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Just saying the word “Nantucket” makes me dreamy. I’m not sure why I’ve been infatuated with this little East coast island for so long; I can’t remember how or where I first heard of it, and I can’t remember anyone talking to me about this place. It seems to me that I’ve been in love with Nantucket since my teenage years, so I can’t really explain why it took me so long to visit.
Stopping by Nantucket on our way from Rhode Island to Cape Cod was the best move of our entire road trip. The only problem was that we didn’t stay long enough! Still, because the island is so small and it’s so easy to bicycle around it, we left with a sense that we had come to know the place well and with a deep longing to return for a week, at least.
As soon as we set foot
Continue reading Memories of Nantucket / Lobster Mac & Cheese
Last on our list of New York City restaurant visits was Wylie Dufresne’s WD-50. Located in Lower East Side, I wouldn’t say the neighborhood was the most enjoyable to walk through on a Friday night, but the unpretentious location hints at the chef’s character. Dufresne is a leader in the molecular gastronomy movement, and he has won numerous prizes and much recognition over the years. He’s frequently been on Top Chef, either as a contestant or a judge, and he is highly regarded by his peers. Even so, he still has only one restaurant, he’s never published a book and he seems resolutely to want to keep a low profile. His public persona is borderline mysterious, and that intrigued me a lot.
After visiting three of New York’s top restaurants without any of the celebrity chefs in sight, I was close to concluding that once a chef becomes a celebrity, he’s
Continue reading Review: Wylie Dufresne’s WD-50
I wanted to love Shang, I really did. Susur Lee is one of the most well-known Canadian chefs, and I’ve been following his career for a long time. When I lived in Toronto, I dreamed of going to his restaurant as I read his fascinating memoir/cookbook, Susur: A Culinary Life. Recently, millions of people were able to witness his incredible abilities in the kitchen on “Top Chef Masters” and the show boosted his popularity in America, something well deserved after a life dedicated to modernizing the classics of Chinese cuisine.
Our visit to New York City’s Shang was the meal I anticipated the most. I was so happy that Lee had had the chance to open his own place in the Big Apple and I couldn’t wait to finally taste his cuisine. I could just imagine him running around in his kitchen, and chopping faster that what most thought humanly possible.
We
Continue reading Review: Susur Lee’s Shang / Recipe: Singapore Slaw
Going to New York, I was determined to try one of David Chang’s restaurants. I had read extensively about this somewhat elusive “culinary bad boy” – certainly one of the most talked about chefs in New York for the last five years – and was torn between dismissing this Momofuku-frenzied foodie hype and hopping on the fan train.
My quest to go and judge for myself began with a subscription to Momofuku’s online reservation system. I discovered that some of two of Chang’s restaurants don’t take reservations, except for special menus served to groups (the Noodle Bar and Ssäm Bar), while Ko, his two-Michelin-starred restaurant, took reservations only a week in advance. Ko’s reservation system is notoriously difficult: opening at 10am daily, the few available seats fly off in a matter of minutes. I chose to go to Chang’s newest restaurant, Mà Pêche, which is bigger, so it’s much easier to
Continue reading Review: David Chang’s Mà Pêche
Our visit New York in the first week of January was organized like clockwork. I had a “celebrity chef” week in mind and I knew we couldn’t improvise as most of the places I wanted us to go to are fully booked weeks in advance. Turns out right after New Year’s was a good time to dine in New York: healthy 2011 resolutions made tables easy to find at the city’s big name restaurants.
Here’s what our schedule looked like: Try one of David Chang’s restaurants to see what the hype is all about, go to Wylie Dufresne’s WD-50 to refresh my molecular memory, visit Susur Lee’s first restaurant in the US to make sure he does Canada proud and try Harold Dieterle’s new Kin Shop because… Well, just because I like the guy and I was curious to see how he manages to pull authentic Thai off.
I loved our four
Continue reading Review: Harold Dieterle’s Kin Shop / Recipe: Spicy Thai Laab Salad
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