It’s been awhile since I’ve done any fine dining as the last few places I’d been to hadn’t really quite impressed me enough. However, a recent glowing New York Times review upping their previous 3 star review of Italian fine dining staple Del Posto up to the coveted 4 star rating was enough to peak my curiousity. My sister and brother-in-law had previously been there and enjoyed it and also wanted to give it another try for dinner under the new 4 star rating.

We decided to go with the decadent Menu Tradizionale of 7 courses. The menu is shared by the table (we all receive the same dishes) and the dishes decided in advance by the chef. Well, let me go ahead and spoiler you now by telling you that this is one of the best meals I’ve had in New York- well, maybe one of the best meals I’ve had anywhere.

So without further ado, LET THE EATING BEGIN!!

An amuse bouche with a swallow of soup and two savory pastries that I am kind of embarrassed not to be able to remember other than they were DELICIOUS and whet my appetite, making me curious about what the chef had in store for us- just as a good amuse bouche should.

Fresh creamery butter and to the right of it, they actually brought us lardo to enjoy with the bread as well. I’m a big fan of DELICIOUS PORK FAT as much as the next (non-vegetarian) person so I did not object to such a thing.

Bread basket of freshly baked, still warm from the oven breads for DIPPING INTO THE DELICIOUS PORK FAT.

COURSE 1

The following several pictures are close ups of the Del Posto ANTIPASTO dal Carello

Fresh, succulent jumble of seafood.

High-end seafood salad on a sharp salad leaf

Prosciutto wrapped around delectable, smoky parmesan. We were told that the prosciutto is from a pig that was fed parmesan scraps (more specifically: the rinds) so that it’d have a distinct parmesan-y taste so I thought it was ironic that even after it’s death it was still having cheese stuffed into it.

Artichokes and pickled greenery

A fresh salad to balance out the antipasto.

COURSE 2

INSALATA Caprese & Tuna Ventresca

I have a confession to make, this one is only 2 courses into the meal and I think this was my favourite dish of the night. The tomatoes were apparently from the Mt. Vesuvius area and had been preserved in such a way that they were completely EXPLODING with tomato tomato tomato flavour, everything from the texture to the taste to the acidity to the sweetness was just LIEJFIOJAFOJEOIFJIOEJFSKKFJSLADJ in my mouth. The fresh mozzarella was direct from Italy, gooey and milky and fantastic, just 700000 levels above the fresh buffalo mozzarella you can pick up at Costco and Trader Joe’s. The Tuna Ventresca was a sous-vide preparation of tuna that brought out all its fatty unctuousness. It’s been awhile since I’ve been astonished by a dish but this did it. If this is what Italy tastes like, can I move there? CAN I MOVE THERE RIGHT NOW.

COURSE 3

Fonduta ANELLINI with White Truffles & Parmigiano

Actually, thinking about it more, this is also a pretty good contender for my favourite dish of the night, but it has unfair advantage over the previous one for having fresh truffle shavings.  Housemade pasta that you dip, sliding each pasta piece onto your forefinger, into the side rim of white truffle and parmigiano shavings. I actually had a bit of a kerfuffle with this dish because I have this weird OCD thing about not liking to touch  my food / eat with my hands, but they kept taking away and replacing our silverware with each dish and had left us with none for this one as it was meant to be eaten by hand, so I was trying to spear these damn things with my butter knife (left for the bread) until the waiter told me I was DOING IT WRONG (much nicer than that of course). Granted, eating by hand added another layer of, well, I hate to say it and sound cliche, but literally feeling connected with your food. A wonderful, wonderful pasta dish- maybe the best I’ve had.

COURSE 4

100 Layer LASAGNE al Ragù Bolognese

As I was eating this I was trying to count the layers to see if they were BSing us with the whole “100 layers!” thing but I think this thing actually DOES have 100 layers. It’s hard to see from the photo but each sheet of pasta is incredibly thin (the lighting in the restaurant was your standard low fancy restaurant mood lighting; I’m investing in a pro full-frame camera at some point next year to be able to take good low lighting pictures LOOK FORWARD TO IT). Somehow comforting but also high end at the same time? I was pretty impressed by the skill and attention that went into this dish.

COURSE 5

Veal TENDERLOIN with Golden Polenta and Osso Buco Vinaigrette

My sister joked that this was literally the baby version of the filet roast we’d had on Thanksgiving. Adorably one of our servers brought out the little tenderloin to show up before they carved it. It had been baked in some kind of ash. Very lovely little bites of veal, though I’d like to be biased and say our filet roast on Thanksgiving came out better

The Osso Buco Vinaigrette that came out with the veal; a sharp astringent but very nice salad to balance out the richness of the meat and the meal overall.

I believe that at this point we had a sorbet palate cleanser that I forgot to take a picture of so you will just have to picture it in your MIND!

Now ordering the Menu Tradizionale meant that all 3 of us received the same dishes but my brother-in-law requested that they send us three different desserts. Later my sister fretted a bit about whether or not they would remember but he just laughed and said, oh, they will (he cited that he and the sommelier had an UNDERSTANDING, what with all the wine the dude had pushed on him despite us not getting the wine pairings).

COURSES 6 & 7

TARTUFO al Caffe, Dark Chocolate, Sant’Eustachio Coffee, & Candied Lemon

I REALLY WANTED TO EAT THIS but it had caffeine in it, and we’d gotten an 8:45 seating meaning this dish arrived at close to midnight, and I had to be up at 5:30 the next morning to catch a bus to DC. My brother-in-law can handle night!caffeine though and seemed to enjoy it.

Chocolate Ricotta TORTINO, Toasted Sicilian Pistachios & Extra Virgin Olive Oil Gelato

This cake was really rich. I enjoyed the cake but remember thinking the gelato was a little weird. I guess I am just not DARING enough for olive oil gelato

Pineapple CROSTATA, Champagne Vinegar Caramel & Vanilla Gelato

Ok I will tell the truth I don’t really remember eating this one because I think by the time we got to the 3rd dessert I was in the throes of death.

Having fattened us up for the slaughter apparently the only logical thing was to top the whole thing off with a couple more dessert bites and a SECRET DRAWER OF CANDY??? Candy with edible wrappers, even.

Look at these sweet little bites! A perfect cap off to a perfect meal. They sent us home with little boxes of chocolate truffles- only for the ladies, though.

As I’d mentioned at the start of this review, it’s been awhile since I’ve been impressed by a fancy meal. Too often I’ve felt like restaurants of this caliber just haven’t stood up to their price point, and anything in this range should ALWAYS produce a very memorable meal. Del Posto definitely delivered on this front, on everything from the Old Gilded New York interior to the quality of the wait staff (we had at least 6-8 people dedicated to our table- 3 would silently arrive like clockwork to remove our plates/silverware, 3 more would arrive to plate our food simultaneously, and several more would explain thoroughly the dishes we were about to enjoy. Perhaps extraneous, but it did create an atmosphere of being pampered. If you’ve got a special occasion, want a taste of the decadent side of Italy, or just plain happen to be in New York and want a truly delicious, memorable meal, I do not hesitate to recommend you fight for a reservation at Del Posto.

some type of tartare which i didn’t try

scallops with snap peas… solid dish

i think this was the crispy oyster and pork… sounded good on the menu, was good… how would you screw up crispy oysters and pork though?

bone marrow- yummy!

an indian tasting soup…

snapper, which was quite delicious

a yummy duck dish

thai noodles…

some type of miso cake which was a little strange

the famous yuzu dessert

everyone liked this pear crisp

mmm… chocolate……

This delectable specimen of a filet mignon roast is brought to you by Ottomanelli’s & Sons, one of those almost landmark New York butchers that seems to have been around forever, and whom everyone seems to go whenever they need a quality cut of meat. As our parents were in Taiwan this year at the end of November (and thus did not host Thanksgiving) I journeyed east for Thanksgiving in New York. Originally my sister wanted for us to do prime rib but there were only going to be 4 people at our Thanksgiving dinner and the smallest cut of prime rib the butcher showed us was still too large to feed 3 Chinese people and 1 white man. I should mention that the butcher was probably the super nicest butcher I have ever run into. There were a ton of people in the shop clearly there to pick up their Thanksgiving turkeys and the line was snaking rapidly outside the door while big sis and I hemmed and hawed about what kind of meat we should buy. He recommended the filet mignon roast cut instead. We hemmed and hawed some more. The line continued to build. People gave us dirty looks. An elderly customer with a thick New York accent wouldn’t stop inquiring about how many we were feeding, what we wanted to do with the roast, giving us advice, etc. Finally we decided on the filet mignon roast. As the line still continued to build out the door, the butcher patiently explained to us exactly how we should cook it, for how long, what I should coat it with, etc. As we were leaving, the elderly gentleman who’d been asking us questions before leaned over in a conspiratory manner and whispered, “You made the right choice, girls.”

The butcher advised us to leave the fat on during the roasting process to lend richer flavour to the roast. We decided to roast in a cast iron skillet to collect all the drippings so we could also make gravy. He recommended we coat the outside with kosher salt, freshly ground pepper and peppercorns, and “gahhhlic, if you laike that kinda thang” (sorry, I am very amused by New York accents). The meat should be roasted at 350 for 40 minutes. However we had a lot of doubts once I started googling roast recipes, and we also had some adventures with faulty meat thermometers making us think the roast was first severely undercooked, then massively overcooked, which more or less resulted in my sister running around yelling about how Thanksgiving was ruined now. Granted she is also pregnant and hormonal so I guess we can’t really blame her.

Thankfully the butcher was right on target, we should have trusted him from the start, as we more or less ended up cooking the meat at 350 for about 40 minutes. The fat and the salt/pepper/garlic coating slipped right off during the carving process. The meat inside was nicely seasoned and very tender and succulent, just the right amount of rare and just the right amount of cooked. THANKSGIVING WAS NOT RUINED AFTER ALL. I’m sorry Mr. Butcher we should have never doubted you!

Gravy made from the drippings of the roast deglazed with chicken stock and with cornstarch added to thicken it up. We also made horseradish sauce to go with the meat.

A massive amount of mac n cheese we made following a City Bakery recipe that included a blend of 3 different cheeses. Unfortunately we forgot to add salt in the process so it was a bit undersalted.

Kale to offset the richness of the whole meal. UNPICTURED BECAUSE I FORGOT TO TAKE PHOTOS: the very delectable garlic mashed potatoes our little brother made with almost a whole bulb of roasted garlic and an obscene amount of butter, and the 43985384578934759834 gougeres we made the day before that I couldn’t stop eating, to the point where my sister had to hide them from me. The next day all the leftovers were repurposed into brunch. Thanksgiving! It only comes once a year so you better believe that I take what I can get.

a semi-recent new york times article about exploring tokyo via its ramen shops left me desolate, homesick, and hungry. i whined to friends about the lack of REAL quality ramen here in the bay area- hell, even in los angeles, which has some pretty decent ramen. a friend kept suggesting ramen joint after ramen joint up here that i kept shooting down again and again. sorry, i told him, but when you’ve lived out in the japanese countryside and eaten ramen made by some 60 year old man who has been making ramen for the last 50 years, who got up at 5 am to start making that magical pork broth, really, nothing else can compare. he told me my standards were too high if the barometer was that the chef had to have been making the dish for 5/6 of his life haha. but it can’t be helped, my friends, because i am a ramen snob.

it wasn’t always this way. i used to associate the word with that instant cardboard drivel so many friends and boyfriends seemed to subsist off of in college. but then i moved to the boondocks of japan, where only a few days off the plane, a few days of settling into my tiny apartment, i slurped down my first real bowl of ramen. porky, soothing, a perfect mix of textures, it soon became our go-to after karate meal, the perfect lunch during weekend trips to tokyo, and i knew that i’d finally earned the trust of my coworkers once they shared with me the secret of their favourite ramen shop just out of town- a magical place with truly magical broth and 500 yen bowls of ramen. it was there that for the very first time i drank every single drop of the broth following my meal- japanese coworkers had confided that the mark of a truly delicious ramen is one where you feel compelled to drink all the broth. so for me, ramen has that extraordinarily powerful wallop of sentimentality. reading that new york times article, i missed, with almost a physical ache, the perfect bowl of ramen. well, the universe must have heard my cry, because lo and behold, last night i was lucky enough to secure the very last spot in a secret guerilla ramen night at a private home in san francisco.

guerilla ramen night was organized by my friend yoko’s collective food blog, the very cool umamimart. back when i was a student, yoko and i worked together one summer at a crazy computer camp on the berkeley campus, and after i graduated, she and i moved to japan around the same time. she’s back in the bay area now, and her friend/founder of umamimart, kayoko (who also, funnily enough, knew my sister in new york- what a small world!) knows a guy- a guy who is not only crazy about ramen, but also crazy talented at MAKING ramen. he’s gone to japan to research making ramen many times. he makes his own homemade noodles, stews a from-scratch broth for hours, and marinates the pork loin to perfect succulence. this past sunday night, he and his very gracious wife opened their home to a small horde of hungry ramen fans, and treated us to an unforgettable evening.

homemade ramen noodles waiting to be cooked.

a single bowl of broth waits patiently on the stove for its dollop of noodles

puttin’ in all the fixins’

yoko digs into her bowl of spicy ramen with relish. she and her husband had dressed for the ballet earlier that day and added another level of ambiance to the evening.

look at that hot ball o’ spice!!!

a juicy bite of pork in yoko’s ramen

my bowl of ramen- the special. included pork, spicy roe, and wood ear.

oh my god you guys, so good… SO GOOD!!! best i’ve had since leaving japan. i don’t know if any of you have ever watched japanese television, but my favourite show is one called “my little chef“, where a young japanese chef makes food so good it makes the eaters go into ecstasies of sentimentality and nostalgia. eating this, i felt like i was back in the countryside again, looking out a window at rice paddies, enjoying a quiet afternoon, thinking about where i was going to explore next. look at how creamy that broth is. the consistency of the fresh-made noodles were soft, but not too soft, and contrasted nicely against the crunch of the bamboo, the green onion, and the pickled ginger. the spicy roe gave an extra kick to the already wonderfully flavourful broth.

the pork was perfect- juicy and tender. the egg was a revelation- the yolk had absorbed all the porky-goodness of the broth, and was just the right silky consistency. i wish i had taken a photo of the bowl when i was done, i was very tempted to lick the bottom clean. i drank ALL the broth, sodium intake be damned.

but wait, the excitement isn’t over yet…! our gracious host even made ICE CREAM!! there were two flavours to choose from- a coconut porter made from a homebrew our host and his friends make, and a mint mint ice cream. i went with the coconut, which was a very nice way to end such a rich meal- fresh, light, and very delicious.

once again, thanks so much to umamimart and to our host and his wife for such a wonderful, delicious evening! i gave up my current cycle of vegetarianism for this night, and believe me, it was so, so worth it. if y’all do another guerilla ramen night… let me know… i’ll be the one slurping down the noodles and crying nostalgically into the broth.

wash and scrub up the clams as much as possible so that you get rid of as much sand as you can. soak them in water for about an hour, clean and change out the water, and soak for another hour.

finely mince half an onion. i need to start wearing goggles while cutting onions because i never fail to descend into a weeping mess. crying for no reason! so post modern.

we don’t really drink so this is the only white wine in the house, used to occasionally poach salmon. finished off the bottle, giving me about 1.25 cups of white wine. the recipe calls for 2 cups, but it seemed pretty versatile as you could also go with just one cup of a dry white vermouth.

the prepared pot with all the ingredients- the white wine, 6 tbsps of butter, finely minced onion, 8 sprigs of parsley (i put in less as i’m not that much of a parsley fan), pepper, 1/4 tbsp of thyme leaves, and half a bay leaf.

bring the mixture to a boil for 2 minutes to burn off the alcohol. it’s gonna start smelling reaaal good

add the clams and cover the pot. steam for five minutes, occasionally shaking the pot to help them cook more evenly.

after about 5 minutes the clams should open. if not, ladle out the ones that have opened and let the others cook until they’ve fully “popped” open (you should be able to hear the pop)

the broth is terrific with a good, crusty bread to help sop it up- we heated up an epi from bouchon. this was actually baked into the shape of a heart!

ENJOY!!! unbelievably delicious- the fragrant clams really perfumed the white wine broth with all its buttery goodness and even though i’m not a parsley fan it did really bring out the flavour of the wine and the clams. the minced onions give just a little crunch to the juicy tenderness of the just opened clams. start to finish, including my slow-ass cutting of the onions, this probably took about 15 minutes top- maybe even 10. highly recommended- it’s SO easy and so good! definitely going to make this again when i can find mussels at the supermarket- or clams for that matter.

this thing is a behemoth. and veritable encyclopedia of deliciousness francais.

aside from a couple of handdrawn diagramesque pictures this is what much of the cookbook looks like. now, i’m the kind of learning impaired retard who needs to learn things visually. i learned to cook from being shown or from following photograph laden cookbooks discovered in secondhand bookshops in japan, or the step by step photopr0n of people like the pioneer woman- so i’ll be doing my best here. for your benefit (those of you as intimidated by word laden tomes as i am), whenever i cook from this classic encyclopedia, i’ll do a step by step with photos.

to start off i decided to go with something simple- artichokes with a lemon butter sauce

fresh artichokes! wash ‘em up.

steam them in whichever way is easiest- our vegetable steamer is really convenient.

cut up a fresh lemon

juicing up a whole lemon will get you about 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

one whole stick of butter!

slice the butter into 8 pieces

boil the fresh lemon juice with salt and pepper down to about 1 tablespoon

remove from heat and wisk in 2 pieces of the butter

return to low heat and one by one add in each piece of butter, whisking together

always taste while you cook! i found the lemon to be too sharp and cutting so i added brown sugar until the flavour rounded out.

at the end you should have a rich, fluffy, buttery lemony sauce

pour over your freshly steamed, cut (with choke removed) artichokes and serve immediately. enjoy some fantastic buttery goodness!

i decided to start off learning the recipes of mastering the art of french cooking with 3 dishes- unfortunately the one i tried after this one was VERY unsuccessful- the garlic soup, despite an enormous amount of effort (all the time i spent slowly beating, drop by drop, the soup into the egg yolks! all that straining!) it was a huge clunker- i kept wondering if i’d done something wrong but i followed the recipe to a T and ended up with a weird concoction of hot water tasting vaguely of garlic and olive oil. it was so bad i actually threw the rest of the batch out. but the next recipe i tried out was both easy AND incredibly delicious- stay tuned for moules a la mariniere… with a twist!

as a sidenote i quite stupidly left my camera on in my bag on the drive up (and hadn’t brought my charger) so that by the time we got to ubuntu there wasn’t really any battery left. i’m shocked i somehow even managed to get these shots; these were obtained by popping the battery in and out of the cam before each shot and not being able to 1) preview the shots, or 2) change any of the settings, including ISO, so it’s a wonder they even came out at all. anyway. on with the food.

my apologies to the poor waiter in this shot; i know it’s kind of hilariously unflattering but it’s also the only shot i got of the open kitchen. we were seated in the middle of the restaurant with a view of the open kitchen where they busily prepared the food.

transcendent butter! i’m a sucker for butter. i’m more of a sucker for fresh butter, mmm

a special of the day, rosemary lemonade. look at that cute, fresh little spring! i was afraid the rosemary might end up overpowering but it ended up just nicely, lightly perfuming the fresh taste of lemon.

borage and lemongrass curry- chard condimento & pickled stems, whipped coconut, preserved lemon
“why little sis,” you must be saying to yourself now, “how on earth is it that you managed to remember everything that went into this soup? usually your posts end up consisting of titles like “this was some kind of green curry soup, bollocks if i remember what was in it”. well, reader, i have a confession to make- i took one of the menus with me. anyway, we LOVED this soup. it was curry, yet it was light. it was fresh, flavourful, and each element was in good balance, we were afraid that either the curry or the lemongrass would overpower. not the case. surprisingly refreshing for a curry soup. we sopped every last drop of this up with bread.

salad of assorted broccoli and cauliflower- miso bagna cauda, sylvetta arugula, meyer lemon, parmesan
yum!!!! i love it when simple dishes are done well. this was an exceptional example of how simple, good ingredients can make a vegetable shine. the miso gave a nice unexpected touch.

cool burrata with a garnet yam-stuffed donut- smoked trumpet “bacon”, foraged green salad, sherry maple
we agreed that this was the most unique of the 3 dishes we ordered. the yam-stuffed donut had the consistency of my beloved japanese curry-pan (a fried bun of bread filled with curry- though in this case it was filled with a sweet yam filling). the contrast of textures between the salad, the creamy burrata cheese, and the fried donut were pretty interesting.

after brunch instead of ordering a dessert at ubuntu we opted to go to the nearby sift bakery for cupcakes and coffee as we’d seen it on our way in and a quick iphone yelp assuaged fears about dubious quality. what a cute little store! half cutesy fashion boutique, half bakery. we split two cupcakes- one that was basically a boston creme pie in a cupcake and the other a chocolate ganache with a white chocolate filling. unfortunately the coffee was subpar and we felt like the fillings of the cupcakes were too near room temperature to be enjoyable and the texture of the cake wasn’t quite right.

sadly this is also around the time my camera died for good. we’d eaten light at ubuntu to be able to keep eating our way all the way to st. helena- such adventures! so many things bought at bouchon bakery! but alas, perhaps another time….

watermelon iced tea and chicory coffee. the refills kept coming! the watermelon tea (aren’t the chunks of fruit adorable?) was a wonderful mix of freshly squeezed watermelon and fragrant iced tea. the coffee was also good, but i just got back from costa rica so….. (see below LOL)….

a flight of beignets which were the following flavours:

creole crawfish, molten chocolate, warm cinammon apple, and regular. we liked the cheesy creole crawfish one the best- intense and flavourful- and the beignets were fried perfectly- fluffy on the inside, crispy on the outside without being oily.

eggs benedict with fried catfish. i can’t resist eggs benedict (no wonder my cholesterol is so high) and i can’t resist fried anything. this was a nice southern take on eggs benedict and the biscuits were AMAZING! so buttery, so flaky. this was a daily special not on the menu.

remember those delicious biscuits? well, good thing we got the biscuits and gravy, which were another daily special. i could eat this sausage gravy until i DIED. very meaty, a touch spicy, and soooooooooooo decadent,  it was like eating some kind of delicious, delicious death. this is how southerners eat, y’all.

we also ordered these housemade granola pancakes in some kind of misguided attempt to be healthy but by the time we were through with all 3 preceding fat-soaked dishes we were pretty much ready to die and ascend into some kind of new orleans heaven. i LOVE granola and my go-to before sleep snack is usually fruit/yogurt/granola but in this case it made the texture of the pancake kind of weird.  it was the only dish i didn’t wildly love but that could also have something to do with the fact that i was so full at that point any more food began to resemble an enemy.

is brenda’s soul food worth the atrociously hungry wait if you stop by on the weekend? this southern-raised girl says YES! the staff is adorably friendly, the food got marks of approval from all 3 diners in our group, and we left happy and satisfied, though sad/a little bit ashamed to leave behind ginormous amounts of uneaten pancake.

i heartily admit to being a coffee-lover. i stopped drinking it for years when it, uhm, gave me an ulcer from too many all-week study sessions consisting only of coffee and no food, but recently i’ve fallen back under its addictive, caffeinated spell.

i go out of my way to seek out good coffee. blue bottle in san francisco is excellent. for awhile, there was an espresso trend in taiwan that yielded stunningly good coffee. but i have to tell you- costa rican coffee is the best i’ve ever had in my life.

the very best coffee of the trip, i have to say, was the freshly made coffee given to us by the wonderful jose of rustic lodge in monteverde, where we stayed two nights of our trip, spending our days ziplining through the cloudforest, riding horses into the sunset, and looking for exotic animals on night hikes. he brewed the coffee for us as soon as we arrived fresh from the volcano arenal, for breakfasts in the morning, and once when we turned up bedraggled after a morning of ziplining. as i sipped, i asked him if the bags of coffee we’d seen in reception were what we were drinking. he laughed and explained that they grew the coffee themselves, roasted it themselves, and then kept it in a tin in the kitchen. unfortunately, it was not for sale. the coffee for sale in reception was by one of his neighbours, but, laughing, he told us not to buy it because it was so overpriced, and to just go to the supermarket! i later did, returning home with several packages. but when i voiced my dismay at not being able to bring back with me the delicious coffee of the lodge, he laughed again, good-naturedly. “i know!”, he said. “it’s so good!” my friends, the man wasn’t boasting or teasing me. truly, it was amazing coffee, a cup that i am very sad to have left behind in costa rica.