Fogo de Chao Adds New Items For Spring

For serious meat lovers, Brazilian steakhouses like Fogo de Chao are sheer nirvana. One can simply sit at the table while waiters arrive with skewers of various grilled meats. For one set price, meat lovers can gorge on steak, pork, chicken, and lamb in all varieties until they cannot eat another bite. Fogo is also good for people on low-carb diets as, in addition to all the meats, they offer a huge self-serve bar full of vegetables and salads.

When the warmer weather sets in, some might feel that a meal heavy in proteins might be too rich for the rising temperatures. However, Fogo is introducing seven new items for Spring with lighter cuts of meat, seasonal vegetables, and a new tribute wine. The Minx and I were recently invited to try out these new menu items.

I started out with their new Blood Orange Manhattan. Buffalo Trace Bourbon is mixed with a splash of Carpano Antica and dashes of blood orange and angostura bitters, then served over rocks. While it did remind me a bit of a Manhattan, this cocktail had a bright citrus touch.

Fogo has also unveiled “Eulila,” a red wine blend that pays tribute to Eulila “Selma” Oliveira, Chief Culture Officer of Fogo de Chão. She was born and raised in Brazil, but moved to the United States in 1985, determined to achieve the American dream. Following a chance encounter with the founders of Fogo de Chão while in Dallas, Oliveira joined the company as the brand’s first female manager and, ultimately, executive. Oliveira is affectionately known as the Fogo matriarch; the wine was named in her honor for her unwavering affection, passion, and appreciation for every restaurant guest and team member.

Specially created for Fogo by the award-winning winemakers at Viña Vik, Eulila the wine is a blend of 48% Carmenere, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 22% Syrah. Carmenere is a new varietal to me, its fruitiness balanced nicely by the Cabernet and the Syrah. Though full-bodied, Eulila is not particularly tannic and pairs well with Fogo's meat selections.

Now it was time to get to the food. The Minx and I started with Fogo's new Carrot & Ginger Soup. This light, vegetarian friendly, gluten-free soup is made with baby carrots and spicy ginger, blended together with fresh herbs and coconut milk.

Although Fogo is known for its grilled meats, they also offer several seafood options. We decided to order one of our favorites - the Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail. Jumbo shrimp are served in a huge bowl of ice and paired with a malagueta cocktail sauce. In the background of the picture, you can also see ttheminx's go-to cocktail, the Strawberry Hibiscus Caipirinha. The hibiscus-infused cachaça is mixed with muddled strawberries and lime to create a refreshing warm weather drink.

Before we started in with the meat, we visited the bar for our vegetables. The Roasted Cauliflower Salad is made of cauliflower that has been oven-roasted with olive oil, garlic, and black pepper, and finished off with scallions and sesame seeds. The Brazilian Kale & Orange Salad is composed of fresh kale, crunchy red onion, juicy oranges, and is topped with a citrus-honey vinaigrette. I also picked up some asparagus, green beans, hearts of palm, and potato salad, but the Market Table has so many more fruits and vegetables to choose from.

With the preliminaries out of the way, we were ready for the meat. We flipped over our cards from red to green, notifying the waiters that they could come over with their skewered of grilled goodness. The Pork Picanha is butchered and prepared with the same simple style as traditional Picanha, then carved right at the table. I was particularly impressed with the spicy Linguica Sausage, a pork sausage with red pepper, garlic,and fresh onion. I also had to partake of the beautifully cooked sirloin. All the meats were tender and juicy. (Also featured in the above photo is a beautifully pink chunk of rib eye.)

Fogo has also created a new dessert for Spring, the Crème de Coconut. Freshly-shredded coconut is combined with condensed milk and cream, baked in the oven, and then served warm with ice cream and a little lime zest. I'm usually not a fan of shredded coconut, but the incredible coconut flavor made me overlook the chewiness that I normally dislike. Also, the ice cream and lime zest provide a refreshing coolness to the dessert.

Fogo de Chao has always been a great place for meat-atarians, but they also have a lengthy menu of options for everyone's palate. If you have been debating about visiting Fogo de Chao, these new Spring items are worth checking out.

Fogo de Chao
600 E. Pratt St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 528-9292

Posted on Minxeats.com.

New Spring Menu at The Rusty Scupper

Besides its breathtaking view of the Inner Harbor, The Rusty Scupper has long been known for its clean, straight-forward seafood dishes. While those are always welcome, new executive chef William Wilt is adding some twists to the Scupper's menu with bold flavors and clever combinations. We were given an opportunity to experience this approach first hand while trying some of his dishes from the restaurant's spring menu.

Since April is tuna month at The Rusty Scupper (which features a different seafood each month), we started off by sharing the tuna tartare appetizer. The chilled ahi tuna was fresh and refreshing, accompanied by a wasabi aioli, a spicy red sriracha-style sauce, and a salad of greens tossed in a sesame vinaigrette. Crunchy sesame-dusted crostini were the perfect vehicle for transporting tuna to mouth, adding both texture and a flavor profile complimentary to the Asian-style sauces,

For her entree, the Minx chose the sea bass stuffed with a mixture of chorizo sausage and crab and served with whipped potatoes and grilled asparagus. Pairing such a powerful flavor as chorizo with the mild sweetness of crab seems counter-intuitive, but the combination works quite nicely. The whole dish is bathed in a slightly sweet dijon tarragon beurre blanc that is at once rich and herbacious. The creamy and garlicky red bliss potatoes had some of the skins left in--just the way I like them--and the asparagus was perfectly cooked. I kept sneaking nibbles off of the Minx's plate until she had to pull it aside, wanting to save some for her lunch the next day.

I opted for the blue crab ravioli. When serving ravioli, it seems that many restaurants are skimpy, providing only an unsatisfying four or five pieces. Chef Wilt offers seven plump pouches of perfectly cooked pasta holding a tasty filling of blue crab, topped with Roma tomatoes, asparagus tips, fresh herbs, and chunks of jumbo lump crabmeat. The firm crab lumps were an especially nice touch, providing a textural contrast to the creamier crab in the ravioli.

Although we were quite full, we had to try out some of their desserts. I went for the Callebaut chocolate indulgence: a slice of nearly-flourless chocolate cake served with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and a raspberry coulis. The cake was truly decadent, like rich fudge or a dense chocolate truffle, while the fruit sauce and blueberries added the right acidity and brightness for a spring dish. 

The Minx's Fuji apple bread pudding was stuffed with dried cherries and apples and doused in a pecan praline sauce. The pudding was moist and buttery with a welcome crispiness on top, like a really exceptional French toast. A bit of vanilla ice cream on the side aided in cutting the unctuousness of the dish. Alas, it was too large to finish after the rest of the rich meal (as was the chocolate cake) but it made for a lovely sweet treat the following night.

For decades, we've heard about "the runner's high." I never experienced such a thing during all those miles I clocked in my youth, but I have had on occasion experienced an eater's high, when all the elements of a meal are so fine that I feel euphoric about the experience. This was one such meal. We're elated that the Rusty Scupper, which has been a workhorse serving visitors to Baltimore's Inner Harbor area for decades now, has upped it's culinary game. It's about time that locals get in on the action. The views are spectacular, the exceptional service and white tablecloths make the place perfect for a fancy dress-up occasion, but the rustic architecture and menu of seafood favorites also makes the restaurant ideal for a weeknight dinner. Pay close attention to the Chef's Specials, which are a cut (or two) above the expected. 

The Rusty Scupper

402 Key Highway

Inner Harbor Marina

Baltimore, MD 21230

410-727-3678    

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Phillips Seafood Restaurant

The Minx and I each had dined at the old Phillips location in Harborplace on numerous occasions going back to the restaurant's opening in the 80s and including a couple of times in recent years. Since they moved to Power Plant, however, we've never had the opportunity to check out the new digs. So when they invited us to a media dinner to sample their current menu, we jumped at the chance.

The first thing that struck me as we were escorted to our table was that the decor is more refined than the 80s mall version of a seafood joint that the old Phillips had. Dark wood, plush booths and banquettes, and chandeliers indicate that they want to be taken seriously as a fine dining establishment. The giant sailing ships are a nice touch as well.

We started with drinks and, although it was dinner time, the Minx opted for the Bloody Mary. I chose the Phillips Amber Ale made by Heavy Seas under the Clipper City brand. The Bloody Mary was rather mild without the usual overwhelming flavor of Worcestershire sauce, and only lightly spicy. But there was a bonus skewer of shrimp, olive, pepperoncino, pepperoni, and cheese to nibble on, making the drink somewhat of an amuse bouche. My ale was light and smooth, no doubt brewed to go well with crabs and other seafood.

In ordering, we wanted to try a blend of traditional and newer dishes, so we started with a bowl of the crab vegetable soup. My mom had a few dishes that she made particularly well and crab soup was one of them. This crab soup tasted just like hers, so I was quite pleased. Not too spicy so the flavors of the vegetables and the crab (both in ample quantities) could shine through.

In the new category, we tried the warm tomato pie. I was envisioning some sort of tomato aspic in a pie shell, but this buttery-crusted pie contained chunks of fresh tomato baked just long enough to warm them. The tomatoes are topped with a roasted pepper aioli and dolloped with what the menu called "sherried crab" but was in actuality a cold crab dip, creating a rather nice blend of textures, flavors, and temperatures.

For our entrees, we thought the grilled rockfish with crab imperial was a traditional Baltimore choice. Rather than placing the crab imperial on top of the fish, it was served in a separate mini-skillet. I dolloped the creamy side dish on top of the fish anyway. It just seemed right. The rockfish itself was quite substantial and perfectly cooked. I also appreciated that the crab imperial was not overly mayonnaisy like some preparations I've had. It was nice and creamy with a bit of crust from broiling the top. Although Phillips is all about the seafood, I have to say the vegetable (asparagus and potatoes with the platter, snow peas, baby carrots, red onion, and potatoes with the rockfish) were exceptional. Lightly sauteed, they retained a nice bit of crunch; the potatoes had tender, almost creamy, insides and crisp skins.

The Minx thought we should also try the classic seafood platter featuring salmon, crab cake, and a shrimp skewer. The shrimp had a mild sweetness to them and the salmon was moist and tender. The crab cake on the platter is not jumbo lump crab meat like their Ultimate Crab Cake preparation, but a more traditional style cake with backfin. Still, if I was wandering around the Inner Harbor all afternoon and stopped in to Phillips for a hearty meal, this would really please my soul.

We were too full to order dessert, but our waitress tempted us by bringing over the dessert tray anyway. We eventually acquiesced and ordered a slice of their lemon cream Smith Island cake to go. Made on Smith Island, this variation on the classic is bright and rich at the same time. Thin layers of yellow cake are mortared together with lemon curd and topped with a cream cheese icing. We ate it as a snack just before going to sleep. Not a bad way to end the day.

Phillips Restaurant has weathered the myriad of changes that have occurred in the Inner Harbor over the past 35 years and it has managed to stay up-to-date while honoring the traditional seafood dishes that have made it a Maryland culinary staple. Their current menu of food and libations reflects the trends of today without alienating those who are looking for a crab cake or some raw oysters on the half shell. And despite being a Wednesday in March, the dining room was packed with additional patrons waiting in the lounge, even at 6:30.





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Chesapeake Crab & Beer Festival

The Chesapeake Crab & Beer Festival will make a stop at Westshore Park in the Inner Harbor on Saturday, June 21st in two fun-filled sessions from 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. The Festival is an ALL-YOU-CARE-TO-TASTE extravaganza complete with thousands of crabs, lots of beer, arts & crafts, music, family fun and so much more!

Guests can enjoy the great food! There are over 20,000 crabs on-hand, plus steamed corn on the cob, cole slaw and UTZ potato chips. Guests should enjoy the fact that the portions are not limited and the crabs will be freshly steamed on-site. In addition, guests will enjoy all you care to over 20 different beers and wines in their souvenir glasses.

Seating is limited, communal and all seats are covered under large tents. There are only 500 tickets per session and the event is expected to sell out in advance. Ticket prices are from $29 - $89 and offer different benefits. For more information or to purchase tickets in advance, please visit www.mdcrabfest.com or call 800-830-3976. Kids 3 and Under are FREE.

Posted on Minxeats.com.