Vichyssoise

The title of this post is a food I've never had before discussed at length in Anthony Bourdain's book......a type of soup made from vegetables and chicken stock that apparently is excellent, mostly served cold but could be served hot. And a great name that makes it sound legendary, like King Vichyssoise the great or the name of a crown jewel or a luxury car brand, not.......soup. There are so many fancy names for food, like duck intestines is called foie gras, "fregula" is a type of salad, and even something resembling French fries can be called "pommes frites." It almost makes me want to become a gourmet, a foodie, a food aficionado who can truly critique the quality of the food he eats. Instead, my restaurant rotation consists mostly of rotations through Subway, Chipotle, McDonalds, and whatever cheap Chinese restaurant is close by......not exactly the most creative. I wonder what Anthony Bourdain would think about that.

In New York, it feels like there are a million worlds: the touristy world, the subway world, the busy law firm world, the sports world, the jazz clubs world, the Central Park running crew world.......so many people from different walks of life seemingly living in different worlds, all intersecting each other, and makes me wonder how many things I'm missing out there. One of those worlds is the Michelin-rated restaurant world, which is huge in New York: there are so many famous chefs with famous restaurants that people from all over the world, My world who lives in New York just went to Eleven Madison Park (he posted "Eleven. Madison. Park" in the snobbiest one possible with pictures of the experience) that was voted the world's best restaurant in 2017. That's really saying something.

I recently also visited "one of the 9 best restaurants in Canada" with my law school friend, who just this week proposed to his girlfriend (now fiance), so I hope I wasn't interrupting the dinner where he was about to propose at a fancy restaurant (OMG, now I'm connecting the dots as I'm writing this and think there's at least a small chance that I did) because the restaurant was SUPER fancy. Each dish had a back story to it, every dish was cooked to perfection and prepared on the spot.......I now understand the difference between freshly cooked meals where "the fish was killed right when you order it" to what I ate before. I used to ponder inquisitively about why people made a big deal out of not going to buffets where means were prepared for a lot of people, as my parents used to always take us to Chinese buffets with plenty of food.........now it totally makes sense. Buffets are like the polar opposite of fine dining, quantity over quality v. quality over quantity, it's like yin and yang, North Pole and South Pole. And it's not just buffets; it's like going to a cheap sushi place v. an expensive sushi place.....there are both kinds near my workplace and I'll pick up the frozen food cheap box for $6 when I'm just hungry and "fall on it" (another term for "wolf it down" or "inhale it") without regard for taste, whereas the good sushi place the fish just tastes different, the texture is smooth, and I actually focus on what I'm eating as opposed to halfheartedly eating. Somewhere in the back, there's a chef who worked many years and many different jobs, and tried many different things to get the taste just right and the dish just to where it should be to have the best effect on our taste buds.......I now finally have awakened to this reality and fully embrace it. If anything, this trip to New York has taught me the importance of quality. In New York, there are so many levels of dining: from the plentiful food trucks on every street corner pedaling the same common fare like gyros, hot dogs, and chicken shishkebobs (they literally all have the same food, I've seen where they all go after the day ends......a warehouse in Long Island City, the source of all cheap food evil) to the commonplace chain restaurants you can own a share of on the S&P 500 (McDonald's, Chipotle) to the random Chinese restaurants that all have the same menu (with the same pictures of the food!) of dumplings, beef and broccoli, shrimp fried rice, etc. to a moderate diner, to a nice restaurant with Zagat and Yelp ratings posted on the door, to restaurants that don't need any signs or advertisements........people find them, they don't try to find people and are usually booked to capacity......that's when you know you've made it in the restaurant world, and if I'm lucky enough to eat there consistently, that's when I'll know I've made it. And I'll order the vichyssoise.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan