A Full Belly

eating well in madrid

Top Madrid Chefs Draw Inspiration From a Catalan Star. Jonathan Reynolds visits Madrid and finds Ferran Adrià's spirit of scientific experimentation doing well in the city's restaurants, some of them run by his acolytes.

best new fish shacks

NYC The Best New Fish Shacks in New York City. Top three of how many? (And does this make fish the new black?)

James Beard Foundation Awards

The James Beard Foundation Awards for restaurants and chefs have been announced. Winners include Karen DeMasco (Craft, NYC), Mario Batali (Babbo, NYC), Lee Hefter (Spago, Beverly Hills), Andrew Carmellini ( Café Boulud, NYC), Thomas Keller (Per Se, NYC), and Danny Meyer (Union Square Hospitality Group, NYC).

Photo courtesy of Michael Harlan Turk. Thanks!

le monde des chefs

Jean-Claude Gotheron's le monde des chefs in Paris is part gallery and part store, displaying "the tableware of up to four chefs at a time." When the hot plate visited last November, the featured chefs were Tom Colicchio of Craft (New York), Joachim Splichal of Patina (Los Angeles), Thomas Keller of French Laundry (Napa Valley) and Michel Rostang (Paris).

uglesich's closing

A Lunchtime Institution Set to Overstuff Its Last Po' Boy. New Orleans institution Uglesich's will be closing its doors, perhaps forever, in mid-May. Sounds like my kind of place, too: "Chunky and intensely creamy, the [crabmeat au gratin] is "made of all the things you're not supposed to eat," Ms. Reed informed us, including butter, evaporated milk, egg yolks, whipping cream, Swiss cheese and cheddar cheese." Yum!

Proprietor Anthony Uglesich does hold out a measure of hope for regulars and fans, saying "If I do climb the walls, I might try packaging our sauces for retail sale, or maybe do some catering - people are always offering me thousands of dollars to cook for their dinner parties - or reopen here for four days a week, with limited hours and a very limited menu, just appetizers. No more of this, though."

SF and East Bay: Dining Out For Life

Dining Out For Life is this Thursday, April 28th. Dine at participating San Francisco restaurants and 25% of your bill will benefit HIV prevention programs of the STOP AIDS Project. East Bay proceeds will go to The Center for AIDS Services. See the lists of participating San Francisco restaurants and East Bay restaurants, or make reservations online via OpenTable.

Fat Duck's degustation menu

UK restaurant The Fat Duck, most recently in the news for topping Restaurant magazine's 50 best restaurants in the world list (beating out El Bulli and last year's winner, French Laundry) has a degustation menu the likes of which I've never seen before. For £97.50 you can try dishes with names like Pommery Grain Mustard Ice Cream, Sardine on Toast Sorbet, Smoked Bacon and Egg Ice Cream and Leather Chocolate.

(And here I thought the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory's new flavor Black Sesame was exotic...)

Caffe Centro

Working (and living) on the perimeter of San Francisco's South Park means lots of tasty lunch options. One of my favorites is Caffe Centro. The line during peak lunch time hours on a sunny day can be intimidating, but it's certainly worth the short wait to grab some lunch to go.

Sandwiches and salads are excellent, made with fresh, quality ingredients. I love the counter paninis, especially the ham and swiss. Don't forget to grab a cookie for dessert—oatmeal and raisin is my favorite.

Caffe Centro
102 South Park, San Francisco
415.882.1500

Quick review: Westville East

Westville East is as good as the original, except without the crazy wait. I like "The Market" offerings; they change daily and consist of the best of what's fresh at the Green Market. Order one for $4 or a plate of four for $10. Recently I've enjoyed a refreshing melon soup, expertly seasoned collard greens, mushrooms with leeks and herbs, the city's tastiest turkey burger, and carrot cake just the way I like it -- moist cake and not too sweet icing. Yum!

Westville East
328 E 14th St (near 1st Ave)
212-598-9998

100 Best Italian Restaurants

Village Voice food critic Robert Sietsema has compiled his list of 100 Best Italian Restaurants in New York City. An impressive feat considering there are an estimated 2,500 Italian restaurants citywide. Sietsema writes:

From humble hero shops up to restaurants of the trattoria level, this list represents my ranking of New York's greatest Italian dining establishments. Culled from an estimated 2,500 Italian eateries citywide, every place on my list possesses excellence in one form or another. In creating it, I paid particular attention to the unsung heroes of the local food chain, the pizza parlors. One afternoon, huffing and puffing on my bike, I visited 17 in upper Manhattan, hoping to find a place as unpretentiously good as DiFara's (#13). I think I almost did: George's (#64). How can a lowly neighborhood pizzeria be better than a destination bistro that gooses its linguine with porcini and truffles? Try a lasagna slice at San Cono (#5) or the tripe and peas at Lodomini's (#9) and find out!

Here is his Top Twenty:

1. Lupa, 170 Thompson Street, Manhattan
2. Roberto's, 632 East 186th Street, Bronx
3. La Villa, 261 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn
4. Max, 51 Avenue B, Manhattan
5. San. Cono, 303 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn
6. 'ino, 21 Bedford Street, Manhattan
7. al di la, 248 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn
8. Grimaldi's, 19 Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn
9. Lodomini's Taste of Italy, 871 Third Avenue, Brooklyn
10. Via Emilia, 240 Park Avenue South, Manhattan
11. Otto, 1 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan
12. Maffei Pizza, 688 Sixth Avenue, Manhattan
13. DiFara's, 1424 Avenue J, Brooklyn
14. Giorgione, 307 Spring Street, Manhattan
15. Malatesta, 649 Washington Street, Manhattan
16. Gino's Focacceria, 7118 18th Avenue, Brooklyn
17. Trattoria L'Incontro, 21-76 31st Street, Astoria, Queens
18. Fratelli's Pizza Cafi, 404 Hunts Point Avenue, Bronx
19. Joe's Restaurant, 66-53 Forest Avenue, Ridgewood, Queens
20. Totonno's, 1524 Neptune Avenue, Brooklyn

See the complete list here.