This is for Women! Stay Strong!!!..cuz without U, there’s nothing, obviously…If you fail, we are all fck***d!

 

 

 

Women First! Bless Women! The Lord, then Women, then Existence! I and You and WE all exist because there is the Lord, then a Woman! If u do not dig that one, then u do not understand who u r…!

Bless Women! The Lord, then Women, then Existence! I and You and WE all exist because there is the Lord, then a Woman!

My Blog is a personal blog, therefore  I do whatever I wanna do with it.  Therefore I will go with what matters most to my existence: The Lord and Women!

Respect Women! Respect your Worth!

You are nothing without the Lord and a Woman. I am nothing without the Lord and a Woman! We are nothing without the Lord and a Woman!

Leaving you with this beautiful performance of one of my ATFs, Mrs Hill:

 

 

As well as as a song that …might..perhaps …sound controversial, to the distracted minds….but listen, listen carefully….listen very carefully….it praises Women (rightly so!, because we would be nothing without the Lord and a Woman, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing….Men made things, Men made many things, but without a Woman, they would have made nothing…..so keep calm and do not get upset for nothing…Lol..that song is praising Women, NOT putting them down………) :

 

 

If you were Jeff Bezos or Warren Buffett what would you do?

This blog  is a personal blog. Most of the posts on this blog are about food, but it  remains a personal blog on which I blog about whatever I have in mind as you would do with a personal blog.

So in this post, an existential question.  If you were rich what would you do? If you were Jeff Bezos or Warren Buffett, some of this globe’s richest individuals what would be the #1 item on  your to-do list?

As far as I am concerned, the #1 item on my  to-do list would be this one: I would pursue the microcredit work of Muhammad Yunus across the globe.

I know that there have been controversies around Mr Yunus, but it is not the controversies that did appeal to me.

What  is of interest, in my case, is the idea of helping the less fortunate (the vast majority of humans on planet Earth) out of their misery, NOT…  because it sounds politically correct to do so. And NOT ..because I am a good person, NO..NOT AT ALL, but because that may potentially help fixing some of the major issues that we are ALL globally facing…since a long time, actually. It is just getting worst.  I guess you do not need a picture to understand what I am eyeing.

I believe that the worst thing to do if you want to seriously contribute to the emancipation of humans is to ensure that they are  dependent  on something or someone (yeah…try that, and they will be on your back forever) . The best recipe is to give a chance to the less fortunate (the majority of us) to thrive. It needs to be done cleverly, though:  if  you behave as if you were  Santa Claus giving away gifts to the world, you are fooling people by projecting the fake impression that  life is all about fairy tales. In other words, you are fixing….nothing!

What I like with the microcredit concept  that I am referring to, here, is that it is an attempt to  give a  second chance to  those who, slowly but surely, do have the genuine will — just not the means — to contribute to their local economies. Of course, there will be crooks, etc. Human beings, right? Lol. So what do you expect? Lol… But that is NOT an excuse. To move onward, we still need to see above and beyond the usual human flaws.

I believe that  idea can, in the long run,  make a major difference.

Now, some may ask … how come the initiative of Mr Yunus did not make that much of a difference so far? Oh Well, … guess what…one person, alone, cannot change the destiny of ton of people. We need more people like Mr Yunus to make that happen –  obviously !!

To wrap things up , I am NOT delusional enough to believe that is the sole remedy to the targeted issue, and I am conscious of  its  limitations as well as the reality that poverty will never disappear (and that…it is not because you give someone the means to thrive, that he will…as rightly pointed out by Ice T on this interview in between 2:25 to 2:28 , Lol ) , but it is certainly one of the realistic ways to try to address it, if you care enough for the living. Food for thought.

 

Common misconceptions in the dining world

Some of the numerous common misconceptions in the dining world:

1.Thinking that a food journalist is always knowledgeable.
Although a journalist is supposed to learn, gather information, be knowledgeable about what he/she writes, well…it’s actually, unfortunately, not always the case.
I wish, to take an example, that I would be in a position to tell you that some of this globe’s popular food journalists know what they are talking about, but I would lie to you if I’d get to such conclusion. First, before I get to the point I want to raise, and that’s important for you me to underline this here: this is not about the stupid infantile bashing of journalists that is trending these days a bit everywhere like. Nah, I am not into that crap, Lol. Thank you. Now, let’s get to what I am talking about: many of the popular food journalists out there are, in reality, knowledgeable about one aspect or two of what they write about.
For eg, if you carefully play attention at the writings of most popular food journalists in the West, they know Western food very well, indeed. But they are clueless about anything that is not Western. Up to this stage, it’s (relatively) still all good…
But here’s the major (and unacceptable) problem with them: why do they write about food on which they spend zero effort of genuine knowledge? You would think that, before reviewing, say, Chinese food, to take an example, they would, at least, spend couple of years alongside those in the know and then come back and know what they are talking
about…Niet..Nein…Nada..Nothing…C’mon folks….are you really interested to take your job seriously? Were you really thinking that would not show? C’mon…

2.Thinking that a native knows his food better than a non native.
Well, obviously a native should know his food better than a non native, right? Yeah, that’s a common belief that is supposed to make perfect sense, do not get me wrong about the fact that I perfectly understand that it should supposedly make perfect sense, but then, on the chess board, you need to think a bit further, and not too far, actually, Lol: is that native interested by food, to start with? Lol. And if that native is interested by food, does he have a palate? I mean, yeah you can be interested by food, but if you do not have a palate, well…it beats the point. I can be a non native, but If do the right homework to know the food of that native better than what that native does, that native  will be less relevant obviously. It might take me longer, to understand his food better that he is supposed to, there is no doubt about that, but if I do what it takes to get there, and he is doing shit, Lol…I’ll do a better job than him, again and again….obviously. So, as you can see, there are things like that, that we take for granted, but if you think properly, if you think, and not just dumbly recite stereotypes, they are not to be taken for granted at all. Far from that ………

The WOW factor…Rfaol!………………….Wow ;p

I have been reviewing food for the last 3 decades and I can’t remember a single mention of “Wow” in any of my reviews. Not that I have never been Wowed…Nah…trust me, I would have never pursued with this sh***  if being Wowed, here and there, would have been MIA from that landscape. But what is WOW? …. Is it really a debate? Nah, I do not think so…. – You know, ask anyone who tells you that he has been WOWed by a place, to retry it 2,3,4,5 times…and give me some news. That person will eventually understand/get what I am talking about here: WOW is a non debate. WOW is just circumstancial. WOW can perhaps be replicated once or twice. Maximum a 3rd time. Then that very same WOW will not be WOW anymore. So, when you see WOW…just remember that most of us are visiting those places just once, perhaps twice a year or in 2,3 yrs, Lol. That is why we are lured by that impression of WOW. But there is no WOW. It’s like the most beautiful painting that lies before your eyes. After a while, it might not be what it once was. And that is normal, right? And if you  reply “right”…then please do yourself a favour and stop saying WOW ;p – Wow.

Q&A – Should I plan my dining adventures based on what food journalists write?

“Should I plan my dining adventures based on what food journalists write“? … is one common question you have been asking  me across the years via emails.

The answer is Yes and No and everything in between …

I find that many food journalists are not that well versed, as far as I am concerned,  in what they are writing about. Examples: I like Pete Wells, but I know when to part ways with him (Tempura Matsui, NYC was a good example of that), and I know when to extract what I need from him (there are plenty of other places in NYC that I discovered and that I liked, thanks to PW’s recommendations. Same for Frank Bruni, Gilles Pudlowski, and plenty of other food journalists.

Some few food journalists nailed it in every single of their reviews (for eg, Marie-Claude Lortie of La Presse in Montreal or Périco Légasse from of Marianne, France), but that is extremely rare. Virtually impossible. Marie-Claude and Périco have an exceptional palate and that is rare even among food journalists. And somehow, their  narrated experiences are closer to what you and I would experience whereas some other food journalists tend to  experience with  things that the average diner would not).

Hey, listen, even one of my all time favorite food writers, the late AA Gill … I had to learn to  “read in between the lines” when perusing his accounts. I know AA Gill was mostly about entertaining all of us, but do not be fooled by that: in his prime, AA Gill was a serious food writer. But he loved modernist cooking in general, and had the tendency of making fun of classical cuisines (I am not a fan of modernist cooking and I am generally partial to classical fares and yet, I loved AA Gill. Why? Because I knew how “to read” AA Gill. And damn, he was funny!)

Last but not least, let’s not forget that many food journalists are treated with honour and privilege by some of those restaurateurs. Great for them, but their accounts are useless to people like you and I who are going to be treated like any other normal eater at those same restaurants. So, that is one more reason to be careful when reading the accounts of food journalists. Some few food journalists like Marie-Claude Lortie, AA Gill, or Périco Légasse managed, across the years, to report things the way most of us would experience it. But that cannot be said of plenty of other food journalists/critics. The way to find out? You go and find out … Lol! Trust yourself on that one … you will quickly learn who to trust in that regard.

Now, is that normal that we cannot fully rely on a food journalist? Well, all  Doctors are  not always accurate / reliable. Right? The same applies to  your Lawyer, a Judge, etc. They are all human beings and cannot be always perfect, at whatever they are paid to do, obviously….it’s unfortunate, but such is life. Some food journalists are rigorous but have no palate, others can have a palate but are not reliable because they are just there to chant the glory of the restaurateurs they like and put down those they do not like, etc. So, usual human being crap. The good news is that, if you are serious about it, you will know what you need to know and will be able to segregate the good from the bad…;p

 

The key ingredient to better enjoy your food is to FIGHT IGNORANCE

Ignorance will always be the enemy within yourself. Always.

After decades of studying the behaviour of diners across the globe, there is one flaw, in that behaviour, that never changed: IGNORANCE.

Whatever the dissatisfaction, it generally boiled and it is still generally boiling down to just that: IGNORANCE.

People just want things to be what they want things to be. They just can’t accept to let things be what they are.

When it comes to food, many people do inaccurately confuse matters of personal taste with technical flaws. As an example, if the food is sweeter or savourier than what  they prefer, they inaccurately perceive that as a technical flaw. Instead of assessing it for what it accurately is: a matter of personal taste. Same goes for doneness. Whether your piece of meat is firm or tender, that may not be a technical fault. We tend to assess doneness as a fault, but that is not accurate at all. In some places, they prefer their meat tender, in others they prefer it firmer. I always laugh when I see western people say “the piece of abalone was perfect because it was …tender” and “”the piece of abalone was bad because the meat was …firm”. That is absurd.  On the Island I grew up, you would say something like that, and they will think that you have no teeth, which is why you need your meat tender. What is accurate is that there is not a universal rule on the doneness of your meat.

Talking about personal taste, when I know that I do not like a particular ingredient, I do not order it. As simple as that. I see many people ordering meats they do not like /or dishes that have ingredients they do not like and they complain that it was bad. You scratch a bit and you easily discover that the person just does not like that specific meat or ingredient. It is Ok not to like something, but obviously not accurate at all to confuse it with something that is not good.

There is no universal rule on textures, sweetness being better than savouriness or savouriness to be superior to sweetness, etc. You may not like your satay sweet, but that does not mean that a sweet satay is flaw. That may actually mean that it was the intent of the Chef to make it sweet most likely because the majority of his clients, in the place where he operates, prefer a sweet satay. Now, do not confuse that with things that make no sense: for eg, if I order food that is as hard as a ball of golf (yep, believe it or not, it happened to me in the past…and I am sure it will happen again, Lol)….that is a different story…and I will clearly share my justified dissatisfaction.

Know your food before going to restaurants. Stop being ignorant. That will avoid absurd  statements such as “my Neaopolitan pizza had burnt edges” or “my nigiri  was not cooked”.

 

Those in the know ……..

The only way forward is to learn from those in the know
Whether it is in cooking (the star topic of the current blog) or in anything else, you will be nothing if you ignore those in the know and you will be something the day you will start building on what they know ….

In this post, the legendary Roy Jones Jr, one in the know. Enjoy.

 

When we say Meh… (regarding food trends, obviously, as this post is about anything related to the restaurant world)

I say Meh to …

(1)Wagyu – Super $$$ …BUT for what, exactly..?? A bit more, here, on my opinion about Wagyu.

(2)Truffles – shaving truffles on dishes is just another way for  the industry to get us to spend more $$$.

(3)Edible gold leaf – Just another way for  the industry to get us to spend more $$$. Absurd.  Small  d*** energy syndrom, as some would say…

(4)The “Secret  restaurants” – Pure self-centeredness. The playground for those who think that they are too good to eat with the mass. Pfff….the reality is that you sh**** by the same h**** as anyone else. Lol. And BTW, if they were that secret…we would have never heard of them…the proof that it is just about the attention-seeking…- Small-minded!

(5)Smash burger. What a horrible trend! I mean, you have a beautiful juicy big plump wonder called the hamburger. Then one day, someone came and flattened all that into a mess called the smash burger….- C’mon people…you get bored too easily, Lol.  Really not amused.

And you, what are the foodie trends you find MEH?

What to think of San Pellegrino World Best restaurants, Michelin, etc., ?

What to think of San Pellegrino World Best restaurants, Michelin, etc., ?

This has been a very popular question, across the years, when I read your emails. Especially coming from people who are in their first steps in their discovery of high end dining.

One thing I like to remind people of … is that … everything in life is a “tool”, therefore useful. I do not know what is great or not. I do not trade in such terms.
All I know is that everything in life is a “tool”, therefore useful. The  key though … is that … you will need to know what it is useful for …

And that’s exactly what you need to ask yourself in the case of San Pellegrino World Best restaurants, Michelin, etc. –
Michelin or San Pellegrino World Best restaurants SHOULD BE just “tools” in your “toolbox of knowledge” about restaurants across the world.
They are basically doing part of the homework that you need to do if you are interested to visit a restaurant. You boot from there, and look elsewhere (you need do to further
searches like any serious person who has some homework to do, Lol).

And remember … if you need to rely on someone else to figure what’s best for you, you are utterly naive and that is not acceptable …