Any of you fine people ever been to French Laundry? I'm going to Napa in December and Im wondering if its worth the hassle of securing a reservation. Im always reticent to go to places that are "institutions" as they very often dissapoint. Any other places in the valley that are must visits?

Hoagie, i would probably cross post in the SF thread in EDF.

I have not been to The Laundry nor its 3 star cousin in the Valley, The Restaurant at Meadowood.

If you are expanding to the greater bay area, you also have the choices of Benu, Manresa, Saison for 3 stars and a score of 2 stars (usually I dont find 2 star restaurants any worse and sometimes better as they have at times more WIM)

https://sf.eater.com/maps/michelin-s...-area-2017-map

Nice cashy. Its been a while since I have seen your posts. I remember your food posts from many years ago.

He's been super busy.

Cold tofu with white baby sardines, soy dashi, grated radish, chili, shiso.



Snow crab and avocado salad. Cucumber ribbons.

Wish i had a ring mold.

We go to napa pretty often.
Two birds one stone has been our favorite. Meadowood wasn't great considering its reputation/price. Terra was pretty good, as is FL. You can also do ad hoc which we thought was great but not as fancy as FL of course.

I was disappointed. For the price, I was wildly disappointed. The food was very good, but not inventive in any way. I have no problem dropping $1k on dinner, but it better be amazing and French Laundry was not.

Not surprised. Obviously no comparison in price and notoriety but the best Philly Restaurant the last few years is a place called Laurel--created by Nick Elmi a top chef winner. Went with my GF a year and half ago; spent 350 and it's a BYOB. Needless to say I was disappointed. I'd much rather go to a almost any solid restaurant in the city. The service was good but the food was nothing that amazing.

We also go to Napa with some frequency. Have you tried Sol Bar? We liked it both times we went, although it has a mere one Michelin star and is at a lower price point. We're also pretty big fans of Angele, which is a bit cheaper still.

Heh, speaking of service, anyone else dined at the Culinary Academy in Napa? The price is pretty reasonable, and the food was pretty good, but not as good as Sol Bar or Angele. But what was so notable about it was that it was the most incredibly attentive service I'd ever experienced. It was perhaps well into "too much" territory for some, especially since we had been to Europe recently before our visit there, and we had been used to being ignored. Everyone was exceedingly polite and accommodating, but I couldn't decide if I was being treated like royalty or if I was being pestered.

We have not, but I will make note of it.

Wookie, its because their grade depends on it.

Yes, obviously. I was not confused as to why it was happening, but I am still uncertain as to whether I liked it. It is clear that amazingly attentive service is a company goal, because not just your waiter or waitress dotes on you. There is a whole team that dotes. It can't just be one rogue attendant.

cool dish/plating
tofu is so powerless though which is why I would always marinade it in a vacuum bag with lots of strong flavors(miso, lemon grass etc)

Is there that much difference between Euro 1 or 2 stars and US ones? Its hard to imagine tbh.

This is pretty random, but a few days ago i got an email from the Chefsteps Beta team and they want me to try out a Hestan Cue for 2 weeks. I'm not really sure what to expect, but i am excited to play around with one! I'll report back to the thread on how it is!

thats pretty cool, I wonder how you got selected?

Seems pretty expensive for an induction burner and a pan

yeah way too expensive for sure

Seemingly it was because of how frequently i use my Joule. I'm also located fairly close to their HQ (although i don't know if they know that), so that may have been a factor.

The scallops in that first image on their site are HIDEOUS.

The Impossible Burger FINALLY made it to Dallas so of course I hauled ass over to HopDoddys and had one







First mistake, I should have requested it be cooked medium rare. They didn't ask me how I wanted to cook the meat but I should have brought it up. Unlike higher end places like Momofuku, etc where its been released to chefs who care for the product more, HopDoddys seems more like a McDonalds with a nice atmosphere and a cool vibe and just want to get everything out fast. After talking with the chef or whomever was plating everything, he said they had to cook them all well done which I know isn't true based on the many reviews I've read. Next time, I'm requesting medium rare.

If someone had invited me to their house for burgers and didn't tell me I wasn't eating beef, I wouldn't have known. I would wonder how they got a crunchy exterior (which I kind of liked). The flavor was good and there was something unique about it that I couldn't put my tastebuds on. The look was pretty indistinguishable unless you were trying hard to notice a difference.

For $14.00, I'd prefer to get the double meat patty at the joint down the street from me (for $4 bucks!!) but if someone is trying to give up meat, I think this would more than satisfy any cravings for meat without having to actually eat beef.

Its pretty amazing what a bunch of people in a lab (& 100 million dollars) can come up with. I'm pretty impressed but they have get the cost down if they desire to market to the masses.

i can't tell -- is this lab grown meat or just a vastly improved veggie burger?

Its a veggie burger designed in a lab, here's a blurb from their website:

From their website:

Full Ingredient List:
Water, Textured Wheat Protein, Coconut Oil, Potato Protein, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Leghemoglobin (soy), Yeast Extract, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Konjac Gum, Xanthan Gum, Thiamin (Vitamin B1), Zinc, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12.
Contains:
Soy, Wheat

I think I'd rather just have a couple of large order of greasy french fries.

preface: spouse and i have been on a bit of a tuna melt for dinner kick lately. not a starkist/miracle whip/velveeta kind of kick...more like how can we try to elevate this to something really good because when they're done well they're very very yummy.

last night's version: lightly toast sourdough slices to give them a head start. tuna salad was really good canned albacore (don't skimp on the fish), mayo, capers, cornichons, cracked black, tabasco, and a squeeze of lemon. barely enough mayo to stick everything else together. lately we've been topping it with a shredded blend of asiago/parmesan/romano and finishing in the oven but last night we were all out. we improvised and used a mix of mayo, canned parm, and diced shallots (mostly parm, just a touch of mayo and shallot) and spread the mixture on top before it went in the oven.

400* for about 5 minutes or so to get warm in the middle and finished under the broiler to brown.