Kyo Ya: Seasonal Kaiseki Cuisine in Lower Manhattan

My cousins, Jenny and Hilly, accompanied me to Kyo ya--recently reviewed in the New York Times. We sat at the counter from where we could see what the chef, Sono Chikara, was doing and ask him questions. Known for his seasonal omakase, we decided that for our first time, we would order a la carte. At the end of a memorable meal, we also promised each other to return for the omakase the next time I am in NY.

After placing our order, the wait person suggested his favorite sake to us. It was excellent. It was a Chrysanthemum Mist Junmai and we enjoyed it very much. We also were shown the obligatory dish of various small sake cups from which we made our individual choices.






Oshizushi or pressed sushi is a specialty here and we chose the best one: mackerel. They were saving the mackerel for omakase clients and so served us soy marinated Canadian salmon with various toppings It was not only beautiful but delightful to eat.




We shared everything we ordered and chose 10 different items, mostly from the appetizers with one main course and a rice dish. I had never had many of the things we ordered and was pleasantly surprised by everything. Shiokara is cured seasonal seafood to be eating with sake. The Yuba and Uni Yoshino Style was unusual. I love yuba (a particular presentation of tofu) but was a bit disappointed with the consistency of what they served that evening. Maybe it is the Yoshino Style that I didn't like.

We had a cold duck salad, but most of our dishes were either fish or vegetables. Everything was exciting to look at and delicious to eat. We had a crab dish with vegetables with which we were presented with a hot grill. It was our job to grill each of the components and then dip the cooked food into an accompanying sauce. This is takenoko (Bamboo) season and we also that vegetable grilled. It was served over small stones and brought back memories of Japan in the spring. Sweet Potato Tempura is something I first had in Tokyo. It is more flavorful than the lowly white potato and the tempura enhanced the flavor even more.






So many restaurants make black cod with miso glaze but I had heard that the preparation at Kyo ya was like no other. The cod is marinated in Tsubu Miso and then broiled. It is a very savory and light dish.




I am partial to the movie, Green Tea and Rice that was made in the '40's by the great Japanese director, Ozu. In it, a couple that has drifted apart reconcile one night while they enjoy a dish they each remember from childhood. When I saw that dish on the menu, I convinced my friends to order that as our rice dish. Such an interesting and unusual presentation. This dish comes straight out of grandma's collection of recipes, and is especially enjoyed by young children. At Kyo ya, they combine red snapper and rice in a bowl. It is our job to pour hot green tea over the rice and fish, and zoop it up with a ladle-like spoon.This Chazuke was an excellent end to a spectacular meal. Please note that Hilary Peltz was a great help with the photography.

Two Great Osteria in LA

I report on two upscale Italian restaurants--each with its own excellent reputation: Angelini Osteria and Osteria Mozza. Of the two, Mozza is more famous and it's more difficult to get a reservation there. I preferred Angelini far and away...


When I am in LA, I stay with my friends, Joel and Rusty. To show my appreciation we choose a great restaurant for me to take them to. This year it was Osteria Angelini: a small, unassuming restaurant with reputation for spectacular food.

A short bus ride from West Hollywood, Angelini's doors open to a festive and very spare restaurant with tables crammed in every which way. The wait staff is very Italian and very friendly. I was taken with the spectacle surrounding the fish baked in a salt crust. I had never seen a more beautifully conceived presentation, and I decided that we would have to have that.

Although we are not big eaters, we love to eat good food. We decided to share three dishes: Mussels and Clams alla Tarantina (with spicy tomato sauce and garlic); Hommade Spaghetti Chitarra alla Norcina with Black Truffles, Sausage, Parmigiano Reggiano; Whole Branzino Roasted in Sea Salt with Aromatic Herbs.






Everything was superb: flavorful and lovingly prepared and, of course, delicious. The chitarra are difficult to make. Apparently, they are rolled out and forced through what looks like guitar strings. As a result they have square sides rather than the round tubes that normal spaghetti has. Their sauce was spectacular. The fish was also an excellent dish. The salt crush ensures the natural juiciness of the flesh.

I love Italian red wines and despite the fact that there were two fish on our menu, we chose the Barbara d'Alba 2008 Vigna Martina, Elio Grasso.

Ready for the dessert course, we also shared and decided to get the two desserts that looked most appealing: Apple Tart all a Milanese with Vanilla Gelato; Crostata di Cioccolato with Coffee Cream and Hazelnut Gelato.






For me, this was a perfect meal. Sharing enabled us to taste a number of dishes and at the end, we were not too full.

Osteria Mozza was a grave disappointment. I love Pizzeria Mozza next door and have only heard raves about the food at the osteria. They have a pasta tasting and we should have chosen that. The pastas we did order were excellent: Veal Agnolotti, burro e salvia; Squid Ink Chitarra Freddi with Dungeness crab, sea urchin and jalapeño. But the main courses were awful: Ugly to look at and rather fatty. My friend ordered roast duck and I chose the guinea hen. We each love the meats we chose until we looked at what was served to us!






The sommelier proposed our wines to us, and I also didn't like her choices but wasn't in the mood to complain. Until we arrived at the desserts (the famous warm Bombolini with Huckleberry Marmelatta and Lemon Marscapone with gelato al vanilla), I was quite dissatisfied. I think I'll stick with Pizzeria Mozza.

Food Trucks in Paris

Report on the latest Americanization of French customs: Food Trucks in Paris!

After reading an article and viewing a video from the New York Times about the new food truck phenomenon in Paris: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/06/03/dining/100000001572386/a-food-truck-takes-paris-.html, I had to go to try one out for myself. Cantine California is run by a French man who has lived in the states and recently moved to Paris from LA. He brought is know-how with tacos and hamburgers with him and in one month, parked at two different outdoor markets, he has his enthusiastic clientele.




I had been surfing the weather channel for days and was lucky that Wednesday was relatively fair. The truck is at the Marché St Honoré on Wednesdays and Saturdays and that particular market is convenient for me. I arrived at about 12:30pm and there was a long line of patient and cheerful hungry patrons. Some French people are hesitant to brave messy food where the possibility of tables and knives and forks is dubious. They checked out the situation and opted for the various cafes that border the market. Although there were French people on the line, I heard a lot of American and British accents.

Since it was my first visit, I chose the Cali-Burger: cheddar cheese, avocado, crisp bacon, caramelized onions and red onions with the special sauce (ketchup mixed with mayonnaise) and frites. I had read that the bun was specially chosen from an Arab bakery in the 18th arrondissement: part brioche, part hamburger bun. The meat is faux-filet (an excellent cut) that they grind daily.

The wait to order was 1/2 hour and the wait to get the food was about 15 minutes. I was lucky to get one of the tall table-stools (there are three at this stand) and so I happily consumed my burger like a person.



It's a messy deal but it is delicious. Every ingredient is of the highest quality and each component is delicious in itself and excellent as a combination. I would give the fries a B- though. They were just not at all crispy. P.S. I ate the whole burger.

The Cantine California is at the Marché St. Honoré on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and at the Marché Raspail on Tuesdays and Thursdays. No markets are open on Monday but I heard the owner say that the truck was there. I'm looking forward to returning with friends for the soft taco.

Bar Le Passage: Alain Senderens

Gourmet Dining from a starred chef for a real bargain price


In the 48 years I have been visiting and then living in Paris, I am sure I have dined at Alain Senderens' restaurant at least 40 times. I am now friends with the director, M, Loic and on good terms with the chef, his wife and many on staff. I used to come at 11 am when the crew was setting up, and would have coffee with them while they had their lunch.

Perhaps ten years ago, M. Senderens decided that he wanted to make his restaurant more accessible to everyone and so turned in his 3 Michelin stars. The restaurant went through a total renovation in design and on the menu so that a meal there is now about 125 euros apiece, whereas it was in the 400 euros per person range. He also opened a bar upstairs where tapas was served until the early hours of the morning. Now that space, called Bar Le Passage serves a real lunch and dinner. Lunch is 36 euros and dinner is 39. So for very little money you can taste from an historic and many- starred French master of cuisine. The restaurant received 2 stars the first year they worked in the new way and have kept these stars since then.

I had never been to Bar Le Passage except for a drink several years ago when it was still a bar. I went to today with a friend and we had a delicious, copious lunch for the 36 euros. On the menu was a lovely crème de courgette for the amuse-bouche; an escabèche of lieu on a bed of potatoes; delicious caramelized, braised veal with vegetables and green asparagus; and a wonderful grilled pineapple served with walnut ice cream. There was so much to eat that I could not finish everything. At night, it is chef's choice after they have discerned your particular likes and dislikes and there is one more main course in addition to what is served at lunch.

Here are pictures of the amuse-bouche and the veal. I was so interested in the conversation and in eating the food, that I forgot to take my usual picture at each course.

My friend and I both thoroughly enjoyed the lunch as the service is very attentive, yet discrete and dignified. True to fashion, there are à la carte items as well as a short and well-selected wine list. M. Senderens is particularly interested in the pairings of wine and food and the staff is ready to counsel you should you wish to indulge.

Vegetarian Dining in Paris: Not easy to find...

The visit of a vegetarian friend spurs me to fine good veggie eating in Paris.


It's not an easy feat to find restaurants for vegetarians in Paris. A friend of mine was visiting and I set myself to the task to find a place where we would all be happy. I wanted something interesting, after all. My friend and her two adult children are not even fishatarians but google came through with a long list of places to research. I chose Godjo--an Ethiopian restaurant that many people had recommended to me. I had eaten at a wonderful Ethiopian restaurant in Nashville, so the thought of trying Godjo was pleasing to me too. Although they take reservations but don't honor them, and although we waited for about 45 minutes for a table, the evening was balmy so we didn't mind standing outside and chatting. This is what we had when we finally sat down and ordered. And it was great

The name of the dish is Ye Tsom--the house specialty for vegetarians. You can also get it with pork or chicken. It comes with a sampling of all the very flavorful vegetable dishes on the menu: eggplant, roasted red peppers, spinach, green beans, chick peas, fava beans, lentils, avocado, etc. Each vegetable is cooked soft and mixed with a variety of herbs and spices resulting in different interesting flavors. You eat this all with spongy bread that is not flavorful but has a wonderful soft texture. We all thought that for the price, the restaurant was well worth the wait. The quarters are cramped and there is an even smaller room downstairs. But there is always a line, and that means good eating.

Two weeks in Indonesia

Creating an authentic Balinese meal as orchestrated by a wonderful chef.


I had a lovely time in Indonesia and rather than write about restaurants, I would like to tell you about the new dishes I learned about and enjoyed.

The high point in the cuisine story was the wonderful cooking class I went to where we made 8 Balinese dishes and three or four sauces. It was at the home of Wayan and Puspa and is called Paon Cooking Class. (My travel agent knew about it. You can find them on the web and the class costs 35,000 rupiah or about $37 American dollars.) Not only was it a hands-on experience but the meal we had was a real feast.

Three of us started in the market in Ubud, Bali, where Maday took us around to show us some of the exotic fruits you now see in very gourmet shops in your town like rambutan or mangoustan. Maday is known at the market so there was not problem with her opening up some of these fruits for us so that we could taste them.

Next, we met the rest of the group at the rice fields, where Wayan showed us the rice plants and seeds and showed us how to husk them. It is a very tedious and long job and I wondered with him why rice isn't more expensive. I guess it is the story of cheap labor.

From then, we went to his home and met charming Puspa.

They spoke to us about some interesting Balinese customs, like the fact that everyone who is the first born has the same name (Wayan) and so on until number 4 (Ketuk). For a fifth child, the name is Wayan again. Of course, each person has a family name and a given name so although I met many Wayans and Madays (number 2), they do go by a different name within the family.

Then we set to work and everyone participated. Maday was there to oversee along with Puspa and one other family member. The large kitchen with dining areas was outside. There is a long workspace with counter and several burners. Opposite the opposite the modern area is the outdoor fireplace where Puspa made coconut oil. Puspa talked to us about all the ingredients and explained what we would be making.

Indonesian and Balinese Cuisine is very spicy and they use a lot of vegetables. I love Urab Urab which is a delicious cold vegetable salad with a spicy sauce often served as a side dish. There is the Indonesian curry, usually with chicken but also with tofu. They use tempeh (fermented tofu which comes in a cylinder) and either fry it up so it is crunchy and serve with a spicy sauce, or add it uncooked to gado gado, a famous dish with tofu, tempeh, vegetables in a delicious sauce. Tuna is also to be found on the menu quite often. Ours was steamed in banana leaf.

The class was great because Puspa rotated all of us into different jobs.

After several hours of work, we sat down to a fantastic meal. I have not yet mentioned the clear mushroom soup, chicken sate, and white and red (rarer) rice to accompany all the dishes. Puspa put chopped chile and served it in separate bowls for the people who wanted to up their spice quotient for this feast.

I went to many restaurants in Bali, Jogjakarta and Lombok and had variations on the same theme everyday. But I must say that the meal that was the most fun and most delicious was at Wayan and Puspa's home.

Singapore: Where Everyday there's a Food Festival in this Ultra Modern City

Three places in Singapore not to be missed for sumptuous cuisine and a fun experience.

I was excited to go to Singapore as I had read and heard that it is full of restaurants. Not only can you get cuisine from all over the world there, but there is also the flavorful Peranakan Cuisine, native to Singapore. I had my first meal at True Blue for this type of cooking. The lovely manager let me choose any table I wished as the place was not crowded at lunch. And then, since I knew nothing of this way of cooking, I asked him to choose for me. I started with a salad of Jantong Pisang (banana blossoms with cucumber) which was flavorful and crunchy. I loved those blossoms. Next came a spicy dish: Ayam Buah Keluak, chicken stewed and served with black nuts and rice. The black nuts look exactly how they sound. You are to scrape the outer tough skins and mix this paste with the rice for a flavorful combination. The chicken was extremely tender and the dish just delicious. With my meal, I had Logan tea which has a natural sweetness without sugar.

The Peranakan Cuisine was beautiful presented, delicious to the taste and a lot of fun as I had never had anything like these dishes before. I was so pleased that the concierge at my hotel recommended it to me.

The next evening, I took a taxi to one of the hawker centers that are a necessary stop for any visitor to Singapore. You can get a meal here for $3 (you even buy your napkin) or $25. I heard that pepper or curry crab are the best things to get but I was not in the mood to fight with crab shell covered with sauce that evening, so I trolled all the stands until I found some dishes that looked and sounded appealing. The hawker center is a large place full of food hawkers behind their stands. You can get all sorts of Asian food here besides the crab, and a particularly popular stop is the satay barbecue stand. It is very hot in the city and I wondered how the man behind that flaming barbecue withstood that intense heat all night. My delicious meal consisted of a dish with tender squid and crunchy celery--perfectly spiced to my taste. To go with that was a noodle dish with tofu. It was $4 Singapore dollars which is about $3.50 American.

The taxi driver overheard me talking in the taxi to my guide, who proclaimed my interest in food. The taxi driver then told us that the traffic jam was due to a big food festival being held right near my hotel. Chefs from all over the world came together to demonstrate their signature dishes. I went the next day and was surprised to find Alain Passard there with his specialty of poached egg with maple cream. Unfortunately, he was too busy to talk to me. At the festival was a store where you could find food from all over the world including La Vache Qui Rit! One man's junk food is another man's gourmet item.

My last night was a celebration. I had heard about this restaurant, Indochine, on Trip Advisor and I too give it high marks. There are several locations but I chose the one view at One Empress Palace. I had a table right next to the water and across from the Asian Civilizations Museum. What a meal! This is Thai food at its best. I was off to a great start with Tam Som Talé, a lovely papaya salad with dried shrimp. It was the best of these I have ever had--so flavorful and well balanced. My main courses were The Chefs Special Grilled Tiger Prawns with a spicy citrus sauce. This dish was almost too beautiful to eat.

Instead of plain rice, I ordered Mee (a yellow noodle) Khmer with chicken, tofu and vegetables. This was the best meal: excellent service and a beautiful setting, but it had a lot of competition. I am thinking of the next time I can take a pause in Singapore on the way to another Asian destination.