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!