pigalle / 75 charles street south (in the theater district, not in beacon hill) / 617-423-4944 /tue-thu 5:30-10pm, fri-sat 5:30-10:30pm, sun 5-9:30pm /reservations accepted (and recommended) / entrees expensive ($22-30) for some reason, i had never noticed before that pigalle is a small restaurant. luis, […]
i think nora’s intention with the blackbird gift certificate she sent to me was that i use it on my scheduled trip there the first time i went, but it arrived just a day later than that. at any rate, i was very happy to […]
the french laundry / 6640 washington street / yountville ca / 707-944-2380 / dinner 5:30-9pm daily, lunch f-sun 11-1pm / reservations accepted up to 2 months in advance (recommended, and be prepared to call continuously exactly at the moment when you can call for a reservation) / tasting menu extremely expensive ($240)
i wonder if yountville became what it is after the french laundry opened (i think it was 1993 or 1994 according to what i overheard from the waiter as he told the table next to us), or if the french laundry opened when yountville was already what it is. i think it was the former. at any rate, the french laundry is located safely away from the so-touristy-it’s-surreal area of the town. across from the restaurant there’s a vegetable and herb patch for the restaurant, where there are beets, zucchini, watermelon, various herbs, etc. it’s a strange place for an herb garden – right next to all of the cars! – but it’s cool to see it there. there was even a little patch of corn growing there. (more…)
chez panisse / 1517 shattuck avenue / berkeley ca / 510-548-5525 / reservations recommended (see reservation policy for hours) / 3-course prix fixe menu varies from $50-100 jessica wrote me in a letter that we were going to go out to chez panisse on youngsun’s […]
i went to blackbird last wednesday, and i have to say that i have mixed feelings about the visit. i had heard that it was really good midwestern-tinged fare from various sources (people on egullet also seem to like it), which typically would bode well. […]
This is a list of what my sister and I could remember from our dinner at Alinea. I thought there were 28 courses but we could only remember 24. So maybe it was 24 courses. At any rate here they are, probably in the wrong order:
i / Amuse-bouche: zucchini, mango, saffron, and chamomile
ii / Kudos for not only room-temperature (ie spreadable) butter, but two kinds of butter – goat’s milk and cow’s milk (I liked the cow’s milk better – it tasted like the cultured butter jessica and I made over IAP)
1 / Heart of Palm in five sections: vanilla pudding, fava bean with preserved lemon, garlic bulghur wheat with a garlic chip on top, prune puree, pumpernickel bread with black truffles (a note here: this was so much fun to eat! each piece was placed on a pedestal, and the way they tell you to eat the thing is to tip it back into your mouth as if you’re taking a shot) (more…)
alinea / 1723 north halsted / chicago il / 312-867-0110 / dinner wed-sun / reservations required / chef’s tour $195 or 12-course tasting menu $135 So now that the hottest day I have ever experienced in my life is over (104 degrees, felt like 110, […]
central kitchen / 567 massachusetts avenue / cambridge ma / 617-491-5599 / sun-wed 5:30-1am, thu-sat 5:30-2am / reservations accepted for parties of 6+ (recommended) / entrees moderately expensive ($18-25) celina and i have been trying to make indian food together for approximately four months now. […]
craigie street bistrot / 5 craigie circle / cambridge ma / 617-497-5511 / tu-thur 6-10pm, fri-sat 5:30-10:30pm, sun 5:30-10pm / reservations recommended / entrees expensive (dinner will run you $35-70)
goodness! not that i really care, but i can assure you that after having been out in the rain on the way to and from dinner, my hair has lost everything from the post-haircut blowout except for that intoxicating stuff they spray on it at the salon i go to.
today was probably the last stop on jessica’s and my restaurant tour (the money has run out, sadly – must pay my rent), and it was craigie street bistrot. craigie street bistrot had been my favorite restaurant in cambridge, and i’m happy to report that it remains my favorite restaurant.
what i had liked the first time i went to craigie street bistrot (it was sometime last fall or the one before that, with a bunch of french house people) was the simplicity of the food and the flawless preparation (a point to which our waitress at no 9 park agreed, having previously worked there). when i was last there, i had the pork rillettes (a kind of pate-confit type thing) and the roast chicken, and then we split a bunch of desserts. i remember the chicken as being the best chicken that i’d ever had; the desserts were also memorable for this reason – good ingredients. (more…)
i’m somewhat at a loss because i’ve gone from such a high level of production (final review) to nothing. well, if “nothing” means “eventual packing.” i feel as though i should be relaxing, but am finding it difficult to do because i’m still coming off […]