I’ve been slurping a lot of pho this winter, even though it hasn’t been that cold here in the Bay Area. My most recent excursion, which brought me to Mangosteen in the Tenderloin, marked the end of my recent pho dac biet bender. Mangosteen’s pho proved to be one of the richest versions of the lot, very flavorful, with a layer of grease droplets, most about the size of a dime, that lingered like lip balm. Although I did enjoy this version, this soup made me feel as though enough was enough, and that I should probably [... read more ...]
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The Culinary Timeline is a side-project that I've been working on since October. I'm hoping to have most of it complete by the end of January, with any luck. Until then, updates around here will be weekly, rather than twice weekly. Do stay tuned. • • •
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I ate dinner at Bistro Jeanty the other night, for the first time since Michael Bauer published his December 24th review of the restaurant in the San Francisco Chronicle. Truth be told, I don’t particularly care for Bauer’s reporting (I feel that his writing usually lacks imagination, and that his opinions are his own), but it’s always interesting to read such a negative restaurant review, especially since I happen to recommend Bistro Jeanty fairly regularly. It is, by far, the best value in Yountville, no matter what you think you’ve read or heard. For me, [... read more ...] I purchased a copy of Ferran Adrià’s “A Day at elBulli” today, although I wondered if I even had any business doing so. After all, Catalonia’s famed elBulli restaurant is at the epicenter of the molecular gastronomy movement, and Adrià’s culinary techniques often employ chemicals and equipment that would be very difficult to turn up, even in the most well-stocked kitchen. Liquid nitrogen? Surgical tubing? Sous vide rigs? I consider myself pretty far ahead of the curve, especially when it comes to culinary gadgetry, but I certainly don’t have any of these items at home. And who [... read more ...] The word “brace” is something you don’t often see on a menu. It was stumping me as a culinary term, until I remembered that it was simply an arcane synonym for the word “pair.” I recalled this definition from my high school days, back when I was cramming for the SAT, but I hadn’t really thought about this usage in years. Then, I stumbled across this word last week, while reading the Joint Congressional Committee’s Inaugural Luncheon menu. This “quadrennial event” (I’ve got your SAT right here) dates back to Dwight D. Eisenhower, and is traditionally sandwiched [... read more ...] I don’t know much about Jack Kleinberg, but I found these images while reminiscing over Gene’s Po-Boy the other day. From the date of his work, I assume that Kleinberg relocated to Los Angeles after Hurricane Katrina. I find it strangely fascinating that one of Kleinberg’s Los Angeles subjects is Tito’s Tacos, which was one of my guiltiest pleasures as an Angelino. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as though Kleinberg has an official site for his work, but he does have a gallery, if you click here. Although Tito’s and Gene’s are nearly 2,000 miles apart, [... read more ...] Food writer Stewart Lee Allen offers a unique approach to culinary history with his book “In the Devil’s Garden,” a collection of essays cleverly divided into seven sinful chapters. Allen’s book, which runs the gamut from lust to anger, addresses an impressive array of food-related topics, from the taboos of cannibalism to the near-mythical delicacy of ortolans. For the foodie, “In the Devil’s Garden” presents a thoughtful, if not breezy, compendium. As my friend Samantha commented, it’s a sipper.
Sharing is [... read more ...] My previous review of Bottega has been generating exceptional traffic over the last couple weeks, which inspired me to devote a short entry to my most recent visit to Michael Chiarello’s new Napa Valley restaurant. Normally, I wouldn’t repeat myself so quickly, since my original review, which I had just published on December 30, still remains both timely and relevant. However, the other night, I did have the opportunity to revisit Bottega on somebody else’s dime, so I thought that my readers might appreciate a brief follow-up. I will say from the outset that, once [... read more ...] Big Jay was the person who first introduced me to Gene’s Po-Boys, and since I didn’t own a car when I lived in New Orleans, he was always my passport to their legendary cheeseburgers. There was a considerable stretch when — at least two or three times per week — we would drive over to Gene’s immediately after finishing our dinner shift at K-Paul’s. It became the type of situation where, if either of us even mentioned Gene’s, then that became the plan after work, no questions asked. Located at the edge of the infamous Ninth Ward, the [... read more ...] The word “barbecue” has many different connotations in the culinary world, depending upon what you’re eating. I think for most people in the United States, “barbecue” implies cooking with smoke, whether it’s the short, intense heat from a real charcoal grill, or the tried-and-true, all-day, slow-and-low approach with a meat smoker. To be sure, most etymologists would agree with this description, since “barbecue” is most likely a bastardization of the Carribean words barbacoa, which is a meat-roasting stand, and barbicú, which is the roasting process itself. Somehow, despite barbecue’s smoky origins, a few other foods [... read more ...] A recent trip to Shafer Vineyards reconfirmed what I have long argued: that Shafer is probably the best winery in the Napa Valley. Normally, I wouldn’t spend the time posting about this producer, since their wines are pretty well-known and well-regarded already. In terms of my tasting notes, the purpose of the Thirsty Reader is to highlight the wineries that are good, but which are still a bit under the radar. With this site, I don’t have the time nor the resources to be completely comprehensive, nor do I want to be. After all, even for the [... read more ...] |
 
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© 2012 The Accidental Wino |
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