Posts Tagged ‘Tria’
Living the Dream: Chocolate Sushi
t says: Valentine’s Day. What a rip-off. All you want is a good meal with that special someone, but if you walk into a restaurant, you’re often faced with fixed price menus at ridiculous prices … Well not g and me. We have rebelled! We’ve seen the crowds in restaurants offering Valentine’s Day fixed price menus and shout in triumph: “NEVER AGAIN!”.
So what did we do?
Sunday we went to Barbuzzo. We couldn’t go on Monday because they were offering a special menu, too! Good thing we got in a day early. We’ve already talked about Barbuzzo before, so I’ll spare you the details. Basically – it boils down to this:
The sheep’s milk ricotta and meatballs are still obligatory/compulsory selections – they’re that good. The paccheri, we preemptively requested they cook a few seconds longer (last time was a little too al dente for us), and it came out perfect ; and this time it had a smoky flavor to it – very nice. Our new dish of the evening was the gnocchi, and it was surprisingly good (it’s a very rich dish though, so be careful!), putting La Viola to shame (I like picking on La Viola’s gnocchi …). Finally, the salted caramel budino, which I would not be surprised if it’s the easiest-to-make, highest-profit-per-serving dessert ever put forth by any restaurant ever, is just too good to not get. Drawbacks? For the love of all that is good and holy, please please please serve your red wines at the appropriate temperature! The wine was actually getting cooler the longer it sit in the glass! That alone could probably win them like another half-bell from Laban or something!
Then Valentine’s day continued on Monday. We got an email from Tria that said something like “come and taste some 1999 Dom for $20”. We had to go. Why? #1 – g likes bubbly. #2 – g has never had Dom. #3 – it’d be so cool to “go out for drinks before dinner” – very bawler. #4 – we were going to get a bottle of ’99 Dom for our wedding (it was the year we started dating … awwwwww ….) but couldn’t justify spending that much cash at that time for something that really not too many people were going to drink/enjoy/appreciate (but we got a nice ’99 Veuve Rose that was awesome). So it was destiny. We rolled up into Tria and immediately ordered g a glass. She liked it quite a bit!
If you notice, there’s another glass in the pic. A short glass filled with a dark liquid. That, my friends, is a glass of wine travesty. Delicious, delicious sin in a glass. It is a chocolate dessert wine. Yes, there’s some Zin in there, but it’s clearly been adulterated with chocolate. And it is so good. It’s like an alcoholic Hershey’s syrup (but textured like wine – not like syrup). g found it weird that her tongue wasn’t encountering a thick, viscous liquid when she took a sip. I found it to be amazing. I know that some people will read “Hershey’s syrup” and turn up their nose – but I happen to like Hershey’s syrup – it has all of those childhood memories attached – how can you not like it? Granted, it’s not the best “chocolate” in the world, but I like to think of Hershey’s like “white chocolate”, i.e. I don’t consider it “chocolate”, I consider it its own thing. Of course, the dessert wine was way too rich to drink a lot of (I left a third of the glass behind), but it was a nice treat before dinner: sushi!
That’s right! The dream has been fulfilled! Chocolate sushi (the name for the blog that I was championing before we … umm … “compromised” …)! Basically, I was thinking it’d be fun if there was a restaurant or bar or hangout that specialized in two things I could really eat almost any time: chocolate and sushi. But these two things don’t really “go” with eachother – one is pure and clean and fresh, while the other is decadent and rich and seductive. Let’s face it – I’m never surprised if a sushi place only offers chocolate-free desserts (or, in the case of Kiss Seafood in SF, no desserts). But tonight was a special night! It was Valentine’s! So I tried out the combination and consumed a considerable amount of chocolate along with a considerable amount of raw fish, enjoying chocolate both before and after the sushi …
Whose sushi? We went to Zama, which ended up being quite impressive. Long story short (cuz this is turning out to be a long post): the decor is reasonable (a not too over-the-top combination of clean, modern, a splash of chic, and a twist of trying-too-hard). The service was quite friendly, which we appreciated. And, of course, the fish was very good (we got the sushi and sashimi combo for 2), and, just as important, the rice was very good, too. Using the amount of soy sauce I use as a marker for how good the sushi/sashimi is (i.e. the better the food, the less the soy sauce), I can say that their sashimi and nigiri required none (their maki still needed a bit). Very nice!
Zama also offered some pretty good desserts, too. They had this “pick 3 for $10”, where you choose three little desserts from a list – it was like a little dessert tasting! And a few of them had chocolate!! In the end, the yuzu creme brulee was my favorite, giving a nice zesty flavor that was enjoyable. The PB-chocolate-cake-and-crisped-rice was also pretty good, as now I wonder if anyone has ever made a 100-Grand chocolate bar, but replaced the caramel with peanut butter … mmmmmm … Unfortunately, the green tea eclair kind of sucked, as the pastry was very hard … sorry Zama.
What were the bad parts of Zama aside from the eclair? Actually, the big black eye of the evening was the ridiculous acrylic dish they served our sushi in. g called it “a sushi corral”. After she said it, I contemplated herding the sushi together into a group and making bleeting or mooing noises. Man, that sucker was big, unwieldy, and ugly; give me one of those silly wooden boats any day.
But the memorable part of the dinner was the inadvertent entertainment. The girl sitting at the table next to ours was hilarious. Why? Cuz she used her fingers. Ok – now I want to say right away that I’m totally cool with people not using chopsticks. Chopsticks are a weird instrument that not every human being is required to know how to operate. I even know real live Asian people who can’t use chopsticks. That’s totally fine. This girl had a fork. I’m down with forks. I use them all the time. But what was funny was not the mere fact that she was straight-up using her fingers, rather, the manner in which she was using them. This was no, “oh, I’m being silly and funny and sneaking a piece of sushi in my mouth by using a pinching motion with my thumb and forefinger” … this was a fumbling around, using all five fingers, dropping pieces of sushi (she even dropped a piece onto her fork), dripping soy sauce everywhere style. I guess it’d be like me … trying to eat spaghetti … without a fork … Ok – maybe it doesn’t sound that funny as you read this, but we were there … and it was funny, damnit!
So kudos to Barbuzzo, Tria, and Zama. A great Valentine’s day (actually, two days), with not a single fixed price in sight!
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.
Kanella: Doing the Robot …
t says: g and I anticipated a weekend without any plans, so we decided at the last minute to go out for a date night! We visited Tria first, which was delightful as always. And, after we each had some wine, a bit of tete de moine cheese, and a salad featuring grilled asparagus, white bean, and artichoke, we headed down the street to go to Kanella. Kanella (transl. cinnamon) has gained some attention recently – a lot of people on chowhound enjoy it, claiming that it was one of the best BYOs in the city, and, as I found out right before we went, a dish was going to be featured on Food Network’s “Best Thing I Ever Ate”. We didn’t know which dish it was, but were happy to go and check out Kanella’s dinner.
2/2010, Friday Night, Party of 2. When we arrived at the restaurant for a 9:30 reservation, we were told that they were running a bit behind. So we, and at least three other couples, crammed ourselves into the super-tiny entrance-way (it was very cold outside, so we stayed indoors). While some of the other waiting people were getting frustrated, I was still happy from the wine I had at Tria. After the first half-hour, I could only laugh that we were still waiting while no patrons had left the restaurant (we figured someone would have to leave for us to move in). The hostess was super-apologetic for the wait (she apologized every five minutes), but there clearly was nothing she could do. Then, she came with a dish of the grape leaves appetizer “from the kitchen”. Then the chef came out and apologized, bearing a plate of the fried halloumi cheese appetizer. I have to admit that g and I weren’t particularly impressed with either of these. The grape leaves had a nice sour punch, but the stuffing was quite bland. The cheese was just that … cheese. But, these aren’t the kinds of appetizers that we would have ordered, anyhow, so we were happy to try something different and greatly appreciated the sentiment. Eventually we were indeed seated – we were the last couple they were seating that night, so we had a nice four-seater to ourselves. On our way in, an older couple dressing to leave commented, “don’t worry – it’s worth the wait!” We hoped so.
When we sat down, we were greeted by a very friendly waiter. He was super-enthusiastic about the food here, so that was great! But things changed a little when we asked him which dish was being featured on the Food Network. He kind of rolled his eyes and admitted that it was the Cyprus Breakfast. Later on, when I returned home and googled it, it turned out that the Cyprus Breakfast had been garnering quite a bit of critical acclaim recently. The waiter said that he was shocked that it was the dish getting such favorable comments, as he felt other dishes were superior; we appreciated his honesty. But then he commented that they would get a LOT of people asking for it at breakfast, referring to them as “robots”. During our conversation, as another server passed by, ours broke conversation and said, in a robotic voice, “cy-prus-break-fast”, to which the passer echoed “cy-prus-break-fast”. Apparently it was a common joke among the servers that patrons mindlessly order the Cyprus Breakfast. I felt a little awkward by this exchange as I felt that even if it is a “simple” dish, if people are willing to pay for it – who cares? Also, had the dish been a dinner dish that I could have ordered, I think I would have been one of those robots they were making fun of. This possibility led me to conclude: if you like something else better, then that’s all you have to say – you don’t have to put down patrons – have some tact! *steps off soapbox* So, that put a sour taste in our mouths to start.
Having had some food at Tria and also the “ok” appetizers we were given while we stood, we decided to go straight to dinner. g ordered the pork tenderloin with chickpea fritters while I had the lamb with some sort of orzo concoction (?giuvetsi?). g’s pork tenderloin and my lamb were good; they were cooked well and seasoned well, but they just didn’t sing to us – it’s hard to be pleased by a pork tenderloin after having had one at Cochon. But perhaps the meats being only “good” was not the fault of the pork or the lamb or the chef, rather, it was the fault of the orzo side on my plate – it was fabulous. We agreed that it was the most delicious thing on both of our plates. It was rustic and tasty – it could have been a dish by itself. And there was so much that I brought some home and reheated it for lunch the next day – it was still phenomenal (so I knew it wasn’t just the wine talking the night before).
Before our entrees were cleared, we had another odd encounter with our waiter. He dropped by specifically to ask g if the pork “was too rare for her” – but something about the way he said it didn’t make it sound like he was being helpful, rather, being critical – I interpreted it as, “are you too much of a wuss to eat pork the way it’s supposed to be cooked?”. The answer was no, the pork was fine and she was just full, but I was tempted to say “no, it’s just too unremarkable for her to eat the rest”. I bit my tongue and let her do the talking (she doesn’t even remember this happening, so perhaps it wasn’t that big of a deal) …
For dessert, we had their assortment of ice cream which included cinnamon, coffee, and pistachio. The cinnamon ice cream was absolutely delicious – the cinnamon flavor wasn’t overpowering and the texture was great. The coffee and pistachio were also very nice and worked well with the cinnamon – we liked these ice creams very much.
So, all in all, we had an “good” meal at Kanella. There were two shining lights (cinnamon ice cream and the orzo). As for whether the rest could stand up to Kanella’s reputation – maybe it was a rough night in the kitchen with how busy they were? Maybe the attitude of the service influenced our perception of taste? Maybe we were just too full from Tria? I don’t know. But I do know one thing … we will be going back … for the cy-prus-break-fast.
after dinner sneeze 