Posts Tagged ‘Philadelphia’
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 …
g & t get measured
t says: Today, g and I went to a shnazzy men’s tailor/?boutique? so that I could get measured for a custom suit. I have some interviews coming up in the fall and want clothes that fit. My frame is the annoying combination of short and gangly (so department stores often make me sad). What was a little hilarious (especially if they’re reading this right now) was that, unprovoked, the folks there mentioned that they knew we had a “food and lifestyle blog”. Yikes – I forgot that I sometimes leave the blog in my signature in emails! This made a few thoughts pop into my head:
1) The idea of this blog addressing “lifestyle” topics at first struck me as weird. I thought, “Gee, we deal with food, not lifestyle.” And then I realized that food is our lifestyle … so this was followed by a second thought: “Gee, we should probably expand our lifestyle a little more.”
2) The words “food” and “blog”, when placed adjacent to one another, scares me. To me, it evokes thoughts of authoritative, well-visited blogs like foobooz, messy-and-picky, etc. Compared to those, this little slice of cyberspace real estate is best likened to one of those apartments in the basement of a dilapidated rowhouse … it serves a purpose, but it ain’t pretty. Actually, we’re not really sure if anyone besides our family bothers to read it regularly (but we’re thrilled if you do!!).
3) The last thought was “Oh crap! Someone has associated us with our blog!” … aanndd our blog ain’t pretty (after all, I did just liken it to a rowhouse basement) since the free wordpress accounts don’t allow for a customized look. Result: g’s convinced that we may have to sit down and do some actual site design rather than rely on the free wordpress schemes like we have been. We’re working on it …
Oh … and where was it that we went? I don’t want to spill the beans quite yet ’til the suit materializes (get it? materialize?). But I can say that they get an A+ thus far for their niceness and hospitality.
Here’s a peek of what’s to come …
Tight herringbone in charcoal (you can barely see the herringbone, but you get a "sense" that something stripy is going on here) ... and a simple grey striped liner.
Our choices are definitely less sexy than what these guys are used to (they have some beautiful suits in the boutique), but all I needed/wanted was a basic, conservative suit – something that says “confident soon-to-be-doctor” and not “soon-to-be-Doctor-90210”.
But … my next suit will be sexier … I promise.
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!
after dinner sneeze 