the ulterior epicure

Daniel, New York

I talk so rarely about the friends with whom I eat.

They are saints.

They’re patient: delaying gratification until my camera has sufficiently captured the scene.

They’re generous, inviting me to wander all over their plates at will with my fork.

They’re accepting – they embrace (even if they don’t fully understand) my strange obsessions (I’m thinking of a situation involving my friend Houston and a plate of lievre a la royale).

And for reasons that remain a mystery to me, they pass up perfectly normal, if not low-key dining options in order to accompany me on my multi-course, mega-calorie, and many-houred meals.

They deserve a spotlight.
Continue reading ‘travel: the wizard of roz…’

“Porcupine” Milk Custard Buns
Tim’s Kitchen, Macau

If you’re the type that reads this blog with any regularity, then it won’t take much to convince you that there are some people who are born with a higher (indeed, abnormal) affinity toward food. In fact, I’m a strong believer that this predisposition is prenatal.

To wit: when my mother was pregnant with me – this in her third trimester – she developed an immense and intense craving for Chinese salted fish, a pungent (some would say, awful-smelling) preserved seasoning of sorts used most commonly in Cantonese cuisine. My mother is not Cantonese. Neither is my father.

So persistent was my demand for this stuff that my mother woke my father up at 3 a.m., demanded that he drive her to the airport – in a snow storm – so that she could board the earliest flight to Chicago where my aunt picked her up and took her to Chinatown, where she bought ten bags full of salted fish (if you know anything about this product, that’s enough to last a life-time).

And wouldn’t you know it? I happen to love the stuff.

Continue reading ‘review: a preternatural prenatal yen…’

Tea-Smoked Bresse Pigeon
Man Wah, Hong Kong

If the little dish of fried walnuts was the fantastic opener to our meal at Man Wah, the Kung Po Bean Curd (HK$110) was the headliner. The tumble of fluffy cubes of tofu – thinly glazed with a crisp, fried sheen of spicy sauce and commingled with blistered red chiles and crunchy cashews – earned a salivating assortment of descriptions including fiery, savory, and comforting.

A surprisingly impressive Peking duck service followed, and a fantastic eggplant dessert closed out the evening on a high note.

Man Wah surprised me.

I guess it shouldn’t have, as it came highly recommended by a number of locals with good taste.

Continue reading ‘review: gnawing on brains…’

European Ham Assortment
Pierre, Hong Kong

Conventional wisdom dictates that if Pierre Gagnaire’s not in the kitchen, don’t go.

I violated this rule, and I paid the price.

But I did so in the company of a veteran and devotee of Gagnaire’s restaurants – he’s been to every one of them: Paris, Bangkok, Hong Kong, London, and Tokyo (which just closed), and has met the man in all of them.

It was comforting to know that Yong shared my disappointment in our meal at Pierre – Gagnaire’s one Michelin-starred restaurant atop the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong.

Continue reading ‘review: farrago…’

Terra at Encantado Auberge & Resort
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Dining at Terra, I’ve been told, can be a gamble. While Chef Charles Dale has good intentions, they don’t always translate on the plate.

I’d agree.

Terra is the flagship restaurant at the Encantado Auberge & Resort, tucked away in the hills outside of Santa Fe. Being one of the closest dining options to the Santa Fe Opera, and the opera being in its final string of performances for this year’s season, the restaurant was heavily trafficked while we were there.

It was booked solid for the early dinner slots the night we had tickets (the last night of the opera), so we decided to go late the evening before.

Continue reading ‘review: where’s my huitlacoche?…’

Alex at the Wynn
Las Vegas, Nevada

I have a friend who works in the kitchen at Alex at the Wynn.

He had been begging me to visit for quite some time.

Truth be told, I wasn’t really hot on Alex before I went. The food seemed pro forma in the reading. I mean, what am I to do with one more Franco-neo-Italian meal?

But the spring menu looked quite good (bastilla!).

Sadly, the restaurant went through its annual closure just before my trip to Las Vegas. With it went the spring menu. In came the summer menu, debuting just two days before my arrival. It didn’t look nearly as exciting (to me) as the spring menu did.

But I’ll tell you, you wouldn’t know that they were still working out the kinks in the new summer menu based on the meal I had.

Continue reading ‘review: impresario of sauce…’

Classified
Wanchai, Hong Kong

Because I’m a glutton, after wrapping up our dim sum lunch at Summer Palace, I solicited my friend’s advice for last nibbles and bites on my last day in Hong Kong. I had about five hours to kill before dinner.

He recommended, among a few places, a nearby restaurant opened by a couple of paper boys called Classified (as in the advert section of a newspaper).

It was an excellent suggestion.

With a set of simple but exact directions, I found it without so much as a hair of doubt. (It’s at 31 Wing Fung Street in Wanchai, right around the corner from Three Pacific Place. You can’t miss it.)

What I ended up having was essentially a second lunch.

Continue reading ‘review: italia overnighted…’

La Cantina, Coyote Cafe
Santa Fe, New Mexico

About two years ago, Mark Miller – a Chez Panisse alumnus and Berkeley transplant – sold his celebrated Coyote Cafe to fellow Santa Fe chef/restaurateur Eric DiStefano of Geronimo.

While the Coyote Cafe is a more formal restaurant, the Cantina – its sister operation on the rooftop terrace adjacent to the the cafe – is much more casual, as suggested by its name.  The entire terrace is covered with tarp canopies, ensuring that the occasional showers that pass through won’t interrupt service.  Counter seating skirts the edges, whilst a mix of high-tops and regular tables fills the balance of the space.

We dropped into the Cantina for an early pre-opera dinner (not surprisingly, due to the last night of the opera, Coyote Cafe was full). At 5.30, the terrace was pretty empty. But it filled up nicely by the time we scooted out a quarter after 6.

Continue reading ‘review: on the roof…’

Cafe Pasqual’s
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Cafe Pasqual’s might just be Santa Fe’s most beloved restaurant.

Now in its 24th year (I believe), James Beard Award-winning chef and owner Kathy Kagel’s corner cafe is packed from the moment it opens its doors for breakfast to the last table seated at night. It’s rare to find the restaurant without a line of people trailing around the corner waiting to get in.

Breakfast and – especially – brunch are the heavily favored meals here.

Mistakenly informed that the restaurant opened at 7.30 a.m., we arrived promptly to queue for the Sunday breakfast/brunch. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the restaurant doesn’t open until 8 a.m. on Sundays. We were first in line. In a matter of minutes, there was a trail of people longer than the number of seats available (I’d guestimate no more than thirty-five, total).

Continue reading ‘review: beloved forest of crêpe paper…’