Pig and Peaches

Friday, August 15, 2008

Go to the bottom of the page and vote!!!!!!!

10 comments:

Cathy said...: You are a very bad girl. Are you trying to start another civil war? ;-}; August 15, 2008 at 7:57 PM
Cathy said...: A clarification: Do restaurants outside the cities proper count? E.g., is French Laundry a San Francisco restaurant?

And are we defining 'best' across the entire spectrum of dining, or focusing on the high end? I need to know whether Katz's pastrami should be considered.

I'll say it again: you are a VERY bad girl.; August 15, 2008 at 8:01 PM
SBD said...: Blame in on Ashley! I think San Fran is the far reaching environs...and NYC...whatever you munch in whatever locale...I like dark side street hotdogs, trips to Astoria,Queens with the queen of cuisine, C Loup~~~~~~so, I voted for NYC!; August 15, 2008 at 9:07 PM
Dan Dutton said...: Not having been to 2 out of 4 of those, I'm abstaining... but I will say that US restaurants in general are a little starched (as in collars) & pharmaceutical for my tastes compared with those in the older cultures I've visited... ostentation without deep procedure, glitz without glamor, over-presentation & a lack of lived connection with ingredients would be my main bitching points. So I'm going to say, with Ali's place excepted (then I guess I am voting NYC...)
- that the best food in the US is to be had in New Mexico - and not at the swank spots there. How's that for civil war?; August 16, 2008 at 9:32 AM
SBD said...: you must vote...NYC itisi!!!! think mai house? nobu? increase the list~!; August 16, 2008 at 10:24 AM
Chris1984 said...: I voted NYC. Just too many good places to eat there.
New Orleans is great, but dominated by one cuisine.
SF and Chicago have some of the best chefs in the country, but so does New York. The sheer volume and diversity of great restaurants in NYC (high and low brow) put it at the top for me. And where better for an after-dinner stroll?
One of the most frightening things about the future is that there may come a time when Las Vegas will have to be considered on of the best dining destinations. An after-dinner stroll by the slot machines doesn't do it for me.; August 17, 2008 at 8:45 AM
Dan Dutton said...: Well exactly, Chris - the experience of food is so much more than just what's on the plate. The only thing (for me, anyway) that would be on the plate in Vegas would be money (which even with dressing on it would not be a tasty green) - no matter how talented the woo-ed in chef might be.

Ok - I'm uninformed about 2 of the cities, but I'm willing to guess NYC - on the basis of Nobu, Mai House, & Cafe Kabah - each superlative in their own way & holding their own with the places in Europe & Japan that I've really enjoyed.

There's a dirt floored, lattice walled hut beside the road near Vallodolid in the Yucatan, only serving one thing - carefully sieved black bean soup of unsurpassable elegance (beans, water, salt), grilled strips of pork, nose of the dog salsa (milpa tomatoes, cilantro, habenero, salt), hand-made corn tortillas, lime & beer - all for under $2, cooked by 3 ladies kneeling by a the lid of a 55 gallon barrel balanced on 3 stones - which quite frankly blew every other experience I've had of "eating out" completely out of the water - including everything Paris could offer, & even the sly Kyoto had to take a back seat to it. I think it had to do with not just how perfectly fresh and understood the ingredients were & the several thousand years of tradition behind the method - but most especially it was how happy everyone was - when someone is thrilled to make all the real tortillas for just for you that you can eat, patted out by super-skilled hands that have been making them since childhood, and you realize the rest of the world has vanished & it's just your hunger for life meeting the perfect offering - then you're really eating!

So I don't think Las Vegas will ever be much punk for real food lovers - unless there's a decent hot dog stand.; August 17, 2008 at 9:57 AM
SBD said...: Well, guys, you certainly put a new twist on the contest...care to go universal? I am sure my fellow blogger will take umbrage to Las Wages, he's been to the finest tables out there, so he'll weigh in...atmosphere aside, how was the food?????
I distinctly remember meeting one of the above bloggers there years ago, on our way to Zion.....I don't remember having a memorable meal in Vegas, but just outside of Zion was one great lunch served under low hanging trees.; August 17, 2008 at 4:39 PM
Chris1984 said...: I remember that lunch outside Zion too. Great milk shakes and surrouned by the mountains.

I have had a very nice meal in Vegas. It was even followed by a cirque show, which I must admit I enjoyed despite myself (it helped that the tix were free). But hardly the same as finding one's way back to the train station in Bologna after spending a couple of hours splurging on a lunch of red wine and veal and and and. Paris is lovely, but I'll take Italia.; August 18, 2008 at 11:34 AM
Katherine Dunn/Apifera Farm said...: Zurich.

Then again, why isn't Yamhill on the list?; August 18, 2008 at 7:58 PM