Gordon Ramsay @ LondonNYC

gosset
fluffy cod brandade
onion soup in a demitasse amuse bouche
foie gras 3-ways
pigeon pot-au-feu with root vegetables
apricot souffle
salted caramels

lackluster.

Mammoth Day 3

Breakfast at Old New York. Not as good today. There was an unhappy camper who order veggie smear and got plain smear, and she might have influenced me, a bit. She bitched about how the server didn't speak english. Then Blondie finally gets her bagel with veggie schmear, and realizes that it's the same bagel with veggie schmear on top of the plain schmear. Ad

I switch my snowboard gear to ski gear. This takes 45 minutes.

Lunch at Pita Pit. It tastes pretty good, but I think it's about size.

Side Door Cafe again for charcuterie, cheese, fruit, bruschetta, insalata caprese. Humboldt Fog, Manchego, Danish Blue.

Family style dinner at Restaurant LuLu.

Marinated mushrooms, beets, olives.

Fried Artichokes with an aioli, mussels with drawn butter, salad ( i think there was some escarole, watercress, and romaine hearts)

salmon, rib eye and frites, a very tangy goat cheese ravioli.

creme brulee, chocolate tart, and apple tart.

http://www.restaurantlulu.com/restaurants.html

we try to go to lakanuki, but it's too crowded.
http://www.lakanuki.com/

Mammoth Day 2

Breakfast at Old New York. The bagel was surprisingly dense and chewy.

Pick up ski/snowboard equipment at Mountain Center. I wait in the line for an hour. It's like watching paint dry.

Snwboarding lesson. I learn how to "falling leaf" with Frank, an architect from LA, Daniel, a 14-year old skateboarder from San Diego, and 2 14-year old girls from the OC. They're both wearing jeans. They fall a lot, and get sopping wet spots on their knees.

Lunch at Side Door Cafe. I have a perfect Chicken Panini, with a nutty pesto and tangy goat cheese oozing down the sides, I need to wipe my mouth with the red napkin after every bite. I wash it down with a nice rose (parched after the snowboarding lesson, i couldn't decide on a white or a red. naturally, rose. also, i was going to have the tuna and artichoke panini, so i ordered the rose before the sandwich)

http://www.sidedoormammoth.com/coffee.html

At 530, we head to Tamarack Lodge for a glass of champagne before we board the deluxe Snowcat for dinner at Parallax - "featuring wines of Dirk Smits, Heritage of France."
http://www.mammothmountain.com/activities/dining_entertainment/snowcat_dine/

The Snowcat is deluxe, and it's playing bossa nova.

We drink:
Sharffenberger sparkling wine
Sancerre
Alsation Riesling
Pinot Noir
Crozes Hermitage
Dessert Wine

We eat:
foie gras
scallop and crab
duck rillettes
veal chop
blueberry tart

Mammoth Day 1

Arrival in Reno, meet Chris at bronze ski statue . we have a coffee at peets.

lunch at In-n-Out Burger

transfer to Mammoth. beautiful views of Topaz, Mono Lake.

dinner at the Auld Dubliner. lots of potatoes with spicyness. mediocre chicken wings. fries with a curry sauce, which i later heard someone yammering about on a ski lift later. a mediocre corned beef and cabbage.

http://www.aulddubliner.com/Mammoth/

Kampuchea Part 2

Kampuchea

Pickle Plate red radish, red cabbage, daikon cut 2-ways, cucumbers. cukes had some serious heat. Daikon too sweet for me. Red cabbage bland, but good texture. Red radish was my favorite.
Grilled Corn with Mayo. My guess is that they were boiled first, then grilled? The mayo had some heat. Drizzled with coconut and mayo. Too sweet for me.
Grilled Pork with honey glaze, with rice. Nice.
Chicken Crepe with basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, butter lettuce. Nice texture. Not sure why you wrap twice, but I know nothing about Cambodian food, I won't ask.
Oxtail Sandwich. The best Asian sandwich ever. The vegetables serve the salty meat nicely. Apparently Chau uses a particular bread which is a mix of semolina and wheat. It's bread that won't hurt your mouth. It's bread that remains chewy after it's been toasted.
Chicken Katiev. Clean broth with a nice kick. Thai green chilies kicked my ass. Didn't like the ultra fine noodles.

I find that Chau does good work with meat. His rubs are all his own. The filet was expertly cooked. The oxtail was wonderful. The pork was perfectly marinated and grilled. Even the chicken in my katiev was moist and flavorful. (Usually, meat in broth is a place where you can hide stringy, overcooked, bland meat. Not here.)

La Plagne, Day 3

Today I am so tired and so hung over, that I eat a yogurt with some corn flakes and call it a day.

We have lunch at Peisey Vallendry, at La Vanoise. The buffet is better here.

Dinner at La Moraine again. I vow to eat as much as possible: today they have choucroute, foie gras, a superb dessert situation.

La Plagne, Day 2

Dinner at Verdon Sud

The Snowcat Ride

Bruschetta with Saumon Fume et Caviar
Charcuterie
Pumpkin and Chestnut Soupe
Salade Vert
Bacon Wrapped Potato Hash
Cheese and Morel Souffle
Coffee with Local Liquer
Genepie

Saloon. My goodness.

La Plagne, Day 1.

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, boiled sausage, a croissant, yogurt with Kellogg's granola, a few slivers of pink and white grapefruit. Orange juice. An American breakfast. You can take the girl out of America, but you can't take America out of the girl.

This morning we go skiing. It's wet, slushy snow. My American breakfast is growling in my stomach. I fall several times, wipe out yard-sale style. Rick and David are bored and feeling sorry for me. It must be like skiing with a child.

Lunch: I'm becoming familiar with the layout of the buffet stations. This time I eat farfalle, cod, sauteed spinach, pizza with raclette, a lamb chop. Cheese plate. A few bites of dessert. 1/2 a glass of wine.

Energized for the afternoon with our ski instructors, Antoine and Eric. Skiing is incrementally better in the afternoon, but note to self: I need more practice. Maybe I should become a ski bum for a year, or a GO at Club Med - I could teach step aerobics or something.

Dinner: Kate has planned a dinner at Le Serac, the specialty restaurant this evening. It's all white leather, with lavender hues. We start with 2 bottles of Moet. Then a lovely St. Emilion.
I didnt eat the amuse bouche, because I'm still sipping tequila. Duck carpaccio with unidentifiable cheese follows. I choose the cod vs. the veal. A cheese plate. A blueberry tart follows. By this point, I'm tired and drunk, which must be the reason that we go to the lounge to dance some more.

La Moraine, Club Med La Plagne 2100

La Moraine
Club Med
La Plagne 2100

I love buffets, I hate buffets. I suppose I love them when they're good.

I am so jetlagged that it seems advisable to eat lightly. I eat vegetables and a sliver of grilled chicken. I see people with pasta, I want a gigantic bowl but I have no idea where that station is. Also, trying to hold a conversation with each of the chefs is a bit daunting, so I stick to the self-serve. How sad.

The dessert station is enormous, but eating 6 different slivers of tarts and then going to bed seems like a bad idea, too. I see French girls walking and stuffing their faces with cream puffs. How cute.

I had a small cheese plate, and I am very happy. The wine is quite young, and a bit tannic, but I don't care, I'm going to bed shortly.

Wrong.

We meet in the lounge for a cocktail, or 4. The French are dancing to American disco music. What is it with the French and disco? What is it with me and disco? Rick asks for genepie, and the bartender thought he heard J&B. At last, we drink genepie, the local liquer. It tastes like a chartreuse licorice.

Almost midnight, time for bed.

The Stand

I really really didn't like the special sauce. I believe that a perfect burger is equal parts perfect patty, perfect bun, perfect condiment.