u/travsgrails

16202BA kind of day

As the title reads, Shanghai 1 Dunk SB today

Was not expecting to get another watch so soon, especially this! Presenting the 16202BA Jumbo! Kind of gave up hope after finding out this one was discontinued but my awesome boutique and SA pushed for me to receive one of the last ones! the 39mm case is perfect and the shade of yellow gold is beautiful, and that’s coming from someone who generally isn’t a yellow gold fan. Also the design of the watch has some important sentimental value to me truly could not be happier with it! Added some comparison between this and the 15510st

Impromptu trip to Paris this past week, here was my rotation the last few days

Wow All I can say is Wow… but if I could say more here it is:
We managed to snag a reservation on such short notice and so so so glad we did.
It was very convenient to be essentially in the lobby of our hotel, it’s a beautiful ambiance and very similar design to the rest of the hotel. There is one seating per evening at 7:30 and i’d highly recommend trying for a summer reservation if being able to watch the sunset as it sets around 10 in Paris this time of year. And trust me you will get to see it as well as much past it. The entire experience was about 4 and a half hours yet unlike some other restaurants I wasn’t checking my watch wondering when it will be over… the waiters and Sommelier Chloe were excellent, like other reviews have stated there isn’t a true captain and I wish each person would introduce themselves a bit more but that’s just a personal preference and we asked questions to get to know the team throughout the meal that really elevated it. They joked around with us and it felt like they were having just as much as fun as we were. If you don’t know the concept by Chef Donckele is all about the sauces and each dish is built around them including the desserts. They bring a generous serving of each sauce on the side and urge you to try each sauce before trying the dish but before getting into the main courses there are some opening snacks followed by a “choose your own adventure”. You are handed a massive booklet of their 1600+ bottles in their wine cellar (which we also saw at the beginning and it’s beautiful and some truly amazing bottles), next they bring by a menu of the three course options, basic (forgive me i’m blanking on the names) which is just a few entrees, a more heavier version and finally the Sonnet menu which is an all out no reserve menu which we opted for, we chose not to see the actual dishes and be surprised at every course. They also have wine pairings, 2 per menu i’m guessing, a traditional with big name wineries and a modern/try something new wine pairing. My girlfriend opted for the Traditional and i did the modern. Both were excellent and if big name wineries are your jam you will have some excellent pairings such as Dom P2 2008 and of course Chateau D’Yquem with dessert specifically a 2022 vintage. Again Chloe was our lead sommelier and she was excellent and extremely passionate about it. Loved the wines she selected for my pairing. Anyways getting into the food itself (had to skip some pictures of some of palate cleansers etc)
*Opening Snacks*
Raw Red Sweet Prawn over a potato cracker
Oysters with a citrus broth and an herby sauce
Truffle Tartlet with a cold tomato broth (they recently switched this from a warm sauce since it’s been so hot in Paris)
All the opening snacks were an excellent primer for the evening
*Main Savory Courses*
Unlimited Bread Service begins here with a fresh out of the oven sourdough that is amazing for soaking up the sauces ( i was warned not to get greedy but we did anyways and were starting to regret by the time dessert came around but it was worth it)

1. Blue Fish/ Fennel/ Marigold with a cold and herbaceous sauce that complimented it excellently, very light and refreshing and basil forwaed dubbed Velours “Eden”
2. Puff Pastry Tomato Tarte with a double sauce! “Maestra” A rich red based shallot reduction mixed with a light citrusy cream This was honestly one of my favorite dishes of the entire night, it reminded me of patatas bravas in terms of the flavors, it truly was astounding
3. This was a fun one Blue Lobster/nasturtium/Raspberry, the manager I presume before this course asked if we would like to see the kitchen to which we obviously said yes, we followed him back and to our surprise this was served in a small booth cove nestled in the kitchen. It was cozy with lots of pictures of the team and restaurant and it was amazing getting to watch them work on what we were eating while we were! We’ve been fortunate to do many kitchen tours but none ever like this. Anyways the Lobster was some of the best I have ever had served with “Sabayon” and “Crème” another double sauce this is when they start to kick in the rich and buttery flavors you associate with french food as well, the raspberry sweetness and tart cut through the richness and brought everything together, another star for me
4. Turbo/Pomme De Mer/Caviar
   For the “Bouillon” another rich buttery sauce this time cut with some citrus rather than tart, a classic french butter sauce you expect with a white fish, just the best french butter sauce you’ll ever have with some amazing turbot. The Caviar did not distract from the dish either it only elevated it.
5. Red Mullet/Crab/Saffron
   Following with another double sauce “Esteline and Borgne” it was a mediterranean rock fish with a rich cognac broth paired with a tomato and fennel lighter sauce. Similar composition to the tomato tarte and it was my favorite over the turbot and Sardine
6. Pigeon/Amandine/Herbs
   The main “land” protein was pigeon which was a first for me, it was excellent. I had my reservations of course but again like everything else it did not disappoint. It was similar to a smoked duck with a similar texture to a beef filet in my opinion it was delicious and the sauce paired was “Salmigondis” composed of a pigeon stock and herbs again very rich sauce but nothing like the Smoked pigeon tarte “Asterion” which was a very gamey and concentrated pigeon stock for this tarte

Over all this was one of the best meals of my life and potentially the BEST meal. I previously had Addison in San Diego as my number one 3 star but this takes the cake! Sorry for not the best review in advance i’m no food critic and again so hard to fully articulate this experience. It truly transcended anything words could describe and hope everyone who’s interested gets the chance to dine here, it’s a one of a kind meal!

*Intermittent Cheese Course*
In all honesty i couldn’t remember for the life of me which cheeses I picked all i know is it wasn’t any blue cheeses but every single one was some of the best cheese i’ve ever had and it was a nice touch with the vintage plates that used to be manufactured in the hotel that was once a market

*Dessert*

In The Shade of An Apricot Tree
“Sauce a manger” a light apricot sorbet topped with an apricot liqueur and apricot maceration

My girlfriend was getting very full so he had a lighter dessert which is escaping me what it was but it was similar to the apricot sorbet, i had the chocolate dessert

Cocoa Pod Flower

with a TRIPLE sauce, chocolate wafer like dessert with a chocolate ice cream and topped with a dark chocolate “monochrome” sauce with some vanilla ice cream mixed in. Basically the best version ever of a Hot Fudge Sunday

Finally the “Book”

a cocoa topped rice pudding from Chef Arnauds child hood, an almond and hazelnut tarte and a vanilla custard with a vanilla marshmallow.

Dunk (pre) SB Zoo York (2002)

Dunk SB Low “Pele - Hawaii ”

26439nb Special Edition of 100

KOTD: What the Dunk SB (2007)

26240OR, Blue Nuit with blue nuit croc

Jordan 1 High x Christian Dior

Jordan 4 Travis Scott, lucky to have hit this pair on the drop, only took 45 minutes on SNKRS app😂

26238CD, one of my favorite watches in my collection, the blue is so dynamic and it’s such a comfortable watch to wear on the daily, despite being a 42 it wears surprisingly small, tho this angle doesn’t make it appear so.

Picanha, Carne Asada and bone marrow served with some corn tortillas and various salsas and chimichurri

All smoked then seared

As the caption says, had a lovely day at PECLA taking delivery of my long awaited Cayenne GTS Coupe finished in PTS amethyst metallic. Got some seat time on the track in a Cayenne S as well as a Carrera S, both fantastic cars that blew me away with their performance. Though the GTS is on another level than the S, a blast of a car to drive even softly (until break in is over) Happy to answer any questions about the experience or my build

Futura FNF Sun Blush Dunk SB

While we had a lot of amazing traditional Japanese food in our time there, the texas BBQ from this little food truck “slice of life” was one of the standout meals in Japan. Serving up some Japanese A5 Beef ribs/brisket and Kurobuta Pulled Pork and Ribs. It was insanely good and very juicy considering they’re using highly marbled japanese beef. We got both beef and pork ribs, as well as brisket. Both the brisket and beef rib was out of this world and they had some hot and sour, coffee and traditional bbq sauce to go with it. Served over rice with a side of slaw and chili? The rice after it soaked up all the drippings was heavenly. I would probably skip the pork ribs as one was dry and just okay but if you happen to find yourself in Tokyo stop by slice of life for some amazing bbq. 360g of beef ribs, 1/4 rack of pork ribs and 400g of brisket all for about $100 USD, pricey but worth it in my opinion for the quality of beef and pork used as well just for the flavor

Ate everywhere from Grocery store nigiri, Izakaya Sashimi, to 2 & 3 michelin star omakases ranked best in the world - also lots of beef sashimi too if that’s counts haha

Unfortunately many of the top omakases do not allow photos or only photos of certain dishes, there is a picture of the menu at Sukiyabashi Jiro, incase anyone’s curious as to what’s served at was once (and still considered by many) to be the number one omakase in the world

Brought out the Playstation samples for the last day here, on to the next place!