what are you eating today?

[mis]

[orlylow]

guess we went to the same restaurant... it tasted a little too 'porky' for me.

[whizkit]

[mis]

A little gamey for sure but how you gonna order a roast pig and not expect it to be porky mang

Just made this: Chicken skin burger, top burger bun missing

[rirawin]

New hype restaurant in London, Dabbous, just got it's first Michelin star. I'm pretty confident it'll be in San Pellegrino's top 50 next year. Harder to get a reservation here than Noma and The Fat Duck... 6 months for the earliest lunch time sitting and 11 months for an evening one. Went for the 7 course taster menu.

Hispi cabbage with sunflower

Celeriac with muscat grapes, lovage & hazelnuts

Coddled free range hen egg with woodland mushrooms & smoked butter

Braised halibut with costal herbs

Barbecued Iberico pork, savory acorn praline, turnip tops & apple vinegar

Fresh milk curds infused with fig leaves: fig & pistachio

Chocolate soaked brioche, barley malt ice cream, azuki beans & pecans

Money shot. I have to say the azuki beans was an interesting twist that worked very well.

[_ironman]

scrambled eggs on smoked salmon on croissant

[wurm]

from a couple different meals at Uchiko. been eating there a lot since moving back to Austin. Always great.

ankimo torchon (monkfish liver) with miso, walnuts, figs, turnips, and brioche.

white anchovy with botarga, uni and basil, some fish I can't remember, horse mackerel, blue mackerel

i've not been to either (student life), but i'm planning on going to uchi soon. how do the two compare (assuming you've been to both)? i'm sure both are fucking awesome in any case.

[sean_]

New hype restaurant in London, Dabbous, just got it's first Michelin star. I'm pretty confident it'll be in San Pellegrino's top 50 next year. Harder to get a reservation here than Noma and The Fat Duck... 6 months for the earliest lunch time sitting and 11 months for an evening one. Went for the 7 course taster menu.

this is not aimed at you specifically but man shit like this is the worst part about the food world and 'foodie' culture right now. its just... lame. hype restaurants and the michelin system and the concept of the tasting menu as the entire basis of a restaurant is such a massive circlejerk that's probably doing more harm than good to the advancement of cooking in the long run. i enjoy what noma is doing; i think their approach to foraging and sourcing, as well as the presentation of their actual food, is interesting, if not a bit wanky, but i'm not convinced that it's truly and objectively the best food in the world. for people like blumenthal, thomas keller, etc it's particularly easy in the world of an acclaimed and accomplished chef, perhaps acclaimed for things done a long time ago, to float by on that acclaim. i'm not saying eating in those places isn't an experience in terms of service and food and the cans being made out of gold or whatever but... i guess what it comes down to is really the same as anything else, you pay for whatever your perception of luxury is. in the end, in my opinion, none of the food you posted there looks particularly progressive, exhilarating, or even, really, delicious, and without those factors i have no interest in waiting a fucking year to eat there. sorry for the brick, it's just something i've been thinking about lately.

there was an interesting piece something along these lines in vanity fair last month

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/11/whats-wrong-with-the-michelin-guide

[mr.invincible]

made some cacio e pepe for the first time.

[digitalmountain]

[rirawin]

this is not aimed at you specifically but man shit like this is the worst part about the food world and 'foodie' culture right now. its just... lame. hype restaurants and the michelin system and the concept of the tasting menu as the entire basis of a restaurant is such a massive circlejerk that's probably doing more harm than good to the advancement of cooking in the long run. i enjoy what noma is doing; i think their approach to foraging and sourcing, as well as the presentation of their actual food, is interesting, if not a bit wanky, but i'm not convinced that it's truly and objectively the best food in the world. for people like blumenthal, thomas keller, etc it's particularly easy in the world of an acclaimed and accomplished chef, perhaps acclaimed for things done a long time ago, to float by on that acclaim. i'm not saying eating in those places isn't an experience in terms of service and food and the cans being made out of gold or whatever but... i guess what it comes down to is really the same as anything else, you pay for whatever your perception of luxury is. in the end, in my opinion, none of the food you posted there looks particularly progressive, exhilarating, or even, really, delicious, and without those factors i have no interest in waiting a fucking year to eat there. sorry for the brick, it's just something i've been thinking about lately.

there was an interesting piece something along these lines in vanity fair last month

http://www.vanityfai...-michelin-guide

I read the Vanity Fair article the other week and pretty much agree with what you say. The food from Dabbous was good, but not great, the hen's egg being the highlight. Service was okay and to be honest I'm surprised it even got a Michelin star in the first place. It wasn't ground breaking, no, but I do find it ironic and hypocritical that AA Gill had sang the praises of Dabbous a few months ago and then goes ahead and writes an article like that.

I personally wanted to see what the fuss was about as there has been a lot of media buzz surrounding it. On the subject of hype, you will find that in London that most of the hype surrounds burger joints/restaurants. There must have been around a dozen new places opened up the past year, specialising in burgers. I guess you could compare it to the whole taco truck craze in America a few years ago. I personally feel that's a lot worse as it's become so saturated and more hyped because it's the new "hipster thing". Speaking from an English point of view of course. Also I'm not sure what's worse, queuing outside a burger joint for an hour or two to get a table, or waiting a year for a table reservation... ?

Back to Michelin star restaurants, The Fat Duck was an experience on a whole new level, I've posted photos from my recent trip a fair few pages back. The near enough five hour lunch seating experience was sublime, from the food down to the impeccable service that was second to none. It wasn't just the plating that was faultless, it was the theatrical elements and presentation of dishes that encapsulated it all, something you wouldn't get anywhere else. I would definitely say it was worth every penny, and probably why it has been awarded three Michelin Stars.

Having said all that, if you've seen my other contributions to this thread, the posts that contain home cooked or street food from my travels around the world heavily outweigh my trips to Michelin starred restaurants (total of two this year). I would say some, if not most of the best food I've had are from street hawker stalls, places where you either have to have an iron clad stomach, or a pack of imodium to eat there... and fortunately I have the former.

Edited October 27, 2012 by rirawin

[rirawin]

Another interesting article...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/how-food-replaced-art-as-high-culture.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&smid=tw-share&adxnnlx=1351426065-W4N0Nr6Xs3abNngGwmJw9g

[pavlovs bell]

I was having this same discussion about food replacing art with some friends a few months ago and ultimately I think the popularity is driven by internet augmentation. You can hear any song, see any painting, watch any movie, talk to any person, and obviously so much more over the internet. Food is the one thing that can't be replaced by an app. It's one of the few unique, in the flesh experiences you can have nowadays (at least for regional/one off restaurants). And for every instagram pic, foursquare check in, raving blog post, etc, demand for these experiences is exacerbated. It's a self fulfilling virtuous cycle that I think will continue for many years.

[rirawin]

Recent trip to Noma, the world's best restaurant. I will say straight off the bat, it wasn't as good as The Fat Duck, while I appreciate that the two are doing two different things, I felt The Fat Duck had a lot more variation in their dishes and their "dessert menu" was a lot more satisfying.

However, I do appreciate the philosophy of Noma, to use local ingredients some of which they go out and forage at 6am in the morning, so everything on the menu is as fresh as can be. They also try not to let anything go to waste and utilise everything. It was an awesome experience and I'm very glad I made the effort to go. The kitchen tour at the end was a nice treat, they have 3 kitchens (and an outside grill), one of which doubles up as a staff canteen and an "experimental kitchen", whereby 2 chefs supervised by Rene try and create 3-4 new dishes a month. Not all get put on the menu and in some instances all are rejected. Had the pleasure of briefly meeting Rene afterwards who is an incredibly humble man from speaking to him - heck he even greeted us when we walked in and took our jackets off us.

20 course taster menu, the first half were 10 "quick fire" starter courses, just one after the other brought out by the chefs who prepared them. The second half were 10 main courses where I had the "juice pairing menu", included desserts and fortunately a Birthday cake especially made for the missus.

Noma IPA, brewed in Northern Copenhagen, joked with the waitress asking if it's Carlsberg, but she assured us it wasn't. Very very light, almost comparable to Tsing Tao.

Malt flatbread and juniper

Moss and cep

Crispy pork skin and black currant

Blue mussel and celery (bottom part was edible)

Potato and duck liver

Cheese cookie, rocket and stems

[rirawin]

Live (and still jumping) shrimp and butter

Dried carrot and sorrel

Frozen cod liver and caramelized milk

Pickled and smoked quails egg

Radish, soil (maize) and grass

Æbleskiver

[rirawin]

Sorrel leaf and cricket paste

Leek and cod roe

In house baked sourdough bread with unchurned butter spread and pork fat

Fresh milk curd and blueberry preserves

Brown crab, egg yolk and herbs

Dried scallops and beech nuts with biodynamic grains and watercress

Beets and plums

Oyster from Limfjorden with gooseberry and buttermilk

[rirawin]

Cauliflower and pine with cream and horseradish

Pike perch and cabbages with verbena and dill

Wild duck and pear with kale and beech leaves

Gammel Dansk (chef described it as a Jägermeister dessert)

Potatoes and plums

Caramel yeast

The Birthday cake

[rirawin]

Beetroot and liquorice sweets

Walnuts and berries

and a few snaps from the kitchen tour... didn't go snap happy as I felt a little sheepish taking them in the first place

Kitchen 1 with a "hot" and "cold" side

Kitchen 2 where most of the interns work on the preparation of the ingredients used

Kitchen 3 (Staff canteen/experimental kitchen)

Outside grill

While in København, we did sample a couple of other local traditional Danish food...

Aamanns for their Danish smørrebrøds!

and probably the most expensive McDonalds meal I've ever had to date...

Big N' Tasty, which was actually very tasty.

Edited November 17, 2012 by rirawin

[hejski]

^ Next time you're going to Copenhagen, I can recommend going to a places such as Ralæ or Manfreds (Owned by the same guys and it's located the same street), Kiin Kiin and maybe Geranium and for Smørrebrød, check out Schønemanns (Remember to book well in advance since it's a really popular place)

[rirawin]

Wanted to go to Ralæ and Geranium but we were travelling from Sunday to Wednesday, and of course most things are closed on Sunday and Monday, in particular the aforementioned restaurants. Also there were no lunch sittings so we couldn't go before we flew out on Wednesday !

Our timing was really bad as we also missed out on the Tivoli Christmas gardens as they weren't open until the 16th November. Next time... next time...!

Edited November 23, 2012 by rirawin

[ninetynine]

Sorry I started eating it before I took a picture

[mr.invincible]

santouka ftw???

[jichan]

my dude lars said the organic marmite and locally sourced bigfoot pubes are exquisite.

seriously tho, looks great!

[youkinorn2]

Playing around with some stuff last weekend.

cauliflower salad

chestnuts and squash

egg and ricotta ravioli

persimmon and milk

Edited December 5, 2012 by youkinorn2

[M4TM]

surf n turf.

[CHINESEGOLD]

Playing around with some stuff last weekend.

cauliflower salad

chestnuts and squash

egg and ricotta ravioli

persimmon and milk

holy shit you made that? How'd you make the foam? I always kind of wondered if you could experiment with molecular gastronomy at home. My family friend made a sous-vide machine himself, which was pretty impressive.

[youkinorn2]

Milk foams are real easy...just use a hand/immersion blender to froth it up. Or even those little electric whisk things that companies like Bodum sell. Skim milk makes the most stable foam. That one was flavored with cardamom and maple syrup.

[_ironman]

too cold to grill, wish i had broiled it just a bit longer

[ninetynine]

Truffle & Porcini Mushroom, Pecorino cheese spread, house mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, parmigiano & olive oil

House mozzarella, Prosciutto di Parma, arugula, olive oil & basil

[_ironman]

made apple tarts cuz i didn't like the apples i bought