Entries from November 2007

Amada or Amadon’t?

November 30, 2007 · No Comments

First of all, hats off to Amada for even taking us in without a reservation after that whole Mandoline debacle.

The hosts graciously took us off the street and gave us a nice table in the back room to enjoy our first meal at this ultra-hyped Spanish restaurant. Executive Chef Jose Garces has to be one of the most decorated food wizards in Philadelphia (if not the country) thanks his efforts here, as well as his new venture - Tinto - which, conveniently enough, is right around the corner from my apartment.

Stylistically, the place was certainly hip. Unfortunately, in cultivating such an inviting ambiance, someone overlooked a bit of the practical. For example, I was seated in a booth whose cushion I almost drowned in. Even the addition of an extra pillow under the tuchus barely got me up to the table.

But enough with the environment, how was the food?

Drinks

All of Amada’s specialty drinks are named after Pedro Almodovar movies, which is a nice touch for a film geek such as myself. My wife thoroughly enjoyed her Talk to Her (a margarita-like concoction) but thought it a little skimpy.

My “red” sangria (one of three kinds offered) was excellent. It had a little more spice than I was used to, but it worked.

Appetizer

Since all the plates are small, Amada doesn’t serve an appetizer course, but we did enjoy a Spanish version of bread and butter. It featured long, elegant pieces of crisped tortilla with a tuna/olive dip. While it was tasty, it didn’t really deviate far enough from regular tuna salad for me to truly recommend it.

Tapas

We ordered five, which was more than enough food. The PIQUILLOS RELLENOS / Crab-Stuffed Peppers was the first to arrive. Again, while these were good, they seemed only to be a richer, more creamy version of something I’ve tasted elsewhere and were not all that impressive.

Next to arrive were the GAMBAS AL AJILLO /Garlic Shrimp. While these were tasty, they were also super-buttery, arousing my suspicions that the cooks were hiding something. Once again, we were not impressed.

The next two dishes came simultaneously: TORTILLA ESPAÑOLA / Spanish Tortilla, Saffron Aioli and ALCACHOFAS Y SETAS /Artichoke & Wild Mushrooms, Black Truffles, Manchego. The first (pictured above) was especially disappointing. Having been to Spain once in my life, but subsisting on tortilla espanola sandwiches for that entire short time, I did not know what to make of the thick slab of potato pie that was put in front of me. Both my wife and I agreed that the spuds were too mealy and the presentation was just not delicate enough.

The flatbread dish, however, was fantastic. Though a bit heavy on the cheese, this mini-pizza had some wonderful funghi flavor, highlighted by the black truffle bits. It was very rich and salty, but nicely prepared.

Finally, we ended with ARROZ DE LANGOSTA / Lobster Bomba Rice with Clams, Lemon Zest & Golden Pea Shoots. This paella cousin was the highlight of the meal. While still succulent in flavor, the dish was not at all heavy, and had an amazing mix of flavors that danced on both our plates and palettes. It was unfortunate that this exuberant dish only came at the end of the meal, and could not save us from the buttery onslaught it had followed.

The Verdict

Like most heavily hyped restaurants, Amada fell quite short of great. Of course, in its defense, this was only our first experience and we did not try any of the meat dishes - usually standouts in Spanish cuisine.

That being said, what we tasted was just too rich and heavy, relying on the salty/fatty tastes that haughty French places usually peddle. I would stop short of saying I’d never go back, but I won’t rush out to eat there again as a couple, especially with the delicious tapas and more intimate experience that Tinto provides a mere hundred feet away.

Categories: Philadelphia · Restaurants
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R.I.P. Mandoline

November 29, 2007 · No Comments

When my wife and I moved to Philadelphia, we immediately recognized that it was a restaurant town. There seemed to be eateries everywhere, and new ones were cropping up all over the city. Especially ubiquitous were (and are) the BYOBs - flouters of the expensive and difficult-to-obtain Philadelphia Liquor License who allow guests to bring their own bottles of wine (and other imbibles) to accompany meals.

Anyway, within weeks of arriving, the wife and I put together a list of all the restaurants we wanted to try during our time in Philly. Some, like Le Bec Fin, Vetri, and Striped Bass, remain out (way) of our price range, but we’ve managed to hit quite a few others in the past three years.

Last night, in an experimental mood, we consulted the list for a place we’ve always wanted to try. We decided on Mandoline, a romantic BYOB at the outskirts Old City, nightlife mecca of our fair city. After making a reservation, we caught a cab to 2nd and Chestnut, eager for a new culinary experience.

And then something odd happened. The restaurant ceased to exist.

Now, I don’t mean that Mandoline was literally sucked into a black hole or some other matter-eating anomaly right in front of our eyes. Instead, Mandoline had quietly (at least to us) shuttered its doors a few months back and a slightly similar sounding Korean restaurant had taken its places, as well as its phone number. They were only too happy to take our reservation.

Instead of honoring it, however, we were lucky enough to be right next door to another restaurant on our list - the fanatically well-regarded Amada (review coming soon… I promise).

With the rash of restaurant closings lately, I suppose we were fortunate that Mandoline was the only one we didn’t get to try. Also closing up this past year were cross-offs like Pasion, Pif, La Boheme, and Washington Square.

This whole experience makes me hesitant to add any more places to our list. The restaurant business is hard enough without a jinx like ours.

Categories: Philadelphia · Problems · Restaurants
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Brain Stew: When Bolognese Goes Bad

November 27, 2007 · No Comments

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If you were reading a normal food blog, this entry would probably be about all the wonderful things you can do with leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Ya know - the salads, the sandwiches, the stews, the snacks, etc.

This isn’t that blog.

Instead, we are going to talk about ground turkey, and how this staple of semi-vegetarian cuisine went egregiously wrong this past Sunday night.

As you know, I use ground turkey as a substitute for ground beef, ground pork, ground veal, or ground just-about-anything-from-a-pig-or-cow. The reason, naturally, is that my wife does not partake in the bovine or swine, which (as Bobby Brown could attest) is her prerogative.

Usually, the ground turkey passes completely unnoticed in the right dish. One of the best of these in my arsenal is bolognese sauce. Like ground beef with a gizzard, the turkey easily melds into the carrot/onion/garlic/tomato mixture to create a hearty, Sunday-night pasta dish.

Or sometimes not.

As you can see, yesterday’s sauce more closely resembles brain stew than Italian meat sauce. Scary.

It was my first time using this all-natural ground turkey from Trader Joe’s, which usually impresses me with the quality of its products. For some reason, when browning the turkey, the individual strands did not want to mush together, thereby leaving spaghetti-like pieces of cooked meat. Even when I added the rest of the sauce, and cooked them with the lid on (thinking that the meat would eventually break down), the strands staunchly preserved their shape.

In the end, it tasted perfectly good. Still… I couldn’t quite get this Indiana Jones image out of my head:

Categories: Cooking · Curiosities · Problems
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Potluck Thanksgiving

November 25, 2007 · No Comments

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Welcome back, constant readers. Or semi-constant readers. Or even first-time readers. Or whomever you are.

I’m sure you’re all dying to know how the pizza appetizers turned out. In a word: excellent. Everyone seemed to really dig them… although it was a particularly sympathetic audience.

Next time, however, I’m going to do some things differently. Because the cuts were so sloppy (making for big pieces), I’m going to chop up the pre-cooked crust into smaller pieces, and then top each piece separately. I think this will make them easier to handle and more like true hors d’oeuvres.

As far as the rest of Thanksgiving dishes (made and assembled in various kitchens), here’s how it broke down:

  • Turkey with gravy (natch)
  • Mashed sweet potato (in hollowed-out orange halves)
  • Corn bread
  • Stuffing (made by a butcher, with nice pieces of sausage)
  • Zucchini pie (made by Mom)
  • Apple/cranberry crisp casserole
  • Cooked corn

And for dessert:

  • Carrot cake (another Mom specialty, pictured above)
  • Pumpkin cheesecake
  • Macadamia cheesecake
  • Pumpkin/ginger mousse (a Mom experiment that didn’t really come together)
  • Pecan/chocolate chip pie

Good stuff.

I hope your holiday was just as tasty!

Categories: Events · Roundups
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Pizzapalooza

November 21, 2007 · 1 Comment

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I know what you’re thinking: “More pizza?! I can’t take it any more. There’s more to food than just cheese and crust!”

Well, you sir (or ma’am), are in luck. This is not a story about pizza.

It’s about two pizzas.

The first pie was the infamous experimental pizza, meant to assuage my fears that I would completely ruin Thanksgiving. Within one crust, I made two separate combos (and an alternate) to make sure that both will work on its own. The first half (right side of the first picture) was a twist on the caramelized dealy I tried last week. This time, however, I added pear slices between the caramelized onion base and the blue cheese. Wow.

The other half (left side of the first picture) was an apple experiment. I originally meant the cheese to be only cheddar, but I was convinced to add an alternative - Gruyere - by an extremely knowledgeable, friendly cheese guy from DiBruno Brothers - an amazing gourmet food shop in Philly. So I split the two cheeses between the two corners, added some apple slices and topped it with some crispy turkey bacon. Score.

Not only did both pizza ideas work better than expected, they were, by far, the best I’ve ever made. I haven’t seen either combination exactly the same way on the Internets, so I’ll have to write them up as recipes to prove my creative prowess. Incidentally, I like to think of this blogging thing as a poor man’s copyright; kind of like sealing your idea in an envelope and sending it to yourself. Even if somebody steals my flavor combo, though, I’ll still have the satisfaction of having not killed my relatives via sub par Thanksgiving appetizer. That would’ve been just embarrassing.

Trying to keep the pizza streak alive, and taking some hints from my very clever commentators (from last pizza post), I went right back to a traditional sauce and cheese pie for dinner. Again it was on wheat crust, but this time, I pre-cooked it before adding the toppings. I also dried the fresh mozzarella to make sure it didn’t over-moisten the crust. Finally, I was lucky enough to have some spinach and mushrooms in the house, so I sauted them in the same pan as the caramelized onions and turkey bacon, giving both a nice, salty flavor.

Three for three! Or really two for two, since (technically) there were only two crusts. Either way, it was a successful night of pizza-making. And I needed it.

Categories: Cooking · Philadelphia
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A very dry run

November 18, 2007 · No Comments

For this year’s Thanksgiving festivities, I was given the plum assignment of making an appetizer. Having not made an proper appetizer in, well… forever, I started rifling through a few cookbooks, some magazines, and my own brain for something unique. I narrowed the choices to:

  • a seasonal salad
  • stuffed mushrooms
  • a cheese and bread combo

I quickly decided against the salad because of the obvious lack of finger-friendliness. I then jettisoned the mushroom idea, when I realized that quite a few people don’t like the friendly fungi. This left the third option and yet another recipe (Blue Cheese and Caramelized-Onion Squares) from Bon Appetit.

I was already digging the idea of using blue cheese or gorgonzola, and so, took the fact that this recipe came from a section called the Thanksgiving Workbook: What to Bring as a sign.

I decided to do a test run last weekend. It didn’t exactly go well.

First of all, I couldn’t get the dough right. The mixture was so wet, I had to virtually double the amount of flour to make it look anything like a cohesive ball. The caramelized onions turned out great, but took a good twenty minutes longer than expected. And then there was the finished product.

These things tasted like the Sahara Desert. It didn’t matter how well the cheese and onions went together; the crust was so dry as to completely suck the saliva from inside my mouth. I may as well have been eating salted, toasted flour itself. I guess this shouldn’t be considered an unexpected turn of events, considering how much flour I did end up using, but the experience pretty much sank my idea for Thanksgiving.

Therefore, I’m changing things up a bit for the actual event. First, I’ll be using pizza dough. Second, I’m going to try and add pears to the mix, as they really go well with the other two flavors. And finally, I’m going to make a second pie, with cheddar, apple and bacon.

I’m not sure exactly how they’ll turn out with the fruit, but at least my relatives won’t be gagging. And, in the end, isn’t that what Thanksgiving’s all about?

Categories: Events · Problems · Recipes
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Molten magic

November 16, 2007 · No Comments

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To me, molten chocolate cake has always had an air of mystery about it. How could it be both a cake and a pudding at the same time?

I never got around to investigating, so I simply chalked it up to magic.

A few days ago, however, the mythic pastry arrived at our doorstep. It had been prepared by our downstairs neighbor during the course of an hour, supposedly from this Bon Appetit recipe. I didn’t buy that explanation. The flavor was too rich, the texture too perfect to be made in a city apartment.

It had to be magic. That’s the only conclusion. Because if not, I would have to accept that molten chocolate cake is made by actual people and is not procured through a Wonka-esque process of tapping chocolate magma deep below the earth’s crust.

I won’t accept that.

I can’t.

Categories: Dessert
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Tilapia with Balsamic Butter Sauce

November 15, 2007 · No Comments

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While I seem to have mastered salmon (at least some of the time), I can’t quite put my finger on the magic tilapia recipe. I’ve tried half a dozen by now, and though they’ve all turned out well, there’s not one I would work into my usual rotation.

This recipe from Bon Appetit ended up tasting good, even though I didn’t get the butter sauce exactly right. As you can see from my picture (left), the sauce ended up more of a dressing than a sauce. Perhaps it didn’t cool enough, or maybe it was my use of margarine instead of butter, but the “drizzle” turned out to be more of synchronized “splashes” of balsamic and butter.

As usual, I also got inpatient with the fish. When I can’t tell when it’s done on one side, I end up flipping it over and over just to make sure it’s browning enough. At some point during the gymnastics, the fish falls apart.

And even balsamic butter sauce can’t put it back together again.

Categories: Cooking · Recipes
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Five Guys, one awesome burger

November 13, 2007 · No Comments

I’m not a big burger and fries guy. However, even I know that this is what a hamburger is supposed to look like.

Sure, it’s not perfect. It’s sloppy, even. But, man, does it have the two things sorely missing from those assembly line burgers: taste and charm.

Five Guys is the rare burger chain that sticks to a small menu and makes everything fresh (In-N-Out Burger, which hasn’t made it to this coast yet, is another). There’s a list of free toppings (including more than the standard lettuce and tomatoes) and every burger has two freshly cooked patties.

The fries look ugly too. But don’t be afraid: they’re actually made out of potatoes. Throw on a little bit of salt and malt vinegar (provided, natch) and you can enjoy these “chips” in true British style. As far as I’m concerned, they could wrap the entire package up in newspaper (like the UK’s traditional fish & chip stands) and I’d count it as my roughage for the day.

Actually, I’m surprised you’ve even read this far. I still can’t get past that picture.

Categories: To Go
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Il Portico (Tappan, NY)

November 13, 2007 · 2 Comments

The occasion was my grandma’s 90th birthday and the scene was Il Portico Ristorante in the small town of Tappan, NY. The cousins (save one) were in attendance, the boomer generation was in full force, and, of course, the guest of honor beamed among her friends. It was a fantastic afternoon of memories, tributes, and good humor, as only a grandma could inspire.

But what about the food? Did it live up to the occasion or dampen the celebration? The answer was decidedly mixed.

Appetizer - Grilled Shrimp with Italian White Bean Salad

We had a choice from among four appetizers, including this one, a tomato & mozzarella salad, a scallop entree and beef carpaggio. I didn’t see the carpaggio, but the scallops looked great. The tomato & mozzarella salad was a little underwhelming (this dish is one of my favorites but should be reserved for the late summer when beefsteak tomatoes are at their peak) and my plate was just ok. The shrimp were a little tough, but the beans were comfortably filling.

Entree - Ricotta Gnocchi with Mushrooms, Peas and Prosciutto in a Marsala Cream Sauce

I can’t remember the other entrees in detail, but there was a salmon, a chicken and something else. I went with the pasta (as I usually do at Italian restaurants) and was slightly disappointed. The gnocchi had the right consistency but the flavors, which should have really worked together, didn’t come together the way I was expecting. I hate to say it, but the dish was fairly bland; I had to add plenty of salt and pepper, even on top of the sprinkle of Parmesan. With such an all-star list of agreeable ingredients, this should have been a more satisfying dish. A bit more spice might have helped.

Dessert - Midnight Chocolate Cake & Chocolate Mousse Pie

Oh. My. God. The chocolate cake (if you even want to call it that, considering it tasted like a slice of dark chocolate itself) was amazing. I’m not sure if they made the desserts on premises, but kudos to whomever put that concoction together. Naturally, my opinion is biased since I’m a (not interested in recovering) chocoholic, but this was one of the better heart-stopping artery-cloggers I’ve had in a while. On the other side of the plate was a slice of grandma’s birthday cake, which just couldn’t stand up, literally. While structurally deficient, the chocolate mousse was fluffy, light and sweet. A nice complement to the sinful dark stuff.

Other desserts included a raspberry tort, a lemon cheesecake and some other things that were not chocolate.

In summary, the restaurant has work to do on some food elements, but I’d definitely go again. The wine was great, the service was awesome, and you can’t beat the small town ambiance. Seek it out if you can.

Categories: Events · Restaurants
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