The life and times of Jeffrey Forman.

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  Jeff Forman 2:01 pm on December 29, 2012 Permalink  

  California 2012, thricely. 

  Condensed version of trip #3 to California.

  San Diego

  • Sushi Ota: Sake and sushi with Mozilla folks. For the quality of the sushi (incredible), the price (reasonable) blew me away.
  • Tajima: Ramen! The spicy miso ramen here lives up to its name, be prepared.
  • Fish Market
  • Cucina Urbana: Serious Italian, and a wine list to match. Funky interior too.
  • Davanti Enoteca: Good tripe dish

  San Francisco

  • State Bird Provisions: Dim sum delivery, California style.
  • Black Point Cafe: Coffee refuel near the Golden Gate Bridge. Killer latte. Gary Danko
  • Spruce: The duck. Yes, get the duck.
  • Philz Coffee: No justification needed. Had to restock the East Coast supply.
  • Acqurello
  • Izakaya Roku: More ramen! Sake!
  • Humphry Slocombe: Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream. Good lord. I can now die a happy man.
  • Incanto: Charcuterie zen master.

  Napa/St Helena

  • White Rock Winery: We happened upon this one as they were dumping out the lower quality wine. So sad.
  • Oakville Grocery Co: Mid-Napa refuel. Bread, cheese, meats.
  • Saddleback Cellars
  • Gott’s Roadside: The juxtaposition of this in Napa is pretty jarring. Their milkshakes are a nice divider between all the wine.
  • Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars: This is where I cemented the fact that I like the smaller wineries, rather than the commercial behemoths.
  • Cliff Lede Winery
  • Morimoto Napa

  Central California Coast

  • La Bicyclette (Carmel): Pizza, charcuterie, cheese. Take out. To be returned.
  • Sierra Mar at Post Ranch Inn (Big Sur): One of the most spectacular sunset views on the Pacific Coast. Food is damn tasty too.
  • Big Sur Bakery: Brunch doesn’t start until 1030am, but the fruit strudel and latte’s are killer.
  • Dover Canyon Winery: Our first foray into Paso Robles wines. Unexpectedly awesome. Along with their 185 lb. St Bernard named Thunder.
  • Turley Winery
  • Whalebone: Free chili with every tasting. Clutch with all the damn rain.
  • Adelaide Winery
  • Olavino: Olive oil and salt, one made with ghost chili. Holy crap. and holy good.
  • L’Adventure Winery
   
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  Jeff Forman 12:52 pm on March 24, 2012 Permalink  

  Remind Me: Damage done in San Francisco in six days 

  I am lucky enough to have a sister living out in San Francisco, and to be able to work out of our offices there. Below is a hit list of the places I ate at and visited in the span of six days. My stomach has finally recovered.

  Wineries (Sonoma County):

  • Preston Vineyards: https://www.prestonvineyards.com/com
  • Unti Vineyards: http://www.untivineyards.com/
  • Bella Vineyards and Wine Caves: http://www.bellawinery.com/
  • Truett Hurst Vineyards: http://www.truetthurst.com/
  • Dry Creek General Store: http://drycreekgeneralstore1881.com/

  Both of us are lucky enough to have been through Napa several times, so we decided to venture into Sonoma County. The last item in that list is an unsuspecting general store off of Dry Creek Road in Heldsburg which has an incredible sandwich list. This area turns Napa on its head, with a much more family-run low-key atmosphere. There is none of the pretense of visiting a large production winery such as Mondavi or the herds of people who visit Duckhorn.

  To Eat:

  • Izakaya Sozai: http://www.izakayasozai.com/
  • Burma Superstar: http://www.burmasuperstar.com/
  • Bar Bambino: http://barbambino.com/
  • Yank Sing: http://www.yanksing.com/
  • La Folie: http://www.lafolie.com/
  • Hog Island Oysters (Marshall, CA): http://www.hogislandoysters.com/
  • Mission Chinese: http://www.missionchinesefood.com/
  • Foreign Cinema: http://www.foreigncinema.com/

  I cannot recommend every one of these places enough. Izakaya Sozai serves killer ramen. Yank Sing serves dim sum on weekend mornings that melt in your mouth. Shuck your own oysters at Hog Island (we learned in about 30 seconds) at the farm while sitting on benches along Tomales Bay. Mission Chinese blasts gangster rap while you gorge yourself on craveable Chinese food.

  Go, eat, recover later.

   
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  Jeff Forman 12:26 pm on April 26, 2010 Permalink  

  Wine Riot 2010 

  I have been meaning to write this post for a few weeks, both as a recap of the event, and as a reminder to myself of the wine I want to keep a lookout for.

  For those not familiar with Wine Riot, it’s basically a beer festival/tasting, but with wine. A bunch of retailers, distributors and vineyards themselves come to the event and give samples of their product to attendees. This happened to be the biggest surprise for me. Having been to several beerfests previously, I am used to the brewer themselves being there. This gives patrons the ability to speak to the people behind the product. You can really learn a lot from those people, all the nuances and thought behind a new series of brews, and upcoming products. Wine Riot had a much higher percentage of distributors and wine purveyors on-hand, as opposed to winemakers themselves. To the best of my memory, I don’t remmeber speaking to more than a handful of actual winemakers or people from the actual vineyard. In total, there were about 50 booths set up in the Cyclorama in Boston’s South End.

  Below is the list of wine I vaguely scribbled as myself, M, and some friends made our way ‘around the world of wine.’ In no particular order.

  • Oyster Bay Marlborough Pinot Noir 2008 (New Zealand)
  • Esporao Reserva White 2008 (Portugal)
  • Sequana Vineyards Dutton Ranch Pinot Noir 2007 (California, Russian River Valley)
  • Corvidae Wine Co Wise Guy Sauvignon Blanc 2009  (Washington, Columbia Valley)
  • Corvidae Wine Co “Lenore” Syrah 2007 (Washington, Columbia Valley)
  • Charles Smith Wines Kung Fu Girl Riesling 2009 (Washington, Columbia Valley)
  • K Milbrandt Syrah 2007 (Washigton, Wahluke Slope)
  • K Viognier 2009 (Washington, Columbia Valley)
  • Terra Rosa Old Vine Malbec 2007 (Argentina)
  • Porta Wines Syrah WInemaker Reserva 2008 (Chile, Acongagua Valley)
  • Terra Andina Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 (Chile)
  • Yellow+Blue Torrontes 2009
  • Herdade do Esporao Touriga Nacional 2007 (Portugal, Alentejo)
  • Podere San Lorenzo Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2007 (Italy, Toscana)
  • NV Mionetto Moscato Dolce (Italy)
  • Corelli 34′ Malbec 2008 (Argentina, Mendoza)
  • Cahteau Lacombe Noaillac 2006 (France, Bordeaux)
  • Domain La Croix Belle Champ du Coq 2007 (France, Languedoc)

  My biggest surprise was the Yellow+Blue Torrontes, a wine served from a plastic container, almost like Franzia’s popular low cost wine in the square box. It was surprisingly good for the connotation that boxed-wine has.  Overall the event was worth going, especially because I was able to use a Groupon I purchased, saving me $10/ticket from the normally $30/ticket price. Local restaurants Upper Crust Pizza, Legal Seafood, and Redbones BBQ were among others selling food at the event. Given a Groupon being offered for next year, I highly recommend the event for those interested in wine, and will return myself.

   
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  Jeff Forman 7:31 pm on February 6, 2010 Permalink  

  Holy Dim Sum 

  I was down in Chinatown a couple weeks ago having shabu shabu while my mother was in town. I was waiting for her to arrive, and wandered over to an area of the neighborhood I don’t normally frequent (the East side of Surface Road for those curious)t. I came upon Hei La Moon, a resturant I had frequently read about via local food blogs and forums. I grabbed a menu and noticed that the dim sum list was at least 20-30 deep. It’s a big place, one massive room, with pictures on the front doors showing carts weaving their way through a packed weekend lunch service.

  Two weeks later, M and I, along with another couple friends who have become our restaurant seekers-in-crime, descended upon HLM at 12:30pm on a Saturday afternoon. To say this place was busy is an understatement. Now I don’t pretend to speak any Chinese, but that’s all I heard among the hostess shouting out numbers to parties waiting to be seated. (Being the stereotypical white male, I have heard the adage that a restaurant with ‘locals’ to the cuisine is normally very good, so I was psyched.) Without waiting more than 5-10 minutes, we were ushered through the throngs of people and incredible number of staff pushing carts to our table. I looked around and all I saw was a sea of people and staff, working the crowds entering and exiting, ushering food between tables, and turning tables over for the next party.

  Within 30 seconds of being seated, we had a cart off to the side of our table, with a waitress offering us various kinds of dumplings. This is all from memory, as I was not able to either take pictures nor write down any of what we had due to the intense commotion of the entire dining room. (In no particular order)

  • Beef Ball
  • Tripe
  • Peking Duck
  • Tofu skins
  • Pork knuckles with thick wonton noodles (the latter were incredible)
  • Steamed shrimp dumplings
  • Steamed Pork buns
  • Sticky rice with peanuts
  • and others I am unable to remember.

  This was a new experience for me, having never had ‘cart service’ dim sum. Waitresses did speak English, but over the din of the dining room (it was incredibly loud, but still possible to carry a conversation at your table), we ended up just pointing to things we wanted and that we hoped had the food we expected in them.

  There were some hits, like the peking duck, tripes, and wonton noodles. Each had a distinct flavor, never bland, and perfectly cooked, even though they had probably been sitting on the cart for several minutes making their way around the dining room. And there were some misses, although few and far between. Only the beef balls and sticky rice received less-than-rave reviews. We found those dishes to be very single-note, with not much interesting flavor. The beef balls tasted more like meatloaf, of which I am not a fan. The sticky rice had boiled peanuts, which surprisingly added no peanut flavor to the dish. We drank hot tea throughout the meal, but I must imagine cold water and soft drinks are available. Flagging down a waiter or waitress was not a problem when we were looking for more dishes, most of the time they came to us before we were done.

  Needless to say, we were full, but not stuffed, after polishing off the food we had ‘ordered.’ The one thing we were unsure of was just how much money we spent, given that the dim sum menu has no prices. After giving them my credit card and hoping for the best, a bill of $44 came back. We were blown away that so much food came from $11 a person. While not an every weekend trek for us from the near suburbs, we will definitely be back to try more of the menu and experience the frenzied atmosphere of Hei La Moon.

   
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  Jeff Forman 3:49 pm on September 19, 2009 Permalink
  Tags: Boston ( 6 ), Food ( 5 ), sushi   

  O Ya for Sushi? Oh Yeah 

  I had RSVP’d for Ignite Boston 6, hosted by O’Reilly which was downtown this year at Fidelity’s Headquarters. Since it was right around dinner time, I figured I would grab some dinner downtown, maybe run over to Chinatown before jumping back to the Financial District. I had looked around, and noticed the O Ya was around the corner. O Ya being ranked as one of the country’s best Sushi resturaunts last year by the NY Times. I had heard the hype on the local food blogs, Chowhound and other places, and was curious about about the food. Knowing it was expensive, I wanted to go myself before bringing M and dropping a mortgage payment on dinner.

  Luckily I had dressed in jeans and a dress shirt, so while I ended up being a little under-dressed, I did not feel uncomfortable among the other clientèle who walked in later. The restaurant was empty, it being 530pm which is on the earlier side of dinner. The hostess took what I thought was an inordinate amount of time trying to “fit me in” but I obliged respectively and was seated at the bar. I was given the menu, and of course offered omakase, chef’s choice. While scanning the menu I noticed that the prices were indeed very high, even for sushi, and decided to put myself at the whim of the Chef for $75. This in my mind was how I would keep myself within a price range, and explore things I would not have otherwise selected on my own.

  The hit list (from the receipt, I didn’t have a chance to take pictures or write down each dish specifically):

  • Hamachi N O Ya
  • Salmon Tataki
  • Warm Eel O Ya
  • La Ratte Potato Chip
  • Shiitaki Mushroom O Ya
  • Kumamoto Oyster O Ya
  • Shima Aji Sea Urchin
  • Salmon O Ya
  • Hamachi Viet O Ya
  • Tuna Tataki O Ya
  • Foie Gras O Ya

  I must say that the sushi was excellent, every dish visually stunning, and even better on the way down. Most of the dishes were cooked or heated in some way, which caught me off guard from other sushi I have enjoyed. Having had omakase previously while on vacation in Los Angeles, the fact that this presentation was more cooked than I expected, made it no less satisfying. The only dish I felt was a let down was a piece of hamachi covered with a home made potato chip. While the dish was good, I felt that while at a restaurant that carried such prestige, this just seemed like a pretty-good potato chip on to pof a piece of tuna and some rice. It felt boring, more of a “a potato chip, really?” kind of moment. The only other nit was the use of basil. While very fresh and refreshing, it overpowered the dishes it accompanied, and I found myself removing it as courses went on.

  The last course was the most memorable since it was the most different. Foie Gras seared with some balsamic vinaigrette and chocolate, on top of a simple sea-weed rolled piece of rice,  paired with a sample of an 8 year aged sake. While having more of a syrupy consistency and being heavier than most sakes I have had, is still extremely sweet, with a strong hint of raisins. A perfect combination with the very savory foie gras it had been paired along side. This sake, worth noting and buying on my own for consumption at home, is called Hanahato Kijoshu.

  I thoroughly enjoyed my meal, and left full but not stuffed from the portion size I had decided on. I felt the omakase kept my budget in check. While scanning the menu during my meal, it would be very easy to blow a $100 or even $150 per person going a la carte selecting sushi or other cooked entrees from O Ya. This is definitely a special occasion meal, and somewhere I put on my list to hit once or twice a year if my budget and appetite desire.