Housed in a building well more than 200 years old, J. Timothy’s serves a full menu, but you’ll find most tables have chicken bones piled on it. Constantly rated the best in the state, J. Timothy’s serves more than 200 tons of wings a year and invented what’s called the "Dirt Style" wing, where they are fried, dipped in sauce, then fried and sauced again. The process caramelizes the sauce and adds another layer of flavour. As restaurant legend goes, the dirt wings get their moniker from a guest who played on the restaurant’s softball team in the 1990s. His nickname was Dirt, as in “older than dirt,” and his wings would get cold as he spent time socializing around the bar. He’d ask the cooks to throw the wings into the fryer again, which created the now-renowned crispy, caramelized texture. Usually a recipe for an acrid, burnt-tasting wing, these guys have mastered the art form. The result is a depth of flavour that just doesn’t exist elsewhere. 

Ozaki Kenichi, owner of Rai Rai Ken, a ramen shop that opened in 1910 in Tokyo’s Asakusa district, began serving diners a soup base that wasn't the ordinary 19th-century version. He incorporated a soy sauce-based seasoning with “menma” (bamboo shoots), “charshu” (sliced roast pork) and sliced green onion. The combination was such a hit with customers, these ingredients became the standard blend for ramen for Tokyo. 

Chicago’s Sun Wah BBQ is famous for its Beijing duck feast that celebrates the bird three ways. The off-menu course begins with a roasted Beijing Duck expertly carved tableside and served with a plate of steamed bao buns, pickled daikon radish, carrot garnish and hoisin sauce. The carcass and remaining meat is returned to the kitchen and made into a duck soup with chunks of winter melon. Finally, fried rice arrives with duck morsels. The restaurant recommends ordering the duck feast at least 24 hours in advance, especially now that the James Beard Foundation has awarded Sun Wah one of its American Classics awards for 2018.  Fortuitously, Sun Wah moved to a larger space two years ago. Now, there’s exposed brick, local beer on tap and their famous, multicourse Beijing duck special: $45 and serves four to six. There also is a greater selection of traditional Cantonese dishes. Reservations are taken by phone or walk-in. Corkage fee is $10, wine only.

Mochi Mochi no Ki, nestled in a basement a short walk from Shinjuku station, is a low-key gem of a ramen shop originally from Shiraoka, Saitama. The speciality of the house is a scalding hot bowl of noodle soup heavily infused with katsuobushi dried bonito flavour. A rich layer of oil traps heat in the broth and prevents it from escaping; the shop's signature menma, bamboo shoots, are split from the tip of the plant using bamboo skewers. Portions are generous here, the small ramen is the size of a normal order elsewhere, and the large could be a baby's bathtub.

Annam is next level Vietnamese cuisine from talented chef Jerry Mai a Vietnamese-born refugee raised in Australia who has worked under world renown chefs like David Thompson. The menu reflects what Jerry Mai would likely serve at a dinner party. Sumptuous dishes include the Sarsaparilla Braised Oxtail Dumplings - the oxtail is braised in fish sauce and syrupy thick jus-like sarsaparilla (a drink popular in years past) until it melts.

These dumplings are generous bursting with sarsaparilla infused oxtail yet they are also delicate and well-formed.

Annam has a playful yet brilliant menu with many signatures and Jerry Mai’s mantra is to “chow down in Chinatown”. The restaurant is well designed and modern.

Also, check out the subtler northern Vietnamese speciality of crab banh cuon open dumpling.

Read the Blog Post: https://tinyurl.com/y89m7vyp

In the 1970s, there were 11 Holly Inns in Colorado and three in other states. But the chain, owned by George Pappas, slowly faded. Rejoice, cheese fans. George and Marina Andrianakos have reopened the Holly Inn at 2223 S. Monaco Parkway in Denver, Colorado.More good news: They have brought back the world-famous Tacorito, a chubby burrito stuffed with ground beef, diced onion, shredded cheddar and chopped lettuce, smothered with more oven-melted cheddar cheese and swimming in Holly Inn's own special enchilada sauce. They also brought back Eddie Vassilakos, the chef who created the Tacorito and cooked it for Pappas for 20 years. To cap it off, they brought back the restaurant's award-winning margaritas.Pro tip: The Holly Inn also serves several Greek specialities, including Greek-style lamb ribs, marinated in oregano, garlic and olive oil.

Puerto Nuevo-style lobster was created in 1954 when Rosa Maria Plascencia fried the crustaceans in lard to feed the fishing village’s lobstermen after they returned to shore with their daily catch. The dish is served with refried beans, rice, butter and huge, just-made flour tortillas. The tiny town’s handful of restaurants usually serve frozen product from the Caribbean or nearby Guerrero Negro — as diminishing amounts of fresh, local lobster are shipped to Asia. Still, it’s worth the visit to enjoy this Baja California classic and views of the vast Pacific. La Casa de Langosta, once owned by Plascencia’s family, is one of the better restaurants in which to sample this requisite dish.

Hali‘imaile General Store, founded in 1988 in the middle of a pineapple plantation, is Chef Bev Gannon’s original and most acclaimed restaurant.Gannon was one of the original 12 founding members of the Hawaii Regional Cuisine Movement, and her restaurant is considered a Maui destination for diners who appreciate the island’s fresh local ingredients. Featuring eclectic American food with Asian overtones, “The Store” features such unique signature dishes as Kahlua Pork Enchiladas, Crab Pizza and a dreamy Hali’imaile Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, pictured, with caramelized Maui gold pineapple and buttery vanilla pound cake served warm with whipped cream.

First, drive to the middle of nowhere in France, turn left and drive another two hours.

At first glance, AVP appears to be traditional French cooking, until the surprises creep in. 

At Vespertine, the wizardry is designed to interrupt you, while here the wizardry blends in. Chef Gilles Goujon has worked at other great kitchens, but since 1992 he has developed his own style that is simply world class. The razor clam shell is made from seaweed and later, the scallop shell is made from lobster-flavoured butter that melts into the sauce when the chicken consommé with liquorice is poured over it.

Chef Gilles is clearly obsessive with every aspect of this restaurant and can, at times, be heard shouting at his kitchen staff before emerging in the dining room with a huge smile to serve what, in my opinion, is simply the finest meal on the planet today.

Is it food? Dinner? Theater? Art? Architecture? Vespertine is all of the above.

The most polarizing restaurant to open in recent memory is an unforgettable experience. This may sound like a polite way to say the food is not very good, but that’s not the case. You have simply never tasted or seen anything like it.

The flounder with charred onion powder, porridge, shallot and pickled Japanese plum is black as night and invisible at the bottom of the black craggy pestle it is served in. Once you scrape it off the bottom and taste it, you are forced to think about the lines blurring between the food, the plate, the servers dressed in black and the repetitive three- or four-note music soundtrack that plays for the duration of the four-hour meal. I loved Vespertine, but confess the idea of trying it sober is out of the question.