Ulukai on 18/11/2010 at 17:13

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I missed this thread the first time around, but I've come to love my food much more since then. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on the subject, but I've also come to know what I like and Alinea sounds like something I'd love to experience.

I was recently lucky enough* to dine a la carte at the 3 Michelin Star (http://www.dekarmeliet.be/flash.htm) De Karmeliet in Bruges. Now I'm not a huge fan of raw fish usually, but it featured in at least two courses and I loved it. It was also the first time I've ever had oysters. Eight (or was it nine?) courses and slightly less wines later, I knew it was one of the best meals I'd ever had and boy do I have an appetite for more.

* Meaning I wasn't paying

Because I have no shame, I took a picture of my favourite dessert. It looks like a chocolate tower of some sort, and it is. But that does not do it justice, no sirree.

http://www.zen80200.zen.co.uk/defb.jpg

I'd love to get my girlfriend and I reservations to The Fat Duck for her birthday - apparently the trick is to phone bang on 8am Monday morning, as that's when the next block of reservations opens for the subsequent period two months later...and promptly sells out about 30 seconds later. Hadn't realised you can book (http://www.thefatduck.co.uk/Reservations/) online now, maybe I'll give that a try. When it's not displaying some sort of ColdFusion error, maybe.

Other restaurants of note I've been in (i.e. that some of you might know of/been in)

(http://www.chateau-guetsch.ch/) Guetsch, Lucerne. Now sadly closed for renovation. No stars, but it was a beautiful seven-course meal and you cannot fail to enjoy dinner with what feels like the whole of Switzerland twinkling in the valley beneath you. And I got served curried cappuccino as some kind of fluid amuse-bouche <3

(http://www.gordonramsay.com/mazeatthelondonnyc/) Maze NYC. Been here, RBJ? I was disappointed. Was well aware of the tasting-style menu before I booked - the food was competent but nothing more and the whole experience was rather soulless. Amazing service though, I'll give them that. The night before I had dinner in some anonymous Manhatten Mexican run by crazy people and hand-on-heart, it was so much more tasty if not a technical masterpiece.

But then there's rather more to a restaurant than just the food, neh?

I'll see you in the Fat Duck, SE :cool:

Ulukai on 18/11/2010 at 18:00

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You have to get your head around the mindset of many smaller courses taking the place of one big one. Words also fail to do justice to how good some if this stuff tastes. I don't dine out to look at pretty treacle towers either. If you get the chance to go to such a restaurant, I can only implore that you take it and go in with only the preconception that you're going to enjoy yourself.

Gryzemuis on 19/11/2010 at 00:31

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I must be fucked in the head that I try to answer your question. The guy who comes into threads, tells everybody the subject is retarded, and thus all the people involved in the discussion are retarded, and then expects everybody to leave and let the thread die. Anyway, I like the subject of cooking. So here I go.

In the past, people have asked me what kind of music I like. I like a lot of different music. But there is a shitload more of music that I don't like. What was the binding factor for me ? Only after many years I realized what it is that makes me like music.

I like music that sounds like nothing I've heard before.
So it's not one genre. It's music from different genres, but the music that does something different. Something innovative. Or something weird. Just something that makes me think: wtf is this ?

I realized I have the same taste in films. Films that do not resemble anything I've seen before. Not the usual love-story, but a story I haven't seen before. Anything different, as long as it makes me think "wtf did I just see there ?". I saw Eraserhead, Stalker (by Tarkovski), Herzog films when I was 20 years old. The 2nd half of Taxi Driver (that explosion of violence was rare in movies back then). I read L'Etranger, Journey to the End of the Night. Stuff that I found completely different from all the stuff I've seen, read and heard before.

Eating in these restaurants is similar.
It can be an experience you have never had before. You will taste things you have never tasted before. Combinations of flavors that you tasted before. Things that you thought would not combine. But when you taste it, it does. I've had things like Piccalilli Icecream ! The food can just taste good. But it can also be a surprise. It can even be fun.

Of course, this is not the case in all good restaurants. Not even in all restaurants that have one or more Michellin stars. There is a large school of cooking that wants chefs to cook food in a very strict and classical way. The extra price you pay in these restaurants is because of the eye for detail and perfection. But a steak still tastes like a steak. Just a very good steak. There is no creativity and no surprise. And of course you pay for the entourage and the service. But I don't care much for entourage and service. In fact, I feel less at home in fancy places. But not so little at home that I don't care to go. But I rather go to a restaurant that tries to surprise me. That lets me taste something new.

You can see this style of classical cooking not only in individual restaurants, but also in whole cuisines of cooking. E.g. the Italians find it very important that food is prepared in the same old tradtition. It always has to taste the same. No exceptions. It is said that all Italians aren't perfectly happy about the restaurants in Italy, because no restaurant cooks their pastas in the *exact* same way their mother did. And their mother's style of cooking is always the only right way to cook a dish. :) Jamie Oliver (a famour british tv chef) once did a whole series of cooking programs while on the road in Italy. The Italians drove him nuts. He hated them. Example: Jamie saw a local dish, with the local ingredients (e.g. local fresh fish, with local herbs). He then made the same dish, but adjusted it a little. Added some stuff, or changed the way of preparation of the fish. And then served it to the local Italians. Their response was always: "yeah, it tastes good. but that is not the proper way to prepare a Tuna. you kinda wasted a good fish. if you had prepared it the proper/classical/my-mom's way, it would have been better". I don't think Jamie ever wants to go back to Italy. :)

So to recap: what is the attraction of those fancy restaurants with their weird food ? Surprise. Food in El Bulli and The Fat Duck, but also in Alinea, Momofuku Ssam Bar and other likewise restaurants does not only taste good. It will also give you impressions you never had before.

Scots Taffer on 19/11/2010 at 02:18

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good on you, dethtool

(I agree you didn't say this subject is retarded, but you did then paint the subject in a fairly unflattering light)

Mr.Duck on 19/11/2010 at 06:18

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Hey, Biko (in Mexico) made it on the list, yay!

Wish more Mexican-cuisine restaurants (in Mexico) made it there, though :(

God, if I ever have the chance to hang out with any of you guys again (raphy, you were my first!!!), point me to a fancy, but good, restaurant and I'll take my and your tab (as long as you don't go Highway Star on the expense, ya bastard.... ;) ).

I -love- the experience of fine cuisine. In both small and large quantities....*drools*

I do confess I love me a good sweet prepared cocktail or two....not much of a drinker, so couldn't care less for beer, and, Culinary Gods forgive me, wine. Unless it were in a tasty prepared drink ;)

Shit....the TTLG Cookbook thread needs a spinoff in mixed drinks....the TTLG Bar Drinks Recipe.....hmmmm.....