Sushi San Attitude I was greeted with, “come on feel the noise,” by Quiet Riot at the door. Felt the noise I did and felt the vibe too, it was sure good, the vibe that is. There were plenty of pretty people at the bar engaging in thoughtful chatter. Large red round Asian lanterns hung from the ceiling giving the place a soft mellow glow. Straight lines and dark wood set the theme for furniture and décor, contemporary, elegant and bold. This wasn’t your usual sushi bar, this was Sushi Ra!
By Steve Chau ...read more. Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Honey I'm going to Roy's! Chef Roy Yamaguchi of Roy's reminds me of Josquin Des Prez (c.1450-1521). Des Prez was a musical genius, a visionary thinker, a person who defied convention to create a new fusion of sounds which elevated his craft to which some may call sublime. Back in Des Prez's days, church music was just simply chants (Gregorian), all monotones. Nothing wrong with chants, it served its purpose, mainly to teach scriptures, but after a while I would imagine it to be, well? monotonous. Des Prez must have certainly recognized this and to his credit, he challenge the status quo (the church) of the day and introduced harmonies and melodies which really kicked things up a notch, thus ushering in a new era of pious music, baroque to be more precise.
By Steve Chau ...read more. Sunday, February 17, 2008
Phở, a kind of soul food My mother would say, “I’m hungry for some pho,” and right on cue my dad would get up, go upstairs, put on his going out clothes, and I would follow right behind him. Moments later we would meet out at the car and off we went. Out of our drive way we would head south down Federal street to a nondescript single family home located on an ordinary street in a typical suburban neighborhood. Once there we would all file out, knock on the door and was thusly escorted down to the basement were other like minded Vietnamese were gathered. One long table was set up in the middle of the room that accommodated perhaps fifteen to twenty happy noodle slurping patrons seated quite closely to one another. The close proximity didn’t really seem to bother anybody, once you’re in your world of pho; nothing else really seems to matter. After a short while three seats became available, once seated we proceed to order. My brother would come along too but he was too little for a seat so he sat on my mother’s lap, “no space to spare,” the lady would always say. I always got the same thing, Phở Tái, Bò Viên (rare beef with meatballs).
By Steve Chau ...read more. Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Mezze me, mezze me mucho. It’s a special space that is created when friends come together for food, drinks and conversation. It was on a Sunday, much like today, it was warm, if you can call 38 degrees warm, at least the sun was shinning. I got a call from a recent ex-partner. We hadn’t talked for a while so it was certainly a surprise when I got the call. She called to see if I’d be interested in lunch. I immediately started wondering what “lunch” meant. As with many fresh break ups there were a lot of lingering unresolved issues. The question was, am I ready to tackle any of this today?
For those who believe in coincidences, I was already on my way downtown to drop in on a realtor friend’s open house. After that I was to head to Kali’s Court Mezze (1606 Thames St, Baltimore, MD) for the subject of this week’s blog. So why not just meet with the “ex”, I’m all about being efficient with my time. This was like “killing two birds with one stone,” a fantastic idea if you get to eat the birds afterwards.
By Steve Chau ...read more. Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Introducing SĒN Baltimore's new food and dining blogger... I read today that “common sense shows that human life is short-lived and that it is best to make of our brier sojourn on this Earth something that is useful to oneself and others,”-
his holiness the Dalai Lama.
That seems like a great place to start a meditation, more specifically a meditation on food. All of us through the course of living collect all sorts of distractions. We are like magnets attracting images, sounds, insights, thoughts, flavors, smells, all sorts of senses. It’s truly a wonder that all our minds don’t just explode from the sensory overload. It’s hard to sort out what nuggets are worth hanging on to. This seems true concerning food, the stuff we’re made of. People sell food just like they sell everything else. They come at you from all different angles, try this bite, it’ll give you a culinary organism, go to this “it” spot and “poof!” you we be transformed like Cinderella, making you sophisticated & charming. Not to mention you’ll get a few IQ points for choosing that spot. The jargon, the science, the subjective nature of good taste make the culinary world a mystical one.
By Steve Chau ...read more. Monday, January 21, 2008
