The Last of the Californian Foie Gras Dinners

The ban of production and sales of foie gras in the State of California, U.S.A., will come into effect on the First of July, 2012.  It is not exactly news as the ban became state law seven years ago.  Still, foie gras lovers react to the doomsday emotionally.  They have been scrambling for their last foie gras dinners since May this year.  

Below is a six-course Foie Gras tasting menu at a San Francisco restaurant:

Amuse Bouche

Foie Gras Soup

Truffled Crackers, Seared Foie Gras, Glazed Baby Turnips

Hudson Valley Foie Gras Torchon

Smoked Apple Barbeque Glazed Squab, Caramelized Onion and Strawberry Compote

Seared Day Boat Scallop and Foie Gras

on Seared Yukon Gold Potatoes with Sherry Vinegar, Truffle Sauce

Foie Gras Stuffed Quail

Wild Mushroom Salad, Quail Garlic Jus

Tournedos Rossini

with Truffle Madeira Sauce

Bittersweet Chocolat and Foie Gras Mousses

on Crunchy Feuilletine, Hazelnut Praline Sponge Cake, Cassis Gelee, Bacon Ice Cream

Petit Fours

This traditional French restaurant is known for its good food and its generous portion.  The chef does not believe in the trendy two-bites-per-plate nonsense.  So, how much foie gras does one consume in these six courses?  Answer: 16-18 ounces.  In other words, a pound or more of fatty duck liver.  Absolutely delicious, decadent, and artery blocking.

Foie gras aficionados are stocking up before the ban begins; many shops have sold out.  Restaurants inform diners that they can buy foie gras from them and take it home (storing it at the restaurants would be illegal).  When the diners bring it back anytime after June 30th, the restaurants will cook it for them.  It works because there will be no sales involved at dinner time.

There are talks of black market, free private dinners with "donations" and other creative ways to get around the law.  When all fails, Californians can always go to Las Vegas in the neighboring state of Nevada where fine dining establishments will continue to dish out foie gras.  

Wine and Japanese Restaurants

Drinking in Japan has changed a lot in the past two decades.  While shochu (a clear spirit distilled usually from sweet potatoes but also from wheat, rice, barley and even chestnut) has successfully challenged the popularity of beer and sake, wine is the latest darling.  

Wine, of course, is not new to Japan.  It was introduced to the country by the Jesuits in the 16^th century.  But only in recent years have traditional Japanese restaurants put wine on their drink lists.  Now you see words like “grape wine” on street banners of ordinary restaurants, such as the one I ran into in Hiroo, and you know that wine is for salary-men just as much as for the elites.

  

Wine gurus have always influenced wine trends and sales.  In the U.S., there is Robert Parker; in England Jancis Robinson.  In Japan, the most influential wine people are the brother and sister Yuko and Shin Kibayashi, real life wine and food enthusiasts with a sizable wine cellar.  They authored under the pseudonym of Tadashi Agi the tremendously popular manga series “Kami no Shizuku” (“The Drops of God” in English), a story on the search for some of the best wines of the world.  The series has been translated into various foreign languages and has boosted wine sales significantly both inside and outside Japan. 

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One evening at Sushi-Ko Honten in Ginza, the sushi chef served a bottle of Volnay to a couple at the end of the counter.  I chatted with him when he was free.

     “I did not know that you serve wine here.  I did not see a wine list.”

     “We do not have a wine list.”

     “Then how would customers know that you serve wine, and what to order?”

     “We make recommendations.”

Oh!

He went on to tell me that the owner of Sushi-Ko had been stocking up Burgundy for twenty years, and that the restaurant had an inventory of over 10,000 bottles stored in four locations.  

     “How well does red Burgundy pair with sushi?”

     “It goes well, especially with red flesh fish.  But the wine needs to have some years on it.”  By some, he meant ten or more years.

     “I am more a white wine person.  I like Meursault.”

     “That won’t be a problem.  We have Meursault from Coche-Dury, Ente, Lafon, …”  He recited the list of who’s who of white Burgundy.

     “What pairs well with Meursault?”

     “Anago.  The acidity of the wine cuts through the fat under the skin of the fish and results in a perfect harmony.”

Then he added, “I am off tomorrow.  But if you come to lunch, I shall be here with a nice bottle of Meursault for you.”  He did not say which Meursault.  Nor did he mention the price.  He had just made his recommendation.

               

Garlic stems, scapes, shoots – they’re all the same!

I love going to market!  There are always new things to discover if you’re adventurous.  This time it’s garlic stems.  Shoppers walked by and casually picked up a bunch without hesitation or saw the need to inspect the goods (they did look very fresh even from afar).  I stopped a man who was about to turn away with his bunch.  In response to my question, he used his hands to show me a chopping motion and fired off instructions in rapid Mandarin.  Ah, I got the drift!  This is a great way to learn about new things to cook and practise your Mandarin while you're at it!

The stems smelled very garlicky and had a real bite when I tried it raw.  I could imagine it would be good chopped up and stir-fried with any kind of sliced meat or tofu, mushrooms, etc. and proceeded to plan my dish.   King mushroom would provide a firm chewy contrast to the crisp green stems and tofu would add a softer texture.  I browned the cubed firm tofu in oil with some ginger before tossing in some sliced king mushrooms, adding a ¼ cup of chicken stock which was quickly reduced as the mushrooms cooked.  After removing the tofu and mushrooms from the pan, I heated oil then threw in the garlic stems that had been cut into inch-long pieces.  I stir fried the stems, covered with lid for a few minutes until cooked then added the tofu and mushrooms.  A dash of cooking wine, pepper, touch of oyster sauce completed the flavouring.   It was a surprise to me how sweet the stems were when cooked – quite a contrast to the bitter taste when it was raw.  There are recipes for using the stems uncooked, in salads among other things - but not for me.

Catch this early summer vegetable while you can in the markets, you likely won’t see it later in the summer.  And it supposedly has nutritional value similar to the garlic cloves! 

On the 2012 World’s 50 Best Restaurants List

The 2012 edition of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants List was released at the end of April (see www.theworlds50best.com/awards/1-50-winners/).  The annual list was first published by the Restaurant Magazine in the U.K. in 2002 and has since been expanded to 100 despite its name.  

There is no doubt that the restaurants on the list are good.  Noma (#1) deserves to be congratulated for popularizing the foraged food trend.  But one may argue whether these 100 restaurants are really the best (I doubt), and whether their ranking makes sense (I doubt that as well).  Let me illustrate with a few observations.

The U.S. has the most number of restaurants on the list: 8 of the Best 50 and 14 of the Best 100.   On the other hand, Japan has only two.  This is curious given Japan has been awarded more Michelin 3 stars than any other country in the world.  So much is clear: the Best 50 List panelists and the Michelin inspectors use different methodologies.  

Another observation: Thomas Keller has two restaurants on the list.  His flagship, The French Laundry, is ranked #43 while its sibling, Per Se in NYC, is #6.  The two serve similar, if not identical, dishes.  They do have different ambience – Big Apple chic versus rustic wine country charm.  Can that explain the huge difference in their ranking?  

The Restaurant Magazine states that it has no hand in the making of the list.  It just tallies up the entries of 837 panelists from around the world.  It further details the rules which seem fair and objective.  But the Devil is in the details.  

For 2012, the world was divided up into 27 regions to “fairly represent the global restaurant scene at the current time”. One country, the U.S., has three of the 27 regions (that is 11%).  That explains the high number of U.S. restaurants on the list. 

Asian cuisines are heavily under-represented.  Only six of the Best 100 serves “Asian” food if one includes teppan-yaki, which is an U.S. invention, and non-Asian operations.  The six are #28 Ryugin (Japanese, Tokyo), #39 Waku Ghin (teppan-yaki, Singapore), #50 Nahm (Thai, Bangkok, Australian owner/chef), #84 Bukhara (Indian, New Delhi), #93 Lung King Heen (Cantonese, Hong Kong) and #100 Hakkasan Mayfair (Chinese, London, Abu Dhabi owner).  In his own words, David Chang’s #37 Momofuku Ssam Bar and #79 Momofuku Ko are not Asian.  China has six restaurants on the list, and five of them are western.  Most likely this is because all but one of the 27 regional chairpersons were westerners, and they influenced the make-up of their panels..

Despite its built-in systemic bias, I enjoy reading the list every year.  It is fun to see who has moved up, or down, or get dropped.  Just don’t take the list too seriously.  

Shaved asparagus

After reading about the shaved asparagus in the Frank at the AGO post, a friend of mine said she’d try and make the shaved asparagus.  I never did hear back from her how it went but she had inspired me to try it myself.  I quickly discovered that the shaving was not as simple as one might think.  I only have to do eight spears for  two servings but it took a while.  I can imagine it could get a bit tedious if you have to prepare for, say, a dinner for six. 

I had initially held the asparagus in my hand and shaved it like I would a carrot.  But as the asparagus got thinner, it became harder to shave and the shavings became more uneven.  I subsequently looked it up on the internet and learned that a better way to shave it is to put it down on a board and shave sideways.  See below.  

The shaving also got a bit tricky.  The first few shaves were easy and quite neat.  But when I got down to the end, it got more difficult to create an even “shave”.  The last pieces were thicker and therefore would take longer to cook.

I didn’t look up any recipes but thought I’d just stir fry it.  Heated up some olive oil, threw in some minced garlic, then tossed in the asparagus shavings, dash of cooking wine, salt and pepper to taste when done.  This came out quite tasty and had more volume than I’d expect from eight stalks of asparagus.  It is the typical Chinese food phenomenon (akin to the five loaves and two fishes miracle?!) – when you cut things up into small slices, there always seemed to be more and you could serve more people with it.  So the eight spears provided a decent plateful, clearly too much for two.  So if you’re cooking for six, you probably wouldn’t need to do six times 8 spears.  I’d think if you’re just serving this as a side, 10 spears would be plenty for six.  And not a whole lot of work afterall - if you do it the right way!