Brazilian Steak

I love the concept of the Brazilian steak house. It makes me think of a party--who doesn't think of Carnivale when they think about the best of Brazil? I've lived here for several years and this restaurant concept has intrigued me since I got here. I had never heard of a Brazilian steak house before.


Gauchos has two locations (which also happen to be the cities I frequent most often); Portland and Manchester. My sisters, aunt, and I checked out the Manchester one recently. 


We were seated and the hostess took our drink orders. We all had various caipirinhas and, frankly, they were a little small for $9 each. Mine was quite delicious though.

So there really is no "menu" at this restaurant apparently. The waitress told us that the servers would come around with skewers of meat and we could have as much of whatever that we wanted. She failed to mention to us that the green and red cards on our table that we thought were coasters were actually signals to the servers that indicated if we wanted service or not. For sides and veggies, there was a salad bar. It was exactly what you would expect at a place that was mostly salad bar--lots of mayonnaise-based concoctions,  fresh veggies to make your own tossed salad, a bunch of "steakhouse" sides like mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. There were also some soups; however, nothing was labeled so you really didn't know what you were getting. I tried a bunch of stuff on this salad bar and by far, without question, the yummiest thing (in a giant plate of "blah") was the black beans with sausage. It was exactly that--black beans stewed with onion, sausage, bay leaves, and spices. It wasn't "hot" but it was spicy and comforting and the best thing in the entire restaurant (including the meat). 


Now, on to the meat service. Indeed, lots of men who spoke barely enough English for you to know what you were eating paraded around the room with skewers of various meats:

This is my aunt, obstructed by a skewer of bacon wrapped filet.

The most fun part of the restaurant is using the tongs to pull the meat off as the server slices it.

There were 11 types of meat that night, and though I think I tried everything, this was pretty much left on my plate when I was done. Here, starting at the top left and going clockwise: bacon wrapped chicken, hanger steak, flank steak, house made sausage, fried yucca, prime rib.


If I'm being completely honest, only the bacon-wrapped meats were above average, and really, what wrapped in bacon is average or below? The meat was all seasoned the same, the sausage was very dry and bland (with no spice). It was probably meat overload for me--I always order smallest portion of beef I can when I go to get steak. I love it but a little goes a very, very long way.


We finished the meal with some very good deserts: an ice cream bomb, a frozen chocolate mousse, a tiramisu and a cheesecake. To be honest, I think the deserts were much more flavorful, fresh, and delicious than anything we ate during the main course.


We all really wanted to love this experience, but it was just a little "too" too many things....the atmosphere was too cold; the room was too formal for men running around with skewers of meat; the restaurant was far too quiet; the salad bar was too bland, generic; the meat was too similar (and about half was too salty); and, at about $60 each with tip, too too expensive for what it was.


I wanted to love Gauchos. I wanted to go and have fun, to be reminded of Carnivale. What I got instead was a rock in my stomach and a lighter wallet without the satisfied feeling that a good meal with my family should bring me.

Raclette

I have a few friends who spent some time living in Europe; they are so worldy and I am so not! When I went to visit them upon their return I got to experience a little bit of European culture right in their Philly suburb. 


Raclette is both a specific type of cheese and a meal. Wikipedia can explain it a lot better than I can. What I can do is tell you about our meal and how much fun we had that evening. 


The table was set.

That odd-looking thing in the back of the table is the raclette grill. Apparently this is a common household appliance in parts of Switzerland and France. The bag in the middle of the table is full of a LOT of steamed potatoes.


So here's how it works. You put the grill where everyone can reach it. Then you put some slices of raclette on a paddle/spatula apparatus.

The spice on top is a spice made specifically for raclette. It is a combination of ground pepper, nutmeg, and some other things that I really couldn't figure out. Then, into the heat it goes!

This is community time. Time to sit around, drink wine, and chit-chat while dinner cooked away. It was a lot of fun. Cooking at the table makes dinner so much more social! In the meantime, prepare on your plate any potatoes, pickles, apples, onions, etc. that you wish to enjoy. Any charcuterie would be perfect with this.

Bubbly, hot, spicy...pull out your personal tray of heaven from the raclette grill and pour it over your dinner.

I will admit that the three of us spent well over an hour grilling cheese, chit chatting, drinking wine, and eating three pounds of boiled potatoes with creamy, spicy, nutty raclette all over them. 


Sort of the same theory as fondue, without the whole community pot of cheese. It really was fun and delicious. Thanks to my friends who introduced this to me; I hope we can do it again during my next visit!

Petite Jacqueline

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to have a fun, delicious dinner at Petite Jacqueline in Portland. If you are ever in Portland and are looking for some French-ish food that isn't too unfamiliar, between here and The Merry Table, you definitely have some choices.


First impression speak volumes, and my first few impressions made me a little nervous. Despite there being several empty tables and having a reservation, we were held in the vestibule for about 10 minutes before being seated. I saw there was a perfect table for two in the window facing the street and told my dinner companion that I was sure that table was being saved for someone with more money than us (I was right). There was a very bored 3 year old running around the restaurant. This is NOT a place to take a 3 year old with a short attention span. 


I ordered a glass of rose that the the waitress recommended that was just blah; however, my friend ordered this lovely wine.

I took a picture so I would remember. We were brought a small baguette (in a bag).

It was served with an herbed lemon butter. This baguette was not french bread. It was sourdough. Way too sour sourdough--with a clashing lemon butter that made the whole thing together taste sort of sour and spoiled and just "off."


For appetizers, we ordered escargot and charcuterie. 

The charcuterie was duck and pork. I wish I could remember the exact preparations but sadly I cannot. I remember the duck was silky and succulent and the pork tasted good but a little fatty. You would expect that of pork, right?


The escargot was extremely garlic-y and onion-y. The puffed pastry was perfect for scooping up the juices of the snails. The snails were not tough. The sauce was a lot of butter and white wine. Yummy.


For dinner, we had a French gnocchi and the roast chicken.

The roast chicken was almost as good as mine :-) . Really, it was nearly perfect. The skin was crisp and not fatty, the chicken moist and perfectly seasoned, in that I couldn't taste any other flavor than chicken, which is just what I wanted. The potato puree under the chicken was sooooo creamy and buttery and wonderful. The one flaw of this dish was the red sauce on the dish. I assume it was a chicken drippings/red wine sauce with some butter but honestly, the sauce had absolutely no flavor. If you tasted it with your eyes closed you would pick up no discernible flavor at all. It wasn't bad, it was...nothing. The gnocchi was wonderful. It was made with wheat flour (no potato) and was light and pillow-y. It had a bunch of fresh veggies--zucchini, snow peas, and I think asparagus. It was a very well-cooked dish. 


Of course, at a French restaurant, I'm going to get dessert.

I had the chocolate mousse. It was a delicious mousse, as good as I've ever had in my life. It was topped with  sea-salted peppermint chocolate toffee. The toffee was DELICIOUS but I really really didn't like the salt. This apparently didn't stop me--my love of peppermint and chocolate was too strong--I ate every bite. I also had the best cappuccino I've ever had in Portland. The server said they have the best machine in town and I would believe it. My friend had the blueberry crepe and I thought it was exceptional, he said he could make it as good himself at home. Who am I to say differently? I feel the same about the chicken.


Overall, this was a delicious meal. Even disliking the bread, this was one of the best overall dinners I've had in Portland. Every course had a high point. No course had anything inedible. The service was friendly and the prices was very reasonable. This is more of a "date night" place than a "girls night" place. Bon Apetite!

Wine Pairing

I will be the first to admit I know NOTHING about wine. Thankfully, I have friends who do because I do like it when a good meal brings out the great flavors in a wine and vice versa. I have a terrible memory at remembering what goes with what, which combos work, and honestly, I don't have a deep interest in learning. I'm a lazy wine drinker. 


Recently I had an opportunity to go to a wine tasting meal at the Robinhood Meetinghouse. This is a place I've never really heard anyone talk about but years and years ago the owner/chef's daughter was one of my students. When I lived nearby I went with some of my family for dinner and the duck (three ways) was so good, it made my oldest sister cry. This is a hysterical culinary moment we like to bring back whenever the meetinghouse or duck comes into conversation. I moved back to New England four years ago; and this was where I wanted to go to celebrate. I'm just getting to it now. See how time flies? You can learn about the restaurant from the website, this post is going to focus on our dinner specifically.


The wines were from Eberle Winery. The owner was there to speak for each pairing; again, the talks focused on other things than the food, and as we know, I'm all about food, so I'm not really going to talk about him either except to say I think my party annoyed him and we were all pretty much ok with that. We were having a great time.

The amuse bouche was an oyster on the half shell with prosecco gelee, with shaved fennel and pickled carrot (paired with a 2010 Mill Road Viognier). We were mixed on this dish. The gelee had melted by the time it go to our table but we did agree the crunch and the pickling of the carrot added a nice citrus flavor to the oyster. The oyster itself was very very fresh...I love an oyster. We also liked the presentation, an ice cube made from a muffin cup. So cute!

The meetingouse is famous for their cream cheese biscuits and with good reason. So yummy! We also tried a sweet potato variety that will most likely be available in your freezer section (we found the plain ones in Hannaford and Whole Foods) soon. The herbed butter was a bit hard when it got to our table but melted quickly; I liked it more on the plain biscuit than the sweet potato one. 

The next course was a dry seared porcini pepper dusted lamb carpaccio with arugula, mint, and grape salad (paired with 2007 Zinfandel from Steinbeck/Wine Blush Vineyards). I've never had carpaccio before; it's not something that appeals to me. It was tender and very mild flavored. I didn't get any porcini flavor in it at all. The salad was fresh, we all loved the grapes, but someone at my table said his was too minty and we all agreed that the arugula should have had the stems cut off. They were tough. I also thought the salad was just the slightest touch overdressed, maybe too much acid in the salad overpowered the lamb. This was my favorite wine of the night!

The next course was a seared skate wing with tomato/caper tapenade, caramelized fennel, corn fritter, and sweet corn "foam" (paired with 2009 Eberle Estate Chardonnay). This was my favorite wine/food pairing of the night. I am not a chardonnay fan. At all. It worked here, though. I don't know enough about wine to say why but I can tell you that the skate wing made the wine taste better, and the wine made the fish taste better. Most everyone at the table loved some parts of this dish. Before it was presented to us we were commenting on the foam element. I said that it would be liquefied before the servers got the dishes up to our table (they were serving everyone at once on two different floors) and I was not surprised to see our foam had flopped. My party was disappointed, as they have been in the past with foams (exception: see my earlier post from Iceland). I agree that if a foam isn't going to "WOW" the diner, don't serve it. This was just corn soup. The fritter was not too dense and the fish was quite delicious (if just a tiny bit stringy). 

For me, this course was the highlight of the night; a lavender sorbet served in lemon. I don't love the smell of lavender at all so I was skeptical; my cynicism was quickly put to rest. This was a great palate cleanser after the fish; light, bright, flavorful, sweet, and tart. It was also stunningly beautiful. I don't think this picture does it justice.

This course was a lemon-butter poached lobster tail with chervil puree, tournedo of beef, sauteed parsnips and asparagus with roasted portabella, black garlic, and "anna" potatoes (whatever those are) (paired with 2008 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon). I have just copied that off the menu (except the "whatever those are," obviously!) and I have to say, I agree with my fellow diner who stated that the dish should probably be described on the menu as a way of highlighting the main ingredients in the dish. Let's be honest, there are more beef and potatoes than anything else on this dish, yet the lobster tail is listed first. And for a dinner in Maine, 1/6 of a lobster tail is a surprisingly small amount when it is listed first on the menu, at least that's my opinion. This dish had a lot of flavors that worked well together. I really liked black garlic and mushroom with the beef. This was the only dish where I left something on the plate--several cloves of black garlic. It was very good but just a little too much for me.

The final course was a lime coconut souffle with warm lime curd (paired with a 2009 Estate Muscat Canelli). I loved this souffle. It was crunchy on the top, not too sweet, and the lime curd was very tart and super lime-y. so yummy. No comment on this wine; I'm not much of a dessert wine person.

Overall this was a great meal and a lot of fun. Most of the dishes had at least some mixed review around the table but everyone agreed that everything was done well and that the sorbet was the hit/surprise of the night. A word about the service. It is incredibly hard to pull off service for an event like this. There were hiccups for sure; however, the servers were super nice, our water glasses were always full (sparkling; nice touch), and the chef came to every table to chit chat and make sure we were happy. For a formal setting, service, and meal, this felt very homey to me. I can't wait to go back and order off the menu; I won't be waiting 10 years, that's for sure!

Quick and Healthy Dinner

I know, I know. I've been there. It's been a long day--you are tired, busy, poor, a bad cook...any combination of these things. Yet when you deny yourself wholesome, healthy dinners, you are even more tired and less motivated. Here's the healthiest dinner I can whip up in 10 minutes.


1. I buy frozen salmon individually wrapped. Alaskan salmon. A package of them is around $10--it's cheaper than 6 quarter pounders...just remember that. When I get home from the gym I take one out of the freezer and throw it in a pan of cold water so it can defrost. Then I put it in the George Foreman grill for 3-3.5 minutes. Olive oil, pepper, sometimes montreal steak seasoning.


2. 1 handful (about a cup) of frozen veggies in the microwave for 1 minute. Being only one person, it's hard to buy/process/eat fresh produce before it goes bad. I know frozen veggies are not best practice but they are better than no veggies and they are less processed and have less sodium than canned. Again, buy a big bag and just use a handful or two--it's cheaper than buying the "serving size" packages. I like Trader Joe's Organic Foresome...delicious AND funny.


3. Brown rice. On this day I have Minute Rice that I found in my cupboard so it only took a minute. For it to take you just a minute, whip up a batch of it and keep it in the fridge. It will reheat ok. Again, this is just pennies a serving.


4. Low-fat milk. I have recently made the switch from skim to low-fat. I blame a few things for this. A few months ago I offered milk to a friend who said, "as long as it isn't skim. Skim milk is blue." Ever since then, I have noticed it too (isn't the power of suggestion a bugger sometimes?). Then I read about what they do to skim milk to make it "appear more white," along with articles like this, so now I'm drinking 1%. Who knows what is really best for you...anyway. Milk has vitamins and is filling--drink it with dinner.

Sometimes I switch this up with a skinless chicken breast. I can also get these for a good price at my local wholesale club. Would I rather have a cheeseburger and a shake? Of course! But sometimes you have to do healthy and easy. And this is probably cheaper.

Healthy lunches!

This is uncooked, pearled barley. It doesn't look so pretty, I agree. It does look healthy though. Isn't that always the way? The things that are the best for you aren't nearly as pretty as a decorated cake or cotton candy. And those things are fun to have, sometimes, but usually you should fill your body with stuff like this.


This barley is a bit of a commitment--it takes 4 hours to cook. The way I look at it, it's all natural, not processed, so it can cook and I will wait. It's probably better for me than anything that is "quick." When you're dealing with whole grains, "quick" usually equals more processed. More processed equals less nutritious. I like to simplify the chemistry. That's just how I roll.


When I know I'm going to have a typical, routine week, I make all my lunches for the week on Sunday. This saves money as well as ensuring that I am only eating healthy food at lunch. If the decision is made ahead of time, I will make better choices. That's just the way I am. And usually, the healthy choice starts with a whole grain like this barley or quinoa. Both are super healthy and are a great base for any flavor combo you like. 


On a typical week I will saute an onion and a red pepper in a frying pan, add some frozen veggies at the end, pour in some cooked grains, and voila--lunch for the week! The week I cooked this barley, I had a squash fresh from someone's garden.

I put a little Smart Balance inside the squash and baked it on 400 for about an hour. Then I scooped it out and put it into the cooked barley. 

I also browned some chicken sausage and threw some frozen peas in this dish. I did NOT add any salt. Here is why; I didn't need it. Not because the dish didn't need salt; it surely does. I cooked the barley in low sodium chicken broth, which gives the barley some flavor and the entire dish all the salt it needs (especially considering the sausage has salt in it, too). I did put a lot of pepper on it--somehow, pepper and veggies go together in my mind.


So this "recipe" changes every week that I make it. It is usually a whole grain, always an onion. Because quinoa is a complete protein I don't always add meat when I use quinoa.


Filling, yes--a little work, but it's a make-your-own superdish that is not too expensive, makes a lot of food, and you will feel so proud of yourself for cooking something that is so good for you! Eat this for lunch for a week then treat yourself to that beautiful cake on the weekend! :-)

A Rare Bread Success

A while ago, a no-knead bread recipe floated through the internet. I saw it everywhere but I think I originally got it from my sister via this story in the New York Times (are they going to charge for their recipe content, too, or just their news?)


This appealed to me because I LOVE fresh bread but I do not make it enough to be good at it. I need simple recipes: fool-proof, no-fail, easy-to-do recipes. And this was just that.

No way was this a substitute for my mom's rolls but it did satisfy that craving for fresh, hot, homemade bread when I was living far away. 


Try it yourself, it's delicious!


By the way, if you're reading, why aren't you commenting? I'd love to hear from you!

Chocolate Cream Pie

I am told that when I was a child, one of my favorite foods was Gerber chocolate pudding. And really, what baby wouldn't be happy to eat that? I vaguely recall loving it long after I was out of the puree stage; I think my cousin Cheryl once bought me a few jars of it for Christmas and I didn't even know Cheryl until I was 5 or 6.


Chocolate pudding is rich, comforting, hearty, and fantastic. I happen to think I make the best chocolate pudding in the world and I am about to share all my secrets with you.


Let me preface this by saying that last weekend my sister and I made a chocolate cream pie; I say my sister and I because I cannot make pie crust. I am determined to master it someday but I am not there yet. My sister used this recipe and we all agree that it was nearly the best pie crust we've ever had. So make this crust, bake it off, and then use my chocolate pudding to fill it; add real whipped cream and you will have yourself a slice of heaven.


For more than a few years in a row, my sisters and I made 50+ pies in a span of 3 days for a July 4 celebration. We are all pie masters. As a result of this, I have memorized the pudding recipe and can make it anywhere on a moment's notice. It's not fool-proof, easy, or quick. It is worth it. You'll thank me later.


Ingredients:
1/3 Cup cornstarch
3 Cups milk
2/3 Cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt


4 beaten egg yolks


2 oz excellent quality chocolate, melted
1 tsp vanilla


You need to do some prep work here. Melt your chocolate in a bowl and set aside (or use 3tbsp cocoa and 1 tbsp light oil per oz if you don't have chocolate. I always end up using more than 2 tbsp oil total to make the chocolate very easy to pour and therefore easier to mix into the pudding later).  Put your egg yolks into a medium size bowl and give them a good whisk.


In your best pot (something that will heat evenly and hold heat well), put in the first 4 ingredients. I use whole milk if I am really indulging, organic skim milk if I am trying to be a little better. Regular skim milk is too watery and your pudding won't have the silky rich feeling to it. I have used soy milk; if you choose to, reduce the sugar by 1/3 cup. You now have 3 bowls of "stuff".

Put the pot on medium or medium low heat and start stirring. Stir gently; you're not beating up your food here, you're preventing any milk from sticking and making sure everything heats evenly and all the solids dissolve. I use a wooden spoon and make a very slow figure 8 in the pot, rotating the top of the 8 occasionally so I get the entire bottom of the pot. You have to do this until the whole mixture comes to a boil for 1 minute. It doesn't come to a rolling boil, just a steady glug-glug, one bubble at a time. How long does it take? It depends on the pot, the stove, etc. Anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. You'll know you're close when the milk takes on a foamy translucence, then it will thicken quickly. It will get VERY thick when it's boiling.

After the mixture has boiled for one minute, take it off the heat (but don't turn the stove off). take a few spoonfuls of the milk mixture and slowly pour it into the yolks, stirring the yolks as you do this (it helps to have a buddy for this part). This is tempering the yolks to heat them a little so they don't turn into scrambled eggs in your pudding.  When the yolks are hot, add the whole thing back into the pudding pot, stir well, and bring to another boil on the stove. Glug-glug for 30 seconds. Keep stirring the pot constantly and a little more vigorously this time; this is when pudding will burn on very easily.


NOW you can turn the heat off and take the pot off the stove. Add the chocolate and the vanilla and stir stir stir.

Pour it into whatever you want (crust, serving bowl, etc.) and put a layer of plastic wrap directly on the top of the pudding, eliminating any air pockets you see (to prevent pudding skin; I'm not a fan). If you are making a pie, make sure the crust is cool before you pour the pudding in, otherwise the crust will get very mushy.


I think it was Martha Stewart who said that she pushes her pudding through a sieve when it is hot to remove the lumps--and yes, sometimes lumps happen. I don't bother. It's homemade pudding and just like homemade potatoes, sometimes they are lumpy. It's ok. This particular time, I didn't have a single lump (one near catastrophe I will never admit to but not lumps).

A piece of heaven. You're welcome!

Pasta Pasta Pasta!

I do not love pasta. I have lived in this state for nearly four years and I still have one of the first boxes of pasta I bought when I moved here. Dried pasta for me is usually a waste--a waste of stomach room, carbs, calories--all those things I normally don't give a second thought to. The exception to this pasta snub is fresh pasta. I love fresh pasta. Again, I don't eat it very often (it's not easy to find here and the grocery store kind does NOT count) but when I do I enjoy it tremendously.


Last weekend I happened to be in Boston. I usually go to Boston for one reason--Logan Airport. I am either on a bus or being driven to or from. Rush, rush, hurry, hurry. This spring I think I will have the opportunity to see a little more of the city (or the "big town" as one of my friends calls it).


After wandering around a little bit last Sunday, my sister and I happened into the Mission Hill section of town on Tremont St. We were hungry and had no idea what was around us. Not knowing a good spot for lunch, I made the arbitrary decision that we go to Lilly's Gourmet Pasta Express, a decision we were more than thrilled with.


I completely understand why real Italian folk might be offended by the concept of fast and easy design your own pasta dishes; however, let me tell you, my sister and I had a delicious lunch! 


My sister had ziti with meatballs.

This was fresh ziti. Light and tender, rich and cooked perfectly. The sauce reminded me of the Italian places in Portland back in the late 80s-early 90s, simple and fresh. 

I had tortellini with chicken, peas, onions, and pink sauce (marinara with a little cream).

As fresh as the pasta and sauce were, as caramelized as the onions were, as juicy as the chicken was, the peas were AMAZING. Do not ask me how a Boston chain rest has fresh peas in February. They couldn't possibly be fresh but they tasted like the were just picked and they were not mushy or overcooked at all. SO GOOD.

Both of these dishes were served with hunks of warm Italian bread. They were so big that we couldn't finish either of them, so, for around $25 we got 4 great meals. The guy running the place obviously had at least partial ownership. He was a friendly cute guy who was very helpful, made lots of suggestions to customers, and went out of his way to make sure everyone was happy. Yummy food and good service, what more can anyone ask for?

I was on Chowhound today and came across the following comment in regards to Snow's Chowder being sold to Bumble Bee, and BB changing the recipe for their chowder. It cracked me up so I thought if you used to like Snow's Chowder, it would crack you up, too:

"I sent the following message to Snow's: "I am extremely upset at your company. I have been buying Snow's condensed clam chowder for 40+ years. You changed the recipe!!! The new stuff is awful, truly awful. Didn't you learn anything from the New Coke disaster? Even worse you did it quietly behind everyone's back without admitting it. Don't think people haven't noticed. My entire family both in California and Massachusetts hate the new stuff. And don't insult my intelligence by telling me no changes were made. I have a can of the old, good chowder. I compared them side by side. The new concoction smells different. It it thinner. The clams and potatoes are smaller. It's crap. Even my cat didn't want it. Did Bumble Bee do this to you? What a crime! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. You ruined a time honored fantastic product. Well, I'll never buy another product from any company associated with you again. " They have not replied."

Ode to Brunch, #1

My life is a study in conflicts. Not two weeks after I wrote a blog about not liking things too salty I made a banana bread that ended up bland (I put as much salt as the recipe called for, fyi). I love to sleep late on the weekends but I love, love, LOVE breakfast.


This is why I am so happy that brunch exists. One thing I love is a great brunch. There are so many good things about brunch; you can have breakfast OR lunch, you can have it almost anytime during the day, after you have brunch with friends you still have the day ahead of you to do whatever you like, and you can take a nap after it if you want.


Brunch alone is just eating; brunch with friends or family is an event. And I have had some fun, amazing, great brunches. I'm sure future blogs will discuss other brunches in more detail; here are a few highlights.

Ok, so donuts right out of the fryer are decidedly NOT brunch but look at these golden orbs of yumminess with the sun shining right on them...seriously, would you turn these down if someone showed up at brunch with them? My dad and sisters made them and they are just as delicious as they look. Sometime there will be a detailed donut blog.

A few years ago we had Easter brunch at my cousin's house. My cousin and his partner are great hosts and great cooks. This brunch was poached eggs on english muffins, bacon, trifle, fruit salad, croissants, and cake. Beautiful and fun! By the looks of the glassware, we also had mimosas. Plural, I'm guessing.

The Front Room in Portland, ME is one of my favorite places to get brunch. The lines are insane on the weekend, the service isn't great. The noise is atrocious, the tables are packed together. This restaurant makes a perfectly runny poached egg and they make their own brown bread--and that is all that matters. 

Another great poached egg; made even better with short rib hash. This was my birthday brunch a few months ago. I had two really strong drinks that had rum AND vodka in them before this meal so it's hard to say if it was truly good or not but I did have a very happy birthday!

Restaurant Week Maine

There are lots of great things about restaurant week. A friend and I used it as an excuse to get out to a good dinner at a reasonable price, trying a new place at the same time. After looking at all the choices participating this round, we tried the strangely named Academe Brasserie at the Kennebunk Inn. Clicking the link will take you to their Restaurant Week menu.


The dining room was not overcrowded, which I like. For a mostly dead town mid-winter, the restaurant was full; a testament to the success of restaurant week, I think. The regular, day-to-day menu was much different than their restaurant week offerings; usually they have burgers, wings, chicken and dumplings, and of course, a lobster roll (this is why I found the name so odd).


We started with cocktails. My friend had the Sage Against the Machine, and apparently, the bartender who won an award with this drink was working this night. The drink was very good. Lots of flavors, not too sweet, not too boozey, and very interesting. I had the Maine Lemonade, which was slightly more boozey and very very tart. Personally, I like to finish my cocktail before I start eating but appetizers came out right away. I had the PEI mussels.

These were delicious. There were only 3 unopened ones in the entire, giant bowl. The toast was brushed with butter and garlic; the broth was herby and buttery and perfect with the toast. The mussels were very clean, which is very important to me! My friend had the salad. I did not try it but any salad with goat cheese has to be good, right?

The main courses were a tough choice. There are signs EVERYWHERE about Cat Cora mentioning their lobster pot pie on the Food Network show The Best Think I Ever Ate. So it seemed obvious that one of us would order it; my friend stepped up to the plate.

The puff pastry on the top of this dish was by far, hands down, no question, the best puff pastry I've ever had. Light, crispy, so so buttery. I could have had just that and been happy (well, more than just one piece, obviously). The stuff in the pot? I'm sad to say, completely forgettable. Notice the blog above, which states that salt is an important element in bringing out flavors in dishes? Perhaps the person who assembled this creation forgot about that part. It was so bland. There were no noticeable flavors whatsoever (except the pea). It's really sad when you order something called "lobster this or that" and you can't taste lobster. Even when you know you have a chunk of it sitting on your tongue. There was nothing "bad" about this lobster pot pie but it was pretty disappointing considering the signs outside, on the menu, and placards on each  table touting its greatness (not an exaggeration).


For each night of Restaurant Week, Academe was offering a special that was not on the menu. The night we went, the special was a sous vide duck. This dish had about 8 different elements, and I wish I had written them down. What is sous vide? It's a cooking method. I like to think of it as fancy "boil in the bag." My dad used to occasionally bring home La Choy dinners that I seem to remember us throwing in boiling water on the stove but that is a digression. It was savory, sweet, smoky, satisfying. It had potatoes, endive, leeks, sherry reduction....it was so delicious and was worth the entire price of the 3-course meal on its own.

I know it looks pink; do not be alarmed. That is due to the cooking method. It was brought up to a safe temperature inside its vacuum-sealed bag. I did not eat the fat though; chewy duck fat is not my favorite.

These were the dessert selections tonight. My friend chose the s'more.

The torching of the marshmallow made the outer edge of the chocolate warm and drippy and gooey. This was yummy and was just this side of being too sweet for me. I could have eaten the whole thing, though, and I loved that it came with a shot of milk. I ordered the lemon meringue cheesecake.

This was a little heavy but not too heavy for cheesecake, if that makes any sense. I liked that the marshmallow on top was freshly toasted. The lemon filling was not too sweet and was very tart. The coffee was really, really good.


We both enjoyed our meals but I think we both feel we got the best of what this restaurant has to offer, and therefore, I don't think we'd go back. The one odd thing about our meal was our server. She forgot us twice (admitted it openly once); she did bring us some sorbet to make up for it--it was lime, SUPER salty, and not delicious. In all honesty we think she was high, and getting more so, throughout our meal. It was the random comments to us, the forgetting us and not seeming to really be too apologetic about it. Telling us that sweet things were really salty and vice versa, bringing us two coffees after she confirmed that we only wanted one..just little things throughout the evening that convinced us that she wasn't busy, or overworked, she was under some influence. It added some character to the night though, and we had a great meal overall.

Salt of the Earth

I have said that I hate salt. And that is completely true but also completely untrue. Salt is an essential ingredient in almost every recipe. Without salt, flavors wouldn't be what they are.


I think the problem with me and salt is that I really don't like food to taste salty. It's a flavor that is almost entirely unappealing to me (there are exceptions. I love corned beef but I hate ham. That's just the way it is.). I think of salt as an ingredient, not a flavor. When I am really excited for a dessert on a menu and then I see that the only chocolate item on the menu is topped with "fleur de sel," I am instantly thrust into melancholy. Some friends of mine brought home a box of truffles from a restaurant one night, and all but one of them had salt in the filling or on the top. This is sadness to me. Sadness in a box. An assault on chocolate and my sensibilities.


When I cook, I always make sure there is a little salt in what I'm making. Salt is a great ingredient that balances flavors and brings out nuances to make food not taste bland. Bland is almost as sad as salty but I would rather have bland food than over-salted food. There was a time in my life where I watched a LOT of Food Network during my down time and I was disgusted with the amount of salt the cooks would use. Without pinpointing anyone in particular, the "chefs" would say things like "you have to salt every ingredient" or "season as you go along." If an everyday cook were to follow the advice they were watching on those shows, they would end up with 4-5 tsp of salt in every dish, including dishes that included naturally salty foods like capers, anchovies, and chicken broth. Why would you add a "pinch" of salt with every ingredient when you are cooking? Isn't it easier to taste at the end, add salt (if needed), rather than come up with something inedible after all of your work?


Whether you believe in a direct connection between high salt intake and health risks or not, Americans have way too much salt in their diets. Currently the standard recommendation is a TOTAL of a half-teaspoon of salt a day. I think there is more than a half teaspoon of salt on a small order of McDonald's fries, which, I don't like because they are too salty. yuk. Don't get me wrong; fries should have a little salt but I get my salt fix with ketchup. I don't need to put salt ON ketchup, it's loaded with salt. Our drinks are loaded with salt. Gatorade? YUK. As a source to replenish your body of depleted nutrients, yes, as a casual sip to get you through the day? Ick. I think the worst offender of this crime are chain restaurants. The food at chain restaurants is so consistently salty--do people really like their food to burn their tongue with salt? That's my reaction when something is too salty for me. My tongue feels like it's burning: not like a fire burn, like a low, dull, chemical burn. It dulls the taste buds instantly and all other flavors are gone, all the switches are flicked to the "off" position...maybe I just answered my own question of why chain restaurant food is so salty. If you're going to charge $9 for a steak, salt is probably your only hope. 


The moral of this long ramble? Cooks, please. Yes, put salt in your dish but please remember it's easier for a diner to add salt at then end than to choke it down with a gallon of water and pretend it's good. Also, please don't corrupt and/or pollute your only chocolate dessert with a "flavor" of salt. 

A Happy Mother

My mother will not admit to it but she is a picky eater. Her normal response to any food is "it was ok" (again, she would never admit this). When she came to visit last month I wanted to make sure she had ONE meal she liked. My sister suggested I make shrimp scampi; my mother had recently said she wanted it and my sister assured me it was easy to make. I looked at a few different recipes but after that I decided to go it alone. Here are my results


Shrimp Scampi by Jen:
1 lb peeled, deveined shrimp
1/3 cup butter 
3-4 tbsp chopped parsley 
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
zest of 1/2 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup parmesan or romano
pasta of your choice

This is what I did:

1. Cook the pasta.
2. Chop up the garlic and add it to the butter. 
3. Melt the butter very low in a saucepan.
4. Heat up the olive oil in a large skillet.
5. Chop the parsley and lemon zest very, very fine.
6. When the oil in the skillet is hot, add salt and pepper to the shrimp and cook them. They should be flipped after 90 seconds and only take at most three minutes to cook. As soon as they lose their translucence, they are done.
7. Remove the shrimp from the skillet, and add the butter and white wine. Bring to a boil, cook 2 minutes.
8. Reduce heat to low. Add the parsley/lemon zest. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
9. Add the shrimp and the cooked pasta into the skillet. Add the cheese and let everything heat through.

Taste the sauce at this point. It may need a little of the pasta water to get the consistency you want. It may also need salt or pepper. This is where I decided it was too buttery and added the juice of 1/2 a lemon to brighten everything up. I also added a bunch of pepper.

My sister, who is a much better cook than I, said that this was the best scampi she's ever had; the sure sign that this was beginner's luck and I'll never make it this good again.

I went to Sonny's and was not happy. At all, really.

One of my favorite restaurants in Portland is Local 188. I had a fabulous, expensive, extravagant dinner there at Christmastime one year with a friend.  Folks, I am all about spending a lot of money for a great dining experience. I don't think twice about planning to spend $100 on myself for a meal if the food, service, atmosphere, and overall experience are memorable. I don't drink a lot, I don't smoke, I don't have expensive toys, so food is where my money goes.


This is all back story to my lunch today. I have had a few friends who have told me that they went to Sonny's for dinner and it was great--as good as Local 188 or better. When my friend and I saw that it was open for lunch we didn't think twice--we abandoned our initial plans for lobster rolls and headed up Exchange St. to Sonny's.


The restaurant is beautiful. They have taken any fast-food-feel (from the former O'Naturals) out of the place. It's full of exposed brick, nice window seating, comfy looking couches, and vaults; it looks like a really cool place you could go after work for drinks with friends and linger on through dinner. I especially loved the concrete bar which is enormous but does not overfill the main room.


We were the first lunch customers that I can recall. I ordered a cocktail and the waitress/hostess told me that she didn't know if she could make me one because the bartender didn't show up. After a phone call, she showed up with my drink. It tasted like it had absolutely no alcohol in it whatsoever but she charged me $8 for it anyway. They did not have ginger ale or root beer. Pepsi products (which is a minus for me every time; I'm a Coke or ginger ale girl at restaurants mostly). They did have ginger beer.


You can look at their menu through the link above; it's not a huge lunch menu, which is fine. Sometimes too many choices can be overwhelming. I chose the enchilada combo: a cheese enchilada with a red salsa and a bean enchilada with a green salsa. There was almost no cheese in the cheese enchilada at all. It was basically a rolled up tortilla with salsa on it. The bean one had a lot of beans, again, no cheese, and green salsa on top. The salsas were good but nothing stood out about them. There were more black beans on the side, with a tiny spoonful of rice that was yellow but had absolutely no flavor. This plate was covered with cabbage (I assume to make it look like a big plate of food). This entirely vegetarian meal that probably cost the restaurant no more than $3 cost me $9. I was totally underwhelmed. There was nothing wrong with the flavor. It tasted fine. But I didn't feel like I had $9 worth of anything, and honestly, would have been just as satisfied with a Taco Bell soft taco. It was that unimpressive.


My friend had fish tacos; two small tortillas, covered with salsa, lettuce, more cabbage, tomato, and two tiny pieces of fish. Each taco probably had 2oz of fish in it, and that is overestimating I think. Again, $12 for this extremely cheap-to-produce lunch. She said "It was a good salad, but it didn't have much fish." We also ordered an appetizer of yam fries with a poblano-cream sauce. The fries were delicious! They had a crispy breading with a mashed potato inside. The cream was more like a spread; it was too hard to dip the fries into without breaking them. It had a nice flavor. The fries came out with our lunches instead of as an appetizer (further proof to me how easy the lunches were to make and therefore should have been a LOT cheaper).


After a very long wait to have our plates taken off the table (again, there was 1 other party in the whole place and I spotted 6 people between the kitchen and the bar areas), the waitress brought us a dessert menu. $7 for every dessert. At lunch time? My lunch was overpriced at $9, I wasn't about to find out how disappointed I would be in such an expensive dessert.


1 cocktail, 1 appetizer, 2 cheap-to-produce lunches, and a bottle of water should NEVER cost $40; it should cost even less when the drink is weak and the service is bad. I will not try Sonny's again.