Thoughts in Random Patterns

Contemporary Dallas

We're in Dallas for a Wellesley art trip with our in-laws and yesterday had access to two extraordinary homes designed by contemporary architects and filled with amazing art.  We first went to the collection of Howard and Cindy Rachofsky, whose home was designed by Richard Meier as basically a one bedroom museum.  The current selections from their collection are all created between the years of 2004-2007 by emerging artists.  It was great to see major collectors supporting the work of living artists.  The second home we visited was designed by Steven Holl for Jessie and Charles Price, whose collection includes works by Joan Mitchell, Ed Ruscha, old master drawings, Brice Marden, and my favorite, a Robert Irwin light installation. 

In the afternoon we skipped the curated tour of the Turner exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art, dashed through the Nasher sculpture museum with its terrific design by Renzo Piano, and went back to the hotel for a nice long nap.

We had dinner at Stephan Pyles Restaurant, where the food was lovely (a selection of 4 iced gazpacho was wonderful), but the waiter was very agressive and intrusive. 

Today we're off to Ft. Worth to see the Tadao Ando designed museum as well as the Art of the American Snapshot exhibit at the Amon Carter. 

Aix in Denver

After seeing a fantastic exhibit at the Denver Art Museum called Color as Field, Brad and I had dinner at a restaurant that was new to us, Aix.  We zoomed through the museum at our normal pace, and were so early for our 5:30 reservation that the restaurant hadn't opened.  We strolled around the neighborhood a bit, and went into a divey bar to have a drink while waiting.  I immediately noticed that there were no women in the bar, but didn't go ahead and make the connection that this was a gay bar.  After being ignored completely for about 10 minutes, Brad figured it out, and we went back and waited in the car for Aix to open.

It was worth waiting for.  The food was fresh and French-ish and wonderful.  I had mushroom truffle soup to start, and Brad had roasted beet salad with toasted goat cheese, and we shared a cheese plate which had apricots soaked in lavender honey.  Yum.  I had salmon with haricots verts and roasted fingerling potatoes and roasted tomatoes as my entree.  Brad had small portion of disgustingly rich gnocchi with tomatoes and parmesan.  Double yum.  Butter is amazing stuff.  We skipped dessert and came home.  It's funny to eat so early, and get home at 7:00 on a Saturday night.  Going to bed plenty early for Brad to run his 10 miles to town tomorrow.

Brunch at the Oak Room

Our last, and perhaps most memorable meal in Louisville was Sunday Brunch at our hotel, the Seelbach Hilton.  I love a huge Sunday brunch with omelet stations and desserts before noon.  Brad and I were heading downstairs from our room and he said he thought he had something in his shoe, maybe a piece of paper or a bug.  We were running late to meet our friends, so I told him there wasn't anything in his shoe, meaning there's nothing in your shoe, you idiot.  We got to the elegant brunch room and joined our already seated friends.  Brad was still feeling this phantom piece of paper in his shoe, so he slipped it off and dumped out an enormous cockroach onto the floor.  Neither of us screamed, which was good.  I said big bug, big bug, big bug and put my napkin over it.  Brad excused himself either to go take a shower in bleach or put on socks made of depleted uranium.   He did return, and we all did enjoy a beautiful brunch, especially after the nice waiter scooped up the dead (?) bug and made it go far away.  At the end of our meal we signaled for the check, and the nice waiter said that our meal was complimentary because of the big bug, big bug, big bug.  (Maybe I'm paraphrasing slightly here.)  We happily took our free meal, even though the bug was imported from our hotel room upstairs and not a resident of the actual brunch room.  And our friends agreed that the next time we dine together we should bring a big plastic bug and see what happens.

Seviche

One of the other nice meals we had in Louisville came after the races on Saturday at Seviche.  The Latin / Mexican flavors tasted extra fresh and interesting and somehow unexpected in Kentucky.  The lively atmosphere and friendly service and the second mojito were all very nice.  We ate a sampler of ceviches, which were all delicious, and I had a tuna entree.  Definitely worth a visit..

610 Magnolia

While we were in Kentucky for the Breeders' Cup horse races the first weekend of November, we had a couple of terrific meals.  On Friday night we ate at 610 Magnolia, which was lovely. 

Here are some photos of the place and a sample menu from their website.

Since we had all traveled to Louisville on Friday and had not gone to the races, we were literally the first people to show up at the restaurant, which was a little strange.  We had drinks standing at the bar and some fun appetizers before being seated at a table by the window. 

Bourbon seemed like the right thing to drink when in Kentucky, although I don't know whether there is an analogous drink to the mint julep for the Kentucky Derby.  The food was fresh, and the portions weren't overly large, which is a good thing for people like us who eat out so frequently. 

A couple of quibbles about the place:  Our waitress wasn't especially knowledgeable about the menu.  She had to keep going to ask about things like which cheeses were on the artisanal cheese plate, which didn't seem like a tricky question. The other thing was that there was a $1,000 cancellation fee.  I understand that the race weekend is a big revenue moment, but that seemed like a crazy cancellation policy.

And then the challenging part of the evening was that I hadn't really thought through the travel logistics back to our hotel.  We ended up waiting over an hour for a taxi, which certainly put a damper on the celebratory feeling of the evening, and made me glad that I had arranged for all day transportation for the day of the races.

The next time I'm in Louisville, I'm definitely going back to 610 Magnolia..

The Kitchen: California in Boulder

California in Boulder

Review of: Kitchen the

By: Amy Batchelor

Rating: 4

Read review on Judy's Book.

The Kitchen is my favorite restaurant for downtown lunch meetings. The menu is full of fresh locally produced meats and produce. I had lunch on Friday and had their delicious and hearty tomato soup and then a roasted beet salad with chevre and toasted hazelnuts on a bed of arugula. It's nice to have a place to eat at frequently where it's possible to eat healthy food.

My only complaint is that the tables are quite close together, so it's not a good place for sharing private conversations unless you want you neighbors to hear, too.

Babbo

Babbo is a special place.  Brad and I got to have dinner there tonight courtesy of the last minute reservation powers of Fred Wilson, who is a gentleman and a scholar.  After our surprisingly rapid tour of the MoMA we took a taxi down to Greenwich Village.  After some language difficulties with the cabbie, who I thought was saying Beverly Place instead of Waverly Place, we managed to get there.  Babbo is quite small and intimate, with soft lighting and the comfortable service that happens at restaurants confident in their excellence. 

Although it is white truffle season and they offered a beautiful white truffle tasting menu, we exercised some restraint.  We both started with a beautiful beet salad with steamed spinach, and then Brad had the maccheroni alla chitarra as his entree.  I had the spaghettini with lots of roasted garlic cloves and the meat of a one pound lobster.  The lobster meat got a little overpowered by the sweetness of the red sauce.  Both of our pastas were cooked perfectly, with some firmess left to bite into.  For dessert, we shared a delicious pistachio and chocolate semifreddo, which I'm used to having served in a parfait glass.  This looked more like a panna cotta and was a perfect combination of sweet and chilled and chewy.  Very nice. 

I’d definitely like to eat here again, as soon as possible, really.  Thanks, Fred..

Bond Street

For October 1st Life Dinner, Brad and I went to Bond Street, which is a sushi place here in New York that feels like an elegant cocktail lounge.  The hostess wore a swirly orange cocktail dress and the lighting is dim and it's quite romantic, which is not the norm for sushi.  The food was delicious, and little touches like gold foil on the tuna tartare made things special.  Their "new style" hamachi appetizer was so good we ordered another.  Dessert had lots of fun gold foil on top.  Not our usual jeans and t-shirt sushi place.  Very nice.

After dinner we walked around and found a Best Buy as Brad's Life Dinner gift, where he bought a Verizon Wireless EVDO card and I bought some different headphones for my iPod Shuffle. 

And in case I had any doubts, I got to prove once again that my Manolo's weren't made for walking.  I rubbed big holes in the back of each of my heels.  These shoes are pretty to look at, but not very functional.  They're what I call "restaurant shoes," meaning that you walk in them from the car to the restaurant to your table, perhaps take a trip to the restroom, then walk back to the car and drive home.  I wore these same pair for an entire day at the Kentucky Derby, but apparently didn't learn my lesson on the first Sunday in May.  I look into the future and see me wearing uncomfortable shoes on November 1st, too..

Les Bouquinistes

I had the chance to explore another one of the restaurants in the Guy Savoy food empire last night.  Les Bouquinistes is located on the Left Bank just across the street from the Seine at the Pont Neuf bridge and Notre Dame cathedral.  I’ve been lucky to get to spend time with Greg Reinacker and Anita Taylor from Newsgator the past couple of days, and we’re having a blast getting to know each other.  Dinner together was (another) great conversation about quantum mechanics and entrepreneurial company growth patterns and shoes, with some very nice food thrown in for good measure.  The atmosphere at Les Bouquinistes feels very California to me.  It’s probably some big blasphemy in the food world to compare Paris to California, but I call it like I see it — and I saw bright, cheerful colors and contemporary art and fresh food with sophisticated flavors that I associate with dining in San Francisco.  I had an appetizer of risotto with prawns (confirmed first that it was prepared without wine) and shared bites of Greg’s swordfish and salmon carpaccio.  For my entree I had tuna three ways:   seared, tartare, and in phyllo, served with a side dish of basmati and wild rice with herbs.  The tuna was excellent and each preparation was distinct from and also complementary to the others.  The seared tuna had capers and caraway seeds and a tart, acidic finish and was my favorite of the preparations.  The tartare was good, but my favorite tartare is still at Aqua.  Dessert was hard to choose, with lots of fruit options.  I finally went with the trio of creme brulees.  They were served in oval shaped glass glasses instead of the traditional ramekin.  The flavors were fruit, nougat and pistachio, with perfectly crisp tops.  Very nicely done.  I’d eat here every week.

Good Eating

I’ve been feasting here in Paris.  It’s a world of culinary delights.  Two of the meals in the past two weeks definitely belong on my hypothetical Top Ten list, which got me to thinking about what that list would actually be.  I’m a list maker, love lists, think in lists, speak in lists; yet I had never created an actual Amy’s Top Ten list of restaurants and/or dining experiences.  So after considerable thought, and in consultation with Brad to confirm my memories, I’m creating at least a first pass at that list here, in no particular order:

• Le Cinq (Paris)
• Restaurant Guy Savoy (Paris)
• Biba (Boston)
• L’Espalier (Boston)
• Restaurant Daniel (New York)
• Gramercy Tavern (New York)
• Sushi:  Nobu / Matsuhisa Nobu (Las Vegas) Matsuhisha (Aspen and Los Angeles)
• Aqua (San Francisco )
• La Pont de la Tour, (London)
• Lespinasse in the St. Regis Hotel in New York, which no longer seems to exist?  Does anybody have current information?  I just spent an inordinate amount of time trolling around the internet and could find old articles from 1991 about the restaurant, but the hotel’s website doesn’t contain anything about Lespinasse.  This was my very first degustation menu, and a vegetarian degustation at that.  Forever memorable.

Restaurant opinions are very personal, of course.  As they say here: Chacun a son goût.  I’ve been fortunate enough to experience meals at so many superb restaurants, several of them on this Top 50 List.

My two Top Ten Paris restaurant experiences at Le Cinq and Restaurant Guy Savoy had plenty of similarities, all of them wonderful.  The food was exquisite:  delicate, fresh, beautiful, aromatic, unique, full of adjectives.  At both places the staff is clearly delighted to be doing what they’re doing, and proud to share their knowledge and the evening in high good spirits.  There was not a single second of feeling awkward about being an American or not really speaking French.  Both evenings were lengthy, and I never noticed time passing.  Zen gourmet.

I think I’d have to say that the major difference between the two evenings, which may make Le Cinq slightly more memorable in the long term, is that I forgot to tell the incredible staff there that I’m seriously allergic to wine, and something was prepared with that vile substance, and by the time we got home after the meal, I was sick as a dog.  I thought I might be sick in the back of the taxi or in the street.  Yippee.  Later that day (since I was up until well after 2:00, procrastinating as hard as possible the inevitable vomiting process, and then puking my guts out), while waiting to feel like a human being again, reading the menu more closely, it very clearly states, “Salade de morilles a l’araignee de mer at AU VIN JAUNE” which in English means Morel Mushroom Salad with Spider Crab and YELLOW WINE, YOU ILLITERATE, PRETENDER TO BE SPEAKING THE FRENCH, SEVERELY ALLERGIC TO THE WINE PERSON.”  Of course, the reason I was able to lazily peruse the menu was that when Brad asked for a copy of the menu during our dinner, meaning a single quick photocopy, the restaurant prepared individual copies of our own particular degustation menu for the evening for each member of our party.  That’s a new level of service for me.

The other thing that was unique in my experience was the positioning of a small padded stool near my chair to serve as the home for my purse.  My purse usually hides quietly under my chair; it doesn’t get its own comfortable seat near the table.  Now it expects that kind of treatment at home.

Brad blogged on April 7th about his experience of the evening, and very kindly left out all the yucky part that happened after the yummy part.  I’m cutting and pasting his typing efforts here (stealing?  community property blogging?)

Mercredi 06 Mars 2005
Diner au Restaurant Le Cinq
Philippe Legendre, Chef des Cuisines, Meilleur Ouvrier de France

Blanc et noir aux ecrevisses pattes rouges
Salade de morilles a l’araignee de mer et au vin jaune
Grosses asperges vertes au Parmesan et a la truffe, polenta et olives noires confites
Turbot de ligne au melon d’eau, nage aux epices et au citron vert
Langouste puce aux petits pois et aux oignons doux des Cevennes
Bar de ligne roti aux epices et aux artichauts poivrade
Le selection de nos Maitres fromagers
Granite d’ananas a l’hibiscus et parfum de litchi, emulsion coco
Du chocolat exclusivement …

Eric Beaumard, Directeur du Restaurant

or – in English – according to Babelfish

Wednesday 06 Mars 2005
Dinner at the Restaurant Five
Philippe Legendre, Chief of the Kitchens, Better Working of France

White and black with the ecrevisses red legs morel
Salade have the araignee sea and with the YELLOW WINE, YOU ILLITERATE, PRETENDER TO BE SPEAKING THE FRENCH, SEVERELY ALLERGIC TO THE WINE PERSON
Grosses green asparaguses with the Parmesan and have truffle, polenta and crystallized black olives
Turbot of line to watermelon, swim with the epices and with the green lemon
Langouste chip with peas and soft onions of Cevennes
Bar of line roti to the epices and the artichokes poivrade
The selection of our Maitres Granite Cheesemongers
Pineapple has the hibiscus and perfume of litchi, emulsion coconut
Of the chocolate exclusively...

I really insist that the fact that I’m unable to read and am allergic to wine is completely separate from the elegance and seamless luxury of the experience of dining at Le Cinq.  It’s not their fault that I ate a poison.

I was much smarter by the time Renee and I got to Restaurant Guy Savoy last week, and the first thing I said after “Bon soir,” was “Je suis allergique du vin.  J’ai une allergie du vin.  Je ne boire jamais du vin.”  Of course, since all of the staff speak beautiful English, I needn’t have bothered, but I’m going to get in the habit of announcing my allergy at the beginning of every restaurant meal so that I never have to have the retching through the night experience again. 

The differences between the experiences are more about the atmosphere than about the food.  When a course is delivered at Le Cinq it’s almost as if there’s a flourish of trumpets.  The room is grand and exquisitely French and makes one feel like Marie Antoinette (before the beheading, of course).  Guy Savoy feels like you’re dining at a friend’s home; a friend who really knows how to cook!  The space is small and intimate, divided into multiple alcoves and rooms, fairly dark with pools of light along the walls highlighting the contemporary artworks.  There were a total of four tables in our room.  There are sight lines into other rooms so that you glimpse other diners, but feel as though you’re having a very private and special experience. 

A new dining experience for me at Guy Savoy was individual pairings of bread with each course.  The bread cart is rolled out and a staff member describes the different options and makes a recommendation to complement your particular food choice.  It’s a great idea, and once you’ve heard it, seems obvious.  The flavors of the bread are an important part of the degustatory experience, and they wouldn’t want you to inadvertently choose a bread whose flavors would overwhelm the delicacy of a course, or a bread that wouldn’t hold up to something very flavorful.  The most memorable bread has little spikes along both sides and looks like some kind of sea creature and is called Mustache Bread.  The staff is always only making a helpful suggestions to enhance your experience; never any hint of snobbery.  “We recommend this, but if you prefer something else, we’re happy to accommodate you,” is the tenor of the entire evening.  Incredibly elegant and intimate.  After some course midway through the evening, I guessed that it was 9:15 and when I looked at my watch it was 10:30. 

My recollection of my food choices for the evening don’t include the various amuse bouche and extra dessert goodies that magically appear.  I do remember that we had small little delicacies like a raisin wrapped in crispy mille feuille still warm from the oven.  The first amuse bouche was a foie gras something, so after I said that I don’t eat meat, they brought me tiny carrots and sugar snap pea pods on a tiny skewer with a citrus sauce of some kind.  I started with the Soupe d’artichaut a la truffe noire, brioche feuilletee aux champignons et truffes (creamy artichoke soup with black truffles and a flaky brioche roll with mushroom and truffle butter) and then had an appetizer portion of seared tuna with various scents in a ginger cream sauce, followed by some morel mushrooms with tiny asparagus and then the entree of Breton lobster roasted in its shell, with Bordelaise sauce and tiny coral beads decorating the plate.  This dish made me wish I had a camera.  Perfectly arranged, colorful, and presented like a jewel, with bright citrus flavors in the sauce.  Just beautiful.  I love a nicely presented lobster.  I still remember the first whole lobster claw I ever had, at Jasper White’s in Boston, another restaurant that I think doesn’t exist anymore, or at least not in its Atlantic Avenue incarnation.  (Jasper White’s Summer Shack restaurant)  The lobster at Guy Savoy was perfection.

I think it was finally time for dessert, although it seems possible that I’m omitting a course in here somewhere.  I couldn’t decide between the two juicy chocolate dessert choices, so they offered to bring me half portions of each.  Now that’s a good idea!  I had a half portion of dark and milk chocolate fondant terrine with praline leaf underneath and chicory cream and a half portion of a dense dark chocolate cake with a dark chocolate ganache, dark chocolate sorbet, infused with a perfume of some mysterious Tonga flat bean  (Fève de tonka ) that was almost vanilla, but different, darker, richer, less sweet. 

Okay, I love the internet [sometimes].  Instead of fumbling around making stuff up, I just looked up Tonga bean on Yahoo and found all kinds of good stuff.  It actually is Tonka, not Tonga as I was automatically and erroneously translating for some reason.   Yahoo results for Tonka bean    So cool.  Tonka Bean  info everywhere

I was offered a bean for inspection before making my dessert selection from a glass container full, and I slid it into my purse and kept it as a rather strange souvenir of the evening.  My personally autographed menu Renee especially requested on my behalf is a rather more visually appealing souvenir — a million thanks to Renee for such a generous thank you gift from her, and for introducing me to this spectacular restaurant, and for sharing a wonderful evening.  As we were staggering out the door with our Restaurant Guy Savoy bags containing our menus, the front desk staff tried to offer me a last morsel of sweets, which I tried to decline; but they slipped it into my bag.  And since I didn’t get sick afterward, it was an especially delightful evening.  I think I’ve experienced the best that Paris has to offer, with these Michelin three star experiences, and fear that I’ve been wrecked for lesser dining experiences — but I think I’ll keep eating..