Benjamin Franklin - An American Life

I had wanted to read a biography on Ben Franklin in part because of a long time curiosity about this nascent period of the US that he helped to shape. Also, as someone who grew up a few miles from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and now lives in London, I wanted to know more about his perceptions of these places as well as the French Court.

Benjamin Franklin - An American Life by Walter Isaacson was easy to read for the most part, constructed more as a great story than documenting a time line (though the book is very well documented). While I was pleased to find that I knew most of the key facts about Franklin and the time, I learned plenty.

On the personal side of things I didn't realize that the Franklin men were essentially a line of "illegitimate" children, nor did I know that Franklin had such a reputation as a womanizer.

On the historical side, it was fascinating to gain greater insight into the political influences the drove the division between British Colonial America and the British. I never knew that many Americans had tried to keep the US a part of the British Crown until the last possible moments. Nor did I know that it was as much Parliament's response as well as the King's that drove the US to delcare its independence.

Franklin's time in France, which, when I was a child in grammar school, was positioned as duty to country also was a great deal of fun for Franklin whose reputation as an inventor and scientist made him famous in France before he ever set foot on its shores.

If you are considering reading the book, don't let the number of pages put you off. The last 150+ pages are footnotes and mini-biographies of all the players.

Komi

Before I left DC for New Jersey, I got together with my friends Janine and Martha for an incredible dinner at Komi. Located on 17th Street NW in DC, not an area known for incredible cuisine, the dining room is intimate and minimalist, just like the food and the service. The restaurant has a reputation for locally sourcing all its food and stands out in part because the chef/owner, Johnny Monis (one of Food and Wine's 2007 Best New Chefs), seeks no publicity. Rather it appears he prefers to build Komi's reputation on food and service alone.

The one rigid moment -which you instantly get over - is that everyone at the table must have the same dining experience...the two-course, three-course or the degustazione. We picked the degustazione, which was described as approximately 28 tastes of the chef's whim, and paired it with the sommelier's pairings.

We then experienced a seemingly endless array of tastes made all the more exciting because each of us always had our own "taste". Most of these were one to three bites so by the time the pasta and entree courses arrived there was still room for more. The presentations were consistently minimalistic, focused on the bites themselves and were as beautiful to look at as they were to savor. The staff were extremely knowledgeable, detail-oriented and more than happy to repeat descriptions as well as answer more specific questions about various flavorings and preparation techniques.

While I suspect you can easily enjoy a two-course meal it seems a shame not to plan on the full experience. One of the things that Martha, Janine and I talked about was how this was a nice twist from our Mini Bar restaurant experience. At Mini Bar the courses come fast and don't allow much time for conversation, in part because when you aren't eating, you're watching the preparation. At Komi we were afforded plenty of conversation time during our more than three hour dinner and coffee.

A definite will return restaurant for me. Reservations are definitely recommended. If the plan is for a romantic diner ask for the two-top in the window.

my-o mio

Last Tuesday I went out to dinner with my friend Suzanne in Washington, DC to Mio. Definitely a not to miss experience. The creative food and great service are enhanced by a passion for food that seems to permeate everyone who works at Mio.

We sat at the two seats that are part of the open kitchen. If it's just two people don't miss the opportunity to sit here and be in the middle of the fun, including getting a chance to talk with Stefano Frigerio, the executive chef. Stefano is really friendly and down to earth and seemed to enjoy all of our questions about incredients and preparation. As a bonus, Stefano, and his sous chef, are really easy on the eyes.

We had the chef's tasting menu. Stefano was happy to create a vegetarian version for me. Dinner started with a small salad of assorted cherry sized tomatos that had been skinned and tossed with a light dressing. It was accompanied by a pesto moose. It seemed like he had taken a very smooth pesto and pushed it through a whip cream maker.

For the second course I had a chilled beet soup and Suzanne had a ceviche that she raved about. My soup also came with deep fried zucchini flowers, which were the only disappointment of the meal. The taste of oil totally overwhelmed the flowers and the tempura, a minor transgression.

Next we had a basil pesto risotto. Suzanne's had a king prawn with a delicious string bean and pine nut salad on top, I just had the salad. It was presented in this great white china bowl with a lid for the "reveal" moment.

For the last major course Suzanne was treated to a trio of suckling pig - a stuffed loin, 3 small ribs and a piece of deep fried head cheese. I had a huge, peeled tomato stuffed with goat and manchego cheeses on a bed of really delicious tomato sauce.

For every course, including dessert Stefano personally explained what he was serving. I think he liked us, because for dessert we were treated to a trio of full sized desserts: an incredible pana cotta with a latin flair using almonds and black sesame seeds to give it a great flavor and a luxurious bluish-purple color; a chewy brownie with cinnamon ice cream; and carmelized topped rice pudding atop a layer of peach salad.

We did the wine pairings which was fun as always for me because I drink things I don't usually try. Even though I drink it all the time, the Pinot Noir that was served with the second course was excellent.

Manuel Iguina the owner also took time to talk with us at length, telling us about the restaurant and his passions for food and service. I look forward to going back.

Stritchy!

This weekend I finally saw the Tony Award winning Elaine Stritch at Liberty, her one woman show. The show was at the Shaw Theatre, a nice sized and relatively new venue (read great air conditioning).

The show was great fun and this 82 year old woman is still a show stopper. Not so much dancing anymore - a little soft shoe - but belting out a series of tunes and projecting to the audience, it was amazing to see. She only took a 20 minute breakf over two-and-a-half hours.

As with most well constructed and performed works the story is moving, even if you aren't sure who Elaine Stritch is because her experiences transcends to everyone. The simplicity of Ms. Stritch, her chair and the six piece band, which seemed to be having loads of fun, made it all about the memories in her head as well as yours.

I also learned about her time in London. I hadn't realized she had spent so much time here and had actually been a TV sitcom star as well as a stage star.

The show is out on DVD, I'm pretty sure I saw it on HBO a few years back, but it was worth repeating live.

Worshipful Company of Marketors

At the end of July we had the great honor to be the guests of a member of the court of the Worshipful Company of Marketors at a dinner at The Mansion House by the kind permission of The Rt. Hon. Lord Mayor of the City of London.

Slight step back...contained within what most people know of as London are several communities - think the five boroughs of New York City. One of them is The City as also known as "the square mile." It is the "Wall Street" of the United Kingdom. What makes this part of London particularly special is that its various Liveries (historically representatives of the business community) of the city hold elective power and elect the Lord Mayor who serves as a combination head of state/chairmen of an über Chamber of Commerce.

The Mansion House is the Lord Mayor's official residence and is described as a grand Georgian town palace. An accurate description.

One of those Liveries, which I think can also be referred to as Guilds - at least they'd be closely related - is the Worshipful Company of Marketors and each year, each Livery or Guild hosts a dinner.

The Egyptian Room at The Mansion House, where dinner was held brought the dining hall at Hogwarts to life. It looked just like it did in the movie, but with much fancier, or should I say posher, place settings, but I'm ahead of the story.

We arrived at The Mansion House and after clearing security (no cameras allowed) we were invited upstairs to observe the admission of new Freeman to the Company. Afterwards we queued for the receiving line. The trumpeter read our names from our invitations and we were presented to the Master and his wife and then through the rest of the receiving line. Did I mention that there was in the neighborhood of 300 guests these people had to greet?

There was a brief champagne reception with wonderful music provided by the Redbridge Brass Band Quintet, who also did the fanfares, yes, real fanfares. After the reception we were called into the Egyptian Room. In true formal dinner fashion we were seated not as a couple but split up so that we could meet new people.

No sitting yet though. Fanfare and then the entrance of the head table - which consisted of 32 people - during which we clapped throughout the procession. The food was excellent and the service was fun to watch. They would stage at the back of the hall and then somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 servers would march and clear. They would then gather plates and stage to serve an entire leg at a time, knowing precisely who had the fish, the meat or the veggie plate. As you can tell my the menu, the wines, port and Armagnac were very nice.

After dinner we participated, along with everyone else, in The Ceremony of the Loving Cup. I also had my first official toast "to the Royals". After the Lord Mayor spoke, we had a great presentation by the Country Manager for Tata Consultancy Services in the UK.

We met all kinds of lovely as well as great and important people. It was an awesome opportunity to do some business networking while enjoying interesting and entertaining people all in what I think was an incredibly proper British way.