It's My Birthday and I'll Eat What I Want To

It was recently my birthday and as a treat, my lovely Squidward treated me to some very very delicious meals. First, an oldie but a goodie, Il Mulino. Il Mulino in Tokyo (there's one in NY too) is a great place to go if you're hungry and like Italian food. Like, real Italian food, not Spaghetti made with ketchup. Before you sit down at your table, there's already 4 plates of antipasti waiting for you. That's my kind of restaurant. A word to the wise, the specials never change. Another word to the wise, get the specials. 

Now on to the main event. On Sunday night, Squids and I headed to Joel Robuchon, which is housed in this random chateau in the middle of Ebisu Garden Place next to the Yebisu Beer Museum. Classy! A quick run down: Joel Robuchon has the most Michelin stars in the world, this one has 3 and he was named "Chef of the Century" by some people. Oh, and he's cool enough to appear on Top Chef! Last year, I had my birthday lunch at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Roppongi. It was a takeout chicken sandwich with brie and a side of Perrier. Oh how I'm moving up in the world!

 We ordered the tasting menu. It started off with a bang with some caviar mixed with crab and some sort of gelee. Delicious!

 So, I didn't have the balls to whip out my camera for every dish but this pearl pasta was too cute to not grab a quick snap with my iPhone. This was our 4th "main course" and I couldn't even finish this tiny plate of pasta because I was so stuffed. Everything was mindblowingly delicious though. My favorite was the egg dish which was wrapped in pasta like a little ravioli.

I really liked the waitstaff. Fine dining can be really annoying and people take themselves way too seriously. But the staff at Joel Robuchon were fun, funny and kept a close but not too close eye on us. We started making Sweet and Low castles and counting all the dessert spoons on the table and our waiters thought it was very funny and joked around with us. It really put me at ease. 

Did you know that petit fours does not mean that you get to choose 4 small little dessert treats from the petit fours cart? Yeah, me neither. (It means "small oven" and you can have as many as you want! Even better!)

No Joel Robuchon, thank YOU! Get ready for a bold, but factual statement: This is the best meal and best restaurant I've ever had. Yes, even better than Ko. First of all, this meal had about 17 dishes and every single one was interesting and delicious. If you ever have the chance to check it out, please do it! It is fantastic. 

By the way, what kind of people eat at Joel Robuchon? Former heads of state, that's who! On this particular night, we were surprised to see that our neighbor was none other than former Prime Minister Taro Aso! Well, we didn't notice until he got up to leave and only because Squids was mocking his amazing leather briefcase/clutch type thing. Taro Aso, by the way, is pretty cool. He's only my 2nd favorite Japanese politician (first place goes to Junichiro Koizumi because he looks like my dad and has AWESOME hair) but he's a pretty cool guy to see at a fancy dinner. According to his wikipedia entry, he loves fine dining! And now I can vouch for that. 

Why hello there birthday present! Happy birthday to me! 

Hong Kong :: Hutong, More like Woo!tong

On the our last night in Hong Kong, Squids and I made 7pm reservations at a Michelin starred restaurant called Hutong. Hutongs are narrow streets and alley ways in Beijing and the food served here is a modern take on the food that can be found in hutongs. There are a few cuisines, like Chinese and Mexican, that I think is best in the mom and pop shops with plastic covered tables and sticky floors. But a few of Hutong's dishes really made me rethink this especially factoring the amazing view of Victoria Harbour. Much to the annoyance of our waiters, we ate very slowly in order to catch the 8pm Symphony of Lights shows from our table. Every night, the buildings on Hong Kong Island put on a lovely light show that is best viewed from Kowloon. We enjoyed the show while sipping on lychee wine and chowing down on crispy lamb, noodles and apple fritters. It was the perfect way to end our trip.

Lychee rice wine served in a classic clay tea pot. This would most certainly make my mom sing, as she tends to do when she has a little something to drink. 

 Simple noodle soup with shitake mushrooms. The broth was incredibly flavorful. This was Squidward's favorite. 

My favorite dish of the night, crispy lamb done in a traditional peking style. I have never had lamb so juicy and delicious as this. It has a salty and crispy"skin" (I don't think it was actual skin...that would be kind of gnarly) which gave it some texture. I hope they never take this off their menu. 

Apple "eggrolls" for dessert. This definitely reminded me a lot of my dad. He's doesn't spend a ton of time cooking. He's mostly responsible for stocking my mom's kitchen with the proper tools and gizmos and telling her how delicious her meals are. But he does have a few signature dishes up his sleeve, one being banana fritters with honey and sugar and vanilla ice cream. I think that's why I tend to like fruit desserts over chocolate. 

We actually ordered a lot more food than this, but the restaurant is VERY dark and my pictures were coming out pretty bad and I think my flash was really annoying some of our neighbors. The menu at Hutong, like many Chinese restaurants, is HUGE. I welcome the chance to go back and try some of their other dishes. 

Les Creations de Narisawa :: The Review

I've been meaning to write about our experience at Les Creations de Narisawa for awhile. This is, if you remember, the best restaurant in Asia according to San Pellegrino and a handful of notable chefs from around the world. My honest opinion is that...well...it's good, but it just didn't live up to the hype. I think Squidward put it best when he said that the meal just wasn't visceral. There was a lot of technique shown in the cooking -- stuff I didn't quite understand, but sounded very complex. This and the fact that all his ingredients either come from his own garden or from local sources are probably the reasons why professionals and fellow chefs rank Narisawa in the highest regard.  I still really enjoyed the experience and it is certainly one of the better (albeit, most expensive) restaurants I've eaten at in my so far, short life. I still rank Momofuku Ko as hands down, the best meal I've ever had. Twice.

The August 2010 theme was Gifts from Nature. Here are some of the highlights of my experience:

Our road map for the evening. 

Everything on this plate is edible and I liked eating it with my hands. Now THAT's getting down with nature. 

Can you guess what this is? 

Now it's in a clay pot sitting on our table for a few courses. 

Tada! It's bread! Fermented and baked right at your table! This was by far my favorite part of the meal. Neat trick. 

Not too many Michelin starred restaurants would have the balls to serve you a pot of dirt. Well this one didn't either. This is actually butter for the bread with a dehydrated olive tapenade on top. SO cute. 

Bad picture but this is one of Narisawa's signature dishes. A strawberry and fois gras salad. Very very delicious. 

The main course. Super duper tender and slow cooked steak in leek ashes. 

After 2 desserts, we were treated to anything we wanted from their petits fours cart. I definitely took advantage. Here are some mini macarons in a variety of flavors.  

I actually would be really open to returning for another meal. As the menu changes month to month and dishes dictated by seasonality, perhaps a fall or winter meal would be more up my ally. 

Les Créations de NARISAWA :: Reservations Booked

I'm sure you've read this about a million times, but Tokyo has the most Michelin stars of all the cities in the world. I've been here almost a year and have yet to eat at any of them. Shame! Especially considering that there is a Michelin starred tempura shop right on my street. There are lots of reasons but it's mostly because aside from Michelin starred establishments, Tokyo has amazing food EVERYWHERE. Go! Go! Curry, basically any ramen shop in town...the list is pretty long but for the most part, these kinds of places are more accessible and sometimes more delicious in a low brow kind of way.

But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't dying to try out a few of the highly rated and celebrated restaurants in Tokyo. So, why not start off with a bang?! Les Créations de NARISAWA has won the Best Restaurant in Asia award from The S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants annual ranking. It's billed as modern French and as the name of the restaurant suggests, it serves the creations of chef Yoshihiro Narisawa. Our reservations are for this Saturday August 6th and from the looks of it, we're in for a long, delicious and playful treat!

to be continued...