Los Angeles "Digest" Editor

Hey Thi,

I'm in San Francisco and was surfing CH for ideas on where to eat when I came across this post. It brought back lots of memories about my "hyperactive days" on the L.A. board in the early days of CH, and also memories of how much I enjoyed and appreciated your contributions to that board. I'm now inspired to check out the L.A. digest from time to time. Anyway, I just thought i'd pass along a "howdy" to you. I'm living in Seattle now, and am a sometime, but pretty infrequent, poster on CH -- certainly infrequent when compared to my prodigious output on the L.A. board.

Tom Armitage in Site Talk

Looking for the best sushi in Seattle

There’s no need to “resolve” the choice between Kisaku and Sushi Kappo Tamura, Equinoise. They are both more than worthy places to eat and, as you so well point out, offer different types of experiences. I don’t think that having a wide variety of seafood is a necessary feature of a great sushi-ya. I know of many extraordinary sushi-ya that feature a limited selection, but of uniformly amazing quality. That said, I do enjoy the fact that Nikano-san has a wide variety of seasonal seafood at Kisaku, including many items that are not to be found at most Seattle sushi restaurants. Recently, for example, he had shirako (cod sperm sacs), which I happen to adore, and he prepared them in several different ways. When I eat at Kisaku (which is often), I always start by asking what special seasonal items are available. This almost always leads to some very interesting and unusual items. Anyway, I agree that Sushi Kappo Tamura is terrific, and needs to be on the short list of places for the “best sushi [as well as ippin ryori and kappo] in Seattle.”

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

First Visit to Altura

Great report. Thanks. It's almost impossible to find a restaurant that hits a home run on every single dish prepared. But, it seems like your experience was similar to mine on my two visits. They hit more home runs than most places in Seattle, and when they hit a home run it's WAY out of the park. In addition, there are plenty of singles, doubles, and triples to make a visit here worthwhile. I totally agree that the papardelle with tripe and oxtail, the chopped beef carpaccio (and I agree with you on the mystery of calling this dish carpaccio), and the duck liver mousse are all home runs. The ling cod with sea urchin also sounds wonderful.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

Peter Cipra Died

My friend and fellow Chowhound Randy Brook just informed me that Peter Cipra died. Those, like Randy and me, who have been around long enough to have known Peter and eaten at his restaurants, both Prague and Labuznik, can appreciate this loss and the massive contribution Peter made to the culinary scene in Seattle. I think the following Seattle Times article does a good job of capturing Peter, his talent, his intensity, and his way-paving contributions: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017066878_cipraobit22m.html.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

First Visit to Altura

I'll look forward to hearing about your experience. It will be nice when more Chowhounds share their experiences, and a more general sense of Altura emerges.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

First Visit to Altura

I was reminded last night of one of the reasons for the general practice of professional restaurant critics eating at least three times at a restaurant before reviewing it. (For an interesting view on this and other aspects of restaurant reviewing, read Robert Sietsma’s article in the Columbia Journalism Review, “Everyone Eats . . . But that doesn’t make you a restaurant critic,” http://www.cjr.org/feature/everyone_eats.php?page=all) Last night, I returned for my second visit to Altura. This time I was accompanied by my 86-year-old mother-in-law and my brother-in-law who are visiting from Long Island, New York, and my wife. My overall experience was not as positive as my first visit, about which I wrote in my original post above, but I think that my reaction may have been influenced by some extrinsic factors. We’d like to think that our analysis and reaction to food is objective, focusing solely on taste, texture, etc. But, given the inherent subjectivity of the aesthetic experience of eating, this just isn’t the case. On my first visit to Altura, my wife and I were alone, sitting at the counter overlooking the kitchen and I had the opportunity to chat with the chef about technique, sourcing, and other subjects that I found interesting and informative. Last night, our group of four sat at a table, and – how shall I say this – our interpersonal dynamics wound up irritating me and making me grumpy. So one reason for eating three times at a restaurant before reviewing it isn’t just because the food itself may change from one experience to another, but the general mood and “baggage” of the reviewer may also change from one experience to another. And I think that may have been the case for me last night.

With that disclaimer, I’ll say that none of the dishes were “bad.” They were all good, and there were some knockout successes, like the perfectly prepared veal sweetbreads, lightly crispy on the outside and wonderfully silky inside, served with the brilliant pairing of sea urchin. Pappardelle with a ragu of tripe and oxtail was similarly off-the-charts wonderful, with the gelatinous nature of the tripe and oxtail absorbing and softening the heat of Calabrian peppers. The parsnip gnocchi with wild boar ragu was also excellent. And a roasted squash sformato had me swooning. But the grilled kampachi was overcooked for my preference; a chicken rotolo, okay but not spectacular on its own, didn’t marry with the accompanying foie gras, making it like two separate dishes served on the same plate; the Barolo-marinated venison was also okay but didn’t rock my world (I liked my wife’s perfectly cooked rosy pink pancetta-laced pork loin better); my mother-in-law’s and brother-in-law’s ribeye steak was good, but not as good as a steak I had the week before at Nell’s; and the tortelloni with tails and trotters pork and the tajarin with sweetbread and wild mushroom ragu were both nice, but didn’t make me roll my eyes. Our servers, both on this visit and the previous visit, were very knowledgeable about both the food and wine, but there were notable lapses, like bread and butter not being served until I finally had to ask for it (after a much later-arriving table adjacent to ours had been served their bread and butter), and wine pairings not being served until well after the course was on the table. We ordered cocktails to start, but they were very long in arriving.

So, this experience, perhaps influenced by my grumpiness, was more mixed than my first visit. At a cost of $150 per person (three of us sprang for the wine pairings), was it worth it? My mother-in-law and wife thought so. Would I return again? Yes. I think the chef, Nathan Lockwood, aims high and has the talent to hit the bull’s-eye most of the time. And I don’t really trust my objectivity about this last visit. So I’ll happily return again and satisfy the “rule” of three visits. I’ll report on visit number three although, given the cost, it may be a while before that visit occurs.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

Rhubarb or Gooseberry Pie

Thanks. Looks like an interesting resource for lots of things, not just gooseberries. I'm glad to have learned about them.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

Rhubarb or Gooseberry Pie

You're right about the lack of gooseberries in commercial quantities, Randy, and this will probably mean that I'll start growing my own. Deer Mountain used to make an excellent gooseberry jam (again, not too sweet), but it's no longer available. I contracted the folks at Deer Mountain and they said that they simply can't get gooseberries in sufficient quantity to make continued production of their jam feasible. They are looking for a source of gooseberries, but haven't found one yet. Que lastima!

I saw a gooseberry pie a while back at Metropolitan Market, but it was too sweet for my taste. I haven't seen it there lately.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

Rhubarb or Gooseberry Pie

Thanks for the lead. I'll check it out.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

Rhubarb or Gooseberry Pie

Yes, I know that about the English. There's an English lady at the Port Townsend farmers' market who makes a wonderful Grapefruit-Ginger Marmalade, not oversweetened and with that wonderful bitterness shining through. Yum! And I fondly remember, and sadly miss, American Pie. I'm hoping that maybe, somewhere in the Greater Seattle Area, unknown to me, but known to other Chowhounds, there's someone else rising to that standard.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

Rhubarb or Gooseberry Pie

I’m in search of a good, tart rhubarb or gooseberry pie, with emphasis on the word “tart.” My problem with most pies is that they are cloyingly sweet, but this problem is magnified when the fruit or vegetable in the pie is inherently tart. Most often, the objective seems to be to hide this tartness by overpowering it with sugar. Some sweetness is necessary and desirable, of course, and I understand that it’s a matter of balance, but I personally want the natural tartness to be there, not hidden. So, does anyone know a bakery that makes a 100% rhubarb (not strawberry-rhubarb) or a gooseberry pie that will make me happy? (Yes, I know, if I'm so fussy I could make my own pies, but that's not my question.)

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

First Visit to Altura

The portion sizes at Altura vary somewhat with the number of courses you order. For example, if you get a special seven-course menu, the size of each course will be smaller than if you get a three-course menu. The chef is sensitive, as I think is appropriate, to the total amount of food a person can reasonably eat in one meal. So, if you are focusing just on cost per ounce of food, a three-course menu would probably be a better value than a seven-course menu. That said, I would characterize the portion sizes of the three-course, four-course, and five-course menus as “moderate” – not three bites and you’re done, but certainly not what one would think of as large portions.

I’m all warmed up and tan, thanks to the week in Cabo and also spending Thanksgiving week on Kauai. By the way, my big disappointment on Kauai was that my favorite place for traditional Hawaiian food, a small family restaurant in Kapa’a called Ohana Diner, closed down because the landlord doubled their rent. I did, however, have saimin and lilikoi (passion fruit) pie at Hamura’s Saimin Stand, a quite good tripe stew at Dani’s, some good poke from Koloa Fish Market, the wonderful malasadas from Kauai Malasadas, and lots of fresh tropical fruit (e.g., apple bananas, pink guavas, longan) from the local farmers’ markets (“sunshine markets”).

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

First Visit to Altura

Sorry for the delayed response. I'm in Los Cabos at the moment, so Chowhound isn't my first priority. Shrimp tacos and chicharron tacos for breakfast. Yea!

I think the ambience would be fine for your group. It's not at all a stuffy or formal vibe. Anyway, anyone who objects to hearing laughter is a jerk. Here's to fun and laughter. Happy holidays!

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

First Visit to Altura

I found the chef and staff at Altura to be very flexible on choices among the various menus offered. They have one main dinner menu from which you can choose any 3 courses for $49, any 4 courses for $59, and any 5 (not 6) courses for $69. There is no a la carte pricing. You can select anything you want from the entire menu for your choices, meaning that you are not limited to one selection each from the various categories of appetizer, pasta, entrée, cheese, and dessert. If you want to choose the 3-course option and have 3 entrées, you can. They also have special menus from time to time. For example, when I was there they had an “early winter tasting in seven courses” for $87. or $125 with Alba white truffles included. I was told that I could order individual dishes off the early winter tasting menu for a 3, 4, or 5-course tasting to expand the choices from the regular dinner menu. If, for example, I said I wanted a 3-course meal, but with the tajarin with white truffles, I’m pretty sure that they would have accommodated that request, but obviously with an appropriate upcharge for the white truffles. In general, I think they are very eager to please and will try to accommodate, within reason, special requests of their guests.

Is the pricing reasonable? Well, that's a hard question to answer about any high-end restaurant when you think of the number of meals you could have at places like Huong Binh or Noodle Boat for price of a single meal at a high-end place. But, compared to other high-end places (e.g., Book Bindery, Café Juanita), the prices seem fair, especially given the labor-intensiveness of the preparations and the cost of the carefully sourced and selected ingredients, many of which are very expensive (e.g., Wagyu beef). Since actions speak louder than words, all I can say is that, on the way out from my initial visit, I made another reservation for Dec. 21 when my mother-in-law and brother-in-law will be visiting from New York.

Hope this helps answer your questions.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

Visiting Dec 26-28 -- what not to miss?

And I didn’t even mention – if you like pastry – that one of the best croissants in the entire U.S.A. – in the opinion of many THE BEST croissant in the U.S.A. – is to be had at Café Besalu in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, followed closely by the somewhat different but also delectable style of croissant at Fuji Bakery in the International District and across Lake Washington in Bellevue. Both bakeries also have lots of other wonderful pastries to tempt you and expand your waistline. I lived for a total of 42 years in the Los Angeles area and can assure you that there’s nothing like the Café Besalu croissant to be found there. I sure do miss the pastrami sandwich at Langer’s though.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

Visiting Dec 26-28 -- what not to miss?

A vigorous second to the recommendations for Spinasse, Sitka & Spruce (for local Pacific Northwest fare), and Elliott’s or Walrus & Carpenter for oysters. Elliott’s has a larger selection of oysters, but W&C has some very tasty and well-prepared small plates if you want more than just oysters. I’d add Revel for creative and delicious Korean-French inflected small plates. Revel serves the same menu both at lunch and dinner. I like to go for lunch when it’s quieter, but if you like a noisy, spirited, more crowded ambience, dinner will provide that. For more authentic Vietnamese, if that’s of interest to you, I’d suggest Huong Binh. If you want a high-end meal, my recommendations would include Altura (which I just posted about on the Seattle Board), Book Bindery, and the often overlooked Nell’s.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

Altura

Looks like we posted within minutes of each other. When I posted about my visit to Altura, I didn't notice your slightly earlier post. Anyway, as you will see from my post, Altura more than lived up to its promise, at least for me.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

First Visit to Altura

I had my first dinner at Altura last night, and it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in a long time. I thought the conception of the dishes, the balance of flavors, and the execution of the preparations were outstanding. For instance, a small bowl of Matsutake mushroom soup with some shaved raw Matsutakes on top wondrously captured the pure essence of the mushrooms. The prosciutto-wrapped sturgeon was a study in how to perfectly cook sturgeon – which is notoriously hard to get exactly right. Chef Nathan Lockwood first cooks the sturgeon sous-vide (without the benefit of a fancy machine), and then finishes it by sautéing prior to serving. It was accompanied by toasted pumpkin seeds, a luscious, naturally sweet puree of Kabocha squash, and Brussels sprouts leaves. My desert was poached quince on amaretti crumbs topped with vanilla gelato drizzled with a 25-year-old Gold Seal Aceto Balsamico. The flavors and textures of this desert were perfectly balanced and the overall result defied criticism. Did I have some minor nits to pick? Yes. Two pastas were under-seasoned (a problem with the salt level in the pasta water), which was easily corrected by asking for some salt and adding it to the pastas after they were served. My grilled Wagu cullotte steak was slightly overcooked for my preference, particularly on the thinner, tapered ends of the steak, but it was still one of the most intensely flavorful and lusciously tender steaks I’ve had in a long, long time. The tajarin wasn’t quite as ethereal as that made at Spinasse, but it was still first-rate, and the chanterelles and shaved Alba white truffle more than compensated. So these are only very minor nits. The overall meal was absolutely marvelous. Chef Lockwood’s attention to sourcing is intense, and it shows in his dishes. The butter served at Altura is Crémerie Classique from Larsen’s Creamery in Oregon, and Chef Lockwood can discourse at length over the texture and flavor differences of different butters (e.g., Crémerie Classique vs. Plugra vs. Vermont Butter & Cheese) or American producers of Wagyu beef (Snake River Farms vs. Mishima Ranch). The meal certainly isn’t cheap, but neither is the cost of the uniformly high quality ingredients (you can purchase your own Gold Seal Aceto Balsamico for a mere $239.25 for a 3.4 ounce bottle).

My overall first impression: Chef Lockwood certainly has a place among the best chefs in the Greater Seattle Area (e.g., Holly Smith, Jason Stratton, Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi), and Altura is destined for the top tier of high-end Seattle restaurants. A big bravissimo to the chef and staff at Altura!

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

Razor Clams wanted PNW cleaned / frozen OK Please help

I like this. In general, for seafood, I find that less is more. A few grace notes here and there are fine, but too many or too strong flavors can easily distract and overwhelm.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

Another Dissent on O-Ya

It's done. I just posted it: "Long Trip Report from a Seattle Chowhound."

Tom Armitage in Greater Boston Area

Long Trip Report from a Seattle Chowhound

Thanks to all the help I got from a wonderful group of Boston area Chowhounds (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/810596), my wife and I had many interesting and delicious meals during a recent trip. Because of pure laziness and sleeping in, I wasn’t able to use the breakfast recommendations, but they are in my file for my next trip to Boston. Here’s my report of the places where my wife and I ate.

After arriving in Boston on Sunday night, we ate dinner at RendezVous in Central Square before driving to Providence, RI. We had the Sunday prix fixe menu with three courses for $38. To start things off, I told our waiter that my preference for cocktails runs to savory and herbal concoctions, and left it to the bartender to fix me something. He prepared a twist on a classic Manhattan that combined rye, red vermouth, amaro, and a few drops of orange flower water. Very nice. For appetizers, we had a ceviche of Rhode Island fluke with grapefruit, chili, radishes, and mint that was a marvel of contrasting but beautifully balanced flavors. (The chef/owner, Steve Johnson, grows the mint and bird’s eye chili on the rooftop.) We also had some perfectly grilled plump Portuguese sardines. I started the bluefish tasting that I had planned for this trip with the bluefish filet with charmoula, spicy cucumber salad, and gingery jasmine rice. The bluefish was cooked perfectly and the overall dish was very successful and thoroughly enjoyable. My wife ordered the Moroccan spiced roast chicken which we both agreed was not as good as the other dishes we’d had. Not bad, just not great. For desert, I ordered the lemon-buttermilk pudding with huckleberry sauce. The pudding was a marvel – sort of a pudding on the bottom and a soufflé on top, with wonderful flavor. All in all, I left very impressed with RendezVous.

On Monday and Tuesday, we were in Providence, RI. We drove back to the Boston area on Tuesday night and had dinner at Oleana. This was an exceptionally wonderful experience with respect to both the food and the service. After discussing some of the items on the menu that most interested my wife and me, we left ourselves in the hands of Chef Ana Sortun to provide us with a sampling of tastes and matching wines. We had 12 food items and 9 wines in all. There wasn’t a bad dish in the lot and it’s truly hard to pick any particular stand-outs, but I’ll mention the tuna kibbeh, octopus and crispy Brussels sprouts, spinach falafel, fried mussels, hot peppers & Turkish tarator sauce, Vermont quail kebob with baharat spice, and the pistachio pot de creme. The interesting and creative flavors were very balanced and the preparations uniformly well-executed. The spicing was dead on, not in any way over the top or over-done. The wine selection was extraordinary. Not only were all the wines selected interesting and well made, including a Lebanese blend of cinsault and cabernet sauvignon, but they were beautifully matched with the food, something that often doesn’t happen in my experience with house-selected wine pairings. Our server, Shelly, was one of the best servers I’ve ever experienced. She was extraordinarily knowledgeable about both the food and the wine, and her attention to the pacing of the meal and our needs was perfect. All in all, this was one of those “complete” experiences that made a very deep and lasting impression. I’ll definitely return to Oleana.

On Wednesday, while my wife was giving her lectures at Children’s Hospital, I had lunch at Mu Lan. Since there are several good Taiwanese restaurants in Seattle, I had hoped to get some help from the waitresses to guide me towards some unusual specialties, but they were not at all helpful. I decided to have one of the lunch specials – octopus with dry bean curd. The octopus, dried bean curd, and leeks were all finely julienned, and accompanied by a mild sauce. This wasn’t a particularly dramatic plate of food, but the subtle flavors grew on me, and the more I tasted it, the more enthusiastic I got. There wasn’t anything left on plate when I finished. Before I left, I ordered the smoked duck Taiwanese style to go. When I got into my car, I decided I should have a taste, and immediately declared it delicious. Again, the flavor was subtle, but thoroughly enchanting and addicting. I’d be happy to return here for another meal, hopefully with a larger group so I could sample more things.

On Wednesday night, a group from Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston hosted a dinner from my wife at Legal Sea Foods – Chestnut Hill, and I tagged along. The clam chowder was good, but the rest of the meal was not. They somehow managed to overcook my bluefish which, given its oiliness, isn’t easy to do.

On Thursday we had lunch at Area Four. I loved this place. We started with a puttanesca pizza which was nicely made. The spicy winter pickles and the roasted cauliflower with peppered almonds and smoked paprika vinaigrette were both fabulous. We fought over the small dishes of each. However, neither my wife nor I was crazy about the chicken liver crostini, which had an overbearing flavor that I didn’t make note at the time and unfortunately now can’t remember (sherry? madeira?). Back on the positive side of the ledger, the mustard-crusted “Skippy” Chatham bluefish with salsa verde was the best of the three versions of bluefish I had on this trip, even better than the very good bluefish I had at RendezVous. It was perfectly cooked in the wood-burning oven, slightly smoky, very moist, and totally delicious.

For Thursday dinner at Cragie on Main, we started with some cocktails. My wife had a classic Negroni (her go-to favorite) and I had a Northern Lights. Then my waiter convinced me I needed to try a Never Setter, made with Szechuan-infused Plymouth gin, Aperol, maple-sugar simple syrup, lemon juice, and Barolo Chinato. What a great cocktail! For appetizers, we had a ragout of local forest mushrooms, veal tongue confit and Morcilla sausage and also a selection of house-made terrines. Both were very good, but since I love both tongue and blood sausage, the ragout especially won me over. For our main course, we shared the confit and roasted pig’s head which was decadently rich and graced with sinfully wonderful mahogany-colored crisp skin that I couldn’t stop savoring (soft moans and eye-rolling). For desert we had a bittersweet chocolate mousse tart and sassafras poached pears. My waiter convinced me that I needed something to go with the chocolate tart, and appeared with an Old Fashioned made with 23-year-old Ron Zacapa rum, Xocolati mole bitters, and Elemakule tiki bitters. Oh my! The only issue I have with Cragie is one of value, which always comes into play when I get the bill. The food was great, the cocktails were great, the wine (Bembibre 100% Mencia from Bierzo) was great, and the service was great. But, as good as it all was, was it worth the price? Probably, but I’m not totally sure.

On Friday, we wanted to go to the Museum of Fine Art and so tried to find a restaurant that wasn’t too far away for lunch. We wound up at Eastern Standard, which proved to be a delightful surprise. First, I had the most amazing cocktail of the trip, Zahra, made with mezcal infused with a harissa-like blend of bell pepper, two kinds of Mexican chilies, cinnamon, cardamom, and allspice, tequila, the house-made sour mix made with lemon, lime, and egg white, cream, agave nectar infused with medjool dates, and a whole egg. The rim of the glass was dusted with finely ground Hawaiian red sea salt. I’m not usually fond of sweet cocktails, but this wasn’t overly sweet, and what sweetness there was, was balanced by the spices and other flavors. We had a selection of four good oysters, following which my wife ordered the lobster BLT, and I ordered the lunch special, seared scallops. The lobster BLT was good, although not up to Neptune standards. My scallops, on the other hand, were wonderful. The service was fantastic. We were graciously and efficiently taken care of both by our very competent waiter and the wine manager who checked in on us from time to time.

On Friday night, we went to O-Ya, which I’ve already posted about separately.

Our final meal, lunch on Saturday, was at the always reliable and always wonderful Neptune Oyster. We started with a wide selection of East Coast oysters. My favorites were the Moon Shoal from Barnstable, MA, the East Beach Blonde from Charlestown, RI, the Bees River from Eastham, MA, and the Glidden Point from Darmariscotta, ME. We then moved on to two old favorites, the fried Ipswich clams and the lobster roll (without the roll). A very nice way to end our trip.

That’s the report. Thanks again for all the great suggestions, Boston Chowhounds. I’ve already got a good start on other places that I couldn’t squeeze into the schedule for this last trip, but want to try on my next trip, which will probably be next April.

Tom Armitage in Greater Boston Area

Proposed itinerary for a visitor from Seattle – please critique

I finally finished a trip report -- a long and detailed one -- but because of the age of this thread decided to put it in a new post, "Long Trip Report from a Seattle Chowhound."

Tom Armitage in Greater Boston Area

Another Dissent on O-Ya

I couldn’t really single out the flavor of the tonka bean from the other flavors in the sea urchin mousse, and have to admit that I wasn’t focused on trying to tease out that particular flavor. As I said, the dominant flavor in the dish was the uni, and the other flavors were (appropriately, I think) background notes. Now that my curiosity is aroused, I’ll try to get my hands on some tonka beans and experiment with them. If I can pull this off, I’ll report back on my experience.

Tom Armitage in Greater Boston Area

Another Dissent on O-Ya

Here’s a link to another article on the tonka bean, with a picture and a video of Grant Achatz talking about the tonka bean at Alinea: http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2010/11/the-tonka-bean-an-ingredient-so-good-it-has-to-be-illegal/65616/

Has anyone had the Le Gâteau at Salts in Cambridge?

Tom Armitage in Greater Boston Area

Another Dissent on O-Ya

Before a recent meal at O-Ya, I had read divinemissmoe’s negative post on this board (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/796911). But I had also read Frank Bruni’s effusive review in the New York Times and the countless odes to the wonder of O-Ya on Chowhound and elsewhere. So, as a serious sushi lover who was visiting Boston from Seattle, and who developed his palate for and knowledge of sushi in Los Angeles, I thought it would be interesting to see what I thought. It’s clear that Tim Cushman has gone to extraordinary lengths to create very complex, labor-intensive dishes. In hindsight, I wish that I hadn’t limited myself to the sushi and sashimi items on the menu. Maybe I would have enjoyed some of the vegetable, meat, and chicken preparations better. The mushroom sashimi, Okinawan braised pork, and both chicken dishes on the menu sound very interesting. My main problem with O-Ya is that the flavor of the fish in the sushi and sashimi is overwhelmed by the marinades, sauces, and other ingredients that accompany them. It’s almost as if the fish merely provides a background textural note to the other ingredients and flavors. Speaking of texture, the menu is very lopsided in favor of oily fish – such as tuna (especially the endangered bluefin), salmon, hamachi, and aji – rather than non-oily fish like snapper, flounder, and sea bass, reflecting the preference of most American palates for oily fish. During the meal I thought, “If I close my eyes and try to guess what kind of fish I’m eating – say, hamachi vs. chutoro – how often would I get the right answer?” Sesame, a very strong flavor, was dominant in many of the preparations, and too often was out of balance with the other flavors, as in the case of the bluefin chutoro with spicy mentaiko mayo and sesame. The flavor of the mentaiko (which wasn’t the highest quality) was almost completely masked by the sesame. Sesame flavor also dominated the kanpachi baby hamachi with jalapeño sauce, sesame, apple, and myoga, with the jalapeño providing some substantial heat. In all, my wife and I shared around 10 items, only two of which I found noteworthy, especially given the steep price tags. One was the Maine sea urchin uni mousse with kuidashi gelee and tonka bean. In this dish the flavor of the uni was front and center and the dish exhibited finesse and subtlety. (I discovered in a book on Kyoto’s Kikunoi Restaurant that kuidashi jelly is prepared with dashi, soy sauce, mirin, bonito flakes, and gelatin. I also discovered that tonka bean is illegal under federal law. Grant Achatz was busted for using tonka bean at Alinea. However, I also read that Chef Gabriel Bremer makes a tonka bean desert, “Le Gâeau,” at Salts in Cambridge. So FDA enforcement of this old federal law is apparently very uneven.) The other noteworthy item at O-Ya was the fois gras nigiri with balsamic chocolate kabayaki and Claudio Corolla raisin cocoa pulp. This was truly a spectacular bite, and more than lived up to all of the praise that has been heaped on it. It was clearly the highlight of the meal, and a highlight in my overall eating experience. I give O-Ya high marks for having shirako on its menu. I adore shirako, which is the sperm sacs of a cod fish, and there aren’t many places that offer it. But I didn’t order any, because they took this very delicate ingredient – delicate in both texture and flavor – and prepared it by frying it and combining it with lemon and, of all things, salty, bracing pecorino cheese. It didn’t sound at all like an appealing dish. For the nouvelle style of sushi and sashimi prepared at O-Ya, I think that Uchi, located in Austin, Texas, does a much better and more light-handed job of using non-traditional flavors and ingredients without overwhelming the flavor of the fish.

In sum, I agree with divinemissmoe in her previous Chowhound review that the recipes, sauces, and ingredients, not the seasonality and exceptional quality of the fish, drive the menu at O-Ya. That said, if I were Tim Cushman, I’d do absolutely nothing to change the menu or approach at O-Ya. As a commercial venture, it’s obviously enormously successful and has a substantial following willing to pay a huge price tag.

P.S. I owe all of you wonderful Boston Chowhounds who recently gave me such great advice on where I should eat in the Boston area a trip report on the places where I ate in addition to O-Ya. That trip report is in the works and will hopefully be forthcoming shortly.

Tom Armitage in Greater Boston Area

Pizza week

Yeah, I think trying lots of different styles of pizza is a grand idea. It would be sort of interesting to try to break down the Seattle pizzerias by type, but perhaps this is a doomed task given all the blurry lines between, say, New York-style pizza and Pizza Napoletana, except that New York pies are bigger. Even without using labels as to types of pizza, the often subtle gradations between, say, crispy and non-crispy crusts might also doom the effort.. But it might be possible to focus on just one element, like the flavor of the crust. In the view of many, for example, the flavor of the crust is what sets Una Pizza Napoletana apart from the many other great pizzerias in the Bay Area.

Then, of course, there's the view that all of this precious and painstaking analysis of one pizza versus another is sort of silly and over-the-top obsessive. It's not too obsessive for me, but I'd understand those that think otherwise.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

Pizza week

I agree with mrnelso that pizza is a dangerous topic because of the wide variations in what people think constitutes a “good” pizza – criteria that are often left undisclosed. What’s more important, the crust or the toppings? (I’m a crust guy.) How thin or thick should the crust be? How crisp? How spare or abundant should the toppings be? For example, a traditional Neapolitan-style pizza has a somewhat softer crust than many American pizzas. I learned this in researching Una Pizza Napoletana, the highly-acclaimed pizzeria that recently relocated from New York to San Francisco. On Chowhound’s San Francisco Board, some complained about the softness of the crust at UPN, in response to which other San Francisco Chowhounds referred to the Italian government document defining the crust of Pizza Napoletana as “soft, elastic, and easily folded in a ‘booklet’.” I mention this because my first experience with the pizza at Bar del Corso, Jerry Corso’s new pizza place in Beacon Hill, was notable for the pizza having a very soft crust, not at all crispy despite the presence of charred blistering of the crust. I realize that there’s no “right” answer to the soft vs. crispy debate – it’s a matter of personal preference and tradition doesn’t settle the debate. I personally didn’t mind so much that the pizza crust at Bar del Corso wasn’t crispy, but I would have liked more elasticity and sponge to the crust. It was too flaccid for my personal preference.

I’m also curious as to why the pizza at Café Lago is never mentioned when pizza is discussed on the Greater Seattle Board.

Tom Armitage in Greater Seattle

Proposed itinerary for a visitor from Seattle – please critique

Palace Kitchen? Hmmm. Back in the day, Tom Douglas was a breath of fresh air for the Seattle culinary scene, which used to be pretty barren. Dahlia Lounge, when it opened in 1989, was full of excitement and new ideas. But, as you know, Seattle’s culinary landscape has changed a lot in the last 20 years, and my thoughts about the place of Tom Douglas’s restaurants in the current Seattle scene is much too long a topic for this Board. Suffice to say that his creative-sounding menu descriptions don’t always measure up to consistently high-quality preparations and memorable eating experiences (although, in fairness, they sometimes do). It’s not that the food is horrible, I just think there are better places than Palace Kitchen to send a visitor who has very limited time to sample Seattle’s best. Likewise, I confess that I was drawn to Rendezvous by some of the menu descriptions like roasted sardine salad, fluke ceviche with grapefruit, chilies, radishes and mint, and especially the sautéed bluefish with charmoula and spicy cucumber salad. But I was planning on having the mustard-crusted bluefish with salsa verde for lunch at Area Four later in the week, so I’m open to rethinking Rendezvous.

I’m pretty committed to Oleana at this point since I’ve been in touch with the chef, Ana Sortun, who is from Seattle and whose step-mother works at Seattle Children’s Hospital, where my wife also works.

Although it’s obvious that I’m pretty obsessive about planning my eating adventures, I have to remember that I’ll be back next spring and then again next fall (and probably twice a year for the indefinite future), so I guess every choice for this forthcoming trip doesn’t have to be a perfect bullseye, although the advice and suggestions of you and the other Boston Chowhounds have been invaluable. Although we are having lunch at Scampo, next time I’ll try the Friday night suckling pig. Is it the golden cracker-crisp skin, moist succulent flesh variety? I lived for three years in the Philippines where spit-roasted suckling pig (“lechon’) is the national dish.

Tom Armitage in Greater Boston Area

Proposed itinerary for a visitor from Seattle – please critique

I agree with your advice about simplifying and not spending a lot of time driving from one outlying area to another – at least unless the destination is so unique and special that it’s worth the time and hassle. Etta’s usually has one Mexican dish on its brunch menu. It used to be huevos rancheros, and is presently chilaquiles verde.

Tom Armitage in Greater Boston Area