Inspector FOOD.

Andreoli’s Italian Grocer is one of our favorite places to eat in Scottsdale.  We enjoy eating there multiple times a week.  In fact, papa jokes that mommy’s entire paycheck goes straight to Andreoli’s.  We always go to Andreoli’s on Wednesday because it is Pizza night.

The owner’s name is Giovanni Scorzo. He is the head chef and sometimes comes out to talk to regular customers and his Italian friends. Here is a picture of him:

Giovanni always makes us feel at home!  As usual, we arrived at Andreoli’s this past Wednesday (October 5, 2011) for pizza.  Here are pictures of all of our pizzas:

The first pizza is papa’s and Anya’s favorite.  It has prosciutto and arugula and parmesan cheese. The second is mommy’s favorite.  It is an artichoke and truffle pizza. He especially makes that one for us. You have to specially ask for it because it is off the menu.The third is a sausage and mushroom pizza. This is Karsen’s favorite and the fourth is a spicy salami pizza. All of us LOVE the spicy salami pizza. Once you have that pizza, you’ll never go back to normal pepperoni pizza.  Giovanni makes his own dough and it is delicious!

Andreoli’s also offers an antipasto platter. It has cheese, and an assortment of different salamis. here is a picture of it:

There are also olives and peppers.  The peppers are quite spicy.

Of course, mommy and papa have wine. You might find it surprising that a small and welcoming place like this, would have such an excellent selection of wine. This is what they had:

Below is a picture of some of our favorite people at Andreoli’s.  The lady on the right is Giovanni’s daughter. Her name is Francesca. She is the best at coming out with the latest hair style. The man on the left, is Rosario.  Rosario is our favorite server, and has known the Andreoli family for years. He speaks spanish and is really kind to everyone – especially kids. He is a favorite of the customers.

(Scale from 1-5)

Boy:5

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Girl:5

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Adult: Best thing ever!!!

So come join us at Andreoli’s!!!  Giovanni is a GENIUS!

This summer we got very lucky. We dined at 3 “Michelin starred restaurants”. One was in London and 2 were in Paris.

The one in London is called Benares. It had delicious Indian Food.  We ate with Mommy’s friend, Uncle Henry, there. He has a big appetite. Benares might be the only michelin star restaurant with authentic indian food. The chef there is named Atul Kochhar. It was very spicy.  But we could hack it.  Here’s our only picture of the restaurant – it’s of us with Uncle Henry.

The ones in Paris are called Taillevent and L’Ambrosie. We had to dress up for those ones. Karsen had to wear a tie, and Anya wore beautiful dresses. Taillevent is the restaurant that the movie Ratatouille is based on. Remember when Chef Gaston dies in Ratatouille and the restaurant loses a star?  The same thing happened at Taillevent.  We are happy to say that we think the restaurant remains delicious.  We had lots of amuse bouches, and multiple courses.  Here are some pictures of our food.  The first picture is of our amuse bouche.  Amuse bouche means to tickle the tastebuds.  It’s also a gift from the chef.  We love these tasty gifts.

The next three pictures are of our appetizers.  The first is wild mushrooms and egg.  The second is a fish carpaccio dish.  Carpaccio means that it is not cooked.  The last dish is cantaloupe and prosciutto flavored mousse on top.  All three of these dishes were delectable.  The mushroom/egg dish is melt in your mouth!!

Next came our main courses:

This is a fish dish with juicy tomatoes.  The tomatoes were cooked perfectly.  If you bite into them, the juices just burst in your mouth.

This was the steak dish.  The steak was cooked medium rare – just the way we like it.  The side dish is the ratatouille.  This was our favorite.  In fact, we like it so much we took a bigger picture of it right below.

This was our third entree.  You’ll notice that the presentation is beautiful.  It looks like artwork.  But it is the most delicious artwork.

There were two main desserts offered.  One with strawberries and the other with chocolate.

Of course, mommy had to have her cappuccino.

The food there is scrumptious!!! The manager of Taillevent was impressed with us – he gave us a menu as a souvenir and his card so we can make reservations whenever we want.  We also had our vegetarian auntie with us; they were quite accommodating with her dietary restrictions.  Finally – here is a picture of Anya with one of the servers (there were a lot of servers!).

 

One of our last meals in Paris was also our best – at L’Ambrosie.   In fact,  L’AMBROSIE MIGHT BE  THE MOST DELICIOUS AND AMAZING MEAL WE HAVE EVER HAD IN OUR LIFETIMES!!!  Even mommy says so – and she has had a lot of meals since she is MUCH older than we are.

We were the only kids in the restaurant but we were treated with care, respect, and dignity (maybe because we were dressed up).  The atmosphere was cooling (it was hot outside), very elegant with large windows.  Below is a picture of Karsen with one of the servers.  Notice that Karsen has a tie on.  It’s his only tie.

Here is a picture of Anya with the bread server.

Here is a picture of the place setting.  Karsen has a theory that michelin-starred restaurants place their forks and spoons upside-down.  Next time you are dining at a fine establishment, please see if Karsen is right.

Next was our amuse bouche.  We love these tasty gifts from the chef!!!  This was a gazpacho with sweet pepper mousse. If you have never had gazpacho, you might be surprised when you have your first bite.  It is a COLD tomato soup.

Karsen had a delicious pea soup with shrimp. Anya had the foie gras de canard. It was the best foie gras  ever!!!  And mommy had a langoustine, curry, with pastry.  Everything was perfectly cooked – nice and light.  It was an explosion of flavors in our mouths.   Mommy thinks these appetizers were among the most amazing flavors to ever grace her mouth!

Before our main courses arrived, we were given a sorbet as a palate cleanser.  It was a cherry sorbet.

Our main courses were also delicious.  Karsen had fish and caviar (there are two pictures of this – one is a close up).  Anya had the red snapper and mommy had the lobster.  Mommy is obsessed with lobster.

For dessert we had the DESSERT EXTRAVAGANZA.  This was an ENTIRE table of desserts – I think there must have been 12 desserts.  It was like a real-life willy-wonka experience.

The one above is called the ORANGE BOMBE.  It was the bomb.

Even mommy’s dessert wine was delicious.  She let us have a sip.  When we are grown up, we are going to have this dessert wine with dessert.

The end!  Have fun if you ever go to Paris and London.  We highly recommend these restaurants – especially L’Ambrosie.

From a kid’s perspective, we give all these restaurants a 5 out of 5 (with L’Ambrosie at 5+++++++++++++).

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On Thursday night, September 22, 2011, we went to Technique Restaurant in Scottsdale for dinner.  We were celebrating Bilbo’s and Frodo’s (from The Lord of the Rings) birthdays.  Technique Restaurant is run by students from Cordon Bleu – it is their capstone 6-week course.  Cordon Bleu is a cooking school.  A nice lady named Renee gave us a tour of the cooking schools.  It was the student’s last day of the course.  So they had the most experience and they made no mistakes.  Everything was perfect!  We were lucky, the President of Cordon Bleu, Chef Lloyd came to say hi.  We had our picture taken.  Here is a picture of Mr. Chef Lloyd with me and my sister.

You can choose a three-course ($12) or a four-course dinner ($15).  Everyone at the table needs to agree.  I convinced everyone to have four courses.  The first course is a cold starter.  I had nicoise salad.  This means tuna and olives with other vegetables.  This is what it looks like.

My hot starter was a flatbread pizza.  It had bacon, sausage, basil, and mozzarella.  The sausage was my favorite topping.

My main course was a veal shank risotto. You can see the bone marrow in the picture.  The bone marrow has a lot of juices in it.  It has gremolata.  I learned that gremolata is a bunch of herbs with lemon zest.  It added a lot of flavor.

My dessert was ice cream and cookies.  The ice creams are made fresh everyday.  The flavors were raspberry, balsamic, and vanilla.  I also had two chocolate chip cookies. I liked dessert best.

My meal was delicious!

This is ANYA now.  My brother left out the best part of the meal.  Because it was the last day for the students, they were celebrating too.  And my brother and I were invited to join them in their kitchen.  It was the oyster and lobster kitchen.  Here is a picture of Karsen doing an oyster shot.

And here I am:

The oysters are raw.  That might sound EWW! to lots of people, but it is actually delicious.  It taste refreshing – it is cooling.  Here is a picture of us with the lobster.  Chef showed how to crack the lobster perfectly!

We also learned that the number of pleats in a chef’s hat (called a toque) is the same as the number of ways to cook an egg.  Jared, our server, told us that number is 101.  Here is a picture of Jared.

Jared will be starting a job at the Talking Stick Resort.  You can say hi to him there.

I also had a great meal.

My first course was a grilled fruit and arugula salad. It tasted like crispy prosciutto with a hint of warm peach. I don’t usually like cooked pineapple but this one was delicious.  The proscuitto was crisp and warm.   It looks like this:

 

My second course was the shrimp risotto. That was warm and it felt good in your stomach. I thought it was a great combination. This is what it looks like:

My third course was a fillet mignon with tomato hollandaise. It came with fresh french fries. It was hot, but when it cooled down, it was easy to eat and boneless. I like my steak medium rare – this means it is very juicy.  They cooked it perfectly.  It was nice and juicy.  The french fries were very hot and crispy.  The ketchup tasted homemade.  They both looked like this:

 

My fourth and last course was a salted caramel pot de creme. A pot de creme is like a pudding.  Imagine a caramel flavored pudding.  It was a fantastic way to end a meal. After I finished I was full. Here it looked like this:

P.S This was the BEST dessert they had!!!

We would like to give a special thank you to everyone at Technique for inviting us to their kitchen.  In the kitchen we learned the secret to good food:

“Butter is good.  Butter is fat.  Fat is our friend.”

We also want to thank Jared (our server), Renee (our hostess), and Chef and President Mr. Lloyd.

This was a great place.  We recommend it and would surely come back if we are lucky!!

We are starting a rating system from a kid’s perspective – with a scale from 1-5, with 5 being best.  This was a 5.

WE GIVE IT 5 SMILEY FACES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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We are kids who LOVE to explore the world and all its variety.  We hope our blog represents two kids’ perspectives and provides helpful information.