Vivo Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar

If you've heard mention of "West County" recently and wasn't sure what it referred to, it's the western part of Anne Arundel County, which includes Hanover, Odenton, and Fort Meade. Not exactly the most glamorous area, unless you consider the fastest growing part of West County, Hanover's Arundel Mills development. In addition to the mall and Maryland Live! casino, Arundel Mills now boasts plenty of new housing and amenities. One of the newest communities in the development is Arundel Preserve. Just off 295 on Arundel Mills Boulevard, the Preserve is home to the swank new Hotel at Arundel Preserve and its two restaurants by New York restaurateur George Martin, Vivo and Grillfire.

Mr Minx and I were invited to taste some of Vivo's offerings at a recent media dinner. We started out with a few appetizers for the table before ordering entrees of our own.

Charcuterie plate with Sopressata, proscuitto, bresaola, gorgonzola, provolone, and taleggio,
with marinated olives, toasted stone oven flatbreads, and fig jam

We started out with a generous charcuterie plate featuring three Italian meats and three Italian cheeses, a nice combination of salty, savory, and creamy, punctuated by a sweet fig jam and olives. With a bottle of wine, it could make a nice meal in itself. And it was served on a gorgeous slab of burl wood that sadly was too large to fit in my purse....

Margherita pizza

We also sampled one of the restaurant's dozen pizzas, made in the Wood Stone oven visible just beyond the window into the open kitchen. In addition to the classic Margherita and white pizzas, Vivo has creative variations like crab imperial with mascarpone and a red pepper aioli, and proscuitto & pear with gorgonzola dolce. Yes, please!

Spinach arancini 

We also received a sampling of Vivo's arancini, which our host, Diane, says is the best she's had since her trip to Italy. The generously-sized balls of risotto and spinach were indeed quite nice, creamy and piping hot inside, with a delicate crust that was just barely able to hold in the molten rice.

Bucatini Carbonara with peas and a soft cooked egg

When Mr Minx, aka Mr Pasta, saw that Vivo offered one of his favorite pasta preparations, pasta Carbonara, he had to order it. The house-made bucatini was coated in a rich and cheesy sauce studded with bits of pancetta and peas and topped with a soft cooked egg. It was decadently delicious.

Pork shank osso buco with rosemary potatoes and tomato pan gravy

I opted to avoid pasta and chose a meat entree that came with potatoes, just to be different. While osso buco is traditionally made with veal shank, pork shank works just as well. The one I received was gargantuan, and the spoon-tender meat was glazed with a sheen of tomato gravy and a sprinkle of herbs. The potatoes were darkly roasted and had a mild rosemary flavor that did not detract from the lusciousness of the meat.

Chicken Parmesan, without the cheese

Other dishes at our table include chicken Parmesan, which our tiny host ordered without cheese because she's afraid of getting fat like me. (I'm happy to eat her cheese for her.) The breast cutlets were thin and crispy, and I liked that the breading wasn't over-seasoned.

Bucatini with lobster and shrimp

Another tablemate had the bucatini in a creamy sauce flavored with Chardonnay and thyme and studded with bits of lobster and shrimp. After tasting it, I almost regretted my decision not to order pasta, because it was delicious, with a nice brininess from the seafood. Vivo makes all of its pasta (except the linguine) in-house, from gnocchi to ravioli to rigatoni, using their fancy imported pasta machine. 

Despite being stuffed, we also sampled a trio of the restaurant's desserts, including a lovely light tiramisu served in a jar and garnished with a crisp biscotto. While cute, the jar lid was heavy and made the container a little tipsy.

...a moist olive oil cake topped with fig jam and vanilla ice cream...

...and crisp miniature cannoli stuffed with Nutella-infused ricotta.

Despite trying several dishes, we really tasted only a small selection of the goodies Vivo has to offer. We can hardly wait to go back and try the crispy Parmesan polenta, lobster risotto, malfadine Bolognese, rockfish and baby clams Livornese, and some of the more non-traditional pizzas. But first, we have to check out Grillfire, the George Martin restaurant across the lobby, which seems to have a pretty rocking happy hour....

Vivo Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar
7793-B Arundel Mills Blvd
Hanover, MD 21076
(410) 799-7440
http://www.vivotrattoria.com/





Posted on Minxeats.com.

Nutella Cannoli Dip

A recent dinner out inspired me to whip up this little treat. We were served mini cannoli stuffed with Nutella-flavored ricotta, and I thought, why bother with the cannoli shells?

I was originally going to make it for last weekend's Stitch 'n' Bitch, but everyone bailed on me. I made it anyway, and we ate it all ourselves.

A little tip for food geeks and people watching their weight. (Which is everyone, except me.) The more powdered sugar one adds to the dip, the better and thicker the texture. But sugar, of course, has calories. Ultratex 3, a thickening agent derived from tapioca, can deliver the same texture with far fewer calories. Unlike other starches, it doesn't need to be heated first and doesn't leave a starchy or gummy mouthfeel. Two teaspoons of Ultratex 3 is plenty for this amount of dip, allowing you to decrease the amount of sugar used to 1/4 cup.

Nutella Cannoli Dip

1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 cup Nutella
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 - 3/4 cup powdered sugar
Chopped hazelnuts, for garnish
Cookies and fruit, for serving

Combine the ricotta, Nutella, vanilla, and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir in powdered sugar until it reaches a dippable texture--neither runny nor thick, somewhat like cooked pudding.

Speaking of pudding, one can certainly skip the dippers and serve this as a pudding.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Sofi's Crepes

Back: BBQ pork and shredded cheese. Front: crepe Florentine.

We're bad bloggers. There's always some restaurant that opens fairly nearby that we swear up and down to "try this weekend," but then we never get to it. Months go by before we finally get our asses in gear and try said new place.

Sofi's Crepes at Belvedere Square is one of those places. Despite being so close, we seldom find ourselves anywhere near the market, except in passing. But now that the Senator Theatre is open once again, we have a good excuse to not only drop by, but also to stay for a while.

One recent evening, we decided on a crepe dinner before seeing a movie on the big screen. (Has anyone else noticed that not only are there fewer seats in the original auditorium, but they're also smaller? Or has my ass gotten that much bigger since the last time we went to the movies?)

Mr Minx ordered the bbq pork crepe, which was messily stuffed with smoky pulled pork. He enjoyed it. Personally, I thought the sauce was too smoky, but liked that there was a generous amount of filling. I had the crepe Florentine, with spinach, Gruyere, mushrooms, sunflower seeds, and a pepper parmesan sauce. You all know how picky I am by now, so it won't surprise you when I say I think the spinach and mushrooms would have been better had they been sauteed, not raw. With every bite, my teeth yanked out a whole spinach leaf as a flavorless white mushroom slice popped out onto the table. Would have been nice if the sunflower seeds hadn't been just this side of rancid, too. According to the chef/cook/dude who made the crepes, the Florentine is one of their best sellers, along with the Kevin Bacon (turkey, bacon, 1000 Island dressing). Trust me - cooked spinach and mushrooms would taste much better.

Couldn't find fault with the crepe itself though. It was properly eggy, tender and crisp-edged. Next time I'll just get one plain, maybe with some lemon and sugar, the way my Dad used to make them when I was a kid. That BATS crepe sounds good too though (bacon, avocado, tomato, sour cream)....

We also had a dessert crepe, which Crepe Dude thoughtfully split into two smaller, individually-wrapped portions: the turtle, with caramel, melted chocolate, and sliced almonds. I couldn't really taste the caramel, but the combination of melted chocolate and crepe took me straight to Paris. My family had taken a trip there in the 70s and we ate our fair share of chocolate-filled crepes from a street cart near our hotel. (A completely unrelated aside: we stayed at the Hotel du Danube, at 48 Rue Jacob. It was a semi-fleabag then; the first room we were shown didn't have heat, and it was an unseasonably cold November. Our second room wasn't much better, but it was warm. Now it seems to be a luxury hotel.)

While I had issues (don't I always?), I thought Sofi's was a perfect place to grab a quick bite before a film. The food was filling, but didn't weigh me down or make me sleepy, an important consideration before heading into a dark theater.

Sofi's Crepes
5911 York Road
Baltimore, MD 21212
(410) 727-5737





Posted on Minxeats.com.