the petite pig

the french laundry: worth the pain

on april 29th, i fulfilled one of my many food fantasies: three friends, nine-course tasting menu, the french laundry.  unless you're part of the elite few, nabbing a reservation at this intimate 62 seater or footing the bill for the $240 tasting menu can be a painful, painful experience.  so the big question is, "is it worth the pain?"  my answer, without a doubt, is yes.  but let me clear up a few things about the hype surrounding thomas keller's three star establishment.  the french laundry is not some elusive food mecca.  it is not culinary innovation the way WD50 or el bulli are known to be.  it's simply some of the best food you'll ever eat.  on the evening we went, chicken was on the menu or to be exact four story hills farm "poularde" was on the menu.  chicken is something most of us eat several times a week, but biting into that poularde was like tasting chicken for the very first time, prepared with flavor and tenderness i had never experienced before.  one of my friends even commented, "it doesn't even taste like chicken."  yes, it certainly did not taste like any chicken i've ever known.

with more staff on hand than diners, the attentive service also helps to ease the pain.  the four of us arrived for our 5:30 dinner reservations hungry after a day of fasting for our big feast.  stomachs growling, we craved some bread from the bakery of bouchon just down the road.  minutes later, three loaves of bread arrived from bouchon for us to take home and sample.  and our server was more than happy to accommodate the challenge of our unending appetites.  yes, we did drop some comments about having to stop by an in-'n-out on our way home to really fill up but they rose to the challenge, bringing out more and more food.  i had paced myself for a nine-course meal but this marathon meal turned out to be closer to a seventeen course meal.  we ate.  we ate.  about five different dessert courses later, it was 10:30 pm and we could eat no more.  but knowing we definitely got our money's worth in volume as well as quality also helped ease the pain of seeing our bill. 

so, how does one get reservations to one of the most renowned restaurants in the world?  i picked up these three tips from carolyn jung of the san jose mercury:

1) open table.  open table has two four-tops per evening.  one for 5:30 and one for 9:30.  the trick is in the timing of the click.
2) get on the waiting list (once you manage to get through a five hour long busy signal).  people do cancel.
3) if you're willing to splurge some more, stay at one of the local beds and breakfasts and they might be able to help you snag a reservation if given enough advanced notice.

good luck.  and remember: for food like this, it's worth the pain.

a beer convert and quixote winery

i was raised to be a beer drinker. i suspect that when i was born, my father set out on a mission to ensure that his daughter would be different than all the other little chinese girls out there, commonly known as the lightweights of the lightweights who prefer the fruitier cocktails. looking at old family albums, there are several photos of me as a toddler strategically situated next to a beer can.  i can only assume this is my father's doing.  and well, his hard work paid off because until this day, i consider myself a die-hard beer drinker over any other libation. 

until this past year, i've remained my father's beer-drinking daughter. i've scoffed at the snootiness of wine, all that jargon people throw around when waxing the merits of a pinot noir over a merlot (and i suspect that over half of them are just reciting paul giamatti’s lines in 2004’s sideways). i imagined wine drinkers as people with names like "sir jeeves" who sample 1987 bordeauxs (hmm, not even sure if '87 was a good vintage of bordeaux?).  they take grand dramatic sips of the stuff and after some thoughtful contemplation, pronounce the emotional judgment of their taste buds: "yes, i feel we've aged this bordeux just long enough to allow some of the tannins to subside while exposing the ripeness of the grape which creates the most velvety sensation on the tongue."  me: "ahh yes, sir jeeves i do agree with your titillating description.  you've expressed my very same thoughts!"  ok, no, not really because i have no idea what you've just said.

yes, i'll admit i was a bit wine ignorant (and probably still am).  i saw the world in grape or grain.  you are either a wine drinker or a beer drinker.  wine drinkers took themselves too seriously (and had names like sir jeeves).  beer drinkers knew how to have a good time (and had names like joe).  who wouldn't want to be part of the latter group?  but as my food tastes have become more sophisticated, i've felt the social pressure to venture into the world of wine.  after all, when was the last time you were at a fine dining establishment and they handed you a beer list?  my foray into the wine world has not been easy and i can’t say i’ve gone all too willingly, fearing that i’ve been a traitor to my roots (i took my father wine tasting in sonoma recently and he kept asking them, "so do you have any thing other than wine?"  we are definitely not wine drinkers.).  however, i have reached a point where perhaps there is room on my table for both a pint and a wine glass. 

it seems that more and more, the two worlds are converging. the microbrew has become the indie band of the beer world. in other words so popular that it isn’t even indie anymore. beer isn’t just an ale or a lager anymore; or pale or dark. there are beer reviewers, beer magazines. more jargon to describe beer as there is to describe wine.  beer, it’s not just for your regular joe anymore.

on the other hand, wine seems to have watered down its reputation to appeal to the regular joe. we can all walk into a trader joe’s and get a decent bottle of wine for under ten bucks (some of my favorites in the under ten crowd are: cellar #8’s 2004 merlot, twin fin’s 2004 pinot noir and 2005 hello my name is syrah).  there’s even a wine blog called the budget vino, dedicated to reviewing wines under ten bucks. labels are becoming more fun and less stuffy. wines with names like fat bastard fly off the shelves.  yes, it seems that the world of wine has changed (for the better).

that’s why it was so refreshing to come upon a winery like quixote on a recent trip to napa.  quixote was started in 1996 by carl doumani (previously of stags leap winery and also father of lissa doumani of terra and ame) after he decided that napa was taking its place in the wine world just a little bit too seriously.  through quixote, doumani was able to recapture the fun in wine again with the help of friedensreich hundertwasser an austrian architect. taking six years to build, quixote is hundertwasser’s only design in the states and is well worth a look for its playfulness and divergence from the rules of conventional architecture. from the color to the lack of straight lines, the place is a bit alice in wonderland. for any of you who have been to barcelona, you will definitely be reminded of gaudi’s “what was he smoking?” style.

tucked away from the main silverado trail, quixote is a nice departure from the chateau after chateau like structures that line napa’s main artery.   tours and wine tasting can be arranged by appointment through lew price (lew@quixotewinery.com), the general manager.  at no more than eight to a tour and tasting group, the whole feel of quixote is personalized and intimate (but never snooty).   it's more of a museum tour than a winery tour if anything and on a nice day, the wine tasting happens outside with the pacific palisades as a backdrop.  i could get used to this whole wine thing, eh?  i even came out with two bottles of the 2003 quixote petite syrah and two bottles of the 2004 panza claret, which may be one of the best wines i've ever tasted.  i would describe it as a full bodied wine with just the right blend of spices and fruit.  just kidding.  i have no idea what it was except for really, really good. 

now how 'bout a pint of beer?

a table for two at quince & the sauce debate

 

continuing on my conquest to conquer the chronicle's top 100 restaurants, i managed to snag reservations at quince last weekend to celebrate a little anniversary of mine.  a sole dining room holding just sixteen tables, this intimate space can only be described as a gem within san francisco's many fine dining options.  like its small, intimate size, small, intimate touches dressed up what was to be a great meal.  menus printed with personalized menus for our special occasion.  what seemed like a one to one ratio of service staff to happy eaters.  paintings of quinces decorating the wall.  it was nothing but lovely. 

i went to quince for the agnolotti (in this case dal plin, stuffed with veal), a piedmontese-filled pasta that is a rare find on even the most-italian of menus. it's similar to tortellini and ravioli, which every american is familiar with, but dressed with a lighter pasta wrapper; in other words, it's better.  the lightness of the pasta lets it melt in your mouth leaving you with a mouthful of the filling's flavor. 

we also enjoyed quince’s homemade gnocchi with fried nettles and pesto. the most flavorful of all the dishes, tender gnocchi came out covered in a bright green sauce.  the fried nettle reminded me of japanese nori (seaweed), and to be honest, the savoriness of the dish had a sea-like quality to it. another favorite of the evening was the spinach and dungeness crespelle with fine herbs. the spinach crepe was center-plate with its emerald color, with a filling of dungeness crab hiding inside.  a light cream sauce unites the dish’s flavor, providing just the right balance.

however, I did not find this balance in the other three dishes we tried:  an octopus salad with twin girls farm oro blanco grapefruit & pecholin olive oil; the devil’s gulch rabbit with borage, proscuitto and fava beans; and the wild black seabass with balsamic vinegar sauce, black trumpet mushrooms & little farm tomatoes.  with all those dishes, i found myself needing more sauce, wanting more sauce.  too often these days are beautiful plates of food delivered with just a drizzle of sauce used more for visual embellishment rather than true flavor enhancement. it’s a fine balance, the use of sauces. you don’t want to overpower a dish with sauces, losing the individual flavors of each ingredient.  more and more often though, i’m finding the opposite problem: stinginess of sauces. perhaps i’m just being chinese (in other words, cheap.  i mean, frugal.  i mean, wise with our money.), but a two hundred dollar dinner warrants a bit more than half a teaspoon of reduction?

still, the atmosphere and service at quince made up for any shortcomings in the food department and there were three outstanding dishes (and a great choice of barolo) to make up for the three mediocre ones. if you have an occasion to celebrate, do make reservations.  just remember to call on the dot at noon one month prior to your desired dining date – these sixteen tables are hard to come by. 

my introduction to western food

i think when people find out that i love to cook, the first question i usually hear is, "what kind of food do you like to make?  chinese?"  i'm never offended by the assumption.  after all, i did grow up in a very traditional chinese family and ate my share of native fare.  however, i think because i grew up mostly eating chinese food, i found everything non-chinese to be the exotic.  as an adolescent, all you want is to "fit in."  you don't want to be that weird kid who gets fed worm juice instead of cherry-flavored robitussin when you have a cough (yes, this is a true story - my grandmother is quite the human eastern apothecary).  for us eating out meant going for a bowl of pho (vietnamese beef noodle soup), dim sum or a noodle joint.  for my parents, the thought of going out for a western meal was just too foreign for them to handle.  a meal without jasmine white rice on the side was not a meal at all in their eyes.  i remember asking my mom if she could make some spaghetti for me, just like all my friends got to have for dinner.  her response to my request was spaghetti noodles stir-fried in ketchup.  you have to give the woman credit for trying to please her brat of a daughter.  yes, for years i thought spaghetti with tomato sauce was spaghetti with ketchup.   

i think the first western restaurant (not counting my many trips to mc donalds and popeyes chicken) i got my parents to take me to was a t.g.i.fridays when i was about eleven.  to me, this little trip to a national chain restaurant was the treat of my life.  in my head, i was going to three-star michelin dining (not that i knew what michelin was at this point in my life aside from the tires).  my parents delegated the duty of ordering to me, something my dad always got to do when we went out.  i felt like the responsibility of introducing my parents to the world of western food was on my shoulders.  yes, this was my chance to convert them from chicken's feet (which i happened to love anyway) to chicken tenders.  i felt completely lost perusing friday's classic red, white and black menu.  after all, my breadth of exposure to western food consisted of what my friends'  parents fed me at their homes and school lunches of tater tots and grilled cheese.  i can't remember what i chose for myself, but i decided on nachos for my parents.  as most of you know, dairy is not a big part of the chinese diet.  my mom and dad didn't know quite what to do with this platter of tortilla chips with this blob of orange goo on top of it and this sour curdled milk? -  what was this big mass of "stuff"?  yes, my desire to turn my parents onto american food didn't go over too well.  their tastes for food has definitely broadened since then (most probably forced by me).   and well i have since learned that spaghetti with tomato sauce doesn't involve america's favorite condiment.

so, the answer, "yes, of course i love to make chinese food."  but i also love to try out the exotic, which to me is what most americans consider the traditional.  this past sunday dinner, i entered the exotic world of southern cooking.  i decided on something new and something i knew was going to be good: chicken & dumplings and mac 'n cheese.  the chicken & dumplings came from one of my new favorite cookbooks called all about braising mostly because it's provided me many excuses to use my dutch oven.  the dumplings (made by my roommate michelle) were dropped and they really were fantastic.  different of course than chinese dumplings which are filled with meats and vegetables, the south defines their dumplings as light nuggets of bread.  these involved a mix of flour, parsley and nutmeg and then were simmered in the braising liquid of the chicken which infused them with rich flavor.    

liz, an experienced southern dumpling maker, found the petite pig through a blog written by a future literary magnate friend of mine who has set out to rescue the aspiring writer.  i found out through her that southern dumplings are rolled and not dropped and she was kind enough to pass along her grandmother's recipe to me.  hope she doesn't mind me sharing it with you all. 

In a medium size bowl mix one large egg and an egg sized lump of Crisco.  I mix this up with a fork.  It won't be smooth, just get it sort of worked together.  Then add in an egg shell of water. Add a pinch of salt.  Mix a bit more.  Then slowly....add in your flour...little bits at a time, say no more than a 1/4 cup. Mix it up. It will become pasty.  Once it looks a bit like wet dough, cover your work surface with a good bit of flour. Dump the dumpling mixture onto it and knead until the dough won't take any more flour. Then you get out the rolling pin and roll it out. It should be a bit thinner than pie crust.  Then take your knife and slice them into 2x3 inches rectangles, or close to it.

 

Now, I cook the chicken, a whole one, first off with about 3 onions.  Remove the chicken, set aside to cool.  Once cool, debone. Strain the broth to remove the onions and some of the fat.  Bring the broth back to a boil.  Now drop the dumplings in, I collect about 6-12 in my hand and dump them in one at a time.  Repeat until they are all in there.  Give it a stir and turn the heat down, put the lid on and let them steam.  I usually cook them 15-25 minutes.  Stir periodically....when they look done, they will be a bit puffy.  Add the chicken back in.

 

There is a definite knack to this....I've been making them for 15 years now and mine still don't compete with my grandmother's...but she is 88!!  Guess she's had a bit more practice than I have.

thanks liz.  if any of you southerners have some of your exotic recipes to share, please pass them along.   i always look forward to something new in my kitchen, chinese or not.

a preview of what's to come . . .

all photos by allan hsu.

i found out this past weekend after two full days of non-stop cooking that orchestrating a food photo shoot is not an easy task.  i set out on this great adventure this past saturday thinking that i could put together fourteen dishes in one day.  by the time six o'clock rolled around and i was just halfway through my menu, i realized that maybe i started out a bit ambitious.  so one full day of cooking turned into two to take all the photos i needed for a new website i'm launching in two weeks time.  don't fret though!  the petite pig is not going anywhere.  i'll still be here once a week (twice a week if we're lucky) to talk shop but i have to admit, all this food blogging has gotten me hungrier than ever about food.  after lots of profound (or perhaps just confused) existential thought, i decided to take a sabbatical from my career as a living-out-of-my-suitcase consultant.  i now work a normal, home-by-six 40 hour week and have rediscovered time, time to do things.  it's pretty amazing. 

so you ask, what have i been doing with all this time?  have i figured out the meaning of life?  well, no, and probably never will but i have figured out one thing: that i love food and it's about time i take this show on the road, so i'm trying to get two food businesses up and running.  the first is going to be my own personal chef/private dinner party thrower/cooking instructor/just let me feed you business.  i may have to end up naming it just that unless one of you readers have any suggestions for me?  if you do, deadline is until saturday to email me.  if i choose your name, a multi-course dinner for you and three friends awaits you.  the second business is still too fledgling to reveal much, but i'll make an announcement when the time is right.

back to this photo shoot.  no food website would be complete without lots of shameless food porn.  as a result, my friend allan hsu (anyone need a photographer?  cause after you see these photos, you'll want to pay him just to come take pictures of your bowl of 5 cent ramen) endured two full days of the type-a chef that i can be to help me capture the food porn that i envisioned.  fifteen dishes . . . lots of food requiring lots of 1) help and 2) eaters.  i emailed a dozen friends to do just that.  they responded to my plea for help and came bearing gifts of wine, appetites and bravery.  they acted as makeshift sous chefs, photo-assistants, food-stylists, taste-testers, but most importantly, wonderful supporting friends.  there were a lot of moving pieces, food scattered everywhere, a summer roll wrapping lesson thrown in there but twenty plus hours of simmering and searing later, we had exactly what i was hoping for: beautiful make-you-salivate photos.  drained, i fell into a chair, my body ached but it was definitely the most rewarding cooking i had ever done.  stay tuned for www.jessdang'spersonalchef/privatedinnerpartythrower/ cookinginstructor/justletmefeedyou.com.

oh, and just in case you were wondering.  here's the menu from the weekend:

lobster and shrimp chowder
pan-seared shrimp in parmesan baskets with pancetta and pesto
sausage, chicken and bacon rolls with a butter apple, thyme and sage sauce
frisee and orange salad with walnuts
mixed greens with asian pears, craisins and goat cheese
duo of summer rolls: poached shrimp & cucumber and ahi tuna & avocado
duo of salsas and guacamole
sausage and portobello pizza with arugula
pan-seared chilean sea bass with cream of corn and red pepper coulis
rack of lamb with polenta, sauteed mushrooms and fried leek strings
black truffle mac 'n cheese a la dave martin of top chef season 1
viet trio: sweet fried rice with thai basil, caramel chicke and shaking beef with mango
panna cotta with balsamic-strawberry sauce
shots of tiramisu

how i invented sweet potato gnocchi (sorta)

i spend a great deal of my time dreaming up new recipes though i'd like to think of it more as innovating rather than just pure purposeless daydreaming.  a couple weeks ago, i was craving gnocchi and being on a recent sweet potato kick, i experienced a "light bulb over the head" moment . . . why hasn't anyone thought of making sweet potato gnocchi?  my brilliance unfortunately was short-lived as i find out after a quick google search that well, sweet potato gnocchi exists.  it's on the menu of many restaurants (that i've eaten at) and has been featured in many magazines (that i subscribe to).  alas, though the idea wasn't mine, it seemed that it was about time that i try crafting these orange dumplings in my kitchen.

i thought that sweet potato gnocchi was going to be much like normal gnocchi.  simply substitute the amount of potatoes for the same amount of sweet potatoes.  so i started with about one pound of the sweet stuff, mashed it and started adding the flour.  if this was potato gnocchi, probably about one cup of flour would have done the trick but this was not potato gnocchi, this was sweet potato gnocchi and any good chef (not me obviously) would know that sweet potatoes are not nearly as starchy as normal potatoes.  two and a half cups of flour later, i still had a very sticky paste, nothing like the gnocchi i normally make.  but faced with eating a dumpling of almost pure flour, i decided it was time to try boiling what i had.  too sticky to roll out and cut, i used two spoons to shape the orange dough instead and dropped the dumplings into the pot of boiling water.  bracing myself for blobs as opposed to dumplings, i was pleasantly surprised when one by one each gnocchi came floating back up to the surface.  and after taking my first bite, i decided it was okay if just in my head, i thought of myself as the inventor of sweet potato gnocchi.

*sweet potato gnocchi with a sage and brown butter sauce*

serves 2

one pound sweet potatoes
two and half cups flour (more or less)
one teaspoon nutmeg
half cup butter
small handful of sage cut sweet potatoes into half inch cubes. place in a pot and fill with just enough cold water to cover potatoes.  bring water to boil and reduce heat to low-medium.  cook until sweet potatoes are tender and can be easily mashed with a fork.  drain and allow potatoes to steam off any remaining moisture for five minutes.  start boiling a pot of water for the gnocchi and preparing the brown butter.  melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat.  keep butter on heat until it turns brown and smells nutty.  pour the butter through a fine sieve to remove any solids that may have formed in the browning process.    mash potatoes.  add flour and nutmeg.  the dough will be sticky, so scrape two spoons against each other to form a dumpling shape.  drop the gnocchi into the boiling water.  gnocchi is ready when they float to the top.  add some fresh sage to brown butter.  toss with gnocchi.  they may not be gorgeous, but they will be light and filling and a gorgeous shade of orange.

conquering michael bauer's top 100

though we're only two months into 2007, it has already been a great year of eating for me. sometime last fall, i had dinner with carolyn jung food critic of the san jose mercury news at the counter. while chomping down on our gourmet burgers, we chatted about (not surprisingly) food and the great collection of restaurants the bay area has to offer. sharing her love for eating, her husband has made a goal of conquering michael bauer's top 100. as far as goals go, that ain't a bad one. whether you make it or not, i don't doubt it'll be one delicious journey. when you think about, you never really reach the goal. every year there will be a new crop of restaurants that make it onto this coveted list and the journey just continues . . . and you're more than happy to continue eating.

so, inspired by carolyn's husband, i embark on the same mission. while the chronicle food staff have had their stomaches full with the enviable job of bestowing 2007's honors, i've kept my mouth just as full trying to knock a few off the list before the new 100 gets published in april. anyone who has ever had a taste of nancy oakes' most-perfectly hearty and flavorful dishes at boulevard knows that you can't just have one helping of her food. so with my family visiting (after two years away from the bay area!) for a week in january, i decided to start this quest with a trip to boulevard sharing this bay area favorite with them. two trips to a16 followed shortly. the pizza which has been raved to be reminiscent of the flavors and textures of italy. it was not. but the wine made up for it. though it may have been offset again by the horrors of trying to find a parking space in the marina and battling the hoardes of yuppies (hmmm . . . though i may be one of those yuppies). alas, the latest stop on my journey has more than made up for any disappointment caused by a16. yes, i loved the moist-and-tender-just-order-an-appetizer-because-it's-worth-the -hour-wait roast chicken at zuni cafe. so, it's taken me almost thirty years after chef judy rodgers opened the place in 1979 to get there (give me a break, i wasn't even born when the place opened so there must be some sort of grace period) but i got there and i will be back for more of that goood frikin' chicken (which also happens to be a name of a chicken joint in the mission!).

next stop: a table for two at quince on march 24th. if it's one of thomas keller's favorites, i'm sure it'll soon be one of mine too.

gung hei fat choy

chinese all over the world celebrated another new years over this past weekend. we welcomed the year of the boar with all the traditional fanfare that comes with the holiday: wishes for success and good health for the upcoming year are exchanged between friends and family; little children enjoy newfound wealth with each red envelope they receive; sacrifices are paid to the ancestors and the gods; but most importantly,there is so much food unique to the holiday. on new years eve, chinese families gather for the traditional reunion dinner tuan nian fan. being a superstitious bunch, there are certain dishes that have to be eaten on new years eve  to ensure a great year. fish will be part of any new years menu as the chinese word for fish sounds similar to the chinese word for luck. a large vegetarian spread is also prepared usually featuring a moss that is pronounced fat choy which is also the same sound as the phrase for fortune. whole chickens and whole roast pigs are often used to pay respect to the ancestors and gods in a ceremony involving incense and prayer before making their way to the table.

tuan nian fan, as many of you can guess, is my favorite part of celebrating the new year guo nian. growing up in an immigrant family in america, chinese new years was the one holiday i knew we always got right and always celebrated with complete devotion to all the traditions. it was the equivalent of what most american families have to christmas or thanksgiving but with the tradition and celebration factor multiplied by a factor of ten. my mom who is the cleanest person i know indulged in the tradition of new year spring cleaning, sweeping away all the bad from the previous year preparing the family for all the good luck of the coming year. my grandmother sewed me a new dress so i would have a new outfit to start the year in. red signs with auspicious chinese phrases painted on them in calligraphy hung in our apartment. i wouldn't wash my hair on new years day so that i wouldn't wash the future year's luck away. my dad and his brothers would close down the chinese restaurant they jointly owned in bethesda for the evening, and all our family and friends would gather for a night of festive celebration and eating. i pranced from relative to relative in my newly sewn dress , collecting my stack of red envelopes filled with five, ten, sometimes even twenty dollar bills. as a young child, i definitely thought chinese new years was the party of the year, and some of the most memorable moments of my childhood are from those parties.

my family resigned from the restaurant business long ago, so the celebration has moved into the home and out west. every other year, all six of the dang children (my dad and his five siblings) with their spouses travel from as far as singapore to california for a larger gathering to celebrate both my grandma's lunar birthday and the new years which happen to coincide. unfortunately, this was an off year, but i still made it down to the OC to spend the holiday with my grandma, aunt & uncle and cousins. we feasted on a number of my favorite chinese dishes (shark's fin soup with crab meat & peking duck) for grandma's 84th birthday this year at at sam woo restaurant, a cantonese institution in irvine. my aunt made a huge traditional spread for our tuan nian fan with lots leftover to ensure that there's surplus for the rest of the year. i left the prancing for red envelopes to my nine and eleven year old cousins, aaron and ben but otherwise, the holiday remains much the same to me - full of family, food and traditions and still the best party of the year.

live from tokyo: i smell like a charcoal grill, and there's nothing wrong with that

it is sunday night in tokyo. i'm back in my hotel room getting ready to start another work week here in japan and i'm starting to notice that i smell. but it's a good smell. (big deep breath here) ahhh . . . i smell like a charcoal grill, the lasting traces of my dinner: grilled seafood and meats prepared over small clay charcoal grills situated in front of you.

yes, i am back in japan for work, but this is a longer trip than the last: ten whole days instead of the much-too-short three and a half i had last time. so i have found myself gorging (definitely not just eating) my way through tokyo. every night, deciding where to go, what to eat has been like opening up christmas presents on christmas morning, never knowing what to expect, but knowing it's going to be good. and every night it has been good, and not just good in the, "that chicken was pretty good" degree. good in the, "that was some of the very best (fill in the blank) i've ever had in my life" good. i always knew tokyo to be a shopping mecca but these past two trips have made me realize that tokyo is also a food mecca, a destination for all those of who love to eat.

so tonight, confronted with the very welcomed dilemma of where to eat, my colleague sang-won and i decided to explore a new area. we navigated through the tokyo masses and found ourselves in roppongi hills tokyo's ex-pat neighborhood featuring high-end shopping and equally high-end restaurtants to boot. arising from the tokyo metro underground, we discovered the typical bustling tokyo scene overlayed onto a serene christmas backdrop of blinking lights and christmas garnish. we had food on the mind and found ourselves with dozens of options all within the roppongi hills complex. my only rule for tonight was no raw fish. i love sushi and sashimi but i was craving the warmth feel of something cooked. we quickly settled on a restaurant featuring charcoal grilled food, something we had not tried yet.

the entrance to this restaurant commanded your attention with how stark and plain it was. the culinary surprise beneath the wrapping of these windowless walls intrigued me. unwrapping this present, i found a small cozy space with just a few patrons sitting around two communal tables, each with several small clay charcoal grills lining the center of the table. the menu featured a variety of seafood, meat and vegetable options all for grilling. we chose several of each: clams, octopus, dried cartilage of squid (a new one for me), japanese sirloin, duck, pork, leeks and mushrooms. the clam was the some of the best i've ever tasted. i watched as the juices of the clam bubbled over the charcoal grill, marinating itself in its own natural sweet flavor. the octopus and the sirloin was also exquisite (a word i hate to use for describing food but it just seems appropriate for this meal). our neighbors ordered leeks, and i was curious as to how they were going to prepare them. i watched as they were grilled to the point that they were charred. the server then peeled the leeks apart, serving up the soft cooked inside that held the charcoal grilled flavor with just a sprinkle of salt. so simple, yet so good.

to tokyo, part ichi

dragging your ass to work on mondays. i know it's never easy. bidding farewell to the retreat of the weekend only to brave the heap of emails that awaits in your inbox. i understand and don't blame you for indulging in one more snooze cycle.

but no monday is harder than the monday after thanksgiving. it's not so much the dread of your inbox or even the return to the daily grind; it's more the, "how the hell am i supposed to haul the new ass cheek i've sprouted over the four day weekend to work?" issue. pants just feel a bit tighter. ok, a lot tighter. your body hasn't managed to resuscitate itself from the food coma you entered days ago. ahh . . . if this describes your monday, then you served your duty as an american on thanksgiving. but that still doesn't mean that this new ass cheek isn't going to be a problem. my advice is to break out the fat pants for now and deal with the "new ass cheek removal" as a new years resolution.

so knowing that most of you are either not ready to think about that thanksgiving spread you devoured on thursday (and then on friday and saturday in my case) or sick of reliving it, i'll offer you a respite and share my thanksgiving feast in a later entry. for now, i'll just share my latest travels and eats from my trip to tokyo.

i boarded my asia-bound flight from san francisco the week before thanksgiving for a five day business trip. sleep and tourism were unfortunately not on the work agenda, but i couldn't leave tokyo without sampling a few of its savories.

a woman serving japanese green tea in yoyogi park

i had been told by several friends that i would love eating in tokyo and not just the native offerings but everything that came out of a japanese kitchen, whether it was japanese or not. and they were right. while i've traveled to many cities in the world and love being in cities, tokyo radiated a unique energy i had never felt in any other city. though just as dense as any other large metropolis, the people of tokyo were incredibly polite, putting new yorkers to absolute shame (though new york city still keeps its number one spot on my favorite cities in the world list). the impeccable customer service reflected the high degree of quality taken in everything. commuting by foot in the mornings, i observed the order of a tokyo morning - men dressed in clean-cut dark suits and women donned in the moddest looks adorned by their perfectly painted faces walking in lockstep to their respective destinations.

old sake barrels in yoyogi park

these were people that cared about eating and cared about the quality of the food they ate. japanese culture emanated in every dish i was served. there, food was served with respect and care. i had heard that in japan, you don't need to go to a high-end restaurant to find high-quality food. after four short days of eating in tokyo, i echo this sentiment. with each dish that is placed in front of you, the attention to detail stands out. with each bite, the attention to quality becomes more and more apparent. although i was in japan, i found myself having three chinese meals. after all, i am not one to resist a steaming bowl of noodles and the soft bite of fresh dumplings. the chinese meals i ate reminded me of those that i had savored in shanghai and hong kong. i discovered the "xiao long bao," a delicate dumpling wrapper housing a delicate meat filling and a surprising spoonful of soup, in the small alleyways of shanghai. the xiao long bao found on the menu at "jin din rou" a cozy chinese dumpling house near tokyo's ebisu subway station delivered the same feeling of the soup dumplings i had discovered in shanghai.

how could you resist this dumpling?

my other meals in japan led me to shabu-shabu, chutoro that truly melts in your mouth, a traditional japanese lunchbox and even subway (which serves fries!). i will return to tokyo next week with a much longer list of culinary to-do's: a piping bowl of ramen (real ramen, not the ten cent bag of instant noodles variety), a bite of tender kobe beef, a trip to the tsukiji fish market, a search for a certified fugusushi chef, and feasts of many more things that i've never eat before.

i experienced japanese sushi way up in the sky on the 38th floor of the ebisu garden tower. the view is free and is a great way to see the texture of the city created by all the buildings. plus, there are many great restaurants on the 38th and 39th floors. i ordered up some chutoro, medium fatty meat found on the belly of the tuna.

real or not? ordering is made easy in most japanese restaurants with wax representations of many menu items

a small stand at the shibuya subway station featuring a spread of onigiri, hand sized rice balls with various fillings wrapped in seaweed

a young girl dressed in traditional japanese attire

a japanese wedding procession i witnessed while wandering to the meiji shrine

a dumpling chef hard at work

i took this guy down in an eating contest