Archive for the ‘in Philadelphia’ Category
Bibou with Friends
t says: We checked out Bibou as our official June FTC meeting. (We missed May). I posted my experiences over at the Penn blog, Penn Appetit. I figured that I’ve showered Bibou with so much praise on this blog already that it was time to expose it to a broader audience. That said – there are some funnier things that occurred that I’ll mention here (adsz exclusive!).
First off, let’s re-cap some food (and wines available at PLCB) from a’s and v’s perspectives, as I omitted them from the Penn Appetit review.
a says: I was extremely impressed with the food, service, and ambiance at Bibou – I’m not surprised t has a crush. The title of “favorite BYO” goes a little too far for me as I can’t say any one dish blew-me-away. [full disclosure: The french lentils served with the pig foot may be the best medium I have ever tasted.] v’s escargot were prepared flawlessly and my guinea hen terrine, accompanied by a corn bread waffle, was a very interesting dish. I feel the waffle could have been better and seemed disjointed from the terrine, which lacked big flavor. My hanger steak was cooked to perfection and matched well with the potatoes and asparagus (and Bordeaux), but nothing on my plate took my palate to another level. I’ve had very good steak before and Bibou’s was right there, however, it was nothing I haven’t tasted. The cheese plate and desserts were on par with the rest of the meal, not one misstep. Oh, and as should be requisite for a French restaurant, the bread ‘n’ butter was the bomb. I look forward to returning to Bibou and trying more risky menu items as the overall experience is one of the best in Philadelphia. [super-full disclosure: I arrived at dinner directly from the International Great Beer Expo… where I had enjoyed great beer… a lot of great beer. My dinner experience may have been colored by the fact that I had malt and hops coursing through my veins.] I thought the wines went extremely well with the meal (especially sans any pre-meal pairing) and would have been made even better with serious decanting. More detailed descriptions below.
Re: wines … These are highly recommended, perfect for French(ish) cuisine, under $30, and available at PLCB stores in CC:
1) Lillet (blanc) [France] – serve this aperitif chilled, on ice, with orange peel garnish. This is the quintessential (French) summertime palate-awakener. Light, citrusy, and refreshing.
2) Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Clos Hauserer Riesling 2007 [Alsace]. A luscious white with great mouthfeel, focused acidity, and pleasant minerality. The nose of honey and grapefruit continued on the tongue accompanied by a perfectly balanced citrusy-sweetness [read: not a sweet wine].”
3) Chateau Vignot Saint-Emilion 2003 [Bordeaux]. I think this was a wonderful example of how a cheaper Bordeaux can be approachable and quite good. Merlot based, the nose was barnyard, but not funky, with a
hint of caramel. In the mouth, it tasted of lovely dark fruits and had light tobacco and leather undertones. This is drinking well right now, and with its enjoyable tannins, will probably continue to for a few more years.
t says: g and I brought a Quintessa and a bottle of Champagne (actually from Champagne). But we love our wine guru who’s always able to pull out some of the less-than-obvious-to-most-people choices. I hope he posts more about his random wine finds in the future (*wink wink*)!
As you can see, Bibou put up another great meal, and when combined with great wines and great friends, it’s a great time. I can’t wait to do it again. Shall we change our venue to Fond next month for FTC to start up a French BYO throwdown??
And … as promised … some funny conversations:
1) Our awesome server, a Mexican who had worked at Le Bec-fin before Bibou: “And here is your creme caramel …”
someone from our party: “Wow – it looks like Flan”
server: “Yea, you’re right, it is a fancy Flan.”
2) Pierre came around and we offered him a glass of wine. Pierre: “I don’t drink while I am working – I know too many chefs who drink too early into service.”
3) a was a little boisterous at the end of the meal. He professed his love for the lentils out loud. Repeatedly. Someothing to the extent of (although not verbatim) “OMFG, those lentils were !#@$ amazing – if i had some more I’d <insert creative explicit action here>…”. I swear that right after he said this, our server went back into the kitchen and started mentioning “lentils”. Immediately, g and I looked at eachother and knew we had to do something – we were like, “ok … so it’s time to go …”. If we were there for a second longer I bet you a dollar that a plate of lentils would have appeared …
Some ridiculous goats …
t says: g and I ventured to Talula’s Garden [again]. Rather than go through the whole spiel (we’ve already been there a few times), let me just tell you about the two items in particular that stood out. As the title of the post suggests – they both have to do with goat. The first:
What a crappy pic! iPhones must be afraid of the dark.
What is poorly photographed above is a goat tortelloni, with ricotta gnudi, peas, and a herb-goat jus. The tortelloni were perfectly cooked, with wonderfully textured goat meat inside – it was more like a pulled goat, not like a pocket of ground meat – and the meat was not the least bit “stringy”. The peas made g smile (she loves peas), as they had some bite to them and were full of flavor (both from the pea and from the jus). And yes – that sauce/jus was ridiculous[ly good] with an herbiness and a meatiness that I could not believe for how thin it was. Actually – I kind of want to know the concoction of herbs used so we could grow them in our garden (i.e. our one pot on our patio) and could use it, ourselves! The ricotta gnudi are the same as the past appetizer we’ve had; they are of a familiar texture (like a ball of mozzorella), and I really want to like them more, but I just wish they’d take on more flavor from the jus surrounding them. Otherwise, they taste of mild cheese that I, personally, find hard to appreciate, as compared to the surrounding elements, it comes off as a bit bland. But it didn’t matter for long, as I simply cut them into smaller pieces to increase the surface-area-to-volume ratio and dunked them into the jus, thus solving the problem at hand.
The other amazing goat of the evening was a goat cheese that they put on the “Masters Collection” cheese plate. To be honest, g and I generally don’t love goat cheese, but if it’s on a cheese plate, we’re going to give it a whirl. We find that the goat cheese flavor is all too often overpowering, and the texture can sometimes be a gritty nightmare or so thick that it’s challenging to chew/swallow. But not this goat cheese. The texture was superb – something between “creamy” and “goaty” (I couldn’t think of another adjective than “goaty” – by this I’m referring to that characteristic way goat cheese crumbles in your mouth), and it had this mix of savory cheese funk with some inherent sweetness that was addictive. I felt that I could eat it for breakfast (stick some honey or preserves on it), or lunch/dinner (stick a slice of prosciutto on it), or even dessert (stick a dab of chocolate on it). Actually – it reminded me a lot of the goat cheese we had at Ad Hoc. I wonder if it was the same or not. Hell – for all know, this could be some simple $3-a-pound goat cheese made in Jersey. But I wouldn’t care if it was – as a matter of fact, I’d buy it by the pound! I’d make some gnocchi and cheese cake with it!
We did eat other things which were very good, too (they brought back the squash blossoms appetizer!). But it’s really hard to think of those dishes when the goat was this good.
I am going to take a second to be critical, though …let’s talk about the brioche with the ramp butter. It’s just not the same! When Talula’s Garden first opened, they started the meal with these “rolls” (if you call them that) that had a skinny cylindrical stem and a bulbous top – kind of like a mushroom or a muffin. I thought that it was a brioche – but maybe I’m wrong. They were probably a nightmare for servers to carry on a dish (they easily fell down with the slightest nudge), but something about them was so delightfully airy and warm and inviting. Now, we’ve noticed that they’ve been replaced by what seems to be just the top, bulbous part of the former roll. And somehow, this is a very different animal – I think it’s a textural change, as the ones we had were a little more dense/crumby. I’m immediately reminded of the Seinfeld episode where they try to make muffin-tops without the muffin-stumps – it just didn’t taste as awesome as making the whole muffin and ripping off the top (although in this case, the stump and top were equally good in the original and superior to the new, revised version). Perhaps it’s a completely different recipe (i.e. a completely different bread), and I’m just longing for the former. I don’t know. Either way – it’s not like I’m not going to eat it – it’s still a darn good bread. And it’s still some darn good ramp butter. And really … nothing compares to the original pot-bread, anyways (i.e. bread baked in a terra cotta pot ca. early 2000’s at Django).
‘Ats a Lotta’ Chocolate
t says: I love chocolate. For real. Consequently, I’ve had many a recent chocolate experiences that I feel like sharing.
First up: Vosges Chocolate in NYC. g and I were in NYC this past weekend for a lovely wedding (more on that later). We decided to run down to Soho and do a bit of shopping. As the dedicated bag mule, I was perhaps a little whiny, as it was very warm outside and I am fairly heat intolerant (I’m actually sweat intolerant moreso than heat intolerant). g decided to placate the 6-year-old in me with a trip to Vosges chocolate. Now I know that in the world of real chocolate, perhaps Vosges isn’t the best, maybe some will view their chocolate as nothing but over-priced Hershey’s with upscale marketing – but who cares? It’s chocolate. And I like it. So back off! Oh … yes … back to the story at hand … This is what I saw outside.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!
Ice cream, eh? Ok, that’d hit the spot nicely. So I went in and it was a glorious glorious place.
A peak inside Vosges.
There were a few items in particular that caught my eye …
A classy way to do bacon + chocolate ...
... and a not-so-classy way to do bacon + chocolate.
And then there were pre-made cookies (but they were pretty hard and likely stale – bad form, Vosges!), and baking mixes, and so much more! In the end, I had no choice but to go with the ice cream – after all, it was hot outside. I went for the “Pandan”, which incorporated some kind of Asian leaf that added a nice nutty flavor (something between a peanut and a hazelnut) to the chocolate ice cream, which was rich and velvety and not the least bit icy. It was truly an excellent ice cream. It did hit the spot nicely, and I’d be happy to carry shopping bags in Soho in the future if promised some more. Thanks Vosges! You saved g’s shopping adventure!
And writing this post reminded me of another Vosges bar I recently had which was pretty darn good.
Can it beat out the Chocolate + Bacon bar?
From a post of Vosges chocolate we did a while ago, you can see that I do like the Moe’s chocolate bacon bar a lot. This was a very close second. The chocolate squares have a layer of sweet caramel inbetween which is a nice contrast to the bitter chocolate. The only problem is that it’s a smidge too sweet, so when I first stick it in my mouth, all I get is that super-sweet caramel flavor. Fortunately, the chocolate and salt kick in and restore balance a few seconds later. Overall, I was also happy with how intense a flavor this confection had, as it allowed me to pace myself and eat the bar over a few days … unlike the bacon bar … where I can’t help myself.
Moving on from Vosges … there’s another good chocolate-centric thing goin’ down as well. But this time, closer to home …
Milkshake at Village Whiskey!
g and I dined at Village Whiskey for lunch today. I had the BBQ pork sandwich and g had the veggie burger – no surprises here. BUT, we did get some milkshakes, which are either new, or at the very least, something we had never noticed on the menu before. They took forever to come out – not appearing until we were 3/4 the way done our sandwiches. But they were worth the wait. What you see above is the s’more milkshake which was fantastic. The shake part was thick and creamy and not icy at all. There were some toasted marshmallows and graham on top (which I crushed up and put in the milk shake) and some chocolate swirls. This is not the most chocolatey milkshake ever, but it was delicious. My only critique is that it is unbelievably heavy – I think I could only tolerate 2/3 of it before crying uncle. I feel like I should go there for a milkshake dinner or something (mmmm … get an order of fries and a milkshake and call it a night … that … sounds … amazing). g had one as well – caramel malt – but it had no chocolate in it, so I didn’t bother with a picture (but g says it was “deeeee-licious”).
And there is one more chocolate thing that I encountered recently that I’m going to hold back until later in the week. This is a lot of typing for now. So tune in soon for the exciting conclusion. Hint: it’s going to be weird …
Kanella Steps it Up; Amis Steps Down
t says: g and I went to Kanella some time ago and found that although the food was good, the service was weird and it just wasn’t blow-us-away enough to pop into our heads every time we went looking for a BYO. k, having to work in the area this past week, suggested that we re-try it. So we set out for a weekday dinner …
5/2010, Thursday 7:30pm, Party of 4. The four of us sat down, broke out a bottle of a particularly smooth Australian shiraz, and buckled in for an exciting ride. One of the things that Kanella has in its favor is the element of surprise – well, at least for us it did. As we scoured the menu, we realized that the descriptions really didn’t help us envision what the final product would be. There were ingredients we clearly didn’t recognize, and surely how they were put together would be a mystery up until the very end when they hit the table. Of course, had we had a Greek (or maybe “Cypriot” to be more exact), perhaps they would have been able to give us a hint of what was to come. Nevertheless, we each made our selections and patiently waited for whatever the waiter was going to bring us. We amused ourselves by playing such games as, “how much money would it take for you to change your name?” and “look at the chef’s crazy eyes!”. (FYI, the chef has these piercing blue eyes that are super-intense – he make a marble statue cower in fear.)
I went for the goat with “wheat berries”, eggplant, and yogurt. It was fantastic! I can’t remember the last time I had goat, however, this was a stunning example of a well-braised meat served on top of a homy bed of “wheat berries” (it’s like the lentils of grains … hmmm … that makes no sense and will probably cause some people to laugh – but that’s what it was like in my head!). It was the kind of food you want to have a family-style plate of to share with … family (duh). That said, it was rivaled by k and cm’s “brick chicken”. The flaw of the brick chicken? As vague as my description of the goat was, my description of the brick chicken is even vaguer. I have no idea what the spices were, I have no idea what the sauce was – all I know is that it was so good that I might actually order the chicken the next time I go there.
I’ll let cm, master of cutting straight to the point, chime in:
cm says: chicken in a brick was very good also, interesting cooking method for the potatoes they were like little crunchy nuggets of potato. chicken very juicy. i remember scooping up as much of the sauce as i could. and the flat bread was very good and an interesting mix of flavors, especially the dried apricot, good balance of salty and sweet.
back to t: oh yea! the flatbread was indeed delicious! oh, and g went for the the “stuffed vegetable of the day”, which was bell pepper which she liked it very much – it played a major role in de-funking her evening. And then … there was dessert. We went for the date-and-chocolate cake (with vanilla ice cream) and the pistachio-olive-oil cake (with ouzo ice cream). And I must say that Kanella finished the meal quite well with these. Actually, the table was fairly evenly split on which aspects of which desserts we liked better (some liked one cake with the other’s ice cream, and vice versa). Personally, I would have been happy with a gigantic date-and-chocolate cake, as the “cake” was almost like a bread pudding in texture with a little punch of date and the mouth-coating rich chocolate – beautiful. So in the end, we really have no complaints. Kanella did a great job with food, our server was excellent, and the prices were reasonable.
NOW … for the bad news … as you can see from the title of this post, we also went to Amis this past weekend, and they did not fare so well. When we went to Amis for dinner some time ago, it was fantastic. They did such a great job of taking dishes that we already knew and loved and making them even better. Unfortunately, its price and lack of BYO-ness made it hard to go back … until we heard they did brunch. Surely they could work their magic on some eggs and breads, right? Wrong.
5/2010, Sunday 12:30, Party of 5. I won’t dwell on the negatives of this meal because nobody wants to read too much of a Debbie-downer post. So the positives: service was attentive, the decor is top-notch (would be a great date-place in the evening – lots of rich, dark-colored woods). The negatives: the food. w’s boyfriend and I went for a polenta scrapple with eggs and “peperonata” (i.e. stewed peppers). Darn – what a letdown! The eggs were fluffy (yay!) but lacked seasoning (boo!). I liked the texture that the polenta added to the scrapple (yay!), but the scrapple was a bit anemic in terms of flavor (boo!), and the stewed peppers didn’t have much to bring to the table aside from … peppers … and tomato (more boos!). The dish wasn’t inedible or anything – quite the contrary, as I cleaned up the plate – but it wasn’t something I’d ever order again. The bread basket was “ok”, but nowhere near Parc’s bread basket, as the muffins were a bit dry and the zuchini bread was a bit crumbly. g had the braised tomatoes and eggs, and, while she liked it “ok”, it’s not like they rocked her socks. This leads us to the final nail in the coffin: the price. I think w’s boyfriend summed it up nicely when he said, “we paid $12 for a $8-9 dish”. And if you’re thinking “oh, that’s not too bad”, I feel like a 30-50% markup is a bit much. In the grand scheme, I’d say that Amis out-performs Farmicia and Meme but is a notch below Supper for brunch. Darn. We were hoping that Amis would have been the place to take g’s parents because they strike us as the kind of people who’d be up for a savory brunch. Alas, if you crave a savory brunch, forget Amis – go straight to Kanella (their brunches are awesome – and not just the Cyprus breakfast).
We Couldn’t Resist! (Another Talula’s Garden Review)
t says: g and I found ourselves without dinner plans a few weekends ago. We had no food in the house and it had just stopped raining. Why not go out for dinner? But where to go … where to go? After the week before, we still had Talula on the brain. No … they couldn’t possibly have openings … could they? I called them up, secured a 6:30 table, and off we went!
4/2010, Saturday 6:30pm, Party of 2. We were seated at the farm table – we were happy to try it out, as last time we had a normal table. No one was seated near us (it was a relatively early dinner), so it’s kind of like we had the whole table to ourselves! The farm table felt pretty comfortable – so if we had a party of 12, I know exactly where we should be going …
Aimee recognized us and said hi – she looked more at ease (maybe because the restaurant wasn’t super-busy yet), so it was nice to see her!
On to the food – we refused to repeat any of the dishes we had before …
crab salad appetizer
First up was the crab salad appetizer (new to the menu!) over a sheet of golden beet. It was quite a delicate dish, with succulent crab and fresh accompaniments that danced on the palate. It was the first time I had had golden beet, actually, and I liked it. The dish’s flavors reminded me a little of what one might expect from an amuse bouche … except much larger – a great way to start a summery meal … even if it was not quite summer yet.
Foie mousse.
Next up was a little “something” that was courtesy of the kitchen – it wasn’t on the menu (I don’t think), but it featured a bit of foie gras mousse accompanied by something red-orange in the middle that we actually can’t remember (I’m writing about it two weeks after the fact – was it grapefruit? agh – darn this memory! THIS is why I try to blog right after eating …). I do remember it being tasty but very rich. Fortunately, there was only about two bites worth (well, I had three bites cuz g couldn’t handle the entirety of hers). I think that g and I have found that foie is just one of those things that we don’t really “crave” – we’ll rarely go out of our way to order it, but I’ll happily eat it if it’s there, and she’ll happily taste it … and give the rest to me … Perhaps the one exception in which I would order foie is at Fond – that was a ridiculous piece of foie right there …
"crispy" lamb shoulder
I had the crispy lamb shoulder – a perfectly cooked piece of lamb over wonderfully texture vegetables (Talula’s really knows how to prep these veggies so that they taste “fresh”, but cooked … does that make sense?).
Cheese!
And what dinner would be complete without a cheese course? This was the “roll in the hay”. As per usual, the cheeses were an adventure, and there’s just no way that g and I could recount their deliciosity. I wonder if Tria is a little worried that Talula’s does cheese so well – between the cheese offerings, the interesting wines, and the outdoor space, which would you go to … right now, for us, Talula’s has a cheese edge, but Tria isn’t limited to eco-friendly wines … hmmmm …
The final course was the doughnuts with strawberry sauce. Holy bejesus. The doughnuts were light and fluffy with a slight crispness on the outside. And then there was the strawberry sauce that I wanted to lick from the plate. It’s no surprise then that these were way better than the super-dense ones we had at Monsu recently (I don’t think we even mentioned them in our review).
So, all in all it was a pretty darn tasty meal … so tasty that we went back a mere two weeks later …
5/2010, Friday 6:30pm, Party of 2. Yea, so we went back for the third time in four weeks. Does that make us a little addicted? Yes it does. We couldn’t help ourselves.
We started off the meal with cheese – but neglected to take pictures. It was their “special”. No idea what it was called, but damn it was a fine cheese. How does Aimee do it?
flourless ricotta gnudi
This was g’s pick for appetizer. These little cheesy globes felt almost like little balls of mozzarella on your tongue (but creamier), but they were surrounded by that sauce/reduction of shallot and herbs and all things light and springy. Actually, the gnudi were perhaps on the too-heavy side as we felt that a single order might have been too much for just one of us to eat (not in terms of quantity, rather, richness) … but for the both of us, it was great!
braised rabbit and pasta
This braised rabbit with fava beans and pasta was phenomenal. The rabbit was so perfectly cooked, and the pasta was delectable. In my opinion, this was tied with the oxtail consomme for best appetizer we had had … but maybe it’s not really an “appetizer” so much as a small entree. Who cares – it was awesome. Actually – if they doubled the size of the portion and put it on their main, I’d be a happy camper. But it wasn’t quite at the level of their gnocchi from the first time we were there.
And then … we ended with a proper dessert …The dark chocolate cremeaux was calling to me … but I had to resist. There was another dessert that beckoned … the cookies! So that’s what we ordered … but there was a surprise!
banana-chocolate thingee (upper) and cookies (lower)!
We ordered the cookie platter … and then she also brought over a complimentary banana thing (it had a very complicated name … and it had a side of hazelnut chocolate ice cream or sorbet or something) … and she brought two glasses of dessert wine (as she called it “fake port” … obviously not from Portugal – from the US of A)! also on the house! Awesome! Apparently, Aimee told her that “we had been there quite a few times” and that she should “take care of us”. Aimee is awesome like that. We did see her earlier on in the meal and shared our enthusiasm for the place. Gee – I wonder if she could tell that we’re totally hooked? Alternatively, we may be deluding ourselves, as we were also sitting right next to a table with a fairly disruptive 6-8 year-old (he was playing with the butter knives on the table, holding all four of them in his tiny hands, dropping them on the floor and retrieving them and whatnot … which while they weren’t really “sharp”, I’m pretty sure that my mom would have made it VERY clear to me that such behavior was unacceptable) so maybe it was a “thank you for not telling the table next to you that their parenting sucks” gift? Well, whatever the reason, we were happy …
Now … Look at that banana thing! It was a multi-layered thing of beauty. It featured layers of banana cream, bruleed thinly sliced bananas, chocolate, some kind of cookie layer – and probably some more layers that I’m missing. It, like the dark chocolate cremeaux from the first time we were there, was reminiscent of a certain illegal drug that is all-too-often quoted on on this blog (i.e. crack). And then there those cookies which – the dark chocolate over some sort of short bread (with salt) and the carrot cake cookie sandwich, especially – were off … the … hook.
Ok, so if you’ve made it to this part of the post, you’re probably inundated with the pictures of the different foods. I apologize for the skimpy food descriptions and the excessive use of vague language that really doesn’t help you imagine what the dishes tasted like, but so much was written in retrospect (it’s been a busy few weeks). At the very least, I can tell you the “gist” of the foods we’ve had the opportunity to taste. All of the food thus far has been executed very well – the slightest (and only) mis-step occurred at our most recent visit with a bit of under-seasoning of one of the pieces of meet on the duo of beef – the sauce covered it up fine, though. As far as flavors go, g and I feel that for half of the dishes, this chef likes to play with the more subtle flavors – they come out if you take a pause, but could easily be missed if you’re rushing through your plate. That said, the dishes that I prefer (the oxtail consomme and the braised rabbit pasta appetizers, the beef duo and the mushroom-and-gnocchi mains) had tons of flavor that came straight to me without much “searching” – these dishes made me take pause and observe their presence … and these were the ones that keep me wanting to come back. Well … that’s not true … there are actually two other things that’ll keep me coming back as well … the cheese and the dessert. I think Aimee has unlocked some sort of secret and is using it to her advantage – whoever she has back there making her desserts is making it such that the end of every meal we had was another highlight … It’s no wonder then that because each of the three meals are associated with such fond memories, of course we’d want to keep coming back over and over again.
In summary – Talula’s Garden is where we’ll continue going for excellently prepared food, courses that run the gamut from subtle to bold, and a cheese-and-sweets finale like none other. I only wish the corkage wasn’t so high ($25 isn’t too bad, but it definitely makes you think twice and pull out a nicer bottle to justify it) – but if that’s the cost of having a nice, leisurely meal (BYO’s tend to rush patrons a little more for turnover), then so be it. Aimee can rest assured that we’ll be back again … maybe in two weeks … after all, we want to come off as “regulars” … not “stalkers” …
FTC dominates Monsu
t says: The Finer Things Club (an idea we knowingly ripped from The Office) held our monthly meeting at Monsu (we had been on hiatus for a few months because I was being a party-pooper and working all the time). In attendance at April’s meeting were kp, a, v, g, k, cm and me. After g and I had a delightful brunch there, we rolled up into Monsu for a late Friday dinner with the gang. This is what went down …
4/2011, Friday 9:30pm, Party of 7. The moment we walked in, we saw that the people sitting at the large table were about to get up to leave. It’s a good thing. Had they not, then surely we would have fought them … West Side Story style (or not). So, unlike our experience at the sister restaurant Modo Mio (where we waited an hour before our reservation), we were immediately off to a good start.
We ordered a mess of food. And as we ate, we proceeded pull out a mess of wine, ranging from whites to bubbles to reds (including a very classy $12 magnum of Protocolo). g and I had the lamb “in the style of the horse”, the osso bucco, and the carbamare pasta. I found the lamb to be pretty good – but I actually can’t remember anything particularly mind-blowing with it – I guess I must have missed the big deal about the “style of the horse”. In short, I think it was cooked well and tasted fine, but I wouldn’t go back to order it again. I found the osso bucco to be a step up from the lamb, putting a variety of flavors together with a very tender pork – I also love the sesame candy topping and the thick glaze – I might order it again, but only if I was sharing it with other people (i.e. it wasn’t so good that I’d want to hog it all to myself). But it was the carbamare (i.e. carbonara) that was the highlight – it was beautifully cooked, a great combo of flavors (and that’s not just the prosciutto talking) and everyone who tasted it seemed to enjoy it; it’s a good challenger against Melagrano’s carbonara. But enough about us – here’s what the gang thought (and I’ll throw in my edits in [brackets]):
lamb "in the style of the horse" ... whatever that means.
a says: Overall, it was a great experience with great people [yea, we are pretty great …]. The space is better here than at Modo Mio but I think the food nod goes to Modo. The special gnocchi was outstanding, better than the “regular,” along with the mushrooms on several plates. The pulpo was good but did not bring all elements of the dish together perfectly. The osso buco, again, was good but did not blow me away. The roasted fennel with beets was surprisingly complex and tasty for a side. I’d like to go back and try some of the other dishes as well as brunch.
The osso bucco was a mound of tender meat and veggies with an ?apricot?-sweetened glaze and sesame candy on top.
k says: The evening started off with an amuse bouche of a mini-toast with some kind of lentil spread. An amuse bouche always puts me in a good mood. It makes the meal feel special and feels like a great freebie, even though the cost is no doubt incorporated into the rest of the menu. Unlike others in the group, I like the [regular] gnocchi dish better than the “special gnocchi”. cm and I shared the ricotta gnocchi with crab meat in a sweet tomato cream sauce [this “regular” gnocchi dish is also served at brunch at pictured on our brunch post]. Wow. t will remind me that I liked it so much I was somewhat less than generous is sharing tastes with the rest of the group. Sorry, guys. I also loved our fish dish. It had tender and flaky mahi mahi cooked in a tagine with sausage, a rich savory sauce with mushrooms on top of a bed of israeli couscous. cm said the sausage were great. Our appetizer featured perfectly cooked scallops (cm’s all time favorite) bursting with flavor. The place was very homey. There was lots of pleasant chit-chat with the wait staff. They didn’t seem at all annoyed by our increasing drunkenness and the absurd questions we posed them (what are those two pigs in the photo doing to each other? and what spice is laying tantilizingly on top of their pig bodies?) All in all, a very successful night of food and debauchery.
kp says: Re: Bruschetta. The earthiness of the mushrooms paired well with the escargot, which had a nice soft texture and was not over cooked to rubbery proportions. The bread itself a little on the soggier side but this probably owes to the ‘tagine’-esque pot it was served in which probably steamed the toasted bread a bit. The sauce itself was wonderful a lovely salty reduction of red wine with a hint of garlic and tarragon. The sauce paired well with the mushrooms and escargot.
Re: Duck. The confit of leg was nicely seasoned and went well with the broccoli rabe. The leg itself may have been a tad on the drier side, but still delicious.There was a nice smokiness to the leg meat which blended well with the rich sauce.
Re: Scallops. The scallops were buttery deliciousness. The foccacci had a nice crisp crust and salty taste. The olive oil/ricotta mixture is creamy but could use some nice sea salt coating.
v says: I prefer the space and ambience at Monsu, but the food at Modo Mio. Though, I was really hungry after waiting for an hour at Modo Mio!
t says: Wow – it looks like there were some highs and some middles – not a whole lot of lows, which is good. I think that the best part of the night was a combination of the table we were at (it fit the 7 of us comfortably) and the “chill” (but very attentive) service. I don’t know how many places can pull off a table like us, but we’re happy they did. Now if only they were open a little later – we could have used about a half-hour more to linger over our wine (they were closing up at 12:15 or so … Modo Mio let us stay ’til 1:30).
Can’t wait for our next meeting!
Aimee Brings Some Thunder: A Review of Talula’s Garden
t says: Ah yes, it’s now time to put up our Talula’s Garden experience. We’d done Talula’s Table a number of times (the farm table and the chef’s table … twice), but now it was time for Episode 3: Return to Philly (Episodes 1 and 2 were obviously Django and Talula’s Table). Here we go!
4/2011, Sunday 6:30pm, Party of 2. We first arrived and were greeted by the friendly hostess. She did offer us a seat at the “communal table” and wasn’t the least bit dismayed when we said no. While we normally wouldn’t mind something like a communal table, g and I feared a JG Domestic-esque nightmare (which apparently has been rectified since the last time we went) and instead went for a normal two-topper. And it’s a good thing we did (more on why later – it has nothing to do with the communal table being bad or anything like that …).
g noted that everyone appeared to be friendly and happy; it was nice to see that while they were most likely stressed out of their mind (it was their first weekend officially open), they were quite pleasant! As our server greeted us, she let us know as nicely as possible that there was a corkage fee for the wine that we brought (I knew there was – it’s $25, but as soon as you order 3 glasses of wine, you’d spend more than $25 anyways …) and then proceeded to explain the menu and how cheese could be incorporated whenever/wherever you wanted. It was a neat idea. Knowing g, she’d probably make a whole meal out of cheese if she could. But alas – we went a more traditional layout: app, main, cheese, dessert. So let’s bring it!
veloute of sweet pea with squid
g was very impressed with this dish. The texture was velvety and lying underneath was what we can only presume was squid ink … and she ate every last drop. She even ate the squid … she normally avoids tentacle-containing animals, but she couldn’t resist! But as good as it was, it paled in comparison to mine …
oxtail consomme with marrow dumplings
So here’s the skinny on the oxtail consomme …. It doesn’t look like much (and it’s not helped by my camera and photography skills that suck). And that hunk of meat doesn’t look flattering … but it was magnificent – tender and flavorful – not as gamy as oxtail can be, but definitely in-your-face cow. And then there was the consomme, which was equally flavorful (it was so good that g even snuck her spoon in to taste the broth inbetween my spoonfuls), the perfectly brunoise veggies (at least, I think they were 1/8″ cubes), and those little dumplings which had a nice bite to them with a subtle flavor – mostly getting flavor from the broth around it (so I’m not sure if the marrow added a whole lot – it might have been too subtle for me to really appreciate amidst the rest of the dish). At first I felt that the crouton was a bit unnecessary – but then I realized that it allowed me to completely clean the bowl, not letting a single drop escape, so it was indeed useful after all. So I take the lead, 1-0.
As I had mentioned, g and I opted for a two-topper. The table we were assigned was seated somewhat near the hostess stand, which is where Aimee was fluttering about, so we were in prime position to try and get her attention (we wanted to say “hi”!). I tried to convince g that it’d be a good idea if I did my over-eager smile and wave, but she felt that it was too creepy. So she kept the look-out and eventually caught Aimee’s eye sometime after our appetizer. She came over to greet us, making us happy and giving us an opportunity to shower her with praise for how great everything looked (and to thank her for moving back to the city) and the successful first course. She seemed a little nervous, but it was her first official opening weekend, so she seemed a bit excited, too. It was nice to see her! As I’ve said in the past, she really has a way to make you genuinely feel like you’re special – which we appreciate – it really makes us want her to do well (which, in retrospect, is perhaps a very good talent to have for someone in the food industry). So now that we had seen Aimee, it was time for our next course!
double the beef, double the fun.
g went for a manly entree (it seems like she always gets the manly entree) – but she promised to share (I was going to get it, too, but it’d be dumb to get two of the same!). Those puddles of white were almost like a potato foam, and it was accompanied by a turnip and a carrot, both of which were divine (a divine vegetable? yep – beautifully cooked texture). But the real star was that rib (?boneless short rib?) hiding under that thick brown glaze on the left. It … was … ridiculous. It’s probably the single best short rib I’ve ever had – including the short rib we had at the Inn at Little Washington. That’s no easy feat. g wondered if it could have taken on the Inn’s sous vide filet as well, but I’m not quite sure that this braised piece of meat could have matched the texture/flavor imparted by the sous vide method – it was close, though.
Just some gnocchi and mushrooms, right?
Gnocchi and mushrooms. No big deal, right? In fact, you always see gnocchi and mushrooms (I think we’ve had it at Django, Talula’s Table, Osteria – I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it at other Italian places and contemporary American places all over the city). So what? Brace yourself. This, my friends, was no normal gnocchi-and-shrooms. First off, there were a few different kinds of mushrooms on the plate – so it was a bit of fun trying each. And yes, these gnocchi were a step up even from the normally exquisitely texture Django/Talula gnocchi in that they were lightly pan-fried/roasted/seared/something, so there was a slight browning on the outside, giving it a bit of a super-thin-shell. And there was the round yellow egg yolk that added a wonderfully unctuous sauce-like mouthfeel. But it didn’t end there – because if it did, it would have only been on par with ever other gnocchi-and-shrooms dish in the city. No, there was something different – something weird about this dish – and I still just can’t figure it out! Everything I’ve described to you so far would suggest that this was going to be a rich-and-heavy dish (courtesy of gnocchi and egg yolk). But no. There was something else going on. It had some sweet, but it had some liveliness to it. Or was it some kind of acid. Whatever it was, that some kind of something livened up the dish. It made the gnocchi, mushrooms, and yolk have a lighter, zippier, more playful taste than what I was expecting. At first I thought it was maybe those little red specs, which at first I thought were paprika, but I couldn’t get any of that smoky paprika flavor on the palate (so now I have no idea what those were, either). You know – it was probably something so simple that I’m overthinking it (someone’s going to be like, “duh t, it was balsamic vinegar”) (EDIT: raisin puree!! that’s what it was!), but it was definitely there and made this one of the best gnocchi dishes I’ve ever had (I would have said best, but it’s been a while since we’ve been to my former favorite: Babbo). Nevertheless, it at least so far beat out Vetri (Vetri’s was a volatile gnocchi – I prefer a denser gnocchi), it beats out the old Django/Talula’s, it beats out Gnocchi and La Viola and Mercato and Melograno and Modo Mio/Monsu … Maybe I’ll leave it as the best gnocchi dish in the city? Will that piss off the Italians? Probably. *Shrugs* I’ll happily eat my words if they give me a better gnocchi dish.
queso
Obviously, if you dine at Talula’s, you have to get some cheese, too. We went for the three-cheese “special” – they were described as being in the style of brie/camembert. They were definitely on the lighter side in terms of flavor – no extremely-vegetal/musty/fungusy flavors here – just butter and creme and a pleasant twinge of ammonia towards the rinds. Of course, there were more subtle flavors going on up in there (it’s not like they were all the same or anything), but I’m no cheese connoisseur so my feeble attempts to describe the differences would be met with laughter and ridicule. I will say that the Inn at Little Washington gave us a bit more variety (and quantity) than that which we had here – but maybe that was our fault – there were some more elaborate cheese options on the menu which we had not chosen (I think kp would have disliked our cheese choices – he likes them stinky and funky). For a split second, I was about to regret not being a bit bolder in our selection … and then the unexpected happened. Aimee showed up with two glasses of cava. She said, something to the extent of, “and nothing goes better with rich cheeses than cava.” Aww – how sweet! A simple gesture like a splash of free cava really put the dot in the exclamation point of the meal. And you know what – g found that the cava was indeed a perfect accompaniment, and it really pushed these cheeses show off more of their subtle flavors. Personally, I can’t drink more than a single sip of bubbles, so g also helped me with my glass, too (much to her chagrin I’m sure … rriigghhtt). Meanwhile, I stayed with my red wine and enjoyed the cheeses and the substance that was in that jar all the way to the right, which was filled with what can only be described as liquid crack. Ok – some people might call it “rhubarb compote” … I call it liquid crack. It was delicious. And it was versatile. It paired nicely with each of the cheeses (although that’s not too hard to see – it’s not like the cheeses were assertive personalities) and it even worked well with our dessert:
Looks weird, right?
Welcome to the real dessert of the evening – I love me a good cheese, but I like to end on sweet. This was the dark chocolate “cremeaux”, as it was called, which I can only describe as a cross between chocolate mousse and boardwalk fudge (i.e. it maintained the rectangle shape). It was accompanied by some caramel (with salt I believe) and some chocolate crumbles, and some BACON DUST, and those marshmallows. Ok, right off the bat … caramel and salt. Winning! Then bacon dust … winning again! But why bacon “dust”? I believe it was a good way to introduce the flavor in a very restrained manner. While I would have been happy with bacon bits, this was a more tasteful/playful way to do it – not like an over-the-top-bacon-on-everything (it seemed to be mixed in with the chocolate crumbles the most). We had seen bacon dust before at Talula’s Table when Bryan was there and were glad to see it back in action. But wait – and then there was those marshmallows … winning even more! I don’t know what they did, but it wasn’t just a plain blow-torched marshmallow – it really tasted like it had been roasted over a campfire (and if it was just a plain blow-torched marshmallow, someone please tell me and I will go out and buy that blow torch, myself). In summary, what you had was a chocolate-based dessert with a variety of textures (the crumbles, the marshmallow, the fudge-ness, the caramel sauce) and intriguing flavors (bacon, smoke, caramel). It was a very solid dessert …
Now by this time, g and I had polished off a bottle of red wine. We have never been able to conquer a full bottle of wine above 12% alcohol (we did a bottle of white … once). So naturally, we started doing things we wouldn’t normally do with our food. Like have some cheese with our chocolate. Or some rhubarb with our chocolate. Or some rhubarb with our cheese with our chocolate. And throughout these experiments we came to the conclusion that the triumvirate of that cheese plate with the rhubarb compote with this chocolate essentially turned out to be the best dessert we’ve had in the city (I’m trying to rack my brain to see if we’ve had something better outside the city – and while I can’t think of any, I’d like to remain conservative). Shazam. Zahav’s hold over me since whatever desserts I had way back when I had lunch there with k was over. Of course, a lot of wine had been drunken, so maybe we should go back and re-try this just to make sure we weren’t hallucinating (actually, it’d technically be an “illusion”, not a “hallucination”).
And there you have it. This was a stunning meal. It started off with a “very good” veloute and just kept climbing from there, ending with a bang. Time for some critical analysis … The food here is definitely not as fussy as the Inn. Duh. It was also less than 1/4 the price. And it wasn’t as rustic as our Philly favorite, Bibou. The food came off as something inbetween, appearing a bit more polished than Bibou. As far overall “feel”, the food reminded me a little of what I think JG Domestic is trying to be: a homage to local ingredients, but cooked superbly. But, as you can see from the pix, the food is presented with a little more of rustic touch versus JG – it’s not like they were stacking veggies into pyramids or making intricate sauce smear designs everywhere. As far the quality of the food – it was just as delicious as Bibou (which I prefer to JG … Jidoori chicken be damned) and a better cheese/dessert course (keeping in mind that we’ve only tried one dessert and one cheese plate thus far). I found it interesting that Aimee described Talula’s Garden as “trying to do something that people say ‘only a small retaurant can do’ … but for a bigger restaurant.” I can see that. But I also can’t even imagine how hard it must be trying to produce food of this quality as they take on larger and larger parties – I hope the quality won’t go down, because if Talula’s is going to last in this erratic restaurant scene, it’s going to have to rely on the food (surprise!), alone. At this point, g and I are going to give Aimee the nod over JG – however, I have heard that JG has stepped up its game, so this will probably be a heated battle as the months pass. I’m not sure who would win in a Talula’s Garden vs. Bibou fight, as Bibou comes in at a lower price point (per dish, and it’s BYO), but it is far more difficult to get to/from (cabs, even when called, don’t exactly come right away to Bibou for pick ups) as well as get in (Bibou reservations have become scarce since the Philly Mag list). The FTC has a meeting therein June, so we’ll find out!
Drawbacks? There was a bit of lag-time in the beginning between the bread and the first course and and the first and second courses. But for the remainder of the meal, everything was smooth.
The only other drawback I have relates to my longing for a more intimate environment. It’s tough for a space like that Washington Square place to come off as intimate or garden-esque – there’s super-tall ceilings, distinct eating sections, lights, colored walls, etc … but I really have to just get over it – Django is gone, and this is the future – take it or leave it. And trust me. I take it. Plus, it’s not like Aimee could lower the ceilings or cut the dining room in half or anything. I will say, however, that I’m really excited for the outdoor space. Hell – I’d put a retractable roof and walls on that outdoor space and make that the restaurant because that’s what I think of when I think of “Talula’s Garden” (aside from the obvious garden-esque theme, it just really feels homey and close – I like that). Yes, I know that the outdoor space has gotten a lot of criticism with people/bloggers claiming that it looks too much like a Terrain store or something like that – but what’s wrong with that? It’s pretty. It’s got character. It’s got a splash of up-scale (gotta do something with Starr-bucks). What more do you want?
In conclusion, we wish Aimee’s new venture a ton of success – the food and vision is deserving of it (also, all this time, I have neglected to mention that the chef, Michael Santoro, deserves a lot of praise, too! Double-duh!). I must admit some reluctance in giving Mr. Starr any of the real acclaim (the parts of the business that I [perhaps falsely] attribute to him – the large space, the liquor license – aren’t exactly my highlights, however, if he comes with Aimee, then so be it), he has won these compliments out of me by hooking up with the right people and finding a way to deliver actually good food and not just an over-shnazzified environment (looking at you, Pod). g believes this to be the best of the Starr restaurants. I reminded her that Morimoto was a Starr restaurant. She thought an extra 2 seconds and was like, “yea, so?” Shazam again.
after dinner sneeze 