Hello Again...

I confess.  I'm an awful blogger.  I've been doing a little bit on Yelp, but even that's been sporadic, at best.  But absolutely had to give a quick update here after I had some great eats on my latest adventure through I-10 the Great Republic of Texas.  Today, we'll cover San Antonio.  Down the road, we'll touch on some eats in Houston.  And I've got plenty to write about the far west end of I-10 in Texas (good ol' El Paso). 

So I live off of exit 18 on I-10 in El Paso, TX.  I jump on the freeway, and drive about 550 miles, and then take a left, and then another left, so that I could spend a few days out in San Antonio helping OD move into the new pad.  Apparently you need to get a bigger place when you have kids, and apparently when an Irishman marries a Mexican, multiple kids are inevitable.  In between moving boxes and furniture, and getting yelled at by pregnant Mexican woman, we got some food and drinks into the system.  And I have to give a serious shoutout to a couple places.

First of all, the Green Lantern in San Antonio is a bit of legit cool in a pretty suburban, strip-mall sort of city.  They are a cocktail lounge, and they do 3 house infusions: jalapeno tequila, strawberry vodka, and (my fave) sweet potato whisky, and build cocktails around these house infusions.  My favorite cocktail?  Double sweet potato whisky, neat, with a glass of ice cubes on the side.  If you add an ice cube, it becomes a cocktail :-)  Seriously, they chill the stuff, and it's actually very balanced by itself.  Give me one of those, and I'm happy.  And if you're a cocktail geek, you will love their ice cubes.  True cubes, no air.  Great, slow melt, to cool, but not water-down a drink.  Only negative?  They can't make a Ramos Gin Fizz (no orange blossom water - who carries that anyway?).  Next time, I'll probably just have them make a go of it, and splash in Cointreau or something.

 Pic via Wikipedia: It's like a frothy, boozy milkshake.  

And this is from the Sazerac Bar in the Roosevelt Hotel in NOLA, which I highly recommend.

And the other San Antonio shoutout goes to Auden's Kitchen.  These guys do modern American food, and while the menu isn't super cutting-edge, these guys can cook.  In fact, more and more, I'm finding that I really enjoy places that know themselves, and stick with things that are in their wheelhouse (and slowly expand their repertoires).  The fried chicken platter is great.  Juicy, crispy chicken, green beans cooked soft (like you'd get from grandma, and not frustratingly al dente for the "haricot verts" that everyone pushes on you now), mashed potatoes, and unapologetic, old-school white gravy.  Love it.  Their pizzas are reasonably large, and tasty.  They do a great Scotch egg.  They have great happy hour specials (cheap apps and pizzas at the bar, I think).  They have 3-course prix fixe specials.  Their servers are pros (and friendly).  Everything they do is executed well.  Even in a town like New Orleans, this place would've been in my rotation.  In San Antonio, it rises really, really high.  Been there twice, and I will make sure that I eat there at least once every time I'm in San Antonio.

This is in contrast to places that frustrate me by doing the whole "overpromise and underdeliver" routine.  For example, we had brunch at Tost Bistro, which had a very cool look to it, had all sorts of trendy, hipster-ish, 20-something, and a potentially cool menu that featured some classic bistro fare, with some modern additions.  Unfortunately, they also had a really lousy server that had the women in our party ready to attack, and a mediocre effort in the kitchen.  Braised short ribs?  Awesome.  Put them in an omelet?  Sounds great.  But when the short ribs are a little cold and the omelet is a lot rubbery?  Edible, but in all honesty, I'd rather have the Colorado Omelet at IHOP, for about half the price, more meat in the omelet, and 3 pancakes to boot.  Fried quail?  Sounds great.  Bacon waffle?  Dig that.  Together?  Conceptually, it's problematic (little bones make it hard to have fried poultry and waffle in the same bite).  And what happens when the waffle is dense and dry, and the bacon is chewy and gets lost in the waffle?  Not good eats.  At least the quail was fried pretty well.  I could probably be talked into trying Tost again, but would have to be really impressed on that trip to ever set foot in that place again...

Pic via Whitleytube.org: If your $12 omelet makes me want IHOP, then you lose.

Of course, this omelet is pretty damned good...

Final place in San Antonio is a bit of a question mark for me.  I love the idea of independent pizza shops.  I love places that do their own dough, and make a good pie.  I'm even amenable to a range of styles (NY, Chicago, California, Neapolitan, St. Louis, etc.).  But what drives me nuts is when the owners don't really understand that they have to differentiate themselves from Papa John's or Pizza Hut.  Hand-stretched dough is a start.  But you absolutely can NOT go cheap on your toppings.  If I get the same starch-laden "sausage" nuggets that bounce like rubber balls on my pizza, then I give up.  Even if you aren't making the sausage in-house, if you can't buy fresh sausage, grill it up, and slice it for your pizza, then my money should go to Papa John's...

Which brings us to Stout's Pizza Company.  The thing is, these guys are so close to getting it.  Great feel in the place - sports bar sort of feel, very casual and friendly.  Nice beer selection.  Super fresh salads.  Hand stretched dough, and a tasty pie that had a that great crispy/chewy combo... but also had Super Balls that they cut up and call "sausage."  And the other problem is the "cannoli" that they defrosted and served us.  I went to high school in upstate New York.  We had Italian bakeries.  I know what a cannoli should be.  It should be light, crunchy, have some cinnamon flavor in the dough, and should have a light, sweet, slightly tart ricotta filling.  What it's not is a dense, ricotta frosting, surrounded by a soft, dense layer of flavorless cardboard.  You can make your own cannolis.  And you can fill them to order.  This is why places like Angelo Broacto's in NOLA really got it, and this is why some places stay around for generations and generations.  Stout's is the sort of place that you want to get it, and have it become the spot you always go for pizza.  I really hope that they get it, because San Antonio (especially on the north end, past the outer loop) is full of strip-mall, suburban blandness.  These guys are the sort of place that you root for, but at the moment, I'm on the fence...

Pic via Pipsquex on Flickr: I'm actually at a loss for words, and just want a cannoli...

So why the vitrol towards mass-produced Sysco sausage and desserts out of a box?  I recently tried House of Pizza here in El Paso.  Everyone thinks that this place does the best pizza in the city.  Everyone's an idiot.  The first clue should be all of the Greece posters.  Nothing says great pizza like a poster of the Parthenon.  I should've trusted my instincts.  These guys mail it in.  The lasagna comes out of a box (sheepishly admitted by the server, when questioned - and side note, the server was super nice, and the drink refills came quickly).  The pizza is full of cheap meat toppings.  The crust is solid in the crisp/chew texture, but bland (and definitely needs some extra garlic butter or marinara on the side).  To be fair, their subs looked quite good.  Generous piles of cold cuts, topped with melty cheese.  If I end up out that way, I'll go with a hot pastrami (and avoid anything "Italian").

And for the record, the best pizza in El Paso?  So far, I'm giving it to The Pizza Joint (who I've got a soft spot for in my heart) that does a really nice NY-style by the slice, and a new joint called Tosca Stone Oven (casual, Panera Bakery-style set-up, hot oven, crisp pies)...  A place called "Crust" also just opened up.  We'll see how that goes.

In any case, next up?  A little discussion on some spots in Houston.  And finally some thoughts on what I've gotten myself into in El Paso, TX.

-foodgeek

Best Thing Since...

It's been a while, but with some harassment from CJ, I figure it's time to dust off the Foodgeek space, and talk a little about the great food that I've been eating here in NOLA. Today, I'm going to talk about simple food. Stuff between sliced bread. Here in NOLA, when you talk sandwiches, you're probably talking one of two things. Po'boys or muffulettas. Don't get me wrong, there are some really good sandwiches that aren't po'boys or muffulettas, but they're not special to NOLA they way these sandwiches are. Both of these sandwiches are meant to be blue collar food. Huge portions for reasonable prices. And that's right in my wheelhouse.

Po'boys are basically the subs, hoagies, grinders, heroes, that you get in other parts of the country. They allegedly get their name from an vendor back in the day, who used to sell these big sandwiches on the cheap to the blue collar workers who would come by at lunch. Apparently one day, he sees a couple of the workers walking toward the counter, and he says to one of the customers, "here come those poor boys again." And apparently the name stuck.

Po'boys come on this french bread, most popularly from Leidenheimer's Bakery, which make a very light bread (not the dense baguette that may come to mind), that's a little flaky on the outside, a little chewy, and can soak up a lot of liquid, which we'll talk about later. The loaves come large, maybe about 3' long. And at some shops, you can order a whole loaf, half loaf, or small sandwich, and you'll get a 3' sandwich, an 18" sandwich, or a 9" sandwich. The sandwiches come plain (no veggies) or dressed (typically lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo) for a few cents more. And even now, you can go into one of the corner stores, and get a whole loaf po'boy for about $12. Po'boys come with a variety of fillings, and in the last few years, there's been a bit of an arms race at the different restaurants to come up with more and more interesting combinations. The old school po'boys are fried shrimp or fried oyster, ham and cold cuts, or roast beef (more to come on this). And more recent innovations have been things like fried green tomato and shrimp remoulade, cochon de lait (roast suckling pig), and oyster/bacon/swiss cheese.

Muffulettas are the NOLA version of an Italian sandwich, which come on a round loaf, about 12" in diameter, with sesame on top. The bread has a feel of solid, white bread. When you order a whole muffuletta, you get this gigantic sandwich that you probably can't polish off by yourself in one sitting (unless you're really motivated). The filling is pretty much the same, no matter where you go. You get some combination of capicola (cured pork), salami, mortadella (basically Italian bologna, with fat and pistachios), and ham. You get a layer of cheese, probably provolone and/or Swiss. So it's a lot like you would expect to see in an Italian hoagie that you'd get in Philly. But you don't put the normal vinegar and oil on a muffuletta. Instead, the signature of a muffuletta is probably the salty, tangy olive salad that covers the sandwich, which is basically giardiniera (pickled carrots, cauliflower, peppers, onions, and olives), with more olives, all chopped up. This gives you the oil and vinegar thing, plus more salty veggies on top. You can get muffulettas cold or hot.

Everyone in NOLA has their favorite places for po'boys or muffulettas. For muffulettas, the discussion tends to start at Central Grocery, which is apparently the place where they first started. I'm generally not fond of heading into the French Quarter, as the hassle is just too much for me. But there isn't a great muffuletta in the Uptown area in NOLA, where I live. When I'm in need of a muffuletta, I go with Nor Joe's, which is really an Italian deli out in the Metairie suburb. And I'll be honest, muffulettas are definitely my style - old school, really good, and totally blue collar. For $12-$14, you get a whole muffuletta, which can legitimately feed 2 people.

But in recent times, po'boys have gotten more attention, as they've been featured in New York Times articles, and on shows like Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. And you do see a lot of innovation. But I think that the prime example of a po'boy is the roast beef version. This isn't the sliced cold cuts that you'd see everywhere else. Instead, this is basically shredded pot roast, with a lot of gravy. And I really think that this where the Leidenheimer french bread shines. You can soak up a lot of those juices with this bread, and it manages to stay together for almost long enough to eat like a sandwich. And when people talk about their favorite places, the roast beef po'boy tends to be where they differentiate. Old school joints like Domilise's and Parasol's (which is now Tracy's) get some press, and make decent sandwiches. Mahoney's is another place that's a little bit more modern in it's menu. But my favorite place for po'boys is Parkway Bakery. They do a really good roast beef po'boy (they won the Food Feud - that show hosted by Michael Symon on Food Network). And they also do a really good fried shrimp po'boy. But the po'boy I tend to get is a little of both... well, actually a lot of both. It's the Surf 'n Turf po'boy. They put the fried shrimp, and then they put the roast beef on. I ask for swiss cheese, tomatoes, and pickles. The sandwich is just tasty, and becomes wonderfully messy as you eat it.

What's cool is that some nice restaurants also serve po'boys on their menus. College Inn does a slick oyster, havarti, and bacon po'boy, which sounds strange, but is really tasty. Crabby Jack's does an incredible duck po'boy, with shredded slow cooked duck and gravy. But I think that the one ridiculous po'boy that gets overlooked is the deep fried roast beef po'boy at Jacque Imo's (who also own's Crabby Jack's). Literally, it's a 9" roast beef and swiss cheese po'boy, that they lock in place with toothpicks, and then batter and fry. Tasty, meaty, and deep fried. The amazing part is that this is an appetizer that really should be a meal. I made the mistake of ordering it as an app, and then realized that half-way through that I was pretty much full, even before the entree was on it's way.

The thing is that all of these sandwiches that I've mentioned are huge meals, incredibly tasty, and are a pretty affordable meal. Muffulettas and po'boys originated as food for blue collar folks, which is how most of the great food of the world originated. Poor people find ways to stretch their money, and to make things taste great. Southern cooking, soul food, low-country cuisine, and Cajun food are all examples of this great pattern. And if you go beyond American borders, if you look at Mexican food, Chinese food, Italian food, Turkish food, Spanish food, and all of the great cuisines of the world, you see this pattern. And as much as I dig high end food every once in a while, I really dig this sort of stuff done well.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Cajun Napalm

Boy, time flies when you're sleeping until noon. I think that's how the old adage goes. I haven't posted anything over here on NOLA Foodgeek since last September. This definitely isn't to say that I haven't been eating well. In fact, I've been eating too well. This is probably to be expected in a city like New Orleans.

I think that I definitely need to get you guys caught up on that stuff. But one thing that I want to share with you guys is one thing that I've been doing in my kitchen. Specifically, it's been cooking flour and fat on the stove until it turns nearly black. A while back, I posted this little nugget on my Facebook wall:

If you've ever cooked gumbo, it's just about the most counter-intuitive thing to anyone who cooks regularly... you cook flour and oil until it looks like brownie batter, and then you cook it just a little longer.

And really, that's what you're doing. They call this process of cooking flour and fat "making a roux." And it's been dubbed "Cajun Napalm" by Paul Prudhomme, because if it gets on your skin, you are going to catch a burn. The stuff will run hot (maybe 350 degrees), so you need to be careful. But it's not something to be afraid of, merely something to pay attention to. Folks take this stuff seriously. Not just for safety, but in how you do it.

Apparently the fat you use matters. Classic French roux calls for butter. Vegetable or oilve oil works, as does a blend of oil and butter. What I've been digging is bacon drippings. Especially since I feel wasteful just throwing out bacon drippings. So I go with bacon drippings, plus some of my homemade chili infused olive oil. Then I add flour. Then you cook it for about 5 minutes longer than you would ever think to cook a roux. The goal is to straddle that line between adding as much flavor (you'll hear the terms earthy, nutty, smoky) to that roux before actually burning the roux. I sort of promised pictures. Here's my picture of my roux.

If I told you that this was dark chocolate ganache, you'd believe me.

Now, as you think about the other elements, of gumbo, you think trinity. Basically, this is the cajun version of mirepoix (carrots, onion, and celery), which differs by adding bell peppers and subtracting carrots. In either case, the point is to use these aromatics to add flavor to your broth. I've never really felt the need to be constrained by a style of cooking, so I use both carrots and bell peppers. When I make soup, I like the idea of cooking some elements separately, so that your seasoning is appropriate. So, as I'm doing my roux, I've also got my veggies going in the pan.

I don't really have a smart-ass comment here. It's friggin' veggies.

I go with a very rough cut on everything. This is country food. No need for perfect dices here. You'll also notice some tomatoes here. The point is to just get everything together. In fact, after the veggies get their sautee on, I actually add the water to the pan to get the cooking started up (since the roux takes so ridiculously long). Also add salt, pepper, some some spices (onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, thyme, cayenne, bay leaves), and a little cheater bullion since I don't have stock on hand.

In any case, start adding the liquid from the cast iron skillet into the pot with the roux. Add a little liquid at a time, and keep stirring. Eventually, the roux loosens up, and starts accepting the liquid. Then the veggies go in. Then you add in some gumbo crabs (basically these small blue crabs that don't have much meat that you add in just for flavor, and then fish out, and maybe gnaw on). Add a little chicken in there. Then, you can start tasting and seasoning. Then add some sliced sausage. Then you taste and season some more. Finally, you add in the fast cooking ingredients. I went with some shrimp and some corn. Then you taste and season some more. And then you're in business. Gumbo is supposed to be this thick, stew. Now, I know that okra is normally a staple (and I like okra, actually), but I don't generally have it on hand. The other option is ground sassafrass (or file, "fee-lay") which is sprinkled on top. I haven't used either. I've been happy with just using the roux to thicken things. Regardless, this stuff is addicting. I'm okay with it over rice, but prefer it straight.

Love this dish. It comes together surprisingly quickly. And it looks like a similar technique will make etouffee, another classic Louisiana dish.

Like I said. I'm definitely eating well. There are some fine restaurants in this town, though not everything's been light's out. But to move from a place like Champaign to a place like NOLA? Wow. Until next time.

-foodgeek

Restaurant Review: This Little Piggy... (Part II): Cochon

I promised you guys a follow-up post to the adventure at The Publican, my trip to The Publican's fraternal twin, Cochon.

For those of you who don't speak French (like me), Cochon means "pig." Despite the name, Cochon isn't quite as "pig-centric" as Publican seemed to be. They're focused on Cajun cooking, which is this hybrid of southern, country cooking with French tradition (note, this is somewhat distinct from Creole, which is apparently Cajun food's city-bred cousin). But they can still throw down with the pig. But the places have some similarities. First, they've got big-time chefs at the inspiration. Publican is one of Paul Kahan's ventures, and is definitely good. Cochon is run by Donald Link, who is the chef at a highly regarded Herbsaint here in NOLA (which I haven't had a chance to check out, yet). Both are James Beard award winners, and both restaurants have gotten national recognition. But more importantly, they both serve darned good food.

And since I had focused on the pork aspects of Publican, I was going to do the same at Cochon.

One thing that I loved was that the first thing that showed up wasn't even on my order. I was sitting at the kitchen bar, which overlooked the wood oven, which was worth the price of admission. And when my starter showed up, it arrived with an order of the terrine (quail and fois gras, if I recall correctly), which was served with some berries and a little salad. Very nice, and good enough to pay for. My actual starter was the boucherie plate, basically a plate filled with cured meats pickles, and some mustard. This wasn't quite the massive plate that we got over at Publican, but it was nice. Some house cured tasso, mortadella, and chorizo, plus some rillettes. The cured meats were all tasty, and the rillettes were awesome. Completely different style than Publican - much creamier, whereas the rillettes at Publican had chunks of meat. This was more like a spread than a meat dish. Both versions were great, though.

I also couldn't resist getting an order of fried pig ears. I have to say, this was a bit of a miss. In Chinese cooking, you'll see braised pig ears served cold (sliced into long strips). You get some of the soft, fatty richness, as well as some crunch from the cartilage. When I saw that they were going to be fried, I figured that you'd get some crispiness on the outside, the richness from the skin/fat, and still some crunch from the cartilage. Somehow, it was only one texture - just the soft. The taste was still nice, but I was hoping for some crunch in there, as well. Oh well. On to the entree.

My entree was the ham hock, which was served with some mashed sweet potatoes, some pickled greens, and a black-eyed pea and ham broth. This is a great, simple dish. Balanced flavors - a little sweet, a little sour, some smoke, some salt, and some earthiness. The ham hock was tender, and the skin and fat added some richness. This was definitely good eating. It's the sort of thing that you can make at home, and probably should from time to time.

I actually decided that I wanted some dessert, and I ordered the pineapple-upside down cake. It was solid, but not game-changing. Cornmeal cake. Nice caramel and pineapple action. It was served with some coconut-lime sorbet, which was also nice. All in all, it was something that I was happy to eat, but I'm not sure if I'd order it again.

In any case, Cochon is a great place to get some legit down-home food. It's not exactly cheap, but it's one of these pay-for-quality deals. And when I'm looking for a high-end choice, this place will definitely be on my radar.

-foodgeek

NOLA Sampler Platter

This is an amazing town for food. There's still a follow-up post that I need to write about Cochon, a restaurant that's similar in spirit to The Publican. But I've run into all sorts of great food down here, including Boucherie, which has some great modern American bistro food (definite write-up), Crabby Jack's, an uber-casual place with great 'po boys and cajun/creole food (definite write-up), and a number of small po' boy places (probably a combo write-up). There are two good sushi places I've been to, Ninja and Sake Cafe, and apparently a couple more worth checking out. And I wandered into Squeal, where I not only got comped a great plate of barbecue, I also got to chat up one of the owners, Patrick, who works for John Besh out here, and got some inside info on places to eat here.

This is 2 weeks in. I think that I can go out to 5 new places a week, and I wouldn't make a dent on the food scene. But that doesn't mean that I'll try. And hopefully, I'll be able to put up some posts that do the food justice. And one more thing. I'm going to try to remember to take photos... I've been remarkably Web 1.0 in my blog ventures. If I can include some pictures, maybe we can become a little more Web 1.5... right in time for everyone else to go Web 3.0, whatever that means.

-foodgeek

New Beginnings

We've made a change in honor of our impending move to New Orleans. Thus, we are reinventing this blog as the Adventures of the NOLA Foodgeek. We'll still have a few more posts from the cornfields, but hopefully we'll start making this thing a little nicer, and add a few more photos, as well!

-foodgeek

Restaurant Review: Bahn Mi So Tasty - Xinh Xinh Cafe

Our little village in the middle of nowhere has recently picked up two relatively new Vietnamese restaurants. The first is Saigon, a converted Chinese place, that apparently has the same ownership. If you look at the reviews on Yelp, you'll see that the reviews aren't all that great. I've been there, and thought that the pho (Vietnamese soup noodles, with a killer broth) was alright, though I'm no expert on pho. The spring rolls are OK, not great. The rest of the food that I've tried is pedestrian. I don't go out of my way to head out there, so there's not much point in talking more about this place.

However, the second place, Xinh Xinh Cafe, has become a regular spot for me. To be honest, I haven't tried the pho out there. Part of it is because it's summer, and it's been hot. But the real reason is that I love the Bahn Mi. Bahn Mi is a Vietnamese hoagie. At Xinh Xinh, they come with lightly pickled carrots and daikon, onion, slices of cucumber, cilantro, and jalapeno. There's a little mayo on there (I think that it's cut with fish sacue, not positive). And then there's the meat. My favorite is the combo. It's got pate, headcheese, ham, and some cold cuts that I'm not super familiar with (pork, based, I'm sure). And it's awesome. It's meaty and just plain tasty. There are a number of other meat choices, including one with sardines (sort of like a Vietnamese sloppy joe, which is great). I swear, I can't go a week without dropping in for a bahn mi. But the rest of the food is really good, as well. The one thing that I'd say wasn't top notch was the bread, which was OK, but not great. If they could get par baked bread in there, it would be phenomenal. But what is phenomenal is the price - sandwiches for $3.95.

One thing you gotta try is the spring roll (I've seen them called summer rolls in other restaurants). These things are great. Rice paper wrapper (not fried), and filled with lettuce, Thai basil, cilantro, cucumber, and carrots, and either shrimp or pork. And a secret ingredient. A "cigar" or fried egg roll wrapper (the thin kind). It adds an incredible crunch to the spring roll. They serve it with a peanut/hoisin sauce (basically chunky peanut butter and hosin). And it's definitely worth it.

The fried spring rolls and egg rolls are all solid, and come with nice dipping sauces. The wings were pretty tasty, but were tiny, and not worth the price. But in addition to the spring rolls, there's one killer app that you have to try: the Nataing. Basically, it's ground pork, cooked with chilis and coconut milk. And it's incredible. They give you sliced baguette and shrimp crackers to eat with the meat.

They're also doing cold noodles (no broth), that come a bowl, above a bunch of veggies (sprouts, cilantro, Thai basil), and under your choice of grilled meats. It comes with a nice sauce (fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, and carrots, I think) that you can pour over everything, before you go to town. Again, great crunch, great fresh taste, and a lot of flavors that are just fun to eat.

Now, this may be sacrilege, but I think that I like bahn mi better than the 'po boys that I was getting down in New Orleans last week. I didn't hit up all of the great 'po boy shacks in the city, but I've had a few of them from a couple of the good places, and it just didn't compare to the flavors and freshness of the bahn mi over at Xinh Xinh. I'm sure that I'll find a place in NOLA that will do bahn mi, but in Champaign, Xinh Xinh is the place.

Update 07/08/09: Wednesday is Pho Happy Hour. $5 for a bowl of pho. Plus, the weather was cool and rainy. Perfect for a bowl of hot soup and noodles. Broth was nice - more spice notes than beef. Nice clove and star anise flavor. The meat was all cooked nicely. And the veggies were fresh. No argument from me. The other thing I tried was the beef skewer bahn mi. Awesome. Instead of the normal veggies, it had a nice papaya salad (with strong ginger notes) and a chili sauce that wasn't too spicy. Really good stuff.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Summertime and the Livin's Easy

Summer's here in full force. Down in NOLA, it was 95 and humid all week. And I get back to Illinois, and the weather's, well 91 and humid. But, I'm bringing back something from my trip to NOLA that is a heck of a cooler.

One thing that I've been learning about cocktails is that when you do it right, you end up with a great, balanced drink that isn't too sweet, too sour, or too bitter, but just right. At one of my great meals down there (at Boucherie, which will be getting a write-up), I had a perfect summer cocktail, a Pimm's Cup, which is based on a British liqueur, Pimm's No. 1.

Pimm's No. 1 is a gin-based liqueur, that's infused with some spice and fruit. I've never really had it before, but my exposure was phenomenal. The version of the Pimm's cup at Boucherie was a little bit of a deviation of the classic cocktail. The classic version builds off of 3 parts lemon soda to 1 part Pimm's No. 1, with a little lemon and cucumber garnish. Over at Boucherie, they take a couple liberties with the original recipe, but make a great cocktail. They muddle cucumber, add lemon and a mint-infused syrup, pour in the Pimm's, and then top with ginger ale. Add a cucumber garnish, and you're good to go. Great cocktail - light, not too sweet, a little tart, and a great flavor with the cucumber. You can drink these things all day.

So, what to do when I get home. I don't plan on buying a bottle of Pimm's, so there's the issue of the liquor or liqueur to use. But you can start with the combo of citrus and cucumber. My current take on a summer cooler:

The liquor is the place to start. Since this little experiment was NOLA-inspired, I had to keep it local. Sazerac Rye. There's a definite strong flavor from the rye, but it's nice and gives some body to the drink. But too much rye can overpower the rest of the drink. So, a little bit of rum adds a little extra kick to the drink without overpowering things. And that's the base. Of course, you have to keep the cucumber, and I've always liked how limes taste, so that keeps the flavors on point. But, the Pimm's has some extra depth of flavor. The rye helps. But I decided to go with some more fruit, in this case orange and pineapple juice. I also liked the mint kick that the Boucherie version had, so I went with some mint syrup that I had on hand. I didn't have good ginger ale on hand, but had some lemon-lime soda, so that was good enough.

Here's the rundown:

Get a pint glass.

Dice 2 slices of cucumber (about 1/2" thick).
1/2 lime, cut into 4 pieces.

Muddle the cucumber and lime in the pint glass, and add ice.

Add mint syrup (maybe 1 oz.), one shot rye, and one shot rum.
Add about 2 oz. orange and 2 oz. pineapple
Top with lemon-lime soda.

You can definitely scale this up, and make a pitcher at a time, though I'd add chilled soda to each individual serving, to keep the fizziness. This cocktail is pretty good as is, but I think that muddling fresh mint may be a better choice, so as to keep it from getting too sweet.

In any case, I'l be playing around with some other possibilities, and I'll try to report the hits.

-foodgeek

Restaurant Review: This Lil' Piggy... (Part I): The Publican

A little while back, I made my pilgrimage to The Publican, a restaurant on Fulton Market in Chicago that is well-renowned at a national level, and has won awards for it's design. And sure enough, the place was cool has hell. Globe lights coming down from the ceiling. Cool wood chairs with high backs, and matching tables. And the most noticeable things are the gigantic piantings of different heritage breeds of pigs. Definitely a talking point. The seating was sort of communal - just a long bench, and you got seated next to other parties. And in the middle were some round, 2-tiered tables w/ no chairs, where people waiting for their tables could get a brew. This place was a little casual - but it was still a place where people were spending $40/person. We were slightly underdressed in jeans and a polo or jeans and an untucked dress shirt. But not completely out of place. The place had a nice energy to it, a little buzz from the conversation, but the crowd was older. Most of the folks looked to be in their 40's or 50's. But it may have been the 5:30pm Saturday time... a little on the early side for the younger crowd.

But to be honest, I'm not as worried about the crowd, the ambience, renown, or design. I'm there because I've read great things about Paul Kahan, the chef/owner, and The Publican's devotion to all things pig. So, me and CJ wandered over, and we sat down to devour as much as we could physically handle. It was real, and it was spectacular.

First of all, The Publican is a place molded in the gastropub theme. You have a great selection of alcohol, done with a vision. In this case, it's good beer. And then you put great food around it. In this case, it's pig, done with a blend of European tradition, with some American twists thrown in. Pretty much everything that we had was good, and some of it was spectacular. We pretty much ignored the seafood, and went basically all pig.

The first thing that came out was just plain indulgent. Some really nice french fries. And two sunny-side eggs on top. Cut the eggs and let the yolk run all over the fries. Awesome. Love runny egg yolks on just about anything...

Next up, a trio of cured hams. The folks at Publican have a number of choices, including some really nice American ham, including hams from Kentucky and Iowa. The chef's choices we got were the Spanish Serrano ham, the Italian Prosciutto, and a American country ham. Both of the European hams were nice - creamy texture, nice clean flavor, and just what you'd expect. These were the high-dollar hams, and worth the price. Now, the country ham was noticeably cheaper, but I actually liked it the best. My comment was that if you blind-folded me and didn't tell me what I was eating, that I'd like the country ham the best. It was a little sweet, and had some nice, deep spice notes going on (clove, was what I was thinking). Just great stuff.

Similarly, the charcuterie plate was just darned good. It came with some pickled asparagus, some cornichon, and some thing else that I have no idea what it was (green, looked a little like grapes crossed with olives). All were nice. And it came with three types of mustard. The pork confit (I think), and pork pie (basically, a little 1.5" radius, 1.5" tall quarter-wedge with a nice pie crust, with some cured pork and pork fat in there) were solid. The house cured Chorizo (nicely done, good spice) was really enjoyable. But what stole the show was the head cheese and the squab and fois gras terrine. The head cheese was meaty, and had a nice solid gelatin going on. It stayed together until the gelatin melted in your mouth, and the meat was noticably meat. Nice flavor. Great product. The squab and fois gras terrine was just decadent. Creamy, rich, a little salty. Like I said - not everything was spectacular, but everything was good, and there were some definitely high notes.

The next thing that came out were the rillettes. I had no idea what a rillette was, until the server explained it. Basically, it's a slow-cooked cut of meat, and traditionally cooked in it's own fat (like a confit, only it's shredded or cut before cooking), and then cooled. It all solidifies, and then you spread it on toast. It's ridiculously good at Publican. They put on a finely chopped pickled rhubarb on top for a little tang and crunch. I love the old school preparation. Back in the day, if you pack something in fat, you did it so that it wouldn't spoil. Today we have refrigeration, so now you do it because it's awesome.

The one thing that I had overlooked in the starters was the pork rinds, and in retrospect, may have eschewed the fries (though they were darned good) and went with the pork rinds. But what we got was all good, and the rillettes were awesome.

Then came the entrees. Now, I guess that I lied about going all pig. I couldn't resist the Basque stew. It was essentially a slightly spicy fish stew (a lot like bouillabaisse), with a lot of fennel, some orange, and an assortment of shrimp, clams, mussels, crab, octopus, and salt cod. All of the fish was cooked well (not overcooked, which is easy to do in these dishes), and the cod was spectacularly tender. It's served with a few slabs of toasted bread and rouille (a spicy mayo). You slather some rouille on the bread, and then ladle the soup and seafood over the bread. You work on the seafood, while the bread soaks up the broth. Then, you eat the bread, and get a nice meal. If you told me it was just bouillabaisse, I'd have believed you. I think that what made it "Basque" was some saffron and orange (and maybe Spanish paprika) and the salt cod. But it was good.

But to finish off, we definitely went back to swine, with the potee, which is essentially a dish all cooked in one vessel. I'm not sure if the version at Publican was a true version, but it was great. Ours came with three choice versions of pork. The first was a very nice smoked sausage - meaty, smoky, and a salty. No complaints. The next was a cut of braised pork shoulder, which was incredibly tender and tasty. The last cut was pork tenderloin. Tender, reasonably tasty, and incredibly uninteresting. All of it came on top of roast veggies - brussel sprouts, baby turnips, baby carrots, zucchini, and a little aioli. The veggies were nicely cooked, and the aioli was a great touch. I guess that I was hoping for a little cut of pork belly or maybe something like a trotter. But all in all it was a nice entree.

I had to add one side, that looked incredible. Italian-style greens. I think that it was collard greens, cooked with some ham, and then finished with some balsamic. The greens were really good. And what took it over the top was the breaded, fried hominy that was on top. Never would have figured it. Crispy, then dense and flavorful. Great addition to the greens, and a top-notch side item.

Looking back at the menu, a couple nice, bold red wines may have been the way to go. But the focus of Publican was beer. So I rolled with beer. I went with a Great Lakes Brewing Co. brew - the porter on draft. Nice, dark, complex coffee/chocolate notes. A little sweet and bitter at the end. And it went great with the food. CJ stuck w/ the iced tea - he had almost died from drinking the night before, and wasn't about to go with the hair of the dog.

But we gorged ourselves. I walked out of there wondering why I ate so much. But the answer was obvious. The food was awesome. This is high end cooking, and there's a reason why people rave about this place. If you get a chance to go, you should definitely go. Have a nice beer, have some rillettes, have some pork rinds, and have a great time.

So, why is this post only Part I? Because I had to follow this up with a trip to Cochon, in New Orleans. And what is Cochon? Well, "cochon" is "pig" in French. I said that Publican leaned toward European-style preparations, with some American twists. On the other Cochon is southern cooking, with a little bit of an European twist. And naturally, I had to see the difference for myself.

-foodgeek

Restaurant Review: You Either Smoque...

... or you get Smoqued... Ah yes. Wesley Snipes reminding Woody Harrelson (and us) that White Men Can't Jump, long before his IRS-snubbing days.

So up in Chicago, there's a relatively new barbecue place, called Smoque, which opened up back in early 2007 over in the north side of town (on Pulaski, just south of Irving Park). They've gotten some good press from the New York Times, more for it's business acumen, than it's superior barbecue. And they were also featured on the Food Network, on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. But what I liked most about them was their willingness to explain what it is that they do.

Their manifesto is a nice explanation of what they try to do. They put it out there, and then let the customer judge. What I get annoyed at is the folks who produce mediocre food, treating their recipes like classified government secrets. These folks are just interested in making this sale. Probably because they know that this may be the only sale they make. On the other hand, the ones who have the best food are always excited to talk shop. They're proud of what they do, and they want to educate people on what the good stuff is. They know that if you educate your customers, and have a superior product, you'll get this sale, the next one, and probably the one after that, as well.

So what do they do? The menu is simple. Brisket, pulled pork, chicken, baby back ribs, spare ribs, and sausage. I think that they offer a salad, but if they did, I blocked it from my memory. Sides? Mac and cheese, beans, cole slaw, fries, and corn bread. Dessert? Peach cobbler. So many places try to do too much, and end up doing everything poorly. The folks over at Smoque don't have that problem.

Mac and cheese? Good stuff. Cheesy, creamy, and rich. Beans? Little sweet, little tangy, little smoky, and good. Slaw? Crunchy, light, tangy, and great counter balance to the barbecue. Fries? If you read the manifesto, you wouldn't bother. Peach cobbler? Really good, with an awesome almond and oat topping. They also had brisket chili when we were there. Not quite a Texas red, but an OK version w/ beans, veggies, and chopped brisket.

What about the meat? Everything was solid - there were no losers in the bunch. However, not everything was perfect. The pulled pork and the sausage were both tasty, but just pushed the edge of being dry. The brisket was also good, but wasn't perfect - it just pushed the edge of being overcooked. I've been told that the sign of properly cooked brisket is that when you pull on it, the meat will pull back a bit, like an accordion. I've had a couple examples of just about perfect brisket down in Texas. The brisket over at Smoque pulled back just a little bit - just pushing the edge of being too mushy, but was still good. The ribs were cooked well - tender, but didn't fall off the bone. The flavor was solid, but wasn't the best that I've had. I'm a little biased toward the maple-based glaze that the folks at Super Smokers use, plus I had just cooked a great rack of ribs at home a couple days before that I thought may have been the best ribs that I've ever had. What was cooked perfectly was the chicken. The skin had that great flavor from the rub and the nice fatty texture. The dark and the white meat were all juicy and tender.

The price is actually very reasonable. For under $40, me and a buddy absolutely gorged ourselves, probably eating enough for 3, maybe 4. It's cafeteria style, so you don't worry about tipping. You get your own drinks, you use plastic forks and knives, you get the food from the counter, and bring it to the table, etc. My recommendation is to bring a friend, and order the 1/2 chicken, the brisket (the platters come with cole slaw and 2 sides), and to get mac and cheese, beans, cobbler, some cornbread, and share everything. You'll spend about $25, and you'll walk out of there pretty happy.

And I don't care what color you are, after you're done eating, you won't want to jump at all, but instead just lounge in front of a TV and watch a ball game.

-foodgeek

Restaurant Briefs: Asian Influence

Three relatively new places have opened up in C-U, all on campus. And all three have an Asian influence, and all three are solid. Since Sushi County closed up (and became Big Mouth), there hadn't been sushi on campus. And now there are two new sushi places. And neither seems to be as good as Sushi County. Sushi County was pretty simple about what it was - budget sushi. They charged pretty reasonable prices, because they knew that they weren't getting the highest quality fish. It was decent. But it was a far cry from the quality of the fish at Kamakura or KO Fusion. The problem with these two new places is that they aren't getting the high quality fish, but are still trying to charge the premium prices for their sushi, which is problematic.

Sushi Rock

Sushi Rock is on the south side of Green St., between 6th and Wright. It's a nice, clean place with a modern feel, though you don't have much of a clue that it's a sushi place, other than the bottles of soy sauce and the sake at the bar. And you wouldn't be wrong to assume that it isn't sushi. There's not a real assortment of sushi to be had. but if you're into Maki rolls, then you have a reasonable assortment of rolls to try out. But no sashimi, nigiri, or hand rolls, from what I saw on the menu.

They have some decent udon, if you're into the idea of slurping up a bowl of broth and noodles, which I totally am. When I went there last week, I ordered a Sunset Roll (spicy crab roll, topped with raw salmon and a spicy, creamy sauce). It tasted OK, but the salmon was only so-so, there was a heavy hand with the sauce, and the precision of the roll was mediocre, at best (poor knife work on the salmon, sloppy cuts on the roll, and the roll was a bit on the loose side). At $8.95 for an 8-piece roll, it wasn't exactly great value. From what I saw, I'd avoid paying the premium for the maki rolls. I'm guessing that they don't go through enough raw fish for it to be of particularly great quality.

However, the Udon and Rolls combo is a superior value at $7.95. You get a medium sized bowl of udon, which has a nice, clean tasting broth, a small serving of the thick, chewy noodles (which were cooked well), and a float of some tempura fried veggies, which add a nice little texture to the soup. Plus, you get a 6-piece order of the california roll (so-so, but I'm not a real fan of california rolls), though they did top with the crunchy topping (basically fried potato flakes, I think) and eel sauce, which helped. AND, you get a 6-piece order of a spicy tuna roll (again, so-so, not great tuna, and the roll needed a little extra hot sauce on it - I ended up using the excess sauce from my Sunset Roll). It's nothing adventurous, but you get a nice, filling lunch out of it at a great value (the rolls would be like $5 or $6, each).

I didn't try the bento box lunches, or the other entrees. But, if I were to go back, I'd probably go with the Udon and Rolls, or maybe just get a larger bowl of udon and pass on the sushi altogether. Which is sort of sad, given the name of the palce.

Sushi Ave.
Sushi Ave. is also on the south side of Green St., but between 4th and 5th, where Dorca's used to be. But the focus is now on sushi. And frankly, it's bad. There are some differences between Sushi Rock and Sushi Avenue. First of all, the name isn't nearly as cool (and honestly, the name sort of sucks). And the interior isn't nearly as nice as Sushi Rock, though it isn't terrible. And sadly, the sushi rolls weren't as good, which is sort of a damning statement, if you read what I wrote above.

The prices aren't outrageous, but the quality is just off. They do a couple lunch combos - basically you save a couple bucks by getting two rolls, a tiny side salad, and a bowl of miso. I went with the $10.95 combo, which you got a regular roll, and one of the lower priced specialty rolls. Sadly, the side salad and miso (which were pedestrian) were the best part of the meal. Side salad: iceberg lettuce, a few shreds of red cabbage, and that ginger-carrot dressing that you see at every japanese place. But the veggies were fresh, so good enough. And the miso soup was the standard free side that you see everywhere, as well. I went with a salmon skin roll as my regular roll and got a "Lake Med" (spicy tuna, with seaweed salad and spicy mayo on top) for my special roll. First the good news. The rolls were rolled pretty well, the rice was OK, and the knife work looked solid. This was actually a little surprising, because the sushi chef wasn't exactly a sushi chef so much as he was just some guy who was also there to cook everything else, do a little cleaning, and take care of things, while the owners and managers sat around and did other things like check on their stock prices or watch TV. My best guess is that some Asian dude with money bought the place on a lark, and then hired an idiot nephew to run the place. The owner's more interested in the upcoming bull rall in the market, and the idiot newphew is, well, and idiot. They managed to hire a Mexican to actually do the work, and the guy can probably cook his ass off, since it looks like he's learned to make rolls really quickly. Of course, this isn't promising for the rest of this review.

The salmon skin roll was terrible. You couldn't tell it was salmon skin. Salmon skin is a beautiful thing when done right. It's got a distinct salmon flavor, it's crispy, just slightly chewy from the meat or fat still on there, it's a little salty. One of my favorite things is a salmon skin hand roll. I was hoping that this would come close. It didn't. There was no texture to the skin at all, and you couldn't tell what it was. It's something that I'd expect from a bad grocery store or someone trying to make sushi at home for the first time. The Lake Med was a little better. The spicy tuna was actually spicy, though it was a little one note. The seaweed salad is the same stuff that you get everywhere, so it couldn't have been screwed up, and actually made for a nice contrast with the spicy tuna by adding a little texture, a little sweetness, and a little nuttiness from the sesame. I certainly wouldn't pay the $8.95 for it that they normally charge, but is was edible.

So why did I not go with the sashimi or nigiri? The fish looked bad. The salmon looked to be mediocre farmed salmon, just had an off color, and didn't look great. The tuna looked a little better, but was in those pre-cut blocks that you see sold at Asian grocery stores. I asked to see the hamachi, but was told that they were out. And there wasn't much else in the case that looked appetizing. Let's just say that for someone that is OK with grocery store sushi, gets street food in foreign countries, and has had a Mexican slushy, I was nervous about ordering sashimi or nigiri.

Does this place have promise? Probably not. The menu's a mess. First, they insisted on this ridiculous background so that you can't really read the menu. And the menu itself is way too big. They have like 8 regular rolls, and no less than 45 specialty rolls. The sushi chef had no idea what I ordered, and had to be explained that it was just a spicy tuna roll with seaweed salad on top. If they were to just keep the menu simple, and make it more like food court sushi, they may be better off, and may be able to make a few bucks with this crowd. Sadly, I think that if I were to actually get sushi on campus, it would be at Sushi San, located in the food court in the basement of the Union. It comes in prepackaged containers, like in a grocery store, but everythign stays on ice, and they do enough business to keep the fish turning. Where you run into trouble is when businesses try to cut corners, and don't do enough in sales to keep new stock coming in. Some things you can stretch an extra day. Raw fish isn't one of them.

Now, for the 3rd place, we're going with a different theme. No more fish. It's time for dessert. And not that trout ice cream you see on Iron Chef. Real dessert.

CocoMero

Just around the corner from Sushi Rock is is Cocomero. I've tried to search online about the place, but there's not much info available, so it appears that this is an independent venture. Basically, we're talking frozen yogurt. And they have the tart frozen yogurt that's been popular for a few years on the coasts (e.g., Pinkberry, Mango Mango, Island Yogurt). But, it's very new to more remote parts of the world, like Champaign-Urbana. But we have a frozen yogurt place, finally. It's all self-serve. Go through, get what you want, add topings, and weigh it at the end - 39 cents per ounce. You can get an ample serving for $5.

Only a handful of tart flavors (currently the original, green tea, raspberry, mango, and California tart, which is like the original, only a little sweeter and less tangy). I like the tart style, so I don't really go for the non-tart stuff. And what takes places like this over the top are the quality of the toppings. They have fresh mango, strawberry, kiwi, melon, and blackberries. And generally, that's what I roll with (mango and berries, generally). There are also a variety of candy, shredded coconut, chopped nuts, and some syrups available. And what's probably the coolest topping is the cereal. You can put Fruity Pebbles and Cap'n Crunch on your frozen yogurt, if you're so inclined.

So, of the three sort of new places on campus, I think that Sushi Rock has reasonable food, a limited selection, and is overpriced (save their great Udon and Rolls combo), I think that Sushi Ave. may kill someone with their product, and I think that CocoMero is awesome. So at the very least, I've found a place for a quick lunch (though I'll order the same thing every time), and a place that I'll wander back to regularly for frozen yogurt. So it wasn't a total loss. Oh well. Pretty soon, this foodgeek will be on to bigger and better things in one of the great food cities of the world.

-foodgeek

Restaurant Review: Black Dog - Truth in Advertising

Finally, I went to a restaurant where the food matched up with the name of the restaurant. Unfortunately, the name of the place was Black Dog. Technically, it's Black Dog Smoke and Ale House, but whatever. There were a couple reviews from local food writers about the place - the sort who just can't help but rave about everything. After I ate there, I was on the phone with CJ, and I explained that while I was in there, I was trying to keep from channeling my inner Gordon Ramsey.

As you walk toward the place, it seems promising. There's a nice smoke smell coming from the place. But as you walk in, you start to see some cracks in the veneer, particularly in terms of service. Basically, the service sucks, as one of the comments on Yelp suggest. Basically, it goes like this. You have a dive bar, where crusty old servers have worked forever. They didn't have to have a clue because you basically had locals who were low maintenance ordering PBR in cans or Bud Heavy on draft and maybe some fries on occasion. Now, ownership transforms dive bar into restaurant that wants to do modern barbecue and microbrew. But ownership doesn't have the will or the insight to get new staff. You end up with crappy servers who take their time, and basically suck.

But I can live with lousy service, to some extent, if the food makes up for it. The Black Dog didn't. I ordered a large amount of food, and I found that two things were good, and the rest was subpar. Here's the rundown:

Appetizer - a stuffed cornbread sort of thing (forget the label they used). A very generous wedge of cornbread that has chopped jalapenos, cheese, chopped barbecue, and beans mixed in. It was dense, almost like a casserole. Reasonably tasty and a good value ($2.95).

Soup - chili. Not good. Beans, leftover chopped barbecue, and some tomatoes, with some water, and (not enough) seasoning. No depth of flavor. No heat. Needed salt. If this was a dog, it needed to be put down. On the bright side, it was pretty filling. And if you add a little salt, some black pepper, and the chipotle Tabasco they have on the table, it becomes a little more edible. But really, if you have to season the dish yourself, the back of the house is underperforming ($2.50/cup; $4/bowl).

Meal - combo platter w/ brisket and pulled pork ($10.99). The brisket was mushy. It was hard to tell if it was slice brisket or chopped brisket. That's a bad sign. Plus, the trim was terrible. My first slide was like 90% fat. I like a little extra fat left on the brisket, but this was ridiculous. When I have brisket, I look for 2 things. The first is the red smoke ring around the meat (more or less absent). The second is when you pick up and slice of brisket and pull it with minimal force, does it come apart, or does it accordion back? If the brisket just comes apart, then you've killed it. Good brisket should have a little elasticity. I could tell just by looking at the presentation - definitely not clean slices, almost a pile of chopped brisket. This was going to be a loser. Unfortunately, the pork was just as bad. This stuff was dry and stringy. There was a nice smoke flavor there, so at some point (probably about 2 hours before I arrived), this was probably very tasty. Unfortunately, by the time it showed up on my table, it was like jerky. Not good. They also served a little cole slaw with the meat, which was actually reasonable, though I'd argue that it wasn't a cole slaw so much as it was pickled cabbage. The look was a bit off - it's strange having this magenta pile of shredded cabbage on your plate. The taste was a little strong for eating on its own (only one note to the slaw - just vinegar, no sugar, no heat, nothing else). But when you paired it with the pork, it was actually decent. My best guess was that the cabbage makes you salivate, which helps the dry pork go down, while the smoky flavor in the pork keeps you from noticing the lack of complexity in the slaw. Perhaps two wrongs can make for a relative right.

The sides that I got with my meal were the pit beans and the potato salad. The pit beans were actually good. Nice flavor. Some chunks of chopped barbecue. Maybe a little too sweet, but I enjoyed eating them. The potato salad was perhaps the biggest disaster, which is saying something. The flavor of the dressing was bland, but even worse was that the potatoes were really undercooked. Al dente is not how you want your potatoes. And these weren't even al dente. They were crunchy. Terrible effort, overall.

In this town, I've been lamenting the lack of good brisket for years now. Longhorn Smokehouse (which is now Hickory River) had some very good brisket, but that changed a few years ago. Black Dog totally whiffed on this effort. Smoky Bones (now closed) had awful brisket. Right now, the best brisket in town is actually at Famous Dave's. Go figure. Of course, the basic litmus test for me is whether or not the brisket is better than what I could get at a HEB supermarket down in Texas. If a restaurant can't beat what you can get for $5.99/lb at a supermarket deli counter (though Whole Foods may be reshaping that idea), then it's not worth going to.

I may give the Black Dog another visit down the road, to see if they've smoothed things out. But given the lousy service and the lousy food, I may not even bother.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Shakin' and Bacon

In the past, I've always thought that bacon was overrated. The stuff you get in national breakfast chains is generally just thin, salty, greasy, limp, and not particularly appetizing. We never really did bacon in my house growing up. We used to braise pork belly (soy sauce, sugar, star anise, etc.) and eat it with steamed buns, but we basically never did the bacon thing. I've played around a little bit with bacon the last few months, and have decided that I like bacon.

Basically, I saw bacon on sale, so I picked up a package, figuring that I'd do something cool with it, but I wasn't exactly sure what. With regards to the bacon itself, the one thing that figured out was that if you fry it up in the pan, and then right at the end, add on some sort of syrup, you create an extra crunchy, sweet coating on the bacon. Candied bacon, if you will. Incredible. I've had some sage syrup and some ginger syrup. Both work very will for this by adding something more than just sweet. This is sort of that sweet-salty thing that's been in vogue (think salted caramel).

I also figured out that you can make anything better by wrapping it up in bacon and frying it up. People have been wrapping scallops and shrimp forever. I discovered that hot dogs become much tastier once you wrap them up and fry them. Some grilled onions, cheddar cheese, and barbecue sauce finish off something that's really tasty and extra bad for you.

But the most interesting thing that I discovered was that it wasn't just the bacon that was of use. Bacon drippings were also there in abundance. And using the drippings effectively became one of my projects. If you remember from Top Chef a couple seasons ago, they marinated tofu in beef fat, to rave reviews.

I started with the idea of making an improved BLT. The bacon is still there, just like it should be. And you can drop the lettuce, which is just filler, anyway. But the tomato? A nice slice of raw tomato has it's merits. But what I think is even better is a quick sear on both sides, in the bacon drippings, with a quick grind of salt and pepper. You're still definitely eating tomato. But you get a little more flavor out of the tomato by cooking, and you also add on a little of that smoky bacon flavor. I also liked that idea of frying up eggs over easy in the bacon dripping, as well. The runny yolk thing is something that I've always like, and fits in nicely with the sandwich, giving the sandwich a sauce-like effect (in place of mayo). Finally, I added grilled onions, also done in the bacon drippings, with salt and pepper. Put it all between some nice bread (something soft and a little sweet like a brioche or a good bun). Result? Money sandwich.

The other sandwich that I was playing with was a grilled cheese with bacon and grilled onions. Same story as before, with the grilled onions. But the big thing? Using bacon dripping for grilling the sandwich. Finish with a little salt and pepper, and you get an added flavor to the bread that's definitely helped change my position on bacon.

The final verdict? Bacon is definitely not overrated, and figuring out what to do with the drippings makes bacon anything but ordinary.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Faux Sous-Vide

So, sous-vide cooking is basically vacuum sealing food, and then cooking it in a controlled, relatively low-temperature water bath. What this lets you do is to get food to exactly the right temperature, no matter how long it cooks. You can also seal in other ingredients to add flavor to the cooking process.

I buy a decent amount of frozen fish, and a lot of is is packaged in individually sealed, packages. Normally, I take it out, and then steam, bake, sautee, or do whatever to the fish, and it turns out alright. But, the other day, I took a look at the packaging and just thought, "boy, this is like they're taking the work out of sous-vide cooking."

This ended up being the easiest thing in the world. I filled a 2 qt. sauce pot halfway with water. Put it on my burner at high for a couple minutes, covered. Basically, as the water was getting hot (not to a boil, maybe to 180F), I put in the fish, still in the vacuum package. I assumed that the water dropped in temperature, maybe down to 150F, and I wanted to keep the water at that temperature. So, I put the burner to "warm," and then put the cover on the pot. A few minutes later, you see the fish turn opaque, and you're good to go.

Of course, you'll need to season the fish again, but I find that a simple seasoning (just salt and pepper, or maybe some soy sauce and ginger) works great. The fish is incredibly tender, and still has a great flavor to it.

I'd recommend using fish that are a little fatty (I've used halibut and flounder fillets, both of which were great). They tried to sous-vide salmon on Top Chef, which was disastrous, so I'll probably avoid that. But at some point, I'll give this technique a shot for whatever fish that I can find at the store, and see what works. I'm guessing that tilapia and other lean fish won't be so hot, but you never know.

Anyway, it's about to be grilling season, so I'll probably be moving away from this sous-vide thing for a while :-)

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Showing Some Skin

What's interesting is that a lot of folks avoid eating the skin on meat (think salmon or chicken). Salmon skin is absolutely awesome, as is chicken skin, if you get it to crisp up properly. Sushi restaurants make salmon skin rolls, and if done well, they are coveted by folks in the know. When I get the chance, I do my salmon and chicken skins in a pan. You want to season the skin, and cook it in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Some weights over the skins will keep them from curling, and make sure that they cook up evenly. You get this great, crispy skin that's got a great meat flavor. But what I'm writing about is a little different. Today, we're talking pig.

So I was wandering around the grocery store the other day, and I took a peek into the part of the store that contained the smoked animal parts. There was the usual assortment of smoked turkey wings and necks, smoked hog jowls and ham hocks, and all the like. I came across something that I hadn't seen before: smoked bacon skins. Basically, bacon is the pork belly. Whatever fat and meat that they can trim off can get sold at a decent price. The skin? Not so much. But I took one look, and realized that I had just hit the jackpot.

When you roast a pig, one of the best things to do is to take off a little bit of that crispy skin (some folks call them cracklin's), add a little hot sauce, and crunch away. These are like pork rinds you get in the store, only they're awesome, and not Styrofoam. You get a great solid crunch, a meaty flavor, and something that a lot of folks don't ever get to experience.

Now, one of the hard parts is to get the skin crispy , when there's a layer of fat attached to it. The outside dries out and crisps up, but the inside is still being basted by the fat that's melting. So, the skin just burns, before it can crisp. Now, if you can strip off the skin, you can get it to crisp up pretty easily, either in a pan or in the oven. But this is hard to do and sort of messy.

But, if it's already cleaned off for you, you can make cracklin's very easily. And since the bacon skin is smoked, you get a little extra flavor in there. One thing to note is that the skins will curl up on you, resulting in uneven cooking. To quote Alton Brown, "that is NOT good eats." You can either weight down the skins, but I don't have the hardware for that. Instead, I took a number of metal skewers, and wove them through the skin so that the skins would stay flat, with about 1.5" intervals. I put the skins onto a metal cooling rack, over a baking pan. The fat melts onto the bottom of the pan (which you can collect for other purposes, if you like), and the skins just crisp up. If there's still some fat left on the skin, so ahead and score the fat (cross-hatching, lik you would a duck breast). This will let the fat melt out a little more easily.

All of this goes into the oven (250F), until you see the skin start to get golden-brown. I start with the fat-side down, so that the fat melts out. Then, I flip everything, and let it keep baking. I'm guessing that you can go a little higher than 250F, but you want to make sure that the cracklin's don't burn. As I removed the metal skewers, the cracklin's broke into nice-sized pieces. After the cracklin's are ready, you can add a little salt (and whatever other dry spices you like). Splash some hot sauce on the cracklin's and much away.

Be careful. These things are addicting. And I'm guessing that they're not particularly good for you. But boy, they're tasty.

-foodgeek

Compare and Contrast: It's like Breakfast and Lunch all at Once

Sunday Brunch. The old standby in this town is at Silvercreek. Jim Gould's been competing, reasonably well. Which is better? Read on.

Both places do fresh Belgian waffles, omelets to order, and have a carving station that have glazed ham and roast beef, so it's a bit of a wash on that end. Silvercreek does throw prime rib in there as the beef, so there's a bit of an advantage there, but most of that is a wash.

The normal breakfast food is also close. Biscuits and gravy are good at both places. You'll get your usual scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and home fries at both places. Again, it's about a wash. All of it is solid. If I had to make a call, I'd actually go slightly in favor of Gould's for their sausage gravy, but it's pretty much a push. Gould's also has blintzes, which end up being pretty tasty. It's nice to have one or two, but you don't make a meal out of them. Additionally, Gould's does eggs benedict. I have to say that I love poached eggs. The Hollandaise scares me, particularly after you read or listen to Tony Bourdain. But it's still tasty, and I haven't paid the price, yet. This gives a slight advantage to Gould's for the breakfast.

One of the big things for me is fried chicken. At Gould's you get very tiny fried chicken, so it can dry out if it sits around, but they have a slightly sweet, very crispy chicken, whereas Silvercreek goes with the traditional southern fried. I think that if it's fresh, I lean to Gould's. But you have to have something to go with the fried chicken. Both places will have mashed potatoes. Silvercreek goes with gravy. Gould's does the bacon, onion, and cheddar thing. Both are good. But Silvercreek has deviled eggs. Who doesn't love deviled eggs? Slight advantage to Silvercreek.
The place where Silvercreek jumps ahead is with the peel and eat shrimp. Gould's does the normal shrimp that you'd expect to see, just boiled with some spices that's sort of bland. At Silvercreek, you get giant shrimp, that's cooked in a more traditional boil - salt, pepper, spices, and lemon. Really, you could just sit there and eat shrimp until your arteries clogged, and you'd die happy. Big advantage to Silvercreek.

The other warm dishes are where Gould's does better, simply by having more options. Silvercreek will have a couple other things. Maybe some baked mac and cheese (sort of mediocre) and a couple other things. Gould's will typically have some other fish (like tilapia or mahi mahi, or whatever they had extra of), which ends up being pretty decent. They also have a couple pasta options (often tortellini w/ alfredo, which is always tasty). I'd give the advantage to Gould's.

With regard to dessert, both places are alright, but the Gould's desserts remind you of catering desserts - nothing special, but all sweet and pretty decent. Silvercreek has pretty much their usual assortment of desserts out there, so you get some winners. I give a slight advantage to Silvercreek.

Silvercreek has been running brunch for as long as I can remember. They have a great dining room that's got an upscale feel that retains a warm, homey look. The brunch, runs $15.99, which includes coffee, juice, or soda. Jim Gould's has a larger dining area, and is generally a bit louder than Silvercreek, but the larger area results in faster turnover for food, so the food stays fresh. The downside is that the brunch runs $19.95, so it's $4 more than Silvercreek.

Overall, for quality of food, I'd give the slight advantage to Silvercreek. For the variety, that goes clearly to Gould's. But for value, given that it's 25% cheaper than Gould's, Silvercreek is the clear winner. Both places are worth going to, as you'll be definitely wanting a nap after you're done eating at either place. But Silvercreek will run you $10 less for 2 people, after you factor in tax and tip.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Currying Favor

Okay. I have to say that I'm addicted to spicy, slow cooked foods. Only when I make them in my kitchen, they're not always slow cooked. The current incarnation is a curried fish stew.

So, where to start? The base of the stew is a nice pureed, vegetable soup, based primarily on tomatoes and mirepoix (the standard onion, celery, carrot base in French cooking). Cook it down, season to taste, puree, and strain coarsely. Basically, you want to get the seeds and the long fibers out, but leave some texture to the soup. This is good on it's own. I happened to have a quart left over in the fridge.

I was originally planning on making cioppino, an Italian fish stew, so I sautéed some large cuts of green peppers and onions, while the base started to warm up in a pot. The plan was to add some potatoes, some fresh herbs, and let everything simmer for a while, before adding some fish (tilapia is what I had) at the end. Of course, I was out of potatoes, but had a bunch of left over potato/turnip gratin that was sitting in the fridge. That took care of the starch.

I decided that I wanted a spicy stew, so I started seasoning the peppers and onions, adding chili powder, onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, and ground red pepper, in addition to salt and black pepper. I deglazed the pan with some red wine, and added everything to the pot. As I was tasting, the dish was OK, but not great. I looked up in my cabinet and saw a bunch of yellow curry powder that was sitting there, untouched for the last 8 months or so. Bingo.

A bunch of curry powder, and some chunks of fish got added to the pot. The result? An incredibly addicting curried fish, with onions, peppers, and potatoes. Served over rice, this was a nice, rich, but not overpowering or overindulgent dish. Can't argue with that.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Giving Thanks

So I have a tradition. I don't go home for Thanksgiving. Home's a little far away. And I'm lazy. Instead, I sleep in, cook all day while watching football, and eat way too much. And then the day after, I do the same thing, minus the cooking part. Back when the entire posse was around, we'd spend the Saturday before Thanksgiving doing some volunteer work, and then have a big Thanksgiving dinner at my place. I'd have leftovers all week, and wouldn't want to do another turkey on Thanksgiving, so I normally don't do the traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. Instead I normally go with a standing rib roast, and build from there. This year, I didn't have a posse around, so no early Thanksgiving dinner, but I stuck with my personal tradition, anyway.

It was pretty sweet. I made a nice warm vichyssoise the day before, so that made for a great opener. Simple as can be. Chicken stock, cooked leeks, potatoes, salt, pepper, all simmering in a pot. When everything's cooked down, you take the ol' boat motor for a ride, and puree everything. Finish with milk or cream, maybe a little garnish, and life's good.

I did go with something new, olive oil poached shrimp and scallops. Incredibly simple. Warm up a bunch of olive oil, and add some aromatics (garlic, sage, rosemary, and parsley, since that's what I had on hand). Cool the oil down to about 130, and add the seafood, and put the whole thing on the stove, over warm. Let it go until the seafood's cooked. You get this really nice, tender seafood that has a gentle flavor. You may need to add a touch of salt to the scallops, but the shrimp should be great as is. Very nice opener.

While this was happening, I busted out an old standby that I hadn't made in a couple years, a potato/apple cheddar gratin. Basically, scalloped potatoes, only with layers of apple in there. A little sweet and a little sour work nicely with the cheddar and potatoes, and makes for something that takes classic comfort food, and makes it just a little different, and darned good. This isn't the simplest dish, because you have to make a bechamel, and then thinly slice a bunch of potatoes and apples, but it isn't rocket science. And it's well worth the time. And if you make a big batch of bechamel, you can make baked mac 'n cheese the next day! The biggest thing is to have a big baking tray under your casserole dish, to catch the sauce that boils over in the oven. That saves you from cleaning up a mess.

After that, I made the classic rib roast, and had carrots and sweet potatoes below to cook in the drippings. Great stuff. I did try a new technique that I read about for the roast. Normally, I prefer to sear, and then go at 300 to finish. Instead, this time I roasted at 550 for 35 minutes, and then turning the oven down to 200 for the next 1:25. The meat turned out great, very rare, almost black and blue, but that's what I'm into :-) If I was having guests, I'd probably bump it up to 250 to finish, to get to a more medium-rare. But it was just me, so I went caveman style on this one. The problem was that the root veggies that were in contact with the pan ended up getting burned because of the time at 550. This technique is much easier than searing, so the trade off may be worth it. Unfortunately, nothing else can really be done with the oven during this time, so you'd have to make sides elsewhere, which isn't that big of a deal.

All of this stuff was pretty standard fare for me, so while it was tasty, it wasn't all that exciting to me. What turned out to be exciting was a little additional side that is going to become standard fare in my kitchen. Popovers (or mini Yorkshire puddings, if you like) from a muffin tin. They have popover tins, but I don't know what else you do with them, and the muffin tins work just fine. Easy to make the batter. Equal parts milk and flour (by volume), with 1 egg for each cup of milk/flour. Seasonings to taste. Add a little less flour for a lighter popover. Add everything to the blender, and blend. While the blender's still on, add the flour. You've got batter in seconds. Do this about an hour before your roast is coming out, and let the batter rest. Take the roast out to rest, and fire the oven back up to 425. Spoon a little bit (maybe 1-2 tsp) of the drippings into each slot in the muffin tin, and put the tin into the oven (you want the tin to be hot). After about 2 minutes, take the tin out, and fill each slot about 2/3 of the way with your batter, and put it back into the oven. Let it go at 425 for 12 minutes, and then reduce the head to 375 for about another 20 minutes. Brush with a little butter (or more of the drippings!), and you're in business.

The funny part was that I was doing a good job of portion control earlier. Instead of devouring the entire rib roast (which I've been known to do), I only punished half of it (though in fairness, it was a 3.25 lb. roast), and was good with the other sides. However, I definitely ate an entire tray (only 6, though) of the popovers. They're like those Pillsbury crescent rolls - just addicting. It struck me that the popovers were a lot like the muffins over at Milo's, so I think that I'll be playing around to see if I can duplicate what they're doing. I'm guessing a little more flour in the batter, and I'll be close.

In any case, I definitely ate well yesterday (and with the leftovers today). However, I think that I do want to roast a bird (probably a chicken, though), and make some stuffing, potatoes, and corn casserole, and drowh it all in gravy at some point soon to make up for my lost Thanksgiving. But I think that I'll be making popovers anyway, because they're too good to skip out on.

-foodgeek

Compare and Contrast: Greek Champaign

Okay. I don't write here nearly enough. So, instead of doing two full blown write-ups, I'm going to start something different. Comparisons of similar places. So today, we're going to talk about the Greek scene. No, I'm not talking about the sororities with the hottest girls or the frats that throw the best keggers. We're talking food.

Pasha's vs. Papa George's

The initial response that comes to mind when you enter both places is very different. You walk into Pasha's, and you think, "sort of plain looking restaurant, and the layout's a little odd, but it seems cool enough." Pasha's has a sort of open layout, but a strange flow to the place. It seemed like there was some potential there. On the other hand, you walk into Papa George's, and you think, "So this is where all of the old apartment furniture ends up." It's in a sort of stereotypical Applebee's sort of layout where you walk in, look onto a U-shaped bar, and has seating to both sides. It didn't exactly inspire confidence.

And the presentation of the food sort of verified my view of both places. At Pasha's, the presentation was a little muddled, but it still felt like a restaurant, maybe one that was trying a little too hard, but it was what you expected. At Papa George's, the plates were old, beat up, and looked like they came from a diner that had closed. And, much like the furniture, they were probably remnants of the Pickle's era.

The meze (small plate appetizers, sort of like tapas) at both places have a combo option, where you can try a number of different things. Pasha's has a combo platter with a number of cold dips and spreads, all of which were tasty. Some highlights include the creamy cheese spread, which was a definite favorite and the hummus, which was a little garlicky, which is a good thing in my book. Papa George's has a pick 3 or a pick 5, which also lets you get some of the warm mezes. And by and large, I'd stick with the warm, meat-based ones. We got some phyllo stuffed with cheese, which was okay, not great (and sort of a small portion), some pork kebobs (so many places use loin, which is often an inferior choice to something off of the shoulder) that were tasty, but dried and tough, and some really good grilled lamb meatballs. For the cold choices, we got a spicy feta dip that was a little runnier than I expected, and a forgettable garlic-mashed potato spread that can be excellent at some places, but ended up a little oily and gritty (though tasty). I will say that the grilled zucchini that came with the potato spread was awesome, however the pita at Papa George's were stale. Ugh. This was not a problem at Pasha, which had just great flat bread.

Looking over the menu, the one thing that Pasha's has that I like is a big combo platter, where you can taste a number of different things. At Pasha, we loaded up on a Pasha special (the combo platter) and also added on some of the Lahmacun (a flat bread with ground lamb on top). The food was all good, with the lamb kebobs being better than the chicken (which was a little dry), and the grilled, lamb meatballs being tasty as well. The pita was nice, the meat all had good flavor and was cooked right. I would say that the meat tended to be grilled and tasty. On the down side, the only moussaka was a vegetarian option, and there was no pastitsio. So, no Greek casseroles.

Unfortunately, Papa George's does not have the combo platter option, but while their mezes were iffy, their entrees were awesome. Moussaka was very tasty, as was the pastitsio. You could definitely tell you were eating Greek with the fragrant spices (cinnamon and nutmeg, I think) that were in the background. Now what set apart Papa George's was the presence of some slow cooked items. The lamb stew and the lamb shank jumped out at us. The lamb stew was really good. The reddish gravy had this deep, rich flavor that I thought was great. I think that the lamb itself leaned a bit on the fatty side, and could have used a little more of the connective tissue that gives so much flavor. The meat was either too fatty, or almost too lean and didn't stay super tender. But the flavor was darned good. Unfortunately, the shank, which was incredibly tender and had great flavor by itself, was cooked in a think lemon-like cream sauce that sort of curdled, and had these giant canned artichokes in there. I actually don't mind canned artichokes on salads or baked on top of pizza, but it was just sort of a mess. If they would make the shank in the sauce for the stew, I'd just go there for that dish once a week.

Dessert as Pasha's was pretty standard. The rice pudding was OK. A little lemon zest and ginger (I think) livened up the taste. One dessert at Papa George had to be tried. A house, rolled baklava that featured pistachio and fig. The server warned us that the chocolate was overwhelming. And sure enough, we saw that each end was dipped in a chocolate ganache that was way too thick. It really took away from the nice, subtly sweet, nutty, earthy flavor that the figs and pistachios gave. The filling was a little dry, and wasn't quite as sweet as it should have been, but the chocolate killed it. I was brainstorming ideas for ways to sweeten up the dish w/out the chocolate and w/out using plain honey, but I came up with cutting honey with orange juice and adding some fragrant spices. I really think that the dessert would be more of a hit with something other than chocolate. Maybe even a honey sweetened yogurt sauce would have been better. But hey, I don't work here. I just eat here.

The thing about Greek places is that you get a lot of food for your money. Really, if you order an entree, it's enough for two. How I'd do it is by doing some appetizers, maybe an appetizer combo, and splitting an entree, and probably go somewhere else for dessert, stuffed with Greek food. With soft drinks, tax, and tip, you can probably get by with $35 or $40 for 2 people. Not bad, if you figure that you'd pay about the same at a Chili's.

In any case, we have some Greek options in Champaign that don't require pledging and hazing. Personally, Pasha's a place I'd take people to socialize. I'd go to Papa George to have a little personal quiet time with some slow cooked lamb. But oddly enough, I think that the best Greek place in the area may be The Deluxe out in downtown Danville. Maybe these two places will pick it up in the coming months.

-foodgeek

See links to websites for restaurant information.

Ratings:
Papa George's - No stars, but with room to move up to 1 star
Pasha's - 0.5 stars, without much upside

A New Addiction

So, I've officially become obsessed with the cooking aspects of Top Chef. I still don't care for the reality show aspect of it, but I do like hearing critique and learning about how things work (or don't work) together. That said, I think that it's pretty clear that there's a large gap between the best and the next tier of chefs. For example, I would've placed even money on either Tre or Hung to win this season, after the first episode. But, I love the notion that even for something that's as simple as cooking, that there are superior levels to be reached. And I'd love to be able to reach those levels. I think that I can fire up a stove pretty well, and I consistently manage to put out solid food for myself and my friends. But I don't know if I ever could, or would ever want, to be a chef in a restaurant. I could see myself making it through culinary school, without a whole lot of trouble. But I'd never want to put in the crazy hours. I think that if I ever open up a place (and I would love to at some point), I'd hire on good people to run the day-to-day operations, and I'd just go around, shaking hands on the floor and wander into the kitchen to bother my cooks and come up with an "owner's special" every once in a while. So, I think that my culinary ceiling is pretty limited, but still reasonable enough so that I can make myself some good food at home.

Currently in my kitchen, I've been playing around with a couple things. One is paella. I think that I've gotten a decent grasp on how to flavor rice with the spices that help give paella that nice flavor. And obviously, I know how cooking meat and seafood in the rice adds flavor, as well. I'm trying to get down how to get the nice crunchy edges on the paella, without drying everything out. The other thing is ceviche. I really enjoy using the citrus to cook fish, but figuring out what to use in there has been interesting. I'm trying to work out a nice salmon version with some Pacific Northwest flavors, but it's hard to make it distinct from the traditional Latin American-style recipes. Maybe there's no need to, though... we'll see. And finally, I've decided that I need to develop my knife skills. So, I've bought some extra veggies and chickens so that I can work on my chopping and boning skills. Heh-heh. I said "boning skills."

Anyway, there's not been a whole lot new in the food scene here in Champaign. There's a new sandwich joint that opened up next to Crane Alley, but that's lunch only. I'll try to make it in to give it a look over. I know that I promised a few reviews, which will be coming soon. Really, I've been just rocking it out in my kitchen more the last few weeks, with occasional trips out to KO Fusion for sushi (trying to stay healthy) and Harold's for fried chicken (failing to stay healthy). But, I've still got some good thoughts on the brunch scene, the tapas scene, and the adventures of the Escobar's/Milo's folks which I need to get out to you guys (preferably after I go out for brunch, tapas, and to Escobar's and Milo's again to refresh my palate :-)

We'll catch you soon!
-foodgeek