Our latest trip to New York City offered a wide variety of food experiences:

per se (3 Michelin stars, 4 NY Times stars)

At one of America’s greatest restaurants, along with our son, his lovely girlfriend, and her fabulous parents, we were treated to a 5 hour meal.  The 17 course menu included 1) a white truffle oil infused custard with a ragout of black winter truffles, 2) cold foie gras served three ways: quail in a jar stuffed with foie gras, a torchon of foie gras with sweet peppers, and kumquats and a gateau of foie gras with pistachio genoise, cherries, and pickled ramps, all accompanied with 6 salt choices including volcanic black salt, and 3) a tenderloin of veal with morel mushrooms enjoyed with a 1996 Groffier Bonnes Mares.

Dovetail (3 NY Times stars)

The ambitious menu of this informal West side restaurant included a porcelat baby pig, poached egg with sweetbreads in a romesco sauce with lardo, a pistachio crusted duck with rhubarb, and a peanut butter tart with beer ice cream.

Bar Boulud

This hot West side restaurant by Lincoln Center features charcuterie platters with a wide range of selections such as rabbit pate, Iberico ham, confits, and sausages.  It is a fun, bustling environment with individual tables as well as community tables and bar seating.

al di la trattoria (3 NT Times stars)

One of Brooklyn’s finest restaurants, this Italian bistro features spring garlic soup, malfatti (swiss chard and ricotta gnocchi) with brown butter and sage, duck paparadelle pasta, and black ink cuttlefish risotto.

Hey, Good-Lookin'
NY food critic, Frank Bruni lists his ideas of the best looking restaurants, food aside. What makes a eye catching restaurant to you? Is it the comfort level? The special occasion factor?

Its Coming Up Alinea
Eater gives an inside scoop of the companion website to Grant Achatz's new book. The website, Alinea Mosaic is unfortunately unavailable to those who have not (at this point) pre-ordered the book, but its interactive capabilities with the stunning gastro-tome will be priceless. I would love to see someone cook their way through this book - a la Carol Blymire's blog, French Laundry at Home about her exploits cooking through The French Laundry Cookbook.

Time to break out your fancy mustaches and berets: It's Bastille Day. If you couldn't get your party on at the Champs-Élysées, have your own French-inspired fête, serving this delicious dish.

With Beijing hosting the Summer Olympics in August, it's certain that a huge number folks from around the globe will pack the city to capacity. If you're one of the fortunate ones to make the trip, my one piece of advice for you is... EAT!

Beijing is famous for its street food scene. At times, I admit it looks more like a zoo than a place to refuel. But trying the fresh squid, scorpions, beetles, variety of brains, and starfish on a stick is a unique experience to city. So take my advice... if it looks good, eat it (and if it doesn't, try it anyway).

Street food can be a potentially serious Pepto Major-Max situation if you're not careful. Here are a few tips to help ensure you don't return from your trip with a belly horror story.

Whenever I dine at a Thai restaurant, I try to order a different entree but must order the same appetizer. Satay. Chicken, pork, shrimp or tofu satay. It is brought to the table straight from the grill: hot and succulent. Typically, satay is served with a chunky peanut sauce which, honestly, I find doesn't do much for the taste.

Sometimes, the sauce can overpower the flavors of the meat itself. (Remember, this is just an individual preference, fostered by the fact that I am not a fan of peanuts.)My version of shrimp satay totally omits the needs for any sauce. By using strong spices and fresh ginger, and marinating for a couple hours, this shrimp satay can stand on its own.

Like Caviar for Chocolate
Will chocolate go the way of such rare and expensive foodstuffs like caviar? Perhaps if farming remains unsustainable. Check out the article on CNN.

Write a recipe that is as Good as it Looks
The Food Section links to a paper company that is making fruit and vegetable papyrus. Hiromi Paper Inc. specializes in a variety of papers, but these gastronome inspired papers are quite stunning.  

Sweet Nightmare
A sweet dream job, tasting new products for Cadbury, turned sour for some tasters as they have been experiencing horrible side effects as a result of their exposure to a new super-sweetener Cadbury was developing. A lawsuit is in effect as Cadbury won't say what they were testing. Get the story here.

Every so often a major newspaper comes out with a series on a topic that really gets into the grit of a situation. Last May, The Washington Post came out with a series on childhood obesity that was particularly insightful. All the articles are still available to read and there is a central website that hosts videos and interactive tools. I highly recommend everyone check this out.

Still Salmonella
Now what? Here's the latest I've come across on the Salmonella outbreak, the Star Tribune of my home turf, Minneapolis/St. Paul, reports that investigators are looking into other ingredients in salsa for the cause of the outbreak. And if that didn't seem like enough news, it looks like this case has spread to our Canadian neighbors. However, Mexico has only been producing clean tomatoes. So where, oh, where will this finally come to its end?

 

This years strawberry crop in my hometown is fantastic, and like you, I have loads of them in my kitchen. Curiously, an unusual feature of the strawberry is the structure. Technically it is a ‘false’ fruit. The seeds, unlike those of any other fruit, are on the outside. These are the true fruits of the plant. The fleshy berry to which they are attached is an enlarged receptacle corresponding to the white cone left behind on the plant when picking a raspberry. Both fruits belong to the same branch of the rose family and have the same fundamental form. The berry we eat is simply a water and nutrition source for the seeds. Here are some good things to remember about the berries and some great recipes.

For use and storage:

Pick firm, plump, red berries, with full green leaves and caps intact with no browning of the stem area. Remember that cold deadens the flavors and texture of most soft fruits.

When it comes to eating unconventional food, can you stomach the extreme? Do bull testicles, moose nose jelly, fermented tofu and frog sashimi make your mouth water? Prove it in AndrewZimmern.com’s Pepto Max-O-Meter Photo Contest.

AndrewZimmern.com and Pepto Bismol will team up in the month of July for a Bizarre Foods-inspired photo contest. Maybe you tried blood pudding while in Iceland, or perhaps an uncle makes a mean nutria dish. Capture your interesting dining experience on film, and you could win fabulous prizes from AndrewZimmern.com and Pepto-Bismol.

The contest runs July 1, 2008 through July 31, 2008. Photos may be submitted online or via U.S. mail. Entrants must be legal residents of the 50 United State or the District of Columbia, and 18 years or older as of July 1, 2008. Check out the official rules for more information.

Three winners will be selected in August, and will receive the first collection of Bizarre Foods on DVD, an autographed photo from Zimmern, and an exclusive Pepto-Bismol Prize Pack, featuring a vintage Pepto-Bismol t-shirt and cornucopia of belly-easing products- a must-have for those considering ingesting anything inspired by Zimmern.

“I receive dozens of emails from fans with their own interesting food stories,” says Zimmern. “In fact, I’ve been challenged countless times to bizarre foods eat-offs. This is a chance for fans to put their money where their mouth is. Who knows? Maybe someone will introduce me to something I’ve never heard of. I’ve been dining on ethnic, traditional foods around the globe for years, and I can’t believe how many interesting items I have yet to sample.”

Here's a few things to accompany you on your Fourth of July weekend...

Food Ideas for the Fourth
Mark Bittman delivers an ultimate list of picnic recipes. These are quick and easy so great to incorporate into your celebration this weekend.
And although it was published a bit ago, these takes on the hot dog from Hot Dog Heaven Chicago chefs are worth a try this weekend.

And When You're Not Grilling...
Tru Than has garnered quite the buzz from Internet food sites like The Amateur Gourmet and Grub Street. Here's a link to her food show.