St. John in London - My first real restaurant review

So, I never do the food porn/restaurant review thing, but I was eating alone tonight and I had to keep myself occupied.  So tonight, I kept tasting notes at the legendary St. John in Smithfield,  touted as the #16 Best Restaurant in the World.  

I am bummed to report that it failed those expectations by a solid margin.

Here is what I thought:

Ambiance/Scence -- The first thing you notice is the smell.  It envelopes you, a well- pampered pig bathing in butter.  Decorwise, St. John is the epitome of a "Clean, Well-Lit Place" -- in fact, I could see Hemmingway's short story being set there .  It bathes in austerity -- the walls are white, The floor is gray, and you aren't sure if the white-clad servers are servers or were just butchering a pig in the back before saying hello.  There is no art to speak of.  Chairs are hard and uncomfortable.  Tables are covered in butcher paper, as if to indict you as an accomplice to murdering meat. 

Service --  is competent and perfunctory, but certainly nothing special.  The place was continually busy, but my server's actions made her intentions clear -- she was there to put meat on the table, not even expeditiously.  I agreed with this review that said it was "friendly, but slightly awkward."

Food -- OK, so here we go ... on to the show.

Appetizer -- Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad

I loved this dish. amittedly, I am biased since I have been dreaming about this since I saw it featured on A Cook's Tour.  I think that this could be the appetizer to my last meal. I mean, so simple.  Bone marrow? Just oven roast for 25 minutes and spread over perfectly toasted bread.  So delicious, so elegant.  The richness of this with the bitter parsley and the salty capers in the salad was just a wonderful combination of textures and tastes. 

My only (minor) criticism is that you really have to watch how much of the sea salt and the parsley salad you add to the bread since it can get really too salty quickly.  Ration it properly!

Main -- Middlewhite and Chard w/ side of Sprout Tops

First, let me say I love pork fat.  I think it's wonderful.  However, this peice of meat needed instructions.  You needed to eat the pig in radians out from the center such that you get a piece of succulent lean meat with a piece of fat.  In my hunger I accidentally ate an enormous peice of fat by itself, which just ruined the rest of my meal on a texture and taste basis.  I learned the hard way. The bits of meat that I did get once I learned to layer my bites were wonderfully cooked, but again underseasoned.

In addition, the chard was overcooked and had a slightly burnt taste to the carmelization (too high heat?) while the Sprout Tops were basically an afterthought -- unevenly cooked with varying degrees of softness and bitterness and also underseasoned.

Not a good showing overall.

Dessert -- Apple Sorbet and Polish Vodka

Many of you may be asking, "Why would you ever order something like this? I mean, what are you some sort of daisy?"  That's a fair question.  My answer is that a) I felt the pork fat coming out of my pores after the entree and b) I thought the apple would go nicely with the pig taste in my mouth.

Wrong.   The sorbet just doesn't stand up to the chilled vodka.  I eneded up shooting the vodka (hey you can take the boy out of Cleveland, but ...) and then enjoying the sorbet, which was wonderful.  Nice layers of cinammon and ginger to accent the apple, but not enough to save the dish.   

In sum: A Respectful Meh

So in all, I treat it as a pilgrimage to the place that started the hole nose to tail movement, which I can respect and get with.  However, it was too uneven in food and service to even given a mention in the best restaurants at which I have ever eaten.  Glad I went, but never will repeat, especially at 66 quid for the meal.

Learning About My Own Learning: A Hearty Thank You to Rita Koklauner

Usually, a facebook reconnect involves getting in touch with friends, but I had a recent friend who was able to reconnect me with ... well, me. At least my learning.

A distant friend that I vaguely remember, Chris Sanyk, wrote an incredibly detailed account of what it was like at Forest Elementary School in North Olmsted, Ohio. Through his words, I realize how lucky I was to receive the education that I did as a first and second grader. I really am so truly lucky.

I don't know how Chris remembered everything with such vivid detail, but it created an internal awakening of a time many years ago. He came from another school and described what we had described in the first time at Forest:

Our teacher, Mrs. Koklauner, was a nice old gray-haired grandma type, and had a very calm and wise air about her. On one of the first days of classes, we set up the rules for the class. At Pine, we had had a list of a dozen or fifteen rules such as "always raise your hand and wait to be called on before talking" and "don't chew gum" "don't fight" etc. Instead of making us memorize a bunch of dumb rules like that, we held a class discussion and worked out our own moral/ethical principles which we all agreed we should abide by. Our classroom had only three rules: Respect yourself, respect others, and respect that which does not belong to you.

Compared to the way things were at Forest school, Pine was a like a petty military dictatorship, and Forest virtually a Utopia. As students, even the youngest of us, we governed ourselves as we saw fit. If we felt that we needed permission for something, we asked for it. Those of us who were more independent were accorded that bit of self-authority that we needed. If absolutely necessary, we sometimes might have to get permission to do something retroactively. Requirements were only made of us in terms of doing our work, being prepared when our study groups had their meetings, and conducting ourselves in a manner which enabled everyone to get along and do what they needed to get done.

And this part made me laugh:

"Mike Ma was my chess playing nemesis. Out of all the kids in the class who played chess regularly, he was the only one who I could never seem to beat. Other than that, we didn't really do much. He was a year younger than me, and I think moved away or something because after I went to third grade I don't remember hearing anything about him."

A few things I take from this:
1. I am reaffirmed in the fact that I am sending Sean to a Montessori School. I basically think what I was doing was a Montessori school on steroids now.

2. Traditional classrooms suck. I moved away from North Olmsted to Westlake. My new school system didn't know what to do with a 3rd grade kid who was doing 6th grade math and 5th grade english ... so they just made me repeat everything. I remember being bored from 3rd grade to high school, with the exception of all four years of honors english at Westlake. I think perhaps this is where my intellectual impatience stems from ... so many years of being bored.

3. Thank your teachers now ... today. Yesterday. This stroll down memory lane promted me to google stalk Mrs. Koklauner, but unfortunately, all I found was that she passed just 11 months ago. Damn.

For entrepreneurs, it's a new, old day

While I woke up this morning with a large helping of disbelief, wonderment, and tears at what I saw last night, I now find myself sitting at my desk. It's like any other morning. I am here to do work. To help build a great company.

For entrepreneurs, it is indeed a new, old day.

For entrepreneurs, be you red or blue, I bet your day, today, looks a lot like mine. Trying to figure out your cash flow or secure capital. Retaining your customers. Keeping your troops motivated.

I was reminded of this flying back from Las Vegas last week and the man sitting next to me saw the image of McCain on my laptop as I was watching his appearance on Meet the Press. He interrupted me with a light tap on the shoulder. With misplaced trust, he asked me with a clear Texas drawl, "He doesn't have a chance, does he?"

"I don't think so. But you really never know," I replied.

From there, we began to trade stories of building businesses. We had totally different businesses (me in consulting and hi-tech, him in marinas and boats), and I am convinced we shared vastly different political views.

However, we shared shockingly similar stories about how we were both down on luck at times with our backs against the wall. How it affected your self-esteem. How it affected our family lives. How we cared about winning, more than money. How business was the best game we ever played.

Like the ongoing war between skiers and snowboarders, I realize that for entrepreneurs, the differences are, writ large, petty. That we may have different views of the mountain, but we both love the mountain.

As I wrote on the kasina blog and to quote the new president-elect, we are not as divided as our politics suggest.

Time to get the lead out, entrepreneurs.

Go.

Why I Like David Brooks

My college roommate Sam has asked me why I like David Brooks. His comment to my last post was this:

But I can't believe that Brooks is your idol. My dad said this about him the other day: "All his columns are the same. They go right...then left...then right...then left...then RIGHT!!!" Picture my dad moving his hands back and forth and shouting on that last one. You should do another post on why he's your idol.

First, Sam's dad is a very prominent academic. And I mean very with a capital VERY ... so let me tread lightly. For my money, if David Brooks has written something, I almost always think that it's worth 10 minutes of my time. As far as his politcs go, he is to the right of me, but I will always read his columns ... people don't have to be Keith Olbermann for me to like them.

Hell, I read the Drudge Report.

Back to Brooks, and why...

1. He places a premium on ideas -- In his columns, I can see the internal discourse that is happening. While I may end up a partisan, I do not go there unreflectively. A lot of my thoughts and feelings are developed through dialogue, and that to me, is a good thing. I go to him to satisfy that philosopher in me, and I am happy about that.

For instance, you can look at this column "The Class War Before Palin," and you can see how while he values the intellectual inquiry more than the output.

On a non-partisan issue, I thought his post on China, "Harmony and the Dream," was one of the most insightful pieces on China that I have ever read.

2. He does take stands -- I mean ... read "Hoping It's Biden." or "Why Experience Matters". for instance, he writes:

I would have more sympathy for this view [of the everyman in public office] if I hadn’t just lived through the last eight years. For if the Bush administration was anything, it was the anti-establishment attitude put into executive practice.

3. You don't know where he's going ... and he's insightful without being preachy - Contrary to Sam's dad's views, I don't think he is so predictable. He can do 1) and 2) and do it in an accesible way for everyone. He makes me laugh and think at the same time. See "Suprise Me Most":

The candidates probably won’t take this kind of advice. But remember: Weirdness wins. Surprise me most.

I have no problem with people being centrists. These are hard issues that people are calling, and there is an internal dialogue that needs to be asked for a thorough examination. For me, he is the intellectual conscience of democratic liberty. If you want to follow what I think you can check me out on del.icio.us.

Or to say another way, I think of David Brooks on my shoulder whispering, "Yeah you all can vote, but you have to really think to earn it ... let me help."

That's worth 10 minutes for me. I mean, who's better?

Prediction: The Right Brained Person Will Win Tonight's Debate

I actually don't know who it will be tonight, but I had a feeling who it has been.

During last week's second debate, I posted on Facebook that I was shocked how often I felt McCain focused on saying "I" a lot, and how much Obama focused on "you."

I wanted to check this, and did a quick word count on the 2nd debate transcript and here is the breakdown:

	I	You
Obama	127	107
McCain	153	106

This is a very narrow test, but it confirms my gut feeling and I think the larger political critique of McCain's seeming disconnected with voters, especially in a town hall meeting.

This was supported by my columnist idol, David Brooks, surely no liberal, who explained this about Obama's right brained empathic abilities:

And the other thing that does separate Obama from just a pure intellectual: he has tremendous powers of social perception. And this is why he's a politician, not an academic. A couple of years ago, I was writing columns attacking the Republican congress for spending too much money. And I throw in a few sentences attacking the Democrats to make myself feel better. And one morning I get an email from Obama saying, 'David, if you wanna attack us, fine, but you're only throwing in those sentences to make yourself feel better.' And it was a perfect description of what was going through my mind. And everybody who knows Obama all have these stories to tell about his capacity for social perception.

Casting my personal politics aside (I am admittedly in the bag for "That One"), I would caution against the idea that the financial crisis has moved this debate and election is really about hard core left-brained pocketbook policy ideas.

I would say this has always been much more about the right brained abilities. I hope my author idol/BFF, Dan Pink, would agree.

I actually don't care what the New York Times says, that's what I am watching for tonight, regardless of who "wins."