of 2 and 3 and 4 being turned away with wait times of about 30 minutes, I knew that a solo diner like me would just sslliiddee right in. So when I finally got up to the host and hostess, I told them, “party of 1, please” and looked over to the bar, eyeing an open seat, smiling. So he nodded and I swear he was about to seat me, right up until, I overheard her lean in to his ear and telling him, “make him wait”. WTF!! But it’s ok – I waited the 20 minutes (I visited a nearby chocolate shop) and it was worth it. The sushi is crazy. The other observation is that Saru is only prepared for a single ordering for each party – the “oh if we’re hungry we’ll just order more” tactic doesn’t work. The kitchen is small, busy, and doesn’t have time to go back and make another order for you – they want you in, ordered, fed, and gone, ready for the next party. Lingering, ordering “just a few more” is discouraged – that messes with their workflow. The couple next to me didn’t understand this. It was an interesting exchange to say the least: “another 45 minutes for just 1 more roll and a few nigiri?”. So remember: order, eat, leave.
k and cm took me to a wonderful little restaurant for seafood pasta, cioppino, and oysters – so great. No idea what it was called, but I can’t wait to go back!
Remember when we said we needed to go back to Mercato more? Done! Boom! My dish: pasta, meat, cheese – done! g’s dish: pasta, meat, cheese – done! So simple, SO GOOD. It used to be second fiddle to Melograno, but no more – Mercato is our new-old-fave Italian BYO.
Oh, yes, this. I’ll just leave this right here.
And to close: check out our pseudo-porchetta. Let’s zoom in:
From “All Abour Roasting”, the lovely sage, rosemary, thyme, and garlic sang between the two slabs of meat (5lb pork belly, 3lb tenderloin). Yea – it was as good as it looked – had it with some broccoli rabe, provolone, potato rolls. Next time, I’ll cook it a little slower so it’ll be a bit more tender, but nevertheless, 6 people demolished 8lbs of meat over two days. Success!
a month has passed us by!
t says: Geez, it’s been a long time. Our poor blog has been neglected! If this blog were a Tamagochi, it would be covered in cyber-poop-piles and likely dead (I always felt that those cyber pets were a little too graphic). Let’s see what I can do to bring us all up to date here …
After tasting much of Tria Fiter Square’s new medium plates menu, a and I have decided that the above is their best dish. Yes, this puddle-of-brown was quite amazing: black pepper tagliattelle with mushrooms. It sounded so simple, but it was like Mercato-good, or Melograno-good, or Barbuzzo-good. We were presently shocked by the heartiness of the sauce and to this day swear that they stuck some beef broth in there or something … So order it, don’t look at it (it ain’t gonna win any awards for being pretty), and just eat it.
Of course, we visited Night Market on South street and dined at the best-gosh-darn food truck of the market, helmed by a childhood friend. If you see this truck, try it out, it’s totally worth it (but be fast! he sells out!). Maybe go there first, Weckerly’s second (trust us – best ice cream in all of night market, and located in a tiny-ass easily-overlooked cart), and then spend the rest of the time chuckling at those waiting in line for things like “pizza”.
Did you know about the Han Dynsaty in NJ? g and I have been there several times, but without ever posting about it – we just assumed everyone knew! Turns out, no! So perform this weekend routine: Cross the Ben Franklin Bridge, enter Cherry Hill, drive all the way to Wineworks (stock up on wine of any price point and ask for internet pricing), and then on your way back, hit up H-mart (for kimchi and veggies), Han Dynasty, and your choice of Wegman’s or Whole Foods. And there you go – a delightful lunch and a fridge full of groceries and wine. Consider your weekly shopping conquered.
Denver is a weird place. I just got done visiting for the first time, and I was told “yea – the convention center has a blue bear looking in the window – you can’t miss it”. I thought, “gee, that’s an odd descriptor – what if I miss it?”. Yea. Can’t miss a five-story-tall HUGE blue bear ACTUALLY looking in the glass facade. SO weird!
I put up this photo because this way I’ll have documentation of the hotel I stayed in for one of my nights in Denver. While it didn’t have the biggest rooms, it had the BEST food:
… like a perfectly executed burger, from the soft bun, to the perfectly seasoned and cooked meat, to the perfect condiments and the optional lovely bitter salad …
… to an octopus salad that was 90% perfectly poached octopus (seriously – it was so much octopus that I couldn’t finish it for lunch!) …
… down to a choose-your-own cheese board with excellent selections that made it a notch below Talula’s Garden (and charcuterie that I didn’t venture – I was trying to be “healthy”) …
… and a “serious” wine list of bottles including Scholium Project, Bedrock, Kivelstadt, Matthiasson (none of which I could afford, but it was nice to know they had). So the food and wine was so good that i actually walked back to this hotel on days I was staying in another hotel just for the food!!
and finally – I’ll end on a Philly picture. This is a Rival Bros “breakfast”. With our apartment just down the street, I’ve been visiting here WAY too much. And this is why: toast. Yes, it’s yuppie-as-hell, the idea of paying $5 for a piece of bread and some jam, and not a second goes by between swiping my credit card and waiting for the order to come up that I don’t hate myself for spending so much money on something so banal … but if you could just tastes this potato bread, in all of its golden-crusted, salt-sprinkled glory, you would immediately understand that this is no mere “toast” – this is the bread incarnate of pure bliss … sitting next to what I truly believe is Philly’s best cortado (sorry – they call it a “Deringer” – whatever). I hate the cost, I hate the lines of yoga-pant-wearing and beard-donning locals, and I hate the limited seating … but I love the bread, the coffee, and the free wifi. Oh … and did I mention they have Weckerly’s ice cream sandwiches? They do … Mind blown. Gray matter splattered all over the wall behind me …
welcome springtime!
t says: It’s been two weeks since last time, and while my phone seems to have only one additional photo:
chocolate-chocolate-chocolate!
And then I remembered: we went to the Poconos! And no, not to the place that has the weird tall pink champagne glass jacuzzi (i.e. on the billboard on 76 headed east), but to someplace I got a rando-deal on secretescapes.com for the French Manor Inn. Overall, the place was fine – we enjoyed its secluded location and nearby park. The food left a LOT to be desired (except the above chocolate dessert – which was awesome), but we got to bring our own wine, read our own books, and rest in the silence that is nature. The Poconos: Highly Recommended for Doing Nothing.
I guess this means that g and I will just have to eat out more to make sure we have stuff to blog about!
[Finally] getting to Abe Fisher
t says: g and I went to Abe Fisher not too long ago – far after the buzz had begun to subside. Now, we have to say, we’re coming at this from the points of view of two people who have little-to-no emotional attachment to “cuisine of the Jewish diaspora” that Abe Fisher boasts. In our little part of SoJo, it just wasn’t something we encountered. So we basically had no idea what to expect in terms of themes, flavors, or anything …
March 2015, Sunday Diner, Party of 2. So we started off with
the brussels sprouts caesar was precisely what we imagined – very nice done, and yet another bit of proof that sprouts need not be roasted or fried to shine. the grapes made it a bit on the sweeter-than-expected side, but overall an ok start.
ever wonder how to do a sweet potato in a manner other than just with marshmallow? go there and have this. this was a thoughtfully constructed dish flirting with perfection (for a sweet potato). pickled long hots and the mild sweet potato were crazy-good with the boursin. this hit all the right notes.
pastrami hash knish also killed it – from the sesame exterior to the poached egg and of course, the meat, it was beautiful.
broccoli 2 ways was probaly the weakest dish. i have long since forgotten the details, but i do recall thinking to myself, “gee – i kinda wish this was just a plate of roasted broccoli, instead”
i ventured the pseudo-“gefilte fish” thinking it’d be really unique – and here’s an example where I think that knowing what the original dish was would have made me appreciate this one better. but for me, it didn’t offer me much more than carrot-on-carrot-on-nondescript-fish. sorry guys. I mean sure, it tasted fine, but it’s not going to win any records for making me contemplating the true meaning of food (i.e. what I typically like to contemplate when eating dinner out).
g’s sweet-n-sour meatballs were pretty tasty – a nice take that we ultimately ate all of. But come on – will this honestly dethrone the meatballs of Barbuzzo? No …
i’m a sucker for a properly-jiggly panna cotta (it shouldn’t jiggle like jello – it should jiggle like … something else …) … but as good as my dessert was, with its creaminess and bright fruit punches …
… g’s dessert made me forget about that broccoli thing and that fish thing and that meatball thing – it immediately obliterated any-and-all thoughts, as I was instantly transported to the year 1990. Boom. Life was simple again. Forget adulthood and being fettered to worries of work, bills, taxes, and responsibility. No. Not 10-year-old me, sitting in the car (where I ate most of my dinners, between after-school activities), with McDonald’s baked apple pie half-hanging out of my mouth and a stupid grin on my face. My thoughts were simple: Did I get a 100 on my spelling test? Did I practice the piano enough this week? Was there any way I could watch X-men on Saturday morning instead of going to karate class? When was Super Mario Bros 3 coming out – and would I be able to find the hidden warp whistles? As I slowly came back to the reality that I was 32 sitting in Abe Fisher, and not 10 eating McDonald’s, I admitted it: g won dessert. Screw panna cotta …
So it wasn’t a meal without a few hiccups – perhaps it should have stopped at course 2 with that knish. g and I hadn’t ventured the Hungarian duck or the Montreal short ribs – so it’s not like we did everything. But we did like the majority of what we had – and for the fixed price of $39, the damage wasn’t that bad. We’d definitely go back when they change the menu to see what else comes out of the kitchen … except they better not change that f-ing apple strudel …
Shabu Shabu
t says: I have a confession to make. g and I don’t spend enough time in China town. Like WAY-little. We rarely do dim sum. We [regretfully] miss out on hand-drawn noodles. And certainly we haven’t shabu-shabu’d it (or “hotpot” as it’s referred to by our friends). Fortunately, one very persuasive friend of ours made an excellent case to go: she had been, she knew what to do, and she was going … So off g and I went – an adventure to Chinatown’s Hippot Shabu Shabu (most recently mentioned here). What was it like? It was insanity. I don’t have many pictures of the pot, as my battery managed to very-nearly die.
g’s side of the table went for a vegetable free-for-all. personally, i felt that this method lacked the precision of perfectly cooking individual items, but i guess that’s just how they roll …
on the meat side, we went for their “bone broth” (which i neglected to photograph. we also went for thin slices of lamb and beef, as well as a variety of dumplings and balls.
In all, the meal was quite delicious. For a bunch of neophytes like us, it was quite also quite the experience: dip, boil, slather, eat, and repeat! Thanks to our shabu-master for organizing the outing because we would have been completely lost (there was a lot of speaking in tongues with which I was not familiar). g and I also loved the social experience of gathering around a pot of food – much like a fondu … just with more exotic flavors. Oh – and the “sauce bar” was good fun – I’m pretty sure I re-created General Tso’s sauce. BUT, I have to let me Korean-ness shine through for a moment: I confess that I like Korean BBQ a bit more. There’s something about the sizzle that I miss in hotpot. And when you put that almost-burnt-outside-but-still-soft-inside cow in your mouth with a crisp leaf of fresh lettuce and a slice of cold kimchi – now that is heaven (so much so that g and I made some ssam at home tonight before I wrote this piece). True, shabu gets major points with variety – I mean they had a whole page of balls for crying out loud! But I’d never bring those balls to a kalbi fight …
After shabu-ing it for dinner, we hit up a place I have heard so much about but hadn’t had the chance yet to visit (because, you know, we never go to Chinatown …): Audubon Bakeshop. So when you walk in, you think “oh, macarons … i like macarons – i’ve had them before” (and for a snob like me, add on: “i ate at a new macaron vendor every single day of our trip in Paris … if there’s only one thing i know, it’s eating macarons”). So I sashayed my way up to the counter …
I began to notice that these were not macarons of a single flavor, rather, combinations. What gives? Is it simply that the exterior is a different flavor than the filling? …
Nope! It’s because there are two fillings! Interesting! While I have no idea how unique this is, I was intrigued. It was time to taste some … so naturally, I bought 1 of each … you know, “to share” …
And of course, I pretty much ate them all by myself. They were as addictive a potato chips. As soon as i ate one, I knew I had to eat another – I just had to know what it tasted like, because the flavor combos were so much fun! It reminded me of wanting to try ALL the donuts at FedNuts … except that I hated myself far less afterwards (6 donuts vs. 6 macarons …) In the end I’m not sure which was my favorite, but what I can say is that I’m definitely putting down this place on the short list of “desserts to bring from Philly” when we attend parties in the south Jersey suburbs. These small bites packed a slightly more profound punch of flavor than a typical macaron – I can’t wait until they make new flavors!
So a successful Chinatown outing. I’m sorry we neglected you. We’ll be back.
How does your Garden grow [more delicious]?
t says: You know, there are some restaurants in the city that have been open for some time and have fallen out of the limelight. Maybe the chef isn’t using the fanciest gastronomic techniques. Maybe the decor isn’t minimalist-chic. Maybe the menu doesn’t have enough hipster-ironic items. But they still do a damn fine job. Take Talula’s Garden. Now I have to confess that it’s hard for g and me to be unbiased when it comes to all things Talula, so I won’t do a course-by-course breakdown … but I’ll leave the punchlines here:
1) TG gives first-class service – prompt and frequent clearing and resetting of tables, cheery smiles from happy servers. No one’s “cool”, no one’s stuck-up or snotty (i.e. no long tirades over the conception of the idea of a dish and sourcing for every single ingredient). This is a lesson in old-school serving, where people appear genuinely concerned about whether you are having a great meal.
2) Their food still brings the thunder …
“pumpkin gnocchi” … how could “pumpkin gnocchi” turn heads (actually, i don’t think pumpkin is in the gnocchi)? I don’t know how – but it did. I dare not try to dissect this dish because this is one of those times when knowing the components is irrelevant, because really, it’s about having the most perfectly cooked gnocchi on your fork, driving it through the sauce and ?cheese? and nuts, and sticking it in your mouth and realizing that you just had the second-best gnocchi you’ve ever had (sorry, first best goes to Vetri … still … although I’m not sure if those spinach gnocchi count because they aren’t the same type of gnocchi – they’re some kind of volatile ricotta gnocchi). Maybe it would have been different had I been sitting in Mercato or Melograno or something, and I was expecting pasta greatness – but this just came out of nowhere and surprised the hell out of us with its mix of rustic attitude (like “so what? i’m gnocchi! no big deal”), burst of fresh flavors (despite “pumpkin”, I was feeling spring more than fall), and perfect harmony. I don’t know if it’ll ever taste the same again, now that I have such expectations (and now you, the reader, does, too!).
pork belly. So pork belly is “bait”, right? You can’t mess it up. Hell – I can make pork belly taste good. But, can you elevate it to something otherworldly – and how do you do it? It’s widely known that this blog LOVES the pork belly at Fond. It has that sweet crisped crust on top of a delightfully soft pork belly. It’s our undisputed champion, beating out competitors due to its shear hedonism (fat + salt + sugar). TG’s strategy was to walk a completely different way. On the surface, it looks like someone “put too much sh*t on their pork belly”: black garlic, fruit, pomegranate sauce, ginger, sweet potatoes … It looks crazy. It almost looks like a mystery basket on Chopped … Shut up and eat it. A. MAZ. ING. It all worked. I could not believe it. Believe it! Unlike the pork belly champions of yesteryear, this one seeks balance. Acidity to keep the mouth watering. Savory and sweet flavors to go with those from the pork. Textural contrasts with the fruit and pomengranate. A bit of starch so you’re not just eating fat on fat on fat. This the pork belly you take home to mom – the one that’s tastefully dressed, delicate, and could keep your attention for a lifetime.
Sure there were other dishes we had that were also fantastic (other pasta, shortrib, crudo, vegetables), but I think what’s important is that TG still has “it”. I know there have been chef changes, and I know that farm-to-table isn’t sexy anymore – but these weren’t the reasons to go. The reason to go is because I cannot think of a place that expresses its ingredients as well as TG, no matter how far-fetched or familiar they are. No fancy foams, mists, or meat glue – just a plate of ingredients prepared in such a way that honors and elevates the raw product. When you’re done eating, the first question you ask isn’t “Holy crap – how did the chef do that?”, it’s “holy crap – where can I get me some ramps?”. It’s a shame, because I think that this recipe will not yield chef stardom in the way other, more “unique” places will (i.e. those places with cutting edge techniques, or fusion of disparate cultures, who are in it for the “show” of it al), but for us, TG will always remain as one of our “special occasion” restaurants.
3) Oh – and did I mention that their desserts are fantastic? Have your cheese and eat your sweets, too!
Ok … so g and I love TG. Nothing new there …
after dinner sneeze 