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
Monday, June 01, 2009
Thursday, March 05, 2009
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
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
Thursday, January 01, 2009
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
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
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