I got the craziest email last night.
I was quite sleep deprived, actually, so I wasn’t even sure whether to believe my tired eyes or not when I received an email from Saveur telling me that I was a finalist for their annual Best Food Blog Awards in the Best Dining/Restaurant Coverage section.
Thanks to whoever out there nominated me, and thanks to those who worked so hard to narrow down such a crazy huge number of nominations (over 40,000 they said??). It’s a tremendous honor to be among such a small, talented group of bloggers. Even if I don’t win the actual award, in many ways I already feel like I’ve won.
All final winners will be chosen based on number of votes. To vote, please click here. You will have to sign up for an account with Saveur just so they can keep track of the votes.
For fun, I decided to round up some of my favorite restaurant posts from the past few years. It was hard to narrow it down, but I worked together with Bryan on this, and we tried to pick posts from all different sorts of locations.
Enjoy!
Craigie on Main (Boston)
One of our favorite restaurants in the Boston area, we scored the exclusive “ringside seats” for Bryan’s birthday, where we got to watch the kitchen firsthand!
Kyubey (Tokyo, Japan)
The one-on-one interactions with the sushi chef as well as the top-notch sushi makes this one of our most memorable meals in Japan as well as one of our favorite restaurants in the world.
Menton (Boston)
A really unique and educational white truffle tasting meal at the Chef’s Table at one of the best restaurants in Boston.
Kago (Tokyo, Japan)
Insanely delicious shabu shabu with kurobuta (Berkshire pork) belly from the Kagoshima region in Japan.
Eating in the Greek Isles (Santorini, Greece)
Pictures and food from one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Joel Robuchon the Mansion (Las Vegas)
The craziest, most over-the-top meal we’ve ever had (to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary)
Made In China (Beijing, China)
At one time only available in the imperial palace to royalty, this mouthwatering, delicious specialty was finally brought to the masses in the 1800’s and is still immensely popular throughout Beijing today. This was one of our favorite restaurants (and yes, we tried several places!)
Jia Jia Tang Bao (Shanghai, China)
The most delicious pork soup dumplings (xiao long bao) that we enjoyed in China, and only $1 US for a dozen!!
Granville Moore’s (Washington D.C.)
Lines go out the door at this fascinating, historical moules frites Belgian pub in D.C., which serves fantastic mussels, delicious fries, and has one of the largest selections of Belgian beers in the US.
Peking Restaurant (Los Angeles)
Our favorite “hole-in-the-wall” Chinese place in the Los Angeles area – you must try the “beef and scallion roll” (pictured).
The French Laundry (Napa Valley)
An exquisite meal in a farm house in Napa Valley – our first experience trying Thomas Keller’s creations.
Per Se (New York)
Thomas Keller’s urban, East Coast flagship, we visited this place just a month after visiting the French Laundry.
Eleven Madison Park (New York)
Having just received three Michelin Stars, Chef Daniel Humm produces dishes that look like works of art and taste like magic.
SAMM (Los Angeles)
Sample Jose Andres’s favorite creations (hello molecular gastronomy and various Spanish and French influences!) by trying a multi-course tasting at this restaurant-within-a-restaurant.
Peter Luger Steakhouse (New York)
Insanely amazing steak at this no-nonsense cash-only steak restaurant right across the bridge in Brooklyn.
The Gastronomy Fiesta
Spain’s Basque region’s most famous chefs (15 total Michelin stars between!) ALL together in the kitchen at once to create a tasting menu of a lifetime at the World Expo in Shanghai.
All Rights Reserved
What a great looking pics! Love your blog so much
Congratulations on being a finalist! I’ll admit I don’t usually like blog posts about meals in restaurants, but yours are always so lovely and smart that I’m a huge fan of your blog. Easy to vote for you for this one!
Good luck.
The serve servicing of restaurants must be good and they must be serving the hot food always.
Congratulations! Saveur is one of my favorite magazines, so to see one of my favorite bloggers nominated there is a happy combination. I admit I follow your blog more for your cooking rather than the restaurant reviews, but I’ve learned a lot about about fine cooking from your restaurant reviews. Congratulations and good luck in the voting.
Yay! Well deserved!
Congratulations, Jen. It is an honor to be nominated with you.
voted for you, jglee!
Wow, congratulations. I would die of happiness if Saveur even looked my way, much less nominated my blog for anything!
Thanks so much!
Thanks Conniepuff!!!
jgleepuff
Thanks so much! Same here.
Thanks a lot! I just received a subscription to Saveur as a gift a few months back and I love it too.
Aww, thanks so much! I’m trying to add more cooking posts, but I’ve been so busy lately it’s been hard to find the time!
Thanks!
ahhhhhhhhh congratulations Jen!! You TOTALLY deserve it, and yet again, the Lord has blessed ya in an unexpected way~:D And yayy!! I’m totally gonna try that Peking restaurant in LA!
Dang, all your pictures are way too gorgeous they make me wanna *tear up*
you chose kyubey over all the other sushi places in japan?? just curious as to why?
Hi oneeyejack – I was picking favorite restaurant posts, not necessary favorite restaurants. The Kyubey post is especially interesting because it includes video, conversations, etc. There are many other sushi restaurants we tried in Japan that we also love – some arguably have better sushi than Kyubey. Check out the Sushi Mizutani or Sushi Kanesaka posts, for example. However, some posts (like the Mizutani one), have no pictures because they did not allow cameras!
Thanks for reading!Jen
so out of all of them, which one would you choose as your favorite sushi place?
Ooh, good question! Bryan still like Kyubey the best for overall experience because it’s friendly for non-Japanese speakers. At Sushi Kanesaka, we didn’t get Kanesaka himself – we got a younger, really serious guy who made amazing food but was shy. Sushi Mizutani was legendary – fantastic fish, though he also is less friendly to those who do not speak Japanese. Hard to choose a favorite! Each has its pluses and minuses and it really depends on what you are looking for.
By the time I had finished my coffee and returned to the streets, the
rain had temporarily abated, but the streets were full of vast puddles
where the drains where unable to cope with the volume of water. Correct
me if I’m wrong, but you would think that if one nation ought by now to
have mastered the science of drainage, Britain would be it.