...my favorite Korean restaurant, conveniently located in nearby Towson, is now an Indian restaurant. I love Indian food, but there's already a glut of restaurants in my area.
We went for a Korean buffet dinner a few weeks ago - I was jonesin' for their delicious panchan selection, especially the cucumbers and the raw spinach - and ended up with chicken tikka masala and an okra dish. I'm glad we ended up eating there (and no, I can't remember the name right now) because I've never seen okra on an Indian menu locally, and I love okra. This was a dry fry with tomatoes and man, it was GOOD. Amazing, actually. The chicken tikka masala was meh - good, but not what we were accustomed to, and the sauce was grainy, as if nut-thickened. They also had bhuna lamb on the menu, so we'll have to go back and try that out sometime.
But where am I going to go for Korean now? The other restaurants that I know of are in a sketchy area downtown. Hmpfh.
And...my favorite Thai restaurant, Bangkok Place, seems to be closed as well. The sign is still up, but the building is wrapped in chain-link and there's an ominious "to whom it may concern" permit notice sign in the window. My bus passes too quickly to allow me to read it, so I don't know if it's a demolition warning or what.
I hope this doesn't continue to be a sad year in restaurants for me. On a brighter note, Baltimore is apparently having a winter Restaurant Week, February 5 - 9. However, it's already January 29th and I've seen no listing of participating restaurants yet....
Stay tuned!
Monday, January 29, 2007
Monday, January 08, 2007
Holiday Food
I know. I am a bad, bad blogger.
Anyway, let me tell you about our holiday feasting.
I don't understand why some American families choose to make a turkey and all the trimmings after they've just gone through that rigamarole a month before. I like to mix it up, doing something different every year.
One Christmas, a few years back, we had a Christmas eve dinner for my dad and his girlfriend. I roasted two ducks, using Sally Schneider's method from A New Way to Cook, and served them Peking-style with hoisin sauce, scallion brushes, and tortillas instead of pancakes. Girlfriend took one look at my hard work and said, "I don't eat duck." Dad replied, "you'll eat this duck," and put some on her plate. I was mortified. I had only met this woman once before, and she was not making any great impressions on me.
After that fiasco, I decided that if my dinner guests were going to be ungrateful, they'd get Chinese food. Keeping me out of the kitchen didn't necessarily make things more convenient, however. Before Dad and B. get to my house, they spend the afternoon at her brother's. When they are leaving that party, Dad calls to let me know their ETA and what they want to eat. I immediately call the restaurant and place the order. Luckily, they deliver, and if I'm really lucky, the food will arrive after Dad and B. arrive so it will be hot when we eat.
Last year, they pulled a new stunt - they arrived at 6 p.m. and had to leave at 8 p.m. so they could get to 9 o'clock church service. So my brother and I got a 2-hour eat-and-run drive-by. (Yes, still bitter.)
This year, I decided I wasn't going to have that. I threw a mini-party starting at 4 and ending whenever. So when Dad and B. arrived, there were people at the house, and when they left 2 hours later, there were still people around. It felt more festive, that's for sure. It also allowed me to see some of my friends and exchange gifts with them at holiday time rather than two or three weeks later, which is the norm.
So enough bellyaching about the situation - what did I cook?
I thought that pork bbq would be popular and easy to make for the party, and as I had invited a number of vegetarians, mac and cheese would be a hearty accompaniment/main dish. And since I never make the same Christmas dinner twice, I chose short ribs for this year's feast. Christmas Day's guests include my brother (I see a lot of him over the holidays - a good thing), my Mother-in-law, and my Brother-in-law. They are not picky eaters.
I like to cook things in advance, if possible, so I can spend time with my guests and less time slaving over a hot stove. The Friday before Christmas was our annual cookie-baking day - fortuitous timing, as I planned to serve cookies for dessert both days. My brother came over, armed with pound of butter and a carton of milk, and we commenced to baking multiple varieties of crispy goodness: chocolate chips, snickerdoodles, oatmeal cookies with either toffee chips or cinnamon chips, chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and almond macaroons. It's been several weeks, my brother took many pounds of cookies home with him, and Neal and I have been eating them every night, but we still have cookies left.
The Saturday before Christmas was Meat Day. I decided to prepare the short ribs well in advance, since it's such a fatty dish. Several days in the fridge allowed the flavors to mellow and a inch or so of fat to come to the surface to be skimmed.
While the short ribs (David Chang of Momofuku Noodle Bar's recipe) simmered on top of the stove, many pounds of boneless pork country ribs braised in the oven until extremely tender. Pre-party prep involved shredding the meat, dressing it with a jar of Bone Suckin' Sauce, and making a pot of Alton Brown's Stove-Top Mac-n-Cheese. And Christmas day meal prep involved skimming, reheating, and potato mashing. Neal also made some sauteed radishes. (Don't knock 'em until you try 'em.)_
I had prepared enough food for an army, expecting folks to have big appetites, but got stuck with lots of leftovers. Well, I can't say "stuck" - we made good use of them and didn't have to cook anything from scratch all week. Pulled pork nachos, anyone?
New Year's Eve
Usually for NYE, Neal and I go out for a nice multi-course dinner. Because it fell on a Sunday this year, and Sunday means football, we opted to stay home and cook dinner for ourselves. I had momentarily toyed with the idea of ordering a lobe of foie from Hudson Valley, but decided we should hit Ceriello's for a dry-aged 2lb sirloin steak. I made a kickass sauce with mushrooms, onions, a cup of the Cabernet that we were going to drink with the meal (thanks, Kate! It was delish!) and heavy cream, and some bleu cheese butter for topping the meat. We also had baked potatoes and asparagus. I'd never had dry-aged meat before, and it was delicious - far better than the usual tasteless grocery-store fodder, with a decadently rich, almost buttery flavor.
The steak was so big, we had four meals from it. And it was yummy every time.
Now, I'm afraid, it's time to diet. Happy New Year!
Anyway, let me tell you about our holiday feasting.
I don't understand why some American families choose to make a turkey and all the trimmings after they've just gone through that rigamarole a month before. I like to mix it up, doing something different every year.
One Christmas, a few years back, we had a Christmas eve dinner for my dad and his girlfriend. I roasted two ducks, using Sally Schneider's method from A New Way to Cook, and served them Peking-style with hoisin sauce, scallion brushes, and tortillas instead of pancakes. Girlfriend took one look at my hard work and said, "I don't eat duck." Dad replied, "you'll eat this duck," and put some on her plate. I was mortified. I had only met this woman once before, and she was not making any great impressions on me.
After that fiasco, I decided that if my dinner guests were going to be ungrateful, they'd get Chinese food. Keeping me out of the kitchen didn't necessarily make things more convenient, however. Before Dad and B. get to my house, they spend the afternoon at her brother's. When they are leaving that party, Dad calls to let me know their ETA and what they want to eat. I immediately call the restaurant and place the order. Luckily, they deliver, and if I'm really lucky, the food will arrive after Dad and B. arrive so it will be hot when we eat.
Last year, they pulled a new stunt - they arrived at 6 p.m. and had to leave at 8 p.m. so they could get to 9 o'clock church service. So my brother and I got a 2-hour eat-and-run drive-by. (Yes, still bitter.)
This year, I decided I wasn't going to have that. I threw a mini-party starting at 4 and ending whenever. So when Dad and B. arrived, there were people at the house, and when they left 2 hours later, there were still people around. It felt more festive, that's for sure. It also allowed me to see some of my friends and exchange gifts with them at holiday time rather than two or three weeks later, which is the norm.
So enough bellyaching about the situation - what did I cook?
I thought that pork bbq would be popular and easy to make for the party, and as I had invited a number of vegetarians, mac and cheese would be a hearty accompaniment/main dish. And since I never make the same Christmas dinner twice, I chose short ribs for this year's feast. Christmas Day's guests include my brother (I see a lot of him over the holidays - a good thing), my Mother-in-law, and my Brother-in-law. They are not picky eaters.
I like to cook things in advance, if possible, so I can spend time with my guests and less time slaving over a hot stove. The Friday before Christmas was our annual cookie-baking day - fortuitous timing, as I planned to serve cookies for dessert both days. My brother came over, armed with pound of butter and a carton of milk, and we commenced to baking multiple varieties of crispy goodness: chocolate chips, snickerdoodles, oatmeal cookies with either toffee chips or cinnamon chips, chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and almond macaroons. It's been several weeks, my brother took many pounds of cookies home with him, and Neal and I have been eating them every night, but we still have cookies left.
The Saturday before Christmas was Meat Day. I decided to prepare the short ribs well in advance, since it's such a fatty dish. Several days in the fridge allowed the flavors to mellow and a inch or so of fat to come to the surface to be skimmed.
While the short ribs (David Chang of Momofuku Noodle Bar's recipe) simmered on top of the stove, many pounds of boneless pork country ribs braised in the oven until extremely tender. Pre-party prep involved shredding the meat, dressing it with a jar of Bone Suckin' Sauce, and making a pot of Alton Brown's Stove-Top Mac-n-Cheese. And Christmas day meal prep involved skimming, reheating, and potato mashing. Neal also made some sauteed radishes. (Don't knock 'em until you try 'em.)_
I had prepared enough food for an army, expecting folks to have big appetites, but got stuck with lots of leftovers. Well, I can't say "stuck" - we made good use of them and didn't have to cook anything from scratch all week. Pulled pork nachos, anyone?
New Year's Eve
Usually for NYE, Neal and I go out for a nice multi-course dinner. Because it fell on a Sunday this year, and Sunday means football, we opted to stay home and cook dinner for ourselves. I had momentarily toyed with the idea of ordering a lobe of foie from Hudson Valley, but decided we should hit Ceriello's for a dry-aged 2lb sirloin steak. I made a kickass sauce with mushrooms, onions, a cup of the Cabernet that we were going to drink with the meal (thanks, Kate! It was delish!) and heavy cream, and some bleu cheese butter for topping the meat. We also had baked potatoes and asparagus. I'd never had dry-aged meat before, and it was delicious - far better than the usual tasteless grocery-store fodder, with a decadently rich, almost buttery flavor.
The steak was so big, we had four meals from it. And it was yummy every time.
Now, I'm afraid, it's time to diet. Happy New Year!
Friday, December 01, 2006
A Taste of the Southwest
My handsome hubby and I plan to eventually move to New Mexico. Six years ago, we spent our honeymoon in Santa Fe, and fell in love with the scenery and the spirit of the land. While there, we ate a good deal of tasty local cuisine at places like Maria's, Tortilla Flats, the Corn Dance Cafe at the Hotel Santa Fe, La Cantina at Coyote Cafe, and The Anasazi Restaurant.
Every once in a while, I get a hankering for green or red chile (or both - Christmas style!) with pork, and I have to make it myself. There doesn't seem to be anything like Southwest food in my area, although I think when Taste first opened, there was mention of Southwest cuisine in their PR info. And Blue Agave has authentic Mexican cuisine, which may come slightly close. There are green chiles (albeit not Hatch) on the menu, at the very least.
So when I'm in another city, and I see a restaurant that bills itself as serving cuisine from the Southwest, I'm all over it. In New York, there's Agave, on 7th Avenue in the West Village. Alas, the menu has what seems an awful lot like Tex-Mex food to me: tacos, quesadillas, but they also have Hatch green chiles in a chowder with corn and chicken. And squash blossoms are featured in one of the tacos. I figure I should take what I can get and allow myself to believe that I will find a taste of my future homeland somewhere beyond those front doors.
That said, I've been to Agave twice. The food is actually quite good, and even better, it's cheap. By NY standards. On my first trip, expecting miniscule portions for the reasonable prices, I ordered both the Hatch Green Chile, Corn & Chicken Chowder and the Autumn Leaves salad (caramelized apples, cabrales blue cheese, and spiced Texas pecans, with cider vinaigrette over baby greens) as appetizers. I was also naive enough to request that both the soup and salad arrive at the same time. Well, both plates barely fit on the table, especially with my DH's appetizer (that I've since forgotten) taking up a fair portion of real estate on the opposite side of the table. The soup was thick and rich and served in a large wide bowl. The salad was practically of Cheesecake Factory-proportions, with a huge mound of greens, slices of apple, and a good handful of nuts. At least they didn't go completely over the top with the application of cheese.
I couldn't tell you what I had for my entree; I was already in a food coma by the time it arrived. Neal had the "Santa Fe Shepard's Pie." (Why is it that people can't seem to spell shepherd correctly? It's just like "sheep herd" but with one less "e.") It was a rich and tasty mixture of chile and macaroni and shredded Jack cheese. I'm not sure it got finished. We were, after all, saving some room for dessert - gelato from a shop across the street.
I was in NY with my Dad recently and we stopped into Agave for an early dinner. Having recently had a slice of pizza from Pizza Box and some miscellaneous cream-filled things from Rocco's Bakery, we weren't exactly starving, but part of this trip to NY was a birthday dinner for me. We planned to hit the Turnpike soon, so this was to be the last chance for that celebratory meal.
At least I knew not to order both a soup and salad, so just had the Autumn Leaves salad. It was again enormous, and I made Dad eat some of it to help me out. I opted for what seemed like a lighter entree, the Skirt Steak Carne Asada Tacos. Dad, after inquiring if I liked chorizo, opted for Pan Roast Pork Tenderloin filled with a chorizo & caramelized apple stuffing lacquered with a maple cider treacle.
Again, we were not disappointed by the portion size. I had three tacos, each filled with a tangle of strips of skirt steak, cooked medium, with blobs of salsa, sour cream, and guacamole to one side, and the standard "Mexican" rice on the other. The meat had a satisfying chew and a pleasant piquant flavor. Dad got the equivalent of half a tenderloin, sliced and slightly fanned out next to a large assortment of roasted vegetables including butternut squash, summer squash, and what may have been parsnips. All seemed to be glazed with the maple cider "treacle." It was all very flavorful, and the pork was tender and juicy.
The best part of the meal, however, was the number of times my water glass was refilled - 10. Two cups of coffee and no other liquid consumed over the course of the day had left me dehydrated, so I appreciated the attention to my need.
So...Agave is pretty darn good, regardless of what it calls the cuisine it serves. Does anyone else out there have recommendations for restaurants serving good Southwestern food outside of the actual Southwest part of this country?
An aside: Because it sounds so horribly fusion, I was drawn to the "Tesque Seared Ahi Tuna Tataki Tostaditas" A Google search for the word "tesque" brought up a recipe for that exact menu item, as featured on Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels. Ack! Anyway, I think that "tesque" is just an innocent misspelling of Tesuque, a pueblo just north of Santa Fe. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Ahi tuna is indiginous to New Mexico. But if Rachael pronounced it "yum-o!" then it has to be good, right?
Every once in a while, I get a hankering for green or red chile (or both - Christmas style!) with pork, and I have to make it myself. There doesn't seem to be anything like Southwest food in my area, although I think when Taste first opened, there was mention of Southwest cuisine in their PR info. And Blue Agave has authentic Mexican cuisine, which may come slightly close. There are green chiles (albeit not Hatch) on the menu, at the very least.
So when I'm in another city, and I see a restaurant that bills itself as serving cuisine from the Southwest, I'm all over it. In New York, there's Agave, on 7th Avenue in the West Village. Alas, the menu has what seems an awful lot like Tex-Mex food to me: tacos, quesadillas, but they also have Hatch green chiles in a chowder with corn and chicken. And squash blossoms are featured in one of the tacos. I figure I should take what I can get and allow myself to believe that I will find a taste of my future homeland somewhere beyond those front doors.
That said, I've been to Agave twice. The food is actually quite good, and even better, it's cheap. By NY standards. On my first trip, expecting miniscule portions for the reasonable prices, I ordered both the Hatch Green Chile, Corn & Chicken Chowder and the Autumn Leaves salad (caramelized apples, cabrales blue cheese, and spiced Texas pecans, with cider vinaigrette over baby greens) as appetizers. I was also naive enough to request that both the soup and salad arrive at the same time. Well, both plates barely fit on the table, especially with my DH's appetizer (that I've since forgotten) taking up a fair portion of real estate on the opposite side of the table. The soup was thick and rich and served in a large wide bowl. The salad was practically of Cheesecake Factory-proportions, with a huge mound of greens, slices of apple, and a good handful of nuts. At least they didn't go completely over the top with the application of cheese.
I couldn't tell you what I had for my entree; I was already in a food coma by the time it arrived. Neal had the "Santa Fe Shepard's Pie." (Why is it that people can't seem to spell shepherd correctly? It's just like "sheep herd" but with one less "e.") It was a rich and tasty mixture of chile and macaroni and shredded Jack cheese. I'm not sure it got finished. We were, after all, saving some room for dessert - gelato from a shop across the street.
I was in NY with my Dad recently and we stopped into Agave for an early dinner. Having recently had a slice of pizza from Pizza Box and some miscellaneous cream-filled things from Rocco's Bakery, we weren't exactly starving, but part of this trip to NY was a birthday dinner for me. We planned to hit the Turnpike soon, so this was to be the last chance for that celebratory meal.
At least I knew not to order both a soup and salad, so just had the Autumn Leaves salad. It was again enormous, and I made Dad eat some of it to help me out. I opted for what seemed like a lighter entree, the Skirt Steak Carne Asada Tacos. Dad, after inquiring if I liked chorizo, opted for Pan Roast Pork Tenderloin filled with a chorizo & caramelized apple stuffing lacquered with a maple cider treacle.
Again, we were not disappointed by the portion size. I had three tacos, each filled with a tangle of strips of skirt steak, cooked medium, with blobs of salsa, sour cream, and guacamole to one side, and the standard "Mexican" rice on the other. The meat had a satisfying chew and a pleasant piquant flavor. Dad got the equivalent of half a tenderloin, sliced and slightly fanned out next to a large assortment of roasted vegetables including butternut squash, summer squash, and what may have been parsnips. All seemed to be glazed with the maple cider "treacle." It was all very flavorful, and the pork was tender and juicy.
The best part of the meal, however, was the number of times my water glass was refilled - 10. Two cups of coffee and no other liquid consumed over the course of the day had left me dehydrated, so I appreciated the attention to my need.
So...Agave is pretty darn good, regardless of what it calls the cuisine it serves. Does anyone else out there have recommendations for restaurants serving good Southwestern food outside of the actual Southwest part of this country?
An aside: Because it sounds so horribly fusion, I was drawn to the "Tesque Seared Ahi Tuna Tataki Tostaditas" A Google search for the word "tesque" brought up a recipe for that exact menu item, as featured on Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels. Ack! Anyway, I think that "tesque" is just an innocent misspelling of Tesuque, a pueblo just north of Santa Fe. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Ahi tuna is indiginous to New Mexico. But if Rachael pronounced it "yum-o!" then it has to be good, right?
Friday, November 03, 2006
I'm Just Wild About Harry!
Last week, I was hanging out in Delaware with my dear friend Kate when she suggested that she treat me to a birthday lunch since we probably wouldn't have opportunity to get together before that hallowed day (November 17). She suggested Harry's Seafood Grill and sent me to check out the sample menu on their Web site. Now, as a graphic designer, I am well aware of the importance that needs to be placed on such things as image and marketing, and was pleased to see that Harry's site was good-looking and well-designed. That means good things, in my mind, so I jumped at the chance to dine there.The restaurant was as tastefully decorated as the site was well-designed, with interesting sea-themed artworks (including the wire starfish sculpture that took up most of the ceiling of the main dining room) and a large window overlooking the river. There are also tables outside under a broad awning for dining in more clement weather.
Kate was acquainted with one of the chefs at Harry's, and we had an opportunity to meet with her and chat a bit before ordering our food. She made some suggestions as to the best items on the rather large lunchtime menu (that included an impressive selection of raw items like sashimi and several varieties of ceviche). I had to agree with her that yes, the Cajun Short Ribs with Fried Shrimp and Grits in a Tasso Cream Sauce was not to be missed. Kate went for the Soft Crab Sandwich with Remoulade and Yukon Gold Potato Chips because she was in the mood for crab, and because I had never eaten a soft crab before - mainly because of the legs that dangle from the sandwich. I have no issues with hard crabs, but put one between two slices of bread and suddenly it becomes a fried spider. The chef had also recommended the Oktoberfest Moules Frites, so we ordered that as a shared appetizer.
The next thing we know, an order of New Orleans Barbeque Shrimp and Toasted Focaccia with Fresh Smoked Tomato Salad was coming to our table, compliments of the chef. Four large, plump shrimp bathed in a tangy sauce were nestled together next to a generous pile of greens topped with smoky tomatoes. Now, don't think N'awlins style barbeque sauce has anything to do with what one normally thinks of as 'cue (any region's style)...it's basically lots of butter, Worcestershire sauce, lemon, garlic, and spices, along with a dose of hot sauce. It was fan-tastic, much tastier than my preparation of one of Emeril's recipes some years ago (that was too heavy on the Worcestershire).
As soon as we were done with the shrimps, our lovely and perky waitress brought Kate's pre-appetizer of 3 different PEI oysters. I'll have to take her word for it that they were tasty, as I don't like raw oysters. :) Then came the mussels. A platter was placed before us containing a lidded serving vessel with 10 or 12 huge, beer-steamed specimens, a fancy wire swirly thing holding a cone of thinly cut frites, and a ramekin of black pepper mayo. Although the mussels were the usual black-shelled variety, some of the critters were so large I needed to cut them in half before popping them in my mouth. They were soft and succulent and even-textured, and didn't have the somewhat sickening "gack, is that a mussel spleen, or maybe a mussel colon I'm biting into now?" lumpy quality that I find in some larger mussels, particularly the green-lipped variety. The enormous serving of frites was crisp and delicious, and the mayo was a nice dip for both starch and shellfish.
I could have stopped right there with the eating, as I was already quite full, but we still had entrees coming. Whew! Mine was a dinner-sized portion - three meaty short ribs, three large shrimp that had been dipped in a savory batter and deep fried, and a good half-cup sized timbale of grits, all atop a lake of creamy sauce studded with bits of tasso ham. The meat was so tender, it fell off the bone at the mere threat of being struck with a knife, and the shrimp had that lovely iodine flavor that I like so much (I know some people probably don't like it, but to me, that's what makes a shrimp taste like a shrimp). But it was too much; I ate the shrimp and the grits and took the ribs home for a future lunchtime treat.
Kate's soft crab sandwich was also quite yummy. She shared a portion of the body so I wouldn't have to deal with the legs, and the crisp carapace was accented beautifully by the savory remoulade sauce. I didn't try her chips, but they were definitely of the home-made variety.
To add insult to injury, or rather, to avoid additional risk of stomach explosion, we opted to share a dessert. There were several interesting options on the menu, but I've always wanted to try a Sticky Toffee Pudding. Harry's was a hefty cylinder, served warm, with a large curved tuile acting as a dish for a scoop of house-made vanilla gelato, the plate further garnished with splotches of tart raspberry coulis and squiggles of homemade caramel on a pool of creme anglaise. Yowsa. It was delicious, and far too much to finish.
Two hours later, we waddled out of Harry's, very full and happy. This was one of the most consistantly delicious meals I've had in a long time (apart from the two dinners at Pazo this past summer), and I would be delighted to go back at any time. I highly recommend it.
Harry's Seafood Grill
101 S. Market St
Wilmington, DE 19801
P: 302-777-1500
F: 302-777-2406
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