Oishii/Chanoso's

10 things you\'re doing wrong at restaurants

Sun, 08 May 2011 09:25:03 -0400

Thought our customers might like this post from the Amateur Guormet on Huffington Post

I've been eating at restaurants my entire life, having grown up to parents who didn't cook and who love eating out more than life itself. The following tips are culled from a lifetime of dining out with them and also from my own experiences as an adult eating at restaurants for my blog.

1. Accepting A Table That You Don't Like.

Have you ever found yourself ushered to a table in the dark, gloomy corner of a restaurant, next to a table of screaming children and you thought to yourself: "Oh boy, this is not what I had in mind?" You have every right to ask for a different table. Now at a trendy, sceney place, you may get a hostile reaction: "There won't be another table for at least an hour." If that's the response you get, immediately leave that restaurant: it's not worth it. If you're polite about it, though, chances are there's a better table for you and your evening will be that much better.

2. Listening To Your Server Instead of Your Craving.

Don't get me wrong: your server is a fabulous resource for finding out what's good and fresh on the menu. Often a server will espouse their favorite menu items. That's very helpful, but it's not the most important thing. The most important thing is knowing what you're in the mood for and sticking to that instinct. So if you're craving steak and the waiter puts on a whole song-and-dance routine about how much he loves the fish, nod nicely and still order the steak. If it's a good restaurant, the steak will be as good as the fish.

3. Not Asking Questions.

Where your server does play an important role is in explaining words on the menu that you don't understand. There's no shame in asking "what's quinoa? And am I pronouncing it right?" Clarify a dish before you order it or you may be ordering something that you didn't really want.

4. Not Thinking The Meal Through From Beginning To End.

If you are getting a steak for your entrée, is it wise to order the bacon-wrapped dates as a starter and then a foie gras terrine as your appetizer? Probably not, unless you want to be carried out on a stretcher. If you're having a heavy, meaty entrée, order a lighter, more fish-oriented starter. Or a salad. Or, inversely, if you're getting a lighter entrée, order a heavier appetizer. Think: balance.

5. Ordering A Bottle of Wine When Wine By The Glass Makes More Sense.

If one person orders fish, one person orders steak, one person orders pork and one person orders crayfish risotto, it might be very difficult to choose a bottle of wine that appeals to everyone (and would go well with all that food). So keep things simple and do wine by the glass: one bottle is about four glasses anyway and if you do the math, it often works out the same.

6. Salting Your Food Before You Taste It.

If you're at a good restaurant, the seasoning, like everything else, is carefully scrutinized by the chef before it reaches your table. Trust, then, that the food is seasoned correctly when you first take a bite. If, a few bites later, it still isn't doing it for you, by all means, ask for salt.

7. Asking The Kitchen To Leave Off An Element.

I understand that some of you are allergic to mushrooms or zucchini or mushroom-shaped zucchini. Fair enough. But if there's a dish on the menu that has, as a component, something that you don't like or that you're allergic to, you're better off choosing a different dish than asking them to remove that component. That component is there for a reason: it's meant to balance out the other elements on the plate and if you throw that balance off, your dinner will be disappointing.

8. Going To The Bathroom Right Before They Serve Your Next Course.

You may not know this, but at many fine restaurants, they carefully watch your table before they bring your food out to make sure everyone is seated. If not, they'll wait. And if the wait is too long -- and this is at the most serious places -- they'll sometimes throw out food that's gotten cold and re-fire your dishes. How awful! Do the restaurant a favor, then, and go to the bathroom right after they take your food away; don't wait until just before the next course comes.

9. Sharing One Dessert.

Sure, if you're on a budget or a diet, sharing one dessert is a fine way to go about things. But if you want to seriously experience a restaurant, you have to give the pastry chef their due: order two desserts and share them. I recommend one fruit-based dessert and one chocolate-dessert, that way you get to experience the best of both worlds.

10. Keeping Your Dissatisfaction To Yourself.

Though it may seem rude, at first, to tell your server that the asparagus frittata was over-salted or that the white wine wasn't properly chilled, it's far more galling for a restaurant to read an anonymous review online that complains of these things without a chance for them to correct or address what went wrong. By speaking up, you're alerting the restaurant to issues that need to be addressed and actually helping them improve their game. Plus, if they're generous, they'll make up for things by sending over an extra dessert or refilling your glass, no charge.

Frontera and Avec - and then there were 4

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 22:25:38 -0400

And then there were four
Mat went home on the train this morning to conduct some interviews for new staff. Well leave it up to Mat to selfishly abandon us to shoulder the burden of so many dishes by ourselves.

With two types of queso fundido, catfish and gunthorp pork taco's, the enchilada with their signature mole sauce and some totilla soup, this was the much anticipated traditional mexican that would bring our trip to a close.

Gone were what I would call the more extravagant dished of Topolobampo or even last nights dinner at Avec that would only serve as specials or the fringe of the mainstream food that will always be the focus of all my restaurants.

Now this is a far mor real experience. Popular Mexican dishes we see everyday just prepared extremely well with farm fresh ingredients. I can almost hear Al Pacino in the movie scarface saying "Now, Ju talkin' to me baby"

I didn't that what I thought was a simple totilla soup could get that much better. You could tell that The queso fundids were portioned small so that the quality of the cheese could excel. The pork tacos had a great flavor. The enchilada had me saying Mole like Austin Powers.

Scott liked how that with all the different flavors on the table it seemed no matter how you tried to combine different elements on the table in a taco it worked deliciously

AVEC

Owned by James Beard Award winner Paul Kahan, this is the more casual sister restaurant next door to the more famous Blackbird. The food was delicious and it was a great example to Us of what could be done with such a small kitchen. How great food could be so casual and unpretentious, hell, they even sat us at what were community tables.

Sure we loved the pork shoulder, house made bratwurst, flatbread from their dough pro pizza oven but their signature dish was the chorizo stuffed dates. We really filled up on the fresh baed bread which was an accessory to many of the dishes

However, compared to the meals on the rest of the trip, for myself, this fit the sesame street song "one of these things doesn't belong here, one of these things is not like the other. (and that's even after eating pig face)

Decisions, decisions - Topolobampo -Day 2 lunch

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 06:46:39 -0400

We have to decide between frontera and topolobampo which is just plain unfair.
We chose the more Upscale Topolobampo, and were rewarded accordingly.
Scotty counted an remarked that we each ate 11 types of proteins in our meal
Chorizo with egg, rock hen, pork, pork belly, Wood fired steak, Duck, Texas Redfish
Even though we were pretty full after all that meat, our server told us we missed one recommended dish so we decided there was always room for one more and this was a vegetarian dish that we thought perfect to end the meal off with

Berenjena y Hongos en Salsa Negra

Crispy-creamy eggplant, inky corn mushroom (huitlacoche) and beach and oyster mushrooms in "black sauce" of black beans, caramelized chipotles and roasted garlic. Crunchy "streusel" of pumpkinseeds and oats.

Turned out to be our favorite dish so

One of its special and most interesting ingredients was "huitlacocha", inky corn mushroom that grows inside corn. In the U.S. they call it corn smut ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_smut ) and most farmers in North America and Europe consider it blight. They used to try to eliminate it but after being recognized as a delicacy and after enough high profile chef's let it be known as a delicacy Mexico it is now sought after.

Now, how do we get back to Frontera Grill on this same trip when theres so much to see

Gorditas de frijol
Chorizo y morcilla con Huevo
Trio of ceviches

Conchinita Pibil
Polite en Pebre
Prs ado en Mole Amarillo
Pato al pasilla ul.?
Carne Asada "Brava"

Berenjena y Hongos en Salsa Negra

Dessert - (pictures)

Crepas con Cajeta y Platano

warm, buttery crepes filled with plantain custard. Nieve de crema (sour cream sorbet), peanut crunch, homemade cajeta and bittersweet chocolate drizzle.

DINNER 1 - A SAIGON SISTER WELCOME TO CHICAGO

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:13:43 -0400

I had to type the title in all caps simply because I wanted to shout to the world what an amazing time we had our first night

Can't imagine a more perfect first day. Our banh mi sandwich lunch where our cooks learned all the recipes and we committed to find g fresher French baguettes is not even worth talking about after the dinner that follows here

Upon entering Saigon Sisters And placing the order for what turned out to only be the first half of dinner, I explained to our server what we were doing. He immediately brought out their chef, 26 yr old Matt Eversman who had just won Chicago's Breakout chef of the year.

After responding Avec and Big Star to being asked what other restaurants we planned to visit, he told me I had just walked past the owner of both places who came in twice that day to eat.

In addition to the 6 dishes we ordered and 2 desserts, the chef sent out 2 more and with our bottle of wine the bill for all five of us came less than I've spent on dinner for 2. The owners wife came in who is one of the actual Saigon Sisters. I should probably refer to them as owner and her husband. We talked and had after dinner drinks while Scotty and Jon went into the kitchen with chef Eversman.

Between the owners and their chef, we had the warmest welcome to Chicago I think I've ever experienced. The only thing that surpassed our reception was the quality of the food which was nothing less than magnificent. Any Chanosos fans coming to Chicago should visit our new inspiration.

Below I'll list our menu but until I finish my food writing book, I dont think I can adequately choose the words to describe it. I can only hope our cooks can bring back some of the passion of those who we met. But by the looks and conversation of Scott and Jon, I think they were more excited than I

Full Menu here http://www.saigonsisters.com/restaurant/

Baby Octopus confit on Black cuttlefish ink rice, togorashi
Banh bao
Citrus Cured Arctic Char
Diver Scallops
Lamb Luc Lac
Caramel Chicken Wings

Dessert
Che - Butternut squash and coconut milk custard
chocolate beignet

Late night Dinner 2 - The Girl and the Goat

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:48:09 -0400

At Saigon sisters we were given a tip to go to Maude's liquor bar, that their chef Jeff Pikus was the original chef from world reknown Alinea

After being open only 8 months, Nominated by the James Beard Awards for best new chef and best new restaurant. the Girl and the Goat is probably The hottest new restaurant in North America if not the world
Even though it wasn't possible to get a reservation at on any day or anytime within 8 weeks we stopped by to at least see what all the fuss was about

Sure enough the place was jammed still at 10pm
We sat at last 5 spots at the bar and lo and behold a menu was placed in front of us.
Even though we were completely satisfied from Saigon Sisters, how could anyone resist ordering the "wood oven roasted Pig Face" with an egg sunny side up overtop. Just to make sure I asked what the bartender whatmthe dish cosseted of and he politely responded that it was exactly what it said.

The place smelled fabulous, we collectively thought that two dishes were excellent but two were sort of mediocre (not bad, just not world famous) wondering if the place lived up to the hype. Actually preferred the baby octopus at Saigon sisters. Might need a second look before a definitive answer.

Annual Chicago Research Trip

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 17:07:26 -0400

Well its time for my annual trip to Chicago to taste the town. Most restauranteurs go during Restaurant week but try, try to get a reservation that week. Even if you do, theres no way you'll have an appetite left after grazing down the showroom floor.

This year, two kitchen personel from Chanoso's are coming so we can show them what its like. Unfortunately Jim from the Roadhouse had to cancel but we will be iphone photoing the entire trip and blogging each meal so that everyone can see what we learn from our trip

Everything always changes and none of these are in any particular order but the restaurants we have on our agenda are
1. Saigon Sisters http://www.saigonsisters.com/
2. Kuma's Korner (Burger Joint) http://www.kumascorner.com/
3. Frontera Grill Topolabampo and Xoco (all next to each other, This ones gonna be a belly buster)
http://www.rickbayless.com/restaurants/
4. Avec http://www.avecrestaurant.com/ cool tapas
5. Big Star http://www.bigstarchicago.com/
6. Violet hour (speakeasy with very cool bar snacks) http://www.theviolethour.com/
7. and if we have time Angels and Mariachi's http://www.angelschicago.com/ and Bon Bon http://bonbonsandwiches.com/

Wanted to try the Girl and the goat http://www.girlandthegoat.com/ but they said they were booked up for the next 8 weeks solid regardless of time or day

Stay tuned, we're going on one helluva ride

Why Chanoso's Oishii celebrates Earth Day - rebuttal to letter of the editor

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 11:23:09 -0400

I have been celebrating Earth Day since its inception at my downtown restaurants. I admonish no one to do the same, but invite people to celebrate with me and my staff. There are those like the writer of Today’s Letter to the editor who choose to assign nefarious motives without even seeking to understand why I celebrate Earth Day It all started in the Northeast blackout of 2003. It was one of, if not the most wonderful memory I’ll ever have of Downtown Windsor. The limitations of my writing cannot describe what that evening felt like. At the time I owned another bar on Ouellette called Automatic Slims. As an sloganeer it had my favorite slogan “where the beautiful people come to get ugly”. (Both were copied) At the time, people were pretty down on our downtown, more than I’ve ever seen in my downtown history which began 2001. Morale was where I felt an alltime low. All the results were in about how much traffic plummetted. Little known fact that some traffic actually returned after 9/11 and it was near SARS pandemic that was the final nail in the cross border traffic coffin. With the U.S. Border handing out Beware of SARS Warnings and putting them on windshields of anyone coming to Windsor. In 2003 the negativity seemed to peak When the lights turned off the Downtown turned on. People came down from their apartment buildings who I’ve never seen. I personally served beer in the dark at my bar telling everyone that I could only continue if they disregarded what type of beer they wanted because I couldn’t no longer read the labels. This was met with resounding cheers of acceptance (Probably not legal but it was a special circumstance.) Restaurant owners and staff were running around helping each get the contents of their freezers on ice. Neighbors meeting neighbors and coming together rising to the challenge and the uncertainty. This is what True Human progress is all about, this was what human life was about. This is what probably planted the seeds for me to scaledown and perform all the community volunteer work I have. The first time I saw what it was like to be truly connected to the businesses, and people in my neighborhood. I became one with my community that night. On Earth Day, we will turn out the lights, and we will provide an optional uncooked meal that will be better, Acoustic guitar entertainment that will sing, and a romantic candle light atmosphere. There will be no sacrifice by our customers this evening only the triumphal cheers that have concluded earth hour every year. Earth Day for me represents a better quality of life through simplicity and connecting with my community. Nothing could be more pro-life than that. Share and Enjoy:

Love is in the air at Chanoso's/Oishii 2nd pic

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 06:42:40 -0500

Here's the 2nd pic I was able to snap off

Love is in the air at Chanoso's/Oishii

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 06:37:45 -0500

One of the best perks of owning a restaurant and a great compliment to the restaurant is when you witness a marriage proposal during dinner service. Last night we had a customer who told us Chanoso's/Oishii was their favorite dining spot and he asked us to prepare their favorite desert in a special fashion. (deep fried banana's with different chocolate, caramel and vanilla dipping sauces)

I walked in with no warning but was still able to snap these 2 pictures that I'd like to share. Congratulations to the new couple (of course the answer was yes)

Chanosos Now Has Bass and Boddingtons

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 06:41:22 -0500

That's right, make Chanosos your favorite watering hole as well
We wanted to find a beer selection to go with Sushi and stirfry's beyond Sapporo and BASS and Boddingtons' fit the bill

Its blogging time again

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 01:01:03 -0500

Well its blogging time again at Chanoso's and Oishii, fulfilling my new years resolution to keep everyone up to date on the goings on at Chanoso's.

Its menu updating time. I always thought believed in the quote by Picasso - Good artists copy, great artists steal * . The two items we've been researching are steamed buns with a choice of ginger caramel chicken, shitaki mushroom or pork belly. These items are both Korean and Vietnamese

Steamed dumplings are named Jjinppang mandu in Korean or Banh Bo in Vietnamese. The two restaurants that we sampled were Momofuku in New York City and Saigon Sisters in Chicago. With the help of the recipe books Momofuku and Into the Vietnamese Kitchen and some guidance from former chef Joseph Petrinac we are close to a final product. Here our some pictures from the restaurants that inspired us.

Come Try the new dish, they will be available in both Oishii and Chanoso's. We will update this blog, facebook and twitter when it hits the menu

*We all borrow because it has all been done before and we are not the originators. To merely copy is to take an existing interpretation and not run away with it. To steal an idea is to take something of value and make it yours. To make an artistic element yours you have to interpret it your way with your own approach
This cannot be done when you are merely copying the idea. When copying the idea you are just doing everything exactly like it was previously done. When you have done it your way you have used the element and not simply duplicated it.
It is not required that you advance the element. You can go sideways and even backwards with the idea and you can be stealing the element and not copying it. On the contrary, when merely copying the element you have failed if you do not match the original.