Another day, another list. This time, it's Anthony Bourdain's "13 Places to Eat Before You Die," which appears in the June issue of Men's Health. Bourdain's article shouts out restaurants and stores across the globe, from New York's smoked fish shrine Russ & Daughters to Spain's gourmand ground zero, elBulli.

Bourdain acknowledges that as "any seasoned traveler can tell you, the 'best' meals on the planet are the result of an ephemeral confluence of circumstances," and makes convincing arguments for each of his picks, which also include Kansas City, Kan.'s Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue, Tokyo's Sukiyabashi Jiro and London's St. John.

But even with the disclaimer and rationale behind Bourdain's choices, plenty are as likely to find fault with his logic (and apparently abundant frequent flier miles) as they are with a list proclaiming, say, the best pizza places in the U.S.

We have the text of the article so you can weigh in on Bourdain's hits -- and misses -- after the jump.

• Lamb shoulder has it all -- affordability, flavor and tons of tasty variations.
• We always hear about diners' complaints, but here's a report about the crazies (um, that'd be us civilians) the restaurant staff has to deal with.
• Gluten-free noodles from Italy's Rustichella d'Abruzzo are here. The verdict: The rice is not so nice, but the corn is totally sweet.
• The Cupcake Kit: An "all-encompassing" kit to make cupcakes a bit more festive.
• Berkeley's Sea Salt offers a revamped bar menu with nibbles including devilled duck eggs and ahi tuna mini-burgers.
• French Laundry gets a new chef de cuisine; Corey Lee heads out on his own and Timothy Hollingsworth takes over.
• Tom Colicchio (head judge of "Top Chef") and sous chef Sisha Ortuzar have cooked up a new book of "'Wichcraft."
• Did you know that there are a myriad of olive oils to suit different needs in the kitchen? A new book might help enlighten you.

Because I'm fascinated by food, it should come as no surprise to any of you out there that I read a lot of food blogs. There are a bunch that I've been following a long time, and some that are relatively recent additions to my RSS reader. One that has become a new favorite of mine, is French Laundry at Home.

Carol started her project back in January and has been steadily cooking her way through Thomas Keller's cookbook ever since. She not only prepares his recipes, but documents each step along the way with pictures and notes about her progress. She is not shy admitting where she deviates from the written recipe and lets her readers know how she and her tasters enjoyed each dish. In addition to being a pretty able cook, she's an entertaining writer, and when I read her posts, I begin to feel like she's a friend of mine.

The picture above is from one of her latest posts, when she made Nectarine Salad with Green Tomato Confiture and Hazelnut Sabayon.

Could you imagine waking up at dawn each morning to knead and shape dough, letting it rise for a few hours, then take it to a centrally located oven where it is baked alongside everyone else's? This is the norm for many families in places like Morocco, though with modernization the tradition is beginning to fade.

In Pixar's latest film Ratatouille, Remy the Rat learned his culinary skills from the best of the best - Thomas Keller, owner of French Laundry in Yountville, California.

Is your organic food really all organic? The Department of Agriculture is preparing to approve a list of non-organic ingredients that could make the cut in food stamped with their organic seal

Eric Asimov takes a look at the delights of Beaujolais in 'The Pour'

Frank Bruni asks some of the more prominent names in the food industry which meals or moments in their pasts were "pinnacles of carnivorous gluttony." Yes, pig snout made the list.

This week's recipes:

Lamb Schnitzels With Mint-Horseradish Pesto, Confit Byaldi, Lamb and Bulgur Kibbe With Garlic Yogurt Sauce, Chicken With Couscous, Moroccan Anise-Flavored Bread (Khubz), Tagine of Fish, Pea and Crab Salad

A few months ago, Sarah showed us some photos taken by James Yu, a former Slashfood writer, of his visit to French Laundry. Now Kevin, a Slashfood reader, has shared his own experience at Thomas Keller's world class restaurant with us. Though a few of the items are duplicate, I thought the majority of pictures (and individual courses) were unique enough that we could afford to take another peek. His tab? Over $600 per person, which included the extensive tasting menu, drinks, tax and tip.

In case you aren't aware, Thomas Keller recently won the title of Outstanding Restaurateur at the 2007 James Beard Foundation Awards, and French Laundry was named 4th best restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine, scoring as "Best of the Americas."

Needless to say, this is pretty much the ultimate in food porn. I've included a few more of Kevin's photos after the jump, but you can visit his entire collection (with full descriptions of what you are looking at) at his website via the 'read' link below.

Is it bad that I haven't visited any of the top 50 restaurants in the world? Not even once?

I guess it's not surprising, considering only 8 of the top 50 are here in the United States and none are near me. Thomas Keller's The French Laundry in Yountville, CA is the top U.S. restaurant at #4. Other U.S. spots include Per Se, Jean Georges, Le Bernardin, Charie Trotter's, Daniel, Alinea, and Chez Panisse. The top restaurant is El Bulli in Spain (the site also lists restaurants 51 to 100).

I really have to get out more.

[via Gastronomic Fight Club]

If you've been with us here at Slashfood since we launched back in 2005, then you might remember one of our writers, James Yu. Well, James has since moved on to bigger and better things (hey! don't forget about us little people, James!) -- bigger and better enough that he's able to dine at Thomas Keller's French Laundry!

James took some great photos of his meal there, and also describes each of the courses he experienced. The dish pictured is called "Oysters and Pearls," which is sabayon of pearl tapioca with Beau Soleil Oysters and white sturgeon caviar, but that's only the beginning. If you're feeling a little like a voyear, take a peek at his Flickr photo set!

Ad Hoc is the name of Thomas Keller's comfort-food restaurant in Yountville, California, just down the street from Keller's other restaurants, French Laundry and Bouchon. The restaurant opened about six months ago with the intention of providing a "Sunday dinner atmosphere" to diners, with a focus on seasonal ingredients and comfort foods, as opposed to the seasonal by upscale offerings at the French Laundry. It offers only one fixed price menu and everything is served family style. When it opened, Keller declared that the restaurant would be temporary, as he really wanted to open a burger restaurant in the location and needed something to occupy the space while the plans for that upscale fast food venture were ironed out. Ad Hoc has become so popular, both with diners and with staff, that Keller has decided to lengthen its stay. Permanently.

He is not, however, giving up on his "burgers and bottles" idea of a gourmet fast food restaurant that complements its offerings with high quality wines from the surrounding vineyards. He is simply looking for yet another location in which it can be realized. For the time being, Keller says that he might add a burger to the menu at Ad Hoc just to get the ball on the idea - which Keller has been keeping on the back burner for 15 years - rolling.

We already took a look at the world's most expensive restaurants for this year, but Forbes has added to their compilation of the priciest restaurants with a list of those located in the US. Unlike the global list, which takes into account the price for only a main course, drink and tip, the US list includes the prices for fixed-price tasting menus, which are definitely the most popular way to eat at top eateries. And those prices are going up. There are new and better ingredients to be used and higher expectations that must be met by these restaurants. "We're seeking out smaller producers with better products, and with that comes a higher expense of preparing them in the kitchen. It creates an upward pressure on menu prices," said one restaurant owner, who also noted that it was fortunate the economy is strong enough to sustain restaurants that serve the such high-priced meals.

At the top of the list is New York City's Masa at $446, followed by California's The French Laundry at $254 and Chicago's Alinea at $168.

The rest of the top ten are after the jump.

No one would question the fact that the French Laundry deserves all three of its Michelin stars, but what about the rest of the ratings? Michael Bauer, restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, described the French Laundry as a ringer, a restaurant so good that no other establishment - on either coast - can really stand up to it. Bauer wonders whether the other area restaurants are being handicapped by the fact that the French Laundry sets an impossibly high standard for comparison that the 3-star restaurants in New York could not live up to, either.

He says "the list lacks many of the places that go to the heart of Bay Area dining and define who we are" and considering that the restaurant scene in the area has more high-quality restaurants than just about anywhere in the country, if not the world, it would seem that he has a point. While a great honor for Thomas Keller, the Guide's ratings do not seem sufficient for Bay Area restaurant scene. Does Chez Panisse only deserve 1 star? Does Manresa only deserve two? And how many were left off entirely?

They went to New York first, but this week, the inspectors for the Michelin Guide made their designations around the San Francisco Bay area. 356 restaurants were listed. 23 received one star (*), four received two stars (**), and only one restaurant received the coveted three star rating (***): Thomas Keller's The French Laundry in Yountville (Napa Valley).

It's not totally surprising, as Keller also received three stars for his restaurant Per Se in New York. However, some folks, like Paul Franson, a wine country writer and author of the weekly Napa Life newsletter, were surprised that more restaurants didn't receive the highest rating.

The question is, would you really go all the way to the Napa Valley wine country and not taste wine?

Doubtful.

However, Mimi Sheraton thinks that Napa has enough of a gourmet food offering - farms, cheesemakers and restaurants - that one could skip the vineyards, particularly during the September harvest season.

Her reasoning is multi-fold. The region benefits from the lingering after-effects of culinary giants like Alice Waters, Jonathan Waxman and Jeremiah Tower. There is also a branch of the CIA, Greystone, in the town of St. Helena, where Sheraton recommends appetizers (rather than a full meal). In the town of Napa, Copia, the American Center for wine, offers classes, demonstrations and tastings. There are farms thar provide the local restaurants with fresh ingredients, and the restaurants themselves are notable: La Toque, Mustards Grill, Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, Terra, and of course, Thomas Keller's Bouchon and French Laundry.

Still, I think I'd want to squeeze in at least one vineyard.

Thomas Keller's new restaurant, which we first mentioned in passing when it was still just a rumor, is not officially going to open until July and the venture may be only a temporary one. Named Ad Hoc, the restaurant will serve a fixed price, four course menu each night it is open (Thursday-Monday) with a casual, Sunday dinner atmosphere. The food will be comfortable and homey, not as upscale as the French Laundry down the street, and will focus heavily on seasonal ingredients and foods that Keller says are some of his favorites, like fried chicken and beef stroganoff.

Ultimately, Keller plans to turn the space into either a burger restaurant or a sushi restaurant, so Ad Hoc might not be around all that long. They will not take reservations, so plan a trip through Yountville, CA to check it out before it's gone.

[via Food Section]

Blogger and food writer Ed Levine was at the annual James Beard Foundation Awards dinner last night and, very luckily for all of us who couldn't attend, photoblogged the whole thing! The event is often called the culinary equivalent of the Oscars and when the nominees are announced, there is a sense of aniticipation for the ceremony. Unfortunately, just like the Oscars, not everyone can win, no matter how much it seems that each person deserves to. Thanks to Ed, we got a sneak peek at the winners last night, even though the offical press release has yet to be seen just came out. I'll mention right now that this list is not complete, but a full list is now available at the James Beard Foundation website, or by following the links after the jump.

• Lifetime Achievement - Judith Jones 
• Best Cookbook - Sunday Suppers at Lucques, by Suaanne Goins
• Best Food Website - Leitesculinaria.com
• Best Television Food Show - How to Cook Everything (on PBS)
• Best Webcast - Spatulata.com (Isabella, 10, and Olivia Gerasole, 8, prepare a dinner's worth of recipes every two weeks. They are the youngest recipients in the history of the awards)
• Best New Restaurant - Modern in NY
• Best Restaurant - The French Laundry
• Best Restaurant Service - Gary Danko
• Best Chef - Alfred Portale of Gotham Bar & Grill
• Best Restaurateur - Daniel Boulud
• Best Food Section, large circulation - SF Chronicle
• Best Food Section, small circulation - Denver Post

[via la.foodblogging]

No newspaper worth its weight in matzo doesn't have a story related to Passover. The San Francisco Chronicle dishes out some artichokes and fiery horseradish sauce. To change up the sweets filled with matzo, potato starch makes a sponge cake covered with berries.

It started with the Ferry Building Marketplace at Embarcadero, and now gourmet "food malls" are sprouting up all over the Bay Area.

The CIA at Greystone has expanded its program to include a full-fledged culinary program, just like its New York headquarters.

On the dining scene, watch the chefs at Rogue Chefs. John Bentley's gets a re-visit and an updated review, as does Cortez.

Baseball season has kicked off, and at Bay Area stadiums, the food has kicked off, too, with offerings beyond hot dogs and peanuts.

Pan-roasting the last of winter's vegetables gets praise, with a recipe for caramelized vegetables.

Thomas Keller is building a tiny empire over in the Napa Valley