Recipes

May 4, 2010 Restaurant

Granville Moore's

Moules Fromage Bleu - Bacon, Hook’s Blue Cheese, Shallots, Spinach , White Wine, Lemon Juice - $16

When you walk into Granville Moore's Frittes Ales Moules, you feel as if you have traveled at least 75 years back in time. The interior feels almost pre-industrial, with exposed brick walls and old wooden floors. You can't miss the HUGE bar that takes up a majority of the narrow real estate. A few wooden tables and benches line one wall, but clearly, beer is the focus here.

In fact, Granville Moore's has one of the largest Belgian beer selections in the mid-Atlantic region. They carry over 50 types of bottled beers (plus at least 4 draft beers) - and every single one of them is Belgian.

Granville Moore's is named after Dr. Granville Moore, a doctor whose office used to occupy the current location decades ago. Dr. Moore provided pro bono care to the less fortunate in the neighborhood. The building stood vacant for 30 years before a few business-minded entrepreneurs purchased the property and opened up Granville Moore's.

It's pretty hard to get into Granville Moore's these days. They don't take reservations, and the place has become quite famous ever since chef Teddy Folkman beat Bobby Flay in a moules frite throwdown. The winning dish? The Moules Fromage Bleu, pictured above.

We had a fabulous meal here, and I would highly recommend this place to anyone who loves good beer and excellent mussels in a fun, lively, and historic location.

Granville Moore's is not in the best of neighborhoods, located at H Street NE. In fact, the restaurant is surrounded by an eclectic mix of thriving businesses, rundown buildings, and boarded up storefronts. Some see Granville Moore's as a sign of positive change, the first step in the revitalization of an old, tired neighborhood.

Frites (large - $7.50)
Be prepared to wait, as this place is super popular, and lines go out the door. To pass by the time, we ordered some beers and some fries, which were fantastic. Hand cut from Idaho potatoes and fried twice, these were so good I hardly used any of the dipping sauces.

Of course, the sauces are fine and good, and you get a choice between Truffle Aioli, Homemade Hot sauce, Horseradish cream, Curry Mayo, Garlic Ranch, Chipotle BBQ, Morney Sauce, or Chipotle Mayo.

The bar is super well-stocked, and the bartenders know their stuff.

Here's some of the beers we tried.

Here's some more!

Finally, after waiting about 45 minutes, we were able to sit down and enjoy some food! We tried a variety of appetizers. From top left going clockwise: 1. Bison Chili ($6) 2. Fried Risotto Cakes ($8) 3. Crab Croquettes with Gruyere and Dijonnaise ($8) 4. Jumbo Bacon Wrapped Scallops with Butternut Squash Puree ($12.50) All of these dishes were pretty tasty, though I don't think any of them stood out to me as the best I've ever had.

Moules Moroccan – Beer Poached Fennel, Spicy Lamb Sausage, Curry Cream Sauce - $16

The mussels were delicious. We tried three different flavors: the Moules Fromage Bleu (shown at the top of the post), Moules Champignon (Mushrooms, cream, Hoegaarden, Truffle Oil), and Moules Moroccan (shown above). Our favorites? Probably a toss-up between the Moules Fromage Bleu and the Moules Moroccan, with the Moules Champignon a distant second. The mix of flavors in both the Moules Fromage Bleu and the Moules Moroccan were fantastic, and the sauces were aromatically fragrant, savory, and full of umami. We loved dipping our bread in the sauce - yum! The Moules Champignon was pretty good, though not as flavorful or complex as the other two. Surprisingly, I could hardly taste the truffle oil.

We loved this place and had a blast not only trying out so many different kinds of beers, but also enjoying the flavorful mussels and the crunchy fries. It's worth the 45-minute wait, especially when you can drink beer and eat fries while you are waiting!

This post is part of the larger Washington DC Eats Series. Other post(s) in this series:
Ceiba
Il Canale
Ben's Chili Bowl

Granville Moore
Capitol Hill
1238 H St NE
Washington, DC 20002

May 3, 2010 Mexican

Ceiba

One thing I hate most when I travel is being stuck in a touristy area and being forced to eat expensive but not very good food. Of course, it's usually my fault that this happens - it's the curse of being someone who's naturally not organized, someone who doesn't plan. I still remember being stuck in Times Square, looking around frantically, seeing only places like the Olive Garden, that huge McDonalds, and other loud places that just did not look promising at all. If only I had known at the time that this place was just a short jaunt away.

But I digress. This post is about DC, not New York.

We visited the nation's capital over Easter/Cherry Blossom weekend (talk about crowded!). We had just visited the White House (which looks stunning at night!), and were hungry for a bite to eat. Unlike that sad, unfortunately time in New York, this time I had the help of locals. A friend who had worked in DC recommended Ceiba, saying it was her favorite Latin restaurant in DC. Better yet, it was just a short walk from the White House, perfect for tourists who like good food!
Ceiba is a modern Latin restaurant that focuses on cuisine from the Yucatan region of Mexico (Vera Cruz and Cancun), Brazil (Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), Peru, and Cuba. The space is trendy, the architecture is beautiful, and the food is really enjoyable.

Walk in, and you'll see a nice, airy lobby with plenty of seats in the waiting area. We were having dinner early on a Thursday evening (around 6pm), but I could totally see this place filling up on a weekend.

A cool trendy bar appears on the left as you walk over to the dining area.

Guacamole de Mocajete
Mocajete is a stone bowl that is typically used in a Mexican kitchen for grinding spices or making sauces. In this case, the waiter mashes your guacamole table side.

We got the Ceviche Sample, a great way to try all of their ceviches. Each of these individually costs $10, but you can get the sampler for $16, which is what we got. All of the seafood was extremely fresh. I really enjoyed this appetizer.

Yucatan Shrimp Ceviche (Pico de Gallo, Avocado, Crisp Corn Tortillas)
Wild Striped Bass Ceviche (Spicy Rocoto Chili, Sweet Potato, Toasted Peruvian Corn)
Yellowfin Tuna Ceviche (Cucumber, Mango, Jicama, Aji Amarillo Lime Dressing, Crushed Cashews) Peruvian Cevichee "Clasico" (Fresh Lime Juice, Red Onion, Cilantro, Aji Picante)

Dos Equis Beer Steamed Mussels ($15)
Mexican Chorizo, Sofrito, Warm Garlic Bread

Whole Crispy Red Snapper ($27)
Tomato Sofrito, Manzanilla Olives, Capers, Pickled Jalapenos
The waitress highly recommended this dish, so Bryan decided to order it. The flavors are fantastic, but if you don't like having your dinner stare at you all night, you might not want to order this.

Moqueca Bahiana Brazilian Seafood Stew ($28)
Rock Lobster, Prawns, Calamari, Mussels, Traditional Accompaniments
We love moquecas, and we love how we can get them all the time in Cambridge for what seems like a steal (especially compared to this place). This moqueca is made "Bahiana"-style, which had the added ingredient of coconut milk. Nice seafood flavors, well executed.

Slow Braised Pork Shank "Feijoada" ($26)
Black Beans, Collard Greens, Rice, Traditional Accompaniments
This pork shank was fall-off-the-bone soft and really good. Bryan's dad was very pleased with this dish. Originally Portuguese in origin, the feijoada is the national dish in Brazil, and is a stew of beans with pork or beef. I must concede that the feijoada here is a lot better than the one I had at Muqueca in Cambridge, although it's a slightly unfair comparison as this one costs over twice as much.

Maryland Style Crabcakes with Sweet Potato Home Fries ($15?)
I got the crabcakes. I loved the accompanying side (the sweet potato home fries), although I thought the crabcakes were only OK, not as good as others I've had.

Overall Thoughts
This place has a great vibe, excellent food, and is in a super convenient location. It's a bit pricy, but then you have to consider that you are right in downtown DC, so you're partly paying for that convenience. We had a great dinner there and would consider coming back again if we were in the area. It sure beats random touristy food!

This post is part of a larger Washington DC Eats Series. Other posts in this series:
Granville Moore's
Il Canale
Ben's Chili Bowl

Ceiba
701 14th St NW
Washington, DC 20005

April 30, 2010 Uncategorized

Tiny Urban Tidbits #2

Tiny Urban Tidbits is where I share with you some insights, "tidbits", or just random encounters from the week. I carry my camera with me everywhere I go, and I love capturing photos of interesting things that I discover. These may include new dishes from a restaurant that I've already reviewed, updates on what's going on locally, or encounters I've had in the kitchen. It could even include a beautiful sunset, a funny sign, or just stuff I find amusing. Think of it as snapshots (literally!) of my weekly experiences with food - intertwined with stories, of course.
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Daniel, New York City

Top 50 Restaurants
San Pellegrino released their annual Top 50 Restaurants this past year. Number 1 was Noma, a restaurant in Denmark, knocking E Bulli of Spain down to number 2. Daniel, the highest climber, rose 33 to become 8th. The French Laundry, the third largest drop, fell 20 slots down to 32. The entire list can be found here. A few days later, they released the "bottom 50", in other words, 51-100.

Here are my experiences at some of these restaurants. I do want to note that, out of all my amazing dining experiences this past year, I actually think Daniel was my favorite experience overall, so I'm not surprised that it's doing so well on this list.


8. Daniel	10. Per Se

15. Le Bernardin	32. The French Laundry

29. L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, France *post is about the Las Vegas Joel Robuchon	52. Jean-Georges *linked post is about Market by JG in Boston * above photo is from JG in NYC

Boston News

Why I love living next to Harvard Square . . . .
Korean fried chicken place Bon Chon Chicken is moving from Allston to Harvard Square! And rumor has it that Pinkberry is considering the old Alpha Omega space. Yoberry closed not too long ago, and Berryline has been in Harvard for years. Don't feel like paying close to $5 for some yogurt? You can always try making your own.

And Little Q, my favorite hot pot (shabu) place in Boston, appears to be moving to Chinatown, and (maybe?) Arlington. They were essentially forced out of their Quincy location by the city several months ago. According to their new website, the future location will be in Chinatown (660 Washington St) and will be called "The Q Restaurant." They're hiring now, so if you're looking for a job . . .

It also looks like a restaurant named "Little Q" is moving to East Arlington, at 196 Mass Ave. We drove by it the other day on our way to Tango. So are there really two now? It's odd how their website does not mention the Arlington location. I even wonder whether the Arlington one is still going to happen.

In any event, more delicious hot pot coming closer to Boston very soon!

Keller vs. The Pioneer Woman?
I read an entertaining article where a mom cooked a traditional fried chicken dinner for her family from both The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond and Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller. It's interesting to see her family's reaction, especially her kids.

Washington D.C. Mini-Series

Next week, we'll have a mini-series on some really interesting eats in Washington DC! I was there over Easter for the cherry blossoms and tried some great food, from iconic chili dogs to Belgian moules frites (mussels and fries). Stay tuned!

That's it folks. Have a wonderful weekend!

April 30, 2010 Misc

Soda Maker Winner

Thank you all for participating in this Giveaway. It was SUPER helpful reading all of your comments about the blog. I really appreciated all the encouraging feedback, and the suggestions were GREAT! I am seriously going to start implementing some of them soon!

The winner of the Giveaway is . . . . #16 - Brit! Brit writes the blog Yuppish. Brit said, "I love the pictures, they're absolutely fabulous!"

Brit, please contact me so I can get the Soda Maker sent to you!

Thanks again everyone for participating. I can't express how thankful I am for the constructive feedback and wonderfully encouraging comments you all left for me. Thanks again,

Jen

April 29, 2010 Greater Boston

Formosa Taipei

Why is it that Chinatowns tend to be Cantonese, and the Taiwanese/Northern Chinese restaurants always seems to be a bit further out? OK, granted, I don't have that many data points. I'm thinking of New York and Boston in particular. In New York, the best Taiwanese food is definitely in Flushing, not in Chinatown. Similarly, in Boston, the best Taiwanese food (with the exception of Taiwan Cafe), is also outside of the city. My two favorites are basically in the burbs: Shangri La in Belmont and Chung Shin Yuan in Newton. Even Jo Jo Taipei (Allston), Mulan (Cambridge), and Wisteria (Allston) are not in Chinatown.

More recently, some former members of the Jo Jo Taipei team left to open up a new restaurant in Lexington (another suburban Taiwanese spot!). This location is literally a 5-minute drive from my church. After church we are always looking for good places to eat in Lexington (and, honestly, there aren't that many), so we were excited to check this place out.

First thing's first. It's important to know that this is really just a take out place. There are a couple stools and benches along this table on one wall, but that's it. It's pretty hard to go with more than one person if you want to have meaningful conversation while you're there. Unless if you don't mind all sitting in a line facing out the window.

They even serve everything in takeout boxes.

The first thing that tickled us were the super authentic fobby lunch boxes. This is the box that is holding the pork chop over rice (quintessential Taiwanese dish). My friend, Emily, was like,

"they're importing boxes all the way from Taiwan!" For some reason, it really added to the authenticity of the experience. I could almost feel like I was sitting on a train in Taiwan, ordering a "bian dang." (lunch box)

And inside, the pork chop over rice. Despite its authentic exterior, we were underwhelmed with the pork chop. It was a little soggy, the meat was kind of dry and overcooked. The flavor was decent, but overall it was quite average. The entire dish is pretty authentic, though, down to the soy sauce egg, the pickled radish, and the sour mustard greens.

I got the beef noodle soup, which is supposedly one of their best dishes. It comes packaged separately, which is pretty nice. You pour the soup & beef over the noodles when you get home. This prevents the noodles from becoming overly soggy.

The flavor of the soup was pretty good - deep, rich, with a slight kick. I thought the soup itself was quite oily, to the point that it detracted from my enjoyment of the dish. The pieces of meat in this soup are quite fatty. I would say it's only about 50% meat, while the rest is tendon, fat, and other cartilage. Perhaps the authentic version of this dish requires some fatty pieces, but I thought it was just too much. I ended up throwing out large chunks of gelatinous stuff.

My vegetarian friend got the 3-cup tofu, which actually has pretty good flavor. "3-cup" dishes typically have a 1:1:1 ratio of soy sauce, rice wine, and sesame oil. There's also tons of basil, garlic, ginger, and sugar. This dish had nice, fragrant pieces of tofu infused with that beautiful combination of flavors. I've actually had this at Jo Jo Taipei before, and it's pretty similar. I think the former chef of Jo Jo Taipei is actually here, so that makes sense.

Sesame Beef: I think our friends who got this felt that this dish was a bit more Americanized than what they were expecting. I actually did not try this dish so I can't comment on it.

Bryan got this sesame flatbread (shao bing) with stewed beef shank and onions. This was a very, very disappointing appetizer. Maybe I was expecting something else, but the flatbread was really dry and not really crispy at all. I'm so used to the flaky and crispy ones (probably made with lard) from places like Shangri La. This tasted like a diet or lowfat version of the normal sesame flatbread. Dry, no fat, kind of hard to chew. I would not recommend getting this.

Boba tea was solid, and is really a must have at a Taiwanese place, right? 😉

Overall Thoughts
*SIGH* I really really really wanted to love this place. It was so close to church. It was Taiwanese. It was opened by the Jo Jo Taipei folks. I'm not sure what went wrong. Did we order during an off time? Or did we order the wrong things? I still love the concept of having a Taiwanese take out place in Lexington, and considering that Lexington has a woeful selection of Chinese restaurants, this is actually a nice addition. I might go back and try the dumplings (I think they even have soup dumplings!), and maybe something like the three cup chicken or something. Bryan did originally want to order their "Ro Geng Mian" (Pork Bamboo Shoot Noodle Soup), but they had run out, so maybe we'll go back and try that.

As it now stands, though, I would rank many places in Boston, including Shangri La in Belmont, Chung Shin Yuan in Newton, and Taiwan Cafe in Chinatown above this place. However, if you are in Lexington and in the mood for Taiwanese food, this is still a decent option. It IS quite authentic.

Formosa Taipei
315 Marrett Road, Lexington, MA 02421
Lexington, MA 02421

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GIVEAWAY
Today is the LAST DAY to enter to win a Sodastream Soda Maker! Drawing will occur TONIGHT (April 29, 2010) at midnight.

April 27, 2010 Recipe

Fiddleheads

I dusted off my violin last night for the first time in probably 2 years. I usually forget about it, but once every year or two, I am somehow inspired by something, or someone, to pick up my violin and start playing. Usually, it's a beautiful violin performance that I've heard, or perhaps something that reminds me of an orchestral piece I used to play.

Last night, however, was quite different. I picked up my violin because I had bought fiddlehead ferns at the market just a few days before. I was tickled how similarly the fiddleheads resembled an actual violin top. Of course that's why they are called fiddleheads. How cute, and how funny I never consciously thought about that before.

What are fiddleheads? Fiddleheads are the unfurled fronds of a new growth fern, typically the ostrich fern. Some species of fiddleheads (e.g., the Bracken fern, popular in Canada, Japan, and Korea) actually have been linked to stomach and esophagus cancer. Thankfully the ostrich fern (which is mostly what is sold in the US), does not carry this cancer risk.

But wait, the sign at the market had a little warning that said to boil or steam these babies before eating. DO NOT EAT RAW! Apparently a bunch of people suffered food poisoning from eating undercooked fiddleheads in New York and Canada back in 1994.

I decided to take my chances and try cooking these little violin tips. So cute, and yet slightly dangerous at the same time!

Make sure to wash these REALLY WELL before cooking them. Some instructions say to soak it multiple times in water. Others say to wash until the water is clear. Make sure to remove any brown bits, scales, etc.

Instructions varied with respect to what cooking time was necessary to make the fiddleheads safe to eat. I saw times as short as "blanch for 1-2 minutes" all the way up to "steam for 20 minutes!" At the same time, other recipes said not to overcook the fiddleheads, as you lose texture, nutrients, and taste.

What to do?

Well, I thought steaming was a bit less harsh than boiling, so I opted to go that route. I was also really afraid of food poisoning, so I went a little overboard and steamed for 15 minutes. In hindsight, I think that was a bit too long. I might try the "blanching for a few minutes" approach next time.

Once you've cooked the fiddleheads, you can treat them like you would asparagus or broccoli. The taste reminds me of asparagus, and in some ways, they are similar in that they are both the young shoots of a plant. This time I just sauteed the fiddleheads in a bit of oil and sprinkled with salt. The flavor is mild, so you don't want to overpower it with a sauce that is too strong.

You can easily enjoy it in salads, pastas, or any other dish that would typically use asparagus.

Enjoy!
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GIVEAWAY
It's still not to late to enter to win a Sodastream Soda Maker! Drawing will occur on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at midnight.

April 26, 2010 Greater Boston

Tango

When the first page of a restaurant's menu is littered with phrases like "if there is a single food that represents Argentina, it is beef" and "Argentine beef is highly prized for its flavor and tenderness" you quickly realize they're trying (not so subtly) to tell you what to order.

Tango is, as far as I know, the only Argentinian restaurant in the Boston area. They focus heavily on meat, and the menu is full of various grilled meat options. Of course, there are traditional Argentinian appetizers too, as well as salads, pastas, and desserts.

We had the privilege of going with a friend who actually grew up in Argentina. It was great - he spoke Spanish with the owners, arranged to get a huge table for our party of 10 on a busy Saturday night, and ordered a bunch of traditional Argentinian dishes for us.

Appetizers

We started with a variety of interesting appetizers.

Top Left: Matambre Casero Con Ensalada Rusa
Stuffed Rolled Veal with Russian Salad - $9.95
Our friend said this dish was very authentic. It's a cold dish made of veal rolled around hard boiled eggs, marinated vegetables, and spices. It comes with Russian potato salad on the side.

Top Right: Empanada de Carne
Beef Turnover-Ground beef, onion, eggs, raisins and regional spices
This was delicious - a fried pastry filled with flavorful ground beef. Here's a closer look at the inside.

Bottom Left: Ensalada de Palmitos con Salsa Golf
Heart of palm salad with the chef's special sauce ("golf sauce")
Canned palm hearts drizzled with this traditional yet simple sauce consisting of mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard. This sauce (originally a mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise) was supposedly invented by Argentinian Nobel prize winning biochemist Luis Federico Leloir in 1920. So the roots of McDonald's special sauce was invented by an Argentinian??! I found this dish to be uninspiring, personally much preferring the lighter, less saucy palm heart salad at Muqueca.

Bottom Right: Beef Carpaccio
I'm not sure if this is an actual Argentinian dish, although it does focus on beef. This dish was solid, though perhaps there are better renditions of it at other places in Boston.

Main Dish

Of course, meat is the focus of Argentinian restaurants, so virtually everyone ordered meat, with a majority of folks ordering beef.

Top Left: Ostillas de Cordero
Tender Lamb Chops. Marinated in our chimichurri sauce and grilled $22.95

Top Right: Churrasco
A 12 Oz sirloin Steak, Seasoned and grilled to liking $21.95

Bottom Left: Medallon Roquefort
Filet Mignon. Seasoned and grilled to liking. Topped with a layer of creamy pepper sauce $28.95

Bottom Right: Vacio a la Parrilla
Flank Steak. Grilled to perfection adding chimichurri sauce while grilling $20.95

In general, the flavors of the meat dishes are great. You won't go wrong ordering beef. One thing, though - they do tend to overcook their beef. A "medium rare" becomes more like a cross between medium and medium well, while a "medium" becomes close to well done. On the other hand, the lamb chops were reasonably medium rare. The vegetables are crunchy and fresh, and the mashed sweet potatoes are fine, though nothing to write home about.

What is the most interesting thing to order . . .
The most fascinating dish, and really the best value and most fun to watch someone eat:

Parrillada Para Dos (Grilled Meat Variety for two)
Short ribs, sausage, black sausage, kidney, chicken, sweetbread. Served with fried potato. $39
This is not for the faint of heart. We had two guys share this, and they totally could not finish. I saw another family of three order this, which might be a little bit more do-able. The parrillada para dos, which translates to "grill for two," is a feast of various slow-grilled meats. It's set up in a way to allow you to enjoy different parts of various animals. In this particular version, there are short ribs (a quintessential ingredient in any parrillada), sausage, blood sausage, kidneys, chicken, and sweetbreads. It was definitely an interesting experience to try so many different things. My favorite was the sausage, although the sweetbread wasn't bad.

It comes on a portable charcoal grill. You can eat your meat with chimichurri sauce (olive oil, parsley, and hot pepper) or just enjoy it plain.

The side of fried potatoes was pretty good - kind of like thick cut potato chips.

General Thoughts
I've read that there are much better restaurants in Argentina. But we're not in Argentina, and Tango is the only Argentinian restaurant here. I think it's a great place to visit. It has a nice, lively vibe, authentic dishes, and delicious food. The service can be slow. In fact, it took us over an hour to get our main entrees, which is a bit ridiculous. I hope that it was just an off night, and that it's not always so slow. Definitely go with a large crowd so you can try different things. I would recommend trying the Parrillada Para Dos, at least one of the steaks, and a few appetizers, such as the empanadas.

End on a cappuccino note . ..

Note: Arlington, right across the border from Cambridge, is about a 20-25 minute drive from Boston without traffic.

Tango
464 Massachusetts Ave
Arlington, MA 02474

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GIVEAWAY
It's still not to late to enter to win a Sodastream Soda Maker! Drawing will occur on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at midnight.

April 25, 2010 Misc

Sparkling Blood Orange + GIVEAWAY!

Homemade Sparkling Water with a Splash of Blood Orange Juice

It's no secret that I love love love sparkling water. I've been a huge fan of San Pellegrino, and I even had the amazing privilege this past year to attend the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chefs Competition in Napa Valley, where we learned a lot about mineral water, how it is made, and how it pairs with food!

More recently I found out about Sodastream, a company that sells a make-your-own-soda device from tap water. I was intrigued with this idea. Sodastream says that their sodas only cost 25 cents a liter (as opposed to > $1/Liter for most bottled seltzer water). The plain sparkling water is probably even cheaper. Furthermore, you help the environment by reducing the number of plastic/glass bottles that you would otherwise be consuming.

Sodastream was kind enough to send me one of their soda-making devices to review. Better yet, they are offering another one for me to give away to one of my readers!
Sodastream offers a variety of different soda makers. Internally, they function all the same way. They vary mostly in their external design, the types gas canisters they take, and whether they use glass or plastic bottles.

I ended up opting for the Penguin (shown below). I mostly chose this model because it was one of the two models that uses glass carafes instead of BPA-free plastic bottles. I figured, if I was such a fan of San Pellegrino, I should at least try to approximate it as closely as possible, right?

The Penguin only takes the smaller CO2 cylinder, unlike some other models, which have the option of taking the larger 100 L aluminum cylinder.

He's super cute! He almost fits in with my other stuffed animals. 🙂

The glass bottles come with a nice top with a rubber stopper that keeps the gas in. The unit is mostly made of plastic, with the exception of the bottom half (the part that holds the glass carafe) being made of metal. You press on his eyes to open his belly, which holds the gas cylinder. You push down on his beak to fill the water with gas (more on that below!)

It's pretty easy to set up. I think I was up and running within 15 minutes. Basically, the unit runs on the pressurized gas, so there's no need for electricity. You just attach the gas canister, and then you're ready to go!

Fill the glass bottle with water, put the bottle in the metal holder, and then press down on the silver "back," making sure the white spigot on top goes into the glass bottle.

Lock the unit and press down on his beak. It takes a few presses before the penguin starts whistling. It can whistle up to four times, although I found that two whistles worth was plenty of carbonation for me.

And viola, carbonated water!

It's refreshing and quite good. The bottle is labeled as a one-liter bottle, though you can only fill it up to the line (for safety reasons). Up to the line, it's closer to about ¾ L of water that you're actually carbonating.

Ease of Use
I found this unit extremely easy to use. As I said earlier, set up really takes only about 15 minutes (and that's including the time it takes to unwrap the box and read the instructions). Because the unit does not require electricity, I have easily moved it around depending on where I have space (realities of a tiny kitchen and all). I like to keep the two glass bottles full of cold water in the fridge and "gas" them whenever I feel like having some sparkling water. I have found that, even with the unique rubber-stopper tops, the sparkling water in the glass bottles still loses fizz relatively quickly, and tit usually does not taste nearly as good the next day. Therefore, since it takes less than a minute to make, I have found that I prefer to just making it fresh on the spot. I can go through one bottle pretty quickly in one sitting!

It's nice to be able to control the carbonation level. As I said earlier, I've found that two "whistles" is good for me, although I would consider trying three or four whistles if I wanted to dilute the water with, say, orange juice or something.

Design
I thought this unit was well designed and very easy to use. Though the Penguin is super cute, it is a bit tall for a tiny urban kitchen such as mine, and I actually had a hard time figuring out where to put it. It's just a bit too tall to fit under any of my cupboards (see penguin's head at the bottom picture), which means I had to leave it out on the dining table. If you have a small kitchen, I would recommend getting one of the other models (which I think is shorter - not positive though!).

Flavors of Drinks
Sodastream sells a bunch of syrups to add to their water. I served a bunch of these drinks to some dinner guests the other night. We tried flavors such as cola, orange soda, Pete's choice (Dr. Pepper equivalent), and grapefruit soda (or pop - a shout out to my Ohio roots). We also tried Soda stream's "Mywater Essence," which is essentially like adding a calorie-free fruit splash to the water. I received mixed reviews on the sodas. One thought the orange soda tasted like the real thing, while another thought that the Pete's choice tasted awful. Most people were relatively pleased with the way that the sodas tasted, although many just preferred to drink plain sparkling water. I personally thought the grapefruit soda was only OK, although the cola was decently convincing. I liked the fruit essences, and I would choose that over the sodas.

One nice thing is that none of their syrups are made with high fructose corn syrup, although a lot of them are made with sucralose (Splenda). In fact, out of the 12 syrups I received in the sampler, only two (Pete's Choice and lemon-lime) were made of sugar. The rest were diet.

You void the warranty if you try carbonating anything other than water, though people have tried all sorts of things, such as, my favorite idea - making prosecco from cheap white wine. In the end, I'm not much of a soda drinker anyway, so I would stick to plain sparkling water, optionally dressed with my own fruit juices.

CO2 Refills
After doing some internet research, I learned that Sodastream has a proprietary CO2 cylinder head. This means that it's harder to get the canisters refilled elsewhere. In fact, the canisters are technically on loan to you only. You license the use of the canister and essentially buying the gas. Once the canister is empty, you can exchange it for a full one either through mail order or at a local participating store, such as Williams-Sonoma. I have yet to replace a canister, but it apparently costs $30 each, which is a lot more than the market price for CO2. In the end, this still comes out to be cheaper than buying your own bottled water, but just keep in mind that if you do get this unit, you are, in a way, stuck with getting your refills at a higher price through Sodastream. Some people have tried replacing the proprietary head with an industry standard head, while others just go to non-approved third party CO2 fillers. As I mentioned earlier, I have not tried any of this myself, so I can't really comment much more on this topic.

Environment
Of course, a lot of people get their own soda machines not so much for the cost, but for other reasons, such as for the environment or for the luxury of having access to sparkling water at any time. You can save on a lot of plastic bottles, no question. I have made sparkling water with the Penguin and then transferred the water into a Nalgene bottle for transport, and that works beautifully.

Taste
This water tastes pretty good, though in the end taste of the water will be governed by the quality of the water you put in. I did a 3-way taste test comparing Brita-filtered water, water straight out of the refrigerator (filtered), and San Pellegrino. Bryan thought that the San Pellegrino had the most flavor (most likely due to the mineral content), and that the Brita filtered water tasted the most flat (which makes sense - the Brita probably filters out a lot of the minerals). We both agreed that the differences were somewhat subtle, and if you're going to be adding a flavored syrup anyway, it really won't make that much of a difference.

Giveaway
Finally, to the end! The folks at Sodastream were kind enough to offer a SodaStream Soda and Seltzer Maker Starter Kit to one lucky Tiny Urban Kitchen reader! This particular version is their most popular and best-value soda maker. It has the flexibility in that it can take on the larger 100L aluminum CO2 canister. This particular one uses the BPA-free bottles, which are actually much more convenient when it comes to taking it along with you.

It includes the winner's choice of black/silver, white or red/silver Fountain Jet, CO2 to make over 100 liters of soda, 2 reusable carbonating bottles, a sample pack of flavors, and 3 full-sized flavors of the winner's choice.

The winning prize can only be shipped in the continental US.

How to win . . .
I am always looking to improve this blog, so I would love feedback about it. To enter the Giveaway, please leave a comment below telling me what aspects of this blog you like the best, and/or suggestions for improvement/change. Some examples of aspects on which you can comment: restaurant reviews, recipes, photography, length of posts, frequency of posts, number of pictures, cuisines covered, types of dishes, layout of the blog, giveaways, trip series (e.g., The Big Apple, A New York Birthday, Napa Valley, A California Christmas), and the new series "Tiny Urban Tidbits."

If you absolutely have no comments but still want to enter, please give me your favorite sparkling water recipe. I loved reading your egg recipes last time, so keep those ideas coming! For an extra entry, you can tweet about this giveaway.

Giveaway! Win a Sodastream Soda Maker Kit @tinyurbankitchn! http://bit.ly/cAXh5V

Good luck! Drawing will occur on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at midnight!

If you want to support Tiny Urban Kitchen, you can get one at Amazon (Here are links to the Penguin Starter Kit ($199.95 - what I got), Genesis Starter Kit ($99.99), and the Jet Starter Kit (what the winner will receive).
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Disclaimer: Time to time I receive free products from vendors to review. I do not receive any payment for these posts/reviews. The views expressed in the posts are completely my own. For this post, I received a Sodastream Penguin Starter Kit and a Jet Start Kit for a giveaway.

April 23, 2010 Uncategorized

Tiny Urban Tidbits #1

Baked Alaska at the Oceanaire

I've decided to start a series called Tiny Urban Tidbits where I share with you some insights, "tidbits", or just random encounters from the week. I carry my camera with me everywhere I go, and I love capturing photos of interesting things that I discover. These may include new dishes from a restaurant that I've already reviewed, updates on what's going on locally, or encounters I've had in the kitchen. It could even include a beautiful sunset, a funny sign, or just stuff I find amusing. Think of it as snapshots (literally!) of my weekly experiences with food - intertwined with stories, of course.

A beautiful dessert that resulted from a dramatic presentation (see above) at The Oceanaire.

Will Gilson changes his menu at The Garden At the Cellar frequently. We go here all the time because it takes us less than 3 minutes to walk to his restaurant. Here is his recent creative interpretation of the very traditional French salad, Salade Nicoise.

Muqueca in Cambridge (another one of my favorite restaurants) recently moved to a bigger space right down the street. They now serve alcohol and have a slightly expanded menu. The ambiance is still charming (although not quite as intimate as the old space) and there is a lot more seating. The service is still a bit slow, but the food is just as fantastic. Prices have gone up a bit, probably to account for the new space and the liquor license.

I learned that tea eggs and Japanese egg molds don't work that well together . . .

Had a refreshing fruit that reminds me of my childhood. Anyone know what fruit this is?

Have a wonderful weekend! Look forward to another Giveaway next week!

April 23, 2010 Misc

Teflon Pan Giveaway Winner!

The winner of the Teflon Pan Giveaway is . . .

Ophelia from The House Poet! Ophelia said

"Oh, what a great recipe and pan! 🙂 I love eggs so much-- I think my favorite egg recipe would have to be an omelette with sharp cheese, green onions, and chicken apple sausage! I would definitely be making those with that pan!"

Congratulations Ophelia! Please e-mail me your shipping address and I'll have Teflon send you your pan right away.

Enjoy those eggs!

April 22, 2010 Boston

Hei La Moon

I grew up in northwestern Ohio, where there really wasn't much Chinese food available. At most, we had our share of not-so-authentic Chinese buffets and Chinese take-out joints. In fact, my resourceful mom learned how to make all sorts of Chinese/Taiwanese specialties from scratch at home because she had no access to these dishes locally.

One of my favorite food memories growing up was our road trips to Windsor, Canada. Only an hour's drive away, Windsor was a totally different world. Windsor was filled with Chinese food. Chinese dim sum, Chinese supermarkets, Chinese bakeries. Dim sum was always a treat, and such a fun experience for a kid! Imagine it: waitresses pushing around carts full of delectable steamed buns, shrimp dumplings, and fried taro balls. The excitement of being able to pick what you wanted to eat from the cart. And every single dish being so delicious, so much better than anything we could get in northwestern Ohio. Oh, I loved it. We always finished with a stop to a Chinese grocery store, and of course, the Chinese bakery.

Going to Hei La Moon this weekend totally brought back those memories. You definitely get the authentic experience at Hei La Moon, complete with the big round tables, harried waitresses pushing carts around, and a sea full of Chinese people.

Case in point: if the place is completely packed with Chinese people, odds are that the food is pretty good.

I love being able to pick out my food from carts being wheeled around. It's such a fun experience!

Here is a dish full of fried stuff! One of my favorites is the deep fried sesame mochi ball (lower left corner). Chewy, sweet, and totally satisfying!

We got a bunch of things, and all of them were quite tasty. A lot of dim sum dishes have either shrimp or pork. If you don't eat one or both of these meats, you might have a hard time finding food to eat. One of my favorite dim sum items is Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll shown in the upper left photo (chang-fen). I have always loved the texture of rice noodles and the flavor of the brown sauce, which is like a slightly sweetened soy sauce mixed with oil. Pork and Mushroom Dumplings (shumai) is also a classic (lower left), as are BBQ Pork Buns (char siu bao) shown on the lower right.

Shrimp Dumplings (har gao) are another must-get if you have dim sum. I personally liked the Shrimp and Leek Dumpling (lower right) a lot too. Spareribs (lower left) are another classic.

For the brave, you can try Chicken Feet (left) or Tripe (cow stomach - right). Although I can eat chicken feet, I don't particularly enjoy it. The flavors are great, but I just don't love the texture of stewed chicken skin, which is essentially what you are eating. I do love tripe, and I thought it was very good here.

We got some Pan Fried Vermicelli to balance out all the meat we had. I thought this was only average.

Of course, you have to end with a dim sum classic, Chinese Egg Tarts! I love these, and have even tried making my own, although I must admit that the restaurant ones were much better (probably because they use lard for the crust!)!

Overall Thoughts
Having had Chinese food in both LA and all throughout Asia, Bryan and I both still agree that Boston is not yet up to par as these other places when it comes to Chinese food. Nevertheless, I think the food at Hei La Moon is very good, and it's probably one of the best, if not the best, dim sum place in Boston. The experience is totally authentic. They have the huge round tables (which means you might share a table with strangers), great cart action, really good food, and the festive atmosphere of a true dim sum restaurant. I was surprised that I did not see some dishes that I typically see (e.g., fried taro balls, turnip cake) but I think it's because we arrived a bit later (1:30PM) and dim sum was winding down by then. It's best to go early, like around 11AM, to really see the action!

If you've never had dim sum before, I would highly recommend trying it. It's a really unique and fun experience, and I think Hei La Moon is a great choice!

Prices & Parking
At the beginning of the meal you receive a sheet of paper that waitresses stamps every time they give you food off of the cart. Prices were quite reasonable. I think we paid $12 a person total (including tax and tip) for the meal shown in this post (6 people for all that food). There is parking in a garage right above the building. You pay in full first ($11) and then you pay Hei La Moon $6 to get it validated. You then bring the ticket back to the garage attendant for a full refund. The parking garage is a little confusing. There are a lot of tandem spots. You can park in them as long as you give your car key to the attendant.

There is also a pretty good Chinese supermarket, C-Mart, attached to the same building. It's great to go there after lunch because you have validated parking already!

Hei La Moon
Chinatown
88 Beach St
Boston, MA 02111

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Teflon Pan Giveaway
By the way, it's still not too late to enter the Teflon Pan Giveaway. This is a 10-inch Tramontina nonstick pan with Teflon Platinum technology, which can withstand use with metal utensils! Drawing will occur at Thursday, April 22, 2010 at midnight. Good luck!

April 21, 2010 Vegetables

Oven Baked Taro Chips

If you haven't noticed by now, I've been having tons of fun making all sorts of chips in the oven. From simple oven baked sweet potato chips to more exotic kale chips and sunchoke chips, I'm starting to think there's no limit to what you can bake as chips!

I happened to be Chinatown this past weekend, so I stopped by the Asian grocery store. I love taro in so many things, so it was not hard to decide to pick one up. Of course, deciding to make chips took no stretch of the imagination. Unlike sunchoke chips (which I just sort of made up off the top of my head), taro chips are actually marketed and sold. Those chips are fried though, so maybe there's some novelty to this recipe?

In any event, these chips are crunchy with a mild distinctive taro flavor. Sprinkle a tiny bit of salt on top, and you won't be able to stop eating them.

Here's a picture of a taro root (in case you don't know what one looks like). You have to peel off the outer, rough skin before slicing it. I used a Mandolin slicer to make nice, even, thin slices.

Spray with a vegetable oil mister and lay across in a single layer on a pan. I used a toaster oven, so I could only make a few chips at a time.

Bake at 400 degrees. They will begin to curl up, and will eventually brown on the edges.

Oven Baked Taro Chips
1 Taro root
vegetable oil spray
salt
Mandolin slicer (optional, but very helpful!)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Using a peeler, remove the rough outer surface of the taro root. Using a mandolin slicer (or a cleaver), slice the taro into very thin and even slices. Spray both sides of each slice with an oil mister. Bake for about 20 minutes (or until the chips turn golden brown). Let cool, and enjoy!

Notes: I made this in a toaster oven. Ovens vary, and the thickness of your slices will vary as well, so use the time as a guide, but definitely keep an eye on the chips. Otherwise, they will turn black!

It's best to bake similar sized "chips" together, as they will have similar cooking times. Otherwise, it will be a pain to take some chips out but leave others in there because they are not done. The window of opportunity between not-quite-done chips and burnt chips is only about 5 minutes, so definitely keep an eye on those chips!

Enjoy!

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Teflon Pan Giveaway
By the way, it's still not too late to enter the Teflon Pan Giveaway. This is a 10-inch Tramontina nonstick pan with Teflon Platinum technology, which can withstand use with metal utensils! Drawing will occur at Thursday, April 22 at midnight. Good luck!

April 20, 2010 Japanese

Tamagoyaki (Japanese Omelet) + Giveaway!

I love sushi, and those who know me know that I typically shun most "cooked" sushi, opting instead for beautiful cuts of raw fish. There are a few exceptions that I make, and tamagoyaki is one of them. For some reason, I love the simple, slightly sweet, slightly savory taste of this Japanese omelet.

In Japan, they sell square pans for making these omelets. I wondered whether I could make it at home with a normal non-stick pan. Coincidentally, the folks at Teflon contacted me and asked whether I would like to test out one of their new non-stick pans. According to the Teflon spokesperson, Teflon has been doing a lot of research the past few years, and the new coating is much more durable and will not flake off over time, unlike the previous generation of pans. This particular pan is made with Teflon Platinum, Teflon's most scratch resistant coating to date. There is an added midcoat technology that protects the surface from being scratched. You can actually use metal utensils on these pans! Better yet, they offered to give one away to a lucky Tiny Urban Kitchen reader (details at the end of the post).

Of course, since my own non-stick pans did not really work anymore (they stick dismally to eggs!), I agreed to test this pan and also conduct a giveaway. What a great way to try out my tamagoyaki recipe at home!

Most tamagoyaki recipes will tell you to put a thin layer of oil on the pan to prevent the egg from sticking. Since I was testing this pan, I thought I would put it to the rigorous test of making eggs without any oil at all.

Overall, it worked beautifully. I did not use a drop of oil, and I was able to make a pretty nice omelet. I did need to use the spatula at the edges to start the whole thing off. Once I had my roll started, however, the rest was pretty easy. The pan was also easy to clean. I used a soapy sponge and easily washed off any remaining egg bits.

Tamagoyaki
Adapted from Just Hungry

Ingredients

4 eggs

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tsp. mirin

¼ tsp. salt

½ tsp. soy sauce

Using a fork, lightly beat eggs, sugar, mirin, salt, and soy sauce together in a bowl. Avoid using a whisk because you want to minimize bubble formation. Heat non-stick pan to medium low heat and add a few tablespoons of eggs - just enough to make a thin layer in the pan. Wait until the egg is mostly set and not runny (~ 5 min). Using a chopstick and/or a spatula, slowly roll the egg mixture onto one side of the pan. Add a few more tablespoons of egg mixture, letting the egg run underneath the egg roll and wait for it to set. Repeat by rolling the egg roll back, forming a bigger roll. Continue going back and forth until you use up the egg mixture (about 3 times).

Place the egg roll inside a damp bamboo sushi roller. Wrap the roller around the egg and tighten/squeeze the egg "roll." You can either keep it rolled up rested on a bowl to let cool, or slice and serve right away.

Note: This tamagoyaki is a little less sweet than what you might find in a restaurant. Feel free to add a bit more sugar if you like your eggs sweet.

Presentation Ideas

The traditional way to eat tamagoyaki is to put it on top of sushi rice and "tie" it together with a thin strip of nori (black dried seaweed). But there are lots of different ways of enjoying this versatile omelet.

Serve as an appetizer!

Or as part of a healthy bento lunch!

Giveaway
The folks at Teflon were kind enough to let me conduct a Giveaway as part of this post. This is a 10-inch nonstick Tramontina pan coated with Teflon Platinum technology (the one that can take metal utensils!). It's perfect for making tamagoyaki without any oil. To enter this giveaway, please leave a comment telling me your favorite egg dish and how you like to prepare it. For extra entries, please subscribe via RSS or become a fan on facebook. Please leave a separate comment for each of these entries.

Teflon Pans / Nonstick Pans

There's been a lot of debate about whether nonstick pans coated with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), branded as Teflon by Dupont, are safe. PTFE itself is inert and nontoxic. However, at higher temperatures (starting at 260 °C / 500 °F), PTFE begins to decompose and will release certain fumes.. Some of these by-products are carcinogenic. The fumes can also cause polymer-fume fever (temporary flu-like symptoms) in humans and can kill birds. Studies have shown that a lightweight, empty pan on a burner set to "high" can easily reach temperatures over 500 °F. However, eggs cooked at medium heat will only reach temperatures of around 104°C / 220 °F.

The other concern about PTFE was the presence of trace amounts of PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) that came as a result of the manufacturing process. The jury's still out on the safety of PFOA, although evidence points to the fact that it might have some negative health risks. More recent studies have shown that hardly any PFOA is detected when a nonstick pan is heated, thus reducing earlier fears about this byproduct.

In short, Teflon coated pans are safe to use as long as you use them properly. Most importantly, don't ever heat an empty pan (or even a pan with just oil in it) on high! I plan on keeping my pan mostly for making eggs and other low-heat dishes.

Disclaimer
Time to time I receive free products from vendors to review. I do not receive any payment for these posts/reviews. The views expressed in the posts are completely my own. For this post, I received one non-stick pan from Teflon to review and another for a giveaway.

April 19, 2010 Boston

Olives

The other day Bryan and I were chatting and wondering who was the most famous chef in Boston. Boston has no shortage of local celebrity chefs, but we really wondered how many of them would be nationally recognized. We threw around a few names. Ming Tsai. Ken Oringer. Joanne Chang. Todd English. Or maybe Jody Adam and Ana Sortum, contestants in most recent Top Chef Masters.

After only a few minutes, we decided it was a toss up between Ming Tsai and Todd English.

Todd English has had questionable press lately. Between the tabloids pouncing on his failed engagement to foodies accusing him of being a sellout, things have not been the most pleasant for this once extremely popular and well-respected chef.

We wondered how true the rumors were about his once acclaimed restaurant - the one that brought him to fame. Is it really past its heyday? Is the food still as amazing as it once was?

Todd English opened Olives back in 1989 with his then wife, Olivia (yes, the restaurant was named after her). It quickly became locally recognized as the best new restaurant, and soon, lines were forming outside of this place. It was impossible to get into this restaurant. One critic said it took him a year to score a spot. Some will even venture to say that Todd English brought a new level of dining to Boston, and that before English, food in Boston was pretty boring New England fare. Same old scrod, lobster, chowder, and the like.

Twenty years later: Many more interesting restaurants have hopped onto the Boston dining scene, yet Olives still survives. So it must be doing something right . . . right?

Olives, tapenade, and olive oil

As we entered Olives, I was really not sure what to expect. I had perused some review sites online, only to find very, very mixed reviews. Some loved the food, while others were sorely disappointed. We had tried the Olives in Vegas for lunch, and we had enjoyed it a lot, but had never dined at the original Boston location.

Carpetbagger Oysters
Crispy Wellfleet oysters, beef carpaccio, truffle aioli...$15.00
The waitress recommended this dish, and I can totally see why - it was REALLY good! Imagine an empty oyster shell filled with a base of truffle mashed potatoes, then a deep fried oyster, topped with beef carpaccio drizzled with truffle aioli and some sea salt. It was absolutely delicious, and the presentation was pretty dramatic too. They are sitting on salt!

Yellowfin Tuna Tartare
Spun cucumber salad, crispy rock shrimp, whitefish caviar, warm sesame dressing ...$16.75
The appetizer had a nice mix of flavors and textures. It was nowhere near as good as the tuna tartare from Market by Jean-Georges (which actually only costs $14 at lunch), but it's not bad. The soft tartare, crunchy fried shrimp, and the cool cucumber work nicely together. I personally thought there was a bit too much sesame oil, which made the dish a bit greasy. I was also disappointed in the quality of the tuna, which by itself had little flavor. Nevertheless, it was a decent dish and reasonably enjoyable overall.

Agnolotti
Asparagus, peas, pea shoots, guanciale, and parmesan cream sauce ~ $22
The agnolottis were filled with a mashed potato of sorts, which was mildly interesting. The guanciale (cured pork cheeks, sort of like bacon) added a nice smokiness to the dish. The parmesan sauce was fine, although nothing particularly exciting. I would say most dishes in North End would beat this any day.

Slow Braised Smoked Beef Short Rib
Blue cheese mashed, broccoli rabe & oven dried tomatoes ...$32.50
This was really really good. I really think Bryan scored much better than I did at this dinner. These short ribs were truly fall-off-the-bone-melt-in-your-mouth soft. Apparently they have been stewed for over 24 hours. We both agreed this was much better than the short ribs we had at Tom Coliccio's Craft Steak in Las Vegas. Beautiful flavors, rich sauce, amazingly soft meat - truly an excellent dish.

We really really enjoyed this! We got an assortment of cookies & ice cream for $16. Red velvet whoopie pie, two types of chocolate chip cookies, a snickerdoodle, and a ginger molasses cookie. There's also a chocolate cupcake and three types of ice cream (vanilla, caramel, and chocolate). The cookies were really good! Of course we could not finish, so we took home about half.

Concluding Thoughts
So is this a foodie paradise? Probably not, but the food is solidly prepared, with some real standouts. The prices are on the high side, (and there are probably better places in this price range), but you can definitely have a very enjoyable evening here. In fact, it will be much more enjoyable if you're not paying for the meal. I would definitely recommend asking your server which dishes are the best - Bryan did that, and he scored. I just picked stuff off the menu myself, and I was slightly disappointed with both of my dishes.

Todd English acknowledges that foodies are not his target audience. He's "aiming for the (upscale) masses, . . for the people who'd otherwise be eating at the Cheesecake Factory or McCormick & Schmick's." In that regard, this place goes above and beyond those types of restaurants. I'm mixed on whether I would consider it a destination restaurant - maybe not - though it might be worth visiting for the shortribs and the oysters (yum!).

Plus, Charlestown is really really quaint and cute, so it's totally worth visiting if you've never been there before. In fact, the Freedom Trail passes through it and basically leads right up to Olives. So, if you are walking the Freedom Trail, you could always stop by here for a meal.

Olives
10 City Sq
Boston, MA 02129

April 16, 2010 Michelin

Per Se

It's an oasis at the top of the Time Warner building. Down below, it's chaotic. Yellow taxis circle frantically around Columbus Circle dropping off harried guests. Pedestrians with a purpose walk quickly toward their destinations, while cars honk their horns impatiently.

It sort of looks like this.

But up here, it's quiet, relaxing, and sort of zen, almost.
Per Se
Welcome to Per Se, Thomas Keller's flagship restaurant in New York. After having tried his West Coast flagship restaurant a month ago, we were curious what his other establishment would be like. In many ways, the two restaurants are like night and day: east coast versus west coast; rustic cottage versus urban skyscraper; backyard vegetable garden versus international import hub.

And yet there are obvious similarities as well: impossible reservations, unique spaces, fresh and inventive high dining, three Michelin stars apiece, and, of course, one renowned chef.

For this meal, we did something a little different. I ordered the Tasting of Vegetables, while Bryan got the classic Chef's Tasting. Accordingly, there will be double the pictures compared to normal. Please join my as I take you on a photo journey of our exquisite meal at Per Se.

Let me start with the space. The dining space is airy, modern, and overlooks Columbus Circle. Though nowhere as intimate as eating in a rustic farmhouse, it was still very relaxing and enjoyable. There's really no bad seat in the house.

Here's another view from our table.

Salmon Coronets
Of course, we started with the classic salmon cornet (also served at The French Laundry). The Tasting of Vegetables came with a special beet coronet, which I thought was very cool. I love beets, and this was no excpetion. It was delicious. I mean, they are both delicious, and if pressed I'm still not sure which one I would choose as a favorite. How about both? 😉

Oysters and Pearls
"Sabayon" of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek Oysters and Sterling White Sturgeon Caviar
The oysters and pearls is another classic Thomas Keller dish, and also served at both restaurants. Served with a mother-of-pearl spoon, this dish is beautifully decadent and has been perfectly executed both times we've tried it.

Coddled Square Hill Farm's Ameraucana Hen Egg

cauliflower florets, mint, citrus, gelee

Asperge en feuille de Bric
Cherry Belle Radishes and Miner’s Lettuce with Black Winter Truffle Mayonnaise
Aren't those ribbons beautiful? The perfectly fried spears came with a beautiful black truffle mayonnaise.

Edamame puree, beets, fish, pea tendrils

White Fish (?)

eggplant, pea tendrils, English peas, toasted almonds with madras curry "nuage"

I believe this course is actually one of Bryan's courses. Unfortunately, Per Se does not give you a copy of your tasting menu at the end of the meal (unlike The French Laundry), so I'm having a bit of trouble reconstructing our entire meal. Bear with me!

Cipollini Onion Ragout madras curry, flowers

I loved this dish, the second course in my vegetable tasting. The onions are richly full of flavor after having been cooked for a really long time. They were nicely caramelized, wonderfully earthy and sweet. The madras curry added a beautiful richness to the dish. Even Bryan liked it, even though he typically does not like Indian spices.

Butter Poached Nova Scotia Lobster Mitts

creamed romaine lettuce, trumpet mushroom, caramelized cipollini onion rings with applewood smoked bacon vinaigrette

We were surprised how strongly we could taste the romaine lettuce in the bright green sauce. It was so unexpected, surprisingly, and delightfully delicious.

Gnocchi Parisienne Aux Noisette Grillees

cilantro, frisee, heirloom carrots with brown butter emulsion

Unlike traditional gnocchi, this gnocchi was small, dense, and grilled (and thus slightly charred - yum! you know how I loved pan fried gnocchi!). The flavors were delicious, and I loved the mix of textures from the raw vegetables and the cooked gnocchi.

Sauteed Filet of Line Caught Stripe Bass

Sacramento Delta Green Asparagus, Garden Mache with Sauce "Bordelaise"

Homemade Egg Pasta Sheets with a roasted red pepper sauce and cheese.
This dish was creatively assembled and beautiful to look at. Flavor-wise it was good, although I actually think it does not necessarily beat some of the best pasta dishes I've had at the North End in Boston!

"Fricassee" of Liberty Farm's Peking Duck
Fava Beans, Cherry Belle Radishes and Heirloom Carrots with "Sauce Perigueux"

Marscapone Enriched Yukon Gold Potato Agnolotti
Split peas, pea tendrils and parmesan cream with Black Winter Truffle
I loved the little delicate agnolottis filled with bits of cheese and potato.

Elysian Fields Farm's Carre D'agneau Roti Entier
Gnocchi a la Romana, violet artichokes, garlic confit, olives, cilantro shoots with lamb jus

This was delicious, although Bryan said that the beef he had at The French Laundry was better than this lamb.

Fromage D'affinois
Hakurei turnips, field rhubarb, and mizuna leaves with spiced streusel
This is the cheese course, complete with cute little turnips!

Here's another look at those Hakurei turnips. Aren't they cute?

Pineapple Sorbet
Lime macaron, compressed golden pineapple, papaya, and Persian lime salt
This dessert was enjoyable, although not particularly memorable.

Guava Sorbet
Black sesame nougatine and Kiwano Melon with Whipped green tea
I actually liked Bryan's guava sorbet better. It had such a beautiful intense guava flavor. Of course, guava is also one of my favorite fruits, so I may be just a bit biased.

Glace a la Vanille
Coconut water, champagne mango, coconut sugar wafers
This was my second dessert, and quite refreshing.

"Swiss roll"
Chocolate "roulade" Manjara chocolate "cremeux" chocolate covered banana with glace a la creme fraiche
They accidentally brought us the wrong dessert (Bryan had ordered the Lemon Gingersnap below), so we ended up getting to try both. Although we liked both, we both agreed the Lemon Gingersnap was better.

"Lemon Gingersnaps"
Jamaican Gingerbread and Meyer Lemon "Marshmallow" with "Pain d'Epices" Ice Cream

And after dessert, more random things kept coming, like this creme brulee for Bryan!

And a panna cotta for me (nice and lighter!) We were so full at that point!

Finally, an assortment of miganardises.

I chose four.

And it's not over yet! Then they bring tins and tins of after-dinner candies. We enjoyed the chocolate dusted hazelnuts, but they were not nearly as amazing as the chocolate dusted macadamia nuts from The French Laundry.

Take Away Butter Cookies. These are very similar to those at The French Laundry, except the ribbon is brown instead of blue.

Kitchen Visit
Unlike at The French Laundry, where the waiter invite us to see the kitchen, I had to ask our server whether we could see it. The manager then took us on a brief tour.

By the time we entered, they were cleaning up, since lunch was basically over.

We saw the TV that displays a live feed from The French Laundry kitchen. Of course, lunch was just getting way in Napa Valley, since they are three hours later.

Concluding Thoughts
The food was excellent here - well executed and thoughtfully created. It's probably clear by now (if you've actually read the entire post), but we both liked The French Laundry slightly better. Both are excellent, but we definitely felt that the The French Laundry took extra care to make sure we had a really unique and special night. We really felt pampered. Little things, like inviting us to the kitchen, or giving us a print out of the menu at the end, made the evening that much more special.

In spite of all that, Per Se makes phenomenal food, and it was still a very very enjoyable experience. The space is lovely, the food is exquisite, and service is excellent. After a frustratingly slow dinner at Morimoto the night before, this was really a relaxing breath of fresh air.

We chilled, looked out over Manhattan, and just had a great time.

* * * * *
A Few Notes
The tasting menu costs $275 per person (including gratuity & taxes). This is $25 more than The French Laundry. Of course wine is not included, although I don't think they charged us for other drinks (e.g. coffee and sparkling water). On Sundays only they offer a 5-course brunch tasting for "only" $175. We went on Sunday, and it seemed like not all the tables were filled. Might not be a bad time to try getting a reservation!

Other posts in this Big Apple Series
Morimoto
Joe's Shanghai
Waldorf Astoria
Smorgas Chef

Per Se
10 Columbus Cir Fl 4
New York, NY 10019

April 15, 2010 California

Morimoto

Masaharu Morimoto.

An original Iron Chef from the hit Japanese show. Trained in Hiroshima, both as a sushi chef and also as a kaiseki expert (fancy Japanese multi-course set menu experience). Worked as the head chef at Nobu before opening his own restaurant, Morimoto, in Philadelphia in 2001. And in 2006, opened a second one in New York, right in the Chelsea Market building (which, by the way, is a destination in and of itself for any food enthusiast who loves to explore interesting food markets).

Of course, we opted for the omakase ($120), the best way to experience this Iron Chef's creative energy.

Upstairs you have the massive sushi bar that wraps around on three sides. Sushi is flown in four times a week from Tsukiji Fish Market, the largest fish market in Tokyo.

Downstairs you have the cool swanky bar. At 7pm (which is when we arrived) the bar was relatively empty. Within an hour or so, the place was bustling, crowded, full of people chilling on a Saturday night.

Morimoto has partnered with Rogue Ales in Oregon to produce a line of beers. This hazelnut beer was actually really good!

The Omakase (Chef's Tasting Menu)
You'll have to forgive me for not knowing the names of everything I had. As this is a chef's tasting menu, nothing is written down. I'm basing this from memory, which is shady at best.

Enjoy!

We started out with a beautiful toro tartare and osetra caviar creatively spread out inside a small, flat wooden box. On the bottom, several sauces with which to experiment: wasabi, sour cream, nori paste, chives, avocado, and natto? (I can't remember the last one). I love toro, and therefore it was not difficult to absolutely love this starter.

Whitefish carpaccio tossed in a light, soy-sauce based vinaigrette.

Yellowtail Pastrami with almond foam and microgreens.

House-smoked Salmon "ravioli" with salmon roe, Japanese sweet yams, and yuzu foam (I got this one).

Kumamoto oysters and fois gras and uni (sea urchin) (Bryan got this one). This dish was amazing and had a beautiful mix of flavors. Both Bryan and I agreed that this dish tasted a lot better than my smoked salmon ravioli.

Assorted Sushi: I actually thought the sushi was only OK. It might be because I did not love the particular pieces they brought out. Personally, I much prefer the sushi both at Sushi Yasuda and Kyubei.

Free random appetizer The service was actually really slow the night we went - we were there for over three hours, and we only had 7 courses. That translates to ½ hour a course! At the end of our meal, the waitress even admitted that the kitchen was a bit "off" that night. The above dish is something I think we got by mistake. It's just a little appetizer of mushrooms and cooked fish. I actually thought it was pretty average (the fish was really hard - like overcooked swordfish!). Oh well, it was free, I guess, but it lowered my opinion of the kitchen just a notch.

Bryan's main course was pretty good. Bryan got the "Surf and Turf" - Kobe beef and lobster. This is actual Kobe beef (not wagyu) from Japan. Bryan thought that everything was perfectly cooked. Of course, how can you go wrong with Kobe? (Kobe is an optional add-on to the normal omakase and costs extra. Typically, it comes with normal beef)

I asked for something lighter for my main course (I really did not feel like eating steak), and they gave me this Ishi yaki buri bop (yellowtail bi bim bop) cooked tableside in a hot stone bowl. When the dish first arrived I was really excited because of the beautiful raw slices of yellowtail (see top left picture). Then the waiter started stirring everything around in the super hot stone bowl (top right). Internally I kept thinking "Nooooo!!! Don't cook the fish!" Alas, he finished mixing and presented my final dish to me (bottom). **Sigh** the beautiful yellowtail was now clearly cooked all the way through. The dish was still enjoyable, but I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more had the fish been raw.

We both ended with a nice, triple chocolate dessert. I remember liking it, although I can't remember any particular details about it except that I enjoyed the interplay of textures between the creamy cold ice cream (or sorbet?) and the crunchy cookie below.

Overall thoughts?
Overall, Morimoto is worth visiting, at least once. The space, which cost $12 million to build, is a sight in itself. The food is inventive, beautifully presented, and, for the most part, pretty enjoyable - there are definitely some standout dishes. There's no doubt that the seafood is fresh and top notch. I loved the raw fish portions of the tasting menu. My favorites? The toro tartare, the yellowtail pastrami, and the oyster and fois gras (amazing!). It's not all perfect, though. As I mentioned earlier, the timing of the kitchen was pretty off, and we often waited long stretches between courses. Also, some of the dishes, such as the ravioli and the mushroom/fish appetizer, were quite average. Honestly, if you only have a few days in New York, there are probably a lot of other places I would pick over this one. If I came back, I would likely skip the omakase and just order the dishes that I think I would love (e.g, raw fish appetizers like my first three courses!)

Other posts in this Big Apple Series
Per Se
Morimoto
Joe's Shanghai
Waldorf Astoria
Smorgas Chef

Morimoto
Chelsea
88 10th Ave
New York, NY 10011

April 14, 2010 New York

Waldorf Astoria

The Waldorf Astoria hotel is one of the most famous and well known hotels in Manhattan. This luxury hotel sits right on Park Avenue in Midtown, and is rich full of history. When in opened in its current location in 1931, it became the tallest building in New York. The famous Waldorf salad was invented at the original hotel back in 1896 by Oscar Tschirky, the maître d'hôtel (dining room manager). This simple salad, which at the time only consisted of apple, celery and mayonnaise, became a huge hit. It has transformed over time, and now typically contains walnuts as well.

Countless celebrities and dignitaries have stayed or lived at the Waldorf Astoria. In fact, every U.S. president since Herbert Hoover has either stayed in or lived at the Waldorf's towers. The presidential suite currently goes for $7000 a night. This one-of-a-kind suite is filled with items donated by past presidents - everything from Kennedy's rocking chair to Regan's gold oval mirror. Can you imagine what it must be like to stay in that room?

Well, we didn't stay in that room, but we did actually get to stay at the Waldorf Astoria. I had a wonderful privilege of attending a work event hosted at the Waldorf Astoria a few weeks back. It was a great opportunity to explore and experience this historically rich hotel.

The Judge's Dinner is a huge event, but the Waldorf Astoria is a huge hotel and has a beautiful ballroom capable of hosting such events. For the dinner, we sat in one of the upper levels overlooking the center stage, similar to the people you see in the photos on the lower ledge.

Esteemed judges sat in the front as Mario Cuomo, the 52nd Governor of New York State, gave a speech.

The food was only OK - I guess it's hard to feed thousands of people at once and make spectacular food. Though I was a little shocked that all the desserts had a piece of gold on top. I mean, how much gold did they have to use to feed so many thousands of people? Must have been several grams or maybe even kilograms!

The Waldorf Astoria does hold a spectacular Sunday brunch for $100 per person (yikes!). Although we did not actually try the brunch, Bryan managed to snap a few photos of it while I was checking out of the hotel.

Look at all those tiny cups full of fruits, salads, and other interesting dishes. I bet they have Waldorf Salad!

And my favorite, the ginormous chocolate fountain.

I guess it's not every day you get to go to a black tie event at the Waldorf Astoria, so we had fun with it. I even went and got my hair done. I'm pretty sure the last time I did that was at my wedding, which is too many years ago!

Other posts in this Big Apple Series
Per Se
Morimoto
Joe's Shanghai
Smorgas Chef

April 13, 2010 New York

Joe's Shanghai

In Nanxiang, China over a century ago, legend says the soup dumpling made its humble entrance into the world. Next to a famous garden on the outskirts of Shanghai, a man started selling these precious soup-filled pouches in his shop. Called a "xiao long bao" (which literally translates to little steamer buns), this unique soup dumpling caught on and soon found its way to downtown Shanghai. In the past several decades, it has spread around the world.

This fervor reached Taiwan, which still houses my favorite soup dumpling place in the world. It also made its way to America (lucky for us!). And thankfully, finally, it came to the East coast. In the mid-nineties, the xiao long bao craze took off in New York, culminating in the opening of Joe's Shanghai in 1995.

This place quickly had a cult following, and it's easy to see why. Their soup dumplings are very authentic, filled with hot, satisfying soup housed in delicate, thin, yet chewy skins.

Bryan and I had a chance to visit this iconic establishment during our last trip to New York for a quick, Saturday lunch.

The original Joe's Shanghai is in Flushing (which, by the way, is an aboslute mecca for Taiwanese dining if you ever get a chance to go there!), but several more have opened up in places like Chinatown and Midtown. It's been said that the one in Chinatown is better than the one in Midtown. Though we would have loved to trek down to Chinatown, we were staying in Midtown and didn't have much time, so we walked the few convenient blocks to 56th street to try this outpost.

Crab and Pork Xiao Long Bao - $6.65
This is their most famous dish, and definitely the one that made them famous - a must-get if you come here. The dumplings are juicy and flavorful, and the skin is good. I still much prefer the xiao long baos at Din Tai Fung, but these are probably among the best dumplings you'll get in the East Coast. It definitely beats the soup dumplings in Boston.

Pork pan-fried dumplings. $4.65
These were solid, with a chewy skin and a flavorful filling. Not being a huge meat person, I couldn't help but wish there were more vegetables inside, sort of like my favorite dumplings at Din Tai Fung. Of course, that is a matter of personal preference. I also wished the skin was a bit thinner - again, a matter of personal preference.

Here's a closer view . . .

We asked the waiter if he had any suggestions for a noodle dish, and he suggested this pan-fried seafood noodle. I'd say pass on this and stick with the dumplings. It was alright, but probably similar to what I can get an a normal Chinese restaurant. I will say that the noodles were reasonably chewy, which is always nice.

Overall, the food was good, and this is definitely a solid and safe choice for excellent soup dumplings. After having tried (what I think is) the best dumpling in the world, it's hard not to be just a bit disappointed every time I try a soup dumpling elsewhere. I'm curious whether the one in Chinatown or Flushing is significantly better than this Midtown one. Anyone have thoughts on this? Please comment!

In any event, you should definitely come and try some soup dumplings, especially if you have never tried one before. Just be careful - the soup can be hot! Oh, and it's totally OK to slurp. 😉

Other posts in this Big Apple Series
Per Se
Morimoto
Waldorf Astoria
Smorgas Chef

Joe's Shanghai
Midtown
24 W 56th St
New York, NY 10019

April 11, 2010 New York

Smorgas Chef at Scandinavia House

New York City is one of my favorite places to visit. One reason I love New York is its diversity of restaurants. You can probably eat the world in New York City, and most of it will probably be pretty authentic. On this particular short weekend jaunt, I was able to "travel" to Sweden, Japan, China, and France.

First Stop: "Scandinavia"
I had the privilege again of meeting up with several New York food bloggers for a pleasant lunch in midtown. Andrea of High Low Food Drink was kind enough to make a reservation here for the rest of our party, Christine from Fresh, Local, and Best, Jessica from Food Mayhem, and a few non-food bloggers (Frank and Bryan).

Let me just start out by saying that my exposure to Scandinavian food is pretty rudimentary. Sure, I've made gravlax before, and I once tried some meatballs at IKEA. Other than that, unfortunately, my knowledge of Scandinavian food is embarrassingly nil.

NORWEGIAN SMOKED SALMON
Chive scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, and sour cream on 8-grain bread $11

Smorgas Chef was a great introduction to this type of food. The prices are very reasonable ($14.95 for a three-course lunch special); the space is bright, funky, and fun; and it's situated in a museum! The Scandinavia House, a cultural center for Scandinavian countries, is a great place to explore and learn a bit more about Scandinavian culture.

But let's get on with the food first!

Homemade Sparkling Lingonberry Soda 3.50
I loved my sparkling Lingonberry soda, which was nicely fizzy but not too sweet.

BABY GREENS
White balsamic vinaigrette $6
Although simple, this salad was perfectly made. The greens were fresh and crunchy, the amount of salad dressing was just right, and the flavors were refreshing - exactly what I wanted. It did not taste particularly "Scandinavian" to me, but then, maybe I don't really know what Scandinavian salad is supposed to taste like . . .

SMÖRGÅS SEAFOOD CHOWDER
Mussels, salmon, cod, shrimp $7
Bryan got the soup and thought it was pretty good - a light, creamy soup filled with various types of seafood.

HOUSE-CURED GRAVLAKS CLUB
Avocado, romaine, tomato, bacon, spicy tartar sauce, 8-grain bread $14
I got the gravlax club, which I thought was pretty good, although nothing particularly exciting. The salmon was fresh, and the combination of flavors was nice. To be honest, it felt too American to me (it's a club sandwich, after all), and I was enviously eying some of the other dishes that seemed more "authentic."

SMÖRGÅS BOARD
House-cured gravlaks, pickled herring, Swedish meatballs, traditional accompaniments $15
Jessica got this dish, and thought it was only OK (that salmon looks delicious to me though!)

HERRING SAMPLER
Four of our herring varieties, lefse potato wrap, potato salad $12
Andrea got this dish, and thought it offered an "authentic pickled herring experience" that someone who likes sour, vinegary flavors would enjoy.

SWEDISH MEATBALLS & LINGONBERRIES
Chive mashed potatoes, zucchini, carrots, grädd sauce $14
Christine quite enjoyed the sauce that accompanied the delicious, tender meatballs, thinking that this dish was overall comforting and hearty.

Here they are, snapping away . . .

It's always fun to get together with food bloggers. We naturally already have a few things in common (we write, we photograph our food, and we LOVE TO EAT!) so of course it's easy to hit it off right away.

Thanks gals for meeting up with me!

P.S. So many people guessed that the Scandinavian restaurant I had visited was Aquavit that I'm really curious to try that restaurant next time!

Other posts in this Big Apple Series
Per Se
Morimoto
Joe's Shanghai
Waldorf Astoria

Smorgas Chef
58 Park Ave
New York, NY 10016

April 9, 2010 New York

The Big Apple

I always love going to New York City. There are countless great museums, amazing shopping, wonderful neighborhoods, and of course, the food! I had a great opportunity a few weeks back to visit one of my favorite cities again, this time for a work event. Bryan and I decided to stay the weekend to soak in just a bit more of what the city has to offer.

Here's a sneak peek at some of the posts you will be seeing next week as part of this Big Apple mini-Series.

The Waldorf Astoria Hotel - full of history, old world elegance, and beauty.

A fun lunch in a unique Scandinavian restaurant with New York food bloggers!

Some say these are the best soup dumplings in Chinatown.

An omakase at the original Iron Chef's restaurant.

Does this look familiar? We visited the New York flagship restaurant of this renowned chef.

Stay tuned as I go into detail next week about our experiences at some of these amazing dining establishments. Can you guess where I went?

[Update: Posts in this series]
Other posts in this Big Apple Series
Per Se
Morimoto
Joe's Shanghai
Waldorf Astoria
Smorgas Chef

April 7, 2010 Recipe

Meyer Lemons

You'd have to be in a food blog coma if you haven't read at least one blog post about the Meyer lemon. Before I started this food blogging thing, I had never heard of this lemon before. However, this past winter, it seemed like every other post was about the Meyer lemon. People were making all sorts of dishes out of Meyer lemons: cakes, pies, chicken, ice cream, lemon curd . . . the list goes on and on.

I was really intrigued. What is a Meyer Lemon? And what makes it so special?

The Meyer lemon originated from China, and is actually a cross between a regular lemon and a Mandarin orange! For years it was used mostly as a decorative houseplant because of its pretty fruit. It wasn't really recognized as a food item until the early 1900's when Frank Meyer, an American agricultural explorer sent by the US government to seek out new plant species, brought some samples to the US. Since then, people like Alice Waters and Martha Stewart have made this fruit really popular in America.

The color difference between a Meyer lemon and a regular lemon is striking. In the picture below, I have laid Meyer lemon slices next to normal lemon slices. Note how the Meyer lemon is almost orange in color while the normal lemon is a pale yellow.

The Meyer lemon is much less tart and has a light sweetness that must come from the Mandarin side of the family. Its flavor is much more floral and less astringent, and is quite enjoyable on its own (the regular lemon is much more tart!). The skin of a Meyer lemon is much thinner, much less pithy than a regular lemon's rind. In fact, some say you can eat the rind, although I have not tried that yet.

You can substitute the Meyer lemon for regular lemons in most recipes, as long as you keep in mind that the Meyer lemon is less tart, slightly sweeter, and has a more floral and complex flavor.

Here's a lovely salad I have been enjoying as part of my "detox" diet for the last few days. After two weekends in a row of traveling to both NYC and DC (more on my dining experiences there soon!) I really needed to clean out some of those rich foods from my system!

Arugula Salad with Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette

This salad uses the Meyer lemon as the base for the vinaigrette. The rest of the ingredients are very flexible. In fact, I have been varying up the ingredients a bit each day. One day I might decide to add almonds for crunch, while another day I'll use cucumbers and add a soft-boiled egg (which, by the way, tastes fantastic with a slight drizzle of truffle oil and sea salt!). As a general rule, you just want to chop everything about the same size. It's really pretty flexible, and everything tastes great with the refreshing citrus vinaigrette.

Ingredients

baby arugula

smoked mozarella, quartered and sliced

bacon, cooked until crispy and crumbled

roasted almonds

red bell pepper, chopped

hard boiled eggs, sliced

mini-cucumbers, sliced

Citrus Vinaigrette
I used the citrus vinaigrette recipe from my Thomas Keller citrus marinated salmon with potato blinis and garden greens post. As for modifications, I used a 1:1 ratio of Meyer Lemon juice and regular lemon juice as the "citrus juice." I wanted some tartness (from the regular lemon), but I also wanted the sweeter, more aromatic flavors of the Meyer lemon. I also found that adding just a touch of sea salt really brought out the flavors of the dressing and made the entire salad much more delicious. Of course, you can use regular salt or kosher salt if you don't have sea salt on hand.

Toss the arugula with the citrus vinaigrette. Add in your favorite ingredients, and enjoy! Optionally garnish with pretty slices of lemon. 🙂

April 5, 2010 Boston

The Upper Crust

The secret's in the dough. And they're not telling a soul about it.

My friend likes to play with pizza dough - to the point that she's gotten into the habit of asking for a bit of pizza dough to play with when she goes to pizza restaurants. Bertucci's sells their pizza dough, and will gladly give you a bit to play with.

Guess what? The dough at The Upper Crust is so proprietary they won't let it out of their sight. So my friend wasn't able to even get a sample.

This secret dough results in some pretty tasty pizzas.

Jordan Tobins, the 31-year old founder of this place, spent a year playing around with the ratios of yeast, water, and rising times to figure out the optimal recipe for this pizza dough. What results is a crust that is amazingly thin, crunchy, yet holds its own against the toppings.

Tobins says that the secret is actually in the freshness of the ingredients. "The real key is freshness. The fresher the sauce, the sweeter it is . . . use fresh ingredients and it will taste great every time." Though he was a pre-med student in college, he abandoned that after graduation to pursue a career in the restaurant industry, opening up his first Upper Crust in Beacon Hill in 2001. It was a huge success, and since then he has opened countless more, mostly in the New England area.

My favorite is the Harvard Street, which is essentially like a Margarita pizza, made with fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, basil, and garlic. I love chewing on the crunchy, thin crust.

The Lucky Luciano, which has chorizo sausage, hearts of palm, fresh tomatoes, and scallions, is quite creative and really good as well.

Other pizzas I've tried there that I like include "The Newbury" (a margarita pizza with breaded veal slices on top), "The Uncommon Pizza" (pineapples, bacon, and jalapenos), and the "Slightly Pesto" (pesto, tomatoes, and garlic).

They try to be environmental, and at least in Harvard Square, their delivery guys deliver the pizzas on bicycles! It's hilarious to see these bikes maneuvering around Cambridge with a stack of pizza boxes tied to the back.

Upper Crust pizzas taste fantastic fresh out of the oven. I love going to the restaurant and eating it there. The pizza loses a bit of its magic when delivered, although it's still pretty enjoyable, and still better than any other delivery option I can think of.

The Upper Crust has been expanding quite rapidly in the last year or so. I was pretty thrilled when they opened one up in Harvard Square really close to me this past year. We often get delivery (on bikes!) from them. Prices are on the higher end, with large pizzas costing around $20. A large pizza can comfortably feed three larger eaters and 4 smaller eaters.

Even though some lament the "chainification" of this place (arguing that it has lost some of the quaintness of the original Beacon Hill location), I personally love how it's more accessible now. I definitely go to the one in Lexington on a regular basis, and I've been known to stop by the Beacon Hill one on occasion too if I happen to be in the area and need a quick bite to eat. Of course, since I live in Cambridge, I definitely order from the Cambridge location as well (which is too tiny for sit-down anyway).

They also sell by the slice, which makes it a pretty good place to drop by for a quick lunch or dinner. Several of them have alcohol licenses, so you can even enjoy a glass of wine with your pizza slice. This place has become Bryan's default choice for a quick dinner whenever he's in the Lexington area.

Of course, there are specialty places in Boston that have better pizza (Emma's and Gran Gusto immediately come to mind). However, when it comes to finding a place that's quick, delicious, inventive, and delivers, this place can't be beat.

The Upper Crust (Beacon Hill)
20 Charles St
Boston, MA 02114

The Upper Crust (Lexington)
41 Waltham St
Lexington, MA 02421

The Upper Crust (Harvard Square)
49b Brattle St Harvard Sq
Cambridge, MA 02138

April 4, 2010 Recipe

Homemade Granola

Making homemade granola is so easy, so basic, so flexible, I really am not sure why I'm even posting this "recipe." Well, of course I'm sharing this recipe because this is a food blog, and I love sharing about my food experiments. However, I also have a sneaking suspicious that there are at least some of you out there like me.

Like me in the sense that you love granola - have loved it for YEARS - yet never took the effort to try making it. In my case, I think I never tried it because I thought it would be hard, or maybe I was too lazy to figure it out.

Well, let me tell you. It's uber easy, super cheap, very flexible, and tastes so much better than "supermarket" granola. Better yet, you control what you put in there, and you can ensure that the ingredients are free of preservatives, additives, nuts, and the like.

Making this took me a total of 30 minutes, with only 5 minutes prep time. So easy and so good . . .

Homemade Granola
Prep time: 5 minutes
Bake time: 20-25 minutes
Cool time: 10-15 minutes

Ingredients
2 cups oats
⅓ cup honey
⅓ cup vegetable oil
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
1-2 T brown sugar (optional - if you like it sweeter)

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until all the oats are somewhat wet. The whole mixture should be a bit clumpy and wet. If you like clusters, you can add a tiny splash of water (like 1-2 tsp) to help some of the oats stick together.

Spread out the mixture on a pan and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Halfway through baking, you can stir the granola around. It will smell wonderful as the honey begins to slowly caramelize.

The longer you bake the granola, the darker in color it will become. If you like your granola relatively lightly golden brown, remove it after 20 minutes. It may still seem kind of wet, but don't worry! It will harden as it cools. Definitely take it out before the honey burns (i.e. when "golden brown" has turned into "black"). I learned this the hard way! After 30 minutes in the oven a portion of my oats had turned brown/black! [Although, to be perfectly honest, I really like slightly burnt food, and I actually loved the slightly burnt sugar flavor in these oats. I ended up eating most of the not-yet-completely-burned-bits of this batch . . YUM!]

Let the granola cool. Stir it around a bit - it will dry up nice and crunchy.

Of course, once you've made the basic granola, you can stir in other add-ins like dried fruit, coconut slivers, chocolate chips, etc. I happen to be super picky when it comes to granola, and I actually like mine plain. If you want to add nuts or seeds, you should mix them in with the oats and honey before baking.

Note: this version that I make is not super sweet. If you're used to the sweetness level of Nature Valley or Quaker granola bars, you might think this is not sweet enough. Feel free to add some brown sugar (1-2 T) during the mixing stage at the beginning to sweeten it up.

Low Fat Version: You can easily lower the fat content by reducing the amount of oil. I tried this recipe by reducing the amount of oil to ⅙ cup. The final product definitely tasted lighter, but still very good. If you are dressing up the granola with other additions anyway (e.g., raisins, chocolate chips, etc) it might be perfectly fine to have low fat granola as the base. In my case, since I was eating the granola plain, I could taste the difference that the fat made, and I slightly preferred the normal "fattier" version.

Over all, this is a rather forgiving recipe as long as you make sure you don't bake for too long! You can add a touch of molasses into the honey mixture to change the flavor a bit. To lower the fat content, you can simply reduce the amount of oil you add, or try substituting with apple sauce (note: I have not tried this - just read about it). To reduce the likelihood of burning your granola, you can easily bake at lower temperatures and just increase the baking time. Most importantly, monitor the color of the granola and make sure it doesn't start turning black!

What about you? Have you ever made homemade granola before? If so, I'd love to hear what additional tips you might have to offer.

Nom Nom Nom . . .

April 1, 2010 Davis Square

Dave's Fresh Pasta

We had a freak warm spell a couple weeks ago. It was seventy degrees in Boston and it really felt like the entire city was outside soaking in the sun. Especially after we had all been literally soaked by inches and inches of rain just a few days before.

On days like that I love love love sitting outside and enjoying a relaxing meal.

Two Saturdays ago, I was able to do just that. I sat outside my favorite lunch spot in Davis Square, soaking up the sun, and enjoying great conversation.

So what exactly makes Dave's Fresh Pasta so cool?

First of all, they make good sandwiches. They have a lot of different fresh baked breads and a nice variety of ingredients. I probably still like the sandwiches at Hi Rise Bakery better, but these are cheaper, bigger in size, and still very good.

Check out some of the pre-made sandwiches in their counter!

The sandwich menu is huge, and frankly, a bit overwhelming if it's your first time there. I was surprised at the variety of vegetarian options. I chose a portabella, mozarella, and arugula sandwich, which I asked them to grill for me.

My friend got this beautiful sandwich filled with spinach, grilled onions, and turkey.

My other friend got the muffuletta. I had never heard of this type of sandwich, so I decided to do a bit of internet research. Apparently, muffuletta is actually a type of Sicilian bread, characterized by its large, round shape. A classic muffuletta sandwich is made with an entire muffuletta loaf sliced in half. It's filled with olive salad, cheese (such as provolone and emmentaler), and a variety of cured meats such as capicola (cured pork shoulder or neck), salami (cured sausage), and mortadella (bologna with cubes of pork fat added). Usually they are quite large and sandwich shops will sell slices of them. This one was HUGE!

What's cool about Dave's Fresh Pasta is that it's not only a sandwich shop, it's also a little neighborhood market that carries a lot of fresh produce, wine, cheese, and, of course, fresh homemade pasta!

It was here that I found the delicious, local burrata made by Fiore di Nonno. They have a bunch of other great cheeses as well.

They also sell a really unique assortment of local produce. Check out these lobster mushrooms from Maine!

Of course, I always getting fresh pasta when I come here. If you've been reading this blog even for a short while, you'd know that Bryan loves fresh homemade pasta. They have many different types here, and they are all very good.

Plus, they have a lot of cool community events, such as pasta making classes, cooking classes, and wine tastings.

If you're in Davis Square, you should definitely check this place out. The sandwiches are good, and the shop is super fun to explore!

Dave's Fresh Pasta
81 Holland St
Somerville, MA 02144

March 31, 2010 Vegan

Dragon Fruit (pitaya)

Have you ever seen a dragon fruit? This exotic, beautiful fruit, also known as the pitaya, actually comes from a cactus plant. I saw this on the streets of Chinatown in New York this past weekend. Even though I had no idea what it was, I was drawn to its exotic and beautiful color.

I had to buy one.

After doing some research, I realized that this stuff is truly a superfood. Not only is it low in calories and high in fiber, it's packed with vitamins and antioxidants. Studies have confirmed the idea that has been floating around for awhile, that dragon fruit actually helps lower blood glucose levels in those with hyperglycemia (elevated glucose levels). Furthermore, Anand-Swarup et al demonstrated in rats that dragon fruit "increased the oxidative defense and protected aorta from hyperglycemic damage in rats in whom diabetes was induced."

Because it's a tropical fruit (native to Central America but widely grown in Southeast Asia), dragon fruit is relatively rare in the East Coast. Even in Chinatown, I paid $7 for the one fruit!

How to Eat a Dragon Fruit
A dragon fruit is ready to eat when the skin yields slightly when pressed, similar to a mango. It tastes better when chilled, so I put mine in the refrigerator overnight.

First, cut the dragon fruit in half. So pretty! Looks like cookies & cream ice cream inside!

Slice it up, and you can eat it plain if you want. The flavor is rather light and a bit bland. It's mostly water inside (after all, it is a cactus fruit!). You can eat the seeds. It's similar to a kiwi in some ways, but much less tart, much less sweet, and much less flavorful over all. The flesh is pretty soft, soft enough to scoop with a spoon.

I found that it tasted much better if I just tossed the cubes with a bit of lemon juice. I squeezed half a lemon over the entire bunch. I also added just a tiny bit of sea salt to bring out the flavor (don't add too much or else it begins to taste kinda salty!). I actually bet it would taste fantastic if mixed with other fruits in a fruit salad. It would present beautifully as well.

It's refreshing, light, and for some reason, I feel really good after eating it. Maybe it's part-psychological, but I feel really healthy - well hydrated, full, and satisfied.

It's not the most flavorful of fruits, but it's super healthy, fights a myriad of diseases, and is just so pretty to look at!

March 30, 2010 Cambridge

Unique Dumpling {NOW CLOSED}

Ever since Noodle Alcove closed in Chinatown, we have been lamenting the loss of fresh, handmade noodles in Boston. More recently, we discovered that Beijing Star in Waltham makes their own "dao xiao mian," or knife-cut noodles. Though pretty solid, it was a bit far to drive for a weeknight meal. We had high hopes for East by Northeast as well. Unfortunately, that place was quite expensive and had unconventional flavors, which again left us with no comforting, authentic fresh noodle soup restaurants nearby.

Imagine our delight when we received a phone call from our good friend Peter.

"Hey guys - guess what took over the old Wisteria location? A Taiwanese/Northern Chinese place that makes fresh noodles."

We had been circling around Union Square looking for parking to try out a new Mexican restaurant. Moments after he called, we immediately stopped looking and headed straight to East Cambridge to try this place out.

Unique Dumpling has two menus - an American one (which has all your "classics" such as Crab rangoons, General Gau's chicken, and egg rolls) and a gloriously authentic one with items such as shredded pig tripe in chili sauce, pork feet braised in soy sauce, and tea flavored eggs, not to mention the fresh homemade dumplings and noodle soups!

Pork and Leek Dumplings ($5.95)
You can order a set of 12 dumplings for around $6, or take home a frozen pack of 50 for around $15. We thought the dumplings were OK. For Boston, it's not bad. Of course, it's nothing close to my favorite dumpling place in America, or even my favorite dumplings in Boston, but it's decent, and they are definitely homemade.

Steamed Juicy Pork Buns ($5.95)
Similarly, their soup dumplings are also only OK - authentic, but not particularly exciting. The skin is thicker than what I prefer, and the flavors are average. Nevertheless, it's nice to have access to these types of authentic dishes so close to home, and the prices are not bad at all.

Shredded Pig Tripe with Chili Sauce ($3)
This was one of the most flavorful dishes, and they are not shy with the chilis! It was borderline too hot for me, but Bryan loved it. Nice flavors, and they recommend it as one of their best dishes.

Pork and Mustard Greens Noodle Soup ($6.95)
We ordered this noodle soup after coming back to Boston from a late flight. It really hit the spot. In general, their soups are relatively light, not too oily, and pretty healthy. Of course, this dish has the wonderful fresh chewy handmade noodles that Bryan loves. The texture of the noodles was quite "Q" (al dente in Taiwanese) and had a good bounce to them. The soup was pretty light, to the point that some might find it not salty enough. I am generally sensitive to salt, so this worked perfectly for me. Plus you can always add more salt if you think there's not enough in there.

Beef Tendon Noodle Soup ($6.95)
This is supposedly one of their signature dishes, and it's pretty good. The beef and tendon pieces have been stewed for a long time, and thus are quite flavorful and soft. I love beef tendon, so I really enjoyed the meat in this dish. The soup is a bit lighter and has less depth than other good beef noodle soups I've tried. Perhaps this goes along with their whole theme of healthier, less salty dishes. Of course, the fresh chewy noodles make this dish pretty enjoyable, though be prepared for a sizeable soup-to-food ratio (i.e. the bowl is huge but a big portion of that is just broth).

Stir Fried Spinach with Garlic ($8.95)
A lot of restaurants cook their green vegetables in a ton of oil. I really like how the stir fried spinach here was pretty light and healthy. It still had a nice garlic flavor infused throughout, but the dish tasted more like home-cooked stir fried spinach (cooked in juices) rather than restaurant shiny-oily spinach (cooked in oil). Portions were super generous.

Da Lu Mian ($6.95)
The authentic version of this dish is not soupy, but saucy. This version of Da Lu Noodle ~~Soup~~ was definitely saucy, poured over the fresh, chewy homemade noodles. I thought it was funny how they crossed out the word "soup" on the menu, since I'm sure more than one person expected a big bowl of broth and was disappointed. This dish was fine, though not as good as some that we've had in California.

Beef Pancake
This beef pastry was OK- I didn't love it. It was a bit greasy and didn't have particularly exciting flavors, but it was alright. It was decently crispy and flaky, and the filling was nice and hot.

Sweet Red Bean Paste Cake
This dessert was awesome! Imagine a red bean mochi cake pan fried so that the edges are nicely golden brown and crunchy while the insides are gooey and hot. I loved this dessert.

Overall Thoughts
The menu here is pretty authentic. I don't think any of the dishes are earth-shatteringly amazing (I still like Shangri La and Gourmet Dumpling House more), but for Cambridge, they are pretty good. I especially like how they don't over-salt their dishes, and I like how there are several relatively healthy and tasty options on the menu. The owners are really nice, and the lady actually told me we could try ordering anything we wanted, since the chef actually knows how to make many dishes. One example we thought of was "three-cup chicken," which she confirmed they could definitely make.

So finally, finally we have an affordable and tasty option for fresh handmade noodles in Cambridge. Best yet, it's open late and they deliver. Definitely check this place out if you're in the neighborhood and looking for a good, inexpensive, and authentic bite to eat.

Unique Dumpling
569 Cambridge St.
Cambridge, MA 02141

March 28, 2010 Cambridge

Veggie Planet / Club Passim

I've lived next to Harvard Square for over ten years. I can't believe I had not visited Club Passim/Veggie Planet until this past month.

Club Passim is a really intimate venue for small concerts. When you buy tickets for a show, your seat is actually a table. You can order dinner and drinks from Veggie Planet while you enjoy the show.

The space is tiny, and the chairs are squeezed really close together. It's slightly uncomfortable, but in a way also adds to the charm of the venue. The room is really small, which makes the concert that much more intimate and enjoyable.

Of course, having a perfect venue is only half the equation. The food has to be good.
I'm happy to report that I was quite pleased with the offerings from Veggie Planet. The menu is completely vegetarian. It's flavorful, healthy, and all around top notch quality. The prices are also very, very reasonable. I would definitely go back just for the food, even if there is no concert!

Chips & Dip - flatbread toasted, sliced and served with your choice of two of our
homemade dips: romesco sauce, salsa, black bean puree or hummus $5.50

We tried the romesco sauce and the salsa. The romesco sauce was incredible rich and flavorful and all around addictive. Although the salsa was perfectly fine (fresh chopped tomatoes, onions, and the like), the romesco sauce was by far everyone's favorite.

A brief search on the internet gave us a hint on why this sauce was so delicious. Romesco sauce originates from Catalonia, Spain, and is typically made from ground up nuts, roasted garlic, olive oil and nyores (a type of red bell pepper). No wonder this is so rich in flavor!

Portobello Redhead - roasted portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions, rosemary &
sage smothered in romesco (roasted red pepper & almond) sauce and topped with feta
cheese small $6.85 large $11.15

I really liked the pizzas here! The individual sized pizza is plenty large for a person (I only ate half of mine!). The crust is made out of a whole wheat flatbread, and bakes up nice and crispy. What makes this pizza really unique and absolutely delicious? It has that addictive romesco sauce on it! Wonderful pizza.

Safe & Sound - fresh marinated tomatoes, sliced mozzarella and asiago cheese (add spinach at no charge) topped with basil and fried garlic. "Unsafe" version has hot chili sauce small $7.15 large $11.35

I got the "unsafe" version, which was like a good Margherita pizza but kicked up a notch with spice. It was good, though not particularly interesting. I kept eying my friend's Portabello Redhead pizza, which I liked better.

Peanut Curry - coconut rice, broccoli and Thai peanut curry sauce topped with fried tofu croutons and peanuts

They also have a lot of vegan offerings, including this Peanut Curry dish above, which I thought was only OK, although my friend really likes this and orders it every time she comes.

I had a great time here. The food was delicious, the venue was perfect, and of course the band, Girlyman, was super talented and entertaining. I would highly recommend coming here, either for a concert or just for the food. It's a great place, and I'm so glad I finally "discovered" it after all these years!

Club Passim / Veggie Planet
47 Palmer St
Cambridge, MA 02138

March 26, 2010 Recipe

Sunchoke Chips (Jerusalem Artichoke)

Have you ever heard of a sunchoke? Or a Jerusalem Artichoke? (which, by the way, is neither from Jerusalem nor is an artichoke) The sunchoke is the root of a species of sunflower plant that is native to eastern U.S. (like Massachusetts!!)

They look like tiny potatoes, or, if they are knobby, they might resemble ginger root. If you cut one open and eat it raw, it is white, crunchy, and a little sweet - sort of like a cross between a potato and a jicama. Any flavor that it might have is quite subtle when raw. Oh, but when these are baked into chips, they have a beautiful, slightly sweet, slightly nutty and earthy flavor that is oh-so-addictive.

Why This is Such a Good "Low Carb" Snack
One interesting note about this root. Unlike most roots, sunchokes do not store starch as their main carbohydrate. Instead, they store inulin, a carbohydrate that is a polymer consisting of fructose units instead of glucose units (in the case of starch). The benefit of inulin is that it does not impact the body's blood sugar level, which is great for those on a low "carb" diet. Inulin is also associated with many other health benefits, such as increasing the absorption of calcium and promoting the growth of intestinal bacteria.

Because inulin cannot be broken down by our starch-busting enzymes, amylase and ptaylin, it actually passes through the digestive system relatively untouched until it reaches the colon, where bacteria break it down (similar to what happens to lactose intolerant people when they drink milk). People vary in how well they can tolerate and digest inulin. If you do try this vegetable, try in small doses at first! Otherwise you might be in for a rather, ahem, uncomfortable evening.

Do try, though. It's totally worth it if you can take it. I tried just a few chips the first night, and then a whole batch the second night and had absolutely no problems. Same with Bryan. It's a great snack and is so much healthier (from a starch standpoint) than potato chips, yet they taste just as good, if not better!

Sunchoke Chips
Wash and scrub sunchokes so that they are free of any dirt. Thinly slice up sunchokes into 1mm thick slices. Try to make them uniform in width, as that will aid in even browning. Toss with a small amount of olive oil (about 1 teaspoon for an entire mini toaster oven tray) and lay them in a single layer in the tray. Add salt (I just did a few "shakes" of a salt shaker) and bake at 400 degrees F for about 15 minutes, or until it starts to dry out and look golden brown. I did this in the toaster oven, and it worked great. I also tried it in the convection oven. It took a little longer (like 25 minutes!),but still turned out fine.

Just keep an eye on it because it's easy to burn. Every oven is different, so you'll have to play around with your oven to get the right time.

Remove, let cool, and enjoy!

March 26, 2010 Boston

KO Prime Winners!

Using Random.org, I generated two numbers between 1 and 21. The winning numbers?

Congrats to Lisa and Dianna! Please e-mail me at jen[at]tinyurbankitchen[dot]com and let me know where you want me to send the KO Cash cards!

Enjoy, and please tell me how your meal was!!!

March 24, 2010 Harvard Square

Henrietta's Table

Harvard Square is such a magical place at night. I especially love the area around the Charles Hotel right now, where crystal blue trees light up the courtyard.

Enter the Charles Hotel, and you'll encounter a quaint restaurant called Henrietta's Table. The moment you step, in, you'll feel like you're walking into someone's home, someone's kitchen. It's almost as if Henrietta personally invited you over to her farmhouse for a home-cooked meal using the vegetables from her garden.

The plush pigs at the front add to the warm and welcoming feel of the place.

In many ways, eating at Henrietta's Table is like going to a farmer's house for dinner. The restaurant focuses on locally grown, organic, and sustainable food. In fact, it has been doing so ever since it opened thirteen years ago, arguably long before it was the "in" thing to do. It's most known for its amazing Sunday brunch buffet, which is a sight to see and a price to behold ($48pp).

Alas, I will not be describing the brunch to you today (sorry! It is amazing, and one of these days I will!) Instead, a group of girls and I decided to check out Henrietta's Table for Restaurant Week a few nights ago. The great thing about Henrietta's Table is that the Restaurant Week menu is no different from their regular menu. In fact, the entire menu is part of Restaurant Week. You just pick an appetizer, entree, side, and dessert. It's that simple.

House Smoked Pastrami Salmon
Field Greens, Chive Oil, Crispy Potato Wafer, Lemon Vermont Creme Fraiche
My friend really enjoyed this dish, especially how the crispy wafers went together with the smoky salmon.

Arugula Salad
Dried Cranberries, almonds, Feta
I loved my arugula salad. It's nothing inventive, but the quality of all the ingredients was excellent, as if it really did just come from the garden out back. The feta cheese was delicious, much better than the salty stuff you typically get in the supermarket. I really wonder where they get this cheese!

Spinach Salad
Seasonal Fruit, Westfield Farm Chevre, and Spicy Maple Pecan Vinaigrette
There is dressing in this dish! It just came on the side and had not been poured yet. The strawberries in this dish were really juicy and fresh, although the pecans had a funny spice that we could not place. Maybe cardamon? Several people at our table got this salad, and more than one person thought the spices on the nuts were a bit strong. Other than that, however, the vegetables were fresh and high quality.

Maine Rock Crab Cake
Tartar Sauce, Native Vegetable Slaw with Sorrel Vinaigrette
I got the crabcake and thought it was pretty good. It's not as good as the Maryland style crabcakes at The Oceanaire, but it does use high quality Maine crabs and had excellent flavor. The tartar sauce actually tasted homemade here, and I liked it a lot. It was less salty and sour compared to the type that comes in a commercial jar.

Barbeque Ale Braised Elysian Field Farm's Pulled Lamb Shank
Local Wilted Greens, Native Beans, Crispy Nitrate Free Smoked Bacon

House Maple Smoked and Grilled Free Range Duck Breast
Confit Leg, Native Cranberry Chutney, Port Wine Reduction
I tried a bite of this duck and thought it was solid. Nice and juicy and not too overdone. Again, nothing particularly interesting - just good, solid American cooking. Though my friend thought it was good, she said, "it still doesn't beat a really good Peking duck."

Ozark Mountain Grilled Smoked Pork Chop
Native Apple Sauce, Apple Brandy Reduction Sauce

Roasted Root Vegetables, Beets, and Cauliflower
These sides were solid, but nothing I couldn't make at home. In fact, I like my own version of roasted cauliflower a lot better, mostly because I drizzle it with a nice glug of truffle oil! Nevertheless, I loved how they had so many healthy options! Such a variety of vegetables all roasted in olive oil.

Henrietta's World Famous Chocolate Bread Pudding
Rum Caramelized Bananas, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
I actually thought this tasted fantastic, although my friend was not satisfied because the "bread" seemed more cake-like in texture and not as bread-like.

Henrietta's Pie of the Day (Mixed Berries),
Vanilla Bean Ice-Cream
My other friend really liked her pie. Expecting just a single slice, she was pleasantly surprised when they brought this complete mini-pie to her. She really enjoyed it, citing the sweet, fresh berries inside and the nice, crumbly crust.

Farmer's Custard
Lace Cookie and Fresh Berries
I really liked this custard. It reminded me of panna cotta (in fact, it might be the exact same thing). I love how it has that farm fresh cream flavor that's not too sweet. The fresh berries, of course, were a perfect complement to the creamy custard.

Overall Thoughts
If you like the idea of a simple, New England restaurant that's focused on farm fresh vegetables, organic foods, sustainability, and good, honest cooking, you'll love Henrietta's Table. Though none of the dishes are particularly inventive or cutting edge, most of the dishes are solid and use quality ingredients.

Plus, it's actually very reasonably priced for Harvard Square. Most of the entrees are between $15 and $22, which is not bad at all for a nice restaurant in the middle of Harvard Square. The five of us enjoyed a bottle of wine for $30, which is quite reasonable. Most of their wines are in this price range.

Overall, I had a very enjoyable meal there with friends. The restaurant did not rush us at all, allowing us to sit there for hours just chilling. One member of our party was actually quite late, but the waitstaff was very kind in seating us early and not rushing us at all while we waited for our friend. I was quite pleased with the service.

And of course, how can you not love a place that has these guys at the door saying good by as you leave.

Henrietta's Table
1 Bennett St
Cambridge, MA 02138

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Reminder, it's still not too late to comment for a chance to receive a $20 in KO Cash to use at KO Prime. I'll be doing the electronic "drawing" after midnight EST tonight.

March 24, 2010 Boston

KO Prime + Giveaway!

KO Prime, despite it's name and the fact that it charges up to $45 for a steak, does not serve USDA Prime beef, or even aged beef, for that matter. So what's the draw?

Well, for one thing, KO Prime is one of Ken Oringer's restaurants.

Ken Oringer is a local hot shot. Well, first off, he did beat Iron Chef Cat Cora on Iron Chef America in 2008. And yes, he is the brains behind Clio, consistently hailed as one of the best restaurants in Boston. He was also nominated for the James Beard Northeast Best Chef Award four times, finally winning it in 2001. According to the restaurant's website, KO Prime's difference lies in its extensive menu, with creative takes on both the main entrées and the sides. This is what they say: "Leave the "classics" to others. KO Prime is edgy, appealing and totally 21st century."

So is it true? We made a reservation this past weekend to find out.

So why is it called KO "Prime"?
First thing we did when we sat down, Bryan asked the waitress whether the steak was prime or dry aged or treated in any special way. She replied by saying that the steaks were "the next highest level" (which, of course, means choice), and that they were not aged. At that point, we began to think that maybe we didn't feel like shelling out $40 for choice steak, especially when we've been making prime steak at home for around $11/lb.

Instead, we opted for the Restaurant Week menu. At $33.03 for a three-course meal, it seemed like a good way of trying out some of KO Prime's offerings without breaking the bank. We also ordered a couple extra sides and appetizers, just to try some of Ken Oringer's more creative dishes.

The Meal
For the first course in the 3-course menu, you had a choice between the "Slice of Ice" iceberg lettuce salad and the "Parsnip Veloute."

Slice of Ice

Crisp Iceburg Lettuce, Point Reyes Blue Cheese, Lardons, Fried Onions

Our friend Peter got this salad, and I believe he was rather pleased with it. They use high quality blue cheese, and the lettuce was crisp and fresh.

Parsnip veloute

Goat Cheese, Roasted Beets, Brioche

We were rather impressed that they actually had a poured soup on the Restaurant Week Menu. This is how it works. The waiter brings out a bowl which contains small cubes of roasted beets, goat cheese, and brioche. On top is a light foam. He then pours the parsnip veloute (a velvety soup) separately into your dish at the table. The soup was pretty nice, with the beets and goat cheese complementing each other nicely. I was expecting the veloute to have a stronger and sweeter essence of parsnip. Instead, it was much more on the savory side, and not that "parsnipy."

Extras
We decided to order several interesting looking appetizers and sides off of the regular menu. That way we could get an honest assessment of the entire menu, since Restaurant Week menus are often compromised in one way or another.

Bone Marrow
Citrus Parsley Salad, Beef Tongue Marmalade ($12)
The beef tongue marmalade was pretty good. This is definitely not something you would typically find in a normal steakhouse. Overall the dish was solid.

Duet of Foie Gras and Poached Forelle Pear ($19)
Smoked Pecan Crumble, Apple Turnover
Also another more unusual side dish that was rather enjoyable. The duck sausage was juicy and nicely flavored. The fois gras was pretty good - not the best we've ever had, but decent.

Short Rib Mac & Cheese
This is one of their more popular dishes, so we ordered an entrée sized portion ($18) to share between four people (you can get it as a side dish for $11). This dish was solid, though it was nowhere as good as the incredibly delicious truffle lobster mac & cheese from The Capital Grille, which is priced similarly.

Creamy Spinach, Wisconsin Mascarpone
I can't comment too specifically on this dish because I only had one tiny bite. All I remember is that neither Bryan nor I liked it that much.

Main Entrees
For the main entree, we had our choice between cod, steak, and chicken.

Seared Cod
Lentils du Puy, Andouille Sausage, Preserved Meyer Lemon
This dish is not on the regular menu - it was specifically created for the Restaurant Week menu. It's tasty enough, though not up to snuff with what I would expect from Ken Oringer. It's fine - a well seared piece of cod over some nice lentils with sausage. The preserved Meyer lemon did make the dish more unique. However, in the end, it was not particularly exciting. It's hardly what I would call "set apart" from other steak houses, which often do a really good job on seafood.

10oz NY Strip
Chantenay Carrots, Mushroom ragout [12 oz is $37 on the regular menu]
Bryan got this and actually sent his steak back because they overcooked it the first time. He asked for rare and got something between medium and medium rare. The manager was very good about it and quickly brought back a perfect rare steak the second time. Bryan said he could definitely tell the difference in quality between this steak and a USDA prime steak. The steak was fine, but definitely not something we would order at the regular prices ($37 for a 12-oz NY Strip steak).

Espresso Ice Cream
Chocolate Brownie, Dark Chocolate Sauce
The brownie was nice and chocolately, and the espresso ice cream was solid. Overall, an enjoyable dessert but not particularly creative or interesting. (Do I see a trend here? Is this the curse of the Restaurant Week Menu?)

Over all Impressions?
I still stand by my general opinion about Restaurant Week menus - odds are they're not as good as the regular stuff. Last year I went to Sorellina and Uni (another Ken Oringer restaurant) during Restaurant Week. Though I was pleasantly surprised at Sorellina, I was sorely disappointed with Uni.

Here, at least the Restaurant Week dishes were decent. However, I really think you miss out when you don't order from the regular menu. You don't get to experience Ken Oringer at his best (or even half his best). We've had Ken Oringer's food at Clio, and his best is pretty amazing.

So, maybe it's worth trying again. It's definitely worth trying if you can get $20 off your meal, right?

At the end of the meal, they gave us each $20 KO Cash to use at a future visit.

I have decided to give away these $20 KO Cash cards to two lucky readers.

You can try KO Prime, order some cool creative stuff off the menu, and let me know what you think!

If you want to be entered into the "drawing," please leave a comment letting me know your favorite steak house or your favorite method of steak preparation. I will use random.org to select a winner. I will keep the "giveaway" open until Thursday evening, and I will post the winner's name on Friday. If you tweet this post, you can enter a second time. Just leave a second comment telling me you tweeted about it, and please mention @tinyurbankitchn in the tweet so I can keep track of it.

Good luck, and I look forward to seeing what you have to say!

KO Prime
90 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02108

March 23, 2010 Vegan

Oven Roasted Kabocha Squash

It's official. I love love love kabocha squash. It's like candy for me. Not too long ago I made my first kabocha squash dish, kabocha squash gnocchi, and I loved it.

More recently I decided to try simply roasting it in the oven, sprinkling it with a bit of sea salt, pepper, and truffle oil. This stuff, I really could not stop eating. It tastes good warm, cold out of the fridge . . . it's a fantastic healthy snack if you're just craving a little bite to eat. In fact, more than once, I found myself sneaking a few slices of this stuff right before midnight.

How funny . . sneaking slices of kabocha squash as if it were cookies or something.

But really, it's so good. And sadly, the last time I went to the market, I didn't see them anymore. Is the season already over?

Kabocha squash definitely takes a bit of muscle to cut (please be careful and use a heavy cleaver if you have one!). The skin is perfectly fine to eat, so no need to peel it! Just make sure you always put the FLAT side of the squash down whenever cutting. It's much safer that way!

To ensure evenness in cooking time, try to make the slices all the same thickness.

Oven Roasted Kabocha Squash
1 kabocha squash
¼ tsp salt
pepper (to taste)
2 T vegetable oil
truffle oil (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut up one kabocha squash into 1-cm thick slices. You can optionally remove the skin, but there is really no need to remove it. It's totally edible and is quite soft once roasted. Lay the pieces in one layer on a pan. Drizzle with vegetable oil (enough to light cover - about 2 tablespoons) and toss until all sides of the squash are covered with some oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, toss, and then roast for about 20 minutes, or until soft.

Optional: you can easily make a puree just by mashing up the roasted squash with a fork, which is what I did. I pressed the puree into a small triangular mold for the picture. I did not even remove the skin, which is why you see little green bits in my puree.

Enjoy!

March 22, 2010 Boston

The Oceanaire

What would you say if I told you that a Midwestern-based seafood restaurant wanted to open up in Boston to compete with the likes of old establishments such as Legal Seafoods, Atlantic Fish Company, and Neptune Oyster, what would be your response?

Don't lie. You'd probably laugh right? Midwest? Aren't they landlocked? (I'm from Ohio, and people used to say that about my state all the time)

The Oceanaire Seafood Room, which originally started out in Minnesota, has successfully opened up restaurants in cities such as Baltimore, Boston, Miami, and San Diego. In fact, they have twelve successful restaurants throughout the US. The concept? You're dining on extremely fresh seafood on a 1930's luxury ocean liner.

I recently had an opportunity to dine at the one in Boston. I was so surprised I had never heard of this place before. Isn't it beautiful inside? Look at those high ceilings!

I met Wade Wiestling, the VP of Culinary Development of The Oceanaire, in Napa Valley. He was one of the judges for the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition. Wade happened to be in Boston this past week, and was kind and generous enough to treat Bryan and me to a fabulous meal at his restaurant. Wade is the brains behind the Oceanaire menu, having created many of the Oceanaire classics that I will describe to you later.

Aside from food (which, of course, I'll discuss in a moment), the space alone is worth the visit. The dining room is beautiful and really unique. It's a converted bank, and you can still see many remnants of the former US Trust bank. For example, the oyster bar is where the teller's windows used to be. Downstairs, all of the vaults are still around. Here, you see the chefs coming out from the safe deposit vaults.

The doors to the vaults are still in the kitchen. Wade gave us a tour of the kitchen. Check out how thick the walls of the vaults are!!!

The kitchen is immaculate inside. We saw people plating food, making desserts (baked Alaska!), and doing all sorts of other prep work. I met Dan Enos (bottom left photo), the executive chef in Boston. Dan graduated from Johnson and Wales and most recently was Executive Chef at The Capital Grille before joining The Oceanaire in 2006.

The Oceanaire has some signature dishes which are the same at all locations. However, local executive chefs have a lot of free rein to design many of the other dishes in the menu. Not only does this makes each Oceanaire unique and interesting, it also attracts top caliber chefs to work at The Oceanaire.

A fresh new menu is printed out every day, and reflects the day's current offerings. The Oceanaire flies in fresh seafood daily from all around the world. Wade took us into their refrigerated areas where we saw some of the day's offerings. Beautiful crab legs and fish!

It was really fun visiting the kitchen and seeing the inner workings at this place. But, let's get to the food!

Our Meal

Amuse bouche: salmon mousse over a cucumber "chip"
This was light, refreshing, and a nice beginning to the meal. The mousse definitely had the smokiness that comes from smoked salmon.

Minnesota Pickled Herring
I'm not sure if I have ever had pickled herring before, so I cannot claim to be an expert. However, I can tell you what I thought of this herring, which is . . . I loved it! Slightly tart, slightly sweet and salty at the same time. It went well with the raw veggies on the side. We finished the whole thing in no time.

“Sashimi Style” Hawaiian Big Eye Tuna, Spicy-Sweet Soy, Wakame Salad, Pacific Farms Wasabi, ($19.95)
This was some quality fish. The waiter kept saying "melts in your mouth" and I have to agree. Oftentimes lesser quality raw fish will be stringy and tough. This fish had absolutely no hint of stringiness or toughness. It was smooth, soft, and had very good flavor. It came with a small side of wasabi (which was nicely pungent!), Sriracha sauce, wakame salad, and carrot salad.

Raw Oysters ($2.65 to $2.95 each)
The raw oysters were extremely fresh and delicious. We tried a variety: Kumamoto from California, Wawenauk from Maine, Island Creek from Massachusetts, and Blue Point from Connecticut. It came with a traditional French red wine vinegar shallot dipping sauce and also the classic American cocktail sauce. The restaurant actually has a fantastic oyster bar, which you can see in the first photo of the post.

New England Clam Chowder ($4.95 (cup), $6.95 (bowl))
This soup was pretty good. It was very thick and chunky, full of lots of chopped up clams and potatoes. I was wishing that the soup had more clam flavor. It was a fine potato soup, but I've had better clam chowders in Boston.

Creamed Corn ($.4.95-$7.95)
Sides are portioned like at steak houses, definitely large enough to share. The creamed corn was quite good. The addition of nutmeg makes this side a bit more interesting than your typical creamed corn.

Hashed Brown a la Oceanaire ($4.95-$7.95) + $1 for "a la Oceanaire"
If you only get one side, you have to get this one! It's an Oceanaire classic and it's available at every one of the restaurants. Oh, and if you order this, definitely get it "a la Oceanaire" which means they add onions, bacon, and Tabasco sauce (really, how can that NOT be good?). Imagine: a huge mass of shredded potatoes and cheese mixed with sautéed onions, bacon, and Tabasco sauce that is fried so the edges are crispy. Let me share another photo with you just in case you are not convinced.

Yum . . . the crispy bits on the edges were the best part! I loved the tart and spicy kick that the Tabasco sauce and bacon added. It was really really good, and the portion is huge, so you can take half of it home and eat it for breakfast the next day with a poached egg on top.

Sauteed Spinach charred lemons, roasted garlic ($4.95-$7.95)
One of Chef Dan's creations, this dish was solid, and the charred lemons added a nice twist to this dish.

Jumbo Lump Crab Appetizer ($15.95)
If you get just one appetizer, you have to get these crab cakes. It is one of the most popular menu items at The Oceanaire, and I can definitely see why. This crab cake is mostly "crab" and very little "cake." It's made more in the traditional Maryland style - not the thick, oily, breaded style that is deep fried. This crab cake is surprisingly light, consisting of just juicy, succulent lumps of crab lightly held together with spices and a little binding. The flavors are fantastic. Definitely get this!

Seared Wild Alaskan Halibut ($39.95)
Crispy Proscuitto, Grape Tomatoes, Leeks, Lemon Beurre Blanc
The wild Alaskan halibut had just arrived very recently and everyone at the restaurant kept saying how "beautiful" the fish was, so I just had to get it. Yes, I confirm they were right: this dish is delicious. The fish is soft, fresh, and flaky. The preparation is wonderfully tasty too, with crispy proscuitto bits adding a nice textural crunch and salty zing to complement the creamy lemon sauce. This is another one of Chef Dan's creations.

Grilled Panamanian Swordfish ($32.95)
"Black and Bleu" Sweet Onion confit and Bleu cheese butter
The black and bleu style is another signature Oceanaire preparation, available at all the restaurants. The "black" stands for black pepper, and the "bleu" stands for blue cheese. I personally liked the halibut better because it's a softer fish (this swordfish was more steak-like in texture), but Bryan thought it was well made and enjoyed the dish a lot.

Boston Cream Pie ($8.95)
Wade had told us that when he first came to Boston, he was surprised that he couldn't really find a Boston Cream Pie that he really liked. This Boston Cream Pie is two years in the making. Dan and Wade have been tweaking this recipe, and, according to Dan, I'm tasting the final perfected version of this cake. I have to agree that the Boston Cream Pie is excellent, and if you order one dessert, this is the one to get. Inside the chocolate coating, there are three layers of cake and two layers of cream. The entire dessert is surprisingly not too sweet (which I really like!). It's definitely big enough to share!

Key Lime Pie ($9.95)
Their pies are ENORMOUS, and one slice will easily feed at least two people. I saw their pie while I was in the kitchen, and I swear it looked like it was 14-16 inches in diameter! Maybe I can't remember the exactly width, but it was really large! I enjoyed the pie, but my favorite is probably the Boston Cream Pie.

Portions are huge here, so you'll definitely be taking home leftovers!

Concluding Thoughts
I still can't believe I had no idea this restaurant existed, even though it has been here since 2008! The food is solidly prepared, and they definitely know their seafood. They really work hard to make sure that their ingredients are top quality, and it shows. Also, the space is beautiful, so it's a nice place to sit and relax.

The prices are definitely not cheap (it's supposed to be a luxury ocean liner, after all), although there are choices at all different price points. There's a bar menu where you can try a smaller "black and bleu" steak for only $13.99 or a pile of steamed mussels for $7.99.

We also saw that they have a restaurant week menu available right now. The best part? The crab cakes are on the restaurant week menu! So even if you don't feel like coughing up $40 for a piece of fish, you should definitely try to stop by during Restaurant Week and try a nice three-course dinner ($33.10) which includes those crab cakes. Yum . . . . They also have a seasonal market menu offered all the time, which is $29.95 for a three course meal.

Overall, an excellent seafood restaurant that can definitely compete with the seafood offerings already available in Boston.

The Oceanaire Seafood Room
Financial District
40 Court St
Boston, MA 02108

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Disclaimer: we did not pay for this meal

March 19, 2010 California

The French Laundry

May I distract you for a moment to take you on a brief journey?

A journey to Napa Valley, into a little town called Yountville, inside a quaint, rustic, French house. I would love to share with you a particular meal I had on my last night in Napa Valley.

The French Laundry is surprisingly unassuming from the outside. It looks like any other quaint, rustic country home. As Bryan and I were walking down Washington Street, we almost missed it.

But if you look really hard at the bottom left corner of the "house," you'll see a sign surrounded by playfully bright flowers. It's almost like it's trying to hide . . . sort of.

Look across the street, and you'll see The French Laundry's own vegetable garden. The garden supplies many of the vegetables on the menu each day.

We walked around the corner and peered in. Look! A beautiful hidden garden. Could there be more?

A quick glance through the window revealed chefs hard at work.

We continued on to discover a beautiful secluded little area behind the rustic house. Oh, if only we could stay. But food was beckoning inside the house.

A Meal of A Lifetime . . .
Join me as I share with you, course by course, the transcendent meal we experienced at The French Laundry. Thomas Keller is nothing short of perfect when it comes to designing and executing these menus - the tasteful progression of unique, interesting, and surprising flavors that will delight the palate, awaken the senses, and tickle the mind. Truly the gastronomical pinnacle of my time at Napa Valley.

As I've said before, there's something about these three-star Michelin restaurants. Every single dish is executed flawlessly. The French Laundry aims to make this meal the experience of a lifetime. They understand that most of their customers are coming here for a really really special occasion. And they do a great job of making you feel really special.

As for the menu, you have your choice between two tasting menus - the Chef's Tasting Menu and the Tasting of Vegetables (which is vegetable focused, but is not vegetarian). Because this was our first time, we both opted for the Chef's Tasting Menu - a 9-course culinary journey that takes you through some classic Thomas Keller dishes as well as new seasonal concoctions.

Moments after being seated next to a window on the second floor of the house, the waiters set before us the first amuse bouche: Gruyere filled Mini-Brioches. These little bites were perfect for awakening the palate.

Soon after, Thomas Keller's signature amuse, the Salmon Cornets, arrived. I loved these. Delightful little "ice cream cones" filled with salmon tatare. The "cone" part is reminiscent of a thin, crispy butter cookie. A perfect way to start the meal.

And then the courses began arriving . . .

"Oysters and Pearls"
"Sabayon" of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek Oysters and White Sturgeon Caviar
This dish was decadent, with the briny saltiness of the caviar and the creamy richness of the oysters. Absolutely divine with a glass of champagne.

For our next course, we had a choice between the salad and the foie gras. I picked the salad while Bryan picked the foie gras.

Salad of French Laundry Garden Carrots
English Peas, Red Radish, Mint and Madras Curry Yogurt
This is not your typical peas and carrots. The vegetables, especially the carrots, were really flavorful and had just the right amount of "crunch." At this point I was almost wishing I had tried the "Tasting of Vegetables."

Moulard Duck Foie Gras En Terrine
White honey, Walnuts, Celery Relish and Dijon Mustard

Pimento-cured Hamachi Belly
Jidori Hen Egg, "Pain Frit," Petite Lettuce and "Dégustation d'Oignons"
Every single element of this artfully plated salad was perfect - the flavorful baby onions, the soft, succulent hamachi belly, the tiny fried bread pieces, the baby lettuce.

Maine Lobster Tail "Pochee Au Beurre Doux"
Black Truffle, Belgian Endive, Sicilian Pistachios, Watercress and Jurançon-Apricot Emulsion
I had thought I did not love black truffle, but it tasted so incredible in this dish that I began to reconsider. Of course the Maine lobster was fantastic, although being from the East Coast, that aspect of the dish was not as novel to me.

Isn't their pretzel bread so cute? I actually liked how they waited until after a few courses before bringing the bread. You're much less likely to fill up needlessly on bread.

For our first meat course, we were given a choice between quail and the pig's head. The pig's head sort of scared me, so I ordered the quail. Bryan, brave eater that he is, ordered the pig's head, much to the delight of the waiter, who said "excellent choice!"

Wolfe Ranch White Quail
Cauliflower, Swiss Chard, Marcona Almonds and Cherry-Guinness Jus
The quail was soft, juicy, and perfectly cooked. I loved the textural interplay between the juicy meat, the tender cauliflower florets, and the crunchy almonds.

"Rouelle de Tete de Cochon"
Sacramento Delta Asparagus, Frisée, and "Thousand Island Dressing"
Far from having a pig's head on your table, the pig's head is cooked whole, the cheeks are removed, prepared, and deep fried to form the rouelles that you see above. The meat was incredible soft, unlike most pork that you try.

Snake River Farms "Calotte de Boeuf Grillee"
Brown Butter "Pain Perdu," Black Trumplet Mushrooms, Turnips, Arrowleaf Spinach and "Sauce Bordelaise"
Beautiful and perfectly cooked piece of "boeuf." I remember really savoring the flavor of the nearly rare steak. I am also awed by the attention to detail of each little vegetable on the plate. Look how the turnips are perfectly charred on the ends!

"Compte"
"Panisse," Piperade, Arugula and Chickpea-Lucques Olive Vinaigrette

Steel-cut Oat Sherbet
Granola, Granny Smith Apple "Nuage" and Rum Raisin Coulis
I love all things oat flavored, and I had never had oat sherbet before. This was a perfect palate cleanser in preparation for dessert!

Peanut Butter "Bavarois"
Crunchy Feuilletine, Maralumi Milk Chocolate "Whip" and Gros Michel Banana Sorbet
Bryan ordered this one. Even though I'm not a banana lover, I had to admit this dessert was very good.

"Savarin Au Citron"
Citrus "Vierge," Moulin des Pétitents Olive Oil and Straus Daily "Crème Glacée"
I loved my light citrus-y tart topped with a simple olive oil ice cream

Mignardises
These chocolates were beautiful, decadent, and delicious. We cut each one in half so we could try all six.

These Dusted Chocolate Covered Nacadamia Nuts were addictive. We ended up taking about half of it home with us because we were so full.

And of course, before we headed out, a little take-away gift.

A Visit Into The Kitchen
Even though the meal probably took around 3 hours, the time seemed to pass by quickly. I'm not sure how they manage to do it, but they somehow are able to time each course perfectly in a way that makes the 3 hours fly by. At the end of the meal, the waiter asked if we would like a tour of the kitchen.

One of the first things we saw when we went inside was this big flat screen TV. It was a live feed to the kitchen at Per Se. Since it was around 8:45pm on the west coast, the Per Se kitchen was nearly empty, it being close to midnight over there.

This TV not only allows Thomas Keller to keep an eye on both his kitchens at all times, it also gives the staff a greater sense of togetherness.

The kitchen was definitely buzzing with at least a dozen people (if not more) plating, making coronets, washing dishes, etc. It's truly an operation in there! There's a ton of work that goes into each dish before it makes its way out into the dining hall.

Underneath the TV, there is a small sign that sums up The French Laundry's attitude about what they do.

I love it. Of course I thought the food was perfect. But even if it was not, by making me happy, they made me feel as if I had enjoyed the perfect meal.

Thank you, The French Laundry, for an absolutely fantastic end to such a dream-come-true trip.

Postlude / Other General Information
You might wonder how I managed to get a reservation there, as reservations at The French Laundry are notorious difficult to obtain. As expected, when I called The French Laundry about a month before my scheduled trip, the restaurant was already entirely booked. However, they do keep a waiting list, and if you're lucky, there just might be a cancellation, and you might get a call. I received my call about 6 days before the actual dinner reservation. They will ask you to give them a credit card number to hold the reservation. There is a $100 cancellation fee if you cancel less than 3 days before a reservation. You can also contact the restaurant the morning of to see if there are any cancellations. Apparently you can sometimes get a reservation this way as well.

Other posts from the Napa Valley Series

Welcome Reception

Mystery Basket

Signature Dish Competition

Del Dotto Caves / Winery
Antica Vineyards

Bouchon Bakery

Redd

The French Laundry
6640 Washington St
Yountville, CA 94599

March 17, 2010 California

Redd

I'm still floored by the concentration of world class restaurants on this one street in Yountville. Redd, which is right next door to Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc, is no exception.

Executive chef Richard Reddington worked at a number of prestigious places before opening Redd in Napa Valley in 2005. Example include Restaurant Daniel in New York, Spago in Los Angeles, Masa in San Francisco, Michelin 3-star L'Arpège in France, just to name a few. Like most restaurants in Napa Valley, his style is a contemporary interpretation of wine country, with a focus on fresh, local ingredients. Of course, the wine selection is fantastic.

We loved our lunch, which was actually reasonably priced. Each of the dishes ranged between $13-$14 - a great deal for such amazing food.* Did I mention this restaurant has one Michelin star?

Incredibly fresh fish, a delightful mix of tastes and textures -- Richard Reddington is a genius when it comes to food, and we absolutely loved everything we had here. Definitely worth a visit!

Here are our dishes!

Yellowfin tuna and hamachi tartare, avocado, chili oil, fried rice - $13
I loved how the tartare had crunchy fried rice kernels that really provided a contrast in texture to the soft, raw fish pieces. Heavenly!!

Sashimi of hamachi, sticky rice, edamame, lime ginger sauce - $14
The raw hamachi was top notch, and Richard Reddington's interpretation had hints of Asian flavors, such as the sticky rice, edamame, and ginger.

Simple elegance. Look at the care and attention to detail that go into even their garnishes.

Caramelized diver scallops, cauliflower purée, almonds, balsamic reduction - $14 for appetizer portion
I ordered this dish and it was AMAZING!! The scallops were perfectly seared (see also first picture of the post). I don't generally like raisins in my food, but for some reason it worked here. The interplay of the sweet raisins, roasted cauliflower, and crunchy almonds paired perfectly with the succulent scallops. Divine dish.

Crisp duck confit, lentils, foie gras meatballs, sherry vinaigrette - $14
This dish was also very good, with homemade spaetzle, duck sausages, and duck confit. Though it was good, we both liked my scallops better!

The space is modern, elegant, and gets tons of light (perfect for food photography!). Service was impeccable, and the ambiance was relaxed and enjoyable.

Oh, and how could I forget! You can take a bag of Saltine Toffees to go for only $10!

I highly recommend this place. We had a wonderful time. Thanks Foodgal for the recommendation!

Other posts from the Napa Valley Series
Welcome Reception
Mystery Basket
Signature Dish Competition
Del Dotto Caves / Winery
Antica Vineyards
Bouchon Bakery
The French Laundry

Redd
6480 Washington St
Yountville, CA 94599

*The scallops appetizer portion is $14 but they were willing to make a meal sized portion (4 scallops instead of 2) for an additional charge. Unfortunately, I lost the receipt so I can't remember how much it was, but it likely could have been almost double

March 17, 2010 California

Our Own Excursion: Vineyards (Opus One and Robert Mondavi)

When you see the Opus One Vineyard from afar, you immediately think "wow." It's grandiose, beautiful, and imposing all at the same time. It clearly was designed and built to impress, and impressed I was.

The views are top notch from the vineyard - almost unrealistically picturesque.

You can do a "tasting" which means you can buy individual glasses of wine for (gasp) $30 or $35 each!!! I guess since their bottles go for $195 and up, I can sort of understand why the tasting has to be so expensive. We shared one glass of the 2004 Opus One.

We slowly sipped and savored it at the gorgeous second floor balcony.

So yummy!

Lovely vineyard, definitely worth visiting, even if it's just for the views, which don't cost a cent!

Robert Mondavi Vineyards

Do you recognize this arch? It's on the front of all Robert Mondavi bottles. We signed up for the Signature Tour for only $25, which I think is well worth the money. The tour guides are really good, and it's a fun peek into the winemaking process. The best time to come is August, when the grapes are about to be harvested! (right now the vines are empty - sad!)

These are the To Kalon vineyards, which, according to some, produce some of the best cabernet grapes in all of Napa Valley, if not the entire world. The soil here is mostly clay loam, which drains well and does not retain lots of nutrients. The harsh conditions put the grape vines in stress, causing them to produce more concentrated clusters of fruit with very intense flavors. To Kalon produces some of the most sought after cabs in Napa Valley.

Although modern technology uses stainless steel fermentors, Robert Mondavi Winery uses small amounts of oak fermentors for some reserve wines. Tim Mondavi, winegrower and managing director at the vineyard, found that "[o]ak fermentation imparts complexity, richness of texture, intensity, and depth of color, which is ideal for our reserve and district red wines, and particularly enhances the fruit from our To Kalon Vineyard.”*

They also only use French oak barrels (remember my thoughts when I pitted French oak against American oak?). They paint all the barrels with wine so that if there's any dripping, it won't cause any stains.

We enjoyed a lovely tasting of 3 different wines. Our tour guide was fantastic. He's worked at the vineyard for decades, and really knows his stuff. We tried asking him all sorts of questions and he seemed to know everything! We tried a 2008 Napa Valley Fume Blanc ($20/bottle), a 2008 Napa Valley Pinot Noir Reserve ($60/bottle), and a 2006 Oakville District Cabernet Sauvignon ($45/bottle). Nice wines, but I couldn't help thinking about the Opus One earlier, which (for obvious reasons), was way better.

Over all, if you've never visited a vineyard and want to learn about the basics of winemaking, this tour is interesting and fun. Plus, the property is really pretty.

Other posts from the Napa Valley Series
Welcome Reception
Mystery Basket
Signature Dish Competition
Del Dotto Caves / Winery
Antica Vineyards
Bouchon Bakery
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Bibliography
Caldwell-Ewart, "Robert Mondavi Winery: Creating a Winery to Match a Vineyard" Practical Winery & Vineyard, Jan/Feb 2001

March 15, 2010 California

Bouchon

I still can't believe that my hotel room in Napa Valley was within walking distance of Bouchon, Ad Hoc, and the French Laundry! Not to mention other amazing one-star Michelin restaurants such as Redd and Bistro Jeanty.

We woke up early on Saturday morning, walked five minutes down the road, and sauntered into Bouchon bakery for breakfast. I'm so jealous of people who live in places like New York City or Las Vegas where they can do this everyday.

OK, I confess -"saunter into Bouchon" was inaccurate. There was this crazy line out the door of the tiny little bakery. But the line moved fast, and soon we entered!

Baked goods galore!

Beautiful, perfectly formed loaves of bread.

Daintily wrapped cookies and snacks. Hey wait . . . those cookies look like the ones we got from the French Laundry at the end of our meal. More on that later!

I took a quick peek into the baking area, but there wasn't much going on since everything appeared to be baking inside the ovens.

What to choose? Look at all those macarons on the top shelf!

doughnut with chocolate sprinkles, pecan sticky bun, bacon and maple scone, pain au chocolat, brioche

We chose an assortment of baked goods and everything tasted delicious. Among our favorites? The pain au chocolat, which was was filled with high quality, dark chocolate. I liked how the chocolate was more solid -- not too gooey, not too sweet. The pastry was light, delicate, and flaky. I also loved the bacon scone. Though it was filled with savory bits, it seemed to be brushed with a microthin layer of sugar on the outside. The result? A crumbly scone that's so slightly sweet but salty at the same time. Loved it.

Enjoying an espresso and a Bouchon vanilla macaron on your hotel balcony for breakfast? Priceless.
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Other posts from the Napa Valley Series
Welcome Reception
Mystery Basket
Signature Dish Competition
Del Dotto Caves / Winery
Antica Vineyards

March 15, 2010 Guide

Napa Valley / Sonoma Guide

Please use this guide as a "roadmap" for all the Napa Valley and Sonoma related posts, including all the aspects of the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef's competition and our own little excursions.

* Denotes number of Michelin stars

2017

Restaurant at Meadowood ***
Single Thread Farms **

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

Almost Famous Chef Competition
- Mystery Basket
- Signature Dish Competition
Restaurants & Wineries
- Ad Hoc
- Bottega Ristorante
- Joseph Phelps Winery
- Etoile *
- Terra *

2011

Almost Famous Chef Competition
- Mystery Basket
- Signature Dish
Wineries
- Nickel & Nickel Vineyard
- Trefethen Vineyards

2010

Almost Famous Chef Competition
Wineries
- Del Dotto Caves / Winery (March 15, 2010)
- Antica Vineyards (March 15, 2010)
- Our own Excursion: Vineyards (Robert Mondavi and Opus One) (March 17, 2010)
Restaurants
- Bouchon Bakery (March 16, 2010)
- Redd (March 18, 2010) (formerly *)
- French Laundry (March 19, 2010) ***

March 15, 2010 California

Antica Vineyards

This post is part of a larger Napa Valley series centered around the S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef's Competition. To see other posts in this series, check out the Napa Valley Guide.

On Sunday morning, before the Signature Dish Competition, S. Pellegrino organized another amazing outing for their VIP guests at Antica Vineyards.

Antica is owned by the Antinori family, one of the oldest winemaking families in history. The Antinoris have been making wine for over 600 years! Most of their vineyards are located in Tuscany and Umbria in Italy. Antica is derived from Anti (from their name) + ca (from California), since this is their California vineyard.

It took about 40 minutes to drive up the mountain to arrive at this beautiful, beautiful vineyard.

It's hard to capture the vastness of the vineyard from pictures alone, but here's a shot at it. 🙂

Winemaking, Water tasting, and a History Lesson

We learned a bit about wine making and got a tour of the facilities.

Interesting Pairings
We participated in some educational seminars. You've heard of wine pairings and wine tastings, of course. But have you ever had a water pairing? They had us try a few small dishes with S. Pellegrino sparkling water and Aqua Panna mineral water. Interestingly, the S. Pellegrino was much more effective at cleansing the palate after a taste whereas the Aqua Panna mineral water dampened the flavors but drew them out longer. The red wine enhanced the red meat (as expected) and the white wine paired nicely with the shrimp salad.

The views from the top of the mountain were just picture-perfect.

Wine Caves

They also had an impressive network of wine caves dug into the side of a mountain that were far more extensive than even the one we saw at Del Dotto Vineyards. The cave is designed to someday hold 8000 barrels of wine!

When we entered the wine cave, we were greeted with an amazing spread of food from Hurley's. Not only that, we saw musicians and jesters, all in a nod to the Italian renaissance period.

Of course, when we left, they gave us a little souvenir.

The weather was absolutely beautiful. It was really relaxing to sit on these couches on a mountain top vineyard while enjoying the fantastic lunch, endless Antica wine, and expansive views.

Thanks S. Pellegrino, Aqua Panna, and Antica Vineyards for an amazingly educational, relaxing, and extremely enjoyable afternoon.

March 15, 2010 California

Del Dotto Vineyards

This post is part of a larger Napa Valley series centered around the S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef's Competition. To see other posts in this series, check out the Napa Valley Guide.

When S. Pellegrino said that we would be VIP guests, they were not kidding. Throughout the weekend, while we were not attending the cooking competitions, S. Pellegrino set up several events for their VIP guests, including visits to two vineyards! Having never been to one before, this was quite exciting for me.

Del Dotto Vineyards
Del Dotto Vineyards is a family owned winery that makes small production premium wines. One of their most interesting features is this ancient wine cave, hand-dug by Chinese laborers in 1885, which they opened to the public in 1997. The Del Dotto family realized that cave-aged wines were "more voluptuous and opulent than wine aged in modern facilities."

We had a chance to visit these caves and taste various wines straight out of the barrels! We even did an oak barrel challenge where we tried the exact same wine from French and American barrels. Can you guess which one we preferred?

The Oak Barrel Challenge
The Del Dottos have been experimenting with various oak barrels from France, the U.S., and Russia. We enjoyed a fun little experiment where we tried the exact same wine aged in two different barrels: one French, one American. I much preferred the French oak barrels, which unsurprisingly also happens to cost about 3x as much! Bryan thought that the wine made with American oak barrel was much sweeter, and also preferred the French oak version.

Not only do they have an awesome wine cave, they also have a beautiful tasting room adorned with massive chandeliers and marble arches. After an hour or so of tasting wines from all the barrels, we entered this magnificent room for dinner.

Hi Bryan!

That magnum bottle is bigger than I am!

We enjoyed a lovely dinner catered by Hurley's from Napa Valley. It was delicious - complete with a fresh multi-colored beet salad with burrata on top (I love burrata!), rabbit, and beef short ribs.

There was no shortage of S. Pellegrino or Aqua Panna!

At the end of the day, they handed everyone a very unique bottle of wine (picture shows front and back). Can't wait to try it! Thanks S. Pellegrino and Del Dotto Vineyards for organizing such a unique event! We had a fabulous time.