... of the country's (maybe world's) top restaurants, lunch carts, and everywhere in between.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Bayona Restaurant (07/11/09 New Orleans)

Bayona restaurant was in a beautiful 200-year-old Creole cottage in the French Quarter. The food was decidedly international, as Chef Susan Spicer refuses to be classified as creating meals in one genre. Back in early 90's, when Bayona just opened, it was considered at the forefront of American cuisine.

For starters, I ordered veal sweetbread with lemon caper sauce, which was very tasty. Small squares of tender veal bread was sauteed to golden brown, garnished with proper cut vegetables and a drizzle of lemon juice.



Liver and onion stuffed rabbit roulade, paneed leg, fig marsala sauce, proscitto, and creamy polenta

The rabbit roulade was the best dish of the main course. The rabbit meat was very tender, while the liver brought in a nice touch of gaminess.



Grilled Painted Hill Hnager Steak, Aspragus, Fingling Potatoes and Bordelaise Sauce



Peppered lamb loin with Goat Cheese and Zinfandel
The steak and lamb were similar. A nice cooked piece of meat with good saucing, tasty but not memorable.


Blueberry Cheesecake

Watermelon Sorbet

To close out the dinner, we had blueberry cheesecake and watermelon sorbet. While the cheesecake was rich and satisfying, the watermelon was everybit as refreshing. A great way to end the meal.
Athough, Bayona was not as refiend as August or Stella, it was a very satisfying meal, and ranks better in my book than some new orlean restaurants with similar price tag: Cochon, Cuvee, and Commander's Palace.






Saturday, July 25, 2009

Restaurant August (03/08/2008 New Orleans)

Restaurant Augsut, situated in Central Business District, is the preimere restaurant in New Orleans. Head Chef John Besh, a former Marine, has won numerous acclaims, including the Jame Beard award. My companions and I that night ordered the five-course tasting menu, which was only $75 a person with an additional $25 wine pairing. The amuse bousche from the chef was truffle infused egg sabayon. An air like egg moose with truffle scents was scooped by my companion and I in no time, this approach was better than the "egg caviar" and "egg le aprege" I had at Jean & George and Manresa.

Mini-Baguette

The cracking sound of a Baguette was always the best prelude to any dinner. Even air bubbles and bread aroma emerges as I broke the Bauette into two.



First Course: Pâté
Rabbit, Foie, and Boar Pâté were accompanied with salad or compotes. The dish was tasty but not mind blowing.
Second Course: Crawfish
Quite large crawfish cooked in cream sauce. which was delicious. However, we already had amazing spicy boil crawfish at French Market , so we weren't impressed.

Third Course: Chargrilled Quail
The grilled quail was presented under a bed of Arugula, but wasn't particularly tender. The dish was just ordinary.


Overall, the dinner at August restaurant was delicious but not mind blowing. The ingredient had New Orleans written all over , and the cooking technique was French. At the end, there was just very little suprise element in the cuisine except the Amuse Bousche.



Monday, July 13, 2009

Stella Restaurant 07/10/09 (French Quarter, New Orleans )

Stella restaurant, opened in 2001, slowly raise into one of the top restaurants in New Orleans under the guidance of Head Chef Scott Boswell. A graduate from Culinary Institute of America, Chef Boswell had spent his early career working in Provence, Florence, and Japan. Recently, he had been staging at various top restaurants in US including: Jean-Georges, Alinea, Charlie Trotter, Per Se, and Daniel. It was curious to me how these various influences had transformed and integrated into the menu at Stella restaurant.


The restaurant was situated in hotel Provenical, and was seperated into three smaller dining rooms with home like appeals. In order to sample Chef Boswell's newest inspiration after returning from his staging at Per Se and Daniel, we ordered the 7-course tasting menu with wine pairing.


Amuse bouche
Raw shrimp in mango sauce
The waiter first presented us with an amuse bouche. The mango sauce was quite sweet; then, the texture of the raw shrimp slowly came through and cleans away the sweetness of the mango sauce, interesting.

1st course
First harvest figs, fresh hearts of palm, garden basil, Spanish cured ham,
aged balsamic vinegar and wild purslane
The ham gave saltiness, the figs counterbalanced with sweetness, the hearts of palm contributed texturally, and the wild purslane provided fresh aroma. Everything was then tied together by balsamic vinegar. This was a very well composed dish, simple yet to the point.

2nd course
Roasted hearts of palm panna cotta with chilled English pea puree, hearts of palm, summer squash pearls, green almonds and virgin olive oil
This dish was very sophiscated. The palm panna cotta was soft and delicate, while the surrounding chilles pea soup was sweet and smooth. What set this dish apart were the raw squash pearls and the bitter corn husk, so refreshing.


3rd course
Canadian lobster risotto with caramelized baby shiitake mushrooms, garden baby corn, local scallions and Australian summer truffles

The third course was the climax of the night. Perfectly cooked risotto acted as a warming bed for the truffle aroma to permeate. Every mouthful was a pounch of rich flavors and perfect textures: al dente yet creamy. This was a dish to remember.


4th course
Fish and chips ~ tempura beer battered Louisiana black drum with sweet potato puree, curried taro root chips and spicy red chili caramel
If the meal the night so far was a well chorographed symphony, then this course was where the orchestra had a melt down. The deep fried fish and baby bak choy looked as if they were from a chinese take out box. The red chili caramel and sweet potato puree were overly sweet. The taro root chips were ok, but wasn't refined. This course was a disappointment.

5th course
Steak and egg ~ seared filet of prime beef tenderloin and sunny side up clyde’s farm araucana egg with breakfast potatoes, truffled hollandaise and texas toast with foie gras butter


This course was quite good, though not quite as amazing as 2nd and 3rd course. The filet was juicy and fork tender. The egg yolk and hollandise sauce added a nice fattiness to the often lean filet. A great breakfast to close up the savory courses of the night.

6th course
Berkswell with dried bing cherry compote, honey and toasted almonds

Berkswell was an unpasteurized hard milk chesse from england which tasted granular. As one chews on, every bite revealed more of its complex flavors - roasted nuts, caramelized onions and meadow flowers with prickly tang. The cherry compote, almonds, and toasted brioche complemented the chesse with sweetness, acidity, and textures.

7th course
Chocolate cake with hot buttered pink lemonade


The warm cake was a decadent, and the tangy lemonade helped cut down the bitterness of the chocolate, just delicious.
In summary, my dinner at Stella restaurant was great, and I enjoyed it better than my dinner at August. The tasting menu at stella compared strong against any Michelin one star restaurant in US. My only wish was for the restaurant to use more new orlean ingredients such as crawfish, oysters, and red fish.

About Me 关于作者

Well, It's should be more of a "About Us". Afterall, This blog is a combined effort of a group of foodie's attempt at partially capturing their experiences of exploring the dining cultures of various culture and cuisine. Our Team are as follows:

Trading Dweeb - A self-proclaimed bastard-ish trader who's interest in food often outshine work.
势利小人 - 职业股票操作者,也就是广东人口里的“扑街”。对食物的热情往往比工作要炽热。

Dr.T - A student of food.

TechMoGeek – An explorer of culinary delights who’s love for food is the sole motivation to be employed.
TechMoGeek -一個只愛美食,不愛江山的老饕