Rants, Raves, & Wishes

Well, folks!  2013 unveiled many exciting adventures for me.  I hope you were able to take the journey vicariously through my blog posts or experienced some of the things first hand after reading about them. As the year comes to a close, I could not help but ponder over what I loved, disliked, or wished was different.  Below are some of my raves & rants from an awesome 2013 as well as my wishes for the year to come.

RAVES

Many exciting events took place in the our local culinary landscape.  New restaurants openings, new chefs rising as shining stars, culinary events and what not!   

• I am so excited about Boca opening in Stamford.  It has brought a new sexiness to Stamford’s dining scene.  
• Chef Carlos, at The Spread in Norwalk, is surprising everyone with his quiet and shy demeanor paired with mad cooking skills.
• Tikkaway Grill in New Haven is such an exciting turn for Indian cuisine.  I LOVE the concept and savor Gopi Nair’s yummy food.
• Chef Arik Bensimon and chef Geoff Lazlo have “owned” the kitchens in Le Farm and The Whelk respectively.
• The new Bartaco in Westport is a truly fun and magical place.  It is impossible not to get caught up in the fabulous, energetic vibe of the place along with its beautiful waterfront setting.
• Ahhh!  .....and I took my family to an amazing dinner at Barcelona in Fairfield in summer.  Chef Helton DaSilva treated us like royalty! Mind-blowing food kept showing up at our table and we kept eating!  It was a night that will not be forgotten.
• Greenwich Food & Wine Festival this year was bigger and better.  I thoroughly enjoyed meeting many top-notch local and national celebrity chefs as well as interviewing a couple of our faves at the CTBites Bloggers Lounge.
• Elm in New Canaan and its master, chef Brian Lewis, have reigned supreme and maintained the promise of superior quality and amazing tasting food.
• I LOVED being a part of the NYC Wine & Food festival.  I will never forget the absolute thrill of meeting the one and only David Kinch. 
• Oh! And did you hear, I got to shake hands with Alice Waters and listen to her talk. 
• The Westport Farmers Market was and always will be a very special experience for me. My friend Elbo and I met their regularly, in the pretext of doing our weekly grocery shopping, but mainly to chomp down the awesome tamales by Boxcar Cantina while sipping our favorite Raus coffee - and most importantly to mingle with like-minded foodies and chefs who are regulars at the market as well.
• My honey and I has some awesome eats in NAPA, CA earlier this year!  The most memorable part of it all was the scrumptious breakfast at the bed and breakfast place we stayed at.  Mmm..... still dreaming of it.

RANTS

• OK, so I get that “Gastropub” is the latest trend.  I like the idea.  I like that the menu tends to be totally out of the box with unusual flavor and ingredient pairings.  It is quite a treat for the adventure seekers and those who are tired of the same-old, same-old.  But when too many gastropubs start popping up all over the place - then I can’t help but yawn.  Dunno, if there are any of you out there who feel the same way?
• Fairfield county has a thriving dining scene  We are blessed with some really high-calibre restaurants and chefs.  My only gripe - which is a big one actually..... why don’t we have more ethnically diverse restaurants?  Have you ever tried Ethiopian food, for instance?  Its dynamite!  May we have just one awesome Ethiopian restaurant open up in Fairfield County please?  Or how about Malaysian?  You will be blown-away, if you tried an authentic Roti-Canai at a Malaysian restaurant.  I have to schlep to NJ to get my fix! New Haven has a couple of Malaysian places -but I was not impressed.
• While I love doing my food-blogger-tasting thing all year long - I have to confess that there were moments when I really did get tired of seeing similar dishes on so many restaurant menus.  Like short ribs!  or pork belly! LOVE ‘em!  But I am really getting tired of seeing them everywhere.  Or heirloom tomatoes!  Or Kale!  After one or two or few - its hard to stay excited about the same things.
• Next up, I have to confess that I am getting so tired of rolling fads.  One person succeeds with an idea and everyone wants to jump on that same bandwagon.  As always... for a while its all fine and dandy and even “novel”, but then the “been-there-done-that” feelings sinks in.  You know what I am talking about..... Wine-paired dinners may have finally seen their day.  The new ones are meatballs-many-ways or craft-beer-paired-tastings and so on and so on.... 
• Farm to table is one interesting fad.  A handful of restaurants and chefs are implementing the concept in its true sense, but I feel that many others copy the idea halfway - just to get a chance to advertise themselves as “farm to table”.  Farm to table, to me is a pure and total give and take relationship between the farmer and the chef.  One where the menu is purely based on local bounty and flavors.  Do you know what I mean?