Teich.Net :: All In

I rarely eat steak — with a recovering vegetarian wife, I just don’t get the chance that often.  A business trip to Vegas provided an opporuntity that I jumped at two days ago.  After calling a few of the top steakhouses in Vegas, I finally found a table at Craftsteak. 

I’ll leave the running commentary to others, and cut to the chase.  We had an interest in the Kobe steaks. BY FAR the best option was to get the tasting menu, and get the tasting menu we did. 4 people shared 5 apetizers, 4 cuts of beef, 3 sides, 5 deserts, 3 full glasses of impressive wine (and a patridge in a pear tree…)

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Some places lend themselves to hyperbole. Anything less fails to do justice to their character. These are the sorts of places you just have to try for yourself so that you, too, can join in the fun and excitement of extravagant statements like this: Di Fara is the best New York pizza you will ever taste. Everything you have read or heard is true.
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Today’s Daily Candy SF article “The Straight Scoop” leads me to believe that Ici, inspiration for failed quests, may finally be open. Their website is no help, with the statement “opening late August 2006″ still up on this, the 5th of September, but a quick phone call confirms that they opened their doors this past Sunday. Time for another pilgrimage!

I first figured out where Larkspur actually is when The San Francisco Magazine printed a glowing review and full-page glossy photo a Straus Dariy Soft Serve cone dripping with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with fleur de sel. Odd, I know, but in an intriguing way. About a month later, a city-dwelling friend shared his opinion that Pizzeria Picco makes one of the best pizzas in the area. It’s been on the To Visit List since, but we haven’t found much occasion to head that way, until today.
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I have been mourning the inevitable replacement of mission figs in the fruit section with fresh cranberries. I had been desperately craving one last delicious dessert of soft gooey cheese with fresh figs oozing their almost too-ripe syrup, but the figs had already gone. I had long glanced at the attractive jars of Adriatic Fig Spread at Whole Foods with the fleeting thought: I like figs, I should try that. With the fresh figs finished for the year and the craving unsated, I finally brought a jar home.
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It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of the Village Imports Warehouse Sales. In case you too are looking for tons of chocolate, or fabulous bargain cheeses, or an entire pound of dried morel mushrooms (OK, so you can get just a few ounces), or any of the other great things they stock (the website only has a fraction of their selection), mark your calendar: the next sale in Brisbane will be Friday, November 18th (2:00pm - 6:00pm), and Saturday, November 19th (8:30am - 1:30pm). Apparently they now have a Los Angeles location that will be open on the same dates and times at 6900 Beck Avenue in North Hollywood (off Vanowen Avenue, close to Lankershim Blvd). I’m hoping to pick up another wheel of le Délice, in particular. (I haven’t seen in anywhere else, but I need to start looking.) If you go, just don’t make the same mistake a friend of mine recently did: 3 compact but incredibly rich Petit Suisse yogurts in one sitting is one or two too many.

Kate of Accidental Hedonist’s post on the familiar debate over prices at Whole Foods, If the Name “Whole Paycheck” fits…, has already sparked quite a discussion, but I wanted to point out her evidence for a belief I’ve long held: when you shop for fresh basics rather than luxury items, the cost difference of going to Whole Foods is marginal. For most of what I buy (seasonal and preferably local, organic/natural vegetables and fruits), Whole Foods’ prices are actually lower than those of other stores that sell the same quality produce (which isn’t Safeway). For me, the difference in quality, in what’s stocked, and in the shopping experience itself at Whole Foods and many of the smaller, independent groceries is worth a lot more than a few pennies per item.

If ever there was an event to make me feel like a real gourmet glutton–with all the good and bad that phrase implies–it’s a visit to the Warehouse Sale at le Village on a day when not too many other people are out shopping. On such days, I can peruse the goods without being jostled or needing to rush or having to wonder whether my finds are really worth the hour-long checkout line. Saturday was just such a day. My haul: an obscene amount of chocolate, cheese, more cheese, butter, Petit Suisse yogurts, roasted peppers, and dried mushrooms.
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