Saturday night, Irene and I went to Brigadoon. Or at least … that’s how I think of it.

If you’ve been visiting here for awhile, you’ve already heard about Next, the Chicago restaurant that reinvents itself three times a year, totally changing its menu in an explorations of new cuisines. I’d already been there for Sicily, Kyoto, The Hunt, and Vegan.

I think of Next as Brigadoon because it’s here … and then gone. Unlike with other restaurants, you can’t say, oh, I’ll get there next year. Because whatever’s there now won’t be there a year from now. You’ve only approximately a three-month window in which to experience a meal, and then … it’s history.

Which is why Irene and I flew to Chicago Saturday specifically so we could experience Next’s final menu of 2013, a tribute to the Bocuse d’Or competition.

We sat at the Kitchen Table, which is the only table in the house capable of accommodating six people, and also the only one with a view of … well … the kitchen. I’ve been in the main dining room before, and loved my time there as well, but there’s something about seeing the process that’s captivating to me.

They say you should never see sausage being made, but the more I’ve eaten at restaurants with views of the kitchen, the more I feel that adage only works as a metaphor. I actually do want to see how the sausage is made. And the soufflé. And the consommé. And the pheasant … (more…)

I had a great meal Saturday night at the ever-changing Next restaurant, one which celebrated the Bocuse d’Or competition. I’ll tell you all about it later, and share plenty of pics, but first—moments ago, Next announced what its three cuisines for 2014 would be.

And here they are!

January – April 2014: Chicago Steak

We admit it—we have a love/hate relationship with steakhouses. Too often it’s just ‘meat on a plate’ without sauces and a bigger-is-better, size-trumps-all attitude.

We love a perfectly cooked, dry-aged cut of beef, marbled, juicy, & delicious. A great lobster thermidor. Perhaps a succulent shrimp cocktail, a silky bisque, simple but perfect vegetables and a few potatoes. Mix in a cocktail to start, a trophy red in the middle, and a digestif with dessert. Big music, big smiles, and a casual satisfying time for conviviality. Perfect night, right?

Next: Chicago Steak will marry the simple and delicious with wonderfully sourced ingredients, modern techniques, and an old-world vibe. Expect a party.

** please note: due to the cost of high-quality dry aged beef this menu will be priced slightly higher than previous Next menus.

May – August 2014: Chinese: Modern

What happens when a thousand year-old cuisine collides with the mind-set of culinary innovation? As China goes, so too does our Chinese Modern menu at Next.

Noodles, buns, dumplings, seafood, poultry, pork—all the basics could be covered. Chinese cuisine typically favors small portions of each dish but many bites, not unlike many of the menus at Next. But while we honor the ingredients and traditions, we will bring a unique Modernist attitude to this menu. Recognizably Chinese…. recognizably Next.

Chinese take-out anyone? You never know….

September – December 2014: Trio, January 20, 2004

Approaching the 10 year Anniversary of Alinea in 2015, our Grand Menu for the year will revisit the Tour de Force Menu that chef Achatz served on January 20, 2004.

Documented in their book Life, on the Line, the meal was the start of a conversation between Grant and Nick about building a restaurant. Barely over a year later Alinea opened.

A unique retrospective on the nascent ideas that became an identifiable cuisine… as well as a few ‘classics’ that were long ago put on the shelf, this menu will transport diners back to a great time in chef Achatz’ career. But it is hardly a museum piece. The cuisine remains vibrant, startling, and delicious.

Season tickets should go on sale soon. If you want in, keep an eye on Next’s Twitter feed and Facebook page, because scoring them ain’t so easy. (Well, unless you live online 24/7 the way I do.)

From the sublime … to the ridiculous.

I read a few months back about the limited-time-only cheeseburger crust pizza that Pizza Hut was selling in the UK, which was called everything from a “horrifying creation” to “a vaguely angry coronary just waiting to happen” to “the perfect meal for those ‘I’ve given up on life’ moments.”

Well, you know what that meant. I knew that while in Brighton for the World Fantasy convention, I had to try one! (more…)

I’ve had so much on my plate recently that I’ve been unable to tell you about what was on my plates Saturday night during the World Fantasy Convention. And what was on those plates was good.

After studying many menus, I’d decided that the restaurant I most wanted to experience while in Brighton was Graze, and that rather than go with the a la carte menu, even though it was impressive, I wanted to try the tasting menu, which needed to be ordered by the entire table.

Luckily, I was able to find willing co-conspirators, and so on my penultimate night in town, I sat down with Ellen Datlow, Cheryl Morgan, and Kevin Standlee to this …

Amuse-bouche: A perfect bite of fish cake with truffle emulsion and bacon foam.

(more…)

I took a redeye out of Dulles Wednesday night, arriving at Heathrow earlier than I usually wake up at home … and exhausted. My United flight was deserted, with only two people in my nine-person row, and most of the cabin similarly empty, so we were all able to stretch out. But even so, I didn’t really sleep well. The flight, which was meant to take seven hours and 15 minutes, arrived early, and with drinks followed by dinner at the front end, and a breakfast snack at the other end, not much time was left to even try to snooze. So by the time I got to Brighton via bus, even with a bit of napping along the way, it felt as if I was running on fumes.

Not a good way to begin a con, particularly when I had a panel and a reading as some of the first programming items!

I couldn’t access my room early enough to take the nap I’d planned, which meant that when I finally got in, I only had time to dump my bags, take note of the ghostly remains out my window of a pier which had burned down (setting the proper mood for a World Fantasy Convention, I thought), and then rush off to my panel “Thanks for the Memories,” on which I was to reminisce with Kim Newman, Gary K. Wolfe, Roz Kaveney and Rodger Turner on all those we lost since last year’s WFC in Toronto.

Unfortunately, through a combination of exhaustion and the labyrinthine nature of the hotel, I didn’t arrive for the panel until 12 minutes in. There was still plenty of time to remember fallen friends, including one I’d entirely forgotten about until Geoff Ryman prompted us from the audience as to whether there was anyone in comics to celebrate, and I remembered the great Carmine Infantino. In retrospect, I realize we spent too much time on the superstars, that is, those with whom the audience was probably already familiar, the Ray Harryhausens of the world, and so ended up leaving out those not quite as famous, such as Rick Hautala and David Silva. Sorry! But remember them anyway, OK?

And then it was time for my reading. Were you there? Because I wasn’t! (more…)

Arrived back home late last night from a fun and exhausting World Fantasy Convention in Brighton. There’s lots to tell you about good times with good friends and good food, but I’ve no time for that now, as I’ve got to leap into the work which allows me to go to places like Brighton and have those good times eating good food with good friends.

So for now, let these nine photos stand in until I’m oriented back to life in the U.S. and am able to fill you in on the details …

Stephen Jones’ Psycho-Mania! anthology—which contains a story of mine—launched with a book signing at which I was told 23 contributors were on hand to autograph. (more…)

Moments ago, Grant Achatz teased one of Next’s 2014 menus by tweeting a pic.

This pic.

Whoa!

I can take a hint. Can you?

When I realized I’d have a free evening in Manhattan Friday night, as Irene would be busy attending the New Jersey Romance Writers conference, I decided it was long past time to check out Wylie Dufresne’s Lower East Side restaurant wd-50. I’d heard a great deal about it over the years, both from those who absolutely loved it and from those whose reactions were far more … mixed. But whether people responded positively or negatively to the experience, their reactions always seemed passionate. Which meant—time to find out for myself!

And so I used social media to put out a call for a friend who was enough of a foodie to also be willing to pay $155 for the restaurant’s twelve-course tasting menu. Fellow zombie author Kris Dikeman was the first to respond, and so at 7:00 p.m. we met at wd-50 for what turned out to be a mind-blowing meal. Amazingly, there was only a single dish we were not absolutely in love with … and it was the same dish for both of us.

The first thing to come to the table was a wooden box of extremely thin baked sesame crisps. They proved so light that in addition to enjoying them before the courses began arriving, I also used them as a palate cleanser of sorts between each course.

First up was a tiny sandwich of saffron-coconut ice cream, caviar, and poppy seed. A surprising way to begin a meal, but the mix of sweet and salty was a major wake-up call for my taste buds. You wouldn’t think the flavors would work so with each other, but they did. It was like eating ice cream by the ocean! (more…)

When I received the list of panels on which I’d be appearing at Capclave and saw that I’d been scheduled for a two-hour block Saturday night from 10:00 p.m. until midnight, my first thought was—Gee, that’s awfully late. But that initial thought was almost immediately extinguished by a tantalizing follow-up thought of—Wait! That means I can go to Range again!

I’ve already told you how I woke up early Black Friday—something I never do—in order to book a table on the first of Range’s pre-opening preview nights, which resulted in a meal that made us rush back as soon as we could. So with the restaurant only 27 minutes away from the convention hotel (according to Google Maps, anyway), I knew this represented a perfect opportunity.

So what did we think? Our smiles near the end of the meal should give you the answer to that question.

We dined with friends Karen and Charlie Newton (who’d been there with us before) and Sandy and Risa Stewart (who were Range first-timers). A side note—the three couples at the table had been together for 32, 33, and 37 years—which means we had a combined 102 years of marriage! (more…)

Because of the ancient foodie pics I posted the other day, several of you asked about the recipes I used back in the old timey days. Specifically, you wanted to know more about the Peking Duck and the cannoli.

Luckily, rather just bookmarking cookbooks, back then I’d type out my favorite recipes on index cards. And surprise, surprise, all these years later, I’ve still got ’em.

And so, here, copied over from I have no idea where, is the recipe that created that Peking Duck.

I’m sure it’s far from the best recipe—I’ve been told I should have used a bicycle pump to inflate the duck at some point if I wanted truly crisp skin—but it’s what I used back then.

As for the cannoli, here’s the recipe which I presume I cut from the box containing the metal cannoli forms. (more…)