The Degustująca Istota (Degustating Being) walks around with other Beings to the restaurants. Eats, takes pictures and describes what she tasted.
By profession I am Quality Assurance Engineer in the IT area. I live in Silesia region in Poland. I am enthusiast of vegetable cuisine, but I am not vegetarian. I especially admire the Fine Dining and a molecular cuisine.
Why Eggplant?
On the one hand, because I consider this one of the less appreciated vegetables although it has amazing potential. In many restaurants I met with a complete misunderstanding of its taste and bad preparation. That is why it became a symbol of my blog, as a vegetable well showing the chef’s abilities.
On the other hand, I think the tasting eggplant is funny. And I wanted to add a bit of humor so that the blog in which I write mostly about luxurious and elegant dinners in the Fine Dining style was not too pretentious and stiff. After all, even eating in a restaurant with Michelin Guide stars we want to have fun and relax.
Why am I writing this blog?
For myself:
Because My memory is short. I love delicious food and want to be able to remember what and where I ate, how delicious it was or not;) and which Chef prepared these dishes.For people who are looking for good cuisine:
By the publicizing my opinion about the restaurant/dish, I would like to be useful to those who are looking for restaurant recommendations, or inspiration for their own culinary creations.For chefs and restaurants:
Sometimes both restaurants and chefs, especially in fine dining restaurants, but not only, ask for feedback. I try to make my comments as substantial as I can and not emotional. Unfortunately, it comes out differently. And if anyone is offended by my words, I’m sorry in advance. This was not my intention. I realize how much effort and commitment work in a restaurant requires.Because it’s my hobby:
I don’t write sponsored content. I do not earn by my blog, it is only my hobby for which I devote a large part of my home budget :D
What do I assess? First of all, all reviews in articles are my(or the people I go to dinners with) subjective opinions. I am not a culinary expert, just a fine dining fan and the Michelin Giude anthusiast. My knowledge and experience comes from conversations with Chefs, culinary books and hundreds of visits in restaurants.
Rating criteria:
- The Taste and technique
- Presentation of courses
- Atmosphere
- Service
- Interior decoration/Cleanliness
- Best Value for money
- Creativity/Vision
I don’t consider the choice of alcohols or how they match the dish because we mostly don’t drink alcohol. You can find the points given on older articles. Over time, I have stepped away from fixed point ratings because I felt that they don’t fully reflect what I want to express. Therefore, I decided to only include a descriptive rating in the Summary section.
Courses have their own rating expressed by my favourite Eggplants!
A dish can receive from 0 to 5 eggplants.
- 0 eggplants - not edible
- 1 eggplant - can be eaten
- 2 eggplants - good
- 3 eggplants - delicious
- 4 eggplants - wonderful
- 5 eggplants - phenomenal, surprising, brilliant!
The Happy Eggplant badge
It is an exceptional distinction. Awarded to favourite dishes or restaurants that the Degustująca Istota has fallen in love with. This distinction is disjointed from the eggplant rating, though it often goes hand in hand. Still, you can have 3 or 4 eggplants and a Happy Eggplant order/badge. A dish that was technically not very advanced, or there were shortcomings, or there was some element I didn’t like, can still enchant me and I will fall in love with it.
Tags
Under each article, there is a list of tags by which the Degustująca Istota has grouped posts. Tags: Michelin_guide and Gault_Millau are placed next to the restaurants that were mentioned in these guides.
Locations
At the end of the article, and in the title photo, you can find the location of the restaurant. By clicking on a city or country you will be redirected to a page with articles about restaurant visits in that location. You can also see a list of all available locations with links to the corresponding articles by clicking on “Locations” at the top of the page.
Search
You can click “Search” at the top of the page, which will redirect you to the search engine page where you can type in your search term.
Dictionary
The newest feature. The dictionary is constantly being expanded to include terms from the culinary industry, Fine Dining in particular. It can be accessed through the link at the top of the page, or through a highlighted word in an article.
Technical information
The photo on the main page was taken at the Babel restaurant in Budapest. The Degustująca Istota logo was made by @dranka. The Degustująca Istota’s blog is based on the Sleek theme, which uses the static Jekyll page generator. The blog exists and develops thanks to the help of an amazing programmer, author of the blog WriteOnly.
If you like, you can write an e-mail to the Degustującej Istoty. For those who do not use the e-mail client: degustujaca.istota@gmail.com. However, I recommend contacting by facebook or Instagram page - I will reply as soon as possible. Danuta Żabińska is the editor-in-chief. The technical editor is Kamil Żabiński.