>gomatamago, ごまたまご, fake egg sesame cake and pudding

goma ごま, 胡麻 (sesame) + tamago たまご, 卵 (egg) = goma tamago (sesame egg)

You find "hard-boiled eggs" on a plate on my table. They may not be all they are cracked up to be. There is a chance they happen to be gomatamago cake. White chocolate shell, sponge cake white, black sesame and bean paste yolk.

If you are into this egg thing, do go after fake egg cups filled with pudding, ごまたまごプリン。(gomatamago "purin"/"puring") Yum.

***
(For sesame seed lovers)
白ごま (しろごま, shirogoma) = white sesame
黒ごま (くろごま, kurogoma) = black sesame
金ごま (きんごま, kingoma) = golden sesame
オープンセサミ! = Open Sesame!

>foie gras bonbon, ice plant salad, cassis caramel at Beast, Portland

The most delicious (or off-putting?) part of dining at Beast is that it feels like being invited to a small private banquet of a distant cousin. The small dining room/kitchen, all in one room, has only two communal tables, one seating twice as many as the other, for a total of only 20+ diners. You talk to the other diners at the table, all of whom you've just met, of course. It's a somewhat casual setting, despite its reputation as a "special occasion" restaurant, and yours truly showed up in jeans and tattered, (tattering, I guess) shirt fitting a dinner at a distant cousin's. No Portlanders seemed to mind.

(I wasn't going to take photos. These are taken with my phone.)

"Menu substitutions are politely declined." Everyone is served identical courses at the same time. This assembly line approach is smart indeed. Good food is prepared more efficiently at a more reasonable price compared to most higher end prix fixe tasting menus.

Their menu changes every day, so... here's the entire meal presented to me on July 8th, 2009.

curried carrot veloute
nasturtium and summer herb salsa verde
fried shallots
syncline underwood mountain vineyard gruner veltliner-2008

charcuterie plate:
foie-gras bonbon, sauternes gelée
steak tartare & quail egg toast
pork, pork liver, sour cherry & pistachio pâte
chicken liver mousse, pickled shallot
cor cellars columbia view sauvignon blanc-2008

baguette, fennel and sweet onion stuffed carlton farm's pork loin
local sour cherry demi glace
romano beans
syncline celilo vineyard pinot noir-2007

strawberry, arugula & ice plant salad
banyuls vinaigrette, marcona almonds & shaved sheep's cheese
strohmeier schilchersekt-nv

-selection of steve's cheese-
anise & fleur de sel shortbread
local honey, figs & candied hazelnuts
cor cellars celilo veneyard alba-2008

currant brown butter tarts
vanilla bean ice cream
cassis caramel
texier o pale viognier-2007

Go with low expectations. Don't expect first class techniques. Expect first class ingredients. Be prepared to be charmed. I was.

>Singapore Sling, motley guises

Feeling a bit nostalgic about a cornball tropical island. It was my island once, and I wonder if it was actually cool back then when I lived there decades ago. I can't remember drinking anything called Singapore Sling (being a good kid, yes I was allowed a taste of any alcoholic beverage of my own choosing,) but sure, I think the cocktail does capture the island's spirit, in a cool retro way. I did revisit the revamped metropolis (pictured right at Raffles Hotel where the famous cocktail was invented) but I'm afraid things were no longer the way I remembered... In any case, Imagine yourself on a sultry evening, sitting on a period stool, dressed in thin floral batik, watching the palm trees sway in the monsoon wind. What's the "correct" recipe? (Pictured right, courtesy of Christ tell, is a proper Raffles serving.) Well, who cares which version of this drink you are holding in your hand? The true Singapore Sling is an elusive idea anyway...

>sake (酒) bars in Korea, makkoli (막걸리) bars in Japan

So sweet.

We are used to seeing these rival countries bicker with each other. Nowadays, something is definitely up. Young Japanese and Koreans are, gingerly, discovering each other. They are, for one, discovering each other's drinks.

Sake bars (사케바) are becoming increasingly popular in South Korea, and makkoli bars (マッコリバー) are becoming increasingly popular in Japan.

Never mind that these are mostly apples and oranges. Well, apples and one crab apple? Okay, rice and rice, but makkoli refers to just one kind of liquor, unfiltered, cloudy, sweet, sour, mild, comparable to nigorizake (濁り酒) but with a lot less alcohol and almost too many flavors. "Sake" pretty much refers to all Japanese....um, sake, well beyond the scope of this single entry.

>green soup with roots and flowers, Ubuntu Napa

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

-William Blake

Microcosmic. Alchemic.

When I beheld this plate (pictured above) mom ordered at Ubuntu, I searched for the right words. You must surely remember your childhood days when you thought, fleetingly, you could live on air, water, and flowers. You mean you never did?

Cool pureed soup of escarole & roscoe's asparagus
-spring roots & flowers, black garlic coulis, nettle ice
(Here's the enlarged "before" picture which shows a big mound of nettle ice)

Flowers don't last, and they are not meant to last. Forget the philistine concept of fashioning them onto a dinner plate. It seems a sacrilege to try to preserve the moment by snapping a picture of them. With modern technology at our (a novice's, in my case) hands, that's exactly what we are doing. Constant, futile attempts to root infinity in the palm of our hands. And what else, really, can we be doing?

Some prefer nettles, and so do I.

>웰빙 "wellbing","luxual","slowbie" fast food, Kraze burger

The "well-being" or "wellbing" (웰빙) movement is an enormous economic and cultural trend in South Korea. When it's applied to food, the core idea is to opt for healthful, fresh, organic (유기농) choices and enjoy them in style and leisure whenever possible. Meat, vegetables, fruit, candy, rice cakes, you name it. (American beef? No thanks!)

A few English-sounding words seem especially well-suited to this "wellbing" concept. For example, 럭셜 "luxual," 슬로비 "slowbie," as in, "That slowbie looks amazingly luxual savoring his wellbing Kraze burger (크라제버거)!"

Kraze Burger, Korea's confident answer to MOS burger (モスバーガー), may not be the undisputed king of wellbeing burgers, however. Any number of humble regional burgers might welcome the chance to vie for that title.

Contestant #1... from Jeju, 30cm, HERB BURGER... and contestant #2...

>gnudi di ricotta di pecora, nude ravioli with sheep's milk cheese

Who can object to generous portions of homey comfort food? Gnudi, no less. Meaning "nude" in a Tuscan dialect, I'm told, pronounced "nudie". Nude, because it's unrobed of its usual pasta covering.

Made famous at Spotted Pig (served with brown butter and sage, pictured right), gnudi at Mia Dona is served with truffle butter sauce, mushrooms, crispy speck and sage (pictured below). It was early in the evening at Mia Dona, but it was still odd to see the rail car-narrow room partially empty. Recession, I know. The long hall is divided up smartly into three distinct spaces, however, and the inner and middle sections were actually all seated, so it didn't look as desolate as my photo might suggest.

(photos also courtesy of roboppy, MidtownLunch)

>Roditis and Negoska wine, dashed Άνθος τ' όνειρό µου

Michael Psilakis, formerly of Onera ("Dreams", Όνειρα) on the Upper West Side, has been offering diners a somewhat unfamiliar concept of high-end Greek fare in the form of Anthos ("Flower", Άνθος) in Midtown West.

I had high hopes for this Greek restaurant, since I adore Greek food. In summary, it is sad to report that food here is no more special than the more reasonably priced casual fare at its cozy (Italian) sister restaurant Mia Dona. However, you'll be all right as long as you remember that "Greek fine dining" is still an oxymoron. Also, be prepared not to be disappointed if they've run out of the braised lamb shank.

And my choice of wine soured the meal as well. I am really not a picky drinker, but the Greek wines, Roditis/Moschifilero, Skouras, Peleponnese, 2007, "bright wine distinguished by its floral characteristics," and Negoska, Angels peak, Macedonia 2006, "rose wine with undertones of strawberry," were downright... awful.