>salmon caviar vs. trout caviar

If rarity makes a product more distinguished, trout roe seems doomed to be run-of-the-mill from the start.

Considering how familiar salmon roe -'salmon caviar'- is in sushi joints (ikura), trout roe or 'trout caviar' seems somewhat of a novelty, yet it crops up from a bountiful source.

Just like its fellow roe-harvestees (sturgeon, paddlefish, whitefish...), a trout can be bursting with eggs. The trout roe looks like mini salmon roe, similar in color and and bubble wrap texture.

Already widely enjoyed in Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe, trout caviar is increasingly mass-produced in farms. Caviar extracted from farmed trouts may not be killed for the eggs, unlike "the iconic caviar producers" which "must be killed to extract their caviar, and are becoming increasingly rare in their native Russian waterways" according to abc.net.au.

>Toast with fried quail eggs, trout caviar and butter, El Lliure, Barcelona, Spain
>Artic char tartare with basil and trout caviar, Bar Room at The Modern, New York, NY
>Poached lobster Russian salad, water vinaigrette & ocean trout caviar, Village East, London, UK

>affordable set menu banquets

At Chinese restaurants, ordering one of the set menus -the ones without English translation- for the entire table can be somewhat exciting. I don't mind a few misses - this particular banquet happened to be ten times cheaper than a chef's tasting menu at a typical top-tier restaurant.

A multi-course meal served family-style - it can be a very happy experience indeed, as this one turned out to be. Pictures are from Wednesday's 9-course dinner at Gourmet Delight in Oakland, CA. (The last item on the menu, a sweet bean dessert, is not pictured.)

>thymus sweetbread vs. pancreas sweetbread

We made it to a family dinner at Incanto last Saturday after an unexpected delay.We toured the nearby old church of Mission Dolores (Mission San Francisco de Asis) and came back to the car to find the rear left tire flat. My very first. After a helpful visit from AAA, we were on our way, hungry and half an hour late.

I opted for sanguinaccio (fine-textured blood sausage) and the chef's special sweetbread. Mom is the only one who can't stand 'offal', so she went for house-marinated olives and halibut with greens. I now put 'offal' in quotes. Not only are these parts edible, they are increasingly prized by ordinary restaurants and diners. Incanto is known for plentiful offerings of uncommon cuts, and I was surprised to find only a couple of 'offal' options Saturday evening.
As I stretched my neck and belly to attempt to point to different types of 'sweetbreads', I became unsure of the exact locations of each. I had to come home to look them up.

Which sweetbread do you prefer? I think the name should be more specific, and I don't just mean the veal/lamb distinction. We think nothing of graphic-sounding names when we are used to them. 'Liver', 'pork belly', 'fish cheeks'... we might start calling sweetbreads by their real name - pancreas and thymus glands. 

...  (um) ...

Maybe not. 

>chashu vs. char siu

Char siu is a familiar word, even in America.

Char siu bao, the steamed pork buns on dim sum carts,
Char siu (barbecued) pork at Chinese mom-and-pop restaurants,
BBQ char siu chicken at many mainstream restaurants...

Char siu literally means fork-roast (you know, not roasted fork, but roasted on forks).

<--photo by "the food pornographer" (flickr)

Even the Japanese call their version of this pork chashu, taken directly from Chinese, rather than calling it, say, matayaki, or sasho. Invariably in Japan, chashu means pork slices topping ramen noodles.

Which version is better, Chinese or Japanese?

For me, nothing beats a good char siew mee from a Singaporean hawker stall, commonly accompanied by wontons (wantans).

>buttery chardonnay vs. perfumey chardonnay

Even I, not the sharpest wine taster in the world, have tasted the distinct difference.

Some chardonnays are "butter-bombs" - smooth like butter, smell like butter, taste like butter. Less outrageous wine notes include "sweet corn", "popcorn", "cream"...

-Marcassin Chardonnay 1998, Lorenzo Vineyard, Sonoma Coast

Rather than being buttery, some chardonnays are sharper, more perfumey, rosy, lemony.

-Blason de Bourgogne 2004, Saint-Veran (a "chardonnay" or white Burgundy)

Scientists are able to isolate the chemical compounds responsible for these different taste sensations.

The chemical responsible for the buttery taste is diacetyl, the cute puppylike compound on the left.

One of the chemicals responsible for the perfumey, citrusy sensation is linalool on the right.

>quinoa chirashi

The "hot" new Conde Nast business magazine "Portfolio" doesn't appear so hot, yet.

When I do a search, this magazine comes up first.

Anyway, the NEW Portfolio does have a website.

In one of their videos -and it does have a Food & Drink page- a Gourmet magazine columnist tours and samples the Hearst Tower cafeteria food at Cafe57.

Here's a screen shot of one of those dishes. (Notice the misspelling of chirashi? It should be quinoa chirashi, not quinoa "chirachi".) For the full video, go to Hearst.

We've seen chirashi sushi. Cafe 57's version looks like its veggie cousin, with quinoa "rice".

So what does chirashi actually mean?
It's uncaked sushi, and comes from a word meaning loose or scattered.

Untidy, in other words.
But colorful, I have to say.

>gefilte fish vs. kamaboko

If you debone a white fish, puree the meat, and cook it into a firm cake, what do you call it?

The Japanese call a version of it kamaboko, and the Jews call a version of it gefilte fish. Then there are numerous types of Chinese white fish balls we won't get into here.

kaba or gama (cattail, bulrush) + hoko (halbert) = kamaboko

Common sightings of kamaboko include bowls of oden, Hawaiian noodle soup called saimin (which is even offered by McDonald's) served with other nerimono (a more general word for "kneaded" paste or jelly)

Sightings of gefilte fish on a Seder table. I can't tell you if Moses would have dined on gefilte fish among the bulrushes.

>taimeshi

A popular tai preparation.
(Please let me know if you ever get tired of hearing about *&#* tai. I warned you about the Japanese love for tai.)

tai + meshi (cooked rice, meal, food) = taimeshi

This love is as big as what you might feel for hamburgers. To me, taimeshi is rice with minced tai, cooked, sometimes raw. Not rice topped with whole steamed tai, although that is also called taimeshi. Harder to eat!


***
Understandably, some folks go after the young things - taimeshi prepared with an equivalent of spring chicken - sakuradai.

sakura (cherry blossom) + tai = sakuradai

>taiyaki the faux tai

Another tai.
Or is it?

Rather than the flesh-and-bone variety, this is the bean-and-batter variety. Sweet azuki red bean paste filling (anko, koshi-an or tsubu-an) inside soft pancake batter, that is. Shaped into (why in the...?) fish - more specifically, our very own, tai, and cooked rather quickly in some contraption - a cross between a waffle iron and a foosball table.

tai + yaki (toast, roast, broiling, baking) = taiyaki

For Japanese children, taiyaki stands loom large, on the order of magnitude of an ice cream truck.

>the fat duck per se

...So I couldn't resist doing a Google map mashup of the so-called "World's 100 Best Restaurants". This exercise, while silly, is surprisingly useful, since you do get to read the current cultural current. Depicted here are the "top 50". The rest of the 100 entries can be found here. (You can click on individual restaurants, zoom in and out, and have the choice of map view, satellite view or hybrid.)

The mashup has minimum info so far, but I will add more details (websites and other useful tidbits) whenever I think of something.

1. El Bulli, Spain
2. The Fat Duck, UK
3. Pierre Gagnaire, France
4. The French Laundry, USA
5. Tetsuya's, Australia
6. Bras, France
7. Mugaritz, Spain
8. Le Louis XV, Monaco
9. Per Se, USA
10. Arzak, Spain...

And these are 13 out of the "top 50", all concentrated here.

>poetry in degustation

What is it about lists? Everybody hates them, but wants to be on them anyway. List it, and they will come...

Three Singaporean restaurants made the "World's 100 Best Restaurants" compiled by Restaurant Magazine. Iggy's, Les Amis, and My Humble House.

My Humble House has an unforgettable menu, and I foresee many such Chinese menus to come our way. Under cryptic menu headings such as "Memories of that spring", "The wind wafts above the shoulder", "The delicate snow fell at midnight", "Infinite pleasures at My Humble House - weekend getaway", Chinese dishes are named the way they are supposed to be in the first place. Samples:

若疏柳淡烟，鲜虾饺子手拉面
The Inspiration –
Handspun Noodles with Fresh Shrimp Dumplings

晴空一鹤排云上，蟹肉蟹黄扒时蔬
The Beauty of Rapture -
Seasonal Vegetables with Crabmeat and Crab Roe

浓浓的滋补炖汤
Elixir of Life –
Double Boiled Soup of the Day

春风如酒，夏风如茗，秋风如烟
点心三品
Delightful Dew –
My Humble House Dim Sum Trio

尽入鱼樵闲话，黑椒排骨伴馒头
Deep, Deep, Ocean –
Wok Grilled Pork Ribs in Black Pepper Sauce,
served with Crisp Cigar Bun

梦入芙蓉浦，香烤鳕鱼浓鸡汤
Pillow Talk -
Grilled Fillet of Silver Cod in Savory Chicken Gravy

听凤笙吹下，赛蟹蒸鳕鱼
Paradise Found -
Steamed Marinated Fillet of Silver Cod with Egg White and Black Vinegar Sauce

淡花疏影里，花雕脆皮子鸡
Sensuous Comfort -
Signature Crisp Fried Spring Chicken marinated in Hua Diao Wine

牧童遥指，杏花雨，腊味荷叶饭
Night is in the Air -
Steamed Rice with Preserved Meat in Lotus Leaf

落花风起，清汤雪梨冰冻
Cool Pleasures -
Chilled Snow Pear Sorbet with “Cheng Tang”

珠泽柔润，香芒布丁伴椰子雪糕
Perfect Ending -
Homemade Mango Pudding with Coconut Sorbet

>pomegranate vodka, et al.

The vodka craze is far from over.

Okay, I happen to like vodka, and it's my preferred spirit for cocktails, precisely because its taste is neutral. But even if I could tell the difference, I cannot see myself going gaga over super top-shelf picks. The success of premium flavored vodkas still boggles my mind.

It was sort of interesting when I saw vodkas made from grapes and not potatoes or grains such as wheat or rye, not that it would make appreciable taste difference.

But most novelty vodkas are flavor-added vodkas, and we routinely see anything from cherries to cherimoyas, chillis to cumin. Apple, raspberry, guava, kiwi, fig, peach, lemon, lingonberry, currant, lime, melon, mandarin orange, pear, green tea, vanilla... etc. etc.

And pomegranate vodka.

I was hoping this wasn't flavored vodka, but vodka distilled from pomegranate pomace. Which sounds feasible if you consider the popularity of pomegranate wine in the Middle East, Central Asia, Eastern Europe. Not that it'll ever be a rival to the mighty grape, pomegranate is a staple ingredient, and is used for all sorts of intriguing sauces such as the Azerbaijani narsharab (narşərab), Turkish nar eksisi.

I will try a vodka distilled from pomegranates when it becomes available. Not that I could tell the difference!

>manti, mantu, mantou, mandoo, mandu, manju

Variations of this name appear all over Central Asia and beyond. You can try to guess how our little manti (pronounced mantu) travelled along the Silk Road.

Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Korea, eventually to Japan.

The Chinese character "man" (饅) in mantou was custom-made for this dish, meaning steamed bun or dumpling.

"Tou"(頭), meaning "head", was conveniently added to make it sound similar to the original dish.

By the time it arrived in Japan, it mutated from meat and vegetable dumpling to sweet bean jam dumpling made with rice flour, called manju. 饅頭.

>akodai the red corkeye?

Sebastes matsubarae, akodai, (yet another tai) also known as menuke ("uncorked eye") or akou, this tasty deep-sea fish is unforgettable once you've laid eyes on him. Those bulging eyeballs! Ahhh...

ako(u) (red fish) + tai = akodai

The top one on the right is an adult, and under it is a young'un, eyes not yet bulging. All that high pressure living, tsk, tsk.

As tasty as kinmedai, this sea bream/snapper/rockfish ought to be more in demand, but it doesn't even have an agreed-upon English name.

The leading contender is red rockfish, but the name is also used for slightly different rockfish varieties. So... red rock snapper? Red bulge eye? Red rock sea bream? Or akodai. Take your pick. My vote is for red corkeye, or simply, corkeye.

>Akoudai, Kanoyama, New York, NY

>ishidai the false parrot fish

Yet another tai. This one seems to have more English names than the number of zebra stripes he sports. Certainly more names than our International star matodai.

Ishidai (Oplegnathus fasciatus) appears here and there as striped beak perch, stone snapper, stone flounder, stone sea bream, false parrot fish, parrot bass, striped knifejaw, barred knifejaw, and simply snapper. Apparently he is NOT zebra bass.

Ishi (stone) + tai = ishidai

He makes delectable sashimi and sushi, usually costing about the same as chutoro or uni.

>Ishidai (a la carte), Ushikawa Maru, New York, NY

>Ishidai, "Live striped beak perch", Ikesu Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan

>strewn with streusel

PER SE CHEF'S TASTING MENU final course

>"TENTATION AU CHOCOLAT, NOISETTE ET LAIT"

Milk Chocolate "Cremeux" and Hazelnut "Streusel" with Condensed Milk Sorbet, "Pain au Lait" Sauce and Sweetened Salty Hazelnuts

In other words;
>CHOCOLATE TEMPTATION, HAZELNUT AND MILK

Creamy Milk Chocolate and Crumbly Hazelnut Cake with Condensed Milk Sorbet, Milk Bread Sauce and Sweetened Salty Hazelnuts

<-- photo by venguyen

Here's a streusel recipe.

>jackfruit and passionfruit

PER SE CHEF'S TASTING MENU course #8

>JACKFRUIT SORBET
Persimmon Pudding, Passionfruit "Nuage" and Fresh Shaved Coconut

Jackfruit may resemble durian the "king of fruit", but jackfruit is no "king of fruit". It is much cheaper (at least in the tropics), less threatening (smaller thorns), not "stinky", really, more fruity and juicy, not custardy at all.

Jackfruit tastes like musky lychee. Passionfruit's concentrated aroma makes you think of apricots and grapes, only more citrusy.

According to crfg.org, "The jackfruit tree is handsome and stately. In the tropics it grows to an enormous size, like a large eastern oak. In California it is very doubtful that it would ever approach this size. All parts contain a sticky, white latex... When fully ripe, the unopened jackfruit emits a strong disagreeable odor, resembling that of decayed onions, while the pulp of the opened fruit smells of pineapple and banana."

Also according to crfg.org, "The unique flavor (of passionfruit) is appealing, musky, guava-like and sweet/tart to tart. The yellow form has generally larger fruit than the purple, but the pulp of the purple is less acid, richer in aroma and flavor, and has a higher proportion of juice (35-38%)." It lists many hybrids. Purple - Black Knight, Edgehill, Frederick, Kahuna, Paul Ecke, Purple Giant, Red Rover. Yellow - Brazilian Golden, Golden Giant.

It makes a fine "cloud".

>goat milk cheese a cappella

PER SE CHEF'S TASTING MENU course #7

>ANDANTE DAIRY "ACAPELLA"
Globe Artichokes, Swiss Chard Ribs, Sungold Tomatoes, "Croutons de Pain de Campagne" and Roquette Coulis

"Acapella is goat's milk singing without accompaniment."
-Andante Dairy

So...
Per Se proudly presents one of its star goat milk cheeses, accompaniment by artichokes, Swiss chard, tomatoes, country bread croutons and arugula sauce.

Some choir.