Put the rest in the doggie bag thanks

A French Chef Is Making Sure Leftovers Don’t Get Left Behind - The New York Times:

The NY Times reports that the French government has recently become involved in l’affaire leftovers. As part of an effort to reduce food waste, since Jan. 1 restaurants have been required by law to send all customers home with le gourmet bag, a rebranded doggie bag, on request.

One of the first high-end restaurants in France to embrace the concept of le doggie bag was Le Coq Rico, a Parisian temple to roast chicken opened by the chef Antoine Westermann in 2012. The restaurant specializes in whole roast birds, and diners are encouraged to experience the chicken in its entirety: from egg to table, from cockscomb to tail feathers.

“A wing is a different flavor from the breast, and the breast is a different flavor from the oysters,” the chef wrote from Paris. “We want each client to be able to enjoy any part of the bird that they prefer.”

The traditional French way of eating embraces moderate portions and clean plates; taking food home was long considered impossibly gauche.

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Cocktails for the day

Summer drinking: Paris rendezvous — FT.com:

"... de Soto’s drinks seem fresh and pure. The Mace cocktail combines beetroot juice, aquavit, orange juice and spices in a manner so deliciously wholesome it could almost be drunk for breakfast; L’Herbe Est Toujours Plus Verte Ailleurs sees the delicate flavours of shochu, grass and white needle tea come together in a little sake cup. The only blot on this otherwise extremely composed menu is a completely deranged sour made with mustard, banana and the French gentian aperitif Suze."



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Big Poppa's

Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Bar/Italian

Restaurant	Big Poppa's
Street address	96 Oxford Street
Suburb	Darlinghurst
State	NSW
Postcode	2010
Phone
Website	https://www.facebook.com/bigpoppasbar/
Style	Italian
Awards Fairfax Good Food Guides
Awards Gourmet Guide
The Australian Top 50
Restaurant & Catering Awards
Other Awards
Reviews & Notes	"... Big Poppa's has come out swinging with a mash-up of hip-hop and Italian food. ... Upstairs, it's an Italian trattoria serving late night comfort food"
Reviewer	Myffy Rigby - SMH 13/7/16
Reviews & Notes
Reviewer
Reviews & Notes
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Owner's note

Balcon by Taparino

Sydney NSW 2000 Wine bar/ Spanish

Restaurant	Balcon by Tapavino
Street address	17 Bligh Street
Suburb	Sydney
State	NSW
Postcode	2000
Phone	02 9223 6176
Website	tapavino.com.au/balcon-by-tapavino
Style	Wine bar/Spanish
Awards Fairfax Good Food Guides
Awards Gourmet Guide
The Australian Top 50
Restaurant & Catering Awards
Other Awards
Reviews & Notes	"Balcon is about Spanish wine first, and Spanish food second; about relaxing over Rioja, nibbling almonds, not giving a damn about fat, salt and cholesterol, and staying too long over lunch on the vast al fresco balcon to the rear. In other words, it's just as it should be."
Reviewer	Terry Durack - SMH 21/7/16 14.5/20
Reviews & Notes
Reviewer
Reviews & Notes
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Owner's note

Food is, or is not, art? Eating at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

When they designed a restaurant at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, they set out to bring together "a revolving collection of culinary influencers, innovators, and icons to make their contributions accessible for greater public engagement." And according to a review in The New York Times this week they succeeded magnificently.

By avoiding originality, In Situ is the most original new restaurant in the country.
The restaurant opened a month ago inside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in a space off the lobby that was built during the museum’s transformative recent expansion. Inside, the chef, Corey Lee, faithfully replicates dishes dreamed up by Sean Brock, Alice Waters and other innovators. None of the recipes are his own.

The Latin phrase “in situ” is used when a work of art is embedded in its original location. This is just what In Situ’s dishes are not. The menu, folded and fastened with a metal museum admissions tag, looks like a guide to a gallery exhibition of works on temporary loan. One side shows a map of the world on a tilted axis — “a dislocation that hints at the shift from a recipe’s origin to its new situation at In Situ,” says a note from Andrea Lenardin Madden, an architect who designed the menu, the table settings, the server’s uniforms and other details.

Neal Benezra, SFMOMA's Director, describes chef Lee as "our curator of food" as he sets out to make In Situ an exhibition restaurant and collaborative project featuring chefs from around the globe.
What a brilliant idea for an art gallery restaurant.
As the NY Times concludes:

One thing In Situ proves, just by existing, is that certain chefs are now cultural figures in a sense that once applied only to practitioners of what used to be called high culture: literature, concert music, avant-garde painting.

A little dash of ginseng in the beef

Never Mind Grass-Fed, How About Elixir-Fed Meats? - The New York Times:

"Forget grass-fed beef and free-range poultry. China’s farmers say they have found the next big health-food craze: cows, pigs and ducks raised on a steady diet of ancient Chinese medicine.

 Practitioners in China have prescribed bitter blends of medicinal plants and herbs for centuries to ward off disease in humans.

Now, farmers are adapting the age-old elixirs — a dash of ginseng here, a speck of licorice there — for use on livestock.

They’re hoping to tap into the growing popularity of traditional medicine and health food in Chinese society.

The results, they promise, are not only delicious but healthy: lean, juicy meats that can protect against colds, arthritis and other illnesses. (The science is less resounding, though one study did find that cows that were fed Chinese medicines performed better in hot weather.)"



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Another gem from "Cut and Paste" - In praise of the long lunch

My admiration for The Australian's "Cut and Paste" keeps growing. This morning's gem (with due acknowledgement to the Financial Review):