We have been too busy traveling and eating to update this page.
(click restaurant name or point of interest)
We have been too busy traveling and eating to update this page. But I can still recall the most memorable spots of the summer.
One recurring problem: to keep trying new spots when we have so many old favorites to revisit. I will try to add a few favorite non-food experiences to our list.
Our Chicago restaurant favorite is now Avec – especially the whole roasted fish! We really miss the candied ginger scones at the Corner Bakery. We like the Big Bowl for a quick meal. Best find was Wow Bow, a tiny well-designed counter on the ground floor of Water Tower Place, with a delicious ginger drink and all sorts of tasty dumplings. The Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the Museum of Contemporary Art is delicious – especially on the terrace.
Douglas Dawson has a beautiful new gallery space. It is imaginatively done and full of imaginatively chosen objects from all over the world presented with great style. Go and visit.
Tokyo was rainy, and the first morning brought one of the great culinary disappoints of the year. Donpa, our very favorite coffee shop with the world’s greatest cheese toast, has disappeared!! All in all we need to re-scout Tokyo for more good places for all our meals. Kyoto was fine since Le Bouchon, the French restaurant on the corner of Nijo and Teramachi made us a superb breakfast every morning. Yuichi, the manager, seems amused that we eat with such gusto at 8 in the morning when most Japanese do not really go out for breakfast. Katsukura, a beautifully designed tonkatsu (pork cutlet) restaurant hidden in the Sanjo arcade just next to the Lipton Teahouse remains one of our favorites for a stylish, cheap and delicious dinner. We love Totoshin, a wonderful earthy restaurant in the northeastern part of Kyoto, specializes in fish (sashimi or cooked). It can be managed without speaking Japanese by either saying “omakase” – the chef will make up the menu, or just ordering whatever you see someone else eating and taking your chances. Price is not mentioned anywhere until you pay. Our dinner was 150. for 2.
Eating well in Japan is difficult without being able to read, since the many of the most tasty foods are available at small drinking and eating places. In these places small slips of paper cover the wall, each naming a different item and its price (in Japanese, of course). For my taste, the more expensive the restaurant, the less I like it (except for sushi, where a small refined place with a good personal introduction is the best). Sometimes in fancy (kaiseki style) restaurants the presentation is much more delicious than the food. But as always, I am looking for lots of different tastes, without too much
In July we were in Santa Fe. Bobcat Bite on the Old Las Vegas Highway is really our favorite. Not only is the hamburger delicious, but one gets to be in the wonderful expansive landscape. It is also cheap (drink before or after). In town, we like the Bumblebee, an informal drive-up. For fancy, SantaCafe is still the favorite. My favorite apricot tree didn’t have fruit yet, although the trees at the foot of Canyon Road were available for picking (but no ladder was available).
On a pleasure trip to Berlin, the most memorable bites were at the oyster counter at KaDeWe food department. Scottish and Irish oysters and French Fines Claires –I could have stayed for hours.
Since then, California. The best this time was re-visiting a small Berkeley restaurant with just the right atmosphere and the most delicious food: Vanni ( temporarily closed, but moving to a new location). An imaginative chef, generous portions, tasty food all with a South Asian repertoire of flavors. We also ate some very nice things at Pearl on College Avenue. In San Francisco, the Ferry Building market is splendid. Among the shops, I always head straight for Recchiuti to stock up on their Burnt Caramel Sauce. Going to the market on Saturday morning and having 6 Fanny Bay oysters for breakfast is not what we can do in Kansas City.
We drove to Los Angeles through the central valley, but encountered no culinary treats on I-5. But in LA we ate takeout Zankou Chicken with all the sides, including lots of garlic sauce, and a tarte tatin (the best) from the bakery in the back hall of the Ivy on Robertson. Our culinary scout Irv introduced us to Beechwood, where we ate big hamburgers on a terrace off the bar.
Los Angeles probably has the most inventive retail stores in the country. One of my favorites is Obsolete on Main Street in Venice. It just goes to show what one smart and visually sophisticated person can do!
At the moment I am still in NYC trying to find new treats. So far, watching the men’s tennis finals in Madison Square Park while eating a Tabla hotdog and drinking a beer sitting on the warn edge of a big stone basin was the big delight. When it is not muggy, Taste at Eli’s grocery makes the best potato chips which one can eat freely while drinking an excellent (and amusingly described) glass of wine (or two) at the bar. We also had a big bucket of steamers at Pearl Oyster Bar on Cornelia Street; a quick supper at City Hall before seeing the Kansas City Ballet dance “9 Sinatra Songs” in Battery Park; and a couple of ice cream cones and a few cappuccinos at the newly re-opened San Ambroeus on Madison Ave. around the corner from The Mark.