Distrito: Better than Tinto?
t says: I had the great fortune of going to Distrito yesterday. I had even greater fortune in that because the meal was for work, it was being picked up by my boss. While I cannot reveal the nature of the business taking place (makes it sound mysterious, right?), I can reveal that the five of us were given free reign to order whatever we wanted. That, my friends, is a recipe for disaster … a good kind of disaster …
6/2010, 7pm, Party of 5. When we arrived, we were informed that our table was being cleared. Not more than 2 minutes later, we were escorted upstairs by a hostess and shown our seats. We were in one of those circular booths along the wall on the upper floor. On the way I noted that even though I knew the inside of this place was pink, I apparently forgot just how pink it was. Yea – it’s pretty pink in there!
Because it was the first time at Distrito for some of the members of our party, we listened to the server’s spiel; she recommended 2-3 plates per person. That sounded like not enough food, but we listened to her instructions and everyone picked out 2-3 plates, and I ordered some guacamole and the vegetarian nachos for the table (someone else ordered that as one of their dishes, so we got two).
I’ll talk about the food in a second – first let me talk about this drink: “honeysuckle”. This drink is not a very manly drink. The name isn’t manly. The ingredients aren’t manly (Bluecoat gin, muddled mint, lime, and honey). The taste isn’t manly. But manliness be damned – it was so good. I’m not sure if it was my sweet tooth or if it was because I had a rough day at work – but that drink was delicious. The sweet, rich honey was livened up by the mint and lime and citrus flavors of the gin. I didn’t get any of the burn from the gin, either. This made me suspect that perhaps there was very little alcohol in the drink. My suspicion was wrong. When I stood up at the conclusion of the meal, I found that this drink was kind of like sake … the alcohol sneaks up on you like a ninja.
Now, we had a lot of dishes of food on the table. It’d be incredibly boring to describe them all. The highlights were the nachos (trust me – these aren’t just “nachos”), the queso fondido (who can say no to cheese and meat?), the ceviches (we had the hiramasa and the lobster – Garces makes great ceviches), and, from what I could see, the kobe beef tacos (I didn’t have any – but they looked amazing). The surprise awesomest dish award of the evening goes to … the steamed corn! That’s right – steamed corn. You know – I can’t explain it – but just go there and order it yourself, and, as you dive into the warm parfait cup, mixing the layers of corn and some sort of orange-colored cream, I dare you to try and tell me that you’ve had better corn at a restaurant. Also – because you don’t have to eat it off the cob – no corn in your teeth!
Unfortunately, there were a few misses. The shrimp ceviche wasn’t as bright and lively as the other two – it was muddled in a tomato-based sauce that, even though it was layered above a puree of avocado, took over the palate completely – maybe some lime and cilantro would have helped (or using slices of tomatoes instead of a puree). The carnitas taco was also a disappointment, as the meat was a little dry, under-seasoned, and lacking the porky punch I was desiring. Of course, we had a lot of other dishes that I can’t currently remember, and they were all at the very least a notch above “good” – I only remember the highs and lows.
In the end, we actually had to reduce the number of Kobe tacos from two to one, because we were just too full – I give mad props to the waitress for letting us do that (she could have said, “I’m sorry, the chef had already made it … here it is”). Unfortunately, I take away the mad props because the person who came to clear our tables gave me only half of the leftovers to take home. Had I been paying for the meal, I would have felt extraordinarily robbed! At least he didn’t give me the carnitas tacos – that would have been a double-whammy.
So what was the disaster? … I was so full that the walk home was fairly uncomfortable. But it wasn’t all that bad, as the happiness courtesy of the honeysuckle allowed me to travel care-free! The flavors in most of the dishes were bold and inviting – so much so that I feel that Distrito’s food has surpassed Tinto’s. I believe that it is now the new #2 – just under Amada. And, you know what, the pink is growing on me …
Measured the Cochon Pancake
t says: We went back to Cochon. I took some pancake home. I measured it. Check it out (at the end of the post)
Tria: Never a Bad Time
t says: Yesterday, I wanted to go to 500 degrees. I really just wanted to bite into a juicy burger. g wasn’t super-enthusiastic about it, but was willing to give it a whirl because it was a new place. But then, as we were walking to 500, we realized that it wasn’t quite burger weather (well, unless you were at a barbecue). It was warm, but not yet oppressingly hot, so we wanted to dine outside … perhaps with a light summer dinner (I had eaten a late lunch) … and some refreshing, chilled wines. In short, it was rose weather. But I had no rose! So where could we find one? Duh … Tria. We decided that if they could seat us soon, we’d stay. We were promised a 15 minute wait, which at Tria, translated into a 5 minute wait. We got seated and were ready to eat and drink.
6/2010, 8pm, Party of 2. The first matter of business was to choose the wine. We were going to find rose. Interestingly, there weren’t many options. g went for some NV pinot noir bubbly from Albequerque (never had a New Mexican wine before) – it boasted that it was made in in the traditional Champagne method (i.e. bottle fermentation), so it had some promise. g was very pleased, happy with the mouthful of cherries that it resembled. I went for a still Pinot Noir rose whose origin I can’t remember (although it was mis-listed as a “white” on the menu). It had some cherry up front, but changed over to a strawberry jam on the finish. It was so good – exactly what I wanted.
We went for the grilled asparagus, bean, artichoke, and pine nut salad. It seemed so simple, but it was wonderful. The beans and asparagus were the perfect textures, while the artichokes lent a bit of zing. I just can’t say enough about this salad … except “go there and try it!”. For cheese, we went for the triple creme from Burgundy. It was like a buttery cream cheese, which is both good and bad. It was good in the sense that it was rich with wonderful mouthfeel and velvety creaminess. It made us want to sit back and slowly indulge in it. But, it really didn’t have much depth of flavor. The allagash cherries it was served with were quite powerful and easily overtook the cheese in my mouth. That said, the cheese’s mild flavors were a nice foil to the “bam” of the salad. However, ultimately, I think if I had to choose again, I would have gone with one of our favorite Tria cheeses: Tete-de-Moine.
I guess we weren’t that hungry because we were full by the end of the meal (although we did go through an extra serving of bread with our cheese). The food was great, the wine was great, and the service was great. Really … we’ve never had a bad time at Tria.
Drumroll please…
g says: It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for – Jose Garces’ new Cira Centre restaurant has been named!
JG Domestic. I dig it.
Oxtail Chili (and Pasta Sauce) (with pics)
t says: g makes a mean chili. She even puts up with my absurd moods when she makes chili, including my desire to minimize ground beef consumption. g often took it one direction and went for a ground turkey and shrimp chili with lots of veggies – it was a lighter, “fitter” chili that tasted very good. But then, one day, I decided that I wanted to bring back the beef … without using ground beef. I wanted chunks of beef! But it’d be weird to just cook up a steak and add it to chili. Plus, when we make chili, we make a whole mess of it and eat it for a couple of meals, so the beef chunks would have to withstand a trip to the fridge and a few minutes in the microwave. I don’t know what your experience is, but steaks in my hands never do well in the microwave. So … chunks of beef that need to stay tender? Time to whip out one of my favorite pieces of cookware … the Dutch oven!
But which piece of meat to braise? I already had a recipe using short rib, so that was out. And I kind of wanted something manlier for a chili – I wanted the kind of meat that would put hair on your chest. I turned to oxtail. That’s right – oxtail – it even sounds manly! It also has a nice strong beef flavor that won’t be easily lost in our mish-mash that we call chili. Actually, when we first made it, we braised the oxtail and then used both the meat and the braising liquid as the foundation for our chili. Yikes! The oxtail easily overpowered everything else in the chili! That was not so great because we actually wanted to taste vegetables or other meats (i.e. we tried shrimp and oxtail … yea … the shrimp didn’t stand a chance). So what I now do is braise the oxtail and then use the meat for one dish (i.e. chili) and the braising liquid for another (i.e. pasta sauce, aka “gravy”). Now, g and her mom both make some pretty mean gravies – there’s no way I can compete with theirs. This is more like a Korean’s attempt at making gravy, so I’m calling it “pasta sauce”.
Note that one could actually braise the meat one day (thus producing the pasta sauce) and then reserve the meat to complete the chili the next day. Alternatively, one could just braise the oxtail and combine the meat and braising liquid to make a REALLY meaty pasta sauce, unlike my recent experience at Melograno. Or you could just make it all a chili. To each his/her own.
Note that this chili would be disqualified from an actual chili competition due to our use of beans and “filler” (i.e. rice), but we’re still gonna call it chili … in your face International Chili Society. Also – we are not spice connoisseurs – so pardon our paltry collection of supermarket spices and feel free to use whatever spices you like to put in chili – we just use what we have. Finally, we do used canned corn and beans for convenience, however, if you have the time/patience, soak some dried beans [for several hours] and roast some corn-on-the-cob – it tastes better and is healthier!
Ingredients:
For the gravy (makes enough for 0.75 lbs of pasta)
1 package (2-3 lbs) of oxtail (short rib probably works, too)
1 can (~28 oz) crushed tomatoes (Tuttoroso is best, Wegman’s is satisfactory, Hunt’s is abysmal)
3 big (or 4 small) cloves of garlic, freshly finely minced
50% of 1 large onion, diced
0.75 cup alcohol (red wine is nice, but I’ve used vodka, vermouth, white wine …)
leftover rind from slab of parmigiana reggiano cheese (or you could just use a half-cup of cheese)
salt, pepper
0.25 tsp baking soda
<0.5 c canola oil
Mis-en-place in place.
For the chili
0.75-1 lb Italian pork sausage, casings removed
1 cans (28 oz ea.) crushed tomatoes
1 can corn, liquid removed
1 can black beans, liquid removed
1 can kidney beans, liquid removed
<1 pint of leftover white rice from the fridge (like “small” size you get at Chinese takeout)
1 jalapeno pepper
50% of 1 large onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, “diced” (are you allowed to call it “diced” if the resultant pieces are not cubes?)
1 red bell pepper, “diced”
Shredded cheese (cheddar, monterey jack, whatever)
Seasoning: salt, pepper, cumin, “chili” powder, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, srirarcha
Bread: optional
Methods:
0) Remove oxtails from fridge and allow to come to room temp as you cut your vegetables. Preheat oven to 315 degrees. Put Dutch oven on stovetop, and slowly turn up the heat to medium-high.
1) When the Dutch oven is ready, season oxtails with salt and pepper. Add oil to the bottom of the Dutch oven – use just enough to so that an even pool just covers the entire bottom. Sear the oxtails (in batches) until nice and brown on all sides. Set aside. As you sear the last side of the last batch of oxtail, turn the heat down to medium-low.
2) Add 50% of the onion (i.e. all that is designated for the gravy) to the Dutch oven and cook until the onions get a little color and become translucent. Add the garlic, and cook until fragrant (but you don’t want the garlic to burn).
3) Add the alcohol and scrape the bottom of the Dutch oven to release those brown bits. As you do so, turn down the heat to low. Cook until the liquid reduces by half. Add half of the can of tomatoes and mix. Add the cheese. Nestle the oxtail and drippings into the pot. Continue adding crushed tomatoes (including some on top of the oxtail) until the liquid reaches half-way up the oxtails. Heat until the liquid just starts bubbling.
4) Cover Dutch oven with lid and place vessel into oven. Check in 20 minutes. If bubbling too vigorously or not at all, reduce or increase the heat by 10 degrees and check again in 20 minutes and repeat until playfully (not vigorously) simmering. Cook for ~3 hours, or until the meat is fork-tender and starts to pull away from the bone, flipping hourly. You know you’re there if as you try to flip the tails, the meat just separates from the bone without much provocation. Don’t worry if during the first 2 hours that the meat seems extremely tough – it’ll get there – I promise.
The braise goes on ...
5) Remove Dutch oven from the oven and let it rest, uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove oxtail and rest it aside in a foil-tented bowl for 20 minutes or until cool enough so that if it touches your finger, you won’t suffer 3rd degree burns. When ready, shred the oxtail into chunks using two forks – it’ll peel away from the bone quite easily. I tend to also look out for excessive cartilage/fat and remove them the best I can. Now, it’s decision time for the meat. Option A: You could save it in the fridge until the next day to complete the recipe. When you take it out of the fridge, the meat will appear very stiff and tough – but it’ll relax and be tender as soon as you heat it – don’t worry! Option B: You could use it in a chili right now!
Shreds in the bowl, bones on the plate.
6) Siphon off the majority of the fat from the braising liquid (or spoon it off or soak it up using a paper towel). Remove the cheese rind if that’s what you used. Add the baking soda and mix. VOILA! You have braising liquid! The decision what to do with it is yours. Option 1: you could just add the oxtail to the gravy right now and have a full-on meat sauce or a hearty chili, but what’s the fun in that? I feel that the gravy will tasty meaty enough without the meat – save the meat for the chili! Option D: you could reserve the braising liquid to serve as a gravy on its own. I like to put the sauce it in the freezer for later use. To thaw frozen sauce, I stick it into a pot under medium-low heat, add a little bit of water just to cover the bottom – this prevents the sauce from burning as it defrosts. When the block of gravy has melted, taste it and see if it needs more cheese. Add your favorite [cooked] pasta shape and enjoy! Now … back to the chili …
7) After removing the braising liquid, wipe down the interior of the Dutch oven – you don’t have to be fastidious – you just don’t want the stuck-on sauce to burn. Heat slowly to medium-high.
8) Put 1 Tbsp canola oil into the Dutch oven. Add the sausage. If you need, you can brown the ground meat in batches – you want to avoid overcrowding, otherwise you’ll be boiling/steaming the meat, not browning it. Set meat aside.
9) Cook onions in the sausage fat in the Dutch oven until onions take on some color and become tender and translucent. Add the peppers and cook only until they just start getting tender (i.e. cook them only half way to where you would cook them if you were going to enjoy a pepper sandwich). Add the second can of crushed tomatoes. Add corn and beans. Add the rice (the way we make it, we don’t like the rice to outnumber the beans, so we use 2-3 spoonfuls total – but add as much as you want!). Bring the chili back to a bubble. Add the meats!
10) In a separate ungreased pan at medium-high heat, roast the jalapeno directly on the pan until soft and black in spots. Cool, then pull the stems from the chiles. Cut into pieces (removing remaining seeds). Add as much of the jalapano as you want to the Dutch oven.
11) Time for the fun – seasoning with all of those powders we mentioned. This is really done to taste. I’d start off with 0.5-1 tsp of each and then fixing from there. Just be patient, mix thoroughly, and enjoy the fun of tasting it!
12) Serve up some chili and sprinkle on some cheese. Enjoy with bread!
Melograno: Oxtail Sadness
t says: I’m sure you’re tired of reading of Melograno, much like you’re tired of reading about Sampan. But, I think I have finally uncovered Melograno’s weakness (aside from the horrendous cheese plate we had on our first trip there some time ago).
5/2010, 8pm, Party of 3. On a recent visit with g and lc, I ordered the “special”: oxtail ravioli. It sounded like a surefire winner, as I love oxtail. Unfortunately, it was not. Despite the profoundly-beefy flavor that oxtail usually delivers, I barely tasted the oxtail at all – it was masked by a tsunami of herbs like basil and rosemary! For the record, a tsunami of herbs isn’t that bad, but when you’re expecting savory meat, fresh herbs is quite surprising. Additionally, there was supposed to be oxtail in the sauce, but I encountered not a single strand … strike 2! Then, I found that parts of the ravioli (where you’d pinch close the pouch) was a bit too firm … strike 3 – you’re outta there! Oh … and what’s this? An intact rosemary leaf to bite into and get stuck in my teeth, leading to mild discomfort and an overwhelming rosemary taste? Yea, that’s like hearing the home crowd’s yo’-mamma jokes as you walk back to the dug-out with your head bowed down in shame …
Of course, g’s wild boar pappardelle was perfection as usual, and lc’s carbonara was delicious (who could say no to pancetta?), so some things were going quite right. I guess even Melograno can turn out a flawed pasta dish.
g says: I don’t know what you’re complaining about. You still ate every last bit, even though you “weren’t that hungry”. Sheesh.
t says: <moment of silence to reconsider> I never said it was so awful I couldn’t eat it … just flawed.
By the way, our server for the night was the awesomest server at Melograno ever. He was very pleasant, didn’t mind giving us gratuitous amounts of bread, and suggested at the end of our meal that if we didn’t want their desserts, there was Capogiro right around the corner … and Melograno even offers gelato on the menu (for 50% greater cost)! I love the honesty – the only thing left for him to say would be, “whatever you do, don’t get our cheese plate”.
Restaurant Owners vs. PLCB … Re: GTC
t says: I didn’t know about this, but I recently was linked to this article via foobooz. Restaurant owners feel it unfair that there’s a PLCB-certified shoppe within Garces Trading Company, a venue that contains a BYO restaurant. I believe they feel that this is an unfair advantage in Garces’s favor. But what if the PLCB opened up a shop right next to GTC – would that be ok? Or maybe the little wine store needs to be staffed by non-GTC employees? I dunno.
Of course, the restaurant owners say that they aren’t targeting Garces, but they are taking a shot at the PLCB with a lawsuit. On one hand – I’m not a PLCB fan. On the other hand, I don’t want to accidentally hurt GTC, which is a great, not-expensive-but-tasty place to go for food!
after dinner sneeze 