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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I've been rediscovering Berkeley lately, and will report on lots of great local restaurants. 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 ...] |
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© 2010 The Accidental Wino |
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