Urasawa is a celebration of the season, sometimes down to the week or day. This Spring meal was possibly my best Urasawa meal yet - everything had a lightness, and brightness, to it; perfectly complementing the beautiful Los Angeles weather.

Analyzing the food is nearly impossible. The meal, and its component dishes, are a system that can not be reduced to single elements - circular and inter-locking. The flavors are balanced, subtle, and fresh - despite some dishes approaching what could be a dangerous number of ingredients. Ingredients pop up in one dish as a primary flavor, recede to the background, and re-surface seven to ten dishes later as supporting cast. The meal is a journey with complex patterns.

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Some more tales from other high-end meals. (Food reviews will begin again next week, starting with another excellent Urasawa meal.)

Coi (SF) by A Life Worth Eating - Aaron and I shared a meal at Coi. We didn’t agree on all of the dishes, but we did agree on the best. Coi is better than many, if not most, San Francisco restaurants but it still falls short of what it should be. Aaron sums it up best by “impressed by its potential.”

Sukiyabashi Jiro (Tokyo) by Andi Hermawan - Andi has been to a number of impressive restaurants around the world; this report is from his one of his latest adventure in the very difficult to get into Ginza branch. Sukiyabashi Jiro is one of two sushi restaurants to garner three Michelin stars ¹ and Jiro trained the other, Sushi Mizutani. Lunch is supposedly a torrid affair clocking in at 45 minutes and up to $500+.

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The annual Restaurant magazine’s 50 World’s Best Restaurants list was released last week. I’m certain the list is littered with a few controversial picks to generate buzz for the magazine. It’s not a horrible list but it’s not great either; nonetheless, lists of all sorts are a guilty pleasure of mine and it’s always fun to critique any sort of Best Of list.

I’ve been to approximately 20% of the restaurants in their Top 100 list. I’ll post some comments for each restaurant with links to my reviews for anyone that is interested. Some of the reviews, from the old days, are quite embarrassing for their petulance and/or brevity.

#1 - El Bulli (Roses, Spain) - The Mad Scientist - The safe pick for such a list, it’s hard to argue there is a more influential chef in our times.

#2 - Fat Duck (Maidenhead, UK) - Master of Production - Another safe pick that is certainly deserving.

#3 - Pierre Gagnaire (Paris) - Best Meal of My Life and
Pierre Gagnaire (Paris) - Truffles and Value - I have eaten the best meal of my life at this restaurant.

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Here are some random, quick reviews of misc places that won’t make it into a proper review. I have been eating at a number of places throughout the Bay Area and, while I’ve discovered some gems, I’m still largely unimpressed with many of the offerings. Great casual eating city? Probably. World-class dining? In some cases.

Aqua (SF) - I had intended for this to be a proper review but it really doesn’t warrant it. 2 Michelin stars? Expensive food for the business crowd that’s ok if someone else is paying. The quality of fish, for a seafood-focused restaurant, is average. A hamachi sashimi was completely overwhelmed by grapefruit slices. Abalone served with pork belly was muddled.

Boulevard (SF) - A good meal in a convivial atmosphere that can be enjoyed with friends - but nowhere near great. It is over-priced for the quality of the food and over-rated within this city. We sat in the wine cave and it provided a nice bit of anonyminity and seclusion. For a mostly ingredient-first cuisine, I found the ingredients fairly average.

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Cal Stamenov’s Marinus at Bernardus Lodge in Carmel Valley (CA) has always come highly recommend by food enthusiasts, including his fellow chefs. There is no reasonable excuse for its omission from this blog; the restaurant is a desolate highway and 20 miles of curvy mountain roads away. My birthday dinner was due, a certain favorite restaurant was closed for a few days, so what better excuse to try Marinus? Take a day trip down to Carmel, stop in Watsonville for Mexican food, cruise the 17 mile drive, and finish the day with a great meal.

At its best, the restaurant is undoubtedly a delicious expression of the local lands. In the San Francisco Chefs profile, the article state that Cal’s kitchen has an open-door policy for local foragers who want to bring their ingredients to the restaurant. Cal also maintains a personal garden/farm with many types of forgotten vegetables and fruit. You can’t get more local than that. The cooking is meticulous and careful - addition by subtraction - reeling back everything until the only necessary ingredients are left. It is a highly articulated expression of that now common cliche - “California cuisine.”

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