[august 8, 2011]
what is a nearly perfect meal? it is an idiosyncratic confluence of elements, the sum of parts. it has almost nothing to do with expense, other than that special dinners draw people together and place them in a suitable and shared frame of mind. this can be done inexpensively, which is why this list is not a list of restaurants but a list of meals. but i also now realise what everyone who opens an ambitious restaurant knows: it takes a tremendous amount of effort to reproduce reliably what sometimes unexpectedly and serendipitously materialises when people get together to cook or eat.
in most of these cases, the food was authentic (in the sense that it was what it was, and wasn't trying to be something else) and made with care, the beverages appropriate (even if not exalted), the company incomparable. some of these places i've been to many times, some only once. in every case, the particular perfection of the meal has not been reproducible in other places and at other times. your mileage may vary.
here we go:
san francisco
berkeley
chez panisse; the cheeseboard
cambridge
hungry mother; bondir; cooking with fire and clay; friday morning coffee at hirise
palo alto
bay leaf cafe (their yellow lentil sambar soup, on a wet day); homma's (outside on the plastic furniture on a warm summer night)
new york
lenox
nudel
3 comments:
Firefly?
just put it up there. i was hoping to only include those for which there was some record of the near-perfection but i now see that such pettifoggery is pointless.
I've found the Kitchen to have perfected the art of the poached egg and Hollandaise sauce.
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