Shrimp Tempura Udon

There are so many types and makers of Tempura, Udon, Broth. The
combinations are a plenty.
This simple (very common) dish can range from $6.99 to $13.99
depending on the grade of every ingredient.

Can the average American taste the difference?
Probably not.
So how do I educate the public and develop a higher quality demand?

Prime 112 - Horrible

This place is considered the top restaurant in Miami Florida.
On a short list of "Must Go", Prime 112 is right up there with Zuma,
Hakkasan and Michael's Genuine.

But in my humble opinion, this place SUCKS!
Probably one of the worst restaurants I've been to in Miami.
That's including diners, hotel room service, and Sushi Samba.

The steaks are not flavorful at all. The waitress makes terrible
recommendations for the table (but that's probably geared towards
Miami diners so I can't truly fault her for that).
The sides are very basic (meaning made with no particular skill).
The decor is absolutely boring and poorly put together.
And the general staff(runners, bussers, and floor managers) have no
clue what they are doing. NO CLUE.

If you are from a foodie city, and have a decent palate, just do
yourself a favor and cross this place off any "must go" list.

Worst steakhouse experience in years.
Calling this joint a steakhouse is insulting the industry and also the
cows who sacrifice their lives.

This carrot cake was the best dish of the meal, and I'd rather pay for
a Supermarket frozen Carrot Cake any day.

Florida Stone Crabs

These bad-boys are in season right now.
But at $35/#, one better have an expense account, cause they just go
down way too easily. 3# later, I'm still thinking what's for the main
course.

That's right, we are doing it Big Willie Style down here in Miami.

Chicken Neck grilled on charcoals

Pan Seared Duck Breast over Cabbage Stew, Paired with Sake

Best Wagyu Beef money can buy

Kagoshima A5 Wagyu cooked on Bincho Charcoal.

Hearty Japanese Breakfast

You can't beat a full on Japanese Hotel Breakfast.
The best rice from Niigata, Miso Soup, Salad, Grilled Fish, Croquette,
Tamago, Yakisoba, Sausages, Kimpira Gobo and 2 glasses of OJ.

I'm a happy camper.

Grilled chicken leg repeatedly dipped in "Tare" sauce

Legend Bar & Restaurant - Review

Intro
Legend Bar & Restaurant - Dude Grade A-
88 7th Ave
Btn 16th and 15th St
New York, NY 10011
Phone: (212) 929-1778

I was in the mood for some Szechuan food and one of my co-workers from Chengdu recommended this place for Szechuan eats. My former go to joint was the great Wu Liang Ye in Midtown, but this place one ups it for me. This place has such a great balance of flavor and the food is pretty spicy, but not spicy enough where you can't taste anything else. I haven't had a WTF moment for chinese food in the states in a long time, but I was pretty blown away by this place.

Our Menu
Dan Dan Noodles Cheng-Du Style *
Solid texture and chew to the noodles and delicious flavor. I dug the Wu Liang Ye version better for the flavor, but the wife loved this a lot.

Beef And Ox Tripe In Chili Sauce **
The wife and I always order this dish and surprisingly a lot of places eff this up. Most places generally add way too much szechuan peppercorn which adds that buzzing sensation on your tongue (not heat, but like a weird chemical reaction). This place does it right and the flavors are so spot on - rich, a little vinegary, a little spicy. Tripe is incredibly tender and flavorful and there's a lot more beef here than you normally see at most restaurants.

Sichuan Cucumber *
Again, we've had this from other places where it's extremely salty, sweet, and too many peppercorns. This is perfectly refreshing - nice and crispy with a little salt and sugar. Perfect accompaniment for the spicy food.

Fried Lambs With Cumin ***
This was a big wtf moment for me. Think crispy chicken parm coating for texture, with tender and insanely flavorful lamb, and seasoned beautifully with cumin, chiles, and chinese celery. It's friggin phenomenal and so addicting. I generally don't like celery, but it's a perfect match here - great texture and almost bright/refreshing flavor.

Chengdu Fish And Pickled Veg ***
The waitress recommended this dish and we indifferently agreed. Man - this was another big wtf moment for me. Fish soup was so rich, yet light and insanely flavorful. Add the pickled veg and chiles and you had a phenomenal broth. The fish also was incredibly fresh, sweet, and perfectly poached. I was at 90% capacity and I still had 2 full bowls of this that made me disgustingly uncomfortable afterwards - still worth it.

Rating System

--- What the F - in a bad way | (no stars - poor to average) | * Good | ** Great | *** What the F – in a good way

Overall Restaurant Experience

• Food (A) – My new go-to Szechuan restaurant. This reminded me of a much more refined version of Thai cuisine hitting all these notes of savory, salty, sour, spicy, and sweet without being overpowering in any of those flavors.
  
• Service (B) – Server recommended great dishes for us and the food came out pretty quick. They are busy as hell there, so don't expect smiling faces - it's all business getting you in and out.
  
• Atmosphere (C+) – When you first walk in, you are greeted with a crowd of people waiting for the tables hovering over the tiny bar. Not the most relaxing entrance, but you notice more than half of the joint are Chinese people speaking Mandarin which is always a good sign. Much nicer looking place than your standard Chinese joint - nice modern lighting with dark wood floors and bright yellow walls. We got there on a Friday at 7pm with no reservations and we waited 30 minutes before getting a table for 2.
  
• Price (A) – $16-20 an entree for phenomenal Szechuan food. 100% worth it in my opinion.
  

Closing Comments
Like I said, my new go-to restaurant for Szechuan food. Although I still love Wu Liang Ye, heading to Chelsea is much more pleasant than heading to the nightmare that is the theater district.

Mapo Tofu alla Porthos

I haven't been home in weeks to cook so last night, I busted out an
oldie but goodie from the repertoire.
My take on Mapo Tofu.
All I need is a bowl of steaming white rice and I'm a happy SOB.

Ten Ten - Review

Intro
Ten Ten - Dude Grade: B+
1010 Fleet Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
Phone: (410) 244-6867

Restaurant number two chosen by Charissa and Bruce and it was another delicious choice. More comfort food done extremely well which is always right up my alley. Ten Ten is definitely another highly recommended place by this dude.

Our Menu
Crab Cake Sandwich (special) **
We were wanting some crab cake on this trip and bummed that it wasn't on the menu, but we were quite lucky that crab cakes were on the daily specials. This thing was perfect in my opinion - tons of large lump crab that was incredibly sweet and fresh. Crispy on the outside, light and not weighed down by an abundance of bread crumbs. Duck fat fries were pretty friggin awesome also - huge potato flavor and delicious with the crisp herbs.

Local Greens Salad *
Sultans, carrots, butternut squash, spiced pistachios, honey-balsamic-tarragon vinaigrette
This was the last restaurant for us over the long weekend, so I was in need of leafy vegetables as we basically had none on this trip. This totally hit the spot - bright and crunchy and interesting enough with the different textures.

Grilled Shrimp and Grits ***
Maple braised greens, crispy pork belly, organic three cheese poblano grits
I like shrimp and grits, but this was a wtf dish for me since I was not expecting much from it. More delicious than the shrimp and grits I've had in South Carolina. Grits were incredibly flavorful and great texture (a little tighter than a risotto). The shrimp was perfectly cooked as well - nice smokey char flavor and sweet/juicy.

Date Ice Cream, Tangerine Vanilla Sorbet, Red Beet Sorbet **
Beet sorbet doesn't sound good, but it's delicious - huge beet flavor and only naturally sweet - not pumped up with sugar. The tangerine vanilla brought me back to my childhood with a creamiscle like thing going on. Even the date ice cream was a standout with an almost caramelly thing going on due to the dates.

Gingerbread Sponge Cake *
Brandied Tangerines, Butterscotch Custard, Crunchy Praline
A fun combo especially with the butter scotch custard and pralines.

Rating System

--- What the F - in a bad way | (no stars - poor to average) | * Good | ** Great | *** What the F – in a good way

Overall Restaurant Experience

• Food (B+) – Excellent food with the only minus point being the risotto my wife had was a little too solid for my liking.
  
• Service (C) – Server was relatively new, so she forgot the specials and was sometimes slow to come around in the beginning. She did much better throughout the meal and the food comes out quickly.
  
• Atmosphere (B) – Walking into the back of what looks like an entrance to a condo, you walk into this wine bar looking area. There's brick wall, wood floors, and an exposed ceiling to give you that urban wine bar feel - relatively dark in there also. We were there on a Sunday night at 7pm and all tables were taken with couples both young and older.
  
• Price (A) – I did the three course menu (since the items I wanted were on there any way) for $32 - an incredible steal for the quality of food they're cooking there. Prices off the regular menu are around $22-23 per entree.
  

Closing Comments
Definitely highly recommended by this dude. Another place I wouldn't mind going back to visit.