The 15 Best Dishes in NYC

Sam Sifton, the N.Y. Times' food critic, lists the 15 best dishes he tasted in the city during the year 2010. That previous hyperlink has a photo montage of the 15 dishes, and here's the article that accompanies the photo list. Based on his choices, I'd say he has a passion for Italian and Spanish foods.

One of those dishes is called Devil's Chicken, and it looks like an entree worth trying the next time I happen to be in NYC.

One of the dishes is called "Guacamole de Frutas." Although I love guacamole, I'm skeptical of whether this version improves on the traditional recipe. Diced apple, pear and cranberries are in this dish, as well as (sigh) the annoyingly trendy pomegranate seeds. This dish is prepared at a Mexican restaurant in mid-town called Toloache, whose interior is pictured above.

Adams Morgan, Culinary Wasteland

I have lived in or adjacent to this neighborhood of D.C. for 20 years, and I have heard a whole lot of people talk through the years about Adams Morgan's "renaissance." But a stroll down 18th Street reminded me of what a restaurant wasteland this area is.

With the exception of Perry's, La Fourchette and Napoleon Bistro, there really isn't any place I can think of worth eating at in Adams Morgan. And that's probably why the latter two eateries are often full up (so prepare for a wait).

There was a time in the mid-1990s when Cashion's Eat Place was actually a destination restaurant. Stunned to learn that? It's true. But the competition from other neighborhoods and downtown has definitely improved . . . and, well, Cashion's has not. I ate brunch there the other day, and that was a big mistake.

Stale rolls were brought to our table. I waited 10 minutes after ordering for my (lukewarm) latte to arrive. The cornmeal waffles were bland, and what accompanied them was an apple mush.

The Vanishing Restaurant Owner-Host

I've always found something incredibly charming about a restaurant owner who doubles as the host, welcoming you as you enter and/or stopping by your table to check on how your meal is going. As the N.Y. Times notes, this owner-host situation is increasingly rare.

Noting the death of one such person (restaurateur Elaine Kaufman), the Times explores the rapidly disappearing joint role of owner-host in this article. By the way, Woody Allen was one of the regulars who dined at her restaurant, Elaine's. In its article, the Times writes:

... the notion of the host as the most important person in a given restaurant’s success is wavering.

Chefs are the draw in this modern age, and the more famous and customer-accessible, the better. Former line cooks now walk dining rooms like kings, celebrities from television, whose every utterance is recorded on blogs.

The business of restaurants is no longer so dependent on the presence of an owner in the dining room to dispense favors or act as gatekeeper to a private club. (Let us not forget: For every person who recalls Ms. Kaufman’s kindness at Elaine’s, there are others who remember her rudely barring the door or telling someone to get out.)

Powdered Sugar? No Thanks

What is this strange love affair that so many restaurant chefs have with powdered sugar? You can't go to brunch and order pancakes, French toast or waffles without seeing your plate arrive with a thorough dusting of powdered sugar. Yuck.

I have nothing against sugar, but there are so many better ways to enjoy the sweet stuff. Granulated sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup and molasses all provide better, richer tastes and more interesting textures than powdered sugar. Besides, given that diners who order pancakes or French toast are already planning to pour syrup over them, powdered sugar is superfluous.

In my view, the only reason to buy powdered sugar is to make cake frosting.

Starting Your Day in Chicago?

My last post was about one of my food stops during a recent visit to Chicago. Here's another food recommendation, courtesy of radio station WBEZ. It's a list of the top 5 breakfasts in the Windy City.

Meli Cafe heads the list, a Greek diner with "organic produce, eggs, fresh-squeezed juices and homemade jams." Sounds good to me.

What We'll Pay for a Magnificent Meal

Wednesday night, I decided to celebrate the publication of What the Great Ate, a book I co-authored with my brother Mark, by dining at Citronelle -- one of Washington, D.C.'s culinary cathedrals. The fixed price menu was $105 so, yes, this was one decadent dinner. The very next day, at the "Talk" blog on the food portal Serious Eats, BaguettenBrie raised the question of how pricey a meal should be:

I firmly believe in giving oneself the opportunity to experience great chefs' work. But I have been starting to question a bit how much certain tasting menus are costing.

On the one hand, with a truly great restaurant, somewhere you probably won't return to often, money shouldn't be considered a limiting agent. However, on the other (hand), should I feel guilty about questioning the cost of just one meal?

"No" is my answer. By all means, question the cost of any menu. The issue is value for your dollar. A more expensive meal can sometimes often more value and, at other times, less value.

As for that three-course Citronelle dinner, it was absolutely wonderful. But would I have considered it less wonderful if it has cost $120 instead of $105? Probably. By the way, the crowning glory of that meal was the cherry vacherin that I chose for dessert. God, that was good.

She Prefers a City That Delivers

The newest justice on the U.S. Supreme Court seems to enjoy her job, writes the Washington Post. But Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a transplanted New Yorker, has a complaint about the city where she now works:

[Sotomayor] told friends she was looking forward to returning to Manhattan as soon as the (court's) term ended, and she has not bought a place in Washington. She has expressed a common New York complaint about Washington: Not enough restaurants deliver.

A "Twilight" of Menus

The book and movie series "Twilight" has spawned a host of food-related items, including a cookbook and special dishes in certain restaurants in Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, where the series is set. A pizzeria in the area even has created a full "Twilight" menu.

Delish's Eric Burkett suggests that fans "might consider a stop at Sully's Drive-In for a Bella Burger, but only if you like pineapple on your hamburger.

New Orleans: So What's on the Menu?

The BP oil spill's impact is being felt on restaurant menus in New Orleans and the dining scene elsewhere. But in the Big Easy, restaurateurs aren't ditching Gulf seafood. According to the Washington Post's Theresa Vargas:

Restaurants in the French Quarter brag about serving homegrown Louisiana seafood, which makes up about 30 percent of the U.S. domestic product . . . there is no question that the loss of the normal supply of shrimp, blue crabs and oysters is being felt here first.

But unlike cities that are advertising non-gulf seafood, New Orleans is not abandoning local catch: it's embracing what remains.

That means crayfish -- and, to a lesser extent, alligator -- is claiming a larger spot on menus in the Big Easy. If you haven't tried alligator, give it a shot. I found it tasty.

The Post article points out that 70 percent of Louisiana's coastline remains open. So, if you're pondering a trip to New Orleans, it sounds like you will still eat darn well.

Restaurants in the Big Easy

I spent enough time in New Orleans in the years that followed Hurricane Katrina to have told the New York Times what they discovered on their own. In this article, the Times' Sam Sifton concludes that the Crescent City's restaurant scene is incredibly robust these days:

. . . there are roughly 1,000 restaurants in New Orleans now, up a cool couple of hundred from before the storm . . .

And for a critic on the prowl for an authentic taste of the city in full springtime bloom, surprises abounded. One of the most purely joyful and purely New Orleans restaurants of the moment is Emeril's, a place run by a television chef who was born in Fall River, Mass., and lives mostly in New York City. Another, Cochon, is devoted not to the Creole cosmopolitanism of the city center, but to the Cajun traditions of the bayou and backwaters outside of town, in the tidal soup of southern Louisiana.

The article has several recommended restaurants at the very end.

Delicious Dining in Durham

Durham, N.C. is a town best known for being the home of Duke University, an elite private college. But the food served in Durham can taste pretty elite too.

This article in the New York Times profiles several restaurants in Durham that are relying largely on locally sourced ingredients to produce excellent food. Many of these eateries have a very casual feel, but the food served inside is worthy of lavish spaces. The Times writes:

Watts Grocery, for example, looks like an upscale sports bar, but it tastes like a Southern-artisanal Union Square Cafe.

The Smell of Bacon in a Skillet

There aren't many aromas that are any better than that. I don't know what it is about breakfast that makes it such a pleasant and civilized meal. And, no, I'm not referring to the coffee-in-a-plastic cup version of breakfast.

Sometimes one has to do breakfast on the run, but, every now and then (especially weekends), breakfast deserves some time and attention. So take a deep breath, put down your Blackberry or cell phone, have a seat and get ready to order -- Delish.com presents this unranked list of the 57 best restaurants and diners to enjoy breakfast.

Why 57? Beats me, but just about every one of them looks tempting. I've been to a few of these eateries.

Those Pesky Shrimp Tails

I've been wondering about this for a long time: why do restaurants leave the shrimp tails on when serving entrees and other shrimp dishes to their customers?

Clearly, I'm not the only person who has been perplexed by this. Many people say leaving the tails on makes for "better presentation." But that's also why some restaurants serve some fish whole -- and that's something many diners don't care to stare at on their plate.

There are some who actually eat shrimp tails, but I don't think they are meant to be eaten. I can't seem to find any consensus view on whether eating them is unhealthy or not. And I don't know what to think about the person who called shrimp tails "crunchy and delicious." Crunchy, yes. But delicious?

I am someone who enjoys eating soft-shell crab so I'm not inherently opposed to shells if the texture is different. But shrimp tails don't add flavor (in my opinion) and it's a hassle to have to reach into one's entree to either cut or pull them off.

Today's Dinner Special: Noise

When it comes to interior design in restaurants, wood floors add class. An open kitchen adds an element of charm. High ceilings add dimension and "wow" factor. Unfortunately, all three of these design features add something else: noise.

In this article, the Wall Street Journal's Katy McLaughlin explores the noise factor by profiling a San Francisco restaurant called La Mar Cebicheria Peruana. She writes:

Even as restaurants are ditching style elements that squelch sound, they are bringing in more sources of noise: Open kitchens, lively bar scenes and disc jockeys and iPods programmed with the latest rock music. Loud music can make diners talk louder—which ups the volume even more.

... many restaurateurs often fail to consult with acoustical experts during the design process because of the cost, because the right look is paramount to them or because they believe that their customers actually enjoy the noise.

... David Myers, the chef and owner of Comme Ça in Los Angeles, recently hired a company to install acoustical panels on the ceiling to quiet a restaurant that was so noisy that "I had friends who didn't want to come back because it was so loud," Mr. Myers says.

I'm sure there were a lot of non-friends who felt the same way about Myers' restaurant. Maybe it's a sign of middle age, but restaurant noise matters more to me than it used to matter. It's not pleasant to go to a restaurant where you practically have to shout to be heard by your friend seated less than three feet away.

I wish more restaurant owners gave some thought to this during the interior design phase. They're investing a lot of money to create a space that may be very sleek and glam, yet so noisy that it turns people off.

Brasserie Beck is an excellent restaurant -- one of the best (purely in terms of food quality) in the city of Washington. But the noise level inside is so intense that I don't go there as often as I otherwise would. If you plan to dine there, ask them to seat you as far away from the bar area as possible.

Vancouver: Ready for Both the Olympics and Foodies

Lots of athletes around the globe will soon depart for Vancouver in quest of Olympic medals. Yet, according to the N.Y. Times' Sam Sifton, the city deserves a medal of its own -- for the quality of its food. He writes:

Vancouver is a terrific place to eat. It is diverse and exciting in its culinary offerings. ... Vancouver is among the best eating towns in the history of the Winter Olympics.

Exactly what is it that makes Vancouver such a fine city for foodies? Find out by reading the article.

"And What Do You Recommend?"

I find it strange that this wikiHow page on "How to Be a Waiter?" makes no mention of how a waiter should respond when a diner asks for a recommendation on what to order. After all, lots of diners ask for one. From what I can tell, there seem to be two schools of thought among restaurant-goers. The first school is that if you want to know what's good or what's fresh, ask the server for his/her recommendations.

The other school of thought appeals to human cynicism. This other school questions whether a waiter or waitress is really giving you an informed recommendation or simply pulling a "recommendation" out of their hats. Or, even worse, recommending a dish that the restaurant has too much of -- i.e., nobody seems to be ordering the skate in ginger sauce or the poulet normande so the servers are told to recommend these dishes.

I'm caught somewhere in between these two schools. First, I think it depends a lot on the type of restaurant in which you happen to be dining. If the menu is fairly static -- no seasonal shifts or daily specials -- there's less reason to ask about recommendations. Second, I pay close attention to what my server says about the recommended dish. I tend to be suspicious if all they say is: "I recommend the sea bass." I usually want to know why they recommend it. Is it fresh? Is it a specialty of the house? If they can't offer me a little more info, I take their recommendation with a grain of salt (yes, pardon the pun).

Last but not least, I take a cue from the tone of the server's recommendation. If they seem tentative or as if they're reciting a couple of dishes from a list, I tend not to be swayed. But if they sound confident -- like they really want to steer me toward a dish -- I'm more likely to listen. After all, they have to know that the amount of my tip (to some extent) is shaped by whether the food they praised or pushed actually met my expectations.

Deciding how much faith to put in a server's recommendation would be easier if I had a good sense of how many waiters actually eat or try the food in their establishments. I think most servers do eat or try the dishes in top-flight restaurants, but that's just my guess. It's hard to know. If they aren't, there's a problem because waiters can't truly recommend a dish that they haven't tried, can they?

Pizza Pursuits in Washington, D.C.

Pizza has come a long, long way since I've been living in the nation's capital. There was a time when the few local chains in D.C. weren't making pizza that was much better than Domino's Pizza. Today? There are a lot of places where you can enjoy excellent pizza.

Here is my list of the top 5 places to eat pizza in Washington with the neighborhoods cited in parentheses:

1. Pizzeria Paradiso, two locations (Georgetown & Dupont Circle)

2. Two Amys, 3715 Macomb St. & Wisconsin Ave., NW (Tenleytown)

3. Sette Osteria, 1666 Connecticut Avenue, NW @ R St. (Dupont Circle)

4. Matchbox, two locations* (Capitol Hill & Gallery Place/Chinatown)

5. Pete's Apizza, 1400 Irving Street, NW (Columbia Heights)

Each of these places serves a NYC-New Haven style of pizza. This was a tough choice. There isn't much separating my top three choices as far as quality goes. Two Amys would probably be my #1 choice if they made a better crust.

I'm sure there are some Washingtonians who read this list and wondered: "Why isn't Coppi's on this list?" I have had pizza at Coppi's twice and enjoyed it, but it doesn't belong in the top 5. However, it deserves an honorable mention.

* - I recommend going to the Capitol Hill location on 8th Street SE, between E and F Streets. The waits there tend to be shorter at peak times than at Matchbox's other location.

Beyond the Spatula

Medical tweezers? They are one of the tools of the trade increasingly found in the kitchens of top-rated restaurants in New York, L.A., Chicago and other cities.

In this video, chef David Beran of Chicago's Alinea is shown using tweezers to assemble the garnishes for a pork-belly dish.

Waiters by Memory

In this article, the Washington Post notes that the old-school practice of waiters relying on their memories to take diners' orders seems to be vanishing. "Good," I thought when I read this. But The Post writes of this trend as if the postal service were stopping mail delivery.

Moreover, The Post profiled a longtime waiter at The Palm:

During a lunch rush last week, he smoothly kept track of the food and beverage demands of almost 20 diners, an ever-shifting matrix of steaks and salads, cocktails and Cokes, running credit cards for some, describing specials to others.

But how "smoothly" did the Palm's waiter take all of those orders?

"I've always gone by memory -- it just feels more professional that way," Weber said above the fork-and-knife clatter. "Sometimes you have to go into the walk-in cooler and scream, yeah, but usually I can keep it all straight without too much trouble."

"Usually" he can keep the details straight? Gee, great. Only one diner at a table of four gets their order screwed up. How comforting.

The Post is wrong to view order-taking-by-memory as a charming tradition that we can't do without. There is nothing quaint about worrying whether a waiter or waitress actually remembered all the details of your table's order. I think this shift to waiters with pens and paper is a very good development.

Marcel's Deserves Higher Ranking

Washingtonian magazine just came out with its list of Top 100 Restaurants in the greater Washington area. And Marcel's is rated #17.

Are they kidding? Sure, it's a pricey restaurant, but even if you consider value-for-dollar, Marcel's deserves to be in Washingtonian's Top 10. The food is sublime, and the service is excellent.