Richmond Gastronomy

Kimchi fried rice

2012-02-14T13:49:00.001-08:00

At a recent brunch at The Roosevelt (one of my favorites in town), I saw a little dish that stuck out amidst the other terrific options - Ham and Mushroom Fried Rice with Kimchi.
I rarely do this, but it got me thinking to try this quick and easy variant (plus some other minor "fusion" modifications) to good old Kimchi fried rice.

(since this is largely emperical, no proportions listed but easy to figure out):
Cooked Rice (recipes recommend a day old rice but you can also cook rice just prior with a little less water)
Onion finely chopped
Fresh ginger and garlic
Julienned carrots
Mixed mushrooms
cubed ham (optional)
Kimchi, chopped up
Chili paste - Gochujang is best, Sambal oelek is a good substitute
Scallions, cilantro + dried seaweed (garnish)
(most available at many places in RVA including Tan A or any of the Korean stores on Midlothian Tpk)

Heat oil + bit of butter + saute ingredients. Add kimchi. Saute a bit longer. ++chilli paste to taste. Add the rice. Toss till well coated.
Fry an egg / serving. Garnish. Sauteed bok choy is a good side.

EAT !!

Pork bellies....

2012-02-14T13:10:00.001-08:00

A nanosecond late to the pork belly party, but RVA has certainly embraced the international pork-belly-is-the-new-foie-gras mantra. Its hard to find a restaurant around town these days, that hasnt jumped on the PB bandwagon (not that I'm complaining).
Reminds me of Trading Places and commodity futures in pork bellies at the mercantile exchange. "Pork Bellies Going Down"

Violating one of my rules about not taking pictures of food in restaurants (the food trellis on this was was intriguing enough), a particularly interesting, crispy and spicy pork belly dish from the Peter Chang restaurant in C-Ville. Well worth a visit till the new location in Short Pump gets settled.

More OPEN

2012-02-08T13:29:00.000-08:00

Nice to see that RVA is finally catching up on the incorporation of online reservations for dining (OpenTable). Participation up to around 50 since April (with several notable adoptions). Given that this is not an inexpensive proposition for the business, I do hope its working out (viz. economics + usage from patrons, the so called "incremental customer" who would not have visited otherwise). Some possible downsides. As a consumer, obviously its easy for me to want the convenience but I understand it isnt so straightforward.

One amusing mathematical conundrum is how many restaurants calculate themselves to be in the $$ range (is it possible with entrees hovering around $25 on average at most??). The Price reflects the estimated price of dinner for one with one drink and tip ($$ = $30 and under, $$$ = $31 to $50, $$$$ = $50 and over)

ampersats

2012-02-06T12:56:00.000-08:00

New beginnings @ a familiar venue. The new S@AMPLE @ the site of the old Sprout and earlier incarnations. A nice, open (amazing how a wall or two changes up the place) modern decor with a "tech" slant (it was easier to connect to the open crossroads wireless next door!). Now open for lunch. Interesting small ($5-$12) and larger ($12-$15) plates. More appealing dining options around campus needed, so, despite questions as to value propositions (cf. above)... Good luck ahead !!

Some fun nicknames for the "at the rate of" or "at" (@ STP? or @locus) for scientists; ampersat @ - "strudel" in Hebrew, "snail" in Italian and Korean, "little mouse" in Chinese, "elephant trunk" in Swedish, "monkey" in German, "dog" in Russian and "little duck" in Greek!

Acacia (pollen)

2012-02-01T21:50:00.000-08:00

Playing around with Lookup Tables recently, I came across a lovely electron microscope image of the pollen from the Acacia plant (Acacia saligna). Behold this beautiful (pseudocolored) "cookie shaped" disk of the acacia pollen around 50 micrometers in diameter! (as a point of reference, 50 micrometers is about half the diameter of a single strand of hair !!). The micro and nanoscales never cease to delight !!

While the pollen is blamed for bouts of sneezes, the restaurant of the same name in town continues to shine in the Richmond dining firmament.
A recent visit had us well pleased with the generally creative combinations of taste on the menu rounded off nicely with some delectable desserts from the pastry chef (almond parsnip cake?!).
Minor quibble follows: While the kitchen continues to impress, the floor seems to have some catching up to do (apparently a long recurring issue). Now, I am all for cold and impersonal (as opposed to fakely effusive) service as long as it is efficient; and Acacia is still one of the few establishments around that gets the little things done (water refills, folding napkins when a patron leaves the table - yes!). However, an eyebrow does get raised when a restaurant that deservedly aspires to this, ends up with waitstaff who dont know about the food they're serving ! An anomaly (?) but it would be helpful for instance, if one knew a wee more about certain items on the menu, what the cheeses on the plate were or able to respond to recommendation questions with a more educated answer than "everything is great". Perhaps the culinary equivalent of what in mathematics we call a "trivial solution", (synonymous with intuitively obvious)

Regardless, a fine restaurant I'm happy to still have on my favs list and well worth a visit (as an aside, vegetarians still have no luck, but the prix fixe menu @24 is easily one of the best "deals" in RVA for a solid weekday "fine" dining experience).

Back to the pollen image, I wonder if restaurants could have a "signature dish" in a literal sense (some clever word play perhaps or a crazy scientific allusion). Now that would be fun.

Progress goes boink

2012-01-25T12:37:00.000-08:00

Its nice to see our engineers are working on complex and pressing problems of the day. From the same folks who brought you the Ferrari F430 - This device capable of optimizing the precise, multiplexed, on-demand delivery of carbonated, sub-room temperature, sugary fluids from a single flow nozzle is the kind of technology needed to offer consumers real choice.
(at the VCU Five Guys among other locations)

pecuniam et vini. et in Arcadia ego.

2012-01-14T20:50:00.000-08:00

At the Gallagher, Bastianich NYC restaurant Becco we recently had the pleasure of dining at, the consistently classical cuisine was complemented by a nearly 90 bottle list of Italian wines all at $25 (in addition to the Reserve list). This was accompanied by their philosophy - "We created this wine list to remove the inhibition & confusion of price from your wine selection. We encourage you to explore the many styles & great values here."

As a non-wine-expert, I quite liked this concept a lot. It was terrific to see this replicated in a small way at the Shockoe Bottom restaurant Arcadia. Open for a couple of months now at the location formerly occupied by Cafe Gutenberg, it had its brush with Lincoln stardom that had folks atwitter for a bit.
Arcadia's menu features a pretty decent selection of ~15 bottles at $20 and ~15 at $30. Which makes for a nice start.

This "inhibition & confusion of price" reminded me of some of the work in the area of trying to study the correlations between wine and price (courtesy Freakonomics). A couple of years ago, Goldstein et al. (J. Wine Econ., 3(1),1–9, 2008) published a paper entitled "Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better?" They found:
1. People unaware of the price do not derive more enjoyment from more expensive wine. Based on 6000 blind tastings, there was actually a negative correlation between price and rating suggesting that individuals on average seem to enjoy more expensive wines slightly less.

2. Interestingly, for individuals with wine training, however, there is a non-negative relationship between price and enjoyment, which opens up an entire round of questions about the "experts".
For example, with two wines, A and B, $ (Wine A) = 10x $ (Wine B). In terms of a 100-point scale, non-experts would assign an overall rating four points lower for wine A, whereas experts would assign an overall rating seven points higher.

Essentially, they cautioned that non-expert wine consumers (most of us?) should not anticipate greater enjoyment of the intrinsic qualities of a wine simply because it is expensive or is appreciated by experts!

The converse question is equally interesting - Does a more expensive wine taste better to a regular person? Not surprisingly, people expect a higher quality with price. But interestingly, research has shown that individuals appreciate the same wine more when they think that it is more expensive (Plassmann et al., PNAS 105(3), 1050–1054, 2008). In the paper "Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness", they used fMRI scans in which people were given differhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifent wines that they were told differed in price. Some of the wines were the same but simply presented with different prices. Prices correlated positively with experienced pleasantness, measured both subjectively and via fMRI experiments.

Ah yes, back to Arcadia....always loved the place in its previous-previous incarnation as CG and I continue to like the space, its very Richmond views, and what the new owners have done with it. The food was good but could use a little kapow !! We didnt have the steak thats proudly advertised. Dinner for two with a couple of shared plates, entrees and a bottle of wine + t&t is close to 3 digits. Perhaps a function of the weekend crowd but be prepared for some high sound levels. The tartufo was delightufo.

(Pretentious titles courtesy Google translate!)

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!

2012-01-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

In museum district memoriam...
Style Weekly

2011-10-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

Despite being generally skeptical of the new kid on the block rave syndrome endemic in RVA, experiences at one of the latest entrants into the local dining firmament - The Roosevelt in Church Hill make me abandon circumspection at this musing.
This is a restaurant after my heart in many ways. A casual, spacious room that has seen a lot of time passages (some nicely adorning the walls) and right off the bat, our server reciting the prices on the specials, had me pleased. They did the “simple” perfectly (glazed baby carrots in ginger and OJ sauce, and a delicious crostini with ricotta and beets so good, we had to have a second). After some recently disappointing kolokithokeftedes at a place that shall not be named (cf. syndrome above), the black-eyed pea variety at TR was a reminder on how fritters are really done. AND they delivered nicely on the “complex” - a melding of flavors on the entrees, all largely southern inspired, a lot of VA represented all over. Further, I was generally impressed by the lack of pretension at this restaurant, admonitions at “drink slinging” notwithstanding. One can only hope that the freshness of a rotating, seasonal menu and a hitting of the maturity groove keeps making this place better.
We left the TR the best way I like to leave – the mind full and a stomach full to just the right degree (and a wallet not empty either - several sides, snacks and dessert (the oft raved about panna cotta in the mason jars is all that), can be had for $4-$5, entrees topping out <$20).

If I have one “quasi-complaint” about the Roosevelt, it has to be on the difficulty of getting a table !:) 30-45 min waits have led to disappointment twice ! Be prepared as the word spreads.

tomatime !! eleventy111 !! 1111 !!!

2011-10-07T16:53:00.000-07:00

Imperfections and all (taste) before they're gone ! Thanks SOTJ...

A fascinating read on the topic:
Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit
By Barry Estabrook
Hardcover, 240 pages

new and old sprouts

2011-09-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

A bustling time in the Richmond dining scene. A rough count shows around a dozen or so new restaurants sprouting up in just the last couple of months. I'm not sure if its the new kid syndrome (seen regularly in RVA), a consequence of various “natural events” or simply bad luck, but over the last couple of weeks, we’ve had to postpone trying 3 places on this list because of hour+ waits. And these were on weeknights !! Unprecedented. Will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Amidst all this newness buzz, one could almost miss out on some rather sad news – “Sprout” in the VCU area is closing on Sep 5th. While I would not count myself a regular, I have had the pleasure of watching this sprout grow. We have eaten there several times all the way from its seedling stage (back in June 2010) when they were still setting up, to their reclaimed wood furniture stage, to a stage of some maturity and menu stability. I have gone through like-bleh cycles with it – quibbles with execution at times, really enjoying the food at others and all the while appreciating and wanting to support them. They even amused with their menu-in-LP-cover bit. The locavore movement is all the rage these days, and it is rare that a restaurant in the city doesn’t proudly proclaim some aspect of their menu that is locally and/or VA sourced. Sprout was a nice “early adopter” of sorts, which was always something I liked. In a wee bit of nostalgia for me, it also served as the setting to bookend some remarkable personal life episodes. A veritable loss for the area. Good luck.

While I have no idea why Sprout is closing and wouldn’t wish to speculate, I read a rather interesting paper on restaurant turnover rates in the country (“Why restaurants fail” by Harsa et al, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly August 2005, 46, 3, pp. 304-322, doi: 10.1177/0010880405275598). Bottom line – 26 % fold in the first year, 19 % in the second year and 14 % in the third year. The three-year cumulative restaurant turnover rate for franchised chains was 57 %, and 61% for independent restaurants. A bit of data for the statistically curious but its hard to draw any conclusions. Even El Bulli closed because it was bleeding money.

Ending on a non sequitur. I recently had the pleasure to encounter a “pay what you want” concept that I just found simply fascinating - “Decide afterwards for yourself what a fair price is for the eat”. While I’ve heard of this idea before (with even Panera getting into the game), this was a first I’d seen for a relatively “high-end place”, if one can call it that. At some level, the restaurant has a minor bar against abuse via a strict no walk-in policy. Every dinner “sells out” and the food is spectacular and innovative. I wonder though, how this would work as a general business model? In Richmond?
It would certainly make for an interesting behavioral experiment.

porcines, pink and portmanteaux

2011-07-31T08:58:00.000-07:00

This summer has been an interesting time in RVA, with so much flux in the dining scene.

One entrant has been the recently opened gastropub The Blue Goat in the Libbie-Grove area. Gastropub being a portmanteau of gastronomy and pub. From an old WaPo article, "Not quite a bar and not quite a restaurant, the gastropub is a British hybrid of sorts, offering a casual-meets-refined atmosphere that welcomes beer drinkers and wine snobs, non-fussy eaters and foodies alike."

You wont find any standard pub grub here but there's a long bar and plenty of ungulates on the menu here (even-toed or artiodactyla if you're keeping score). The entire pig makes an appearance from the ear, cheeks, shoulder, the current RVA favorite - pork belly, all the way to the tail. I like the general concept and execution of using the entire animal and TBG does a pretty good job. And the eponymous goat, largely in cheese form.
I was rather amused that our waiter stressed that this was NOT tapas and certainly didnt conform to the standard entree concept either. I'm not sure how many of the above criteria it satisfies but both a casual nibble and a complete meal can be considered @ TBG (dishes quickly adding up for the latter). At first taste, we felt that the simpler dishes far outshone the ones with multi-ingredient descriptors. (semi) vegetarians could be somewhat disappointed by the offerings here, although the cheese plate and the excellent bread offer a couple of other places a good run for their money.
An observation - for such a large place, one restroom is a tad inefficient. A recent weeknight experience was surprisingly packed till late and the crowd, a fair slice of the 'chic' we've come to expect at many places around.

Since we're in an alliterative mood here, another "P" thats been appearing everywhere is Polyface (farms). A nice development for sure.

Speaking of portmanteaux, a new word has entered my lexicon - the chork !
I had earlier this year, hoped for a noodle-bar in RVA and lo and behold :)....there's one now. The new Ejay Rin in Manchester. I had always liked the space of the former Savor with its high ceilings and brick. ER has co-opted it well into their sparse decor. A recent visit was interesting - hot and cold (ramen) noodles, steamed buns and asian themed dishes (kimchee/sauteed bok choy). Ginger !

Other than the noodles (which were pretty good), two things were fun - one was the presence of Staropramen pivo on the menu (I wonder if it was a bit of word play on the part of the owners but I was amused. Plus it appealed to the czech-ophile in me). The second was the appearance of a rather gimmicky implement - the chork - a combination of chopsticks and a fork ! For a 25c upcharge, you get to keep your dining implement (a variant on other fancy designs available) ! While I stuck to my good old chopsticks, my dining companion seemed to enjoy its versatility ! A teeny connection to the theme - ramen with pork belly makes an appearance. I need another visit to make up my mind on the broth on this one.
As word gets around, there is sure to be an uptick in traffic at this place. Our dinner came to around $42 ...!!

The food? I saw this in the richmond.com article about the place - "It’s better than average food, for reasonable prices, using better ingredients," [co-owner Bill] Foster said.
Agreed.

In an interesting etymology coincidence that would be of interest to possibly only me, portmanteau comes from the french - porter, to carry + manteau, coat.
ER is on Porter street at the location of the former Lunch Porter !

Ice cubes melting at an alarming rate

2011-07-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

As temperatures rise, the inexorable shift of caffeinated beverages to those of the iced kind begins. Pure water ice cubes remind me of an old engineering chestnut - "the solution to pollution is dilution". Something we'd presumably like to avoid in the coffee cup.

I think coffee cubes are an elegant solution, albeit one I've only seen only in a few places around - of recent note - Captain Buzzy's Beanery and way out in the cozy Ashland Coffee & Tea shop. I'm hardly a coffee afficionado but technically, if using a good number of coffee cubes, one doesnt even need to chill the coffee a priori. This would imply perhaps, that the choices for the hot version are easily available for the iced version !

Speaking of the far far away ACT, I like how it is casual and comfortable without trying hard. Disparate couches with plenty of dawdling material all around. Bring, forget (?), take, leave - seems to work out nicely. Closer to home, the Ellwood's Coffee shop presumably approaches this ambiance, although I do need to research if they've worked on the dilution problem.

The headline - shamelessly copied from an old Onion article, with a brilliant scientific graph to boot.

Time is an illusion...

2011-06-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

....lunchtime doubly so !*

Random musings for the day: At what point do the hypothetical cons (food quality, poor service (eg. rudeness/attitude), décor/cleanliness, price) overcome the pros of eating at a place (food quality, good service, convenience, price, statements of sorts)? In the specific context of a lunch, should some variables trump all (eg. convenience, price)?

Is a single instance of a “con”, reason enough to consider not patronizing a particular restaurant anymore? No background here in the interest of fairness – every restaurant may have a bad day. Oddly enough, I think I am readier to forgive mediocre food than (perceived?) impolite behavior on said bad day.

In other campus notes - Sadly, summer has taken its toll on both lunch carts worth visiting around the VCU main campus – Nate & Olio. MCV carts are still going strong.
The new ownership at Rev it Up has now had some time to get settled - some modifications and changes in menu but they've largely hewed to the previous version.
Construction on Grace will apparently only add to the plethora of chain eateries around campus. A bit on the IHOP - Aramark nexus. Not anti-chain per se but feel an opportunity lost to add some local flavor, quite literally.

6/21 x 7/2

"The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why, and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question 'How can we eat?' the second by the question 'Why do we eat?' and the third by the question 'Where shall we have lunch?"
— *- Douglas Adams "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"

menu clouds

2011-06-03T12:12:00.000-07:00

A couple of layovers later, I have the chance to post my latest bit of data analysis fun (time-wasting?). For some time now, I have been thinking of checking out the degree of "commonality" among menus here in RVA and a method of visualizing the same.

This last restaurant week and word clouds provided a nice opportunity to look at this data. Assuming that the 30 restaurants that participated provide a fairly good cross-section and are fairly representative of menu/food preferences in RVA (a decent approximation in retrospect), it was easy to extract the menus from here and voilà.

So here are the word distributions among menus in the area. Data interpretation is left to the kind reader (methinks the preponderance of 'safe' options is telling).

Entrée:

Main Course:

Dessert:

latte love at lamplighter

2011-05-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

one of many reasons I like the place, my lack of epidermal decorations notwithstanding.

RW vegetarianism

2011-04-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

Its restaurant week time again in RVA. Dine for a cause!
While perusing the menus, I was struck by how potentially difficult it is for vegetarians to really get into this whole event. A quick tabulation (of menus only, the restaurant may be more accomodating) showed rather slim pickings for the non-meat/fish eaters out there. 8 out of the 30 restaurants participating had no possibility for a vegetarian to construct a 3 course dinner...20 had one entree option that could enable putting together one (mostly variants on a theme). 2 had more than 1; but, of this pair, one was a small plates restaurant that could result in only one possible permutation.

Caveat - This is just a random observation and not intended to make a broader point especially in consideration of the parametric constraints in this enterprise. Also, in all likelihood, the market size may be somewhat limited.

The Mayor

2011-04-22T14:05:00.000-07:00

If one is looking for a nice, formal dining experience with all the genteel charm and grace of the latitudes, I would be hard pressed to recommend an alternative to Lemaire at the Jefferson. There are options with decidedly more “exciting” food or a more contemporary décor/youthful vibe, but what tips the scales in Lemaire’s favor is the overall stately feel to the dining experience, sans too much stuffiness. While my notes from last year that Lemaire “lacked in general diversity” still ring true for some categories, I must say that after some recent visits, I’m pretty pleased with the level of maturity it has attained and the number of check marks it satisfies on my imaginary dining list.

No dawdling around waiting for water refills, no laminated, flimsy menus, no cramped seating in rickety rooms. The wait staff have a certain degree of professionalism about them, manage to rotate efficiently and are able to add some of little touches one expects in a restaurant attempting for a certain class (folding napkins when a patron visits the restroom for example). After my recent rant on announcing special pricing, I was particularly pleased to see our wait staff recite the prices of each special. The dining rooms can get a little loud (although a conversation in muted tones is easily within earshot), the bar is particularly raucous at times but perhaps it’s the vaulted ceilings or the generally opulent feel to the architecture that seems to mellow things down. The food is pleasant and elegantly constructed, complemented by a very decent selection of wines. VA sourcing (naturally) and regionals like kale, collard greens, mac n cheese, black eyed peas etc make appearances both as sides and in dishes, albeit of a fairly standard repertoire. Currently offered - a rather interesting prix-fixe Picasso tasting menu for $50. Chef Bundy, I guess the overall ambiance of the Jefferson and typical clientele might necessitate a certain degree of circumspection about your menu, but it would be great to see your imagination fly and go wild with a dish or two.

Lemaire is not inexpensive, but it compares very well (and exceeds on certain counts) with several of its peers (@ a price point that includes practically every restaurant in town that successfully (or not) aspires to a certain cred).
And it’s on Open Table!

OPEN

2011-04-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

I’ve been a fan of Open Table for several years and I still think it’s a pity that most restaurants in RVA don’t use it (~30 as of today).
From a recent NYT article: “Over the past decade, OpenTable has grown into the dominant online restaurant booking service and now claims more than 20,000 eateries, mostly in the United States. As of March, it says, it has seated more than 200 million diners.
The reasons are clear: You can check online for available tables at top restaurants in most major markets, making a booking and get a confirmation e-mail – all for free, and without having to wait on hold with a (sometimes) snooty reservations host.”
(we’ve been “turned away/off” from quite a few restaurants in the area owing to this archaic policy)
In a down economy with fewer people dining out, its quite fascinating to see how Open Table (Nasdaq: OPEN) has performed relative to the Dow since its inception (trading at 5x its Summer 2009 IPO price and a tripling since last year!). Wish I had some investing acumen!

A few restaurants around have 1000 point tables available many evenings. At a simple calculation of 2000 points equating to a $20 gift certificate*, that’s like a nice ~10% discount at many places, just a click away. Too bad the choices on where one can use it are limited here in RVA.
* - Consider a typical meal for two (sadly still sticking to the general 3-course paradigm and using rough price estimates) (>> half of the Style Magazine’s Top 50 are at this level or higher) to establish a base: Shared appetizer - $8 + Two entrées - $46 + Shared dessert - $8 + Drinks - $18
Total - $70 (add t&t) ~ $90 as the base price (± $) for two.

Bloody Mary chemistry

2011-03-31T21:05:00.001-07:00

What is chemistry for, if it cant teach us about the perfect Bloody Mary !
Creating the perfect Bloody Mary: Good chemistry of fresh ingredients

Key ingredients - tomato juice, Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce, fresh lemon or lime juice, horseradish, black pepper, and celery salt. Shake with ice or serve over ice, garnish with celery and a lemon wedge.

The umm..."science", although numbers would have been more fun:
* Chemically, the Bloody Mary is a “highly unstable” concoction, and the quality tends to deteriorate quickly.
* Serving Bloody Marys on ice helps to slow down the chemical reactions involving acids in tomato juice and other ingredients that degrade the taste.
* If using a cocktail mix, add some fresh ingredients to enhance the flavor and aroma.
* Tomato juice makes up most of the Bloody Mary’s volume, so use high quality juice that has a deep, rich flavor.
* The intense, spicy flavor of a Bloody Mary masks the vodka, and using premium vodka makes little sense.

The oddly caterpillar shaped molecule is ally isothiocyanate, the key ingredient in horseradish.

some venn funn...

2011-03-25T15:26:00.001-07:00

Following up on the latest version of Style Weekly's State of the Plate 2011 article, I remembered that last time, I had done an analysis of cost of eating at these restaurants. This time, I was curious to see how much evolution there was in the RVA restaurant scene.
Here is the distribution of their list of "best" restaurants over the last 3 years. 3 restaurants made a comeback this year from 2009. A number of those in the non-overlapping areas are dearly (or not so) departed. 29 restaurants have made the list in all 3 years. There is a 71% overlap from last year to this one.
There are 12 new places on this year's list and the editors seem to have continued with their predilection for annointing the new kid on the block the (best?) restaurant of the year in RVA.

special pricing...

2011-02-27T08:59:00.000-08:00

I feel I have collected enough data points to "re"observe this among the set of putative RVA upper crust dining establishments -

Please, please, chefs and maîtres d, why don't (you instruct) your wait staff (to) tell the dining patrons what the price(s) of the specials are?

I am delighted to hear that tonight you have decided to prepare the seared unicorn with magic truffle reduction and gold dust, but I think it would be nice to know that it costs $xxx... if there are just so many specials that the wait staff feel like they're reciting an epic, it can't be that hard to print a little daily menu insert describing and announcing price of said specials.
While this may or may not affect ones choices (I understand that not everyone reads a menu from right to left or perhaps cares), this is a piece of information, I wonder if anyone would actually object to knowing...

Is it perhaps that the well-heeled Richmond cognoscenti are offended by this "lowly display" of prices? If anything, it may be a bit difficult to ask what the price is. I am curious why this is the norm around (from our observations, none did)...

This is not a new question and has been extensively pondered about...

wine puzzle

2011-02-25T14:32:00.000-08:00

A little brain teaser to celebrate the VA Wine Expo (reminder: the latest 2011 VA Winery Guide map is out).

All those pourings made me remember this classic (way back from the 16th century) puzzle (part of the so-called decanting puzzles)
Imagine we have three jugs of 8, 5 and 3 liters. The biggest jug is entirely filled with wine, and the other two are empty. We want to divide the wine into 2 equal parts. The jugs are not calibrated, so that all we can do is pour wine from one jug to another until the first jug is entirely empty or the second jug is completely full. We also assume that the decantings are done accurately and that no wine is spilled. HOW ?

Interesting side note: A two jug variant of this decanting puzzle was used in Die Hard: With a Vengeance. John McClane and Zeus Carver (Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson) have to solve the puzzle with two jugs and water from a fountain to prevent a bomb from exploding - 4 gallons of water using only 5-gallon and 3-gallon jugs.

Hint: In symbolic terms if our starting point is 8 0 0 (8 liter full, 5 liter empty, 3 liter empty), we need to get to 4 4 0. Multiple solutions exist.

travel the world..

2011-01-29T07:45:00.000-08:00

For the globetrotting and adventurous foodie on a budget...

molecules redux

2011-01-29T07:21:00.000-08:00

Since I had recently rambled about this subject, I had to follow up with this post. The freakonomics blog on the NYTimes had a recent podcast titled:
"Waiter, There’s a Physicist In My Soup" about food and the science of food - the first episode being focused on molecular gastronomy.

Some of the comments were very interesting and captured the range of views on this kind of cooking. "vacuum compressed heirloom tomato" ?? crazy cool, but why ?!?!
Part of the recent excitement stems from the release of this encyclopedic venture on Modernist Cuisine chronicling all kinds of wild experiments with food and cooking. I wonder if the Richmond Pubic Library will buy this book. The website has some cool pictures.

I was thrilled to discover that an 2° acquaintance/colleague at Carnegie Mellon - Department of Chemistry teaches what he calls The Kitchen Chemistry sessions - food and molecular cuisine to teach chemistry and science. What a concept ! something I will seriously consider working on. But first, I need to find a partner in this enterprise !

Addendum: Harvard's famous "Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to the Science of Soft Matter" last fall was in the news last year. Now most of the lectures are on Youtube. A fabulous chance to see how some of the great culinary minds of our time meet with great science (the speaker list was mindblowing!).

In case anyone is interested - A 2010 paper in Chemical Reviews makes for some um...interesting reading on the subject of the chemistry of food:
Molecular Gastronomy: A New Emerging Scientific Discipline - Peter Barham,Leif H. Skibsted, Wender L. P. Bredie, Michael Bom Frøst, Per Møller, Jens Risbo, Pia Snitkjær and Louise Mørch Mortensen
(the pdf is free !) link to paper

As always, the disclaimer - like many of my posts, this is just a repository of food things I am learning/trying to not forget and hopefully someone else might be interested too. It is not intended to be an exercise in bombast.

campus repasts...

2011-01-17T11:51:00.000-08:00

While time crunches have severely limited leisurely lunches, as the new semester starts, I wanted to tabulate some of my favorite options around the VCU (main) campus: (lunch at all of these places ranges from $5 - $15 w/ t&t with $8 being the median)

821 Café: 821 is a Prime Number so they moved it to 825 Cary - a Smith Number :)! I’ve been very satisfied after several visits here. The menu is still overwhelmingly large with “too many” permutations but we haven’t gone wrong with most choices here. I’m still lacking in HQ compared to rest of clientele.
Ipanema Café (#, %): My favorite vegetarian place in the city. Imaginatively goes beyond the norm within the defined (restrictive) parameters. Also terrific for a night owl. Sweet potato fries ++
(cons @ both 821C and IC – demand quite often greatly exceeds supply). The former has morphed from its subterranean look while the latter's may not be to everyones liking...
Thai Top Ten (%): (sorry ET. You have been replaced). Bonus – spring roll w/ lunch.
Carts – Dont have the choice or variety that the medical campus has but we do have arguably one of RVAs finest around - Nates Taco Truck (#) and Olio – next to Cabell library. Time to lunch – variable. Filling of stomach – variable.

Three other nice options –Harrison Street Coffee Shop (#) (also all vegetarian), Rev it Up (very basic sandwich choices but filling, clean, welcoming interior, %) and Sprout (nice inside especially when sunny outside, filling of stomach - variable, support local, #, %)
Desperation when time is << short – take away wraps at the Cary Street Deli. In and out < 10 mins. Coffee at the Starbucks next door. (*)
D/F – VCU Commons, Mojos, Broad Street twixt Belvidere and Harrison.
Palatable chain – Chipotle.
On radar – Belvidere on Broad.
Another place that I like a lot for dinner but have never been for lunch is Nile Ethiopian. I have no idea of cost or time here.

# – quasi variable menu
% – good for taking visitors – not overly informal.
* - There is still no decent coffee place within a short walk for me (< 5 mins). Crossroads if in the area but quite a trek from my neck of the woods otherwise. Rostovs – more so.

Saludos while I kiss the sky !

craving catalonia

2011-01-17T11:36:00.000-08:00

One of the "culinary innovations" of the past decade has to be the explosion of what has come to be called molecular gastronomy. I recently had the chance to visit the hotbed of this creativity - (aside: Is it possible for one chef to influence an entire region with his philosophy and style? I think superstar chef Ferran Adrià would fall into this category). While I, like countless others will have to wait till 2013 to try our luck at reservations (not to mention months of saving) when El Bulli reopens, Catalonia teems with culinary gems who are either direct descendants of Ferran (I think it would be fun to have a concept like an Erdős number in the culinary world - like a Ducasse or Adrià number !) or deeply influenced by him. With both EB and the other gem in the region El Celler de Can Roca closed for the season, I had to "settle" for excellent choices from the number of places that have taken molecular gastronomy to new levels - this time - Cinq Sentits and Alkimia, the latter highly recommended. For tapas, the local joint(s) and Comerç 24 (fabulous creativity on the small plate/tapas concept by Ferran protege Carles Abellan).
I will spare the gentle reader any food porn or painful descriptions thereof. Coupled with some eating and recent reading, I was assailed with some philosophical afterthoughts:

An older article by Anya von Bremzen on “Should Fine Dining Die” explores the “contrived amuse-gueles-to-petit-fours rigmarole known as fine dining”
Foodie fatigue - A plea for calm among foodies from the Chicago Tribune. "Food culture is great when it gets people thinking about what's on their plate, not photographing it"
And this rather droll foodie discussion - IMHO if you have any sort of opinion on what you eat, you're a foodie, like it or not. The rest is details. Instead of indulging in petty semantics, it is humbling to realize that there are millions of people who dont have this luxury.

As a scientist and yes, foodie, I find the ideas of ingredient foams, emulsions, powders, creams, suspensions, infusions, freeze dried ingredients (or cooking with liquid nitrogen) and other "non-conventional" preparations of food incredibly neat. In addition to being fascinatingly clever, I also find the melding of conventional and esoteric ingredients (flowers, fungi and foraged natural products - the current global darling NOMA having taken the latter to extreme levels) quite exciting. I also marvel at the creativity of the chefs and the art of presentation, which is more than having something show up on a square plate. But...
1. Primarily, what is the real point – does this “deconstruction” add to taste or is it all just gimicky? (I add that I shameless enjoy the gimicks)
2. While the concept of 10+ elegantly constructed and innovative dishes is certainly fun, how practical is it really? Does it even have to be "practical"?
3. Price is another question here, although as I've observed recently, dining out in RVA is not an inexpensive proposition either. This would be an interesting subject to study - where does price resistance or elasticity break down ?
I just wonder, while enjoying all that this contribution to food has to offer.
(with hunger, need, recessions and unemployment around, spending ridiculous amounts on single meals - that is another philosophical discussion for another day).

Is it too much to ask for an AF-esque mind for RVA ? Would love to see someone sidestep the paradigm (even a dish or two). Go wild !! (the MA in NOMA comes from mad)

Ok, I lied and will violate my principles - I had to photograph one of the best amuse bouches I've had in a while - @ CS - a shot glass of layered maple syrup, chilled cream, a sabayon made with cava and a tiny bit of rock salt at the bottom that trickles down to your tongue once the sweetness of the earlier ingredients have made their way down your throat. This was the very definition of an amuse bouche, delightfully light and talk about titillating a palate !

thinking tapas

2011-01-15T07:18:00.000-08:00

Amidst aimless meanderings, I began to think that if I could wish for a "type of" restaurant in RVA, it would have to be a quality tapas place. Apparently Richmond had 60 new restaurants open last year !! From my limited sampling, they mostly appear to be variants on a theme, with some exceptions. Yes, technically it appears there are are a few (via Urbanspoon) (I'm afraid these places have been far from satisfactory and to borrow a term - reputationally hindered) and no, the rash of "small plate" menus proliferating around do not count. So whats missing?

It would be wonderful to see a cozy, reasonably priced tapas restaurant in RVA in true Spanish tradition - from simple offerings of olives, breads with olive oil, jamon or other meats, cheeses, little plates of salads, fresh vegetables, stews and seafood perhaps, all the way to what has come to be called "luxury tapas" at places like Comerç 24 and 41 degrees. The fun and excitement of communal dining on small plates is delightful. And the taste of course, exciting, without necessarily being too complex. In terms of the ratio of deliciousness to complexity, I posit that pan con tomate or pa amb tomaquet in Catalan is hard to beat.
Some history I learned - Back in 19th century Andalucia, bar owners would place a piece of bread on a drink to keep away flies. This evolved to little savory, often salty bits - olives, meats etc on a lid (tapa) to cover the drink. And a fabulous dining tradition was born !

Sí despite its prices and roller coaster quality was for a while the place du jour and while it would stray from their present DNA, there is a place that asymptotically approaches some of these parameters (Cryptic xword clue - not for Italian bubbly (5)), but I still would want my pure tapas bar :)!!

Since one must leave town in all probability, to satisfy this tapas fix, there is of course, Jose Andres' masterpiece Jaleo up north(the humble patatas bravas with spicy alioli is an deliciously inexpensive filler here and at most tapas joints anywhere !). Closer to home - Mas Tapas in Charlottesville is a terrific option, well worth a drive imho (thanks to a friend for placing this on my radar). Plates can be had from $4 to $15 making for a well rounded dinner. They also have a great selection of cheeses and a nice list of wines, plus everyone's favorite word - plenty of local sourcing. Word to the wise, be wary of ordering too many "salad tapas" or you could easily overdose on arugula.

Another somewhat distant wish is for a noodle bar. We have our share of pho places around (discussed nicely here) but I wish we had a place that just served udon, soba, ramen and the like - perhaps a mélange of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese influences? Since we're dreaming, perhaps something like David Chang's wonderful Momofuku !

Any others?

The Belmont Stakes

2010-12-10T15:28:00.000-08:00

(North) Belmont Ave has become an interesting gastronome destination of late. If one walks towards the museum district from the VMFA, I believe Belmont is the first street where one can find food. And a varied set at that, well worth a nice walk along ! While the Belmont Butchery (not a restaurant) and Zeus Gallery & Café have rooled the roost for some time, they were joined earlier this year by Stuzzi (the subject of much commentary all around). A few blocks (near Narnia :)) away hides Chiocca’s, a down the stairs bar that’s apparently been around since the 1950s! Two recent eponymous additions have been the Belmont Pizzeria and the Belmont Food Shop. Over the past few months, I had seen the latter at various intriguing stages of development and finally got to have lunch there recently. Or technically speaking, I picked up my lunch there a couple of times recently. Touting itself as “Back to Basics food”, the BFS is our city's latest addition to the eat local movement. Not fully a functional restaurant yet, they are open for takeout. The BFS bakes its own bread each morning and features meats and eggs from that Omnivore’s Dilemma darling - Polyface Farms. Incidentally, I’ve been seeing a lot of PF products all around town as restaurants attempt to burnish their “pollancred”.
For $12 including tax, you get a sandwich, a side and a drink (little 8 oz soda cans). I’ve tried the roast beef with caramelized onions on focaccia and the smoked mozzarella with terrine on pepper potato bread. I have been quite satisfied (satiated?) with my choices coupled with the sides (deviled eggs and potato salad so far, recently embellished with a little chocolate truffle). The cost is a trifle more than a comparably decked sandwich elsewhere (for example, around VCU, the Olio cart - $6-$9). BFS plans to expand to regular service and while it is quite out of the way for lunch (for me), good luck ahead. With interesting dynamics involved, have to keep an eye out on how they mature.
I’ve also had pizza from the Belmont Pizzeria a couple of times now and I timidly venture that I found it quite ok (other than the one occasion where the pizza turned into a soggy mess by the time I hiked back home). Their one “outlier specialty” - the potato pizza is quite interesting. I tread lightly because there are too many sophisticated palates around who take their pizza extremely seriously :). For a medium pizza @ ~ $15 (w/t&t) and a large one ~ $20, the prices are comparable to several places around. Definitely no gourmet offerings here but BP provides supply in the pizza demand supply equation for the area when one doesnt want to patronize any chains (for example, on google maps searching for “pizza” around a 1 mile radius of the VMFA results in Mary Angelas (which some people swear by but I haven’t liked much) and Chanello’s – never been). They have a couple of bar stools where you can sit by the window and get pizzas by the slice but I haven’t dawdled here or even tried the pastas (perhaps easier and healthier to toss some together than eat takeout pasta !).

Speaking of Belmonts and since it coincides nicely with the ceremony going on as I type – random fact: apparently, at one time, Belmont, MA near Cambridge, MA had the highest per capita concentration of Nobel Laureates residents in the world. And speaking of NLs, one of my favorite signs on the UC Berkeley campus. Talk about a faculty perk!

Postscript: Admittedly, the previous post was a bit of a hello world curiosity trial just to see where posts would land on the new spinning wheel of blogs. I must say, given my general degree of quasi-wallflowerishness (not to mention general subject matter (or lack thereof) on this blog), I was quite mortified to see it prominently displayed on ER before the algorithm mercifully found another posting to supplant it. Must think carefully now before flippantly tossing out some markovian musing or hope to coincide with other prolific writers (of the real variety). Thankfully my overall blogennui will self-correct this.

data bubbles continued

2010-12-09T12:27:00.000-08:00

Following up on my previous post on mint.com’s data on average check sizes at different dining establishments in RVA, I recently played around on rather cool site called bundle which also tracks spending. Bundle has some nifty little flash bubbles that you can customize to see how people spend money across the country on different categories each month (food, travel, home, entertainment etc). Since this is a “food blog” (sic), I only looked at some Richmond data, specifically, how much the average Richmonder (a nebulous concept - one can also get data from Midlothian or Henrico county) spends each month on food, dining and the like.
In addition to location, you can specify age group, income level (the rich spend more - surprise !!) and even household types (for example, in an interesting bit of socioeconomic behavior, average spending on restaurants & bars in Richmond – single male, no kids - $303, single female, no kids - $197 and married, no kids - $269). Overall average across all groups - $253 on eating out and $248 on groceries. Depending on your fascination (mine is obviously high) with this kind of silly information, you can spend quite a bit of time trying different permutations and combinations.
Avg monthly spending on restaurants and bars in other cities: Washington DC - $473, San Francisco, CA - $419, New York, NY - $287, Boston, MA - $335

Again, mathematically speaking, despite the claimed 20 million data points, it is easy to get misled by averages (vs. medians) and statistical errors including demographics represented, location and such. But looking at the distributions is probably more telling, although I do wonder about that as well. The graph below shows the average distribution on dining out across Richmond.

acknowledging the excellent work of RVAfoodie in redesigning the eatingrichmond.com aggregator - what has become a fascinating glimpse into so many musings across town.

some more data processing..

2010-11-12T10:28:00.000-08:00

I recently ran into some fascinating data from the online expense aggregator Mint.com that showed the average amounts people, (at least mint.com users), in RVA spent on food and dining. A bit of fiscal voyeurism perhaps, but it was kind of interesting to track how people spent money and fun way to waste time while wasting time.

How the data was processed: there is all kinds of data showing all sorts of expenses, ranging from the size of a check at fas mart or uppys to how much people spent at costco on average ($133.89). I sifted through the 126 places initially listed and...

1. removed all fastfood places
2. removed all chains (avg Chipotle check - $10.74)
3. removed all gas stations, grocery stores and other stores (eg. wine stores. ABC - $31.42)

what remained ~ 40 RVA specific 'eating places' ranked in order of an average check at each (one outlier omitted, see below). I wish there were more "restaurants" in this data - insufficient or no data is expected and probably the (sparse?) mint user demographic skews a certain way. Click to embiggen ...fun w/ excel - two versions.(sorry I'm not a graphic artist !)

It is also fun to read into the data and try and figure out some of the costs. However, it is also easy to be misled by most numbers - there is no normalization with respect to number of people on a check, whether it is for lunch/dinner/just drinks, number of times this happened (statistically significant n?). For example, the average check at Starbucks is listed at $6.16. Are people getting really expensive soy, venti, decaf blah blah or just paying for two (or more) people etc etc...
The outlier that I skipped was Bank with an "average check" of $347.18...I would guess the n on this is really low, skewing the number. Similarly, it is easy to understand why places like Ipanema (or others in the VCU area have lower values, where a split check might be the norm). Understandably, data from larger cities was a bit more comprehensive and with nicer distribution across restaurant ranges.

This data is faceless but its only a matter of time such data is mined extensively, especially with sites like blippy with social networking of expenses becoming popular.

Which brings me to wonder - is it useful for a customer to know what the average size of a check at restaurant X is (this is quite distinct from knowing what the price of an average entree is at restaurant X)? does it help the business that people know?

spoon. eat.

2010-11-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

Tons of T's

2010-10-05T11:55:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly, another (relatively) new place in < a week! When a colleague recently wanted “Asian food”, we decided to traipse over to Taste of the Far East (a place that we liked previously). On getting there, we found that it was now a Thai restaurant called Thai Top Ten (-1 for a name like that :)… although it abbreviates nicely to T3). Situated a couple of doors up from Ipanema, one would be hard pressed to notice any change in the décor from its previous incarnation.
Bad pun-ditry apologia on the subject of Thai restaurant names: there are groan-worthy names like Thaitanic and Thaiphoon. And for the physician to heal Thaiself there may be Thai roid and Thaimus :)).

T3 was pretty good. They have several (way more than 10) dishes with a pretty list of the usual Thai "pad" suspects, noodles and curries. Every entrée comes in choices of chicken, beef, pork, tofu or mock duck (some have scallops as options as well) which makes for a host of permutations. The latter two in addition to a whole host of noodles make T3 good for vegetarians. Portions sizes were pretty generous with each lunch entrée coming with a spring roll…(~$10 pp w/t&t)
Given my low threshold for heat, I felt like I was just at the cusp of my limit with the medium (mild is the lower setting on the dial) and I probably couldn’t have managed either of the next two levels – American hot and Thai hot.
Elephant Thai has some serious competition now in the neighborhood.

Ah…..so many T3 or 3T tangents come to mind – 3T3 fibroblasts, T3 topological spaces, T3 DNA ligase, 3 thymine linkers…..(all of which may explain why I am not and have no desire to be a food “critic” of any sort !)…..

On the Ts….somehow the previous post transmogrified into a rather interesting discussion on small plates and meal construction (raising complex issues beyond the scope of this blog). I blame my sub-optimal writing skills that it wasn’t evident that I actually love the concept of small plates.
While San Sebastian will have to wait, this episode reminded me of a “small plate experience” 100 miles to the north, that was highly enjoyable this summer. In honor of one of my favorite chefs – Jose Andres, we found that a perfectly good half day of eating and drinking well, could be spent by going on a JA tapas crawl. From antojitos (Mexican) at Oyamel to good ol’ Spanish tapas at Jaleo to Mediterranean (Turkish, greek and Lebanese) mezze/tapas at Zaytinya, this tasting trio covers three of JA's gems in a short section of the Penn Quarter.. JA’s clever melding of ingredients and nod to the traditional is a joy to behold – from the devilishly simple pan con tomate to complex kreatika, each and any of the 3 offer tapas, cheeses and meats to satisfy pretty much any taste. Toss in nice (regional) wine lists and cocktails at all three places and this is time well spent, in every sense.
Interestingly….if one could fly, O, J and Z are almost perfectly linear (see map) - although as an NP-hard traveling salesman problem, its best to try and end up in Jaleo for dessert.
Now, if I could fly…..

carytown musings

2010-09-26T08:16:00.000-07:00

I'm hardly, if ever, ahead of any sort of curve. So it was actually quite surprising to stumble on a place that's brand new in Richmond. Ambling aimlessly in Carytown recently, in search of a place to eat, we were arrested by a large portrait framed in a brightly lit doorway and a clamor from up above. Spying a reproduction of "Portrait of Mrs. Allan Bott" by one of my favorite Art Deco artists Tamara de Lempicka, my curiousity was piqued. On closer look, we saw that it was a new restaurant - Xtras !
Xtras is located right next to the bangle and bead shop in C-town. Walking up the stairs to the high aspect ratio interior, we observed that the noises were coming from the outdoor balcony that overlooks Cary street. Sadly the balcony was full, so we had to settle for being seated indoors. At first glance, it is a bit hard to figure out exactly which vibe they are going for - the sports bar, the bistro or the lounge or all of the above.
The dinner was pretty good, if unremarkable (a full review will have to wait, if ever). They feature a menu that doesnt stray very far from the norm - sandwiches (I had an arctic char on ciabatta with avocado and sprouts and a nicely potent aioli sauce) salads and a handful of other entrees. Prices are around $5-$15/entree. Xtras was surprisingly full for a place that had apparently been open for all of 4 days. $5 cosmo specials (that day), a handful of beers and a wine list of around 10 wines by the glass made for a host of beverage choices. We tried each of their desserts - a caramel apple creme brulee, a bread pudding and cheesecake, all of which were surprisingly good and it was a good feeling that no one felt stuffed or bloated in the aftermath....
I suspect the owners (the eponymous Xtra Moore - a fascinating name !) will be filling up the walls pretty soon. If Lempicka is a "true" inspiration, I hope the results are interesting. I suspect that balcony will be seeing some patronage, given its location. Good luck ahead !

While in the neighborhood, several visits in to Secco starting from their initial weekends to their somewhat mature business now, I have yet to make up my mind about what to actually think of the place. I quite like the idea of a casual wine bar. Secco fits the bill in almost every respect - a very good selection of decently priced wines by the glass and a nice warm interior with those tungsten lightbulbs that are all the rage these days (an nyt article on the same).
I guess its the dining categorization and (perhaps to some extent) the crowd (in both senses of the word) that has me stumped. And the food has left me wanting on many an occasion, quite literally. Their "small plates" are actually quite small and more along the lines of mini-tapas perhaps - often pretty but hardly substantial...ranging from the exotic sounding but quite insipid harissa octopus to a well put together charcuterie plate (one the better ones for some radius around). ranging from $5 for 1 to $21 for 5 for cheeses and meats, Secco is actually not an inexpensive proposition. However, in times when double digit drinks appear to becoming the norm, they have a very large list of wines for around $5-$10...if one is looking for a wine and cheese detour alone, I would be hard pressed to recommend an alternative.
The staff is a mixed bag - ranging from the overly effusive to the oddly taciturn to the mathematically challenged to the ever so well informed one who turned us on to Midnight moon (one could do a short paean in the glory of this cheese)! And given that it is such a small space - the couirky bar (surprisingly unstained after all these months) seats around 10 and there are 4 tables and a couple of couches - it gets pretty packed often, especially weekend nights. Oddly enough this may be part of the allure, as opposed to say Cafe Caturra, which operates in the same genre.

Another intriguing store front that has been in development for some time now is the Belmont Food shop in that section of Belmont between Ellwood and Floyd that has been seeing increased traffic in the wake of Stuzzi. They have a menu posted ($15 for a boxed lunch !!) and a website but no semblance of a kitchen or seating or anything. West of the Blvd mentioned them last month but in the interim - the mystery !!

I'll just file this under this category since I've been thinking about it: Kudos to Sprout for their recent favorable rave in Style and of course I've been a fan for some time. However (oops !) a few lunches into the semester, a general consensus (sample = subjects with varying appetite sizes) has emerged that is giving us pause re: future lunch patronage. I'm hardly a fan of the typical Texas-sized portions around or of the mindless caloric consumption at fast food places but I have to say that feeling a stomach growl a mere hour post-a $15 lunch is a bit troublesome. One wonders if the Sisyphean task of research and education expands ones appetite inordinately.

Speaking of char, I wonder how long it will be before we see the GMO salmon in menus around ! I for one, while being quite fascinated by genetic engineering and the technicalities thereof, shudder at the prospect...

Post-op: clarification – I am not comparing Secco to Café Caturra. In all my ignorance, I wouldn’t venture to make that egregious of a comparison. Both share a structural homology and it may be instructive to think about the multi-factor dynamics thereof (?).
Separately, I've borne the pearls-before-swine argument before but that's perhaps, better addressed over a glass of Château Lafite Rothschild Cabernet and not blogged about :).

Data maps

2010-09-23T10:18:00.000-07:00

Nothing to do with food, but I just thought this was rather interesting and wanted to document it. An "ethnic/racial" map of Richmond.
Using Census Bureau information (albeit from 2000) and the methodology of cartographer Bill Rankin, who produced a racial map of Chicago, this guy Eric Fischer created maps for several cities in the U.S. Here's the one for our fair city (you can barely see the James river snaking across).

The full set is on his flickr page. Some are quite fascinating like NYC and Washington DC
White areas = pink, Black = blue, Hispanic = orange, Asian = green and Other = gray.
I'm not sure I can/want to read anything technical/socio-economic from this data, just one of those Richmond thoughts that had nowhere else to go!

Frères in arms?

2010-08-31T14:39:00.000-07:00

I had heard for sometime that Can Can was a (poor?) cousin/imitation of Balthazar’s in NYC. Since I am not versed in the history of the place, this “provenance” is perhaps not apocryphal (?) So when I got the chance recently, I had to test it out.

The décor is …I let these (terrible) pictures speak for themselves. The food on the other hand - quite different (similar font and style on menu (albeit a standard one) but that’s about where the similarity ends) - the food at B showing more depth in French cuisine than the largely surface skimming CC menu. Other than the more extensive menu and wine list and higher prices, the homology is quite striking. [To quote wiki :) - A homology is a "structural correspondence", whereas an analogy is a "non-correspondent similarity".]

I admit that I actually like CC. They do dumbfound on occasion and they’re not really on the moderate side pricewise - but these traits seem to apply to quite a few places around. I could (cheekily perhaps) extend my homology analogy to the demographic :).. but.. They have a rather nice looking bar and the frites (pommes and moules) are pretty good. Their feeble attempts at franco-sophistication are often quite amusing (when not to the detriment of the food) and I like the fact that they have a decent dessert menu. The little boulangerie corner with its stacks of loaves is a pleasant sight as is the generally open and airy interior. Noisy and often raucous – wish they had more of their nicer wines by the glass!
It is possible (if you shut your ears and let your eyes defocus) to imagine that you’re in a Parisian bistro at both places!

80 spring street 10012 / 80 x 39 w cary street 23221

Start of semester O3.14159NIONS

2010-08-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

I have to say that one of my favorite places in RVA is the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for a plethora of reasons. One of them is the fabulous space of the restaurant Amuse next to the South Asian collection. With the latest additions to the sculpture garden below and having the entire room fill with the light of the setting sun, this has to be one of the nicest views around. While the BEST café on the ground level has the perpetual aroma of a grilled cheese sandwich, the comfortable lounging chairs and hushed ambiance of Amuse makes it a great place to enjoy the selections of regionally sourced food (theres that word again!).
A dish that intrigued me on a recent visit was the pork belly with kimchee.(*) This was the third current instance I’ve seen at a non-Korean place (the Boka truck and Balliceaux being the others)….A welcome departure from the norm…But of course, being a fan of Korean food, I’ll play! While it ended up not being strictly kimchee (more like pickled cabbage sans the heat), the pork belly was excellent – nicely caramelized and a pleasant texture. From my limited sampling of the menu, I have to be back for more full fledged dinners that look quite well put together (served on square plates which must mean they're good :)). And they’re on Open Table which to me is a big plus ! It is a pity they have such limited hours.

A couple of quick notes around campus before all the craziness starts anew: My summer favorite Sprout has continued to rule my roost. It will be interesting to see how they survive the onslaught of all the traffic (goodbye to leisurely lunches). At last visit, I liked how they placed their dinner menu in LP album covers.
Another restaurant closure around was in the form of Ruchee Express, a place that did its best to add to the shoddy reputation of Indian food in RVA. No big loss here obviously, but given student demographics, I remain quite perplexed at the lack of a decent restaurant anywhere from the Asian continent in the vicinity of VCU. A Taste of Far East on Grace is possibly an exception.
Speaking of Indian food, one could do very nicely by visiting Laxmi Palace which has to be one of the best Indian grocery stores for quite a radius around. They not only have a whole host of little desi things (spices, savory snacks, Indian pickles, rice, bread (naans/parathas etc), and a lot of frozen foods that are better than the fare at most Indian restaurants in RVA) but also a very good selection of vegetables including ones not found in regular grocery stores (or even Tan A). When in doubt about something, look for the ever friendly owner!
Laxmi Palace - 3423 Old Parham Road Richmond, VA 23294, map

Epilogue: “Words like “sustainability” and “food-miles” are thrown around without any clear understanding of the larger picture of energy and land use.” Bravo! This excellent (combining two of my passions :)… ) op-ed piece in today’s NYT is worth a read: Math Lessons for Locavores
I particularly like this sentiment – “Eating locally grown produce is a fine thing in many ways. But it is not an end in itself, nor is it a virtue in itself.”
On the topic of “food miles”, I noticed Whole Foods has begun (not sure how long they’ve been at it) to put the mileage on (some of) their produce. A nice gesture, but one must remember not just to look at the ׀number׀.

* - Edit update - did my eyes deceive me? on a recent visit I noticed that it was labeled as the korean pork belly w/ slaw, the adjective having moved around !!

water harvesting

2010-08-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

Again, not much to do with food but to another of my favorite topics:
Something I discovered quite by serendipity (I’m surprised I didn’t think of it earlier but have figured out why) this summer was the potential to harvest pretty large quantities of water from air conditioning condensate. a) this summer has been quite a scorcher and b) VA is under a bit of a drought . Can one fact be used to help the other?

While rain water barrels and harvesting rain and gray water recycling have received a lot of attention, water harvesting from air conditioning systems is another possibility. The principle is fairly straightforward - When an a/c removes heat from a room, it do so by contacting warmer air with a compressed refrigerant. The latent heat of evaporation cools the air and thereby condenses the water vapor in the air. This water needs to be removed before the cooler air is returned to the building. What then, can we do with all that water? Presently, most systems either discharge this water as waste or send it to the sewer. The solution is simply, to collect the water. Needless to say, this is not a novel idea (although I’ve seen it rarely discussed) so I just wanted to add my thoughts on the subject. There are several websites dedicated to this concept:
Alliance for water efficiency, Building Green and a little ehow

The AWE (!) has some excellent information on this. In particular - A central AC for an entire home can collect 5 to 20 gallons (18.9 L to 75.7 L) of condensate water per day, equating to more than 300 gallons (1135.3 L) per month in the summer (my calculations for an average house in RVA put that number much higher >1 gallon/hr). I am not sure this will work well for a window unit btw. The climate in RVA with a general humid subtropical pattern is ideally suited for large condensate collection. My system (operating very sparingly at 30% efficiency), for example, has been right at the lower end of the spectrum @ ~5-10 gallons a day !
There are two important considerations here: Since HVAC water typically runs over and through copper coils, there may be some metal content so obviously NO drinking this water! Theoretically however, there shouldn’t be much metal and this water is essentially quite pure (it is actually distilled water). However, since we are generally careful about such things, it may not be a good idea to use the water to irrigate plants used for food consumption (herb gardens, fruits and vegetables etc), but this water is easily put to good use for general irrigation. Since this is right up my alley, I checked the copper content in RVA water. The level is low < 0.01 mg/l. (I checked the copper content in the HVAC water and it is considerably higher, almost by a factor of 100, but still below EPA level. So one must be careful). As a reference, the EPA safety level is 1.2 mg/l
The system I have right now is a batch system, so I manually transfer the collected water to its intended application. Next up - some fairly straightforward tinkering to connect it to a rainwater barrel or some other continuous flow device especially to develop a pressure head and voila!!
Second: For the pragmatist, the city of Richmond for example, charges approx $1.50 for a ccf of water. One ccf ~ 750 gallons. So yes, in all probability, saving this water is not going to save you a lot of money! Perhaps, this is an example of easy, practical sustainability with no “lifestyle sacrifice” involved, especially if you are one that cringes at water wastage. Plus the output in this case is directly proportional to the need - the hotter the day, the more the water !

Epilogue - An example of engineering at its classical and simplistic best – this recent mobile phone trigger for irrigation pumps.
How little things can make a big difference. It is one thing to “talk in bumper stickers” (EG from Ea Pr Lo acknowledged :)) and another thing to actually figure out and implement the mechanics, thermodynamics and design required to make a difference ! And for one who works with “expensive toys”, it is good to get my students to think more along some low cost paradigm nudging lines.

Ice-cream now and the vegetables later

2010-08-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

Just a random econ/behavioral psych detour in the area of food shopping. After my little DoHa experiment (below), I began to ponder the supply chain and the behavioral economics of buying groceries online. Online groceries (that glorious meteor – Webvan comes to mind) are a complex business different from regular online shopping. While the DoHa business model is (obviously), different from ordering fruits and vegetables and having them shipped from, say, a warehouse in Kentucky, it does share some of the similar consumer behavioral challenges. The research firm Nielsen, found that the two most common reasons Americans give for not buying groceries online are delivery costs and the desire not to have to wait for a delivery. I suppose that this former inherent cost in the enterprise is what makes it somewhat cost-ineffective (as opposed to a centralized pick up system i.e. a grocery store) for the casual customer. Approximated via packaging, labor, fuel, depreciation and overhead, this is apparently not a trivial outlay for the business. The decision making for the consumer (as I found) in this case is therefore predicated on the value of time (for example, a busy person/family) or if the product being consumed is a “scarce” commodity (for example, truffles).

Back to behavior. I stumbled on some working papers from the Harvard Business School that were particularly fun: The first was the so-called “want” vs. “should” decision making process. How do decisions made for tomorrow or two days in the future differ from decisions made for several days in the future? This 2007 paper by Milkman et al. (talk about an appropriate author name) is titled – I'll Have the Ice Cream Soon and the Vegetables Later: Decreasing Impatience over Time in Online Grocery Orders. They find that consumers purchase more "should" (healthy) groceries such as vegetables and less "want" (unhealthy) groceries such as ice cream the greater the delay between order completion and order delivery. We, as consumers have a tendency to choose "want" items in the short run but weigh toward "should" items when the impact will be felt in the future. So interestingly, when ordering for things in advance (like 5 days ahead), we will always pick “healthier” options – A salad for a lunch 5 days from now but pizza for lunch today. However, ordering for delivery tomorrow does not show this pattern! So it would appear that feeling "good" while ordering produce for later delivery is almost "predictable" :)

Another paper, Mental Accounting and Small Windfalls: Evidence from an Online Grocer focused on windfall mental accounting where a person suddenly receives a small amount of money like a $5 gift or a $10 certificate. One would assume that these small amounts have no effect on spending decisions. BUT - For online groceries, the redemption of a $10-off coupon increases an individual's spending AND the increase in spending stimulated by this redemption is focused on groceries that customers would not purchase in the absence of such a coupon. This conclusion, in hindsight, seems rather obvious but it is fascinating how such “subtle manipulations” are increasingly appropriated into business practices. The double edged sword of how predictable we all actually are.

Summer vegetables

2010-08-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

Back to reality. A few reasons prompted me to try Dominion Harvest this summer – a) curiosity b) I liked (the idea of) supporting the concept of a local company delivering VA produce and c) I wanted to see how I’d respond to the challenge of using vegetables picked out essentially at random. Since I've never seen any actual descriptions of DoHa in the blogosphere, here is my limited data on the "cardinal box" (spoiler alert !).
Week #1: Yukon gold potatoes, Carrots, Melon (Roundabout), Okra, Yellow squash (Sunny Side), Basil (Holly Hill), Green Peppers (Adlyn), Hanover tomatoes (Dodd’s), Goat cheese (Lover’s Retreat), Eggs (Fern Stream)

Week #2: Carrots, Beets (Roundabout), Red and White potatoes (Wayne’s), Local honey (Bob Stapleton’s Honey), Green Beans (Dodd’s), Zucchini, Swiss Chard, Garlic (Adlyn), Feta cheese (Lover’s Retreat), Eggs (Fern Stream)
I must say, it was rather fun seeing a nice red box on my porch every other week and opening it with some anticipation. I didn’t have any issues with the quality of the packaging (even with picking them up late on a particularly scorching day) or the produce. It wasn’t even a challenge to consume the items since they weren’t too far off my existing repertoire. Sadly, I decided to end the experiment after only 2 iterations. Primarily because of a certain degree of travel and also because it wasn’t too cost-effective (my back of the envelope calculations didn’t seem to think so). (I add, for me (as with everything else!)). I found myself visiting the farmer’s markets anyways, so it really didn’t make much sense to spend xx amount on stuff that I would deplete rather quickly.
I really like the concept and the execution and wish them luck. I am sure there is a customer base for who this sort of system is appropriate and of course - I could cry myself hoarse on the subject of local and fresh produce. Non-homogenous looking fruits and vegetables, with imperfections and taste! What a concept!!

Speaking of (the joys of) farmer's markets, one addition to the South of the James market has been the Market on the corner of Robinson and Monument. The former has been getting busier and busier (a great thing I'm sure). The latter has been going in a slightly different diirection with a fair number of antique and art sellers. Choice is nice.
Admittedly there is a bit of self-righteous smugness among the sustainability crowd (of which I am proudly one) but I still find some things amusing. Overheard at SOTJ one saturday (a scene right out of Food Inc) - A couple arguing the strawberries at a certain stall were "too expensive". The wife insisted that "but that is what they actually cost". The husband, nursing a venti mixed starbucks drink (retail > $4.00) countering "I dont care ! thats too much". As a point of comparison, that day, an identical box of strawberries @ Kroger (those of the white-on-the-inside kind) were a $1.30 more ! I dont question how people spend their money but at some level, pricing coupled with extensive externalizing of costs has muddled our conceptions of value, in the economic sense.

(Edit: found and uploaded a picture of Box #1)

Le Cinq

2010-08-05T15:04:00.000-07:00

How does one return to terra firma from gastronomy domine? I guess the "easiest" way would be to move from 3 Michelin stars to 2 stars to soften the blow? :) And so it was...to the studied opulence of the 4 Seasons on Rue George V to Le Cinq. Rushing past all the high fashion in this trés-chic part of town, it took long swigs of Châteldon before I could settle down and admire the cool beauty of the Le Cinq dining room. The interior is a grand salon with high ceilings and an overall classical décor (Louis XIV and XVI). Again, I was quite amused to be presented with a small stool to put my not-chic-at-all messenger bag.
Le Cinq had to suffer the loss of its 3rd star in 2007 (the former chef left in 2008), but the new chef Eric Briffard has been steadily but surely inching towards regaining that elusive pinnacle again. The pre-amuse bouche this time was fried calamari delightfully wrapped in a little napkin. Picking at this somewhat weighty starter, I should have had some idea of the much heavier lunch I was to experience. For the bread, in addition to virgin olive oil from Tuscany, I was presented with two delightful "towers" of butter. Each pat came in a little bell Le Cinq V jar, the regular kind accompanied by "seaweed butter", an unusual (for me) spread that was just perfect on baguettes.
The amuse bouche was spectacular – petite vegetables with squid and a melon emulsion. This fine melding of sweet and sour primed my palate just right.
For my entrée, I selected the carpaccio of bream with spicy squids and crunchy vegetables (Denti de Méditerannée en carpaccio à la tomate verte, chipirons épicés aux légumes croquants). This was accompanied by a puree of green tomatoes that came in a little vessel that was chilled by dry ice cubes that had been dropped into water. This resulted in a really cool effect with smoke billowing over the table. A bit of molecular gastronomy I thought – my favorite kind – the melding of science and food!! The sommelier helped with some wine selections and for my entrée, I was paired with a Mersault chardonnay. This with the fish, the sourness of little greens and vegetables created a wonderful effect, while I grudgingly admit that I felt that the tomato was a bit bland and didn’t add to the overall taste (yikes!).
My main course was lamb chops (Côtelettes d'agneau allaiton). Topped with cream and lemon preserves (caille de brebis au citron confit) and with some perfectly roasted provençal baby potatoes this was classic comfort food like no other. Complementing this was a terrific 2nd wine from the Château Haut-Brion. Having long heard of this wine (well at least the 1st wine), I was extremely excited to find that it was truly brilliant with the chops. Side note – The Haut-Brion was the first recorded first growth wine to be imported to the US by none other than VA’s favorite son – Thomas Jefferson in the 18th century. I was fully filled and happy by now but I knew dessert was on its way. But first, a little strawberry and watermelon jelly.
Hoping to score two 10s in a row, I decided to get the dessert of strawberry/lime emulsion with a white cheese sorbet (fraises de bois d'ile de France à l'émulsion fraise/citron vert, sorbet fromage blanc). Pretty with foam and little gold encrusted spear, this was yet another spectacular dessert, with the marshmallows and lime adding complexity and tart to the fresh strawberries.
Finally, the icing on the cake was the confectionary cart. I wanted to run away with this cart, with its assortment of macarons, nougats, marzipan, caramels, pistachios and chocolates. A little Willie Wonka dream. The macarons here put the ones at Laduree to shame. Perhaps they read my mind (not really) but a petit box (“pour l'urgence”) with some goodies was there for later. Washing it all down was a glass of wattwiller water, apparently noted for its digestive abilities!
Next to me at LC were a perfectly coutured couple who looked right out of a society page. They too were not immune to exclamations of ooh la la's as each dish outdid its predecessor. (Their à la carte meal was a bit more packed with oomph than mine :)... I guess they were important, because the chef Eric Briffard showed up at the end to talk to them. Worked well, because I was able to briefly exchange pleasantries with him as well. For a superstar, he was awfully nice.)
This time, I was truly exhausted after another 3 hour meal. My stomach and mind quite filled, I slowly trudged to the beautiful courtyard of the George V and had to collect my thoughts on yet another fabulous meal.

Final thoughts:
No tears but this was another almost perfect meal (Le cinq was a le neuf for me). It is really hard to compare the two places really. Perhaps, Le Cinq lacked some of the "surprise element" of Ledoyen, but the food was obviously great at both. One thing that really stands out is the individualized attention in the rarified atmosphere of the Michelin star universe (France has only 26 such places, NYC 6). This is a truly exceptional (albeit heavily biased to a certain cuisine) set of ridiculously expensive restaurants. While several criticisms have been leveled at these places, the experience I have to say was truly remarkable. I guess one of my favorite things is the ability of the chefs to meld diverse ingredients and create unusual combinations instead of taking an easy, predictable path. This kind of adventurous innovation is simply delightful to behold.
The food was impeccable. And it wasn’t that the dishes were needlessly complicated. Several dishes were just simple with delicate twists of genius. I almost felt like they took individualized attention to each little ingredient that went into a dish. Nothing out of place. Every little strawberry perfectly ripe, every little vegetable or piece of meat just perfectly cooked and each little frond of green in just the right place. And the net effect is truly sublime!! The service outstanding without being obsequious (or condescending, my poor French was apparently excusable, or maybe its just the recession !) The service at LC was much more friendlier and personal. In comparison, I felt that Ledoyen was a bit stiff. The other thing which really stood out was how knowledgeable the staff was and the joy with which they explained and presented the food. Voilà! was really a voilà moment with considerable pride in the art of food. I am not deluded to believe that this can be a regular thing, but sadly, for all my “support local” rants, saving up by avoiding the pretentious places around with mediocre and worse food around to spring for an über-pretentious place 4000 miles away with sublime food was well worth it.

le doyen

2010-08-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

I preface this post and a next one with a minor disclaimer to anyone who may stumble on this - this (like most of my ramblings) is merely a counterweight to premature amnesia and not for any other purpose. It has little to do with the Richmond part of Richmond Gastronomy and I've thrown out many of my rules under the weak excuse of haute cuisine :)!
I recently had the good fortune to experience the cooking of Christian le Squer of Ledoyen. Off the bustle of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, but hardly a hidden gem, Ledoyen has been serving the (not) masses (those of the "eat cake" variety) from ~the storming of the Bastille, 1792 to be precise. Wow !! and it has held its 3 Michelin stars with some force for sometime now. I couldnt wait to see what wonders of French cooking he would conjure up this time !
Bonjours by the staff and I was led to my corner table where I had a nice vantage point of being able to look at the beautiful and intimate dining room as well as glance outside where, beyond the lush greenery, the ever-busy Champs-Élysées was a world far far away.
Kicking things off were what I felt were "pre-amuses" single-bite excitements to get one set for the excellence to follow - The highlight was a gelee ball that burst in my mouth into a flavorful liquid with the slightest taste of ginger. The petit macaron literally melted in my mouth.(I would buy bags of those cheese "crackers" instead of crisps if I only could). I settled for the brioche and the olive bread out of the delectable bread cart. (bad pun alert) For another day, the pain of pain selection at a boulangerie...
Next up an amuse bouche of watermelon jelly with cherry tomatoes and sliced almonds. My palate was primed and amused now...
I peeped at one of the most comprehensive wine books I have ever seen, easily weighing around 20 pounds (with quite a few chateau xx's running for a healthy 4 digits). The sommelier had suggested a few options and I settled on a 2008 Rhone Condrieu (especially since it owed parentage to the viognier grape - VA winery specialty represent !). For my entree, the foie gras with passion fruit gelly and just the hint of espresso. (Passion/Cafe au foie gras des landes).
For the main course, I decided to be a bit adventurous and got the sweetbreads (Noix de ris de veau aux girolles truffees). The fish option was pretty exciting as well (vapeur de merlan, pamplemousse et avocat), but I'd only eaten sweetbreads a couple of times prior to this, with mixed results and Ledoyen was the perfect place for this French specialty. Nicely caramelized, the dish had a firm consistency suitably complemented by mini chanterelles and a truffle sauce. I was literally in gastronomy heaven by now :)
The blanc viognier was just perfect with the foie gras - the creaminess of the dish subtly balanced by the complexity of the wine (complex and complex do mix). And since it also supplemented the sweet breads quite perfectly, I had to have another. Despite the many blah (VA) viogniers I've had, I must take a fresh look at this grape again.
A fully laden cheese cart presented itself next (fromages frais et affinés) - faced with a plethora of choices, I boringly chose a roquefort and a brie with more of the wonderfully flaky brioche, hoping to save room for dessert.
But that wasnt to come. Not just yet. Instead, there was a pre-dessert plate of pretty little melt-in-mouth one-bites including strawberry gelee and an espresso balls, all of which melted in my mouth and set the stage of what was to come.
For dessert (fraises à la créme acidulée, sorbet à la coriandre), I was presented with probably the best strawberry "icecream" I've ever had. The consistency of the icecream was astounding (smooth and aerated to a fantastic, foamy consistency) but a bit of genius was to serve this over a coriander sorbet !! This combination, with strawberry dust, fresh petit strawberries was as close to a 10 as I could possibly imagine in a dish. Fully satisfied, I thought - L'addition s'il vous plaît. just a leetel something more ! more? bien sur !! Capping it all were some petit fours of eclairs and nougats along with some even more spectacular brioche. This caramelized brioche was a bretagne variant of a gateaux beurre and was slightly sweet and a perfect coda. As I greedily stuffed myself beyond capacity with a nutty nougat, I couldnt help but notice that this meal had clocked around 2.5 hrs !! A luxury in every sense of the word.
I could barely haul my decadent rear from the chair. All I really wanted to do was to go and take a nice nap somewhere. While I may not have been moved to tears (my palate was tickled pink on quite a few occasions), this was easily one of the most exciting meals I have ever eaten. Santé !!

Quick hits

2010-06-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

A couple of quick hits before I sabbaticize for a while...

The troika of Korean restaurants on Midlothian are well worth the long drive out to that side of the city - Young Bin Kwan, Korean Garden and 88 Garden. At this point, I've felt that they are all running virtually together in terms of taste, quality, price, decor and service. Regarding authenticity, no direct comparison, but I think that they're very close to the plentiful "better" options a further drive away (Annandale or Rockville). Tellingly for me, I had to say that I liked the dolsot at any (or all) better than one I had at a Korean place in the far east (not Korea). So, I guess one could pick any one of them with a somewhat equal probability of having a good dinner. The menus at all are quite a handful and it is a bit difficult to choose if you arent sure (at all places, the staff have helped out, somewhat). The Korean bbq is a good place to start (better if you have more than 2 people), but if not quite that adventurous you cant go wrong with the smaller casseroles or "famous" dishes - bulgogi, bibimbap, jap chae (noodles), jigae (stew) etc. Again, they all have sushi which I havent tried. At last visit, I thought that the banchan (those savory little kimchi dishes) at YB had a slight edge to those at the others.

6135 (88G), 6827 (KG), 7437 (YB) on Midlothian Turnpike...almost tempted but no number games here today; they're roughly equidistant from the central one.

The wine bar race in Carytown is heating up. Secco and Amour are the two latest additions to the area and while they seem to feature entirely different vibes (one being decidedly more casual in appearance and manner), this will be fun to follow. Amour, the owner informed us, has a rather interesting monthly French region concept. This month its the Alsace and the next month its the Rhone. Makes for some terrific wines at least.

On sabbaticals, ending with a non-food related musing. My Wednesday readings will be far diminished now that Olivia Judson, evolutionary biologist, writer extraordinaire (and, incidentally a lovely person to talk to) sadly announced a so, long and thanks (for all the fish?) for year. I'll have to get my fix for great (science) writing elsewhere....
I guess writing about Ms.Judson is not completely food unrelated. Her upcoming book "Dinosaur Eggs for Breakfast" would make for a nice breakfast indeed - OJ & eggs !!

sprouts...

2010-06-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

A welcome seedling to the choice decision tree around is the new Sprout at 1 N Morris Street.
Its barely over a month old (continuing construction seems to feature the setting up of some awfully quaint and nice looking benches made of reclaimed wood), so every visit thus far has been at a different stage of its metamorphosis. I can only picture its final version; but I really liked the unfinished airy setting each time, sans objets d'art (thus far?) that seem to clutter so many places of like persuasion. Despite being bright and spacious (I was told it used to be a police station and a furniture store among earlier incarnations), it was also pleasantly cool from the hot sun and made for a perfectly languid meal.
I've enjoyed both a recent lunch and a dinner there and since the menu changes frequently (its nice they post updates on facebook), I would just add that the food tasted very fresh and well put together (also points for being quite eclectic and of course for the sourcing of ingredients). Sprout is also a market - They were featuring some local art and produce for sale and oddly enough, comic books too ?!
It will be interesting to see how they fare (pun intended). Variables: their location (for example, right across from crossroads, with its own idiosyncrasies and other nearby options), their price point (lunch ~$10+, dinner ~$20+ (including t&t and a drink) and an unconventional menu (I liked seeing choices of sides of cucumber salad, beets or tomatoes with my lunch sandwich! AND I love my crisps and fries :)). Also will be interesting to see how service goes once the bar is set up (or raised, I'm feeling quite punny)
I wish them luck especially since I like what they're doing and done so far.

Speaking of local dining and the buzzword nature of the same, Alan Richman writes an extremely interesting article in the July 2010 GQ on the topic of "ethical dining" and culinary ideologues. "Eat No Evil"
The start:
Thanks or No Thanks - to the New High Priests and Hipster Philosophers of the Food World. Lately it feels like everything on the menu comes with a heaping side order of guilt - "Is that mache local AND roof-raised? Whats the carbon footprint of your burger? Was your salmon farm-slaughtered or delicately line-caught?". Its enough to put a man off his meal.
The end:
One of my niece's friends proposed what I believe is the most easily understood guideline for eating ethically when she said that it came down to "not eating like an asshole". How sad that in America today, even that seems an unattainable ideal.

And appearances by fascinating people like Dan Barber, Eric Ripert, Alice Waters and Mollie Katzen among others in between !

The kung pao konjecture

2010-06-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

A recent trip to the far east made me ponder a few things -
Despite different experiences in various Chinatowns, I came to a quick realization that a large cross-section of Chinese food in the US is quite a travesty. One of the best revelations was the diversity of options and the lack of reliance on fried food. For example, if I Wiki-ed earlier, I would perhaps have been better informed - "US Chinese food typically treats vegetables as garnish while cuisines of China emphasize vegetables". I guess we were lucky to have hosts who knew what to order but the plethora of choices: Eggplant, carrots, onions, bok choy, cabbages, all kinds of mushrooms, tomatoes that didnt taste like cardboard, terrific use of garlic and ginger, seaweed, tofu were either served as standalone dishes or supplemented fresh meats and fish in some of the best dining I've had. The difference was the lack of "spices" of the conventional kind, but the skillful melding of different ingredients to create hot yet delicate food (poof !! the myth of the bland Chinese food). The best part, was the communal approach to food with a good time spent over talking and eating and sharing dishes.
The other was the obvious fact that a lot of people who warned me of difficult and tasteless food were totally off. I realize the irony of writing this on a food blog, but opinions only go so far !!
Specialties like Xiao bao long (delectable dumplings that literally burst with flavor in your mouth) and hot pot were new additions to my culinary dictionary.

So when my Chinese student informed me that the new MaMa Wok out in the Broad Street strip mall wilderness was a good visit, I immediately jumped at the chance to test this conjecture. We were told that the food at MW is apparently closer to Taiwanese cuisine (the majority of Chinese places are variations of Cantonese or Szechuan). A pretty exhaustive menu and while it contains the usual suspects of American Chinese cuisine - General Tso's, Kung Pao's and Orange chicken et al, we felt it was time to move beyond this paradigm.
Getting some of their specialties turned out to be excellent choices. In particular, a beef dish with vegetables came simmering to the table in a hot pot and continued cooking at the table for around 5 mins. Hints of ginger supplemented the vegetables (primarily bok) and the meat. I had to try their hot and sour soup which was also great. I kind of craved the spiciness of Shanghainese cooking but these were lightly spiced and importantly not smothered in that greasy, saucy stereotypical mode found in so many places around. A long drive away, but my initial impression was that MW is a great addition to (formerly lacking) good Chinese options around.

There are a variety of sushi options too but I think I'll stick to the Chinese food for now and particularly, keep away from the food tailored to suit "western palates".

A dinner for two is around $30+ (w/ t&t) but note: The portion sizes at MW are huge. A single entree is definitely enough for two people and two entrees, supplemented by some rice makes for 2 good meals. Service was fine.

MaMa Wok at 7801 Broad Street.

Opentable redux

2010-06-14T21:51:00.000-07:00

As an unabashed "online reservationist", I've often wondered about the lack of Opentable (or similar) access in RVA restaurants.
This recent article in the NYTimes on No-reservation restaurants was interesting:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/dining/09reservations.html
Comments (mostly expressing like sympathies - my bias is obvious !) on the followup in the Diner's Journal.

I guess the number that interested me was all the way out on page 3 - "The average restaurant spends $1,500 to $2,000 a month on OpenTable". Now, I'm even more intrigued by the calculus. This is for NYC, where presumably everything skews higher. Also averages are generally less useful compared to medians. So what might be a reasonable value here? This number is meaningless if considered a pure outlay. And the old dismal science favorite - Opportunity costs?

Some numbers (as of today) - NYC (Manhattan alone) - 917, DC - 249, NoVA - 150, Norfolk/VA Beach - 41, RVA - 25 ! Sigh...!!

Edit: I was informed (accurately) that the last numbers are also meaningless unless normalized to population. So a little bit of wiki-ing and consideration of what the census bureau calls a metropolitan statistical area
(2009 est) DC - 5.29m, Norfolk/VA Beach - 1.65m and RVA - 1.2m.

'Local' dining

2010-06-13T10:43:00.001-07:00

A big thanks to the Richmond Food Collective blog for posting this list of restaurants that emphasizes local sourcing of ingredients. Only 8 restaurants on this list (good to see a couple of my favorites on there) but having earlier craved this sort of information, thats a fine start !

While at it, a recent revisit to Lemaire was as satisfying as previous ones. This time it was the creamy cauliflower bisque and the excellent lamb chops with white bean cassoulet/surry sausage that did the trick. A fine dinner polished off with strawberry rhubarb cobbler. The service is wonderful but while they're at that level, they could perhaps add those little touches that one might expect at such a restaurant (not to mention the prices) without seeming too obsequious - for example (re)folding napkins, holding chairs pour les dames etc. I guess the general ambience of the Jefferson does tend to educe this sentiment.

Another favorite X (I'm withholding judgement till I get to go again) used to do such things when they first opened (perhaps they still do) but lackluster (tending to poor) service on a recent visit dampened the wonderful food. It is a pity when fine kitchens are let down by the staff (seems to happen only too often here in RVA).

In honor of the great, recently deceased Martin Gardner: If one assigns numbers to letters (A=1, B=2 etc), X can be (partially) solved from a set containing the first 4 Fibonacci numbers. This number is truly fascinating - both it and its palindrome are prime factored using only numbers "constructed" from this set. (its all in fun and games :)!)

weekday vegetarianism

2010-05-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Continuing the vegetarian/vegan restaurant chain of thought and eschewing discussions on ethics and implementation, I found this TED talk by Graham Hill (of TreeHugger) a particularly fascinating one (not to mention an extremely compelling and cogent argument). Truly an idea worth spreading, imho:

Graham Hill: Why I'm a weekday vegetarian

Ipanema to the rescue

2010-05-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

I recently had the conundrum of trying to satisfy a couple of vegan palates on a Sunday morning. Normally, this problem can be addressed by a few reliables – Indian, Thai; Italian and Ethiopian also offer some possibilities. Mexican food to a lesser extent. This challenge was further compounded this time by an added constraint - even eggs were ruled out.
Having tried the sub-par Indian places here (possibly a subject of another voluminous post to come, the lowest common denominator “beef” with them being the generic food they serve that bears little resemblance to that eaten in India itself, particularly a major chunk of the country), they were out. Sheba was closed, Nile opened only at noon as did some other Thai places; so along we went to Ipanema.
Coffee and juice made way to dishes of spicy veg “chorizo” with spinach, tofu scrambled burritos with black beans and tempeh served on an English muffin with marinated tomato, mushrooms and a citrus bernaise. Polishing up the sweet potato hash and fruit, I was delighted that Ipanema takes vegan dining seriously. Now these were perhaps the only 3 or so options lacking eggs, but it was nice to see the unheralded place trying something different with their menu that perhaps only a handful of people are fastidious about (trailblazers like the wonderful Moosewood restaurant in Ithaca come to mind).
An aside and a matter of 'taste' - the new art by Seth Ganz on the walls was one of the nicest coherent ensembles I've seen in a non-gallery setting.

Constraint–based modeling: It would be useful to find/compile lists of constraint-based dining options nearby. Not factoring substitutions/omissions but choices at the very least for example - vegetarian (no fish, egg ok), gluten free and (relatively easier in a sense) – halal, kosher etc. I hope to keep an eye out for some possibilities in this arena.

pasta paparazzi plagiarism & (former) primes

2010-05-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

"What happened to eating your food and having conversation?" - David Chang. an interesting concept, what?
http://bit.ly/cfLtfA

Never quite been tempted to take pictures of dinners, but the one time I was glad someone did was the fabulous 6 seat Minibar ! food as art indeed and I can see the fascination !!

The fun with numbers lunch -
lunching with la niña y el niño to celebrate the end of the semester and the acceptance of a paper, we decided to try the "new look" 821 cafe, now housed 2 doors down (or is it up ?) at 825 Cary St. Never got the fascination with mojos and another unfortunate lunch last week just reinforced my opinion of the same.

I must confess, I'd only eaten a couple of times before at 821 (not counting the few times the wait was impossible); always felt I lacked the requisite HQ (hipster quotient), so it was with some trepidation that we ventured over. The place does seem to have undergone quite a transformation - you're greeted (oddly enough) by a magazine rack, but theres the mismatched chairs and tables and the crazy art but the light....lots of it ! and its decidedly cheery !!

Speaking of quotients, now 821 is a prime (of course :)) and so is 823...but I found out that 825 is a Smith number - one where the the sum of its digits is equal to the sum of the digits of its prime factors (8+2+5 = 3+5+5+1+1 from 3x5x5x11). Ah numbers....and since I like things like this, I ended up counting a whopping 56 different items on one side of their menu !! (not including variations/substitutions)... The other side had an equally long list of items, implying at the very least, a crazy list of 100 different options for lunch !! For another day - pruning lists....

Well bottomline - a fairly decent enough and tasty lunch, albeit a long drawn out one and not just from taking time to decide ! (the bad news) there was the lone efficient waitress serving a packed, rather diverse dining room ! given the waits, a small number of people apparently decided to try their luck some other time, a problem that might intensify when all the students return. lunch ~ $10.
given the generally subterranean feel of the previous location, the airy and bright look of 825 was nice. i wonder how long it will take for the light levels to attenuate (from assorted flyers?) I hope they dont. In the meantime, my HQ remains pitifully low....

Tempus fugit

2010-05-12T10:16:00.000-07:00

While on a Latin kick - Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, singula dum capti circumvectamur amore ("But meanwhile it flees: time flees irretrievably, while we wander around, prisoners of our love of detail"). The semester is almost over and the streets empty. Time flies indeed and its time for some quick notes around campus before the lull. I am late to jump on bandwagons or in this case, carts but the Olio cart was my revelation of the semester with quite a few good weather al fresco lunches coming off it.
I think I am ready to appoint Rev it Up as a place du jour for now for semi-formal lunches.
Despite the shaky tables, the often messy interior and difficulty finding places to sit amidst the glued-to-laptop student crowd, we’ve had a bit of a soft spot for Crossroads for some time - generally steered there for between-appointments-lunch (if we’re not going to Elephant Thai – note to ET: Please increase the sizes of those pitifully small rice portions).
RiU has now proffered itself as a great alternative. I had earlier noted that the new owners had completely spruced the place from the rather dingy Common Cup and the interior has been transformed to something quite welcoming for lunch. The sandwich options are quite standard but well assembled. A matter of taste perhaps, but I’m also glad they made the switch from tortilla chips to regular crisps. However, the incipient vegetarian (or even experimental theoretician) in me longs to see more interesting variations (the thing I liked at x-roads) or options (the rather quirky and fun Harrison Street Coffee Shop being exhibit A in this department)...or even anything that migrates (even by a delta X) from basic tuna/chicken salads, roast beefs and BLTs….( add Sriracha ! ;-)..)
Lunch + coffee in all these places ~$10.

Probably an equal length of a saunter, but Belvidere on Broad seems worth a try for lunch (will be turning 1 in August). Had a dinner there recently and quite liked the tuna sandwich I had. Admittedly the walk to and from the restaurant was a bit of an assault on the senses.

Levamentum

2010-05-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

A recent experience finding Rustica closed (note- Monday evenings!) caused a detour that landed in comfort (lower case c intended). After a perfectly adequate dinner, I realized that this was one place that had been visited several times and yet never written about. The first time, a couple of years ago, we didn’t know what to make of the place with the strange wall art and the usage of mason jars as glasses, while quite liking the creaky floorboards and the basic soul food. Several fried catfish, okra, green tomatoes, collard greens, creamy sweet potatoes, macaronis et al. later, Comfort continues to serve up satisfactory, well cooked and tasty no-frills Southern food in a pleasant environment (a little noisy, noise levels typically required a raised conversation). Portion sizes were quite substantial (an entree with 2 or 3 sides was quite enough for a meal). At times, we have felt that the food at Comfort tended to be under-seasoned. However, taken in unison with the overall composition of the platter and general preparation, this was easily forgotten/rectified.

I feel that CR and Comfort both fall squarely in the wysiwyg category. Now, this is not necessarily diametrical to say, trompe l’oeil cooking but there is something to be said for places that are quite down to earth in a range of departments (attitude, service, prices et al) and most importantly the food. If only more places in RVA realized exactly where they stood in the gastronomic hierarchy and adjusted accordingly.
Dinners at CR and C. ran to around ~$75 for two, with drinks and dessert and t&t.

Comfort has a rather exhaustive bourbon and whisky list, although not being quite a connoisseur of the malted stuff, I wasn’t quite able to discern if they complemented the food. But it was an impressive listing of alcohol nonetheless. Reading the list reminded me of this poignant piece by my one of my all time favorite bloggers on the hard stuff. (I liked the Omnivore line that the good things in life taste good).
Speaking of favorites with a certain way with words, I end on a rather tangential note (another markov chain !): I was quite elated to recently stumble (hypertextually speaking of course) upon an intriguing and prolific local with a je ne sais quoi and evocative writing style.... momentarily makes a life lived vicariously rather satisfactory.
levamentum to a point…

Comfort - Richmond, VA

Edit: While on the subject of critiquing food preparation, this recent blog posting by Ron Lieber on why he got kicked out of a restaurant makes for an interesting debate.
I generally agree with this philosophy (violations on this blog are woefully noted/accepted with some caveats, primarily the nature of the establishment)
"And when I eat in a higher-end establishment like this, I try to respect the artistry of the proprietor. I ask to have the food cooked the way the chef thinks it’s best. I don’t ask for salt. I don’t ask for skim."

2010-05-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

I’d posted about Das Wald café as a place to satisfy a teutonic craving within a radius of 60 miles. But I recently noted that I had quite forgotten a local favorite – Café Rustica has wienerschnitzels, bratwurst and schwineschnitzels on its menu. With potato salad, sauerkraut and red cabbage, these are sehr gut and quite satisfactory and one doesnt have to hit the autobahn either !!

Dining acoustics....

2010-05-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

Having recently pondered this subject and seriously considering springing for a db meter after several loud experiences here in RVA, it was quite amusing to see some um..."science" behind acoustic disruptions/stimulations while dining (a distinction to be made between loud patrons vs loud restaurants or generally poor acoustics), this excerpt from -
In pursuit of Silence by George Prochnik

A study completed in the summer of 2008 in France found that when music was played at 72 decibels, men consumed an average of 2.6 drinks at a rate of one drink per 14.51 minutes. When the sound level was cranked up to 88 decibels, the numbers spiked to an average of 3.4 drinks, with one consumed every 11.47 minutes.

Ah...statistics !

2010-04-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

Some more random musings:
I've often wondered what some of my favorite critics looked like: (till Frank Bruni stopped writing about food, he was on the list as well)...Tom Sietsema looks rather hip.
cover blown:
http://eater.com/archives/2010/04/19/anonymous-restaurant-critics-field-guide.php

I dont really think that revealing these critics appearances is a big deal. My fascination with anonymous critics runs way back to the Michelin Man in Gerald Durrell's The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium.
This much more recent article on the respected, anonymous Michelin critics in the New Yorker was particularly fascinating.

I wonder if critics here have to go to lengths like disguising themselves (cf. TS of the WaPo) in the tiny RVA food scene...There seems to be a basic pecking order here and I'm guessing the restaurants here (the ones that care) are pretty tuned to the movements of these well known local critics.
I do place this whole enterprise in sharp contrast to those rather amusing restaurant reports on NBC12.

It is interesting that despite the recent democratization of restaurant reviews via (anonymous and not-so) blogs and yelp and chowhound and their ilk, many people still seem to prefer a "critical, authoritative" judgement on their restaurants. It will be interesting to see the evolution of this phenomena as times change. For example, Facebook just announcing its new features with Yelp that tell you which of your friends have been to a restaurant (and perhaps what they thought). This entire concept deserves more discussion that is, as so many technical speakers say "beyond the scope of this blog"

What an interesting concept: A day a week restaurant:
http://offsettingbehaviour.blogspot.com/2010/02/one-day-week-restaurant.html
It would be nice to see some sort of culinary diversity in RVA with something like this. I can think of one place around that attempts something of the sort....only barely.

Richmond spaces

2010-04-16T14:38:00.000-07:00

Among the many photosets of Richmond around, I thought this one was particularly interesting. This photog ha(d/s) a great/quirky eye and of course a terrific subject:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/f33/sets/72157594219485415/

This is a very large set (~ 800, but arranged chronologically so its easy to see the ones from a few years ago). So many of these pictures are before my time here and it was quite amazing to see the remarkable transformations (sometimes good, sometimes sad) in some places I have become familiar with over the last couple of years.

Seeing some of these almost typical RVA architectural motifs brings me to my food related musing: A couple of recently encountered spaces (I’ll forego discussions on food at both places) that seem to have degree of Richmondness to them – Urban Farmhouse and Café in the Shockoe Slip and the Boathouse at Rockett’s Landing.
The former is just a nice space – housed in the former RV furniture shop next to the Martin Agency, I like the large open space, the vaulted ceilings, casual interiors (with Wi-fi) and the cobbles of Cary St next to it. The latter, has a terrific view of the city. Right next to the river in the renovated Rockett’s Landing development, the view of the RVA night sky was quite striking and the design of the building with the chimney stack (from the old power plant) set in modern glass was a nice sight. (I guess I've always liked these makeovers from industrial spaces to modern living). On the other hand, the interior (completely packed on a weeknight) made me wish I had a dB meter to quantify the terrible acoustics of this place. For the kind of ambiance this place is trying to promote, RL had the sound levels of a raucous pub during an EPL game.

... bricks and stones ...

Olio's cart

2010-03-31T10:28:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a gathering of RVA food bloggers at Olio's which was a rather interesting event in and of itself. Olio and the event has been blogged about (among other places) here, here and here.
Olio (formerly European Market, the menu and the environs dont appear to have changed significantly since this earlier incarnation) has been a good and cheap visit for some time now. They make good use of cheese and vegetables (which I like) and have some really good deals on beer as well. I must confess that everytime I've been there, I've sort of wished they made it a bit more "comfortable" and welcoming as a place to dawdle but I digress....one of the revelations from this event was the fact that Olio has a food cart in the VCU area! A couple of false starts later (they need some sort of real time feed like their neighbor Nate's Taco Truck ideally with position and menu for lazy people like myself), I finally got to try them. I am glad that we have a nice addition to the lunch options around the VCU campus. The sandwiches while a trifle greasy, were fresh and well put together. And with some limonata, were just the ideal components for an alfresco lunch.

A perfect day for some observation, we watched the lines at NTT and O. while we ate. The throughput (time to walk away w/ food - time to order) was roughly estimated: NTT has the entire process down very efficiently and generally seems to average 3:30 +/- 15 sec (it also appears that people typically order 2 tacos). O. takes a little longer at roughly 4:00 +/- 30 sec. We're obviously not considering complexity of food preparation here ! However, at a given time, NTT appeared to have 2x to 3x the number of people in the O. line, so it makes for an amusing optimization problem (if time calculations are important :)).

With sandwiches in the $6-$8 range, the Olio mobile is a wonderful alternative to the chain places* around, especially with the nice weather days coming up.

Adding to my list of good vegetarian options around campus, I finally made my way to the Harrison Street Coffee Shop and quite liked the offerings there.

* - viz Panera, Subway et al. Now, I know Subway is not exactly a point of reference but useful as a price floor (I recently had the misfortune of eating there and found that their subs - at least the kind available in the VCU Commons could be well fit to an f(cardboard) function! Oddly enough, I kind of remember them being better when I was in grad school)

cheap date nights via richmond.com

2010-03-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

A very useful list...thanks Richmond.com

http://www2.richmond.com/content/2010/mar/23/eat-beat-cheap-date-nights/

so many places on the list worth going to... and good to see so many of the "higher range" (in pp terms) places at least temporarily dropping into the mid-range.

Style-ing data

2010-03-18T12:05:00.000-07:00

I guess the talk of the week has to be the "State of the Plate 2010" in Style Weekly this week. I generally agree with most of their picks and cant think of any glaring omissions. Like everyone, I have some dissenting and consenting views so blah....
(coincidentally, i wrote about a few of the out of town picks in this blog; so it was rather amusing as a personal note).
But I just wanted to look at the data presented statistically from a different angle and out of a general curiosity about the state of the plate and what it may say about RVA (the answer to which I dont know of course).

Looking at the lists from 2009 and comparing it to the one from 2010, it was rather interesting to observe:
2009 - 55 (primary) 'favorites' listed
2010 - 52 'favorites' listed
36 restaurants overlap both years. Of the others - 2009 set (19), 4 have closed in the last year.
2010 set (16), ~50% are relatively new (within the last year+) and ~50% have been around for a bit (and presumably made the list at some point in the past). These numbers are rather interesting and open to interpretation.

Number of restaurants from 2010 list on Opentable - 5 (under 10%) !!

State of the wallet: This was of great interest to me. Using some quickly acquired data from urbanspoon and Style, I found the following distribution. The y-axis represents the average cost of an entree. Within error (I think the numbers actually skew upwards), it was a rather expected trend.

The final thing which I dont have the time to research, but would have liked to know is the concept of local sourcing and generally supporting local farms, produce, livestock and/or sustainable fish and which restaurants win some points for being proactive in this regard. At some level, looking at all the data, I think the lack of this information is also telling.

Dan Barber - How I fell in love with a fish

2010-03-10T21:10:00.000-08:00

I guess this isnt really about Richmond dining, but I just wanted to document it (mostly so I knew where to find it) and because I have been recently thinking about the concepts of sustainability. This was an extremely fascinating talk on real world, profitable and sustainable fish farming. I wish we had more people/chefs like Dan Barber...

Dan Barber: How I fell in love with a fish | Video on TED.com

continuing on this theme, I revisited the latest version of the Monterey bay seafood guide (noting in the process how, lately, I was doing my part to contribute to the destruction of the piscine ecosystems). It will make a ~nanobit of a difference (assuming population = 6e+9 !!) to get back into the habit of making better choices.
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/download.aspx

modern american

2010-03-09T15:22:00.000-08:00

I am going to use a single post to write about recent dining experiences in what appears to be a rather popular "cuisine" in Richmond (at least at a certain ubiquitous price bracket that I had alluded to earlier). While it appears that I am generally doing away with my multiple-visit-informed-opinion rule (I still strongly believe in the principle but with some serious budget watching on hand, it is increasingly becoming difficult to justify spending three digits* on patronage at places that dont seem to deserve a repeat visit).
Three recent uneven visits in this somewhat fuddled genre have been to Water Grill and Bonvenu in Carytown and Lemaire at the Jefferson, all typified by essentially similar sets of offerings.
Avoiding specifics and admitting that it is probably not fair to use a negative set of adjectives to describe the food based on an n=2 (same visit) but WG and BV fall into my category of avoid-in-future. The food and the service left so much to be desired. Long waits (in WG's defense, they comp'd our appetizer as an apology), clueless wait staff, poor presentation, quality and preparation left quite a bad taste in the mouth, pun intended. Restaurants may have an off night but in some cases, I think one can get a general taste of the overall philosophy, if you will.
Noise levels at WG and BV were very high. These places were packed on the weekend nights. Once again, I found myself at odds with such a large section of the populace. Urbanspoon has rave reviews for WG. The positive at WG was that it had a nice list of (reasonably priced) beers and a nice interior (plus its on Opentable)! The less said about BV the better.
Lemaire on the other hand was rather satisfactory. There was an 'emphasis' (a novel concept :)) on local sourcing that was quite nice. It was interesting to see VA bison on the menu, the taste of which was well liked. Random tidbit detour - bison can rotate on their back legs ! Despite the wide selection of VA wines, we ended up with some awfully good Australian wines in honor of our Aussie friend (the Margaret River wines have recently been quite impressive). What it lacked in general diversity, it made up in taste, presentation and service. This place on a weeknight was packed with business types and expense accounts, which is not an "issue" per se but does tend to give the place a rather stuffy interior. Vaulted ceilings and turn of the century rubenesque portraits added to this vibe. But I guess its no surprise that the grand old Jefferson can be quite grand. The lighting and the decor did give it a nice intimate feel though. Conversation was definitely easy here.

Digging around I found this rather amusing quote by Ed Vasaio, the local owner and chef of MZu - "I’ve never made a claim at [sic] this was haute cuisine. This amount of foodies and blogs … it’s vulgar. The preoccupation with food is an eating disorder. I love to cook and I love to eat."
I've come to feel (in apparently a bit of a minority opinion) that some restaurants in RVA (at least judging from their menus, prices and attitudes) seem to harbor the impression that they're haute cuisine. And patrons seemingly oblige.

* Checks were with typically - shared appetizer, an entree each, shared dessert and ~ a glass of wine each + t&t !

teutonic tastings..

2010-02-28T11:28:00.001-08:00

While Newport News doesnt strictly qualify as Richmond area dining (clocking around 75 miles from my house !), a recent visit to Das Wald cafe for some almost good old fashioned Bavarian cooking was quite satisfactory, especially considering that I havent found any such places around this area.
In a rather hard to find (GPS saved us), non-descript location, the only thing that seems to suggest its food heritage is that the waitresses are in dirndls .. they have most of the usual s-s - schnitzels (good), sausages (a bit chewier than I would have liked), (potato) salad, spaetzle, soup, sauerbrauten, sauerkraut etc. Their potato salad was quite good, vinegary and not unlike ones I've had in the Rhineland. So that was quite nice.
Bottomline - nothing flashy but simple, hearty Bavarian cooking and staples in a very casual environment. The main room was sporadically loud (courtesy of some large groups) but conversation was easy. Extremely reasonably priced - Dinner for two with a couple of drinks each + t&t (no dessert) came to ~ $60. Service was very slow since they only had 2 waitresses for the entire restaurant on a weekend !

The other knock on Das Wald is its rather pedestrian offering of beers. Bavarian food and beer go together like well....Bavarian food and beer. They have the usuals - paulaner, weihenstephaner, franziskaner etc but I wanted to try some of the better brews from Deutschland, preferably served in a stein ...alas...

If you're willing to add another 50 miles to the mileage (rt from RVA) and a 1.5-xing of the check, Old Europe on Wisconsin Avenue near Georgetown is a better choice, but if you're in the NN neighborhood....
(Edit: This OE dinner may be nicely followed by dessert at Leopold's Konditorei down the street in G-town)
Das Wald cafe - Newport News - map

rankings....

2010-02-23T13:51:00.000-08:00

I am not a huge fan of ranking restaurants but this recent blog post deserved a thought -
The Richmond Goodlife has taken an ostensibly* meta approach to ranking restaurants in RVA using ratings from other "recognized media sources":
http://richmondgoodlife.com/bricabrac/?p=88

(TRG has a bunch of links to other rankings that I shall not repost) - the top 3 by this approach - Edo's Squid, Mamma Zu and Millies....
For obvious reasons, including wildly differing tastes and opinions, specific positions on the list are not something worth debating, but..(yes, contradiction)... ES @ #1 is a bit head scratching !

*- I think it can be reasonably argued that this specific approach has intrinsic error via a biased sample with nonprobability sampling.

Open Tables

2010-02-22T09:41:00.000-08:00

Recent bits of time-wasting made me think of dining in the 21st century. A visit to a certain (anonymous) restaurant that didnt accept reservations of any sort was a particularly curious event. Typical waits ranged from 1-2 hours and there were groups of people just milling around. And, this was just one of many such "waits" experienced at restaurants in RVA. Now, forgoing discussions on time utilization, the (social) value of time, putative laziness and other factors, I think at a fundamental level, the "Smith, party of 4" paradigm is one that can be disposed of, or at least minimized these days.

A perusal of Opentable showed only 20 or so restaurants (a dozen of them are chains) in Richmond that are part of it. This is quite surprising. When practically every restaurant worth visiting (across all price ranges) in most cities are part of some sort of online reservation system, why is Richmond so far behind? And this is hardly a new phenomenon. OT, for example, has been around for > 10 years.
There may be certain economic constraints but I wonder if I am incorrect that the financial incentive generated from enabling a customer convenience or even employee scheduling should justify the capital expense. Isnt there a critical mass of people who would rather make a quick online reservation/ check availability online than call or worse yet, show up and be told that there is a long wait ?! Or is it related to a sort of buzz factor (clearly RVA diner centric)?
Dining points (as on OT) help as well !!

Beards 2010

2010-02-19T12:10:00.000-08:00

It was good to see that Richmond was represented on the James Beard Awards semifinalist list.
http://bit.ly/cCUaMm
Best Chef - Mid-Atlantic - Dale Reitzer, Acacia, Richmond, VA
I think this is a nice thing for RVA dining.

I've previously had the pleasure of noting that Acacia appeared to stand out from so many on the RVA culinary stage...
Going through the DC list and finding so many of my favorite places on there brought back some excellent dining memories:
http://bit.ly/9ihzNV
The inclusion of Rasika is terrific (since so many of the others are the usual suspects, a set Rasika has been asymptotically joining for some time now !).

Noise levels

2010-02-18T10:13:00.000-08:00

I think in terms of dining parameters, an important one that doesnt seem to get much coverage here in RVA is the noise level (something we were acutely aware of on some of our recent experiences). Its rather surprising that I havent seen many RVA food sites (blogs or other reviews) quantify this in any way. The Times and the WaPo, for example, have been doing this for a few years now, with Tom Sietsema using a nicely scientific scale that I like - http://bit.ly/9dzwJk

Quiet (under 60 decibels)
Conversation is easy (60-70 decibels)
Must speak with raised voice (71-80 decibels)
Extremely loud (over 80 decibels)

As someone who loves the log-scale, it is useful to point out as Tom writes - "The brain registers every 10-decibel increase as a doubling of loudness. Thus, a restaurant that measures 80 decibels sounds twice as noisy as a place that measures 70 decibels."
I wish I saw more of this sort of thing on reviews here. I will try and parametrize (albeit subjectively, lacking a db meter) this in future - the QCME scale.

Edit: A little science detour - while a 10 dB corresponds to a 10x power increase (2x power = 3 dB), the brain views things differently. Consequently, there are different units called phon and sone which are related to dB by the psychophysically measured frequency responses of the ear (ie how we actually perceive the sound/loudness). Hence this little mathematical discrepancy.

VCU lunches

2010-01-20T19:40:00.000-08:00

Given general travails in this department...somewhat in time for the start of the new semester - I add a couple of good, cheap places that are worth a visit near the VCU campus (other than Elephant Thai that I wrote about earlier).

The first is an old favorite - Ipanema cafe with excellent vegetarian options. Truly, its probably because of the sweet potato fries !! Its quite a testament to the place that they maintain a fairly decent range of options in the lunch s3w - soups, salads, sandwiches and wraps without being confined to tofu !
I particularly like the veg chorizo and the smoked gouda.
The only (sort of) knock against Ipanema is the fact that its so small - Arriving at a bit of a "wrong" time ends up making lunch rather prohibitive, time-wise. Also they could perhaps make another copy of their chalk-board menu, which is snuck up right against the door, which makes it difficult for absent-minded people like myself....!

The second is Taste of the Far East, another somewhat hidden gem. I think that for some reason, its neighbor Saigon is better known but TotFE has proved to be a very nice choice the several times we've been there. The noodle options are quite authentic and comparable to something you might find off the street in Singapore....I havent liked the rice dishes as much. Portion sizes are quite hearty and the fish sauce is a bit of an acquired taste..They have some lunch specials which I've never tried, but a typical lunch with t&t runs less than $10...

There is also Nate's Taco Truck - a staple @ First Fridays, Farmers mkt and assorted RVA locations...The $2 tacos make it a good eat but I've found that unless you eat >= 3 tacos, it ends up being a nice snack more than a lunch! I'm always amused with the seriousness at which the duo go about their work!
I like the fact the Nate has a twitter feed advertising his location and times (which has saved me from making futile taco trips on a couple of occasions)...Not a twitterer myself but can see the value of this real-time information dissemination.
http://twitter.com/NatesTacoTruck

I was somewhat tempted to add Cous Cous to this list but their menu (also slightly more expensive than the places above) tends to be rather inconsistent tastewise.
The VCU Dining Commons, in contrast to the one at the Univ of Richmond is quite a place to be avoided.

A lunch at Ipanema is also under $10 (only if you resist getting one of their desserts - in the interest of having a productive, non-drowsy afternoon)....

2010-01-06T07:31:00.000-08:00

Back home after some more map-trotting adventures with some interesting tongue twisters and pleasers including xochitl soup.

More restaurants closing in RVA (including one i've been meaning to try for some time) ! the comments were rather interesting...
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/REST06_20100105-221409/315598/

I noticed that I had written about 5 of these places on this blog !! Is it a bad sign :)? I guess in some minor way, I got to document fragments of recent richmond dining history.
The RTD piece made me think of my very first post, when, prior to moving to RVA, I was quite bothered by the proliferation of chain restaurants on the "best of" lists on Richmond magazine. These closings do not portend well for a locavore either ...

2009-12-11T13:47:00.000-08:00

Some changes noticed around campus - Nara Sushi is no more. Replaced by City Dogs (which also has a place in Shockoe). Not a big loss but there is now no sushi place within walking distance of campus.

The Common Cup on Main Street is now under new management and called Rev it Up. Visited there a couple of weeks ago for lunch. They have really spruced up the place but it is still quite inviting. Need some more data points.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin opīniō, opīniōn-, from opīnārī, to think.]

2009-12-09T09:37:00.001-08:00

This was a somewhat interesting column I read a little while ago:
http://www.richmondmagazine.com/?articleID=69cce3f2b5b17c701d9e346b585107d3

While I appreciate the general sentiment of the article and the associated caution(s), I'm not so sure I quite agree about the (implied) power of reading either an "effusive" review or a negative review, especially on a blog.

Online anonymity does give a forum for people to express opinions rather "freely". I would rather read them just to get an idea of what the place is about and/or what someone somewhere felt when they ate there. I sort of draw a parallel (rather humbly) to teaching evaluations, which are also anonymous. I have had vile comments on some and some truly wonderful comments on others. Many of the former have been largely unsubstantiated so I take them with a healthy dose of salt (I like the word ad hominem that I've especially seen in several grant proposal reviews as well). Some of the other critical comments have helped me tweak my general approach. Similarly the positive comments help one know what they are doing right.

Chefs and restaurants obviously have much more at stake and a larger and diverse audience with wildly different palates to satisfy, but the principle is the same. A perusal of just about anything online shows a diversity of opinions. People love things, hate things or otherwise straddle the middle. I freely spew my opinions on different fora, this blog included. Similarly I read other opinions on other places. It is almost up to the reader to take what they will from a general review. To be a bit nerdy, it is about the ability to gauge the statistical significance of a review and note if it is an outlier (in either direction).

What I do agree with is the philosophy that this article also mentions that many of my favorite food critics follow (which is one of the things that separates a opinion from an informed opinion). Multiple visits on different occasions and trying different things and writing a comprehensive review that encompasses this overall view (in mathematical terms, higher n and corresponding standard deviation).

Now I guess I must visit Balliceaux and see what the fuss is all about :)

2009-12-08T10:07:00.000-08:00

Checking off a couple more places from my backlog - A couple of very decent sushi experiences - Osaka Sushi near River Road - I thought the interior was very cool (a nice date spot if so inclined), good sushi, aside from the usual sushi staples, the power roll was interesting.

Momotaro sushi in Carytown - The benefit of talking to the sushi chef and having him make some special rolls, made the dinner more interesting than it probably would have been. A sparse and casual interior and a bit less of a college crowd than Sticky Rice.

A recent re-visit to Ginger Thai in Carytown also made me reconsider my previous low grade I had assigned. The Tom Yum soup this time was much more "potent" and the dishes more aligned to a Thai taste than a generic east Asian one. I still prefer Elephant Thai !

Korean food

2009-12-08T09:36:00.000-08:00

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the Midlothian arm of the city lies a small unregarded Korean restaurant that I had the pleasure of visiting at the recent recommendation of a Korean student.
Young bin Kwan - hidden in a strip mall out in parts of the city I rarely visit, is an excellent alternative to driving all the way out to the Annandale area in NoVa. It had been sometime since I had my fix of dolsot (stone pot) bibimbap... and this one did not disappoint.
The service was very friendly and they took time to explain the dishes and the different banchan. I think that is one of my favorite aspects of Korean (and Japanese) food. They are such visual treats. I loved the kimchi and the other banchan.
Korean food does tend to be quite spicy and the taste is that of the "raw" chili peppers, unfettered by other spices (as in Indian food for instance). My companion, who was entirely new to Korean food had the bean curd stew and couldnt finish it because it was too hot. We ended up feeling a bit bad after because they were so apologetic about it. But them being so nice added to our overall pleasant experience. It is probably a better idea to get it mild and add the chili paste to taste. Our dinner for two (perfect for the snowy and miserable day) came to less than $30 (w/ t&t).

While not adventurous enough to try the table-top barbecueing, next up is the Yook gae Jong....

Young Bin Restaurant - map

Cafe rustica

2009-12-08T07:53:00.000-08:00

It has been a few weeks since I visited Cafe Rustica and while I havent been there on separate occasions, my sample size on my one visit was large enough to wonder why this place isnt talked about much. The food was great, the interior (while small) was quite cozy and the prices reasonable.
Billing itself as a bit of an old Europe sytle restaurant, the dishes werent flashy or winning any points for presentation, but well made and simple. Portion sizes were perfect. Uncharacteristically (for me), I was able to eat a finish a 3 course meal of soup, an entree and a pretty rich dessert...I guess I will skip specifics but none of the dishes on the table disappointed.
The service was ok but then again, the restaurant wasnt packed for a weekday dinner. Waits in getting water refills possibly portend some chaos when the restaurant is busier....One of the only things we noted was the wine list wasnt too exhaustive (especially if you want wines by the glass).
Overall, I was quite impressed and will be visiting again. A rather expansive 3-course dinner for 3 came to around $150 (w/ t&t and three drinks each), so I definitely wasnt repeating my earlier price rant :)....

Cafe Rustica is kind of hidden away in a part of town that doesnt appear to be well (foot) trafficked (Penny lane is around the corner though) - but well worth a visit.

Helen's

2009-11-18T08:48:00.000-08:00

Since I've made my second visit to Helen's, albeit after a period of about a year, I thought I should write a bit about this place...chalk one up for another somewhat unremarkable dinner. I have read so many glowing reviews of Helen's but I am now beginning to doubt myself after being a bit unsatisfied again.
It was not that the experience was flawed (although our clothes smelled of "kitchen smoke" for some time after - aside: wonder what the term is for the smell that seems to emanate from some kitchens that just clings to you.. :))??.... or that the food was bad. I had a fairly dull salad and a decent soup on two occasions but that was followed by some excellent pork tenderloins with sweet potatoes the one time and the (not so excellent) shrimp and grits another time (this dish, both my companion and I thought had a rancid aftertaste to it that shouldnt have been there). But it was still ok. The pork was, I must say, perfectly done and excellent with the sides. The service was friendly and the confines dimly lit (interchangeably with romantic) enough. It was rather empty for dinner on a Friday night. This was well before the arrival of the late night crowd, but thats a different story.

Not to belabor it but the bottomline is that the food in Helen's is pretty decent, but if there is a choice, its no different from any of around a dozen or so Richmond restaurants that offer very similar offerings at the same price point.

At the risk of being boringly repetitive, I thought this restaurant was again on the pricier side. One dinner for two with a shared appetizer, an entree each and no dessert and one drink came to $90 (w/ t&t) !! This should be the subject of another rant but there appears to be this set of restaurants in RVA. They all have fairly decent to good food, although extremely generic and often rather unimaginative (tartare or seared scallops or panna cotta?). The menus are basically interchangeable and the dinners end up around $80-$120 for two, which I consider pricey. I bemoan the lack of a decent, non-chain place in the midrange.

In contrast, a visit the following weekend to one of my DC favorites - Zaytinya; we had a perfectly fabulous dinner with (yes, not a direct comparison) a bunch of shared mezze and dessert and a drink each for around $70 (w/ t&t). I generally rave about all Jose Andres' restaurants but there is something to be said about a nice ambience, creative, well presented food that tastes great and an experience that leaves the palate satisfied, a full stomach and a wallet not so empty !!

100 things

2009-11-05T11:05:00.000-08:00

An series of articles that has attracted a lot of attention. Given the terrible levels of service in many restaurants, I think quite a few restauranteurs (or restaurateurs more accurately) in Richmond should distribute these to their staff.

rules (1-50):
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/one-hundred-things-restaurant-staffers-should-never-do-part-one/

and the part two (rules 51-100):
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/one-hundred-things-restaurant-staffers-should-never-do-part-2/

while 100 rules seem a bit "excessive" (quite a few are not applicable to many places), I appreciate the general principle of the matter.
I disagree with some of the commenters about it being over prescriptive; Its not like following a strict edict, its just about a philosophy - providing a generally good experience that complements the food. And of course, it does come down to the quality of the food but many have been the place where superlative or even decent food has been woefully let down by shoddy service.

New digs...

2009-11-01T20:20:00.000-08:00

Somewhat sad to have moved away from downtown and a couple of my favorites but a new phase begins and I now I have a new neighborhood. As I settle in....Plenty of places within walking distance and plenty of places to explore. And the best plus of course is the easy walk to Carytown.
Now all I need to do is find the time and the pelf....

More prix fixe adventures

2009-09-11T14:34:00.001-07:00

I guess this is the recession special or the usual way to get diners in during the weekdays, but after musing about the $23 prix fixe weekday dinners at Acacia, I found an identical deal at a recent dinner at Six Burner (@ $24 Mon-Thu). I guess I am violating my general principle of not reviewing the restaurant till (at least) a second visit, but I must continue my rant (from below) that menus need some more imagination (let us forego a discussion on cost at this point because valid arguments may be made on both sides).
This was a practically yawn worthy set of offerings at 6B - a rather tasteless potato soup, an awfully generic beet, arugula salad, 2 fish choices - salmon and scallops, 1 steak and 1 chicken option (again no vegetarian options) and alas...the ubiquitous panna cotta for dessert. After dropping close to $90 for a dinner for two (A glass of wine each + t&t), my tastebuds were barely stimulated and my stomach wasnt full either. I did like their bread though.
I will have to probably try the full menu on another visit (certain options did look intriguing), but I am so disappointed by this visit that I wonder if I should in these days of fiscal discipline. I guess I think that these prix fixe meals should be a bit like an "grande amuse bouche" to tempt one to revisit and order off the full menu. My bouche wasnt amuseed.

back....

2009-08-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

What a long hiatus this has been... as I return to the semester, I hope there will be more frequent posts to the blog. A largely uneventful summer - felt good to see the state of the plate especially via out of Richmond dining experiences.

One bright spot in the Richmond dining firmament has to be a recent dinner at Acacia midtown. I'd never been to its earlier incarnation (always thought that a restaurant sharing the same quarters as a hair salon was a bit strange) but a couple of visits in to this "new" location have established it as a favorite.

The first thing that struck me (and my dining companions) was that the decor at Acacia seemed very "un-Richmond". Hard to qualify this statement, but we all agreed that it was true !! With a pretty sleek modern look, it was hopping even on a weekday (this doesnt bode well for the noise level though) and the crowd gradually morphed from an older set to a younger set as the hours wore on . This may have been courtesy of what has to be one of the best deals in the city - a Mon to Thu prix fixe meal by the table for $23. This is absolutely worth it ! While somewhat limited compared to the main menu (obviously), they did have have decent choices (4 to choose from). The one 'beef' (pun unintended) with the entree options was the lack of a vegetarian selection but it really didnt detract from the experience because they were accomodating on that day. We tried different items on both my visits (they do have a somewhat varying menu) and everyone of them was excellent. Portion sizes were appropriate and the dessert while a bit generic (its time to move beyond the obligatory sorbet assortments and panna cotta :)) were quite satisfactory to round off an excellent meal. They have an excellent wine selection too. On a hot summer evening, the wines were chilled to the right temperature and were a terrific accompaniment to our dinners. It was good to note that they didnt subscribe to the philosophy (in so many places here) that result in most red wines being served at room temperature.
Service was ok. On one visit, our server completely messed up one entree and was quite hard to flag down...but...they kept the glasses full (always useful), folded napkins (at times !) when we left for the restrooms and generally provided a pleasant atmosphere.
I must admit that my visits have largely taken advantage of this "promotion" but I am sure that a dinner selected off the menu would be equally good, albeit a bit more expensive. But if you're not counting, acacia is worth a visit on any front.

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whatever happened to the bookshelves?

2009-03-29T16:42:00.000-07:00

So I guess this is the nouveau Cafe Gutenberg? First impressions - frankly, disappointment. Excited that CG was back after their hiatus and redesign, I couldnt wait to visit. And now that I have, I'm not sure I like the new CG.

It seems totally baffling that 'they' (whoever the powers-that-be were) would mess with the very USP that made the place worth visiting. Gone are the bookshelves and books that lined the walls. No more newspapers - the current and woefully out of date ones. Ditto the magazines and the b&w pictures that graced the walls. Even gone is the line announcing the high water line of hurricane charlie (?). Instead we have an antiseptic light yellow paint with some rather commonplace portraits of fruits and vegetables. There are a trio of oddly placed houseplants cordoning off a section in the back by the windows. A couple of new tables with some oh-so-boring booths. Booths??
Is this some "resistance to change"/misplaced nostalgia speaking? I dont think so. Its more like seeing a rather "unique" interior replaced with an entirely generic look devoid of any character. CG now looks and feels just like any other. Dull and prosaic even. I guess the upside is that the place is much airier and brighter.

The menu is still largely the same (we tried a couple of items off the brunch menu and they were still pretty decent. The 17th Street scramble was still quite good). No pastries though !! What a let down ...One couldnt help but feel that the atmosphere that drew us in to Cafe Gutenberg in the first place was gone. The service was fine and they still had most of the cheap wines and beers they had before. We didnt feel like dawdling in this restaurant anymore. It didnt seem like the place you could sit mooching off of the free wifi and downing cups of coffee. Or just read a book or a magazine. Perhaps thats a good thing for business - higher turnover.

food carts and thoughts around campus...

2009-03-05T18:45:00.000-08:00

Other than the loquacious 'hippie' couple selling wraps, the absence of food carts in and around the VCU main campus has been rather perplexing to me (I noticed recently that there was another guy selling kebabs - need to visit). I've always thought of food carts as a bit of a mainstay around campuses - academic and corporate. Quite a few of the major universities in urban areas have pretty decent cart options. A couple that immediately spring to mind are those around Cambridge, MA and UPenn.
There are a couple of good choices near MCV - in particular, the delightful old Indian lady selling some fairly good food at extremely reasonable prices. With such a large number of students presumably seeking cheap food options, I would have thought there would be more choices in and around Monroe Park.
Does the student and/or staff population at VCU not provide a good business opportunity? Does every student have a meal plan? I really wonder if there is some complex reason for this absence..

On a similar note, I've been quite surprised by the lack of good ethnic places in and around VCU (yes, in retrospect, options do exist....but....). Given the large international student body at VCU, this is also puzzling. One feature of so many university areas is the ubiquitous Chinese buffet. I guess there may be one in Richmond. Its only odd that its nowhere near the university ! Till Ruchee opened a few months ago, there wasnt any Indian place around. The couple of "middle eastern" places looked quite sketchy the couple of times I dared to venture there. And students from these three areas constitute a fairly decent percentage of VCU students.
I guess Nile would be a great place to visit but we've always been doubtful of the "time in/out" (a review will follow. Nile was great the couple of dinners I've had there). A couple of others - Saigon and the Korean place (Mom's kitchen) are a bit off the beaten track. Speaking of the latter, I've liked the bibim bap I had, although the kimchee didnt taste very fresh the two times I've eaten there.

I will probably get down to writing more about the other places around VCU eventually. But I had to ponder ....

Random musings

2009-03-01T05:47:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about Pita chips in general after my last post and Stacy's Pita chips in particular. The name Stacy didnt exactly conjure up a vision of pita...like say... Kontos ! And yet, these chips are quite good and generally found in places like Whole Foods (which if nothing, does convey the "healthy/natural image"). I havent found them the ideal addition to fattoush but more of a general dip and eat type product. And the bagel chips were like the TJ's Melba rounds, rather good as hors d'oeuvres, with toppings.
So after checking out their website, I did find the answer to the most vexing question - Yes, there is indeed a Stacy and she's based in Massachusetts. Back to the food....

A few weeks ago, I came across the wonderful story of 12 year old David Fishman the food critic (secretly wishing I had a similarly start and/or the ability). Now, in the latest issue of GQ, there is a full length article about the young man, who has apparently become a sensation with media appearances and such. Food writer Alan Richman felt like "Jennifer Aniston the first time she saw Angelina Jolie" (whatever that means...I just felt the need to throw in a belated gratuitous nod to the celebrities in the wake of the oscars)... While there is a certain novelty in the fact that he's so young, I liked Fishman's simple style. Importantly he wasnt making trivial observations (which in and of itself is a non-trivial task !). It will be interesting to follow his future trajectory.

While on the article, I came across mention of a restaurant concept that I had always joked about where the chef would choose your meals "according to what he thinks you'll like". It exists !!
While avoiding the practicality/implementation of this concept, I just find it rather intriguing. I am sure that such establishments exist in many places...but a chef who actually (as opposed to merely giving lip service to this idea) melds culinary skills with a "personality reading" of sorts in a serious manner would be something to behold. My ignorance was clearly a reflection of how much of the culinary world I have yet to explore ! One might argue there is a 'chef' like this in every home aka mom !

2009-02-23T19:21:00.000-08:00

Keeping with the times, some more cheap eats....

Yearning for some "real" Lebanese food after some trips to Azizas on Main (recently a bit unsatisfactory but more on that later), made me think of yet another place that I feel is a bit of a hidden gem in RVA. More of a grocery store than a restaurant, it nonetheless has some of the simplest and tasty mediterranean (area) food around. The eponymous deli on meadow street just off broad street has long been a good place to get halal meat and well priced olives, dolmades, pickled vegetables and flat bread. But the deli is suprisingly good and strangely off the radar. No atmosphere to speak of (although they usually have a melodious muezzin on their speakers) and just a handful of chairs and tables but after trying some of the offerings here, I think its a terrific place to stop and get a quick bite of some authentic middle eastern food. I guess the best part of the falafel sandwich and the shawarmas has been the wonderful garlic sauce ! Very garlicky but not too overwhelming. And everything is well under $10...
A favorite is the freshly made 'pita chips'. Why waste money on processed factory varieties such as Stacy's Pita chips (which arent really bad :)) when one can get the wonderful packets of homemade chips for a dollar. A bit oily perhaps but crisp, fragrant, lightly spiced and just like home!! And a perfect accompaniment to fattoush...
There appears to be another place with the same name out in the west end (which seems to be more of a restaurant) but for now, this one is closer !

an elephantine task....

2009-02-15T19:09:00.001-08:00

High on the list of frequented places in the VCU area is Elephant Thai. I might even venture to half-say that it is one of the better Thai places I've been to in Richmond so far among the half dozen or so places tried. Surprisingly it doesnt come up often in discussions of the same, playing second fiddle to Mom's Siam, Thai Diner (too), Beauregards and the like. I think ET is actually quite good...(admittedly, several 'other' factors are playing into this observation - price, convenience etc). but it is a very decent eat. A sparse, simple decor, no frills food, low prices, an authentic taste etc... Now, countless visits in (99% for lunch), I finally get around to writing about it.
Oddly enough, despite a previous post about soups deciding my ratings for Thai places, I have only tried the soups here once (the Tom Yum - decent). I guess I just havent been trying soups on mostly hurried lunches. Most of the curries and chicken/beef dishes are very generic and quite good (safe) choices. The chicken basil and cashew nut have been standouts. I've also liked the Vegetarian Fried Rice (which is a good meal just by itself). Similarly, the noodles - pad see ew and the pad thai. I've always made it a point to ask for extra lemon/lime with my pad thai which they do and it does help jazz up the rather standard pad thai. I'm still searching for that elusive stellar pad thai !
Of course, all the dishes havent been quite great. For one, the pepper steak was terrible and quite tasteless. The jasmine rice does tend to be a bit dry at times. Also the shrimp options have been far less satisfying than the chicken and beef.
An option that I found useful several times was to get the spice rack on the side with a mild order. That has saved quite a few dishes for me which have otherwise tended to be rather overwhelming (drunken noodle jae - a culprit). The (rather sweet) Thai Iced tea can be an added savior on occasions such as these.

Most lunch entrees are less than $8 and a typical checks have been around $10-12 pp (with t&t)...ET is always packed at lunchtime and service can be a little spotty. Two of the wait staff who know me by name now (and there are a lot of lunch regulars) have been a bit more efficient :)....

recession dining

2009-02-04T07:59:00.000-08:00

The Times today had an interesting article about formerly snooty places finally shedding some of that attitude in these tough times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/dining/04note.html

I doubt that the diners at Masa or Per Se are making the shift the local diner anytime soon though.

I wonder what the situation is like in Richmond in general. Having a rather small sample size of the 'upper crust' of rva restaurants recently, I dont feel equipped to offer an informed opinion (I venture to say warily - the couple of such places I've been to in the last month have been a mixed bag - one good, one not so good !!). For one, I guess that while purchasing power has dropped, either in real terms or due to discretion, food prices dont seem to have followed suit (which in itself makes for an interesting multivariate economics problem).

Addendum: I found it rather amusing/ironic that on the day I mused about recession dining, I see my first Lamborghini in Richmond parked outside one of the 'fine dining' places in my neighborhood.

brunch options

2009-01-30T16:40:00.001-08:00

I must say that I am now spoiled for weekend brunch options. Within a 6 block area, I have my pick of Cafe Gutenberg, Millie's and now my latest option - Azziza's.
A couple of visits in to this latest entrant in my neighborhood have been quite pleasant. More of the ubiquitous brick decor of course but what I liked about the place was its rather unpretentious interior and friendly atmosphere. Got to chat with the co-owner Rusty for quite a long time. That kind of clarified why the place was ostensibly Lebanese (her mother was) and yet didnt have the usual suspects on the menu (missing some of my favorites like fattoush, kibbeh and shockingly shawarmas !). They did have a fairly decent selection of items from the cedar country coupled with fairly "generic" sandwiches and frittatas (some good vegetarian options). Rusty's son Billy (formerly of Billy Bread - a place that we had embarked on a futile attempt to find last year only to discover it was closed !!) was manning the kitchens and I was quite pleased that the bread (while not from Billy) was fresh and crisp !
I've tried a nice frittata (not Lebanese - served with greens and home fries) and the Koosa (Lebanese - stuffed squash which was quite good especially with a side of beans). They do state that they use only the finest olive oil from Lebanon which of course adds credence to their roots in the middle east :)....I think this place definitely has potential. Future visits are planned and more words shall be typed out in due course to supplement this sloppy review. Unfortunately, Azziza's is open only for br/l-unch and isnt serving dinner yet. It will be interesting to see if it does.

Update: While I thought that for once, I was possibly ahead of the 'curve' :), I just read the Style piece this week on the place !! I think this place will be busier in the coming days. I still feel though, that they do need to do some publicity and in particular, put up a sign or something (at least one thats not obscured by that huge awning !).

2009-01-16T09:46:00.000-08:00

'Everyone’s a critic, and apparently it’s never too soon to start'. Wish I had a start like this kid who's off to the races at age 12!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/nyregion/17bigcity.html?ref=dining

Since everyone's a critic, I found this rather interesting, especially since its the guy who "inspired" the terrific movie "Ratatouille" !!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/dining/14simon.html?ref=dining

Squids and other sephalopods

2009-01-16T08:41:00.001-08:00

Why is everyone in Richmond so in love with Edo's Squid? Now 3 visits in, I have yet to uncover what is so special about this place. And why do the people who work here have such an attitude?
A persistent thought was that this restaurant should have a tagline similar to Schlotzky's Deli - "Funny Name, Serious Italian"
The decor isnt pretentious at all and has the usual Richmond brick wall on the sides. Tends to get very packed - follows from the adoring public who flock to eat the ostensibly down-to-earth hearty Italian fare here !(which prompts me to add that a reservation is probably a good thing for prime time, unless you like being ignored in that cramped doorway for what might seem to be an interminably long time !). Once seated, you can pretty much share a conversation with your neighbors. I guess some people call that cozy (none of this really detracts from the um....experience).
I should elaborate on the food and I'll probably write more later, even though I was not impressed. Another persistent thought was that the food was not very well constructed (the lcd of which is plating). It is certainly very hearty. I'm just perplexed about the ink this place gets with such inconsistent food. I note that, even with my meager cooking talents, I was able to take my pasta leftovers from one dinner and jazz it up and taste better (to my palate of course but isnt that what this is all about !?). Conversely, the branzino (bass) that I had on another visit was very good. The tiramisu (usually the safest generic choice at an Italian place) was terrible - a sloppy mush that had too much alcohol. But what really stood out at Edo's each time was the shoddy service topped off with liberal doses of attitude. And that definitely detracts from the experience.
Price: I think Edo's is on the slightly expensive side. There are a couple of cheaper pasta dishes but the main entrees are all over $20...(a couple of dinners with shared appetizer, a glass of wine each and shared dessert + t&t came to around $80-$100. The portions are large and two leftovers could make for another meal. awkward math !!). Another slightly rushed dinner with shared appetizer and soup came to around $50.

Perusal of other blog postings on edo's have uncovered phrases like "heaven", "best food I've ever eaten", etc...really??
Should probably be starting 2009 with a more positive note. Maybe I'll find one and change this dispatch :)...

2008-12-07T11:09:00.001-08:00

Wow ! I am not alone in my little corner of cyberspace it seems. Someone actually took the trouble to excoriate me on my um...lack of effort at reading a chalkboard menu and (apparent) lack of "appreciation" for eating local.
While the latter is something I can actually ponder with my anonymous friend (sic), this is even more of an interesting subject - "Your opinion that a rotating(seasonal) menu is something you're not a fan of is beyond ignorant...".
I tend to agree with the Gordon Ramsay view that restaurants should have a few core strengths supplemented by seasonal variants. In any event, having a daily/weekly menu printed isnt so difficult (again -ves on the wastage of paper :)).

Truly, the line that takes the burrito - "take your business to chipotle and save the room at the tables at Mezzanine for diners who will appreciate the experience (sic)"
How amusing :)....

mezzanine

2008-10-15T08:02:00.000-07:00

A recent visit to Mezzanine in Cary town offered a glimpse that there continue to be some bright spots in the dining scene.
Talks of an economic downturn notwithstanding, this place was packed on a Thursday night.

I am not so sure I find the idea of a menu written on a centrally located board quite appealing. Sure, its a bit um..."quaint" and possibly environmentally friendly (if they change their menu often, again something I'm not a huge fan of). But the prospect of standing or craning one's neck to see the menu and/or hovering around the board is a tad bit annoying (not to mention amusing). And if one is slow to decide (as often happens) or has to pick among many options, this can get to be quite an ornery task. Easily done at Chipotle or the local deli but not at a sit-down restaurant, imho.

Overall grade: This will have to wait since I've only been here once. I can see this place hovering in the C+/B- range, which, given my generally poor ratings so far is quite good !

wrong entrees?

2008-10-02T08:33:00.000-07:00

An interesting question pondered by Frank Bruni is The Diner's Journal today:
"What’s the protocol when the restaurant prepares the wrong entree for one of the diners? Everyone else at table has been served what they ordered; one person has been served the wrong and unacceptable dish".

I liked the comments more than the 'solution'. Other than food allergies and vegetarianism, I find it hard to believe that substitutes are so unpalatable.

Link.

Sushi downgrade

2008-09-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

Niwano'hana' sushi definitely gets a downgrade and I'm not sure it merits another visit.
Earlier visits to Hana sushi had made it one of my favorites for sushi in Richmond. I guess I should have written up on some of the positives earlier but procrastination appears to have its rewards. A recent visit after a gap of a few months had such negative results that those +ves are all history quite literally.
This once favored location is on the avoid list till I get intimation from some other poor soul that it might be safe to venture there again.
The sushi was not fresh at all, the rice was terribly packed and had an after taste. A yellowtail handroll had the texture of rubber. The tuna roll was gritty. The sashimi tasted like catch from another month and a rainbow roll that should have been oh so good was terrible not just to look at but taste. The only kind of "non-traditional" roll that we had was a jalapeno roll and that made my stomach queasy. It was telling that we actually ended up not eating half of our sushi - an experience that was definitely a first for me. More often than not, we're wondering what more to order after the first round. What a colossal waste. The check came to over $60 including tax and tip. Trust me, you are better off anywhere else. I've had grocery store sushi (and we're not talking Whole Foods here) that was of better quality .

To add to the incredulity (along the lines of Hana sushi- that used to be so good), our waitress was completely oblivious to any discomfort on our part. On being asked "um....are you guys having an off day" AND "...did you guys change suppliers"....she cheerfully replied "NO" and walked away. Realizing that subtlety was not her forte, we even ventured to suggest that the sushi was subpar when she came to collect the check. "hmmm" was the response. THATS IT !! And they werent even busy. How can you be so out of tune with your customers ?
On the plus side, she was cheerful in her "NO".

Meanwhile, Akida continues to rule the roost (I hope and pray :)). A recent trip to Moshi Moshi definitely showed some potential there.

Café Gutenberg

2008-06-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

The one bright spot for us in Richmond has easily been Café Gutenberg. Conveniently located for us, CG has not only a great atmosphere but fresh and surprisingly good food. We’ve been there several times now for brunch, lunch and dinner and all the menus have quite some gems.
You really cant go wrong with most items at Gutenberg. One of my favorites on the brunch menu is the 17th Street scramble (go easy on the crème fraiche). Not so the rather tasteless vegan biscuits and sausage gravy. The crepes, omelets and paninis are very good too. While a great place for brunch and lunch, we found that the dinner menu was also quite surprisingly good. We haven’t tried the steak here (a bit incongruous perhaps) but the tortellini with mushrooms stood out.
With casual seating, shelves of books, a nice selection of magazines and free internet, one can easily spend hours here. A decent selection of around a dozen or so beers (all bottles) including a couple of my favorite weissbiers and about an equal number of wines, almost all available by the glass make this a great place to contemplate life in solitude or in the company of others.
With the exception of Sunday brunches, the “seat yourself” policy works out quite well and the wait staff generally leaves you alone to surf the internet or read or just sit and people watch, which is great !! The downside of course, is that the wait staff can leave you alone.....waiting......waiting.....
With most entrees under $10 (dinner entrees are between $10 and $20), the food here is moderately priced (dare I say cheap?). The beers and wines are all under $10 (I believe they have a half-off day but havent been).

One of the most amusing things about Café Gutenberg is how seriously (sic) they take their Euro-tude. Not that I'm reading them but, copies of le Monde or Der Spiegel or whatever, so prominently on display are a few months out of date. Ditto the many magazines dotting the shelves. I thumbed through a couple of Wine Spectators that were from way back when the dollar was actually worth something in euros.

Bottomline: B-/B
Cafe Gutenberg, 1700 E Main St Richmond, VA 23223 Google Maps

richmond gastronomy

2008-06-21T14:28:00.000-07:00

another hiatus....not for want of trying new places !!
I run the risk of sounding horribly pretentious but....well...its more or less official for me now. After quite a nagging suspicion (manifested in many a tepid review) that richmond isnt quite the gastronomic paradise or even close, i've had my view "(af/con)firmed" on several recent dinners with out of towners with far more refined palates than my own. We've tended to agree that many places are indeed horribly pretentious.
The common complaint of course, appeared to be the complete lack of imagination and excitement in the menus. This coupled with what was perceived to be very overpriced food (especially considering the quality) and rather pedestrian environs, made for some disappointing meals.

More research is in order. But I suspect that the blogennui will continue......

Si update

2008-04-29T19:14:00.001-07:00

After devoting 2 posts to Si, I was recently quite disappointed to hear that the chef left and that the quality had plummeted. Despite the sky-high prices, it was a bit of a bright spot in the rather sparse small plate options here.
Too bad !

pomegranate

2008-04-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

A recent second visit to Pomegranate now allows me to write a review of the place. My previous visit left me with a lingering sense of disappointment. I have ranted about this before and Pomegranate is exhibit A in the category of Richmond restaurants that price themselves to a category where they do not belong. I didnt mind the food but the check left me wondering if perhaps I'd missed out on something that made this place "special". A second trip confirmed that I hadnt.
The decor of the restaurant is quite inviting. It is dimly lit and with the yellow light from the street lights streaming in through the windows, the setting is quite romantic and cozy. A wall in the back with empty frames, framing the brick interior is a nice touch. It is not very large and oddly, a saturday night visit was emptier than a weekday dinner.
Pomegranate is apparently a Euro Bistro but I thought the menu was more modern American. The menu certainly looked appetizing and they had a few decent wines. I wont go into specifics but there were a fair number of rather good looking salads. We tried a couple of the salads and they ranged from rather bland to good. The pumpkin soup with the truffle oil was too sweet for my palate and the white bean soup was apparently too dry. The entrees were also pretty good and ranged from a pork ragout with gnocchi (dull) to tuna (good) to veal (also decent).
Dessert was easily the most disappointing part of the dinner. From a rather pedestrian list, we settled on a chocolate "soup". This was "finished" with a few ladyfingers that almost appeared to be tossed in as an afterthought. In fact, a jar of these ladyfingers can be seen on the counter at the back of the restaurant and I wonder if they're added to all desserts.. The soup was a bit too rich and sweet and hard to finish.
The service was very efficient and our waitress was knowledgeable and easily handled the tables. The portion sizes were perfect, (none of the those overloaded plates with insipid food) and well presented.
Bottomline: C+ to B-. The food at Pomegranate is not bad. However, the quality of the food, originality, taste and the usual fine dining parameters are definitely not worth the prices. The entrees are all over $25 and most of the appetizers are around $10. A dinner for two comes to way over $100 with taxes and tips. Add drinks and you're looking at a pretty steep check. They did make a mean Pomegranate martini though !!

Pomegranate: 1209 E Cary Street, Richmond VA. Google Maps

sushi

2008-02-25T08:01:00.000-08:00

I'm going to write about a couple of sushi experiences over the last couple of months in one post. Probably unfair since I did devote an entire post to the fairly mediocre - Nara sushi (a place I recommended for lunch not dinner and which, for some reason isnt serving lunch anymore! Correction - As of June 2008, Nara is serving lunch again). A few visits to each of these have helped form a decent opinion on where each, at least this quartet, stands on the RVA sushi pantheon (apparently by no means complete).
And the honor roll (pun intended of course) goes along the lines - Akida, Niwano'hana', Sticky Rice and Sumo San. Disposing off the bottom two:
SumoSan - Rather empty on a couple of visits (including, what has become fairly common - a Saturday night). There were just a few other tables occupied. In fact this place was empty on both visits. Sushi quality - passable. They did try a few of the "innovative" rolls but faltered on taste. Even the edamame was a bit disappointing. The service was slow despite the empty place (no water refills for eg). The check came to around $40-$45 and we thought it was quite more than the quality merited. C- (the plus being its walking distance proximity for me)

Sticky Rice - It was nice to see the restaurant buzzing even on a wet and late night on one of our visits. The foggy (weather-related) windows and bulb-lit interiors looked rather inviting. The place befits a college-age hangout place and the crowd reflects that. SR was slightly drafty on a couple of our winter visits (not a problem in summer of course). While the quality of the sushi is definitely not superb, it was decent and they did get moderately innovative (GI Joe sushi?). The downside of Sticky Rice is the fact that people smoke at the bar and the ventilation isnt great (more below). Our table was near some strange odor that kept wafting up every so often.
The check came to $20-$40. Cheap and decent option and quite obviously the college meetup place. Not worth the wait if actually looking for good sushi. C

One (small) reason why both these places rate low - The proximity of the bar (ie cigarette smoke) made for an unimpressive score on the decor front. I do not see why these places allow cigarette smoke. I havent been to Japan, but given its smoking friendly nature, I'd be very curious to see the melding of smoke and sushi but as far as Richmond is concerned, it was not very pleasant.

Sí redux

2008-02-18T08:57:00.000-08:00

A recent visit to Sí was just as satisfying as the previous. I qualify that by saying it was culinarily satisfying and since I promised (not that anyone is keeping count :)) of any updates here goes:
With the rather "cozy" confines, an early Saturday evening visit saw the dining room quickly fill up and by about 6, there was very little maneuver room in the restaurant. With the exception of probably 1 of our choices, all the tapas we picked were very good and came out with a regularity that there wasnt a pause in the dining. Good.
Some of the dishes that we ordered (echoing what I said earlier about a lot of usual suspects) - duck breast with cocoa nibs and kumquats, squid with crispy rice cooked in squid ink, sauteed mushrooms with lentils and almonds, lamb meatballs with harissa, calamari with aioli, jumbo prawns, tuna carpaccio (a very tiny dish it must be warned). The carpaccio vanished in 3 quick gulps!

While we had to keep asking for bread, it must be noted that the bread (apparently from Billy Bread) is excellent. If choosing a dish with some sauce-like component, do not hesitate to ask for more as the mop up is one of the most satisfying way to fully enjoy the dish.
The desserts were excellent. We shared the poached pear with caramel and sorbet and a chocolate lava cake with icecream. They provided quite a punctuation to the entire meal.
Service was great. No empty glasses, no dawdling around waiting for food etc.
All in all, an excellent dinner. And definitely not a contrarian experience that I was half-fearing.

However, I must record that I think (as was also the consensus opinion) that Sí is definitely overpriced. A dinner for 3 with a single alcoholic drink and shared dessert (all $8) came to something in the range of $130 (with tip). Almost all the tapa were over $10 and quite small (yes of course by definition). A trio with a reasonably healthy appetite would easily gobble up around 7-9 dishes and still have room for dessert. When one tacks on the ridiculous 11% tax and tip, you are easily looking at quite a large check.

Bottomline: B

Can Can Brasserie

2008-02-11T07:48:00.000-08:00

A longer review of Can Can will be appended but the one thing I wanted to write about was the desserts. After lamenting the lack of quality desserts in most restaurants here, a fact that presumably has to do with a missing pastry chef, we found the desserts at Can Can quite delectable.

Central Michel Richard

2008-02-06T09:15:00.000-08:00

yes, the backlog et al. and this restaurant is not even in the RVA area and hence doesnt rightfully belong here. But another visit to the city up north reminded me of why my search for good food in Richmond has a ways to go.
Lacking the PP to go to Citronelle, I have been waiting to visit Michel Richard's other baby - Central for a while now. 2 reservations earlier had to be cancelled and finally my much anticipated trip to Central came to fruition.
The food was very good. Not sublime or terrific but very good. Echoing my earlier rant about price ranges and the food quality in those brackets, this place delivered. Unlike Citronelle, Central has a rather hmmm....interesting menu. Hints to its French pedigree abound although the food is best described as modern American. Who'd think of a Michel Richard restaurant with hamburger, lobster burger, rotisserie chicken etc on the menu?
The decor was, oddly enough, like something out of the 80s. Rather sparse and very "orange". It was like looking at the world through yellow glasses (which is quite literally true of the partitions). Visible kitchen - love 'em.

For the appetizer, we ended up getting the charcuterie tower which is indeed a 3-tiered tower of salami, proscuitto, duck rilettes, faux gras terrine (with the faux gras atypically from a chicken) and a delicious salad with marinated pearl onions and cherry tomatoes. A terrific start to the dinner although there was definitely more than could be eaten by two people. It is quite an appropriate starter for 3-4 people. We ended up getting almost half of the "tower" to go (which our waitress very efficiently packed in separate containers for each element. Good).
For the entrees, I felt I should have tried the pied de cochon (pig's feet) but I wasnt feeling that adventurous. Or even the burgers. Next time....
Instead we ended up getting (rather traditionally I'm afraid) a wonderful braised rabbit with spaetzle and sauteed scallops with tagliatelle. Halfway through the meal, we decided that each of our choices suited the other one's palate and switched. I simply loved the tagliatelle with its little beans and tomatoes. The sauce for the rabbit was rich. Portions initially looked quite large but turned out to be just right.
The desert of pear tart with marzipan and sorbet wrapped up the meal quite well. It must be said that the desert menu was also a bit "standard" - kit kat bar, fruit plate, sorbet assortment and the like.
Service was decent. No dawdling around empty glasses of water for one ! The check came to a little over $100 (no drinks). Money well spent.
Bottomline: B+

Zuppa

2008-01-25T09:26:00.000-08:00

My previous post essentially stated that I downgraded the restaurant almost 5 minutes into the meal owing to the quality of the soup (and confirmed shortly thereafter by the subpar food).
The question of the inverse problem now crops up? What if the soup is good? With a name like Zuppa, one would imagine that this restaurant specializes in the aforementioned item (an appetizer or a full meal if one chooses so).
A couple of visits to this Zuppa have resulted in pretty good soups - The creamy tomato being our favorite. A nice consistency and taste. They do justice to their name. However, oddly, they serve crackers with all their soups, which seems a bit of a cheapening of the entire premise.
What of the food? It turns out that the answer to the posed question is - 'not necessarily so'. We havent actually had any entrees here but we tried a few of their sandwiches and wraps. And they were decent, not great not bad but very deli-ish and very importantly - greasy !! I had to use a copious quantity of napkins for a couple of their sandwiches (notably - the barbeque sandwich with apple bacon bbq sauce). The quantity of the grease made the otherwise decent sandwich a bit disconcerting on the old gastric system.

The one downside to zuppa is the really slow service. On one particularly poor occasion (which was a holiday of some sort but the restaurant was pretty full), there was one waitress for around ten tables !! We felt bad for the poor girl. It wasnt her fault but the restaurant management could perhaps do a better job making assignments. Other visits havent been positive either with the clear problem being that the restaurant is quite severly undermanned. Is finding waitresses difficult?
Another quirky thing about Zuppa is the really weird artwork on the walls. They have the brick wall decor too (we've lost count of the number of places with this) and some really odd pieces of art hung on the walls without any apparent theme (or artful quality either sadly). It does provide some conversation when one looks at the walls and tries to gauge the mind of the "artist" and/or the individual who decided that they merit such a place of visibility.

Now, if they improved their service, got some real art (or just stick with generic posters/prints quite the like the vintage french they have when you enter) and cut down on the grease....
Note: On Sunday nights, they do not serve the dinner menu but the lunch menu.
Our lunches and dinners averaged $20-$35.

Grade: C (the soup B-). Zuppa 101 N 18th Street, Richmond VA 23223 Google Maps.