Escape From Food Stills

Leave it to Anthony Bourdain to give us such classics as the infamous "Kitchen Confidential", "A Cook's Tour", and now "No Reservations".  And yet, he's able to give us more than a dream, the dream of eating and traveling.  He's given us, "Food Porn".  "Food Porn" are two episodes from his acclaimed "No Reservations" show that basically specializes in money "shots", video stills, of mouth watering and finger licking shots of beautiful foods.  You get the picture [so to speak].  I'd like to think that he's also satirizing people like me who use to take pictures of their food before we eat.

I've read a lot of food blogs out there.  While I can attest that many of the blogs are quite good, I am now feeling deflated about taking pictures of food, preferably before eating, during a single 3 [or more] course meal.  On a recent trip to New York, I had to ask myself, "Why do I take pictures of food, even if only to innocently share them on the internet?"  There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking pictures of food, especially if you are a professional photographer, chef, cook, or pretty much make your living from the food industry.  I call that, livelihood.  But for us amateurs who just want to enjoy ourselves, what gives?

I recently read that many chefs would scoff, no, would puke at the thought of diners taking pictures of their food like they're Ansel Adams.  Different angles, different lighting.  Chefs can be a short fused bunch I hear, and it would be no surprise to me that if they were to ever see me take pictures of their food, they would come storming out of the kitchen and say, "Just eat the f-ing thing, will ya!!!!"

More than just my fear of cooks/chefs, is my respect for food and those in the food service industry.  I don't have to take pictures of every single damn course at a Daniel Boulud restaurant to be tickled pink that I am about to have an amazing dining experience.  Even though the old saying is a picture is worth a thousand words, what they don't tell you is that pictures are, at best, 2-dimensional.  You can see it, but you can't experience it.  And in dining, it's about the experience and the memories it either creates or illicits.  So, during our short trip to New York and hereon moving forward, you will no longer see "food porn" shots from me.  It's a good thing really.  I'm just a guy who loves to experience food at its finest and sometimes, not so finest.  And to take pictures of it seem to cheapen that experience by giving a blow-by-blow like I'm a boxing announcer ["And here comes the appetizer...holy smokes!!!!".  We need to start using our imagination more, especially when everything isn't explained to death.  So, just imagine what I'm writing as something that would take you into that dining experience.  It won't be the same, but then again, that's a good thing.

Eating Landscapes Need To Change

Living here in Orange County has some great advantages.  Safe, clean, and new.  But in the underbelly of the culinary and food landscape is a dangerous undercurrent of the "big box" restaurants taking over.

Before I go any further, I don't mean that in a specific sense - that there are no good restaurants in the OC.  That's just not true.  With restaurants like Marche' Moderne, Mastro's, Sushi Kappo and the like, there are dining experiences to be had.  What concerns me is the frequency and regularity in which big box restaurants like BJ's, Chili's, Yardhouse, CPK, PF Chang's, Panera Bread, and let's not forget the ever present and ubiquitous Corner Bakery, have risen from the ashes of capitalistic companies that will stop at nothing until you hand over your taste buds.  Many of you will say, "Hey, lay off BJ's, they have great happy hour!"  To which I say that I actually eat at BJ's.  I like it.  But to have a place like BJ's define my taste buds for what a pizza should taste like is scarier than watching "The Exorcist" with the lights off on Halloween.

As I drive around town, I can't tell you the number of big box restaurants that are opening.  What I can tell you is that it is increasingly clear that there is no room in the OC for new family run restaurants that give a community its identity.  You will never find Guy Fieri's ghastly "Diners, Drive-In, and Dives" in Orange County.  Why?  Because the old establishments are gone and new ones that rise do not rise where big box restaurants come to hunt and kill.  "To kill and be killed", they say.  Well, with deep pockets like the Cheesecake Factory and Olive Garden, a place like "Sushi Wasabi" doesn't stand a chance.  These big box restaurants can ride out an economic dive with only 25% capacity.  Sushi Wasabi losing 25% of their clientele is like losing its life line and quite frankly, the entire business.

Which is to say that while there is nothing wrong with big box restaurants, they have become so entrenched in our every day lives that at some no-so-distant future, our reference point for a good bolognese will be what they're serving at your local Macaroni Grill.  And to add insult to injury, the baseline for Chinese dumplings will not be at Din Tai Fung, but the ghastly and awful establishment known to us as PF Chang's.

Part of the problem with the picture above is that it reminds us of too many restaurants we already know and perhaps even frequent too often.  It's too indistinguishable from all the other restaurants taking over America.  When I look at it, I don't know if it's a BJ's, a Chili's, a Yardhouse, a Claim Jumper, etc.  It just looks like a big box restaurant.  So please, I implore all of you to go and find that good family run business and frequent it often.  So often that they know you by name.  Try to get out of the ease of driving towards another BJ's to have another freakin' pizookie.  Try to eat Chinese food at a restaurant where utensils are not part of the name [i.e. Wok Inn, Chopsticks Heaven, or the ever growing popular Pick Up Stix].  Yes, that may require you to drive to some ethnic parts of your city.  Get over it.  Our generational identity in our appetite for food depends on it.

The TED Award Goes To....

I don't know how anyone feels about Jamie Oliver.  Some think he's a great chef.  Some think he's just another TV cooking personality.  Some even think he isn't that great of a cook.  But when I watched the following video, I think we can put our personal feelings aside and whole heartedly agree that food and obesity is one of the biggest problems we have in the fabric of American life.  We need to "re-learn" how to cook in this country.  We need to know that food doesn't always, or even have to, come out of a drive thru window or thrown in the microwave.  The clip in the video below that struck me most are the elementary school kids who don't know what a tomato looks like.  They don't know what a potato is.  It's a real shame.


So, let's do our best.  We live busy lives, but it doesn't mean we have to kill ourselves by eating crap.  As Mark Bittman writes in his book, Food Matters, if what you're buying at the grocery store has more than 5 or 6 ingredients, think about putting it back.  We don't need all that sugar.  We don't need all the additives.  We need to eat right and we need to do it now.

Not My Kind Of Town?

Sinatra sang about "my kind of town", but that was Chicago, not New York, and certainly not Las Vegas. When I think of Las Vegas, I pretty much think of The Strip. I don't think about Henderson or Sumerlin, both nice areas of Vegas that I never visit.  Heck, I don't even think about the Hoover Dam.

So, after the most recent visit to Vegas, I have to say that it's just not my kind of town. The Strip, that is. I don't mean that it's not a cool place to visit, but I guess it's just not for me. I don't gamble. I don't drink. Partying to me looks more like fine dining then throwing back Corona after Corona in the Golden Nugget at the craps table. I guess of all the things that Vegas is known to offer, I don't gravitate towards any of them. And this last trip validated that even though Vegas is a great dining town, I would rather visit those establishments [Fleur de Lys, Bouchon, Bouchon, Craft to name a few] at their flagship cities like Napa Valley, San Francisco, or New York than to go to Vegas each time to say that I've been to a Thomas Keller or Huber Keller restaurant.

Don't get me wrong, we had a good time, but I guess rather than visiting these restaurants in Vegas, I would rather visit different cities where these places originally reside. And if I had to be completely honest, staying at hotels where drunk people rampage down the hall yelling, laughing and screaming at two in the morning, just isn't my thing. Nothing wrong with having a great time, but I guess I'm just too old for it now.

So here's to Vegas. We'll go back one day, but if it were up to me, it'll be quite a while before we go to The Strip again. One fabulous meal doesn't necessarily make me want to head back right away.


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Floored by Fleur de Lys

There's something special about the French.  It's not just that they have a je ne sais quoi about their culture and presence that make us non-French think we're the antithesis of art and culture.  And they're not even trying to be a snob.  As the Merovingian said in the Matrix trilogy:

"I love the French language. I have sampled every language, French is my favourite - fantastic language, especially to curse with. Nom de Dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperies de connards d'enculé de ta mère. It's like wiping your ass with silk, I love it."

There's a reason why Paris was/is the epicenter of the art culture.  There's a reason why many of the world's chefs base their training on French cooking.  No one is arguing there are more ancient and perhaps even equally great cuisines of the world, but none has transformed our views of food than the French.  And when we visited Fleur de Lys in Las Vegas, it reminded me that cooking is a service.  That service speaks about one's character, one's dedication to an art, and one's passion.  And Hubert Keller, like so many of his contemporaries, wants everyone to know that just because his restaurant is in Las Vegas, there is no compromise on excellence.

Amus Bouche

For those who isn't into eating/dining, this will be an over-stuffy, over-priced, French restaurant that throws its nose up in the air.  But one should only push aside their preferences and enjoy the creation that's coming out of that kitchen.  To only view food of this caliber as a way to sustain life is to look at a piece of art as a mere hobby.  There is real artistry to make a single strand of fettuccine rolled up with duck ragu bathed in warm truffle onion soup that is imaginative and well executed [see below].

I know many food reviewers give this place less than the maximum rating because of the price.  But on the website of the restaurant, it clearly states that for an average check, it will cost $82 per person.  If you are expecting the king's ransom for a meal this good, please just go to Nathan's hot dogs at the MGM food court.  I never understand people who bury a restaurant rating merely because of the price.  Certainly, there are overpriced restaurants who deserve the rating they get, but at Fleur de Lys, I would challenge anyone to tell me their food simply sucks.  I don't believe someone like Hubert Keller would allow that at his establishment.  It's his reputation on the line.  And in the culinary world, if you don't have your reputation to bring people in to spend $100 per person, then you will close down in less than 6 months.


The 4 Course Prix Fixe Menu:

• Amus Bouche: Tempura Cod with Potato Risotto and Creme Fraiche
• Truffled Onion Soup
• Chorizo Wrapped Seabass
• Stout Braised Short Ribs With Guinness Reduction
• Warm Chocolate Fondant Cake

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'WichCraft

A sandwich, apparently, is not just a sandwich.  It's more than just 2 slices of bread wrapping itself around deli meat.  It's not Subway or Togo's, nor is not, good heavens, Quizno's.  It should also be a culinary experience, and Tom Colicchio has given us 'WichCraft, a casual sandwich stop inside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. 


Here's my review of 'WichCraft.  Good to the last bite.  I wouldn't drop everything to go there, but we were already staying at the MGM, so it was a good excuse to get on the culinary roller coaster and see what's on the other side.  


What I realized was that no matter how good of a chef you are, you really are as good as the ingredients you've chosen for your craft.  Tom Colicchio would have gone with your typical bread choices [white, wheat, rye, etc.], overstuff it with some Boarhead deli, and charge $15 per and called it a day.  But the skirt steak, fried eggs and oyster mushrooms on a roll breakfast sandwich packed a good punch for $10.  I think we're all pleasantly surprised when we are expecting a run-of-the-mill sandwich, even if it's Tom Colicchio, and we get something better.  To be honest, a sandwich is a sandwich in that the components are basically the same.  2 slices of bread or roll cut in half.  Meat.  Condiments.  But throw in a twist, like the fried egg, and everything lightens up and the sandwich makes more of a statement [below].  

Pleasant surprises are always good.  Like when my wife won $20 on a $20 slot credit for MGM guests on the first pull.  It's not world changing, but for a few moments, life is good.  Same with 'WichCraft.  It's not an earth shattering sandwich, but for the time it took to eat it, life is good.  Life doesn't have to be limited to the passionless, visionary lacking turkey sandwich from Subway [sorry Subway fans - especially Jared, who's their spokesman].  It can be more, even if it's just a sandwich.

What was ordered:

• Skirt steak, fried egg, and oyster mushroom sandwich
• Roasted turkey, avocado, and bacon sandwich
• Toscana soup [sausage, roasted peppers, and spinach]

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