St. John

If watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations started my transformation into a foodie, St. John Restaurant by Smithfield Market has completed it.

Watching Bourdain, he seemed so happy and content with discovering new food or just eating traditional food done right. The more I watched him, the more offal seemed appealing to me. Whenever I went out to eat in the States (not often) I started to look for the oddest choice on the menu and order that. My Paris culinary adventures culminated in the ordering of a pig's trotter. I was well on my way. St. John pushed me over. I've been there twice now and we have plans to go back our last week here.

The first trip I started with what is supposed to be the signature dish of St. John and a dish that Bourdain said would be in his death row meal. Bone marrow and parsley salad. You get three bones, wet sea salt, parsley and two pieces of toast. You scrape the bone marrow out onto the toast, add the salt, spread the mixture on the toast and then top with parsley. It is amazing. Foodgasms with every bite. For my entree I had faggot, which is a meatball traditionally made of pig heart, liver and fatty belly meat (thank you Wiki.) It was also really good. I wanted to order the rabbit saddle, but they were out. My friend Chris had the chitterlings, which were so good that I regretted ordering the faggot. Debi had smoked eel and bacon which was also amazing.

I went for the second time tonight. To start off, I had ox heart. It was delicious. It just tasted like a piece of meat that was really well prepared. My friend Scott had black cuttlefish cooked in its own ink, which was also really good. My entree was rabbit and bacon in a mustard sauce, which proved to be the favorite of the table. The mustard sauce was otherworldly, I was sipping at it even when all the meat was gone. For desert we ordered madeleines and we each got our own dish. I got the eccles cake and Lancashire cheese. I'm not sure why, there was no way I could finish it. It was really good, but the madeleines were even better.

I have not been to a lot of restaurants, let alone highly regarded ones. However, St. John seems special. It does traditional food really well. It's kept simple and it's kept good. The restaurant itself is very simple, with the whitewashed walls and floor. You know when you walk in there you're not going to get any fancy food plated divinely or any frills. You're just going to get some damn good food that makes you want to come back for more. I say this is my favorite restaurant in the world. So does Bourdain. His opinion makes me feel a little bit better that I'm choosing a favorite restaurant so early on in my growth as a foodie.