Onion rings at Burke's on Balmoral and Broadway.

Chicken Boti from Khan BBQ (Devon & Western).

They say hunger is the best sauce, and I'd just spent about an hour in stop & go traffic while the car filled with the aroma of both the boti and some tandoori catfish, but even several hours later I'm hard pressed to name a better piece of chicken that I've ever eaten.

pappardelle con polpettine at piccolo sogno (spicy lamb meatballs with pine nuts and golden raisins, ragu of eggplant, roasted peppers, and spring onions.)

made even better by their knock-out garden on a rare perfect-weather chicago day

Two bests during a long day at the office:

1) Pain Aux Raisins from Bouchon Bakery in Rockerfeller Center. Crispy outer rings gradually yeilding custardy-dough rapture, punctuated by red and yellow raisins so plump and juicy they practically spilled concentrated sun. So yeah, it was pretty good.

2) Chicken and Rice from a cart on 49th and 6th Ave. Nothing special here, I just haven't had it in awhile, and today the combination of boredom, slight hangover, chicken, mayo, hot sauce and rice was out of this world. Even the godamn iceberg lettuce was holding a tune. My stomach will thank me in, oh, about 2 hours.

Bouchon Bakery (multiple locations)
One Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY
Phone: (212) 782-3890

Adel's Halal Cart
49th Street and 6th Ave., southwest corner
Available usually after 7pm
New York, NY

The red sauce that comes with the stuffed dates at Avec!

Toasted onion bagel with lox spread from NYC Deli.

When I was done eating it I felt sad.

In late May, the most perfect roast chicken, roasted using a terra cotta urn/oven, at private kitchen Yin Yang in Hong Kong. Tender, succulent, with perfect, thincrisp skin.

Last night, at GNR Aroy Thai, my neighborhood Thai joint an astounding stir-fried squid with salted duck egg - spicy, creamy, salty, with the seasoning all due to the egg yolk.

Caramel frosted cake donut from Old Fashioned this morning. I headed down this morning to pick up a couple dozen for a brunch and this may have been the best of the bunch. Sweet caramel frosting perfectly balanced by a wonderfully fried cake donut. Fritters get much (but not all) of the love around here, but man their cake and raised donuts are fantastic as well. They happened to be out of fritters and I had not bothered to call ahead and didn't feel like waiting the 15 minutes until the next batch was ready, but I'm kind of glad (as had I tackled a fritter or even a portion thereof, that probably would have been it for me).

Stuffed, fried zucchini blossoms from the garden served with a gazpacho cocktail, all done by boudreaulicious. First time I'd ever eaten as many as I wanted, sigh.

Toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese and chives from New York Bialy and Bagel.

Warm Rhubarb crostada With vanilla gelato at La Madia!

Went with colleagues for an after work glass of wine - inhaled two of the roasted artichokes as dinner and felt oh so healthy ... then a coworker reminded me of the amazing crostada we'd had the other week and had to have it again. So simple yet so precisely right.

Madia deserves more love - they so often just really hit the spot.

The lake perch at Brennan's Fish House in Grand River,Ohio on Lake Erie. It came fried and the pieces were very large for perch. The breading wasn't too thick but maybe a little on the coarse side.I prefer the finer coating at Teibels but this was still very good.I guess most lake perch that is served around here is from Lake Erie anyway.
I would be curious to know the reasons that the Lake Michigan perch fishery pretty much collapsed and the much smaller Lake Erie has held up.

Dinner tonight at home: t-bone steak from Reams' in Elburn, thin-sliced potatoes with onions, butter and herbs de provence, and corn cut from the cob while raw, then sauteed with butter, finished with salt, pepper, and fresh basil.

Earlier this week: fresh sour cherries sauteed with sugar and lemon, served with home-made crepes and whipped cream.

Radish sandwich (first time eating radishes!) with french butter on good white bread with salt.

House Noodle from House of Nanking



House of Nanking
919 Kearny St
(between Columbus Ave & Jackson St)
San Francisco, CA 94133
Neighborhood: Financial District

7/22 — Nightwood's house-made cavatelli with long-simmered chanterelles, parsley, sweet corn, white truffle and fresh parmesan. Delicate in texture, great balance of flavor and perfectly cooked pasta. Wonderful.

Pork belly with chanterelles and fig at Cochon, 930 Tchoupitoulas St., New Orleans, LA . Absolutely amazing!!!

theskinnyduck wrote:Pork belly with chanterelles and fig at Cochon, 930 Tchoupitoulas St., New Orleans, LA . Absolutely amazing!!!

Best bites of my own trip to New Orleans this week would have to be the oyster and meat pie at Cochon and a fried chicken leg at Coop's (probably the best fried chicken I've ever had, and we went to Willie Mae's Scotch House the following day just to confirm).

Takoyaki at Lure Izakaya.

Lamb blade chops marinated overnight in yogurt, turmeric, allspice, coriander, black pepper, garlic and a touch of good garam masala, grilled hot and fast to a perfect medium rare. Served them with pita bread rubbed with olive oil and paprika and grilled on top of the chops to catch some of the rendered fat and an olive oil, garlic, mint and lemon juice emulsion - my take on Lebanese toum. Brilliant.

Habibi wrote:Lamb blade chops marinated overnight in yogurt, turmeric, allspice, coriander, black pepper, garlic and a touch of good garam masala, grilled hot and fast to a perfect medium rare. Served them with pita bread rubbed with olive oil and paprika and grilled on top of the chops to catch some of the rendered fat and an olive oil, garlic, mint and lemon juice emulsion - my take on Lebanese toum. Brilliant.

Wow, does that sound good! This is (unfortunately) a part of the world I leave to dining out and never try to cook at home. Also, about this time of year I'm looking for something different to do on the grill, and this should fit the bill nicely. Thanks.

Everything I had at my first visit to Aroy Thai tonight (and it was a lot). Each dish was nuanced, balanced, surprising and homey. Eggplant salad rocked my world. Som tom with homemade pork rinds rocked my world. Squid with preserved duck egg rocked my world. And the list goes on...

Will report in more detail soon. If you love Thai food, go to Aroy ASAP.

....3 floyds milk stout gelato at black dog gelato on damen. incredibly creamy with a strong punch from the stout. justjoan

Chard pizza from Great Lake. Maybe the best use of chard, ever.
--Rich

RAB wrote:Chard pizza from Great Lake. Maybe the best use of chard, ever.
--Rich

Agreed. Had it a few weeks ago and thought they can make anything taste fabulous.

This steak from Butcher & Larder...



...prepared and served by a few kick-ass LTHers with pork from C&D, over a simple but brilliant hash.

Fried up some fresh sheep's brain from Butcher and Larder this weekend in some bomb-ass Palestinian olive oil we get from family orchards in the West Bank.

Doesn't look like much, but this is the true manna.



Squeeze of lemon and a dash of salt was all it needed. Ethereal, fleeting, brainy.

Habibi wrote:Fried up some fresh sheep's brain from Butcher and Larder this weekend in some bomb-ass Palestinian olive oil we get from family orchards in the West Bank.

Can you say how much your sheep head ended up costing? Also, is the olive oil your family's, or is it commercially available? I'm on a project based in Palestine.

The Mongolian Beef at chinn chinn's in Mattawan,Michigan.Outstanding.Maybe a little different than any other Mongolian Beef I had before,there was a sweetness to it sort of like a Beef with Orange Peel.I have never had Mongolian Beef before that at least one piece wasn't full of gristle but every piece of this generous portion was nice and tender.We had the PuPu platter appetizer which consisted of spring and egg rolls,rangoons,filled wontons and pot stickers and noodles.All very good but may have prefered the potstickers fried. All in all very good and a nice choice on my trip to Battle Creek.

happy_stomach wrote:

Habibi wrote:Fried up some fresh sheep's brain from Butcher and Larder this weekend in some bomb-ass Palestinian olive oil we get from family orchards in the West Bank.

Can you say how much your sheep head ended up costing? Also, is the olive oil your family's, or is it commercially available? I'm on a project based in Palestine.

Happy,

The guys at Butcher and Larder kindly spared me the burden of purchasing the entire head. Instead, they cut it in half, plucked out the brain, and sold it to me, along with a pair of kidneys, a tongue, a cleaned and fileted heart, and a spleen, for twenty bucks even.

The butcher paper package they handed me was marked "lamb offal". There was a bit of deliberation about how much it should cost me.

I will PM you regarding the olive oil. Its good stuff.

Steamed local clams sitting outside in Port Townsand, Washington looking at the Strait of Juan de Fuca.



Appologies for the cell phone picture