evisceration ain't fun

these little guys were unhappy but delicious.


a poached crayfish tail, in a broth of crayfish claws, on a puddle of crayfish brains, with beach vegetables and wood sorrel (made with jaw-dropping precision by yoshihiro narisawa's team, who i understood to be public relations people).

india in denmark

curry at ved stranden is a great way to land in copenhagen. i thought torsten was joking when he said that his favourite food to cook was indian. this curry, and the mango chutney that came with it, was killer. they also poured a 2010 souhaut domaine romaneaux-destezet from the ardeche. brilliant.

it tasted of lemon and white flowers

alex atala gives us an ant embedded in agar. crunchy in two ways, aromatic with citrus.

where part of the magic happens

tasty carrots

#madfoodcamp

in-n-krispy

krispy kreme x in-n-out. more trouble than i'd expected, less tasty than i'd hoped.

dyac

 me:  http://damnyouautocorrect.com/images/god-damsel.jpg

 Patrick:  love that site :-)

 me:  that particular dyac is awesome

 Patrick:  your face is awesome

 me:  i am not just a pretty face

 Patrick:  neither is your mom

 me:  your mom is a damsel

 Patrick:  ferret

 me:  is your cunt humming?

 Patrick:  it's humming in aunticipation

 me:  i'm done

sunlit

starr king

watermelon

found, in case you're wondering, on the internet.

off to the races

pescadero, ca.

nice work

still missing the nission

25th and guerrero.

the road to costanoa

a san francisco tradition

dawgs

the blue moon diner

pink pearl

spudnuts

undoubtedly fresh but unfortunately also mediocre.

coffee with room

morning coffee

[references: ben s]

charlottesville, va

readiness is everything

when everyone else on this flight is regretting not packing a grapefruit, we will be sitting pretty.

coffee omakase

last day at the hirise on brattle street. i caffeinated at the bar's pleasure, which was a single-shot clockwork gibraltar in the calibrated cup and a micro open-face sandwich of brioche with speculoos paste. haziness in photographs a side-effect of anticipatory nostalgia.

hot tomato

rye and oat sourdough, lentils, roasted eggplant, squash, and peppers, tomato, thai basil.

just because you can doesn't mean you should

i asked a coffee pro today if he would be getting one of the new luminaire taps. he said that it's a great concept but they'd decided not to install one because he's not willing to give up the opportunity to interact with the customer over the ritual of a v60 or woodneck kettle freehand pour. and i thought: it's just as well that we are able to evaluate a technology and decide, fully informed, that we don't want to use it. (on which also see: the green revolution in india, hydraulic fracturing, starbucks, and the fashion of the 1980s).

truth

[thx josh]

catastrophe!

via vimeo.com

Posted via email from flavourcountry

our japanese correspondent

darryl lives and works in tokyo, where he seems to spend all his time cultivating an extensive network of good places to eat. he ran across tsuru ni tachibana and we went there for the first time when i was in tokyo this january. it was a surprising, outstanding meal: classical kaiseki feeling, but with a selected set of the classical kaiseki trappings; the full report here. out of a sense of vague obligation to the old line restaurants, i'd also been to kikunoi in tokyo. tsuru ni tachibana blew it out of the water. (what is kaiseki? see here for a partial explanation.)

sometimes, darryl sends me annotated menus from when he eats there in order to tantalise and frustrate from a distance. i guess there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

this is the menu from february, verbatim:

• kabura-mushi (steamed quenelle of mashed turnip with oyster, shirako, nameko etc)
• hotaru-ika two ways: sashimi and steamed with kale puree; shin tamanegi tofu (another mighty tasty square); kyoto-style omelet with tuna innard sauce
• sawara and shirako in broth
• horse sushi
• another beef steak, not an ichibo, with lightly pickled mizuna and kelp
• soba with baby onion and bonito puree, baby onion slices, fried onion bits (this was amazing - like a variation on daikon-oroshi soba, except sweeter, sourer and less astringent)
• black sesame pudding

and the latest menu from july (7/28/2011; italics indicate "exceptional deliciousness"):

• chilled chawanmushi with shrimp and gingko, red capsicum sauce
• smoked eggplant with fugu dashi gelee; raw oshu free range chicken nanban ae (some yuzu kosho in there); fruit tomato nanban-zuke; grilled madai with taramo (tarako + potato) sauce, smoked mackerel with black bean puree
• bowl course with grilled sea bass and junsai
• minced pork, leek and myoga spring roll with pumpkin sauce
• simmered kamo eggplant with kikuchi beef rib roast and kujo negi sauce
• cold somen in ago dashi
• hoji-cha ice cream

home

franklin street, cambridge, ma.