The plan for Labor Day was to head up to NH to play golf for a couple days, and then I would drive up to Montreal while the rest of my friends headed back to NY because they have jobs and whatnot (suckers!). On the way up, I stopped at Mohegan Sun with Gar. He was telling me he had a terrific meal at a lobster shack there the last time he went. Cool, I thought. When we got there, it was even cooler than I had realized. The lobster shack he was referring to was Summer Shack, Jasper White’s restaurant! Back in my Boston days, Jasper’s was hands down the best seafood restaurant in town, from the day it opened right up until White suddenly closed it in the mid-90’s. That to me was like a sports star retiring at the top of his game and depriving us fans of the opportunity to continue enjoying his work. A few years later he went on to consult for Legal Seafoods, adding some interest and flare to their previously staid menu, but it still wasn’t the same as Jasper running his own restaurant. Then, just like today’s sports stars, he came out of retirement to open Summer Shack in Cambridge, a casual family oriented seafood restaurant. I had no idea that he had gone on to open a branch in the Mohegan Sun as well! When I saw the sign, all I could think about was Jasper’s pan roasted lobster. A lobster split in half, started on the stovetop, blasted in the broiler, then finished with a cognac butter sauce made in the same pan with lots of chopped chives and chervil. It was probably his most famous dish from the old days, made even more famous by Julia Child who was known to order that same dish every time she visited Jasper’s restaurant. So I was of course delighted when that dish was in fact on the menu at Summer Shack in the Mohegan Sun. Tasting that cognac butter sauce I had my own Anton Ego moment, taking me back to my days in Beantown. And if that were not enough, as I looked across the room and into the kitchen, who do I see? Jasper White himself! Albeit a much gaunter Jasper than in the old days, but it was unmistakably the man himself. I know Uncasville isn’t that far from Boston, but still, I was really surprised to see him at that location. No wonder that lobster tasted exactly the same as in my younger days! Wow. A great start to the long weekend.

Up in NH, we had our share of good eats too. From the great coffee and breakfast sandwiches at Half Baked Fully Brewed to the incredible value of the $6 escargot apps and enormous racks of lamb at the Common Man. And for our golf bet on the second day the losing team had to prepare dinner, so we were treated to a hearty meal consisting of a beef roast, garlic mashed potatoes, pasta and veggies courtesy of Kat, Gar, Judy and Dan.

From there I made my way up to Montreal, but first getting fully interrogated at the Canadian border. This was a treatment I actually got going both ways across the border, and in retrospect, I realize that the border guards are working off of a script and for every one of their questions, I probably answered with precisely the wrong answers as far as raising suspicion is concerned-

Q: What is the purpose of your trip?
A: Sight seeing.

Q: How long will you be staying?
A: One day, maybe two.

Q: Who do you know in Montreal?
A: Nobody.

So I had to pull my vehicle over, turn over the keys to an inspection team while I went inside to answer questions from a customs agent. Wonderful. The whole ordeal took about half an hour, and I was annoyed. Even worse, those Frenchie fockers took everything out of my trunk and packed it back in with my graphite shafted golf clubs on the bottom and my golf bag and suitcase on top of them! What assholes! At least on my way back into the U.S., the American border guys handled my belongings with care.

So my Canadian adventure wasn’t off to a good start and the rest of the day wasn’t any better. I ended up checking into my hotel only to find that they had no wireless, so I had to turn on international data roaming on my iPhone to get web access. More on that later. Anyway, I used google maps to plot my way to Au Pied de Cochon, the restaurant I had been looking forward to trying. When I got there however, I was turned away because I didn’t have a reservation, and even though I was just a single, it was 6p on a Sunday night, and the restaurant was open until midnight, they still could not accommodate me. Wonderful. I ended up eating at some little bistro and had some beef tartare and a seared fish dish; decent but not memorable. Went back to my hotel disappointed, and didn’t even bother venturing back out to check out Montreal’s famous strip clubs. I just stayed in my room scoping Yelp reviews, planning what I would do the following day.

I got up early, too early to do any serious eating, so I decided to take a 3 hour bus tour from the hotel. It was cool, I got to see all the usual touristy things, got a better sense of the size of the city, and more importantly worked up a decent appetite. After the tour, I headed straight to Schwartz’s deli, a place recommended to me by my old boss, and with tremendous reviews on Yelp. As I got there, probably 1:30pm, this was the scene:

The line on the right is for takeout, the line on the left is for a seat inside. It took about half an hour for a seat at the counter to open up, but boy, it was certainly worth the wait and lived up to the hype. Here’s what I ordered, the quintessential Schwartz’s lunch:

It’s a “smoked meat sandwich, medium fatty” with a cherry soda and half sour pickles. It may look modest, but I assure you, it is as good as a sandwich gets. Better than the pastrami at Katz’ and that is saying something. Here, let’s take a closer look at this beauty:

Look at the spices, the ideal smear of mustard, look at the perfect, and I mean perfect combination of lean and fat. The seasoning is as good as it gets too, not too salty, just a little peppery and just enough of an accent to that magnificent smoked meat. If you visit Montreal, you simply have to go to Schwartz’s.

With a full belly, I wanted to take a nap, but when I got back to my hotel, the maids were just about to service my room, so I decided to head back out. Where to? Casino de Montreal. It was only about a $15 cab ride from downtown. Not the fanciest casino I’ve ever seen, but certainly nice. Several gaming floors and restaurants on the upper level. I played blackjack for a few hours, just to kill time until I got hungry again, and ended up getting lucky and winning $1000. I decided to take my winnings upstairs and find a nice place to eat. I browsed the menu at Nuances, a fancy looking restaurant which offered a 5-course tasting menu that included a foie gras course. That sounded good to me. So I walked in and asked for a table for one. The maitre d’ informs me that they do not allow shorts in the restaurant. I look down, and I am indeed dressed like a skateboarder with cargo shorts, loud sneakers and a t-shirt. He politely informs me that they do have pants for me if I would like to change. Cool. That was the first time I’d ever had to do that sort of thing, and I must say, I still looked ridiculous after I changed- black dress pants, red t-shirt with brown and yellow New Balance track shoes. Even better, my pants pockets were bulging because I had transferred all the stuff that was in my cargo shorts’ pockets including my camera, iPhone, wallet, keys, and a fat wad of cash in two currencies (I had also won a grand at Mohegan on the way up). Good thing the dining room was mostly empty because I certainly looked like a clown.

The food at Nuances was surprisingly good. First course was a couple of plump pieces of lobster in a white gazpacho. It was an elegant dish with a good balance of flavors; a great first course for sure. Next up was this beauty of a foie gras dish:

Perfectly seared foie gras with rhubarb and sauced with a duck jus. Duck jus over foie gras is just the kind of overkill I appreciate. I loved it so much that I called the waitress over to make a special request. I asked if the chef could make me another foie gras preparation after my entree but before dessert. I figured I would order my dessert wine after the entree so I could enjoy it with another slab o’ foie gras as well as my dessert. I said I’d prefer if the chef could do a different variation, but if not, the same rhubarb one would be fine.

Next up in the tasting was this black cod dish:

I loved this dish, not so much because of the cod, which was perfectly cooked, but because of the brilliant pairing with sea beans. I love sea beans and we just don’t see them nearly enough. They have that perfect natural saltiness that matches well with just about anything but especially with a fish as rich and buttery as black cod. The sauce of pepper puree was a nice touch as well. A well thought out and well executed dish on all counts.

For the entree, Nuances served something else that is rarely seen these days- saddle of lamb. Everybody does rack of lamb or lamb chops, but you just don’t seen people do the saddle very much, maybe because it’s a little harder to butcher properly. In any case, they serve it at Nuances and it is good. Very good:

The beauty of the saddle is that you get that marvelous layer of fat along with the meat, which when cooked properly like it was here, becomes slightly caramelized on the outside, is mildly gamey just under the caramelization, and gives you just the most decadent bite of meat and fat in every morsel. This dish was every bit as delicious as the foie gras dish. And as you can see by the execution of the vegetables, they take great care in every aspect of every dish. Great stuff.

Next up was the additional foie gras course I requested. And sure enough, the chef came up with a different variation, equally delicious, this time with slices of pear and jerusalem artichoke two ways (a puree and chips):

I paired it with a Moscatel from Portugal which went well, especially with the pear in the dish. And it also matched well with the killer dessert which was a vanilla parfait filled with a berry coulis and topped with fresh berries. I’m glad it wasn’t an overly rich dessert because the saddle of lamb and two foie gras courses left me wanting something a little lighter and that parfait totally hit the spot. It was an excellent tasting menu all around and the service was superb to boot (especially considering that I walked in dressed like a punk and was seated dressed like a clown).

So that was my extended Labor Day weekend. I returned to NY the following day only to find my iphone data service was no longer working. I called AT&T customer service to find out what was wrong and was told that I had excessive international data roaming usage. How much? TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS WORTH!!! Hahahaha, oh man. I can laugh about it now only because they were able to add an international plan to my account to avoid that absurd charge, but I assure you it was not the least bit funny at the time. Note to self- when traveling to Canada, think of better answers to border guards’ questions and do not turn on international data roaming under any circumstances!

Buckle up, because this is probably the longest and most food-porn laden entry I’ve ever written. I haven’t had a chance to write anything here for almost a month because life has been quite the whirlwind since my birthday, mainly because that was also the day that I was given two weeks notice that I would be getting laid off. It was a bit of a frenzied scramble trying to wind things down for a proper handoff so things wouldn’t collapse after I’m gone. Then, after my last day, I was on a 7:40am plane the very next morning to Oakland for my cousin’s wedding. I still want to recap my birthday dinner at Dinosaur BBQ, but let’s just say I loved it so much I think I will be making a return visit very soon and will write about it after that. So for now let’s talk about my trip to Cali instead…

My flight landed 15 minutes early in Oakland and my cousin Tony picked me up at the airport. First stop? To buy a bunch of Vietnamese sandwiches to bring back for the family for lunch at cousins Charlie and Nancy’s place where I would be crashing. We got a few different varieties of the sandwiches, but the best was the BBQ pork which had the perfect balance of sweetness, heat from green chile pepper, and freshness from cilantro. It was the first of a lot of good eating I was about to do over the next few days.

My cousin Wilson’s wedding was held at Half Moon Bay, atop a hill overlooking what I believe was the 18th fairway of the golf course. Because of our elevation, you couldn’t see the fairway below, making the bay itself the backdrop beyond the altar. It was a beautiful setting and a wonderful wedding presided over by their multi-talented friend Alex who played the role of minister, MC, musical talent and I don’t know what else. I wonder if he does balloon animals too.

The dinner and reception was a bit of a blur as somehow I ended up doing some incredibly heavy drinking with my uncle (father of the groom). He told me how happy he was that I made it for the wedding and how he’s always felt a debt of gratitude for help that my mom had provided long ago. He then proceeded to try repaying all of that debt in liquid currency! After multiple lowball-sized glasses of cognac (XO I think) I had to switch to Guinness just to slow him down a bit. Now I see where my cousin Lily gets her hard core drinking tendencies from. Holy cow! Somehow I made it through the night, including an after-party run to Red Mango for frozen yogurt which I barely remember. Pretty good for the first day of my trip!

The next morning, we had the perfect hangover food lined up- lunch at Santa Ramen in San Mateo. And line up we did, because this place was just as popular as Ippudo Ramen is here in NY. Fortunately the line moved pretty quickly and we were seated before too long. The comparison with Ippudo is particularly apropos since Santa serves the same Hakata style of ramen featuring the thick almost milky style tonkotsu pork bone broth. So how do they stack up against each other? Well, let’s have a look:

As you can see, I ordered my Santa ramen with fried garlic, a boiled egg, and stewed pork. Ippudo doesn’t offer fried garlic, so Santa gets an edge there. But their boiled egg was overcooked and had that green sulfur layer around the yolk; big minus. The noodles lacked life, seemingly a bit mushy after the initial bite so Ippudo gets the nod there. Santa’s broth was quite good but nowhere near as rich, porky and unctuous as Ippudo’s. Ah, but the pork itself. Oh my god, it was so good it was not even the same sport as Ippudo’s. It was Kurobuta pork that had been given a long braise that added a dimension of sweetness which completely permeated every bit of meat and fat without obscuring the natural pork flavor. Really superb. Overall, Ippudo makes a better bowl of ramen hands down. But man, I wish we could get some of that Santa pork out here.

After lunch, we were off to the Ferry Building with two things in mind- caviar and oysters. Mat, Beth and I decided to do the caviar first, so we nestled up to the counter at Tsar Nicoulai and indulged ourselves with this:

The Select California Estate Osetra on the left was easily my favorite. The eggs had a slightly greenish-grey color to them and a deeply satisfying oceany creaminess on the palate. Really intense and interesting flavor from beginning to end. The California Estate Osetra in the middle was jet black in color and had a simpler flavor profile, more straightforward salt and minerality. The Paddlefish Sturgeon caviar on the right was the least interesting, with more of a nutty flavor and not much else other than the saltiness. We followed that up with a sampler that included some varieties infused with things that were just so weird they seemed wrong, like vanilla, saffron, and olive oil. Next time I think I will just order another tasting of the plain Select osetra instead. Man, that could become a very expensive addiction.

Next, we hit Hog Island oysters. We were seated outside and ordered a huge raw oyster sampler plus an additional dozen of their Kumamotos which I love so much. But it turned out that the gems were the Pacific Sweetwater variety in the sampler. So sweet with a clean, oceany brininess. Fantastic. Oh, and the view from our table wasn’t too bad either:

After that we headed back, but of course not without another stop for food. Nancy took us to an Indian (dot not feathers) grocery where they cook a small selection of food items in the back. One of the things we tried was this delicious pani puri, basically a little puff of dough filled with a chickpea soup. What a terrific little mouthful of goodness.

From there it was back to the cousins’ place for a family dinner. Earlier in the day Tony asked me if I’d do some cooking for them, so I hit up the Japanese market right across from Santa Ramen and picked up some asparagus and ingredients to do my version of the dressing that Sam uses on the asparagus salad at Hajime. In addition, I decided to make beer can chicken since Charlie was firing up the grill that night. Stoopid me, I prepped the chickens, got them on the grill, turned it to medium low and went inside to do the asparagus, having total faith that I could get the asparagus prepped in time to check on the chicken. Boy was I wrong! Normally beer can chicken would take about an hour to an hour and a half to cook, but apparently Charlie’s grill packs some inferno-like power. The two poor chickens were comically torched and I was ready to write them off. My brother was more optimistic though and managed to save the birds by slavishly removing the firebombed skin and it turns out that the meat itself was perfectly cooked and even the white meat was fantastically juicy. So for future reference, you can cook beer can chicken in 20 minutes if you’re willing to spend 30 minutes scraping off the crispy carbon shell! Fortunately the asparagus came off without a hitch and in the end both dishes were well received and I was happy to have been able to cook for my west coast family and friends. Nancy’s endless pitchers of mojitos made me pretty happy too.

The next day six of us headed off to Napa but got a late start so we were only able to hit 3 wineries- Rubicon, V. Sattui and Corison. As you know, Rubicon and Corison are two of my faves, and we just hit V. Sattui because they have a nice area with picnic tables where we could sit and snack a bit. The V. Sattui wines were way too light and watery in style for my taste, but my bro and cousins seemed to like it, so it was worth the stop. I was able to take advantage of my membership at Rubicon to get us a tasting in the member’s salon. The 2004 Rubicon was tasting particularly well and Nancy managed to score us an extra tasting of it by asking in such a way that the poor Rubicon lady could not comfortably say no! We did buy a bottle to go though, because we had a special dinner on tap for later that afternoon…

At 5p, we found ourselves in the dining room of Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc in Yountville. The concept at Ad Hoc is that each night there is a different menu featuring whatever they feel is the best dishes they can produce with that day’s ingredients. The customers have no choices to make and so everyone is completely in the hands of the chefs. I like that concept. In addition the food is served family style which adds to the restaurant’s air of relaxed, casual refinement.

The first course was a salad of romaine with stone fruits (plums and nectarines I think), sliced cucumbers, candied spiced pecans and a spearmint yogurt dressing:

Every item on that plate was so fresh, crisp and seemingly perfect. The fruit was not just one dimensionally sweet, but had incredibly bright nuances. It’s hard to describe, but those plums tasted preternaturally plummy if you get what I mean. And that yogurt dressing was sprightly but not overly tart so it was perfectly balanced with everything else. And I must say, after tasting it, it seems that spearmint and yogurt are such a great pairing I’m surprised we don’t see it more often.

The entree for the night was Mishima beef with fingerling potatoes, eggplant and squash. And just to gild the lily, the beef was topped with a pat of chive butter. As you can see the beef was perfectly cooked, and oh, did I mention the potatoes were cooked in duck fat?! All I can say is wow.

Next up was a cheese course. But basking in the afterglow of that Mishima beef dish, I admit I kind of tuned out exactly what kind of cheese it was, but it was an elegant and simple presentation with Gala apple slices and wildflower honey:

And finally for dessert, a chocolate brownie cake. I’m not usually big on chocolate desserts after big fancy meals, but man, this brownie was awesome. I mean soft, moist, rich chocolate flavor yet somehow not overly sweet or cloying, even with the vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce over the top. I finished the whole thing which I rarely, if ever, do with a chocolate dessert. This baby was just that good.

For most people, that would just about round out the day’s eating. Not for me of course. We headed back into San Fran to go for… sushi! Actually we were just after the live uni at Sushi Groove, but we ended up ordering a few other things too like the mussel shooters. The shooters were just ok, with minced mussel meat and the highlight being a quail egg. Pretty good, but not spectacular:

But we were there for the uni and it did not disappoint. Sure it’s main appeal was purely presentational, but it was sweet Pacific uni and it was as fresh as can be, so really how can you go wrong with this bad boy:

The next day was my last day in CA for this trip, and there was of course more amazing eating in store. Cousin Tony was the only one who didn’t have to work that day, so it was just the two of us for the afternoon. We began with lunch at Chez Panisse Cafe. Not the same menu as the famous main restaurant downstairs but still the same great ingredients and “California Cuisine” style that Alice Waters created. It was everything I’ve read about and more.

The first app was a salad of smoked black cod, cucumbers, dill and a shallot vinaigrette. The fish, while smoked was still quite fresh tasting and seemed much lighter than what you’d expect from black cod. And as this is California Cuisine after all, lightness is a theme that ran throughout the meal. The light vinaigrette was nicely restrained, giving just enough zing to contrast the fish and to make those delicious little cucumber slices sing.

The next app was an heirloom tomato and avocado toast with wild watercress, not pictured because that photo came out blurry. Nevertheless, it was a simple dish that really worked. The tomatoes were awesome but it was the choice of watercress for spiciness really brought things together.

We followed that up with a mini pizza of zucchini, squash blossoms and basil. Super thin crust, super fresh veggies, and really intense basil made this a great pie. We killed this beauty off pretty quickly:

Up next was roasted Monterey Bay squid with a salad of frisee, little gypsy peppers, roasted potatoes and an aioli. The squid was terrific because of the charring and the frisee, like all the raw veggies at Chez Panisse, was off the hook. But the gypsy peppers weren’t particularly interesting in flavor, the potatoes completely lackluster simply because we’d had Ad Hoc’s fingerlings the day before, and the aioli seemed unnecessary if not a little out of place.

And for our final entree we had the fried chicken. Let me tell you, this was a damn brilliant way to make fried chicken. According to the menu it was buttermilk fried, but what they don’t tell you is the most important part- it’s boneless! They actually boned out a chicken leg/thigh, and battered and fried it. The super crispy coating was well seasoned and since it’s dark meat inside, it was moist throughout. Who knew that Chez Panisse of all places would be doing fried chicken and that it would be sinfully delicious to boot? Here’s a picture of that glorious chicken:

We closed out the meal with a couple of simple fruit desserts, just some Meyer lemon sherbet and a bowl of mulberries and figs. It was a great meal, and being light Cali style food, I was just pleasantly sated, not stuffed. But you know me, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. As we left the restaurant, what do we see across the street? The pizza joint that Nancy recommended, The Cheeseboard. Ok, one slice won’t kill me, right? Haha, except when the pesto slice I ordered comes with a bonus free extra mini slice!

Cheeseboard makes a very tasty pizza, but it is thicker and breadier than I prefer. The flavor of the crust is pretty awesome though, and I can’t deny that having that substantive chew can be a good thing, it’s just not my favorite. The pesto flavor was pleasant but not particularly bold. But what does earn the slice high marks is the cheese. It had a fresh, salty, milky flavor, possibly the most notably delicious cheese I’ve ever tasted on a slice of pizza. Good stuff, but that cheese was so rich it put me over the top and suddenly I went from feeling ok to feeling totally stuffed. No more food until dinner…

To pass the rest of the afternoon, Tony took me to a couple of, um, interesting places in San Jose for coffee, Vietnamese coffee to be precise. And what made them interesting is that they were essentially bars without alcohol, and the servers were scantily clad women. The first place had a cool upscale vibe and the girls were just dressed kind of import-model slutty. But the second place was a total hole in the wall and the girls were dressed in straight ho-ish lingerie, the kind worn by strippers as they take the champagne stage. I didn’t quite get what the protocol was supposed to be at these places- are you supposed to chat it up with the girls, are you not supposed to look at them, or considering the way they’re dressed, will they be offended if you are not ogling them? The vibe, especially at the second place, is such that you don’t want to do something wrong for fear of a VC gangster popping out of the back with a machete to take care of you. I dunno. I will say that the coffee and the orange juice was excellent at both of these places.

And last but not least, it was finally time for my last meal of this trip, at a place call Sushi Sam’s in San Mateo. Lily had raved about the omakase so we had to check it out. We ordered a few things to start as we were waiting for everyone to arrive and then had a 9 course omakase. On the outset, I didn’t have high hopes for this place as the employees were talking in Cantonese and the spicy tuna roll that Lily ordered wasn’t very good. But it turns out that the quality and variety of the fish they have, which was really showcased in the omakase, was excellent. Probably my two favorite items of the meal were a nigiri sushi of wild halibut and a nigiri of blue shrimp which was seasoned with sea salt and lime juice. That sensible finesse of accent flavors on the blue shrimp in particular won me over completely. I had never had it that way before and it really was superb. Overall, Sushi Sam’s is not in the same league as Hiura or Sushi of Gari, but is still pretty damn good. Cousin Charlie picked up the whole giant check and wouldn’t let any of us pay. It was one of many super generous things my awesome west coast family did for us during this trip and to all of them I am grateful. I had a truly excellent time and look forward to seeing them again soon. What a great trip!

I was only joking in my last post when I suggested that junk food companies like Frito Lay could learn a little something from Japanese cuisine. Well apparently the joke was on me as I stumbled upon these two unusual snack items at my local Japanese grocery store:

On the left, Japanese chicken wing flavored snacks, and on the right, uni puffs! I know, I know, Doritos (made by Frito Lay) has a buffalo wing flavor now, so the wing flavor isn’t that much of a stretch, but still, Japanese-wing flavored, that’s intriguing! And sea urchin in a puff? Who can resist that? Let’s open the bags and take a closer look shall we?

As you can see, the wing snacks are shaped kind of like Cheetos (made by Frito Lay). The texture is the same too. But the flavor, wow, it’s something else altogether. In a good way. The predominant flavor is that of sansho pepper, and the salty notes come from flavors something like a cross between soy sauce, msg, and onion powder. But it’s those high notes of sansho pepper that make it addictive. Ok, and maybe the msg too (although it’s not listed in the ingredients, I really can’t believe there isn’t any in there). In any case, it’s a tasty treat and certainly worth buying again.

I had high hopes for the sea urchin puffs too, what with all those sexy close-up pics of uni on the packaging. But alas they were a letdown. They’re basically corn puffs and other than their uniformly large, wide C-shapes, they are identical to Puffed Cheez Doodles. Seriously, absolutely identical in texture and flavor. I bet if you snuck a bag of these into little Johnny’s lunchbox, he would just think you bought some generic cheesy puffs from the wholesale club instead of getting the name brand stuff. I tried hard to pick up on any slight trace of sea urchin flavor on my palate, but there just wasn’t any to be found from these. Too bad.

For the record, the uni puffs are made by a company called Meiji. Nice try, Meiji. If not for the bait-and-switch feeling I got from expecting to taste uni, I might have enjoyed them for what they are- pretty good cheesy puffs. Oh well. At least those Jap-wing snacks were good. And who makes those? Well, see for yourself:

Twoin treated me to a pre-birthday dinner at Hiura yesterday (that’s one heck of a treat; thanks Twoin!). We walked in at around 8pm and when Hiura-san saw us, he looked down at his fish case and shook his head because he knew two big appetites had just arrived. Uh-oh, did we come on a bad night? Apparently he had been really busy, even at lunch, so he was running out of a lot of different things. He had just gotten some west coast sea urchin, but he showed us the texture was somewhat runny; not tight enough to make the uni tempura we love so much. We could see he was feeling somewhat apologetic that he might not have the very best of his favorite things to serve us, but he just sighed and smiled and you could see his mind got right to work on how he was still going give us another meal to remember.

He started the sushi parade with what he knows is one of my favorites- fluke fin. It was his last 3 pieces. In fact I noticed that he gave me two pieces of the fin and gave Twoin one piece of fin and one piece of regular fluke sushi. And by regular I mean the cut of the fish was from the standard part of the fillet, but by no means was the quality of his fluke just “regular”, it is always extraordinary. As he prepared our next several courses of sushi he was constantly thinking ahead; calling out instructions to his son in the kitchen, and informing the waitress to 86 the hamachi, the last 4 pieces which he was saving to serve us towards the end. You may be getting tired of my saying it, but I can’t say it enough- the sushi at Hiura is incredible. He serves a number of different varieties of fish that if you didn’t have the freshest and very best, it would probably taste pretty bad. I have developed a fierce liking for things like shimaji and kohada there. The fresh ikura is so different than the fishy goo-sacs you get at pedestrian sushi places. And when you sit at the sushi bar and leave yourself in Hiura-san’s hands, he makes sure you get the best of the best.

We got some personal treatment with our sake too. It’s BYOB, but normally they provide us with an ice bucket for whatever we bring. They ran out of ice buckets last night, and seeing that, Hiura asked us to hand him our bottle, which he took to the back and placed in his blast freezer and returned with a carafe of sake he said was from his own stash. Nice! It was a completely different flavor profile from the sakes we usually have. This one was unfathomably clean, almost flavorless on the onset, but had plenty of rice-y flavor and aroma on the finish. Awesome.

Meanwhile, the waitress borught out what Hiura had asked his son to prepare for us- a plate of unagi, but not like you think. It was fried eel backbones and two little nubs of eel stomach tempura. Wow. “Very dangerous” Hiura-san said of the stomachs, and I don’t know if he was joking or not, but heck, whatever he was going to serve, I was gladly going to eat. And it was fantastic. I’ve never had anything quite like it. Warm and moist on the inside, it tasted a little minerally, a little liver-y, and had a pleasant tinge of bitterness as well. With a little added saltiness from dipping it in soy sauce, it had a wonderful savory flavor profile that went really well with the sake. And so did the eel backbone, which Hiura serves, unlike the small little one-inch bits we had a month ago at Yasuda, as long complete pieces. Absolutely delightful crunchy bits of goodness. Frito-Lay could learn a thing or three from these.

So the glorious sushi kept on coming and it was all spectacular. We finished as always with a couple pieces of the refreshing little baby-scallion-like sushi which I’ve learned is called menegi. Oh, but we werent really done yet. He told us that his son makes some great soba which is not on the menu, but he could make for us if we were still hungry. And as I said before, if he wants to serve us something, hells yeah want to eat it!

As we waited for the soba to be prepared, more personal treats ensued. First, some fresh japanese cucumbers his wife picked from their garden that day. Served with a little bit of gooey dipping sauce which appeared to be made from natto but was salty and sweet in a way that plain natto is not. I think it’s fairly common because I’ve had this at Hajime before too, so I should know what it is, but I don’t. In addition to that, he gave us each a little mound of special sea salt for dipping too. But really, those cucumber pieces where so crisp and fresh tasting they really didn’t need any adornment to be enjoyed. So refreshing. Then he gave us several pieces of takuan, the traditional yellow japanese daikon pickle. But these were not the radioactive yellow that you normally see in sushi restaurants. This was a pale gold, but the flavor, oh the flavor, was SO different than any takuan I’ve ever had before. This actually tasted like a vegetable, not a candied abomination. He explained that this particular type is much more expensive, but like most things he serves, once you’ve tasted what it’s supposed to be like, you will have a hard time swallowing what you were used to.

And so finally, the soba arrived, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. It was cold soba, served in the traditional way, noodles served on a little bamboo mat with little flakes of seaweed garnishing it and a personal bowl of the dipping sauce on the side to which you add scallion, grated daikon and wasabi. It turns out this was cha soba, where the noodles are green because the dough was actually made with green tea. Not surprisingly, the noodles were absolutely one hundred percent spot on perfectly cooked. I mean, just imagine what your dream texture for soba should be, and this was it. It’s that point just on the softer side of al dente that makes every bite feel substantial but not undercooked. The sauce was deep in umami flavor, probably a bonito broth based, with nicely balanced tones of saltiness from soy and sweetness probably from mirin. It went so well with the noodles on this summer day, it was just fuggin amazing. Delicious and refreshing. It will definitely become a staple for me whenever I eat there from now on. I will probably dream of that dish for the rest of the summer. What a way to round out another kickass meal from Hiura.

It had been several years since I had last eaten at Gramercy Tavern, but a return visit was long overdue now that Michael Anthony has taken over the kitchen and given the restaurant new life. And the last time I had chef Anthony’s cooking was also several years ago, way back when he was still cooking at my-favorite-restaurant-in-NY, Blue Hill at Stone Barns. So how appropriate it was, that upon entering the restaurant last night and walking up to the hostess’ station I was greeted with a “Hey! Long time no see!” from another familiar blast from the past- it was Sofia from Chikalicious! Apparently she left to join Gramercy’s staff over a year ago. I was still waiting for Jeannie to arrive, so we chatted for a bit and she seemed to be doing really well, smiling as big as ever, so that was great to see.

Jeannie eventually showed up, Sofia seated us, and we kicked things off with a couple glasses of a sparkling rose pinot noir, Carpene Malvoti from the Veneto. It was a pretty deep red for a rose, had a spritely berry-like nose, hints of strawberry and watermelon on the palate, and an unexpectedly bright acidity and tartness which made it seem even more perfect for such a hot and muggy day. Anyway onto the food…

The amuse was a bite-sized slice of mortadella accented with a pickled vegetable of some sort. Simple but delicious. I would have loved a few more bites of that mortadella, um, or more like a log of it to go. The first official course of our tasting menu was thin slices of citrus cured arctic char draped over a mound of lemon confit garnished with a few microgreens. Char, that fish that people often mistake for salmon, is usually considerably leaner than salmon, but these slices had such a richness to them and they really benefited from the gentle acidity of the lemon confit and the mild bitterness of the microgreens. A very nice dish to open with.

Things got even better with the next course- smoked trout over onion puree and a pickled onion relish. Normally you would think of smoked fish as kind of a blah dish, usually not just smoky but fishy and with dry crumbly flesh. Not here. The trout fillet was still completely intact, and had a succulently moist, gently-cooked, almost luxurious texture which is not something I would have ever thought trout could possess no matter how you cooked it. It had a mild smokiness and balanced nicely with the two variations of onions which accompanied it, one savory the other sweet.

The third course was for me the big winner of the night- lightly cooked sturgeon slices over a potato and leek sauce which was essentially a thicker version of parmentier soup (think vichysoisse but warm and not as much cream) accented with beautiful American caviar. Truth be told, the sturgeon itself did not taste of much, but the texture and neutrality of the fish made it the ideal vehicle for that magnificent sauce. An absolutely killer dish.

The next course was perhaps the weakest of the night- shreds of duck confit meat, a few gnocchi and a barely cooked quail egg floating in an intense broth of Japanese mushrooms. This was certainly the most complex presentation of the night but it didn’t entirely work for me. The gnocchi were incredibly light so the dish gets props for pulling that off, but they were also completely underseasoned, which I believe was intentional because the mushroom broth, while really intense with an awesome earthiness, was also way too salty. Taking a bite of the gnocchi with a spoonful of broth achieved a perfectly balanced mouthful of goodness, but there was so much broth in the bowl it seemed to suggest that it was meant to be consumed like a soup. And as salty as that broth was, there was no way we were going to do that. The quail egg was delicious, but just seemed somewhat out of place in that bowl.

Final course for me was a little hunk of veal accompanied by a sauce of whole mini morels. This was another case of the somewhat nondescript protein being just a carrier for the sauce, and also another case of one being underseasoned and the other overseasoned. The veal was perfectly cooked, still very moist, but any subtle flavors it might have had were drowned out by the saltiness of the morels. They weren’t as salty as the mushroom broth of the previous dish, but still a little too salty to taste on its own without the veal. Still a good dish though and I cleaned up every last speck of it, but Jeannie’s entree was better. She swapped out the veal entree with pork and was served a couple slices beautifully rimmed with fat, and a small piece of pork belly. The sliced pork was certainly good, but man oh man, that pork belly was insanely good. The fat had a clean but subtly nuanced flavor. Yes it still tasted like pork fat, but the extra dimensions of gentle flavor as it melted in my mouth were indescribably spectacular.

Then to round out the big meal we opted for a light dessert- a lemon verbena granita over a cherry soup with bits of pistachio. Simple clean flavors, and oh so good. The soup and the cherry halves were not overly sweet nor sour, and the granita added a refreshing herbal note to the whole dish. The nuts added a textural contrast, but they were just a bonus; it really would have been just as good of a dish even without them. I definitely favor fruity desserts at the end of big meals as opposed to heavier chocolate offerings, and along those lines I must say, this was one of the best restaurant desserts I’ve ever tasted.

So if you haven’t been to Gramercy Tavern in a while or you thought it had gone downhill, now’s a great time to give it another try. I went with the tasting menu, but the a la carte offerings looked fantastic too. I just may have to make a few return trips to work my way through that side of the menu.