I Love To Eat

Sorry I haven't written in awhile, a certain 18 month old has been taking a lot of time time. I did want to make a quick update on two things I talked about earlier.

First, I finally did have a 20oz steak. I have to say, not impressed. Part of it is because the place was not that great. Great ambiance and service and starters, but the steak itself was very pedestrian. The other problem is, like I said, it's just not that intersting to have one taste for so long.

This summer I was also passing through Williamsburg,and I did stop at that restaurant as a non-guest. It did not disappoint with any of the 4 appetizers.

I am going to try and write more soon, and I have a topic. The new genera of upscale burger joints. No longer are you stuck with fast for for $2 or Ruby Tuesday for $10, now you have a whole new series of burger-focused joints.

Happy eating

This last weekend we took a road trip and spent a couple days at a nice hotel in Williamsburg, VA. The first night we were tired and didn't want to go out, so we ate at the hotel restaurant. What was so surprising was that the food was actually good and imaginative. We had two soups, a seafood stew and a corn chowder and sweet potato ravioli for her and lamb shank and quail for me. The quality of the meat was good, great spices, and some very creative combinations.

What made this meal so surprising is, quite frankly, most US hotel restaurants suck; bad. In the rest of the world, some of the best restaurants are hotel restaurants, and even in major cities you will sometimes see this (New York, DC, etc...) but in your average 3-4-star hotel, the food stinks. To make it worse, for the most part, they are pretty expensive (and don't even get me started on room service). So how can this be; crappy food and high prices?

Hotels are in a pretty unique situation. They have a relatively captive audience, many who are not paying for themselves. When you get to a hotel late at night, especially after a flight, are you really wanting to go out looking for a restaurant. Especially if it's on the companies dime, it's just easier to walk down to the hotel restaurant and eat whatever they have.

In addition, they have an audience who is transient, not a lot of repeat business. It's not like they have to build up a reputation to attract customers. This is why some of those world-class hotel restaurants are in big cities where the people eating at the hotel are not just the guests.

Because of this, they have carte blanche to charge obscene amounts for mediocre food. Look at whats on the menu at your local 3-star hotel restaurant, $25 steak that's a poor cut, $17 pasta that could be out of a box, and a desert as creative as chocolate cake, cheesecake, and ice cream.

There are exceptions, but I have become so jaded by all the bad hotel restaurants that I rarely give them a chance. The one we ate at the Williamsburg Lodge I thought was quite good. It was actually a restaurant I might eat at completely separate from a hotel.

Have you ever wondered why that 5-star temple of good-food you love has a one page menu while the menu at Fridays is longer then War and Peace? I've concluded you can often tell the quality of the restaraunt by the length of the menu. Now this is not always the case, I've been to places with huge menus that were pretty damn good, and others with tiny menus that sucked; though they definatly were going for the upscale crowd.
I guess when you only do a few dishes, you do them really well. How many chefs out there can make a good steak, Thai noodles, Tacos, and Fish & Chips at the same time. Assuming Fridays doesn't have a world-class Chef in the back of every restaraunt, one can conclude they are all going to be pretty mediocre.
Now, go to a nice sit down restaraunt with a good chef and you will usually see a very limited menu focusing on their specilties. Some will almost have no set menu other than steak; the rest of the menu being dishes of the day.

You know the real problem with most restaurants in the US? It's not just that they give huge portions (thought that is a problem), but that it's the same taste throughout the whole meal. You may get enough food to feed sub-Saharan Africa, but the taste never changes. What makes a great meal great is not just well prepared food, but a variety of tastes and flavors that compliment one another. Even the best steak is going to start to lose its edge when it's 20 ounces (though this is a theory I still want to test).

A good meal is like a story with an ongoing dialogue and a theme to it, with no chapter (portion) should be too long. By changing complimenting flavors and textures, each piece gets better and better. Going to most upscale restaurants with a good Chef will give you this experience. But you don't have to break the bank.

Two of my favorites styles of eating are Dim Sum (Chinese) and Tapas (Spanish). Both of these styles are a meal made up of appetizer portions of food. No one portion is particular large, but you get an opportunity to sample a lot of different flavors. This verity of flavors really enhances the meal, not to mention that if you are with a large group, you will get to trade a multitude of dishes. Since you are not a Master Chef, you won't be matching your flavors perfectly, but it still leads to a wonderful meal and is a great social experience.

Approximately one year ago I wrote a blog about a business trip to India (http://joeinindia.blogspot.com/) and found the experience (both the trip and writing about it) a real joy. Unfortunately, since returning I've not had a lot to write about on the topic. I've been thinking what to write about. Then it became obvious, food.

Food has been a love of mine since I can remember. My parents were pretty careful with money, but the two areas they were always willing to spend it on was travel and eating out. They wanted me and my two brothers to have an appreciation for different cultures foods, and boy did they succeed. My brothers and I are all big fans of trying out new foods and discussing it. The title of this blog actually came from my eldest brother's three year old while we were babysitting him. While waiting for some Mac & Cheese I was heating up he started chanting 'I Love To Eat' and we knew right then he was a member of the Drasin clan.

Food really is the great equalizer. In the book 'The War with Mr. Wizzle' one of the students talks about how food brings people together. When you have a birthday, you eat. A marriage is celebrated with a banquet. Business dealings are discussed over dinner. It is the most basic need of humans.

So here we are, ready to explore food. This is not so much going to be about specific restaurants, though I always love sharing recommendations, but about food and dishes in general and how we experiance it.