Exploring Food My Way: Satisfying the Craving

Preview of Amber Li's Restaurant

2012-02-08T21:26:00.009-05:00

New restaurants often have soft openings before opening to the general public. Surrounded by family and friends, every layer of hospitality can be tested -- the kitchen, the front of house, and the management -- in an environment that simulates real-world dinner service, but with people who might be a little more understanding if the experience isn't quite yet perfect. But, of course, to feed people (often for free) and to pay employees isn't a small inconvenient expense. And even with a soft opening, it can still take a restaurant a month or two to really start humming with efficiency.

I knew going into tonight's dinner that Amber Li's Restaurant had only been open for a few days. This meant that there would likely be a few delays and perhaps the wrong soup being brought to the table, but I've developed a keen eye in spotting actual problems versus opening day jitters. Having learned of them from Lisa Abraham's weekly Food Notes section in the Akron Beacon Journal, I decided that a visit was warranted since she wrote that the menu consisted of, " traditional Chinese fare, sushi, hibachi-grilled and Japanese dishes." It was the traditional Chinese fare that caught my eye.

After work today, I hopped in the car and headed to 4195 Massillon Road, Green, OH 44685. The location of the restaurant was inside the Green Plaza, at the corner of Steese and Massillon Roads. There was ample parking in the common lot. If you wish to contact the restaurant, Amber Li's can be reached at 330-899-8856.

Here was a shot of the front entrance of Amber Li's:

Once inside the main door, I noticed the sushi bar located in the rear left of the restaurant with the remainder of the space broken up into tables and booths. I was surprised to see the restaurant only about one-third full as I figured a mention in Lisa's weekly food column would have packed the customers in. I was seated almost immediately, but noticed within moments of sitting down at my table that it had a severe wobble. I thought that perhaps as I settled in that I may have knocked something loose used to level it, but upon checking the floor, I found nothing. I decided to put up with the annoying wobble.

As I prepped my camera for the upcoming pictures, I began to people watch. It became immediately clear who the owner was, Amber Hazel. A native from China, she was the very stressed person running back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room, her diction being very harsh on one side of the kitchen door and much softer on the other. I sat quietly at my table for about ten minutes before anyone acknowledged me and asked if I would like something to drink. It took another ten minutes before my waitress finally stopped at my table to take my order. Twenty minutes is a bit too long for a restaurant that is only one-third full, so I'll have to chalk that one up to opening week jitters.

Fortunately, when I was sat, the hostess left me with the menu to peruse:

Sadly, the "traditional Chinese fare" for which I was hoping to dine upon tonight ended up being the same Americanized Chinese cuisine served at every other Chinese restaurant in Akron. While I can appreciate Americanized Chinese cuisine from time to time, I find it to be rather boring and often times way too sweet. Never heard of Americanized Chinese cuisine, gentle reader? General Tsao's (aka Tso's) Chicken is a perfect example. This is a dish that doesn't exist in China and has been fine tuned for the American palate over decades since its introduction.

All that said, I have come across a few really excellent General Tsao's Chicken dishes over the years and I figured I would give theirs a try to see if Amber Li's version was at least worth seeking out. I was happy to see the menu indicated that all entrees came with either steamed rice or a California roll. When my server finally stopped to take my order, I asked about this unusual choice as I had never seen it before.

"No, it's just the steamed rice that is available. Amber changed her mind about offering a sushi roll."

That was too bad since I was actually going to order the California roll in place of my steamed rice. C'est la vie.

So, in order to try a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B, here is what I actually ordered:

* Shrimp Eggroll
* Miso Soup
* General Tsao's Chicken, extra spicy
* Steamed Rice

Here was what came out of the kitchen about fifteen minutes later. First up was the General Tsao's Chicken with Steamed Broccoli:

And a plate of what I had originally thought was a California roll, but was actually a Spicy Shrimp roll:

No Shrimp Eggroll and no Miso Soup. As for the appearance of the sushi, I figured that Amber had okayed the substitution of the California roll for the steamed rice since I had asked my server about it. Assuming that the eggroll and the soup would be coming out of the kitchen shortly, I decided to go ahead and dig in to what was already in front of me.

I started with the sushi. As I ate my first piece, several thoughts went through my head. First, the California roll was missing the avocado. All I could taste were cucumber and what I thought was imitation crab. Second, California rolls don't usually have a spicy sauce associated with them. I figured that might just be a personal touch at Amber Li's. Third, and most surprising, the sushi rice was utterly and thoroughly bland. I even dissected one of the six pieces on the plate and tried the rice just by itself. Yup, steamed white rice, nothing added.

Why is this point so important? Su-shi literally translates to "vinegared rice." Sushi rice is made by adding rice wine vinegar, sugar, and salt to the rice after it is cooked. This gives the rice a bit of acidity as well as seasoning from the salt. Soy sauce applied at the table would not have helped in this case. Curiously, while dissecting the sushi piece, I also noticed that the imitation crab looked an awful lot like a piece of shrimp. That's because it was! What I thought had been my accompanying California roll for my General Tsao's was actually my server thinking I had asked for a Spicy Shrimp roll instead of a Shrimp Eggroll. D'oh! The final check confirmed my suspicions.

On to the General Tsao's Chicken. It actually wasn't all that bad. The chicken was fried until crispy; the sauce was a bit oily and sweet and could've used a bit of acid to balance the other flavors. The steamed broccoli was a nice touch, but the carrots and green peppers the menu description promised were nowhere to be found. I had asked for the dish to be extra spicy and the kitchen's response was simply to add more whole chili peppers to the dish. Not being a complete moron, I moved the whole peppers to the side of the dish. Overall, I would say this dish was about a medium spicy and not particularly incendiary.

Having finished my sushi and chicken, I realized that nothing else was going to come out of the kitchen for me. After asking for and receiving the check, I finally understood what happened with the Shrimp Eggroll / Spicy Shrimp roll mistake; however, I had still been charged for the Miso Soup. I pointed the mistake out to my server, who quickly removed it from the bill. I could've contested the Spicy Shrimp roll mistake (as the sushi was $6 and the eggroll that I had ordered was only $2), since I didn't correct the error when I first detected it, I decided to pay for it. The check, with tax, came to just under $18.

While there were some components from tonight's meal that I enjoyed, there was a LOT that needs to be improved upon. Quickly. If Amber Li's is running this inefficiently and with this many mistakes a month from now, customers will tire quickly and decide to spend their dining dollars elsewhere. While my personal preference in Chinese cuisine tends more towards the authentic side, if Americanized Chinese cuisine is your bag, once Amber Li's gets it right, this might be the place for you. Since I can get these flavors much closer to home, other than visiting again in order to re-review it, I personally wouldn't make the drive from Akron.

Finding Southern Hospitality At SOHO

2011-12-21T06:30:00.013-05:00

Nolan Konkoski first entered my gastronomic world view earlier this year at the Dinner In The Dark Special Edition event that was held to raise money for a scholarship in memory of Matthew Finkel. At the time, SOHO Kitchen & Bar was just an idea that had yet to come to fruition. Regardless, Nolan's concept of "Southern Hospitality" food was warmly embraced by the crowd that evening and many of my fellow food enthusiasts were greatly looking forward to the addition of this unique concept to the Cleveland dining scene.

Fast forward a few months later when I learned that not only was the Cuban-inspired Lelolai closing, but also SOHO had found its home at the same location as the failed bakery and cafe. While there was still no immediate opening date scheduled, I did manage to keep it simmering on a rear burner, ready to descend upon the restaurant once the doors officially opened for business. Which was exactly what happened several nights ago on a Friday night.

Not knowing what kind of crowd to expect on a Friday night in a recently opened restaurant, I called at around 5:30 PM to see if it would be possible to make a reservation for the same night. I was a little surprised that it was no problem at all to get a four-top table at either 7:30 or 8:00 PM -- my choice. I went with 7:30 PM and actually left my real last name to hold the reservation. I normally try to avoid reservations in order to not tip off the restaurant that I'm coming in for a review, but since there would be four of us tonight, I wanted the security of knowing there would be a spot ready for us when we arrived.

SOHO was located at 1889 West 25th Street, Cleveland, OH 44113 and can be contacted at 216-298-9090. Parking was wherever you can find it and fortunately since our four-top came in one car, we needed to only find a single parking spot. SOHO currently does not have valet (at least they didn't that night).

Once inside, the hostess promptly seated us at a table by the front window and left us with the menu to browse:

I liked the fact that the entire menu fit onto one side of the page (the rear was cocktails and other beverages). The menu seemed nicely divided into several sections with each grouping having five or six selections. It didn't feel overwhelming, but at the same time, there was a decent number of choices to fit any appetite.

After our server introduced herself and took our initial drink and appetizer orders, a complimentary basket of fresh biscuits appeared at our table:

Paired with the warm biscuits was a scoup salted honey butter as well as peach preserves. One of the diners at my table noted that the biscuits had a "floury" gritty mouthfeel to them. As far as I could tell, however, the biscuits were cooked all the way through. While I could see his point, it didn't particularly bother me too much. The salted honey butter wasn't particularly noteworthy, but the peach preserves were fruity and just a bit sweet, but not too much.

While the four of us at the table knew we would be sharing tastes all around, we each ordered an appetizer to start. I ordered the Crawfish and Crab Fritters:

I'm not sure why these were called "fritters" as they weren't battered before frying. I suppose we are all guilty of casually using words in a way that can be deceptive, but what was put in front of me were crab cakes, pure and simple. They were placed atop a spicy slaw and then drizzled with both a green onion aioli as well as a blended pepper coulis.

I liked the slight spice to the slaw. I disliked the raw red onion flavor -- it was too strong and overpowered the dish. The crab cakes were just the tiniest bit overcooked, but had good flavor and worked well with the sauces on the plate. The caramelization on the cakes added a depth and intensity to the crab.

My compatriot across the table ordered the Low and Slow Lamb Belly:

Interestingly, the lamb was incredibly mild and didn't have the gamey flavor that lamb often exudes. The finished protein had been topped with collard greens and Benne seeds (aka sesame seeds). As can be expected from the belly of any animal, it was fatty and unctuous, but not over the top. The lamb was very flavorful and the collard greens on top added a brightness to an otherwise heavy dish.

The third appetizer we ordered was truly a southern staple, Pimento Cheese:

Served with homemade BBQ potato chips, this was the clear winner so far (not that the others had been bad). The chips alone was absolutely fantastic and all of us agreed that they were dangerously addictive. I have to admit that I've never had pimento cheese before, but SOHO's version was nicely balanced between the small cheese curds and lots of tasty cheesy flavor. I was a little apprehensive about how much pimento cheese would safely transfer on the very thin chips, but there were no breakages from plate to mouth.

Our appetizers now finished, we moved on to the entrees. First up was my entree, the Smothered Pork Chops:

Served with jalapeno hushpuppies, baby broccoli, and a rich brown gravy, this was a substantial dish. When my server suggested that the kitchen preferred to cook the pork medium, I was in complete agreement. While I will concede that the restaurant was too dark to tell if the interior of the chops were pink, I can tell you that the meat was rather tough and chewy. Not leather-like, but not particularly pleasant either. The hushpuppies were tasty, but a bit overfried and dried out. The gravy, again being tasty, was a bit one-note and a mixture of too thin in spots (which I am guessing came from juices coming out of the pork) and too thick in others. This dish was decent.

My dining compatriot across from me ordered the daily special, the St. Louis-style Ribs:

Accompanying his full pound of heavily spice-rubbed ribs was a potato salad. While I didn't have a chance to try the potato salad, my friend did share a rib bone with me. The meat was hot, but also a bit dry and the rub was very intense, to the point where it dominated my palate and the pork flavor was a bit lost.

The clear entree winner tonight was the Shrimp and Grits that the person to the right of me ordered:

Photo used with permission by Edsel Little. Original located here.

Sadly, I didn't take a picture of it at the time, but fortunately, my friend Edsel did. The shrimp were HUGE and cooked very well. The grits were creamy, corny, and seasoned nicely. As you can see from the picture above, the dish came with asparagus and mushrooms and added a nice complementary flavor. All of us agreed that this was the standout dish tonight.

When it came time for dessert, the four of us decided to split one. Here was the dessert menu for the evening:

There weren't a whole lot of choices on the dessert menu, but having just opened recently, I'm willing to concede that SOHO might want to start small and work their way up. We collectively decided to split the Crispy Beignets:

Of course, when I think of beignets, the first thing to come to mind are the light, fluffy, pillow-like treats served at Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans. While tonight's version was similarly covered in powdered sugar, sadly the comparison between the two versions ends there. While still warm, these had been overfried and were a bit dry and lacked the tenderness I was hoping to find. The blackberry jam was a nice choice for a dip, but there were still smalls bits of blackberry seeds that had survived the straining process. This gave the jam a grainy mouthfeel for which I didn't particularly care.

I would like to mention that the service was very good. Our server was knowledgeable, prompt, and did a good job keeping us up to date on our order throughout the meal. One of my tablemates didn't care for the first cocktail she received and our server wasted no time in whisking it away and bringing her something else to replace it. As far as the service goes, SOHO gets a resounding recommendation.

Overall, however, for a meal that was over $40 with tip and tax, I was a tad disappointed. Of the four of us at the table tonight, one doesn't feel the need to ever return and the other three of us (me, included), felt that the food was just average tonight. I've heard wonderful things about the food, and I'm hoping that tonight was just a fluke. That being said, based on the strength of the meal we had tonight, I'm going to marginally give you a recommendation to check it out for yourself. I am looking forward, however, to returning for another meal at some point in the future to see if SOHO has managed to work out the kinks.

Dinner In The Dark - Noodlecat!

2011-12-15T06:30:00.020-05:00

Holy moly! I just realized that I haven't written a blog entry about a Dinner In The Dark charity event since April earlier this year. That means that five of these fantastic dinners have come and gone (one month was canceled and another month was skipped due to low attendance) since I have mentioned this wonderful Cleveland-based organization seeking to not only bring together some of northeast Ohio's best chefs, but also help a local charitable cause in the process. While one of the founding members, Ellis Cooley (who was the chef at AMP 150), has left the Cleveland area to return to his home in Florida, he remains a part of the group along with co-founders Brian Okin and Jeff Jarrett (who interestingly enough now presides as chef at AMP 150). The trio has also recently given their website a face lift to feature events, news, bios on the participating chefs, and the pictures that yours truly has taken at prior dinners.

Tonight's dinner was held at Noodlecat, Jonathon Sawyer's recently opened Japanese and American noodle house mashup. This time around, the dinner was being held to benefit Michael Cantu, a Brecksville young man who earlier this year was involved in a gymnastics accident that left him in a wheelchair with many months of hospital stays.

Since the dinner was on Monday night, parking was a breeze. Since there were no downtown events happening that night, the valet next to Lola Bistro on East 4th was only $8 and the walk from the valet to the front of Noodlecat took all of five minutes. For those unfamiliar with the location of Noodlecat, it is just west of the House of Blues on Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland.

Once inside the restaurant, my friend Tami and I were quickly shown to our empty table, having arrived prior to the others in our dining party. I quickly got out the necessary camera gear for tonight's shindig and started to get set up. Here was a shot of the front of the menu:

While I know you haven't seen that menu in some time, gentle reader, a lot of the same players involved now are those that have been with the group since the beginning. Probably the one major addition to those sponsoring the event is Fat Casual BBQ, who graciously provided the staff meal for those involved in pulling off this event.

Flipping the menu over, the back contained the usual list of chefs and symbols cryptically suggesting what each course would be:

All were pretty straightforward except for the guy in the lederhosen for the dessert course. Knowing that Cory Barrett used to be the pastry chef for Lola Bistro, we knew that whatever it turned out to be, it would certainly be very creative and tasty.

Having finished examining the menu, Tami and I turned out attention to the platter of sliced bread sitting in the middle of the table:

While most DITD events have started with an amuse bouche, we couldn't figure out if this was a pre-amuse or this was the main event. It turned out that the bread with herbed olive oil was either the amuse or perhaps just a pre-dinner nibble and there was no official amuse. Either way, mix tasty bread with tasty oil and my mouth was definitely ready for what was to come next.

To go along with our pre-dinner nibble, Joe Deluca and Tobin Northrup sent out a cocktail called Winter Eve Warmer:

Served hot, this mulled wine had all of the warming spices from the Thanksgiving and Christmas season infused into it. There was just enough in the glass to give you a warm feeling inside while the first course made its way into the dining room.

Speaking of which, the first course was Chris Hodgson's (from Dim and Den Sum, Hodge Podge, and the soon-to-be opened Hodge's) and was a play on a "Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich":

The patty consisted of a combination of sous vide and ground chicken thighs mixed with foie gras, seared on the flat top. It was served on a toasted bun with a waterlily leaf, roasted jalapeno and orange blossom aioli and a sliced grape tomato. When assembled, this was quite the mouthful, but a tasty mouthful at that. The foie gras had done its job of adding lots of moisture to the patty and when taking bite after bite, it was imperative to keep the slider over the plate, lest you wear the juice. The sandwich also had a very subtle spice, which was enjoyed by everyone sitting at my table.

The second course came to us from Ben Hsu (from Sushi 86):

The sushi "sandwich," as Chef Hsu put it, was actually seared Albacore tuna sushi done in an Osaka style presentation (where the sushi is made by pressing it into a box), Ghost Chile aioli, shredded daikon radish, wakame jelly, celery leaf, and scallions to garnish. I had never tried Ghost Chiles before, but I do know they are the hottest chile peppers on the planet. I was intrigued to see how well the chef had controlled the heat.

I took a bite with a little bit of each component in the dish and my mouth was rewarded with culinary bliss. Chef Hsu completely knocked this out of the ballpark. The fish was tender, perfectly seared on just the exterior. The Ghost Chile aioli was creamy with just a hint of spice, the wakame jelly added a bit of seaweed flavor and the gelatin helped to cool off the spiciness from the sauce. This was absolutely delicious. I would have been a very happy man with four more courses of the exact same dish.

Fortunately, for me, more delectable goodness was on its way. Specifically, the third course from Brian Goodman (of Greenhouse Tavern fame):

Jonathon Sawyer has been prepping himself to serve a meal at the James Beard house in the near future. He and Brian turned to Richard Olney's Souffle a la Swissesse to accomplish their task. The cheese souffle was cooked well on the outside and managed to stay tender, moist, and steaming on the inside. The souffle was nestled in a bowl of pureed mushrooms and chestnuts and was garnished with fresh thyme. This was truly an umami "bomb," if you will, with the flavors of mushroom, thyme, and cheese predominating. It was also incredibly good and more than one of us at the table wished it wasn't so verboten to lick the bowl in a public restaurant.

Normally at this point in the meal, an intermezzo is served to clear the palate from the previous courses and to prepare the palate to receive the final dishes in the meal. While an intermezzo is usually something slightly sweet and acidic (like sorbet), in sticking with the theme of Noodlecat, a plate of pickled vegetables appeared at our table for us to share:

Starting at twelve o'clock on the plate, you have pickled beets, pickled turnips, pickled pumpkin rind, pickled radishes and the small ramekin in the middle held kimchee, that wonderful pungent and spicy fermented cabbage that Koreans contributed to the global culinary scene. Each was good, but I particularly liked the pickled turnips because they had a nice balance between the acidity of the vinegar and a natural sweetness.

The fourth course was presented to us by Scott Kuhn (from Washington Place Bistro & Inn):

The scallop had been encrusted with dried porcini powder before being seared to a beautiful medium-rare. The scallop was soft and tender and a delight to eat, although mine was a touch on the aggressively seasoned side. That being said, the Israeli couscous that was served with the scallop was a bit underseasoned, so perhaps they were meant to be eaten together. Having only one type of mushroom on this plate was definitely not enough, so in addition to the porcini, sauteed Chanterelle mushrooms made an appearance as well as impossibly-thin shaved black truffles.

For our final savory course, Brian Reilly (from Noodlecat) gave us a soul-satisfying Japanese noodle dish with a twist:

This was the more traditional Japanese component of tonight's fifth course -- fresh Ohio City Pasta udon in a kombu broth with Enoki mushrooms, softened kombu, and scallions.

The American twist came to us in a Chinese take-out box:

Inside was a battered and fried halibut with nori on a stick -- Americans love anything fried on a stick after all -- sitting on top of micro-greens. After combining the two components, I ended up with this:

By the time we were served this course, many at my table were ready to cry "Uncle!" because we were so full. Some ate a little, some ate it all, I ate about half. I ate all of the crispy and juicy halibut, which was cooked to perfection. The pasta served tonight was a little bit flatter than regular udon and after much debate amongst my tablemates, a table-hopping Jonathon Sawyer finally put it to rest by asserting that it was indeed a form of udon. The noodles were tender while still retaining a bit of toothsomeness. The broth was characteristically Japanese, light with great depth of flavor. Overall, this was a lovely dish, even if I didn't finish it.

Our final taste of the evening came from Cory Barrett, former pastry chef at Lola Bistro and now executive chef:

It turned out that the gentleman in lederhosen on the menu actually referred to a citrus Bavarian cream on top of an almond spongecake all topped with a white chocolate plaquette. Also on the plate was a lime curd, Mardarin orange and ginger beer sherbet, and a cardamom crumble. Garnishing the sorbet was a single red sorrel leaf. This was the PERFECT way to end the meal. The dessert was both sweet and tart and easily cleansed the palate after so much other food had preceded it. The cardamom crumble almost had a peppery spice to it that was a wonderful foil for the sweetness. Cory may no longer be practicing the pastry arts on a daily basis, but he has lost none of his skills at balancing competing and complimentary flavors.

Our three hour culinary journey at an end, we packed up our bags and headed out into the chilly Cleveland air. Before we left, it was announced that next month's Dinner In The Dark event would be held at Rocco Whalen's Fahrenheit in Tremont on Monday, January 16th at 6:30 PM. While tickets for this dinner are the same $65 base price as all the other dinners, with tip, taxes, and fees, it comes out closer to $86. One big difference is that the Fahrenheit dinner only has fifty seats instead of the usual seventy, so if you're interested in going, I'd suggest you get your ticket sooner rather than later.

The New (and Improved?) Crop Bistro & Bar

2011-11-03T18:30:00.003-04:00

The last time I wrote about Crop Bistro & Bar was nearly two years ago. Since that time, a lot has happened. I've been back numerous times, to enjoy both Sunday Supper as well as the Chef's Table. Steve Schimoler has also closed the original location of Crop and relocated to the gorgeous space on the corner of West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue, just catty-corner to the West Side Market inside a completely renovated space previously occupied by an old bank. If you've been to Restaurant Dante, you will have an understanding of how such a space is utilized since it, too, lives inside an old bank. However, I have to say, the new space for Crop will leave you pretty breathless -- it is amazing!

What brought our intrepid band of diners back to Crop tonight was two-fold. First, we were all eager to experience Steve's food after being without for many months while they relocated to the new space. Second, and more importantly, we were there to celebrate the anniversary of friends and fellow food enthusiast Nancy and her husband Bob. While you can certainly attempt to find parking nearby in Ohio City, we decided instead to valet at the front of the restaurant for a nominal fee. For those looking to plug directions into your GPS-enabled device, the new location was located at 2537 Lorain Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44113. They can still be reached at 216-696-2767 (CROP).

Once inside the magnificent space, we were escorted to the long table facing the open kitchen at the opposite side of the building. Whereas the Chef's Table at the old Crop had been limited to six chairs, the new space had two to three times as many seats. When all six guests had arrived, Steve came over, pleasantries were exchanged, and he offered (and we accepted) a tour of the basement of the new restaurant, which included the enormous vault guarded by a ninety ton door. A work still in progress, when the restaurant manages to finish all of the space on both floors, it will probably be one of the most visually impressive restaurants that Cleveland has to offer.

The physical tour now concluded, we all congregated back at the Chef's Table to begin the gastronomic tour -- the Tour de Crop. For $65 per person, you are treated to a multi-course bonanza of whatever the chef wishes to serve you. I must warn you at this point, gentle reader, as the pictures you are about to see are particularly drool-worthy.

First up was bread service:

The basket contained a combination of very fresh baguette, chewy on the outside with a wonderful crumb on the inside; corn bread sticks; and a slightly sweet compound butter.

Our first actual course was something I recognized from my previous Chef's Table visit at the old Crop -- Deviled Egg with Crispy Prosciutto, Balsamic Reduction and Beet Reduction:

Sprinkled with just a touch of chile powder for garnish, this hit a lot of notes on my palate, spicy, salty, sweet, tart and played the creaminess of the egg and filling off of the crisped Prosciutto adorning the top. This was definitely a nice way to start.

Next up was a dish composed of Raw Tuna, Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil Oil, Balsamic Reduction, and Chiffonade of Fresh Basil:

Anyone who has eaten and enjoys raw tuna (maguro for you sushi-lovin' folks) knows that it has an incredibly delicate flavor and can be easily overpowered by stronger elements. Steve showed a deft hand in combining the components on the plate: each flavor stood on its own, but at the same time helped to elevate the tuna even further and definitely made it the star.

Our third course was the Grilled Mission Figs with Goat Cheese, Honey, Hazelnuts, and Arugula:

While it doesn't take much to put figs and honey together, adding the acidity from the slightly softened chevre and the bitterness and pepperiness from the arugula made sure this mouthful satisfied all the taste points on my tongue (beginning to notice a pattern here?). The ground hazelnuts added a nice textural contrast to the other soft components of the dish.

For our second salad, we were served the Roasted Beet Salad with Orange Supremes, Pistachio-encrusted Goat Cheese, Mixed Herbs, and Orange Basil Vinaigrette:

This was another holdover from Crop's previous location and menu, but it was still a welcome sight. Having become a lover of roasted beets only in the last couple of years, these were flavors that were bright, fresh, and really went well together. If there was one minor criticism, the dish could've used just a touch more salt. Other than that, it was a delight to look at as well as eat.

Ever the one for a dramatic presentation, our next course actually came out in two stages. First, the kitchen staff set a small plate with a perfectly seared scallop sitting atop a wedge of roasted potato. Chef Schimoler followed quickly behind with an incredibly aromatic black truffle cream. Here was how the dish looked topped with the cream and finely minced black truffle:

And here was a cross-section after I cut into it with my fork:

What can I say about this dish? The scallop was cooked expertly -- translucent in the middle and incredibly tender. The roasted potato had a nice crust on the outside and was tender and yielding on the inside. The black truffle foam was rich and creamy and had the heady earthiness from the mushrooms. While certainly not the most colorful plating, the stark black and whiteness made me think of the way that by removing color from a picture, you are left to concentrate with your other senses.

It wouldn't be a Steve Schimoler dining experience if pork wasn't involved at some point in the meal. In tonight's case, the followup course to the truffled scallop was the Braised Pork Belly with Gigante Beans, Brunoise of Carrots and Peppadew Peppers, Confit Garlic, and Roasted Tomatoes in a Tomato Broth:

Whereas the previous dishes had been executed quite well, taking my first bite of this dish caused me to roll my eyes back into my head and for just a split second, enjoy culinary nirvana. The balance between sweet and savory was perfectly balanced in this dish. The pork belly was crispy and yet also amazingly creamy, the pork fat instantly melting on my tongue. The gigante beans, while not really contributing a flavor of their own, had graciously soaked up the tomato broth flavor. If you get one dish on your visit to Crop, this would be the one not to miss.

After such a rich and decadent dish, the next course was a very light and refreshing intermezzo of Lemon Sorbet:

This was exactly what the doctor (or, rather, the chef) ordered and served its purpose in cleansing our palates. My only critique was that it was rather one note. Lemon combined with some type of herb (thyme, rosemary, or lavender) would have really elevated this dish and made it special.

Our final savory course of the evening was a play on Surf and Turf. The "surf" side was comprised of a Seared Tasmanian Salmon, Cauliflower Mash, Mushroom Jus, and Fresh Basil:

Several others at the Chef's Table thought that this dish was underseasoned. While I agree it probably could've used a touch more salt, it didn't particularly bother me. The salmon was nicely grilled on the outside and moist and tender on the inside. The big hit of the dish for me was the cauliflower mash. The only two presentations of cauliflower I have ever really enjoyed are when it is either roasted or served baked in lots of cream and butter. Tonight's version was incredibly flavorful and dare I say it ... delicious! The fresh basil added a bright herbaceous note to the dish as well.

The "turf" portion of our final savory dish was Braised Beef Shortribs, Mushroom Barley, Carrots, Veal Demi, and Horseradish Cream:

The shortribs had been braised until they were incredibly tender -- no knife required. The mushroom barley was thoroughly soft and pliable under tooth, but not broken down or mushy. The carrot cut easily under the pressure of my fork, while managing to avoid the texture of baby food and the horseradish cream really brought a brightness and spice to the entire dish without overpowering it. Personally, I would've liked to have seen a sharper horseradish note to the cream, but as this was geared toward all diners and not just me, I felt that the level of heat worked very well. While I enjoyed the medium-rareness of the salmon, I also enjoyed the thoroughly braised texture of the shortribs.

The first of two desserts were now presented by Crop's newest acquisition, Pastry Chef Lauren Stephenson. First up was a duo of Banana Chocolate Chip Petit Four with Peanut Butter Mousse and covered in Chocolate Ganache and a Salted Caramel Affogato:

Once the hot coffee hit the caramel and cream, it instantly mixed together. I did the affogato first and enjoyed the salty, sweet, and bitter combination of the ingredients. Were there alcohol in this, I probably would have felt like I was back in college. The petit four was clever, but I wished that it was a little closer to room temperature as I think the flavors would've sung together much better (plus you wouldn't have seen the chocolate sweating).

The other dessert, a Tarte Tatin with maple cream, wasn't served individually, but as one dessert for us all to share. Sadly, the tarte was more or less decimated by our group before I had a chance to take a picture of it, but I did manage to get a bite and can say that it was absolutely delicious. When caramel is involved, you worry about the dessert being too sweet. Lauren managed to balance the sweetness and tartness from the apples well.

Our meal now at an end, we each paid our checks, gathered our coats and bags and headed out into the now dark, cool Cleveland air. While there was a very minor issue with one or two of the dishes (slight underseasoning), I very much enjoyed the entire meal, the company, and the new space that Crop Bistro & Bar gets to call home now. As with past visits, Chef Steve Schimoler has a very thorough understanding of flavor and texture combinations and his food never comes across as too fancy or gimmicky, which can be a very hard line to walk. While I don't know that I'd want to do the Tour de Crop every time I go back, it's nice sometimes to let someone else make the decision of what you will be eating from time to time.

Dinner At Beau's Grille

2011-10-31T22:00:00.001-04:00

Last December, I wrote about a lunchtime visit to Beau's Grille located in the Hilton Hotel Akron Fairlawn. I had made a mental note to myself while researching the menu online that dinner seemed a bit pricey and that lunch was much more reasonable. Having had a successful lunch visit, I decided that a return visit for dinner was in order. Clearly my mind must have been preoccupied with other distractions for the last eleven months because my follow-up visit didn't happen until just recently.

In fact, it was completely spur of the moment. On a Thursday night with literally nothing better to do, I pulled out of the parking lot at work and as I drove east on West Market Street, the Hilton's illumination gradually became visible through the falling rain. Taking just a moment to decide, I pulled off into the parking lot for the hotel, grabbed an umbrella and my camera bag, and walked towards the hotel's main entrance:

Once inside the main door, a door bearing Beau's name on it was on the left:

This was the exit from the bar area and not really the proper entrance to the restaurant. For that, I walked into the main lobby, made a left turn, and approached the hostess waiting just beyond the opened double doors. I was a little worried they might be too busy to accommodate a walk-in on a Thursday night, but as the restaurant was only about half full, she greeted me cheerfully and led me to a two top and left me with the menu to peruse:

While Chef Beau Schmidt may indeed rotate seasonal item on the daily specials menu, the printed menu looked eerily familiar to the one I had used during my last visit. If the menu items looked similar, then it didn't surprise me to see the same high prices for the food. I don't mind paying for value, but when appetizers start climbing past the $10 price point, I start to sit up and take notice.

In a rather unusual move, when my water came to the table to take my order, he didn't remove the napkin, silverware, glass, or side plate at the setting across from me, which is usually standard at most restaurants (it frees up the table from unnecessary clutter). Seeing as I needed the extra space to set up my camera in order to get the shots I would need for this review, I moved some of these items to the side of the table and actually stacked the other side plate on top of mine to make room. In an even more unusual move, when he saw that I had moved the other setting, he actually reset the opposite side of the table right in front of me. That was the first inkling I had that something odd was up with the service.

Regardless, after placing my order, my server returned with the Bread Service:

And accompanying the warmed rolls were cold pats of butter:

Generally speaking, I prefer butter being softened when it arrives at the table, even if the bread is warm or hot. While the rolls and butter were good in both flavor and texture, having to wait for the butter to melt on the bread was a minor inconvenience. Were this an establishment that was less expensive, I probably wouldn't have given it too much thought. At Beau's Grille, all of these little details should have already been anticipated.

For my appetizer, I decided to start with the Fried Green Tomato "BLT":

As the food runner approached my table with this nearly toppling tower of tomatoes, I thought to myself that this couldn't possibly be my appetizer as it was large enough for an entire meal. Sure enough, it was mine. In addition to the fresh red and yellow heirloom tomato slices, green tomatoes had been sliced, dredged, and fried to a golden brown. The entire stack had been skewered in order to provide stability and then placed on arugula. Two separate aiolis, basil and red pepper, dressed the salad and crispy pancetta was strewn throughout.

As I removed the skewer and allowed the contents to topple down onto the plate, I began to remember my previous experience during lunch. Yes, Beau's prices are high, but the portion sizes are ENORMOUS, each easily split between two or three diners. Like I mentioned earlier, had this been all I ordered, I probably wouldn't have needed anything else for dinner. Right away, I decided to only eat about one-third of the dish in order to save room for future courses.

As for the appetizer itself, it was quite tasty. The heirloom tomatoes had flavor and just a bit of sweetness to them and the fried green tomatoes were crispy on the outside -- having just a bit of snap on the inside with acidity that balanced out the other sweet flavors on the plate. The arugula added a pepperiness, the pancetta added both salty, chewy and savory elements, and the aiolis provided creaminess. Did it really need two aiolis to be a successful dish? No, not particularly, but other than not being able to separate the flavors in my mouth when eaten together, it didn't detract from the overall deliciousness of the dish.

Since I had ordered an entree, I had the option of either getting a free basic side salad or I could add a half-portion of one of the more "plated" salads from the menu for a small upcharge (I believe it was roughly $3). Since I had been eying one of those salads from the get-go, I decided to go ahead and add it to the line-up for tonight.

Here was the Baby Green, Sun-dried Tomato, Artichoke, Buffalo Mozzarella Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette:

First off, again with the portion size: this was a HALF portion of a salad. I suppose it could've been because I had already eaten so much of my appetizer, but I could've probably done better with half of this "half." I tasted each of the elements on the plate before combining them together into one unified bite. The sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, and mozzarella were quite tasty (the softness of the cheese was especially gratifying). The baby greens were fresh-looking and crisp. The balsamic vinaigrette, however, really disappointed because it was incredibly sweet. I understand that balsamic vinegar has an inherent level of sweetness to it by nature, but this vinaigrette had been sweetened quite a ways past that. If you like sweet, gentle reader, you might like this. Personally, I found it unbalanced and unsuccessful for this very reason.

After eating about half of my salad, I pushed it away to wait for my final course. The standard table setting at Beau's Grille was two forks, one knife, and one spoon. I had used the first fork and my knife during the appetizer. When I got my salad, I used the second fork. By this point in the meal, I was only left with my spoon. No problem, I figured. When my server brings out the entree and sees I am missing silverware, he'll get me the appropriate pieces.

Sadly, what actually transpired after he brought me the Cavatappi with Grilled Chicken, Roasted and Fresh Tomatoes, Spinach, Garlic, Basil, Lemon and Olive Oil,

was that he simply dropped the plate off and immediately walked away from the table without checking to see if I needed anything else. Being the ever resourceful foodie that I am, I reached across the table and with firm resolve, broke up the silverware set at the spot opposite me at my table. Having retrieved a clean fork, I dug into this dish. Some of the pasta at the rim of the bowl was a bit tepid in temperature, but the food in the center was still nice and hot. That was the good news.

The bad news, gentle reader, was that the pasta was way overcooked, one step below mush. The pasta was also quite bland. This trend seemed pervasive throughout the dish, actually. I tasted component after component and each was either completely unseasoned or grossly underseasoned. While the server had dropped off grated Parmesan cheese for me to apply to my taste, I knew that even with a generous sprinkling of the salty fromage, it would really only season the top of the noodles. Probably the only really assertive flavor in the dish was the garlic, which I couldn't help but notice because of its slight crunch and incredibly pungent flavor -- and indication that it probably hadn't been sauteed enough before building the rest of the sauce.

I probably don't have to mention this as well by this point in the review, but the serving of pasta was enormous.

In the end, I had my server box up the remainder of my appetizer (at least half) and the remaining pasta (at least two-thirds) and asked for my check. As I suspected after doing some mental math, the check with tax and tip came to roughly $31-$32. I wasn't sure if I was going to eat the rest of the pasta for breakfast or lunch, but I figured for that much money, I'd at least give myself the option.

I'm torn on Beau's Grille. The food and service during my first visit was fairly good. In fact, good enough to spur me to return for a dinner service. While the Fried Green Tomato "BLT" was definitely worth ordering, the cloyingly sweet vinaigrette on my salad and my way overcooked and underseasoned cavatappi left me quite a bit unsatisfied. That the server came off as quite aloof and not particularly helpful, I am only left to conclude that if the restaurant is having a good night, you'll receive the same in kind. If not, well then, I hope you enjoy your pasta mushy and with very little flavor.

No "Mamma Mia!" at Gervasi Vineyards Italian Bistro

2011-10-25T22:00:00.002-04:00

One of the benefits of living in east Akron and working in Canton was that I often stopped at restaurants along the way and was much more versed in the comings and going of Canton and North Canton eateries. Since then, I have moved to the west side of Akron and now live and work in the same vicinity. As a consequence, getting to dinner in Canton is a bit more of an effort for me than it has been in the past. However, after reading extensively about what can only be described as a "complex" due to its enormous size, I knew I had to check out the Italian Bistro at Gervasi Vineyard.

The entire complex was located at 1700 55th Street NE, Canton, OH 44721 and can be reached at 330-497-1000. Getting there was a bit time consuming from my origin, but surprisingly easy. Exit I-77 south at the Everhard Road exit and head east until you run into Cleveland Avenue. Make a left and then an immediate right onto Easthill Street. This will turn into 55th Street and within about ten minutes, you'll come upon the entrance to the vineyard. Turn into the driveway and take it all the way back to the large building at the back of the complex. Ample parking was available in front of the bistro:

Prior to going for dinner tonight, I had read their online menu with great interest and came prepared for the type of food being served. What I didn't expect was that simply showing up on a Tuesday night at 7:30 PM sans reservation was not as fabulous an idea as I had originally thought. Upon asking the hostess for a table for one person, she got a pained expression on her face and basically stated that unless I had a reservation, there were no tables available. There was, however, a communal table that was about half full of "people like me" (e.g., no reservationists) and several two top bar tables. Fortunately, one of the bar tables just opened up, so I took it.

At this point, even with servers passing by my table every minute or so, it took about ten minutes for someone to notice me and bring me a menu. Fortunately, once my server noticed me, service hiccups disappeared. Here was tonight's menu:

It was nice to see that the Italian Bistro was serving seasonal cuisine. The menu was appropriately sized with several selections in each category -- this made it feel uncluttered and not overwhelming. Seeing as there was only one of me tonight, I decided that instead of ordering a larger entree (at a larger price), that I would sample several of the smaller plates.

After placing my order, my server brought out the Bread Service:

The bread had been sliced, oiled, herbed, seasoned and slightly toasted so that it had a crunch but wasn't completely dried out. Not wanting to spoil my meal, I had a slice or two, but pushed them aside in order to make room for the rest of the meal.

I decided to start my meal out with the Butternut Squash Soup:

When someone other than my server (who I assume was a food runner) approached my table with an extremely shallow bowl with several toasted hazelnuts in the bottom, I was a bit confused. He set the bowl down in front of me and produced a pitcher from which he poured the soup into the bowl, covering the nuts. Sadly, the effect was a bit lost because the soup was so thick that as you can see in the above photograph, it didn't even cover the entire bottom of the bowl.

The flavor of the soup was a bit on the sweet side, but I expected that as the menu listed "truffle honey" as one its ingredient. That being said, only one bite of the many I took did I get the remotest hint of truffle flavor. The hazelnuts added a nice textural contrast to the smooth, thick soup and the fattiness from the heavy cream used to enrich it would have been well served by an acidic component to the dish to help cut through it. Overall, I thought the soup was decent.

As I was originally looking through the menu, I noticed that it had four pasta dishes listed. I asked my server if the pasta was made in-house. After checking with the kitchen, she returned and told me that none of the pastas were homemade save the ravioli on the appetizer section of the menu. A little disappointed that a place billing itself as an Italian Bistro didn't make their own pasta, I decided to order the one dish that featured said product -- Smoked Salmon Ravioli with Capers, Horseradish and Dill Creme:

At $12, this meant I was paying $4 per square of filled pasta. I first tasted the horseradish and dill creme. The horseradish flavor and heat were there, but was incredibly subtle. I then cut into one of the pasta squares. The ravioli had a good amount of filling in them, enough to get a substantial taste, but not bursting at the seams. The filling was actually a combination of mashed potato and smoked salmon. I dragged my forkful in the creme sauce and took a bite.

Two thoughts simultaneously fought for attention as my mouth starting sending warning signals northward. First, the smoked salmon was WAY too strong and pretty much the only thing I could taste was the smoke and the salt from the fish. Second, the filling was COLD! Whomever had cooked the pasta had not cooked them long enough. The pasta casing was fine, but the filling itself was at best, slightly colder than room temperature. Thinking I might have gotten a bad one, I cut into both of the other ravioli to discover that they were cooked exactly the same way. This dish was pretty much a fail -- unbalanced flavors that were not executed properly.

For my final course, I decided to try the Creme Anatra Pizza:

While I was pretty certain that the Italian Bistro was making their dough daily, I was curious to see if I could taste the effects of using a pre-ferment or any kind of aging in the dough. Seeing as the pizza oven was directly in front of me, I actually watched as they prepped and then baked my pizza. The pizza, at a $12 price point, seemed a bit on the small side, but came topped with some delicious looking toppings: pulled duck, garlic cream (Ed. Note: Every other time it was spelled "creme" on the menu except here. I wonder why?), mushrooms, spinach, fig jelly, ricotta, and aged provolone.

The crust was crisped nicely, although I would've have personally preferred a bit more color on the bottom. The crust had a nice balance of chewiness and crispiness, but I didn't notice any sourness to the dough's flavor on its own. This leads me to believe that the dough was made without the use of cold fermentation or a pre-ferment (like a biga or poolish). It wasn't until I got to my third piece of pizza that I finally got a slice that actually had all of the ingredients on it. When I finally bit into that piece, my mouth was quite happy. Prior to that slice, previous bites lacked a balance between all of the flavors of the toppings.

All said and done, my bill with tip and tax came to roughly $36-$37 and I left with a few slices of pizza remaining that I took home with me for a snack later on that night. Honestly, I'm a little torn about the Italian Bistro at Gervasi Vineyard. It aspires for greatness, that is for sure. However, the dishes I had tonight ranged from bad to so-so to good. The restaurant has been open for a while now, so I can't chalk up tonight's experience to breaking in a new restaurant staff. In the end, I would marginally recommend you check them out. At this price point, everything coming out of the kitchen, while maybe not fantastic, should at least be in the very good category. Hopefully they will get there soon.

Wild Papaya And The Perfect Curry

2011-10-18T21:00:00.002-04:00

I am continually amazed at how much I have learned about the restaurant industry from writing a food blog for nearly three years. Of course, it seems obvious that if you study something for that length of time, you would naturally pick up a few things along the way, but that honestly wasn't why I started Exploring Food My Way. One of the two most important lessons I've learned so far is that despite your server being the primary point of contact with a restaurant when choose to dine out, slow or "off" service can be caused by far more than just the server's lack of experience or enthusiasm. Knowing when to legitimately gripe about service takes time to develop.

The other important lesson I've taken away from this experience is the extreme volatility of the food service industry as a whole. Servers, cooks, chefs, heck, even the restaurant itself can be there one day and gone the next. I know a server who in one year worked in thirteen different restaurants. That isn't to say that there aren't some longtime stalwarts that have been around for forty, fifty, or even one hundred years (restaurants, not servers). These are clearly the exception to this generalization.

Back in February of this year, fellow photographer and camera salesman extraordinaire Dan at Campus Camera, upon finding out that I write restaurant reviews advised me about a restaurant that was serving up great food, Shorty's Subs and Salads. Even better, the restaurant was just down the road from the camera store. I didn't have time to try it that day, but I returned with a few days to find the restaurant oddly dark at a time when it should have been open. Between the time Dan had told me of the restaurant and a short while later, they had closed up shop.

Fast forward eight months later, I happened to be driving down Main Street in Kent when I drove by the old Shorty's location only to discover something had opened up in its place. Curious, I pulled in to discover Wild Papaya Thai Cuisine. My attention firmly gotten, I noted that it was roughly 5:30 on a Sunday evening and I was suddenly hungry ... for Thai food. I parked my car and approached the main door:

Wild Papaya Thai Cuisine was located at 1665 East Main Street, Kent, OH 44240 and can be reached at 330-677-0916. Parking was in the large lot in front of the building. You can check out their web presence by visiting their website or their Facebook page.

Since I never managed to eat a meal at Shorty's, I was unfamiliar with how the interior looked before Wild Papaya took over, but I have to say that the decor was quite contemporary with a bit of traditional Thai art thrown in for good measure. When I arrived, I was one of only two tables that were occupied. I'm happy to say that within thirty minutes, another six or seven tables were seated.

My server left me with the rather sizable menu in order to take care of recent arrivals at the hostess stand:

As I looked through the menu, I saw a lot of the usual suspects: Pad Thai, Tom Yum Goong, Chicken Satay, just to name three. But I also saw some dishes that were more indicative of a serious commitment to stay true to traditional Thai cuisine. While the menu also listed several Chinese dishes (to be more accurate, I should call them Americanized Chinese), the Thai dishes looked far more interesting. I decided to start out my meal with the Tom-Sum (papaya salad):

Staying with the traditional version of this salad, tonight's dish was made with green papaya which had yet to ripen. Thus, the fruit wasn't particularly sweet (think green tomatoes versus ripe tomatoes). The papaya had been shredded thinly along with carrots and had been dressed in a dressing of nuoc cham -- typically a mixture of lime, fish sauce, chile, cilantro, sugar, and rice wine vinegar. This combination of flavors gave the papaya "slaw" the qualities of sweet, salty, spicy, and acidic. All of the flavors were nicely balanced and the spiciness of the chile was quite subtle, yet still present.

The two yellow hunks of meat placed on top of the salad were chicken that was hot, juicy, and nicely grilled. I could tell based on the flavor of the chicken that this was the same protein used for the satay appetizer. The salad was actually quite large and could definitely be split among two or three diners. My only complaint was that two pieces of chicken seemed a bit light for the amount of salad on the plate. A third piece would have rounded this salad out to the point where one person could eat it for their entire meal.

As I was contemplating what to order for my entree, my server helpfully suggested the Siam Duck. She indicated that it was one of the cooks specialties. While I was a little leery of the $17 price tag, I decided to go ahead and trust her suggestion. A few minutes after finishing my papaya salad, this appeared at my table:

Accompanying my entree was a bowl of Brown Rice:

Before I talk about the Siam Duck, I would just like to go on record as saying I really appreciate an Asian restaurant having both steamed white AND brown rice available for diners. While I certainly don't mind white rice, I know that brown rice is slightly better for me and knowing that it is available, I will always order it over the white. To make it even more enticing, Wild Papaya gave me the choice of either to accompany my meal at no extra charge.

Anyone who has ever watched me evaluate a meal for the blog knows that I rarely dig into a dish thoughtlessly. If the protein has a sauce on it, I taste it. I tend to taste components of the entree before taking the all-inclusive bite. I had been hesitant to order an expensive entree (one of the most expensive on the menu), but upon getting my first taste of the yellow curry, my taste buds exploded with nervous energy signalling the "YUM!" center in my brain. I suddenly realized I was in for a epicurean roller coaster ride.

The sauce was complex, sweet and salty with a hint of vinegar to balance it out. While the menu listed the dish as being served at "one chile pepper" which meant hot, I asked for the dish to be served at "two chile peppers" meaning hot and spicy. While I certainly could've handled much more heat, the spice level was a nearly perfect match for the extraordinary savoriness of the sauce. Honestly, gentle reader, you could have put that sauce over a leather boot and it would've been good.

The duck, which had been clearly finished in the deep fryer due to the crispiness of the skin, was moist and juicy and the skin was crispy without being greasy. Because duck has a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, it must be rendered off during the cooking process or else the result is chewy, rather unpleasant fat that is often better removed than consumed. Tonight's duck wasn't the best I had ever eaten, but I would say it was deftly prepared and tasted very good. Combined with the yellow curry, it was an absolute home run. The broccoli, while steamed, was a bit on the lukewarm side and while the squash and zucchini were softened from the steaming process, the carrots were crunchy to the point of being noticeable.

Those minor quibbles aside, whatever I didn't finish at the restaurant (which was about half), I took home with me and eagerly consumed the next day for lunch. While not as good cold as it was hot, just the thought of the curry sauce accompanying the Siam Duck made my mouth water like the unwitting subject of a Pavlovian experiment.

Dinner tonight at Wild Papaya Thai Cuisine wasn't inexpensive at roughly $28 for my meal with water and tax. That being said, I had enough food for two complete meals at $14 each which isn't bad if you are watching your wallet and need a place to split dinner for two. While this might be a tad on the pricey side for your typical Kent State student, it also means that the place won't be overrun with college students looking for food on the cheap.

Needless to say, I recommend that you give Wild Papaya Thai Cuisine a visit to try out the Tom-Sum and Siam Duck for yourself. I currently live on the west side of Akron and I would be more than willing to drive the thirty minutes each way just to have another dinner there. Of course, now that I have tasted this amazingly wonderful curry, in order to try other items from the menu I will undoubtedly have to bring friends with me when I return; hopefully they'll be willing to trade a bite of heaven from my plate for a bite of theirs.

Grabbing A Nosh At Nosh Eatery

2011-10-14T06:00:00.008-04:00

I first learned of Nosh Eatery & Creative Catering many months ago from my longtime friend and partner in the Veggie-Vegan Project, Paul. We had been discussing potential restaurants to include in the project and Paul had heard that Nosh was to have a fairly good vegetarian and/or vegan selection. He also knew that they would be based out of Hudson, but unfortunately, that was the extent of his knowledge. Fast forward to Labor Day at the beginning of September and I found myself at the annual Taste of Hudson again. Per usual, I made my cursory walkaround of the entire event before deciding which booths I would visit. Wouldn't you know it? Nosh was one of the booths.

Based on the strength of the food at the Taste of Hudson, I finally got around to stopping in for a bite to eat at their actual location. Their storefront was south of downtown Hudson quite a bit and located at 5929 Darrow Road, Hudson, OH 44236. They can be reached at 330-650-6674 and they have the usual trio of a website, Facebook page, and Twitter account so that you can keep track of them.

Nosh Eatery was among a group of four businesses occupying a small building. As usual, the shared parking lot was more than ample and I had little difficulty finding a parking spot. Here was a shot of the storefront for Nosh Eatery:

Once inside, I was asked if my order was for eating in or taking out. After indicating that I would like to eat in, the woman behind the counter gave me a paper menu and told me I could sit wherever I'd like. I picked the table furthest from the front door (to minimize the mixed lighting), sat down and proceeded to study the menu:

In addition to the options on the menu, daily specials had also been chalked onto a board hanging above the coffee machine on the back wall.

I decided to start out my meal with one of the soups du jour, a Bowl of Tomato and Basil Soup:

The soup was piping hot, had just a bit of texture to it, and had a deep tomato flavor. The soup had been pureed, but not completely as there were still small bits of tomato to be found within. The garlic and basil flavors complemented the soup nicely. In lieu of crackers, the soup had come with a small grilled flatbread quarter that had been seasoned with salt, herbs, and of all things, caraway seeds. It was inventive and delicious and if there was anything to complain about for this dish, it was that the dish only came with one of the "crackers."

While many of the sandwiches caught my eye on the menu today, when I saw that today's special was a Philly-style Cheesesteak, I decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a try:

Filled with luscious expertly grilled cuts of beef shoulder, caramelized onions and peppers, sauteed Chanterelle, fresh thyme, and Havarti and Gruyere cheeses, this was a sandwich with which to be reckoned. The roll (part of a baguette from Great Lakes Baking Company just up the street) was split, buttered, and then grilled to not only give it texture, but also prevent the roll from "sogging out," a dilemma many other sandwich places have yet to solve. From my first bite to my last, I enjoyed this sandwich immensely. It was hot, melty, chewy, earthy, beefy, and savory. If someone had said, "make a Philly-style inspired sandwich but elevate it," this would be the result. The only criticism I might levy would be that the portion size seemed a little small for $7.75.

Inspired by the flavors up to this point and noticing that Nosh's Facebook page had advertised fresh cobbler today, I asked about the dessert selections. Indeed, fresh Strawberry Cobbler had been baked earlier in the day:

Rewarmed and plated, the cobbler was accompanied by fresh chevre-infused whipped cream and a small scoup of buerre noisette ice cream. The plate was finished with some powdered sugar and small streaks of raspberry coulis. I remember the whipped cream from the Taste of Hudson and while you could taste the goat cheese flavor in that version, today's whipped cream was a bit lacking. The brown butter ice cream, however, was heavenly. The cobbler itself was infused with lots of strawberries and if the cobbler topping had been a bit more cake-like in consistency, it would have reminded me more of a clafoutis than a cobbler.

Overall, I found the cobbler to be just borderline on the sweet side -- a cup of black coffee or an espresso would have cut the sweetness to the perfect amount. That being said, I finished the entire portion and would have no qualms ordering -- or recommending -- this dessert again.

My meal at its inevitable conclusion, my server brought me the check and before tip, it came to $16. While I did question the value of the cheesesteak sandwich, everything I had eaten today at Nosh was fresh, hot, and quite frankly, delicious. As was made evident on the daily specials board, today marked the fifty-fifth day of operation. I'd suggest you give them a visit soon so that they can add many more numbers to that ticker.

Authentico Mexicano, Por Favor, Sin Queso

2011-10-10T21:30:00.006-04:00

People often ask me where I get the inspiration for the restaurants I review. Most often, I review what is around me: where I work, where I live, where I go on vacation. Sometimes I stumble upon a restaurant out of sheer dumb luck. Other times I have readers email me and tell me of a place that I haven't reviewed that I just have to try. A very important part of my information gathering process is reading other food blogs. You may have noticed the list of blogs I follow on the right hand side of this blog. I link to those blogs because I think the authors have something interesting and relevant to say and want to encourage you to them out for yourself.

Just recently, I came across a food blog started at the end of June, Dreaming of the Next Bite, that I hadn't linked to and when I went to check it out, I discovered a fellow native Akron/Canton blogger who is interested in covering the local restaurant scene. As I dug into Yvette's blog, I stumbled across several restaurant reviews that she had done in the North Canton area that sounded very interesting. But it wasn't until I came across her review of Jojutlas Mexican Grill that I sat up and took notice.

What caught my eye were two very important distinctions between Jojutlas and nearly every other "Mexican" restaurant in the area: fresh corn tortillas grilled in-house and the very prominent lack of cheese melted over every single menu item. Now, don't get me wrong, gentle reader, I love Mexican American as much as the next gringo, but I know better (and when pressed, most servers of Mexican/Latino/Latina origin will admit) that using gobs of melted queso fresco is an American adaptation.

My whistle thoroughly whetted by the idea of a queso-free meal, I made the trek down I-77 to the Portage Street exit (The "Strip" is off of Portage Street). You will want to go west on Portage Street until you see the Rockne's road sign. Jojutlas Mexican Grill was in the building directly behind Rockne's. Technically the restaurant was located at 4934 Portage Street, North Canton, OH 44720 and can be reached at 330-470-0037. In addition to their website, they also have a Facebook page.

After parking in the ample lot out front, I approached the front of the restaurant:

Inside, I discovered another refreshing surprise: a menu consisting of just a few choices that were simple and straightforward:

Most Mexican American menus that I've seen are usually loaded with a myriad of options from which to choose. Tonight, the decision was narrowed down to between the fish tacos that Yvette had tried in her review and the Tacos al Pastor. Ordering at Jojutlas was a cross between a Chipotle-esque process and a full service restaurant. I placed my order at the window under the hanging menu and told her which sides I wanted along with any additional condiments (e.g., salsas). I then paid for my meal at the other end of the line, took my drink and receipt, and sat at the table of my choice.

Within just a few minutes, one of the servers ran my food to the table and checked to make sure there wasn't anything else she could get me. Here were the Fish Tacos with my included side of Mexican Rice:

Here is a closer shot of the Fish Tacos:

The whitefish had been breaded "Azteca" style, fried until golden brown and crispy, sliced and stuffed into the homemade corn tortillas along with a jicama / red pepper / radish slaw, greens, and a drizzle of chipotle mayonnaise. Although the tortilla near the edge of the plate was a bit torn up, the other two were perfectly round and pliable. I picked one up, took an enormous bite and began to chew, allowing the ingredients to roll around in my mouth.

The heat from the fried fish was nicely balanced with the coolness and crispness of the slaw. The mayonnaise added a little bit of creaminess and spiciness to complement the other flavors. The tortilla was expertly made, adding a subtle "corniness" and was amazingly tender. Honestly, the only criticism I had was that the taco could've used just a touch of lime juice to really make it sing. Something as simple as including a lime wedge with the plate would've taken this from good to great.

For my included side, I decided to go with the Mexican Rice:

"White" rice was also available, which according to the woman taking my order was white rice with lime and cilantro. The Mexican Rice was fresh and each grain was tender and had a flavor that was unlike the versions of this style of rice that I've eaten at other Mexican restaurants. I quite enjoyed it.

Since additional sides were minimally priced, I decided to add beans to my dinner, too. My choice was between black beans and pinto beans ... I went with Black Beans:

The beans were whole and as such, had a textural element to them (as opposed to the more traditional frijoles refritos). The taste was also quite good, again a bit unusual but delicious. The beans had a rich earthy flavor that can only come from a long cooking process. Between the rice and beans, I managed to finish all three tacos and about half of each side.

In the end, my meal with the extra side of black beans and a bottled water came to roughly $10 before tip and tax. I should mention that because you pay after you order and before you sit down, it was a little weird leaving a tip before I actually had service. I paid with my credit card tonight, but if you have cash, you can leave a tip that is appropriate for the service you receive at the conclusion of your meal instead of prior to eating it.

So how would I rate this little out-of-the-way restaurant? Pretty highly, actually, and recommend that if you are in the mood for something a little more authentic and a whole lot less cheesy, drive down to North Canton and check out Jojutlas Mexican Grill for yourself. I know that I am already anticipating a return to try the Tacos al Pastor.

Making Time For Thyme

2011-10-05T06:00:00.008-04:00

When I first heard John Kolar's name mentioned on the old Cleveland Plain Dealer's Food and Wine forum several years ago, it was being associated with a new venture out in Medina, Ohio, called Thyme - the Restaurant (warning: gratuitous use of Flash). I knew the eatery was an upscale kind of place, but unfortunately, I don't get out to Medina all that often (which is a shame, really, since there are so many great places to eat there). Happily, as I collected my camera bag and walked out to my car after work last Friday, for some reason, it seemed time to finally check out Thyme.

Reservations are a mixed bag with me. When it is just me going out for a meal that I intend to review here on the blog, I tend to eschew reservations if I think I can get away with just showing up unannounced. This ensures complete anonymity and impartiality. However, if I think I might have difficulty getting a table (Friday night at 7 PM qualifies), I will go ahead and make a reservation, sometimes under a different name. Knowing that the chef or general manager often checks the reservation books before dinner service starts, my last minute decision at 6:30 PM on a Friday night to eat at this time made this last point moot since unless the person answering the phone knew me by name, it wouldn't have changed my experience.

Thyme was located about a thirty minute drive from Montrose at 716 North Court Street, Medina, OH 44256 and can be reached at 330-764-4114. When I saw the street sign for the restaurant,

I pulled into the moderately crowded parking lot. Having been around in the mid 70s to early 80s, I immediately recognized that the building was a converted and modified Red Barn restaurant. The entrance to the restaurant was actually facing the parking lot:

Once inside, I marveled at the re-purposed space. Through the main doors to the left was a small bar area. The rest of the inside space was devoted to tables, which while cozy, didn't give you the feeling that you were sitting on top of your neighbor. During better weather, a covered patio was also available. Lighting was pretty dim, but fortunately the hostess sat me at a table with a small, but bright incandescent lamp pointed straight down onto my table. She left me to look through the menu:

After taking my order, my server promptly returned with several items for me. First up was a basket of herbed focaccia and a ramekin of softened butter:

The focaccia was fresh and delicious. I didn't bother to ask if the focaccia was house made, but it didn't particularly matter since it was so tasty. The softened butter had a slight sweetness to it and while it matched the slight saltiness of the bread, wasn't required to elevate the flavor of the bread.

The kitchen also sent out a small starter, an amuse bouche, to get my meal off on the right foot:

This was a warm potato and leek soup that had been drizzled with just a touch of chive oil. I raised the glass to my mouth, tipped it back, and drank the entire contents in one gulp. While nothing fancy, it was seasoned properly and the flavor had a pronounced potato and leek essence to it. The chive oil added a small amount of spiciness, but nothing overwhelming. This was definitely a nice way to start the meal.

Always a sucker for gnocchi, especially homemade gnocchi, after seeing that an appetizer-sized portion was available on the menu, I decided to start my dinner adventure with a pasta course:

This was Porcini Gnocchi with Sauteed Spinach, Mushrooms, Porcini Cream Sauce, and a Balsamic Vinegar drizzle. The texture of the gnocchi were ethereally light, occupying that wonderful spot between having a satisfying chew versus dissolving in the mouth. On some of the less coated pieces, I could taste the potato, another great indicator of being freshly made. The mushroom flavor was quite pronounced and while the fattiness from the cream sauce coated my tongue, the acid from the vinegar helped to cut through it. My only complaint was that when I finished the pasta, I was about to reach for a slice of the focaccia to mop up the remaining sauce when one of the food runners swooped in and removed the plate before I had a chance to do so.

Interestingly, my gnocchi had shown up mere minutes after placing my order. In between my appetizer and my entree, however, the wait was a bit longer. It probably only seemed excessive because the gnocchi had come out so quickly. Soon enough, my server returned with my main course, the Double Cut Grilled Pork Chop with Poblano and Bacon Macaroni and Cheese, Asparagus, and Smoked Onion BBQ Sauce:

I had asked for the pork to be cooked to a "medium" temperature and it was. The pork was flavorful, juicy, and seasoned properly. While some of the asparagus spears were a bit thin and wispy, overall they were grilled and seasoned nicely. The smoke flavor in the BBQ sauce was nicely present, but not overwhelming. The pork was nicely complemented by the sauce. However, the big winner on this plate was the poblano and bacon macaroni and cheese. Nice and crusty on top and creamy everywhere else, this was an incredibly delicious version of this American staple. The pasta -- straight up macaroni noodles -- was perfectly cooked and wasn't mushy in the least. While I know that most anything is better with bacon, the addition of the roasted poblano added a subtle sweet and spicy element that really worked.

Having nearly cleaned my plate before indicating that I was finished, my server asked if I was interested in seeing the dessert menu. I figured that since I had already experienced such great success with the regular menu, the desserts must be on par. Right? Here was a shot of the dessert menu:

When I looked at the menu and realized that Thyme only had four desserts, two of which were pretty routine -- namely the creme brulee and molten chocolate cake -- I was actually a bit disappointed. Coming to grips that my choice would be between a cheesecake and a pumpkin mousse, I figured that the Toffee Cheesecake with Candied Almonds, Bruleed Banana, and Toffee Sauce would be the more interesting of the two.

As I've mentioned before, when I anticipate eating something sweet, I will often pair it with something bitter, like espresso or coffee, which was exactly what I did tonight:

The espresso was properly brewed, with full crema floating on top of the murky, bitter liquid sitting below the surface. While I appreciated the raw sugar cube, I skipped it and went straight for the twist of lemon.

Fortunately, only a few moments after my espresso arrived, my dessert made its way to the table:

While the plate definitely gets props for verticality and use of multi-textured components, sadly, this plate could've done with a color outside of the "brown" family -- a sprig of mint would've done wonders to break up the monotone theme. The toffee sauce was pleasant and tasted like, well, toffee. The bruleed banana was nicely caramelized. The candied almonds added a nice textural element.

The toffee cheesecake had its good and bad points. While not overly sweet, it was also a bit "vanilla." I didn't get a whole lot of toffee flavor in the cheesecake and honestly, it needed something to counterbalance the sweetness of the dessert -- perhaps sour cream would have helped. Maybe if the caramel on the banana had been cooked a bit darker, the inherent bitterness would have contrasted better with the sweetness. It just needed ... something. Don't get me wrong, gentle reader, it wasn't a bad tasting dessert. It was just kind of unremarkable considering the level of food I had enjoyed until that point.

The check with tip and gratuity came to just under $50 tonight. Was it worth it? Yes, I think it was. Given that the only non-stellar part of my meal was the dessert (and by non-stellar, I don't mean bad), I would definitely return for another meal at Thyme - the Restaurant. I don't know that Medina has any other restaurants within city limits that are executing food at this high of a level. If you live in Medina and want a wonderful dining experience, definitely check out Thyme. If you live outside of Medina, I still think it is worth the trip.

Hopefully the desserts will attain the same level as the rest of the food in the future.

Opening Pandora's Box

2011-10-01T21:40:00.003-04:00

As a rule, I generally try and keep my day job completely separate from my role here on Exploring Food My Way. It isn't so much that I am scared that I will say something here on the blog that will get me in trouble at work; rather, I just tend to keep those two spheres of my life separate naturally. Such was the case with my current job until one of my co-workers found my Twitter account and through that, found the blog. Needless to say, news travels fast in the workplace.

One of the benefits of being "outed" is that now when fellow co-workers see something new happening in the food world, they make a point of stopping by my little cube-ette and mentioning it. Such was the case with a new shop opening up in the Montrose area called Pandora's Cupcakes (Facebook page here). In this particular case, however, I already knew of the shop's impending opening because I had driven by it several times for a few weeks prior. When I drove by this past Thursday, I noticed something different: cars parked out front and people inside.

I stopped in and purchased cupcakes to take back to the office and for a dinner with friends later that evening. As the shop was swamped on opening day, I waited until today to return for a chance to chat with the owner and get some snapshots. The cute little shop was located at 3571 Brookwall Drive, Akron, OH 44333 and can be reached at 330-665-CAKE (2253). Parking was available around the collection of shops, but not many spaces were open. If they are busy, you might need to hunt around for a spot to park.

Here was a shot of the front of the new store:

Once inside, I was greeted by owner and baker Ken Carr and an assistant. Since there was no chance of favoritism (the cupcakes were already baked and frosted), I altered my modus operandi slightly and pulled a business card from my wallet and introduced myself. Interestingly enough, he offered that he thought I might be the guy from the food blog because one of my readers had described me to him. (Ed. Note: Have I mentioned how awesome you guys are?) At that point, I asked if I could take a few photos at the shop and he agreed.

In a EFMW first, two digital wall menus adorned the side and rear walls of the shop:

I've seen plenty of wall menus in my adventures, but never digital ones. Prices at Pandora's Cupcakes, while more than you'd pay at your typical supermarket, were in line with what other boutique "cupcakeries" are charging. I do like the fact that the more you buy, the bigger the discount.

As I walked into the building, Mr. Carr had just come out of the kitchen in the back with a tray of freshly frosted Mint on Chocolate cupcakes:

While the display case had been devoid of labels on Thursday when I stopped in, today's visit found each cupcake adorned with an identifying label to the right of it:

So far, I have tried three flavors of cupcakes: Mint on Chocolate, Red Velvet, and Peanut Butter on Chocolate. But before I talk about my impressions of the cupcakes, let's give you, gentle reader, a little bit of cupcake porn:

As with most bakeries, a few cake bases and a few frostings combined to form today's line-up. Chocolate, Yellow, Spice, and Vanilla were today's cake bases; flavored buttercreams, cream cheese, and fudgey were today's frosting flavors. I did confirm that the buttercream actually contains butter (silly that I have to ask that question, but the fact that so many places try and pass off frosting with no butter in it and still call it buttercream necessitates the question).

As I mentioned already, I've tried three different flavors already. What are my overall impressions? First, the frosting is a touch on the sweet side, not as tooth-achingly sweet as Ann's Pastry in Wadsworth (nor as horrifically sweet as most supermarket bakeries), but I personally wouldn't mind if the sweetness was held back a bit more. That being said, paired with something equally bitter like an espresso or a cup of black coffee, it would balance well. The frostings have all been nicely flavored -- the flavor is there, but not overpowering.

The cake portion has ranged from incredibly delicate (Mint on Chocolate) to a bit denser (Red Velvet). While I appreciated the delicateness of the cake crumb, the Mint on Chocolate kind of fell apart when I ate it while the Red Velvet was sturdy enough to survive multiple trips from my plate to my mouth. Another factor to be considered, too, was the freshness. Just like any other baked products, cupcakes will stale over time. The Mint on Chocolate was eaten just a few minutes after purchasing it while the Red Velvet was eaten later that night. Perhaps something to keep in mind.

In general, the cupcakes were very moist and when I looked at my fingers after eating one, it was obvious that Mr. Carr had not skimped on the oil in the cake batter. These are definitely not the low-fat/reduced calorie cupcakes that Pure Delite Cupcakes offers to their customers and if you are looking for that kind of experience, Pandora's Cupcakes probably won't have what you want.

Another customer in the shop today inquired about sugar-free cupcakes. While Ken was skeptical about offering a sugar-free option, he did state that they are planning to add both a gluten free and vegan cupake to the line-up.

When I got my selection of four cupcakes to my destination for the evening, I decided to do a little macro photography to really make the cupcakes look their best. The other photos in this post were resized to roughly 900x600 pixels. I left these shots at 1920x1080, so you can really get in close.

French Toast Cupcake

Mint on Chocolate Cupcake

Peanut Butter on Chocolate Cupcake

Cream Cheese on Red Velvet Cupcake

Will I be returning to Pandora's Cupcakes? To quote a famous (some might say infamous) Republican, you betcha! One of the great qualities of cupcakes is that you can please everyone because each person picks out his or her favorite flavor. Plus, the cupcakes aren't huge -- they make a great post meal dessert or a mid afternoon snack. And as mentioned earlier, while these cupcakes aren't for the calorie conscious, having one every now and again as a reward seems like a great way to have your cake and be able to eat it, too.

The Rebirth of Club Isabella

2011-09-17T12:30:00.006-04:00

As a student of Case Western Reserve University in the early 1990's, there were only a handful of really "nice" restaurants one could go to, although most of them were out of the range of most college students' budgets. Brandywine was probably the most accessible and I spent many an evening (and dollar) there throwing back the Wicky Wacky Woos and Fried Mushrooms with horseradish dipping sauce. Next up the scale were two sister restaurants, That Place On Bellflower (which, oddly enough, was on Bellflower Road) and Club Isabella. Topping the list was the penultimate dining experience that could be had at Baricelli Inn.

Of the restaurants listed, I ate at Club Isabella only once and didn't manage to get to the Baricelli Inn until after I had graduated college and was actually making money. Sadly, That Place On Bellflower and Club Isabella closed down many years ago. That Place was eventually reborn as L'Albatros Brasserie. Recently, I learned that under the direction of Chef Fabio Mota, Club Isabella was also to reopen, and while technically not in the same spot as the original, it was still situated on Case's campus.

The new incarnation was located at 2175 Cornell Road, Cleveland, OH 44106 and can be reached at 216-229-1111. Having been open for several months now, I decided to go on a Tuesday evening to check them out. As I pulled to the corner of Cornell and Random Roads, I caught my first glimpse of the newly revamped corner space:

Street parking was available, but for only $3, I could valet the car. No brainer there. The patio in the picture above was available for service, but since I was expecting a friend for dinner and didn't want to compete with outside noises (such as the metro train line that runs on the opposite side of Random Road), I opted to sit inside instead. I should mention that the front door to the restaurant was at the far right side of all of those windows. It wasn't particularly obvious and it took me a second or two to realize where it was.

Once inside, the host politely greeted me and because the restaurant wasn't busy that night, allowed me to choose the table at which I'd like to sit. Picking a nice, large four-top by the front window, he left me with the dinner menu:

Within just a few minutes, my server arrived to take my order. I had read about some of the dishes offered on the menu prior to my visit tonight and was eager to try some of them for myself.

The first surprise to come out of the kitchen was a complimentary amuse bouche, lamb terrine with cherry jam and fried shallots:

This was a very tasty way to start the meal. The lamb almost had that gyro meat taste to it. The cherry jam was a bit hidden in flavor, and I think provided a bit of underlying acidity more than its own flavor. I was definitely looking forward to more from the kitchen.

Next up on the table was a small dish of softened, herbed butter:

And fresh bread, in this case a piece from an Epi:

Both were fresh and delicious. While I did try the herbed butter on a piece of the bread, I mostly ate the bread unadorned. Good bread doesn't need a topper and this one definitely fit the bill of good bread.

Having had my one bite amuse and nibbled on some of the bread, I was ready and waiting for my appetizer course to arrive, Sweet and Spicy Fried Cuttlefish:

This was one of the dishes I had read about before coming to Club Isabella and it wholly intrigued me. I have never eaten cuttlefish before, but I know that it is just another encephalopod, like squid or octopus, both of which I have enjoyed in the past. Visually, the plate was quite stunning and I eagerly dove in. The wait was totally worth it.

The cuttlefish itself was soft and tender and yet had just a bit of chew to it. I imagine that cuttlefish is as temperamental as its cousins and cooking it too little or too much would render it chewy beyond recompense. The sauce coating the cuttlefish was indeed both sweet and slightly spicy. For those who abhor spice, it might have been too much. I completely enjoyed it. The red peppers, scallions, and sesame seeds added additional notes of flavor and texture.

Two things to note, however. First, this was an appetizer that could easily be shared by two or more people. Second, and I didn't realize this until I had gotten home and was processing my photos on my large computer monitor, if you look closely at the picture towards the bottom front of the pile of cuttlefish, there is a long black hair in the dish. I didn't see it at the restaurant (or I would have sent it back to be re-fired) and I have no idea if I even ingested it. I contacted the chef the next day to explain what I had found and his response was:

"Thomas.....sorry about that! We in the kitchen all have very very short hair so I can't imagine how it got there but let me know the next time you are in and I'll set you up!"

Take that for what it's worth.

Following my appetizer course, the salad course, an Arugula and Ridicchio Salad, arrived promptly:

Topped with almonds, an onion marmalada, and Lake Erie Creamery chevre, the salad had that wonderful mix of pepperiness from the arugula and bitterness from the ridicchio. The almonds added a nice crunch to the salad and the onion marmalada a touch of sweetness. The only thing that didn't work for me was the goat cheese. By itself, it was lovely. But one of the characteristics of Lake Erie Creamery's chevre is its mild tanginess. The delicate flavor got completely lost against the bolder, stronger flavors of the other ingredients in the dish.

Until this point in the meal, courses had been coming out of the kitchen fairly promptly. Suddenly, between the salad course and the entree, the length of time lengthened considerably. It wasn't so much that I had any place to be, but the shift was noticeable. When my server finally approached my table empty handed, I knew something was up. She apologized for how long it was taking and asked if I would like an intermezzo while I waited. Figuring that my order had either forgotten to get fired or that it had been improperly cooked and needed to be re-fired, I agreed.

Minutes later, she returned with a small dish of Jenis Cherry Lambic Sorbet with a sprig of fresh thyme:

I've already written at length about my love of Jenis ice creams and sorbets, so I won't belabor the point here except to say that this was a delicious and refreshing way to segue from previous courses to the next.

Finally, my entree arrived at the table, the Salt-Crusted Bronzini with Lemon and Chervil:

Dressed with olive oil and micro-greens, what surprised me most about the dish was that it was served whole, head and tail intact. While this doesn't bother me, per se, I know many people would be put off by such a presentation. That said, I was looking forward to how moist the fish would be due to the salt-crust treatment. As I took my first bite, I enjoyed the simplicity of flavors, the tenderness of the flesh, and the slight anise flavor provided by the chervil. While the fish was moist, it didn't quite hit the level of moistness I was expecting. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination. But it wasn't that perfect "10" either.

Since the bronzini didn't come with a side, I decided to order my own, the Brussels Sprouts Gratin:

Just like the appetizer, the sides are meant to be shared. This was way more than I could finish alone (not to mention the fact that I had already eaten so much prior to this). The Brussels sprouts were topped with bacon and bleu cheese and then baked in this very cute enameled crock. While certainly tasty, the Brussels sprouts were cooked a little under al dente, and if you like your vegetables cooked all the way through, this might not be the side for you.

Amazingly, even after all of this food, when my server brought up the idea of dessert, I figured I would at least listen to the list of made in-house desserts (as opposed to the pastas, of which none were made in-house ... odd). When she arrived at the Lemon Tart, I figured that this would be the perfect way to end the meal.

By now, the sun had set and while I was full, I figured a bite or two of something nice and tart would be a great way to cleanse my palate. As with previous courses in tonight's meal, I should've realized that the dessert could've also been split between two people:

This was a lemon tart with strawberry sauce, toasted and ground nuts, a quenelle of freshly whipped vanilla scented cream, all topped with a sprig of mint. As I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate the restraint of a pastry chef who uses less sugar and allows other flavors, like the tartness of lemon to shine through. Sadly, between the strawberry sauce and the lemon curd, it was a tad too sweet for me. The other components of the dish, however, were simply marvelous.

To accompany my sweet dessert, I paired it with an unsweetened espresso:

This definitely hit the spot and helped to balance out the sweetness from the dessert. I would highly recommend pairing these two together.

Having only had water to drink during my meal, in the end, my check with tax came to $58. While that does seem pricey, since the appetizer, side dish, and dessert could have easily been split between two people, were you to add in a second entree for an additional diner, you would be looking at an $80 check for two people, which isn't terrible for this level of cuisine. Unfortunately, like the original Club Isabella, this food is still not really accessible to the poor college students that walk by the restaurant on a daily basis. Then again, when mom and dad come into town for a visit, this would definitely be a place I'd recommend going.

There were a few issues with my meal tonight, but overall, I enjoyed myself during my inaugural visit to the reopened Club Isabella. Assuming that the hair incident was an isolated occurrence, I have no hesitations recommending you check out Club Isabella next time you are in the area.

The Camera Never Lies ... But The Light Meter Might

2011-09-12T21:30:00.001-04:00

First impressions are as important in the culinary world as they are in the business world. As human beings, we tend to embrace every experience with as many senses as we have available. Before we taste food, we smell it. Before we smell it, we look at it. And before we look at it, we can hear it being prepared and coming our way. How often have you been in a Mexican restaurant and heard the sizzling fajitas approaching before you ever see it? Like a Pavlovian dog, just hearing that noise causes you to salivate in anticipation.

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while (and thank you, by the way), you may have noticed a trend over the last nine to twelve months that my food pictures have gotten better and better. Until roughly one year ago, I was taking all of the pictures you see on my blog with my cellphone camera. It was convenient, it was inconspicuous, and it did an okay job in better lit restaurants. The problem was trying to get a good picture at the darker restaurants, the Momocho's, the L'Albatros's, the Greenhouse Tavern's of the world. Even though my cellphone camera had a flash on it, it was so dark that the darn thing couldn't even focus.

So, I decided to upgrade to an actual camera. A Canon G12 point and shoot to be exact. And then over the course of the next year, I actually upgraded twice more, first to a Canon Rebel t3i and finally to a Canon EOS 60D. I won't go into the nuts and bolts of why I upgraded, but let's just summarize by saying that as I became more proficient, I realized I needed a more capable tool. And that is a perfectly valid reason why a lot of people spend more money and upgrade to a better camera.

The problem, however, is that from the cheapest point and shoot to the most expensive professional camera out there, if you don't take control of the camera, you will get crappy food pictures in restaurants. Many people put the camera in fully automatic mode, point the camera at a plate of food, and think that is all that needs to be done. In a well-lit restaurant or outdoors in the sunlight, you might be right. The camera can reduce the shutter speed enough where even being handheld is possible without blurring. But in a moderate to dimly lit restaurant? Game over.

Today I met up with a friend at Hudson's Restaurant in Montrose for a beer and some much needed catching up on our respective lives. We went back and forth about what we had been up to and when we got into my recent food photography, I was explaining to her that I always shot in Manual exposure mode because it gave me full control over the resulting picture. Since I am a bit of a control freak, this style of shooting perfectly fit with the pictures I was taking. She didn't believe me when I told her that were I to set the camera to one of the automatic modes, that it would take a crappy picture.

"Fine," I said, "I'll prove it."

We had ordered an appetizer off of the menu to split. I mounted my $1600 camera (including lens) to my tabletop tripod, set the little dial to the "green square" (which is fully automatic on my Canon), and pressed the shutter button. The on-camera flash popped up, the picture was taken and here was the result:

Wait a minute, now ... what is that large gray area at the bottom of the plate? That would be the shadow where the light from the flash couldn't reach to illuminate it. The other problem you may notice is that the light falls off the further back it goes on the plate, so even without the large shadow in the front, the light level isn't even.

Okay, then, so flash is out. By switching the mode from Auto (green square) to Program AE (P), the camera would still pick out all of the settings without using the flash. This would be equivalent to what most people would pick on their cameras when shooting food in a restaurant. Surely it must be better, right? Let's see:

Ack!! What's with all of the gray? Last time I checked, most restaurants served food on whites plates, not gray ones. The problem here is that the light meter built into every single camera (which basically measures the reflected light off of the subject) are programmed to expect 18% reflected light. This number was determined many decades ago when an analysis of thousands of photographs revealed that, on average, 18% of the light striking the subjects reached the film in the camera. So, in the case of Program AE (P) mode, since most of the scene above is reflected white light, the camera toned down the light in order to meet the 18% value. If you've ever taken a picture of a snowy day and wondered why the snow appeared gray and not white, this is the reason.

Okay, enough horsing around. It's time for me (the photographer) to take charge of the camera. In order to set the correct color balance, I pulled out my handy "gray card":

This is literally a 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" cardboard card that I keep with me at all times in my bag that is 18% reflective on one side. Resting the card on my water glass, I used my camera's controls to set the white balance. White balance, for those who might not know, is also referred to as color temperature. If you've ever taken a picture of something white and it appeared a bit blue or yellow, this is due to the type of lighting illuminating your subject. In Hudson's today, the lights above the bar were incandescent bulbs, which tend to make white look yellow.

After obtaining a proper white balance, I switched my camera into Manual (M) mode, selected my settings and took this picture:

This was the picture as it came straight out of the camera. The only alteration I made to all of the pictures above was to correct for barrel distortion and resize them for this blog post. As you can see, when *I* selected the shutter speed and aperture, I managed to capture what I think is a much better exposed picture. Of course, my camera thought the image was too bright, but I simply ignored its suggestion and went with my own.

Once out of the camera and into my photo processing software, I barely tweaked a few color settings to make the image look its best:

I'd suggest you open the images up side by side. The differences are quite subtle. And then open up the first two images and compare the first two to these last two. Big difference, eh?

Okay, fine, so this was in a moderately dim restaurant. What about a real challenge ... say, a really dark outdoor patio around 9 pm where I couldn't even see my dining partner's facial features anymore? I'll take that challenge.

Last Friday I met my friend Elizabeth at Basi Italian Restaurant in Victorian Village located north of downtown Columbus, Ohio. We arrived around 7 pm and they sat us at a quaint little table for two on the patio, just outside of the bar. As we ate and chatted, the sun began to set and by 8:30 or so, the only light source was from the thin sparse strings of white Christmas lights adorning the bar. At that point, I took this picture of our table:

The light you see reflected off the table came from those Christmas light strands. When the dessert finally arrived, it was so dark that not only did auto-focus fail to work, but when manually focusing the lens, I had to use the light from my cellphone in order to properly do so. Once I got everything ready, I pushed the shutter button to take the picture and fifteen seconds later, I got this:

Now, granted, I did do some work on that photograph to optimize it. But it didn't take very long and I don't even think I could've gotten that picture had I set it to one of the automatic settings. By the way, just so there is no confusion, no flash was used to take that picture. And I don't lie, it really was that dark.

So what is the take away from all of this? If you want to take good pictures of food in not-so-great lighting conditions, you're going to have to take control of your camera and get out of the automatic exposure settings. You'll probably also need to get a tabletop tripod, too. Is my new rig a bit more conspicuous at restaurants? Absolutely. But I've discovered through a lot of trial and PLENTY of error, that there just isn't any other way to get consistently good pictures.

Kitchen Challenge: Insanely Good Cooked Cabbage

2011-09-03T21:15:00.000-04:00

One would assume that by looking at the breadth and longevity of work on this blog that I come from a background of family members who love to cook. One might also assume that I come from a long line of adventurous eaters, always looking to try a new ethnic cuisine and going way off the beaten path in order to track down the little mom and pop eateries that don't just put out a plate of food, but a plate of food with soul. You'd be wrong.

My grandmother came from an era of convenience foods, a time when food companies successfully convinced mothers that they would have more time to spend with their burgeoning families if they used processed products and as a result, be better mothers and wives. Sure, we've all used a can of this or a box of that in a pinch, but this brave new world became so entrenched and so easy that many of the food traditions got lost along the way. And what one generation realized was a culinary shortcut, the next didn't recognize as a shortcut at all. Such is my mother.

Even though I have loved cooking since a very young age, the wool was pulled over my eyes, too. Want to make Green Bean Casserole? Well, clearly you need a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup! To think any other way was simply inconceivable. My gastronomic epiphany came about when food companies were finally required by law to put not only nutritional and portion information on each product, but also list the ingredients in order from most to least. It has always baffled me when food companies try and separate themselves from the competition by announcing new products aimed at lower sugar, salt, or fat. Why not just change their current product line to make them healthier in the first place? But I digress.

My point (and yes, gentle reader, I do have one) is that I missed out on a lot of epicurean experiences because no one around me knew any better. One of those items was cabbage. Sure, we ate coleslaw during the summer and sauerkraut during the new year's festivities, but both were store bought and simply opened, possibly reheated, and plated. It wasn't until I started experiencing other ethnic cuisines during and after college that I realized I simply didn't know much about this cruciferous vegetable.

I had some basic knowledge of how to prepare green cabbage thanks to a Good Eats episode with Alton Brown, but other than that, it remained a mystery to me until one day when I had come over to cook dinner for my grandmother and found a head in her refrigerator after ransacking it for a side course for dinner. I've now made and tweaked this recipe enough times that I finally feel as if I can competently write about it. If all you can think of is the sulphuric scent that hangs in the air when cabbage is long-cooked, you'll be happy to know that this recipe has none of that foul stench.

Creamy Honey Mustard Cooked Cabbage

1 medium head green cabbage

2 medium (or 1 large) yellow or sweet onion

4 cloves garlic

1 box fresh chervil (you could also use tarragon)

Low-salt chicken stock/broth

Dijon mustard

Honey

"Lite" coconut milk

Rice wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Coconut milk might seem like a really odd item to add, but my grandmother is lactose intolerant. Substituting the thick, creamy coconut milk replaces the heavy cream I would have used AND has the benefit of lightening up the dish in terms of calories and fat. Use heavy cream if you'd like instead.

First, remove any dry or wilted outer leaves from the cabbage. Using a sharp knife, cut the cabbage into quarters, going through the core (the tough part at the end). Take each quarter and cut the tough core away from the leaves. Once you have cored all four, turn the quarter so that it sits longer from left to right. Using a sharp knife, thinly slice through all the cabbage leaf layers. As you finish each quarter, run the slivers through your fingers and into a waiting bowl. A medium cabbage will yield a LOT of slivers.

In a second bowl, cut off the root and non-root end of the onion and peel off the outer layer. Slice the onion in the middle from cut end to cut end. Lay the cut side down on the cutting board and use the knife to slice half-moons from one end of the onion to the other. Again, fan out the half-moons into a second bowl with your fingers. Repeat this for the rest of the onions.

In one small bowl, mince up four cloves of garlic. In a second small ball, take a small handful of fresh chervil and run the knife through it a couple of time to break it up. There is no need to pick the leaves from the stems as they are tender enough that it doesn't matter if some (or a lot for that matter) end up in the dish. Your initial mise en place is now done.

In a large high-sided saute pan (you could also use a stockpot or Dutch oven, too), add about two tablespoons of canola/grapeseed/vegetable oil and a tablespoon of butter. When the butter has melted and turned a brownish color (buerre noisette, anyone?), add the onions to the pot and stir to coat in the fat. Add a largish pinch of kosher salt and a couple grinds of fresh black pepper and begin to sweat the onions over medium low heat, until they soften up and turn translucent.

Add the garlic and stir until the garlic becomes fragrant, maybe 45 seconds. At this point, add about a cup of the chicken stock to the pan to deglaze it and get up all those wonderfully tasty brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Add in all of the cabbage and a small handful of the freshly chopped chervil. Using two spatulas or a pair of kitchen tongs, begin combining all of the ingredients carefully. Add another hit of salt and freshly cracked pepper, bring to a simmer, cover, and turn down the heat to low on the burner. At this point, it will simply take time to break down the tough cabbage. Probably about forty-five minutes to an hour. Fortunately, the only thing you have to do is every fifteen minutes or so, take off the lid, stir the contents, and return the cover.

When the cabbage is finally tender enough, you can simply re-season with salt and pepper to make sure it tastes good and serve as is, or take it a step further like I did tonight. At this point, I added two heaping spoonfuls of Dijon mustard, two spoonfuls of honey and half a can of coconut milk. I should address the coconut milk first before going any further in the recipe. When you buy coconut milk at the grocery store (and I got mine in the international aisle in Giant Eagle), likely it has sat a while. This is good because if you don't shake it up and carefully open the can, you will see one of two things: rich creamy coconut "cream" or thin, translucent coconut "water." Just like the days before milk homogenization, the contents will separate and the cream will float to the top. Using just the cream, add it to the pan, too. Also add about a tablespoon of rice wine vinegar.

The exact proportions of mustard, honey, and vinegar are a bit up to you. I was trying to go for a sweet and sour mustard taste. If you like it more sweet, use more honey. More tangy? Use more vinegar. You get the point. Stir this mixture into the cabbage and onions, re-season with salt and pepper if needed, and add another handful of chopped chervil. With fresh herbs, you want to cook with them in two stages, half at the beginning and half at the end. Now, with the lid removed, turn up the heat to medium and begin to reduce the sauce until it is a consistency that you like. Tonight, I decided to nestle quickly seared (but not fully cooked) pounded chicken breasts into the mustardy, creamy broth and braise for an additional five minutes while the sauce reduced around it.

When ready to serve, I plated up some of the Romano chive mashed potatoes I had also made to accompany the chicken and cabbage, placed a bed of the cabbage and onions on the plate, adorned it with one of the chicken breasts, and sauced the entire thing with a bit of the honey mustard cream. A gentle sprinkle of chervil over the top gave it some additional flavor and a colorful pop. Here was the finished dish:

I am usually harder on my own cooking than grandma is, but when she said how good this was, honestly, I had to agree with her. If you have lived with a fear of cooking cabbage or just needed something new to try, I'd suggest you give this recipe a go and discover a tasty treat that isn't particularly hard to make.

Blue Door: A Compendium of Visits

2011-08-28T15:20:00.001-04:00

When I heard that the local diner, Golden Goose Restaurant and Bakery, was closing down for several weeks for remodeling, I was a little surprised. When I finally came to understand that the remodel was due in no small part to head baker Michael Bruno and his wife taking over the entire operation of the establishment, both bakery and restaurant, then it became a little more understandable. For several weeks, Michael would send out updates via Facebook about the progress of the remodel. When it finally came time to open back up for business, he announced that in the Golden Goose's ashes would rise a new restaurant and bakery, Blue Door Bakery and Cafe.

While I have covered Golden Goose during numerous visits, I couldn't help but think that once Michael controlled the restaurant's kitchen, he could apply the same level of exacting thought that he put into his baked goods. This definitely had me excited. In order to help him out, he brought in Valerie Miller and Tim Carson to help him run the kitchen while he focused on breads and pastries and managing front of house activities with his wife.

I should say upfront that by now, Michael, his wife, and many of the front of house staff know me by sight, so doing any kind of anonymous review would be laughable at best. At the same time, I neither asked for nor expected any kind of special treatment. I paid for all of my own food during each visit and probably the only "special" treatment I received was a visit from Michael at the end of each meal to ask how my experience had been.

The first item to note is that the transition from Golden Goose to Blue Door is still a work in progress. While the main entrance to the restaurant has finally been painted blue, the sign out front still says Golden Goose. Don't let that fool you. The restaurant located at the corners of State Road and Broad Street in Cuyahoga Falls has definitely begun a metamorphosis. Stepping into the freshly painted door, you come across the remodeled reception area:

This was the new pastry case. While the old one wasn't objectionable, I definitely like the open feeling to the new one.

To the right of the pastry case is the counter area and the new shelving behind it to hold the freshly baked loaves of bread coming out of the kitchen:

On my initial visit (the day after they reopened), I was presented with an moderately redesigned menu:

There were definite holdouts from the Golden Goose's menu, but Blue Door's menu had been tweaked to really emphasize quality, organic, locally procured or produced items to really amp up the dining experience. While I can't really give many style points on the design of the menu, it definitely delivered on choices and descriptions.

Since my first visit was during lunch, I decided to start out my meal with a bowl of the Blue Door Tomato Soup:

Made with San Marzano tomatoes and homemade vegetable stock, what surprised me when it came out of the kitchen was that it was served cold. Gazpacho! While I didn't mind it being served as gazpacho, the menu didn't describe it that way, so be prepared for the temperature difference should you decide to order it, too. The flavor was everything that summer should be: slight sweetness and acidity from the tomatoes, ever-so-slight pungency from the garlic, and a bright, cool flavor that made this a refreshing soup.

While there was a lot from which to choose during my first stop, I decided on going with the Homemade Chicken Salad Sandwich and a Dressed Organic Greens Salad:

Served on Blue Door's homemade challah, this was a total knock-out. I have loved Michael's breads since I first discovered them, but using it in this way really highlighted the flavors and textures of this fantastic eggy bread. The chicken salad was moist without being overdressed and the organic field greens had been dressed in an extra virgin olive oil and 30-year-old balsamic vinegar emulsion. The greens had also smartly been seasoned with salt. I have to admit, I was very impressed with the positive changes coming out of the kitchen.

So much so that I returned two days later to have breakfast with fellow food blogger Cedric and his lovely wife. After being seated at a booth, I was surprised and delighted to see that the restaurant had started using a local purveyor for their coffee, Angel Falls Coffee Company. Here's a shot of my steaming cup of decaf:

To pair with my wonderfully bitter cup 'o Joe, I decided to indulge in a calorie-laden breakfast and ordered the daily special, Challah French Toast with Grilled Peaches, Thick-Cut Nueske Bacon, and Real Maple Syrup:

Holy. Crap.

To say that this was good would be a gross understatement. At one point I did a French Toast Battle between Golden Goose and another Cuyahoga Falls eatery, Chowder House Cafe. Golden Goose definitely lost points for serving maple-flavored syrup. This was no longer an issue. The bacon, hand-cut by the kitchen staff, was crispy, chewy, smoky, and salty: a perfect pairing with the sweet maple syrup. In fact, I think I paired the maple syrup more with the bacon than with the French Toast.

And how was that French Toast? The peaches added a wonderful textural and sweet compliment to the more savory battered and griddled challah. In addition to the standard vanilla flavor in the batter, Blue Door had finally upped the ante and started incorporating Vietnamese cinnamon, boosting the heady flavors even further up the scale. Were this my last breakfast, I could die a happy man.

My third visit was again for breakfast, this time with friend and fellow food blogger Tami. Both of us ended up succumbing to the Omelette du Jour, her the vegetarian, and I the porcine:

This was a chorizo, spinach, roasted red pepper and Havarti omelette with a potato croquette. I've had Michael's two inch high quiche in the past and one of the qualities I've always admired about it was how well-balanced the flavors behaved together. Sweet, sour, salty, crunchy, creamy. In much the same vein, this particular omelette also delivered. The eggs were light and tender and the filling just enhanced the experience. The potato croquette, an item which Cedric had gotten during my last visit, proved to be a deep-fried bit of love on a plate. Crunchy on the outside, it was tender and creamy on the inside. Honestly, I've never come across a restaurant that serves potato croquettes before, so I'm glad that Blue Door is not only serving one, but a decent version to boot.

Along with our omelettes, Tami and I each had the option for a "toast" side. Not only was Blue Door making their own breads and croissants, but they also were making homemade English Muffins! Now THAT is a rarity indeed. I knew what my side would be:

Served with an individual jar of strawberry jam, this was a carb lover's dream. For someone who grew up eating Thomas' English Muffins, this was what an English muffin should be. While you certainly won't go wrong ordering up a slice of some of their other toasted breads for breakfast, try the homemade English muffin when you go. I'm looking forward to another one with my next breakfast.

On my next visit for lunch, I decided to go with one of the daily lunch specials, the Cuban Sandwich with Dressed Organic Greens:

All of the typical Cuban sandwich ingredients were present: pulled pork, ham, swiss cheese, stone-ground mustard, and pickle. One of the problems I had with the sandwich was actually the bread. It wasn't that the bread was bad, but the toasted challah it was served on just didn't seem to match up with what my sense memory said it should. When Michael stopped out to check on me, I mentioned this to him and he admitted that it was definitely better with the homemade sourdough bread, but unfortunately they had run out. Fair enough. The dressed organic salad greens were tasty as always though.

During my last visit (which was a week ago), I had intended on going for a late breakfast and getting something light, like a bowl of the oatmeal. Of course, once I saw the daily specials board, I knew my plans were going to change:

Now is the time of year for great tomatoes. I'll happily forgo hard, grainy, not-even-close-to-ripe tomatoes the rest of the year so that I can indulge when they are in season. I mean, why even bother with them if they aren't at their peak?

So, my bowl of oatmeal morphed into a Heirloom Tomato Croissant with Fresh Mozzarella and Basil Chiffonade:

Realizing that this was more of a knife and fork "sandwich" than a handheld one, I cut off a piece with all four ingredients and took a bite. Waves of pleasure rolled over me as I savored each chew. The tomatoes were sweet, sour, salty, and tender. The mozzarella was creamy and rich. The toasted croissant was crisp and buttery. The basil added a bright herbaceous flavor that unified the entire sensation. This was incredible.

Here was a shot of the reverse side of the croissant:

If you are thinking to yourself, gentle reader, that the croissant pictured above looks incredibly flaky, well, you'd be absolutely right.

Along with my sandwich, I also received a Prosciutto and Cantaloupe Salad:

While pairing cantaloupe and prosciutto isn't anything groundbreaking, it's nice to be reminded now and again why they work so well together. The cantaloupe must be absolutely ripe in order for the sweetness to balance the saltiness from the prosciutto. In today's case, the pairing was perfectly executed.

I also wanted to mention the overall service I have received since the restaurant transitioned to its new name. Blue Door has been fairly busy every time I've gone (with the exception of the last visit), so if you are looking for a thirty minute lunch, I'd suggest trying it out when you have more time. Also, note that there have often been daily specials that also appear in a "regular" form on the printed menu. French Toast is a great example. The day that I ordered the French Toast with the grilled peaches, that was the daily special. There was also a regular French Toast already on the menu. Just make sure your server understands which one you actually want in order to avoid confusion.

These few minor quibbles aside, I think what Michael and his wife have done to transform the Golden Goose into the Blue Door is nothing short of remarkable. The food coming out of the kitchen is being held to the same standard that the breads and pastries have long achieved. The food is not inexpensive, but at roughly $10 for breakfast or lunch per person and for the quality you receive, I think it is a great value. If you've been hesitant to try out the restaurant or just haven't been back for a while, now is the time to take action.

And if you go on a day where they have the heirloom tomato croissant, get it. You won't be disappointed.

Filing My TPS Report at The Office Bistro

2011-08-04T06:00:00.013-04:00

I find it interesting that after writing on this blog for the last two and a half years (has it been that long already?), I am in the unique position now of being solicited by restaurant owners, chefs, or general managers who actually want me to come to their establishment and do a review. I have to laugh a little bit at this because had I ever thought this would have been even a remote possibility when I started doing restaurant reviews, I'm sure my ego would've swelled to fill the room. I don't know that I think of myself as famous in any way (I eat my pasta one forkful at a time after all), but acknowledging that I now seem to have a certain level of notoriety is an entertaining notion to me.

Several weeks ago, Steve Turner from The Office Bistro and Lounge (Facebook fan page here) contacted me via email and asked if I would review his restaurant. Located at 778 North Main Street in Akron, Ohio, I had driven by The Bistro hundreds, if not thousands, of times since I moved back to Akron in 2004. While the notion of stopping there for a meal had crossed my mind once or twice, I simply had not done it yet. I replied to Steve that I would be happy to review the restaurant, but I made it clear that I would come unannounced and it could be weeks or months before I did so. He joking replied that he would prefer to know exactly when I planned to arrive so he could send out a carefully selected and prepared (and paid for) meal. Having set his expectations, I waited several weeks before giving serious thought to stopping by.

This past Monday night, as I was leaving from work, I decided to stop in for dinner. Parking was available on Main Street as well as in a small lot behind the building. Here was a shot of the front of the restaurant:

There were several doors that appeared to be associated with The Office; only the one on the far right actually opened. As I entered from the street, I found myself in the lounge area. To get to the restaurant, I simply walked to the back of the lounge and waited at the entrance to the restaurant portion of the building (there was a sign asking customers to wait to be seated). Being a Monday night, I was surprised to find the restaurant pretty full, although this was tempered with the fact that the restaurant itself was fairly small to begin with. After being seated, my server left me with the menu to peruse:

As you can see from the pictures, the menu was fairly diverse, drawing from a number of influences, including Cajun/Creole, Italian, Greek, and American. While I pondered what to order, my server returned to tell me that the soups of the day were a hot curried carrot and a chilled cucumber avocado. Thinking that a cup of soup might just be a perfect way to start my meal, I went with a cup of the curried carrot:

One bite and I could tell that the soup had been finished with heavy cream because of the way it coated my tongue. The flavor of the soup was tasty, but the two predominant flavors, carrots and curry, were a bit muted. The only way I was sure that it actually was a carrot soup was the occasional piece of cooked carrot easily dissolved on my tongue and the unfortunate presence of rather tough, fibrous shards of carrot that remained after the soup was pureed:

Granted, some diners might not be annoyed with these fibrous bits, but to me it was the same sensation as getting a hair in you mouth, irritating and requiring immediate removal. I got about halfway through my soup before becoming annoyed enough at having to pick out the fibers from every spoonful.

A few minutes after giving up on my soup, my entree arrived, followed shortly after with a basket containing biscuits and a small ramekin of butter:

My server actually called these "rolls," but they were more biscuit-like. Actually, they were somewhere between a biscuit and a cake in terms of texture. The butter was nicely softened and spread easily and for the most part the biscuits were a bit unusual in that they were infused with a black pepper spiciness, but they also ran a touch to the dry side, too. It certainly wasn't a bad biscuit, just not a stellar one. I'm guessing fresh out of the oven, these would be pretty tasty.

For my entree, I decided to order the Seared Scallops in Sweet Tobasco Blanc with Mushroom, Asparagus, and Prosciutto Risotto:

As I was reading today's news on my smartphone, I saw my server approaching my table with something in her hand out of the corner of my eye. As I turned to look at her fully, I realized that she was leaving a trail of sauce drips in her wake. Even though she was only carrying one plate, it was tilted in such a way that the corner that was being gripped with her thumb was slightly lower than the rest of the plate and the sauce was making its journey to floor and table alike. While her thumb swimming in the sauce from my entree was my first concern, I quickly realized that it wouldn't be my only one.

Here was a close-up of the seared scallops, sauced with a sweet tobasco blanc:

While the menu didn't specifically say buerre blanc, by using the word blanc, I assumed that was what the sauce was supposed to be. And classically, buerre blanc is often served with seafood because the rich, buttery sauce plays well off the delicate flavor of the seafood. Done right, it is luxurious, sinful, and quite delicious. Consistency-wise, it should be thinner than a sauce hollandaise, but much thicker than say, a jus or pan drippings. Unfortunately, tonight's sauce was thin and watery and lacked substantial body. The scallops themselves were seasoned simply with salt and pepper and while cooked perfectly with a lovely translucent interior, the aggressive salting resulted in them losing their inherent sweetness.

Paired with the scallops was a mushroom, asparagus, and prosciutto risotto:

Had this been described as a cheesy rice casserole with mushroom, asparagus, and ham, this dish would have succeeded marvelously. As a risotto, however, this side dish fell into the Olive Garden interpretation of what a proper risotto should be. The rice traditionally used in risotto, the short-grained Arborio, releases starch as it is cooked and stirred, naturally thickening the dish. At the very end of the process and right before service, a small amount (key word: small) of cheese can be added to not only heighten the umami intensity of the dish, but a touch of creaminess as well. Too much cheese and you end up with a stiff mound of rice sitting on the plate, not a softly cascading and still slightly liquid pile of creamy rice ready to tantalize your palate.

That being said, the mushrooms and asparagus were cooked well and added a nice texture and flavor to the side dish, but I do take issue with the prosciutto. Based on how thickly cut the prosciutto was and its flavor and texture, it more closely resembled traditional American ham and not so much the Italian delicacy of prosciutto. While the astute among you might point out that both American ham and prosciutto are cured pork products, I will defend my position by saying that prosciutto is usually shaved impossibly thin and is marbled with lovely packets of sweet, white fat. As such, it has a very delicate taste to it. Tonight's prosciutto, along with its thicker cut than normal, was missing those blobs of cured fat. Like I said, as a cheesy rice casserole with mushrooms, asparagus, and ham, this would be a satisfying dish that lived up to its description on the menu. As an Italian risotto with mushrooms, asparagus, and prosciutto ... not so much.

I finished most of my entree and when my server checked in to see if I would like dessert, I politely declined and asked for the check. My meal tonight, while not a wallet-buster, was also no slouch at $26 including tax. The scallop and risotto entree itself was essentially $22. I realize that there are those who would complain that $22 is too much for something you could get at Red Lobster for $12, but I am the first one to acknowledge that good raw ingredients cost money and I'm willing to pay $22 when I know I can get better ingredients prepared correctly. While the scallops themselves were cooked perfectly, there were quite a few other execution problems with the dish that bothered me. Were I to select from the menu again, I probably wouldn't repeat this one. Other than the thumb in the sauce incident, service was quick and polite.

In the end, would I recommend The Office Bistro and Lounge based on this one visit? Yes, but barely. Nothing tasted bad to the point I would have sent it back to the kitchen to fix it, but there were some obvious execution errors in both the soup and the entree. And while The Office is not the most expensive menu in Akron, it is also by no means inexpensive either. That being said, there was a kernel of understanding in what flavors worked well together and that has me curious to return for another visit.

In the end, I'd be an idiot to not think that Mr. Turner would have preferred a glowing review of my experience at his restaurant. And all things being equal, I would have loved to give it to him. This is exactly the kind of establishment that I love to find and promote to hungry Akronites and Clevelanders looking for a tasty meal that would prefer avoiding national chains. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, it is what it is; those were the cards I was dealt. Now the question becomes, is publicity, even less than ideal publicity, better than none at all?

Kitchen Challenge: Gnocchi with Garlic, Bacon, and Kale

2011-07-31T18:30:00.000-04:00

Necessity is often the mother of invention. When I first moved back from Columbus to Akron in late 2004, I quickly discovered a lack of good gnocchi in local restaurants and supermarkets. Now, that's not to say it didn't exist, but I didn't have the connections or knowledge to successfully seek it out. Having gotten hooked on the gnocchi served at Monte Carlo Italian Restaurant in Columbus during my five year stay, I knew that I couldn't subsist on the heavy, dense, sit-at-the-bottom-of-my-stomach variety that were available in the area. Thus, I decided to teach myself how to make it from scratch.

Homemade pasta scares a LOT of people. And to be honest, I think I was fairly intimidated by it as well. I had seen it made many times on television, and in theory, it looked simple enough. Depending on the type of pasta one was making, the basics were flour, eggs, sometimes oil, sometime water, and salt. One day, fed up with what was available and craving good gnocchi, I searched around the Internet for several recipes. Over the years, I have honed in on a single recipe that has served me well.

Gnocchi, at its most basic, is an Italian potato-based pasta. It isn't like pierogi, which are a pasta-like dough dough filled with potatoes (much like ravioli). Rather, the potato is actually in the dough itself, no filling necessary. Good gnocchi are ethereally light, almost pillow like. Bad gnocchi ... well, I've already described those to you, so I won't belabor the point. I suppose somehow along the way I've learned to channel a little old Italian grandmother inside of me when I am rolling out the dough, cutting the individual gnocchi and rolling them off the back of a fork to create the ribbed texture.

The recipe for gnocchi is almost stupid simple. In fact, let's get that out of the way right now.

Potato Gnocchi
2 pounds Idaho potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed
2 cups of All-Purpose flour, plus additional for kneading
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste

You can really use any starchy potato for gnocchi, but I would avoid waxy potatoes, such as New or Fingerling, as they tend not to give you the creamy texture you are after. Also, I would stick with All-Purpose flour instead of stronger bread flour. You want the gnocchi to be ultra-tender and using bread flour could create a tougher pasta because of the higher protein content. For a single recipe, I generally don't measure the salt too closely, but if I were pressed to give a measurement, it would probably be a tablespoon of kosher (or coarse) salt. That may seem like a lot, but remember, you are making several pounds of pasta. To be fair, if I salt the dough, I tend not to salt the water in which I cook them.

The first step is to prepare the potatoes. For those really green in the kitchen, I will give a quick primer. First, peel the potatoes. Then cut the potatoes into thirds or quarters so that they cook more quickly. Just make sure to cut all of the potatoes into the same size pieces so that they cook evenly. Fill the pot with COLD water to cover the potatoes by at least an inch or two. Then place on stove and turn the burner on high until the water just starts to boil. Turn the stove down so that the potatoes cook in gently boiling water until a sharp knife easily goes in and comes out of the potato wedges. Drain the water in a colander, return the potatoes to the still hot pan and pull out your potato masher. Without adding anything additional (like milk and butter for regular mashed potatoes), mash away until they are smooth.

The great news is that you can do this step ahead of time (up to one day ahead). If you want to store them for later, place them in a container and place a piece of plastic wrap so that it touches the mashed potatoes before placing a lid on the container. This prevents the outer surface from drying out. Refrigerate until about thirty minutes before you need the potatoes. At that point, remove the container from the refrigerator and set it on the counter to take the chill off. Note that while you will start with two pounds of raw, unpeeled potatoes, after peeling, cooking, and mashing, you will end up with closer to a pound-and-a-half of finished potatoes.

To make the pasta, place the flour in a mound on your work surface. Using a fork, lightly scramble the egg in a small bowl. Using your finger, make a circular motion in the very center of the flour to create a well. Dump the egg into this well, along with the salt and the freshly ground pepper. Using the fork, slowly start to mix the flour from the edges of the well into the liquid egg, being careful not to break through the walls of the well. When enough flour gets mixed into the egg, it will thicken considerably and lose its "runniness." At this point, you can set the fork down and pick up the second most handy tool in the kitchen, the bench scraper. This tool is invaluable for making breads and pastas and at only a couple of dollars, is a multi-tasker that is an excellent investment.

The next step is to add the potatoes to the top of the flour/egg mound. I will tell you that at this point, you will be thinking to yourself, "What in the hell kind of a mess is this?" Trust me, it will all come together with a little love and time. Take the potato out of the container in chunks and run it through your fingers to break it up. If the mashed potatoes are freshly made (you did let them come down to room temperature, right?), you won't need to break them up. It will look like a LOT of potatoes compares to the amount of flour, but that is what makes the resulting gnocchi so tender.

Once the potatoes are on top of the flour, start using the bench scraper to lift and fold the mound onto itself over and over again, pressing down as you fold it over, compacting the dough. Every now and again, you can use the bench scraper to separate the dough from the work surface and simply rotate it or flip it over entirely. Continue doing this for a good five minutes or so, resisting the urge during this time to add more water or flour. The flour is being hydrated during this period and needs a few minutes of adjustment time before you can accurately tell how much adjustment it will need.

Once the dough is holding together (even if there are still visible areas of potato), switch to the best tool in the kitchen: your hands. Begin kneading the dough, using the bench scraper to separate the dough from the work surface as necessary. It is at this stage of the process that you will need to make the judgement call of adding either more flour or a little bit of water. The finished dough should be tacky, but not sticky. In the end, from start to end, it probably takes about ten minutes to make the pasta dough.

Once the dough looks and feels right, you will need to give it time for the gluten that has been activated in the flour to rest and relax. If you are going to roll out the gnocchi right away, mound the dough into a round and cover it with a damp towel or a piece of plastic and let it sit for at least twenty minutes. You could also put the dough into a covered container and refrigerate it overnight. Just make sure that if you refrigerate it, take it out about thirty minutes before you want to roll it to take the chill off the dough.

So, gentle reader, now we've made the dough. Let's take it one step further and make gnocchi.

Using your bench scraper, cut off a hunk of the dough, maybe about 1/2-3/4" thick. Have bench flour available for your work surface in case the dough is still a little sticky, but remember, the less flour used, the more tender the pasta will be, so it's always a balancing act. With the hunk of dough, use your fingertips to roll the dough into a long snake. The length of the snake will depend on how big your hunk of dough started at, but you generally want the cylinder (the snake) to be a thicker than a Tootsie Roll.

With your snake rolled out, use a small knife or the bench scraper (man that thing's gettin' a lot of use, no?) to begin moving from one end to the other cutting out the individual gnocchi, maybe 1/2-3/4" wide. You generally want the width to be less than the width of a fork. Once you've cut the entire snake, the final step is to give each pasta piece their characteristic ridges. Using the backside of a fork, take a single gnocchi and using the thumb of your non-fork-wielding hand, press and roll the dough against the fork. Do this for every dough piece that you cut.

Place the finished gnocchi on a parchment-lined 1/2 sheet pan (or cookie tray), making sure that the gnocchi don't touch each other. Now, simply cut another hunk of pasta dough from the mound and repeat the process until you've run out of dough. Typically, one batch of gnocchi dough will fill about 1 1/2 sheet pans (of the 1/2 sheet variety). If you are going to use the finished gnocchi immediately, now would be a good time to put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Your other option is to freeze the gnocchi on the sheet pan. Once they are rock hard, scrape the gnocchi off the parchment and put them into a freezer bag. They'll keep in the freezer for quite some time, although they've never been in my freezer for more than a month.

Once the water has come to a boil, if you salted the dough, do not salt the water, too. If you didn't salt the dough, add a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt (or half as much table salt). Working quickly, add about half of the gnocchi to the pot of water and stir gently to make sure they aren't sticking to the bottom or each other. If you have previously frozen the gnocchi, add them straight from the freezer; do not defrost first. When the gnocchi start floating to the top of the pot, you know they are very close to being done. Fresh gnocchi will take just a few minutes to float and add another minute or two if you are boiling them from frozen.

One note about boiling the pasta. While it's okay to bring the water to a hard boil before adding the pasta, once the pasta is added and comes back to the boil, adjust the heat level so that it cooks the gnocchi on a gentle boil. Continued hard boiling of the pasta can cause it to break up. Also, make sure to gently stir the gnocchi while they are cooking.

Once the gnocchi is cooked, use a slotted spoon or a strainer to remove them from the boiling water. Depending on how you will be serving them, you can add them straight to a pan of sauce or you can place them into a bowl with just a touch (and I do mean just a touch) of oil to coat them so that they won't stick together. If you have additional gnocchi to cook, continue to do so in batches until they are all finished.

While I love gnocchi that have been finished in a bit of brown butter and sage, you could also do a simple tomato sauce, a spicier puttanesca sauce, or do what I did today at the market demonstration today, and finish the gnocchi in a saute pan with some freshly chopped garlic, pre-rendered bacon, and a tender green of some kind, like spinach, Swiss chard, or kale.

To a heated saute pan, add a bit of oil (I use grapeseed oil, but you could also use a neutral oil like Canola or light olive) and, if you remembered to keep it while cooking the bacon, some of the rendered bacon fat. When the oil is hot, add about a tablespoon of chopped garlic and cook for a minute or so until you smell the garlic and it gets just a hint of color to it. Add your gnocchi to the saute pan and stir (or flip the contents if you know how) to coat the gnocchi in the garlic and oil. In addition to adding flavor to the gnocchi, sauteeing it for a few minutes allows you to add some crispy outer texture to it as well.

If you prefer a little bit of spice to your dish, add just a smidgeon of crushed red pepper to the pan. Not so much that it makes the dish spicy, but just enough so that it gives character to the finished dish. Next, add some of the crumbled bacon. Stir/toss to combine. Finally, add a large handful of fresh greens, and about 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water to the pan. Quickly cover the pan with the lid and allow the greens to steam for about forty-five seconds. Remove the lid and toss the pasta one final time before tasting it to make sure it has enough salt and pepper. Adjust accordingly.

To serve, either plate on a family-style platter or in individual servings in a bowl. Sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese on top and serve. This recipe would probably make 8-10 servings as an appetizer, or 4-5 servings as the pasta course.

While I will be the first to admit that making homemade gnocchi can be a time-consuming task, because you can break it down into bite-sized pieces (please pardon the expression), you can make it when you have time and freeze it and when you are ready to serve it for dinner, you need to do no more work than walk to your freezer and retrieve it. At the Howe Meadow Farmers Market where I made this exact dish yesterday for market goers, I made two batches of dough (though to be fair, I made the mashed potatoes the night before) and cooked it in three batches for tasters in roughly two hours. That included mixing the dough, rolling it, cutting it, cooking it and serving it.

And, in one of the best compliments I received all day during my demo, when I told a woman who had approached my tent what I was making, she looked apprehensive and said that while she has tried gnocchi many times, none had ever come close to her Italian Nonna. She watched as I finished the boiled gnocchi in the saute pan and spooned a portion into the small paper cup that the market had provided for me. I handed it to her and watched her expression as she tasted one and then a second of the small hot potato dumplings.

"In all the years I've been eating gnocchi, none has ever lived up to my Nonna's until now. Yours is as good as hers."

High praise, indeed! I hope you give this recipe a try for yourself. Once you learn the basics, it is quite easy to do and the results are really worth it. Even cooked from frozen, this gnocchi blows away anything you could purchase in a local supermarket.

Opening Day At The Rail

2011-07-21T06:00:00.011-04:00

I first heard that Mike Mariola, owner of two highly praised restaurants in Wooster, Ohio, was thinking of opening a burger bar in the Fairlawn area all the way back in August/September of last year when I had the opportunity to review his flagship restaurant, South Market Bistro. At the time, he had left the bistro in the more-or-less capable hands of Chef Eric running the back of the house with wife Liz ran the front while he proceeded to open up and run The City Square Steakhouse across the street.

Noting that Mr. Mariola was absent at South Market Bistro that evening, I figured he must have been working across the street at the sister restaurant. My server surmised that he was more than likely out on the prowl looking for real estate for his new burger joint to join the burgeoning gourmet burger scene that has taken hold of Americans over the last several years. Putting himself in direct competition with other similar restauranteurs such as Michael Symon with his B Spot franchises and Sean Monday with his Hudson Flip Side restaurant, this new venture was sure to draw comparisons to more established eateries.

I learned that The Rail was opening for lunch yesterday and decided to give them an inaugural visit to see how high the bar had been set. The Rail was located at Summit Mall, nestled in between First Watch and PF Chang's with an entrance facing outward into the parking lot. For those with GPS requirements, the actual address was 3265 West Market Street, Akron, OH 44333 and they can be reached at 330-864-7245. While Facebook and Twitter accounts are no doubt in the works, the only Internet presence they have at the moment is their website.

After parking my car in the vast mall parking lot, I approached the front of the restaurant:

While seating was available outside, not-so-oddly since it was a hot day, no one partook of it. Here was a closer shot of the outdoor sign:

Once inside, I was pleasantly surprised to see that while the place was fairly busy on opening day, it was by no means packed. Visual comparisons to Flip Side and B Spot began immediately and while the three restaurants were not exact analogues of one another, they were eerily similar with their concrete flooring, rather Spartan wooden tables, and interesting hanging light fixtures. The Rail differentiated itself by providing a long communal table, which while empty when I arrived, had a fair share of guests sitting at it when I got up to leave.

Hanging on a wall across from the communal table were two chalkboard signs:

As with other high-end burger joints, The Rail goes out of its way to make sure you understand that the beef is local and from Ohio. In fact, to reinforce the Ohio concept, one look at the menu was all that was required:

To be honest, I had thoroughly studied the menu online before ever setting foot inside the door and I pretty much knew what I was going to order. Sadly, when I looked at the "Floats" section on the physical menu, the Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout Ice Cream Float had been replaced by a Guinness Ice Cream Float. However, as a lover of Guinness, I was willing to make the substitution. Unfortunately, I learned that the tap system was only partly in place and even more unfortunately, neither Guinness nor Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout would be available. More than pumped that I could potentially get Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout on draught sooner rather than later, I acquiesced and decided to wait until my next visit to procure this heavenly sounding concoction.

I went ahead and ordered my burger and side and within just a few short minutes, David Drumm, General Manager of The Rail hand delivered my lunch to the table:

This was the 7th Heaven burger and a side of their homemade onion rings. When David asked if I needed anything else, I asked for a steak knife so that I could cleanly bisect the burger. He looked at me with a stunned look and replied, "You know, you would think that running a steakhouse would have given us the forethought to purchase steak knives. I'm sorry, we don't have any." Not a deal breaker, mind you, and I certainly used my regular butter knife to satisfactory effect, but as you will see in a photograph or two, a steak knife would have been perfect.

First, let's talk about the 7th Heaven burger:

The well-seasoned burger patty had been joined by several strips of Nueske bacon, truffled butter, and red onion jam. The burger was perched upon a bun that had been nicely toasted and assembled with a cellophane tipped toothpick to hold it all together. After removing the toothpick, I cut the burger in half.

Here was a shot of my bisected burger, cooked to the perfect medium rare for which I asked:

The first thing I noticed when Mr. Drumm set the burger down in front of me was the heady aroma from the black truffle. The second thing I noticed was that there was a lot of black speckled butter in the paper-lined basket. It seemed that the truffle butter had more of less completely melted. I raised the first half to my mouth and took a bite. It was juicy, it was seasoned nicely, and the crisp, thicker cut bacon added some nice textural contrast to the softness of the bun and the meat. The red onion jam definitely added some sweetness, but what I really needed was a bit of acid. Between the truffle butter, the fattiness of the burger and the bacon, something pickled needed to be on that burger to help balance it out. Don't get me wrong, it was good. Some might have even thought it was great. But it wasn't magical.

My largest gripe with the burger, and it's a complaint that I've also levied against B Spot and Flip Side, was that the bottom part of the bun, the heel, was completely sogged out from all of the juice of both the meat and the truffle butter. This made the burger quite difficult to eat without essentially wearing the juice on my fingers, hands, and down my wrists. [Ed. note: To be fair to B Spot, they did fix this issue, which I wrote about in later reviews.]

I next turned my attention to the onion rings:

Before ordering these, I had asked my waitress what kind of fat was used in the deep fryer. After checking with the kitchen, she returned to inform me that the chef, Gary McNeely, had told her it was a non-hydrogenated vegetable oil. As she looked fairly green, I didn't want to push her into information overload, so I let it go at that. So, while it certainly wasn't vegetable shortening, it also wasn't something more luxurious, like duck fat or tallow either.

As I bit into my first onion ring (always unsauced for the first one or two), I was rewarded with an onion that was thick enough to have some texture, but not too thick that it was crunchy or had a raw taste. The coating on the outside of the ring was a combination of crispy at first and then just ever-so-slightly moist on the inside. The salt level was fairly good, but could've tolerated just a touch more. The problem with these rings was when I took a bite, the onion on the inside completely detached from the coating and pulled right out. As you can imagine, with rings this size, having a long, hot onion strand hanging out of your mouth was neither pleasant feeling nor pleasant looking.

About two-thirds of the way through my meal, David Drumm again stopped by my table, this time to garner feedback. I still had not identified who I was or why I was there, but David took my feedback with great professionalism and he honestly made me feel as if what I had to say counted. He admitted that he was an aficionado of onion rings, too, and he wasn't 100% happy with them either. As for the sogged out bun, he mentioned that they toast the buns and only put the burger onto the bun at the very last second before sending it out from the kitchen, but clearly some further tweaking will be required to address this issue.

With tip and tax, my lunch today came to around $20, but then again, I ordered the most expensive burger off of the menu at $11.75. Your basic burger starts at just over $5, so you could certainly get away with a check closer to $10 if you selected more inexpensive items off the menu. While The Rail's 7th Heaven burger didn't quite satisfy that carnivorous burger lust that a Red Hot from B Spot seems to do, I do think it was a tasty burger. With a few tweaks, I think they could potentially have a real winner. As for the onion rings, again, they are pretty darn close, but don't quite live up to the gloriousness of either B Spot or of all places, Twig's Diner in Barberton, Ohio.

All said and done, I do recommend that you check them out. Opening days can be a tricky affair for any restaurant and after a month of playing around with the menu to hone the concept, I feel they might just achieve the burger glory for which they are clearly striving. Since they are VERY close to where I currently work, you can expect a follow-up review in the following months to see if things have improved. I certainly hope they do.

"Where's Waldo?" And Other News

2011-07-15T10:45:00.000-04:00

So, gentle reader, you've probably been wondering where I've been for the last couple of weeks. While I could sit here and hatch some sinister plot about being abducted by aliens, the truth of the matter is far more pedestrian than the fiction. For a long time, I have been able to maintain a queue of finished reviews that were ready for publication at a moment's notice. Thus, if life sent me a whole lot of lemons to process all at once, I could tap this eternal well of ready-to-go prose. Unfortunately, that well ran dry roughly around the end of May.

Simply put, it's been a perfect storm of me splitting my time between work, doing both food and non-food photography (did you know that I created a Flickr account to post my photographs?), and honestly, being outside enjoying the warm (and sometimes too warm) weather with friends and family. It isn't that I've stopped going out to eat, it's just that by the end of the day, I am just too mentally exhausted to write about it. Suffice it to say, however, this is only a temporary condition and there are some exciting things on the horizon in terms of restaurant reviews, farmers market demonstrations, and upcoming charity events.

Speaking of which, I would also like to draw your attention to three upcoming events that you might find of interest.

The first event is the annual Taste of Akron and Arts Expo on Thursday, July 21st from 6 pm until 10 pm at Hardesty Park on West Market Street. I wrote about my adventures there last year and am looking forward to returning once again to sample foods from more than twenty-five different Akron caterers and restaurants. Admission is free and tickets can be purchased with cash or credit card for $2 each outside of the tent. Each vendor will be "selling" their food for one, two, or three tickets ($2, $4, or $6 respectively). While free parking is available in the park, I've always had much better success parking on one of the many side streets within easy walking distance. As in years past, West Point Market will be hosting their annual Finest Cut Steak Cook-Off, in which eight finalists will compete live.

The second event is a special charity dinner for Autism Speaks on Monday, July 25th at 7 pm. This "Fork to Fork" dinner is being hosted by the Covered Bridge Garden farm in Jefferson, OH with food provided by the extremely talented Brian Doyle of SOW Food Catering. Brian will be creating a five course wine-paired dinner from produce both grown on the farm as well as other local vendors. A tour of the farm and dinner with a view of the fields where their dinner was grown will all be part of the experience. Seating for this first of hopefully many events will be limited to only twenty guests and tickets are $95 per person. To get more information or to purchase tickets, call 440-862-1682.

The third and final event I wanted to mention today is a charity event being hosted by the Dinner In The Dark crew on Saturday, August 27th at 6:30 pm at the Culinary Vegetable Institute in Milan, OH. CVI will serve both as the host and its charitable off-shoot, Veggie U, an organization dedicated to educating children about farm-grown vegetables, will be the charity to which funds are donated. I haven't written about the last couple of DITD dinners I attended (and in fact, sadly had to miss the most recent one due to illness), but I am looking forward to an evening of fantastic food prepared by a legion of Cleveland's most accomplished chefs. For those not familiar with the concept, the "dark" in their title refers to the fact that the chefs as well as the menu is completely unknown until the moment it is served. Past events have been a smashing success and I suspect that tickets to this event will sell out quickly. Tickets, purchased through the organization's EventBrite site, are $81.57 and include both tax and gratuity.

While you may not be able to attend all three wonderful events, hopefully you will be able to schedule at least one onto your calendar.

As for my lazy behind, regular blog posting should resume soon, although I may not be able to return to the three (or more) posts per week of blogging past. I hope you've had a great summer so far and I wish you all the best in finding great events, lots of locally grown, tasty seasonal fruits and vegetables, and most importantly, fun in the sun!

How To Remove Yourself From A Mailing List

2011-06-27T06:00:00.005-04:00

When writing something as public as a blog, you hope that your work will be easily found by others looking for the kinds of topics on which you write. For the most part, with time, this works well. Unfortunately, the downside of being "out there" is that sometimes you get mindlessly added to email groups to which you really don't belong. Several months ago, I started receiving email announcements from a public relations firm called JS Public Relations. Every now and again, I'd get an email telling me about their latest promotion or the hot new item that apparently I was supposed to "sell" to my readers. I was even addressed by the title of "editor," which technically I suppose is true, but gives me far more credibility than I deserve.

For the most part when I received these messages, I chuckled and simply deleted them. On Friday, however, I received an announcement that was so ludicrous that I knew it was time to break the silence. What follows is the correspondence between myself and JS Public Relations:

Initial Email:

June 24, 2011

Dear Editor:

New for this season, and perfectly timed for summer and fall cooking, entertaining and gifting is Rachael Ray's iconic Garbage Bowl in speckled Green, Orange, Red, Purple and Blue.*

Rachael is steadfast in her belief that cooking should be fun and easy. One of her best-known tips is to place a "garbage bowl" by your cutting board for handy and time saving disposal of vegetable peels and food scraps that accumulate during food prep.

Rachael's new Garbage Bowl has myriad advantages over other kitchen bowls for collecting food scraps. Constructed of durable yet lightweight melamine, the generously sized, 3-quart capacity Garbage Bowl is never too heavy to lift, and can be easily cleaned by hand or in the dishwasher. The retro speckled design hides unsightly peels and other scraps - always nice when guests are gathering in the kitchen - and a rubberized base keeps it from skidding off counters or tables. In the event the Garbage Bowl drops to the floor, it won't break.

Also, for cooks who are growing vegetables and composting this summer, the Garbage Bowl provides an aesthetically pleasing way to carry food scraps from the kitchen to the garden.

Available now at retail nationwide and at www.potsandpans.com, the new Rachael Ray Garbage Bowl is priced at $19.99 suggested retail. (*The Blue version will be arriving soon.)

Photos can be accessed at www.meyer.com, US Site, Press Desk. ID: press, Password: images, folder: Rachael Ray. Please contact us to request product sample for review or photography, and for assistance with any questions.

Best regards,

Julia Stambules
Principal
JS Public Relations

Keith Sivera
Account Executive
JS Public Relations

My Response:

Okay ...

I've been getting these annoying announcements from you for a while, but this one really does take the cake.

You honestly expect me to try and "sell" this?

It's a f------ bowl. Get real.

Interestingly, I got a response:

Thomas,

We’re removing your name from my mailing list. Sorry for the annoyance.

Julia

-----------------

In case you were wondering, I didn't censor the word "f------" in my email response. And it felt awfully good not to.

Kitchen Challenge: Hard-Boiled Eggs, Part IV and Conclusion

2011-06-24T10:30:00.000-04:00

Here we are, gentle reader: the fourth and final week of the Grand Egg Experiment!

Over the past three weeks, we have walked the path together on the journey to hard-boiled egg enlightenment. So far, I've discovered that the method of making hard-boiled eggs that I've been using for the last two decades can definitely be improved upon. With the conclusion of this fourth week of testing, not only will I be able to draw conclusions about the three experimental methods I've selected, but I will also be able to look at the results over time, thus adding a fourth dimension to the experiment. If you remember from the original post, I was led to believe that older eggs made easier-to-peel eggs once they were hard-boiled. We'll finally get to put that premise to rest.

Two interesting items I've picked up on over the last four weeks are this: the shells feel more fragile, the older the egg, and the airspace at the wider end of the egg gets larger, the older the egg. Now, you may very well already know this, but for the sake of creating pleasant looking eggs for dishes such as Deviled Eggs, it's good to keep this in mind if you're looking for the perfectly shaped hard-boiled egg, too. Hopefully, as a result of my experiment, you'll be able to get perfectly peel-able and visually perfect eggs, no matter how old they are.

Without further ado, here are the results of week number four:

Control Group

6 cups of cold tap water
Time to come to boil: 11 minutes, 58 seconds
Time boiling: 1 min
Time sitting off heat: 11 minutes
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes

Control group ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 8
* Outer appearance: 8
* Texture: 10
* Taste: 10

Two of the eggs peeled like a complete dream, but the third one, which also brought down the appearance score, was a touch difficult, but not nearly as difficult as any of the other week's control groups. I should also mention that one of today's control group eggs actually cracked during the boiling process. While the gentle boil for one minute did nothing to make it any worse, this is significant to note since the eggshells over the four week test period have seemed to get thinner over time. This might pricking the end of the egg (no matter which method you use) make sense as it would relieve the air pressure and not cause the egg's shell to crack further.

Commercial Egg Cooker

Time in the egg cooker: ~17 minutes
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes
Water adjustment: - 1/2 tablespoon

Commercial Egg Cooker ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 10
* Outer appearance: 10
* Texture: 9
* Taste: 10

What can I say about the peeling and appearance of the Cuisinart Egg Cooker? It has been nearly flawless over the past four weeks. As impressive as that it, it isn't surprising. Cuisinart is a pretty solid brand and I would hope they wouldn't put out a uni-tasker device without it doing its one job nearly perfectly. The only two downsides I see to the egg cooker are the fact that you can only do seven eggs at once and I can get a slightly more tender egg when I do them using one of the other methods (in fact, ALL of the other methods) that I've been trying these past four weeks. That being said, the "set it and forget it" mentality certainly makes this device hugely desirable in many peoples' eyes.

Baking Soda In The Water

6 cups of cold tap water
1 teaspoon Arm & Hammer baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
Time to come to boil: 11 minutes, 35 seconds
Time boiling: 1 min
Time sitting off heat: 11 minutes
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes

Baking Soda In The Water group ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 9
* Outer appearance: 9
* Texture: 10
* Taste: 10

The baking soda eggs this week were just shy of being a perfect peel and a perfect appearance. Overall, this method has done quite well, but other than the first week, has never achieved a consistently perfect score. That being said, the technique of adding a level teaspoon of baking soda to six cups of cold water drastically improves (at least when the eggs are fresher) the likelihood of easy-to-peel and easy-on-the-eyes hard-boiled eggs.

Salt In The Water and Egg Pricked

6 cups of cold tap water
2 tablespoons kosher salt (sodium chloride)
Time to come to boil: 11 minutes, 40 seconds
Time boiling: 1 min
Time sitting off heat: 11 minutes
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes

Salt In The Water and Egg Pricked group ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 10
* Outer appearance: 10
* Texture: 10
* Taste: 10

Interestingly, the "Salt & Prick" method has proven to be easy to peel from the beginning and nothing has changed this week. For the past three weeks, it has also yielded perfect-appearance eggs as well. This week, while I did give the appearance a 10, there was a notable blemish on one of the eggs; however, after checking the egg shell for signs of cooked egg white and discovering none, I determined that the blemish was caused by the age of the egg, rather than the white being peeled away with the egg shell. While I expected the air gap at the larger end of the egg to grow over time, I hadn't expected other areas of the egg to also show this feature.

So what is the great conclusion to all of this? If you want consistent results without having to worry about how they are cooked or for how long, go out and buy yourself a Cuisinart Egg Cooker. While you may have to tweak the amount of distilled water you add in order to get perfectly peel-able and delectable eggs, in the end, it does take all the guesswork out of the equation. If you don't want to waste $30 and wish to get great results out of the pan you already own, might I suggest the "salt & prick" method? I consulted with my friend and high school science teacher, Amy Waldfogle, who suggested this technique. Upon asking her why this method would work so well, she responded:

"what the salt does is it makes the water you're boiling in hypertonic to the solution in the eggs, which causes some of the water inside the egg membrane to leave - that shrinks the egg a little bit, separating it from the inside of the shell ... same thing that happens when the egg is older - it dehydrates a little"

and

"the inner shell membrane is 'selectively permeable' - that means some things (small molecules, things that are neutral) can pass through but others (big things, things with charges) can't. Salt (sodium chloride) and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) are ionic compounds that dissociate when they dissolve in water - that means they become a bunch of ions floating around - they won't pass through the membrane"

and as a result

"water will move out of the egg into the pot because the natural order of things (entropy) favors equilibrium - everything having the same concentration - so since water is the only thing involved that can travel across the membrane, the egg will dehydrate"

So why prick the egg, too? In addition to allowing the air pressure to equalize inside and outside the egg (which prevents the egg from cracking during cooking), this also allows water to move into the egg during the cooking process and further separate the membrane from the shell. It's the same reason that the egg cooker (via steam) works so well, if slightly less effective.

So, there you have it. If you don't want to go out and buy yourself a dedicated egg cooker, simply prick the larger end of your eggs and add two tablespoons of kosher salt for every six cups of water in your pot. Interestingly, since the membrane in the egg only allows water to move back and forth, the salt in the water does not make the eggs salty, like it would with cooking pasta. Thus, if concerns about sodium intake are an issue, you can put those aside. In terms of the age of the eggs and how that affected the peeling results, generally, as the got older, they did become easier to peel (the control group at least). The second week was definitely a real pain to peel, and based on the original dozen that gave me such a hard time, I don't think that age is a definite indicator of success.

I hope this experiment has been as fun for you as it has been for me. Here's to many successful, easy-to-peel hard-boiled eggs!

Kitchen Challenge: Hard-Boiled Eggs, Part III

2011-06-17T06:00:00.008-04:00

Welcome back to the third week of the grand hard-boiled egg experiment! In the previous two installments, I endeavored to test three experimental egg cooking methods that would yield easily peel-able and beautifully presentable hard-boiled eggs. My control eggs, also known as the way I've been doing it for decades, consists of placing the cold eggs into the pan, filling it with cold water so that it covers the eggs by about an inch or so, bringing them to a boil, boiling them for one minute, then moving the pan to a cool burner and placing the lid on for eleven minutes.

While none of these methods have changed since the last two posts, I was hoping that by this third installment, the control group would be easier to peel because of the age of the eggs (yet another theory I am testing). The theory is that as the eggs get older, the membrane between the shell and the albumen begins to break down. With this breaking down of the membrane, the resulting hard-boiled egg should be easier to peel. How did this week's eggs fare? Let's find out!

As always, we start with the control group:

Control Group

6 cups of cold tap water
Time to come to boil: 11 minutes, 55 seconds
Time boiling: 1 min
Time sitting off heat: 11 minutes
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes

Control group ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 6
* Outer appearance: 6
* Texture: 10
* Taste: 10

As an entire group, this week's control was easier to peel, two of them still gave me considerable trouble while the third was a total breeze (easily a 10 on its own). Two of the eggs were potmarked with missing albumen, but the third was perfect. While this was an improvement over last week's control eggs, they still didn't beat the first week's numbers.

Commercial Egg Cooker

Time in the egg cooker: ~16 minutes, 30 seconds
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes
Water adjustment: - 1/2 tablespoon

Commercial Egg Cooker ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 10
* Outer appearance: 10
* Texture: 9
* Taste: 10

As it has consistently done so far, the Egg Cooker from Cuisinart has produced easily peel-able eggs with a flawless appearance. Clearly this is emerging as the front-runner for those wishing no-fuss peeling and visually perfect eggs. As for the second 9 in a row for texture, the egg is just about perfect, but not quite as ultra-tender as when I cook it using a non-automatic method. We're talking shades of gray here. For most people, it would rate a 10.

Baking Soda In The Water

6 cups of cold tap water
1 teaspoon Arm & Hammer baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
Time to come to boil: 11 minutes, 45 seconds
Time boiling: 1 min
Time sitting off heat: 11 minutes
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes

Baking Soda In The Water group ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 9
* Outer appearance: 9
* Texture: 10
* Taste: 10

The trick to getting these eggs to peel easily was to get underneath the membrane. Then, the shell separated easily from the albumen. This time around, there were just a few very minor blemishes. Almost a 10, but not quite.

Salt In The Water and Egg Pricked

6 cups of cold tap water
2 tablespoons kosher salt (sodium chloride)
Time to come to boil: 11 minutes, 50 seconds
Time boiling: 1 min
Time sitting off heat: 11 minutes
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes

Salt In The Water and Egg Pricked group ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 10
* Outer appearance: 10
* Texture: 10
* Taste: 10

Once again for a second week in a row, the "salt and prick" method comes out with perfectly peel-able and presentable eggs.

The astute among you will notice that the time it took to bring the water to boil (as well as the time it took the egg cooker to complete its cooking cycle) was noticeably less than in previous weeks. While it is certainly possible that the humidity levels and atmospheric pressure changed in my apartment, the more likely culprit is that I bought a room fan to help circulate the air and was able to raise the ambient temperature of my living space by several degrees. I will make sure not to change the thermostat before next week's final installment and see if the "bring-to-boil" times match this week's results.

In terms of overall peeling and presentation ratings, the Cuisinart Egg Cooker continues to excel at its uni-tasker ability. That being said, the "salt and prick" method has now scored a second week of dual 10's and is quickly becoming the favorite non-uni-tasker method for getting consistent easily peeled and flawless hard-boiled eggs. After this week's installment, I could begin to make some generalizations, but I will wait until the final post, next Friday, to enter the results of the final installment of this grand "eggsperiment" and look to draw some conclusions. Until then, happy egg peeling!

What Makes Eddie's Famous Cheesesteaks Famous?

2011-06-15T21:30:00.006-04:00

It's rare that I visit a restaurant on opening day. It's even rarer that you read about it later that same day.

From the moment it was announced in the weekly food section of the Akron Beacon Journal about a month ago, something about Eddie's Famous Cheesesteaks has simply grabbed hold of my attention and refused to let it go. Was this a national chain? It kind of felt like it but initial research indicated otherwise. The Facebook page for the restaurant was filled with endless mono-thematic rants of, "Cheesesteaks, baby!" and a gratuitous over-use of the exclamation point. To top it off, even though the original ABJ article written by Lisa Abraham stated that the restaurant was supposed to open on May 24th, in actuality, because of delays in getting various permits and certifications, it didn't open until today, Wednesday, June 15th at noon. And I only discovered that since I periodically checked the Facebook page for updates.

Eddie's Famous Cheesesteaks was located at 1375 North Portage Path, Akron, OH 44313 and can be reached at 330-864-8500 (this was a different number than was listed on their Facebook fan page). There was ample parking around the small group of businesses clustered together. Here was a shot of the front entrance to Eddie's:

What you don't really see to the left of the above shot was the painter's scaffolding that was still up. If it wasn't for the balloons with the "Welcome!" message on them, I might have thought they still weren't open. Once inside, I was surprised to discover that I was the first actual paying customer (not of the day, mind you, but like, ever) and I was warmly greeted by about six people. While service today felt a little "rough," since this was their opening day, I didn't take any service blips into account (employees were still learning the cash register, soda fountain, etc.). Those things should gradually ameliorate themselves over the next couple of weeks.

While there were wall menus hanging above the service line, I wasn't able to get a picture of them with my rather conspicuous camera, so I resorted to grabbing one of the printed menus at the cash register and photographing it at my table instead:

I liked the composition of the menu. It felt focused and yet had enough variety to appeal to a crowd not interested only in beef and dairy offerings. What I didn't care for on the menu was the lack of attention to grammar, punctuation, and spelling. For instance, under the "Our Story" section at the bottom in the above photograph:

"Welcome to Eddies Famous Cheesesteaks & Grille! We started at festivals and street fairs across the U.S. -- in Panama City Beach something happened. Eddie met a cat ironically also names Eddie. What happened the next three years is truly what legends are made of: Eddies created cheesesteaks beyond real. The "Eddie", a pound and a half of cheesesteak love took Eddies to a new level of fanatic admiration on the beaches of Panama! Cheesesteak Eddie, as the PCB cat came to be known, convinced Eddie that it was time to open a full time joint. Eddie's is fresh stuff right off the griddle -- before your eyes and made-to-order. Our soon to be legendary fries with our cheesesteak heaven are amazing. Crossed the country to find the bomb fries, found them on a boardwalk in Maryland, and "WOW", we found French Fry Nirvana! Ours are close but we one upped 'em and added the gourmet French Fry Bar! Lots of other good eats to choose from -- all made with the highest quality, freshest ingredients. Think of it as your festival faves, taken up a notch. We threw in kick butt salads with housemade dressings to make sure you know were serious about our food. Eddie thinks you'll love this joint and come back often -- See ya soon!"

Now look, gentle reader, I realize that I have made plenty of spelling and grammatical mistakes over the course of the last two and a half years of writing this blog; I don't claim to be perfect. However, to my eyes, I count numerous punctuation, grammar, and spelling errors in the above copy. This is on your menu, for goodness sake! A blog can be easily corrected; five thousand copies of your menu have to be reprinted once the corrections are made. [Ed. Note: My high school senior composition teacher, Ms. Rohrer, probably would have had a stroke reading that paragraph.]

Okay, so enough with the English lessons. How was the food? After ordering and paying for my lunch, I took my French Fries and glass of water and retired to one of many tables lining the dining room area. Shortly afterward, my cheesesteak joined the party. Here was a shot of my lunch after I had applied some of the regular ketchup from the "gourmet French Fry Bar":

Incidentally, the gourmet French Fry Bar was six or seven sauces inside translucent plastic bottles sitting on one of the islands in the dining room. Today I was here for the standard meal, so I choose plain, ordinary ketchup for my fries. Perhaps next time I will be more adventurous and try one of the other sauces.

Just as I was about to sit, a man walked over to me and introduced himself as Ed Sutter, owner and general manager of Eddie's. He asked my name (which I dutifully provided) and thanked me for being the first customer. I thought about revealing my true reason for coming in, but decided since he hadn't asked and since I wanted to try and enjoy my lunch instead of talking all the way through it trying to explain what I do on this blog, I allowed the conversation to end quickly.

First, I started up with my half sandwich, the "Original":

I don't know whether this was a conscientious decision on Ed Sutter's part or not, but nowhere had he ever claimed that he was offering a Philadelphia or "Philly" style cheesesteak. That is an important distinction because many outside of Philadelphia have claimed it and nearly all of them have failed. Miserably. The only two I've come across in my travels that have been nearly as good or as good have been Cosmo's Cheesesteaks in Scranton, PA and Original Steaks & Hoagies in Twinsburg, OH.

The "original" comes with grilled meat, sauteed onions and mushrooms, and Provolone and Mozzarella cheese. The meat, lying under the bed of cooked onions, was tender and seasoned well. The onions and mushrooms were cooked nicely, soft, but not mushy. My only criticism of the onions was that they were a bit unwieldy; had they been chopped more finely and integrated into the meat, they wouldn't have been falling out with each bite. The blend of cheeses was noticeable visually, but not so much in the taste. It wasn't that the sandwich lacked salt, more like it lacked punch. Perhaps using a sharp Provolone would've made this sandwich stand out more.

Finally, the roll. Believe it or not, the roll on a cheesesteak sandwich, Philly-style or not, is as important as the ingredients it carries within. Most versions of this sandwich I've had in northeast Ohio haven't held up to the juiciness of the meat, sogging out and falling apart mid-bite. To Eddie's credit, the steamed buns, while completely soft, actually held up during the entire consumption of the sandwich. A true Philly cheesesteak would've been served on a roll (such as the ones made by the Amoroso Bakery) that had both a nice chewy exterior while maintaining a soft interior. But, as I said before, Eddie's wasn't advertising an authentic Philly cheesesteak. Overall, as a steak sandwich, it worked. The full size was a foot long, but I was completely happy with my half today for lunch.

I next turned my attention to the boardwalk-style fresh-cut fries:

Fresh-cut fries have generally meant thin, limp, oily masses of fried potatoes. Some people love this style of fry. I, as has been stated numerous times before, do not. I was surprised to discover that I actually liked Eddie's fries. They were thick cut and for the most part, properly fried. Seasoned correctly even without the ketchup, I am guessing I could have enjoyed them plain. I did find a fry or two at the bottom of the container that was a touch greasy and undercooked, but this was mostly a successful side dish.

In the end, I was pleasantly surprised by my lunch today at Eddie's Famous Cheesesteaks. I think it definitely takes some chutzpah to open a restaurant in an area where you aren't known and claim that you are "famous" for offering a food item for which there are plenty of purists around, ready to dispute your version. Essentially, if you are looking for a "whiz wit" or a "mushroom Provolone witout," Eddie's is not for you. Find your way up to Original Steaks & Hoagies in Twinsburg for that. However, if you are looking for an overall decent cheesesteak and pretty darn good boardwalk-style fresh-cut fries, Eddie's may just be the place where you can get your fix.

Now if they could just get a menu printed that didn't require the use of a red pen.

Kitchen Challenge: Hard-Boiled Eggs, Part II

2011-06-10T06:00:00.011-04:00

Welcome back, gentle reader, to week two of the great hard-boiled egg experiment!

If you remember from last week, I had recently experienced such awful luck with peeling hard-boiled eggs I had bought from the local Acme supermarket that I decided to complain about it on Facebook. Helpful friends suggested all manner of techniques for improving my success rate and I decided to take them up on it. I bought four dozen eggs, the same kind as my first dirty dozen, and picked three methods from the variety suggested by my Facebook friends to test out these "theories." I decided to test the same three theories each week (as well as my control group) so that I could see how the methods held up over a four-week testing cycle.

The most common hard-boiled egg theory out there is that older eggs peel easier than fresher eggs. While a single week older than when I bought them might not exactly qualify them as "old" eggs, I was interested to see how my second dozen fared. I brought out the usual suspects in terms of egg cookery and put this second dozen to the test: cooked in tap water, water with baking soda added to it, water with salt added to it and the ends of the eggs pricked, and the Cuisinart commercial egg cooker I had bought at the onset of the challenge.

Let's see how this week's eggs came out!

Control Group

6 cups of cold tap water
Time to come to boil: 12 minutes, 30 seconds
Time boiling: 1 min
Time sitting off heat: 11 minutes
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes

Control group ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 3. Two of the eggs peeled like the original ten I based the experiment on ... HORRIBLY!. The third egg peeled much easier, probably closer to an 8 if it was by itself.
* Outer appearance: 4. Two of the eggs looked absolutely horrible. The third egg, the one referenced in the "Ease of peeling" rating, was defect free.
* Texture: 9
* Taste: 10

The way that two of the three eggs peeled and looked after peeling was the reason I started this experiment and I'm kind of glad it happened, actually. While I can control from where I've sourced the eggs and try and match them as closely as possible, clearly, even using the control method (i.e. my original cooking method), changes are VERY obvious between dozens, even with a week of age on the eggs.

Commercial Egg Cooker

Time in the egg cooker: ~18 minutes, 30 seconds
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes
Water adjustment: - 1/2 tablespoon

Commercial Egg Cooker ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 10
* Outer appearance: 10
* Texture: 9. When I first tasted these, I thought they were a 10. Then I tasted the baking soda eggs and realized that they were incredibly tender, so I re-rated these a 9.
* Taste: 10. There was a distinct LACK of sulfur smell this week as I peeled the eggs, clearly a sign that they had not been overcooked. The smaller adjustment I made to the amount of water used (which is how the egg cooker actually times the cooking process) meant they were done just a little bit sooner than last week's batch.

Baking Soda In The Water

6 cups of cold tap water
1 teaspoon Arm & Hammer baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
Time to come to boil: 12 minutes, 20 seconds
Time boiling: 1 min
Time sitting off heat: 11 minutes
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes

Baking Soda In The Water group ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 8
* Outer appearance: 8
* Texture: 10
* Taste: 10

While I was disappointed that the baking soda treatment numbers dropped slightly this week (in terms of peeling and appearance), with how much more difficult the control group was to peel this time around (and how badly they looked), the baking soda made a marked improvement on the outcome. While not perfect (like this week's Egg Cooker group), adding just a teaspoon of baking soda to the water made a substantial difference in how much easier the eggs peeled and how much better they looked. Interestingly, even though the amount of time they cooked was the same, these eggs were just a tad less cooked than the other three batches (or all four of last week's batches). This resulted in the whites being incredibly tender.

Salt In The Water and Egg Pricked

6 cups of cold tap water
2 tablespoons kosher salt (sodium chloride)
Time to come to boil: 12 minutes, 35 seconds
Time boiling: 1 min
Time sitting off heat: 11 minutes
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes

Salt In The Water and Egg Pricked group ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 9
* Outer appearance: 10
* Texture: 10
* Taste: 10

Surprisingly, the salted water and pricked eggs did very well this week. They were pretty gosh darn easy to peel and the surface of the peeled eggs was perfect. Interestingly, whereas last week they performed less than the baking soda eggs, this week, they clearly had the best non-commercial results overall and were just a touch better in the texture department.

So where does this leave us, gentle reader? I would expect that as I learn how to use the commercial egg cooker from Cuisinart, I would get better-to-perfect results. That being said, clearly given how horrible the results were for this week's control group, the results for both the baking soda and the salt/egg pricked groups was fairly impressive. Whereas the baking soda method ruled for last week's results, this week, it was the combination of adding salt and pricking the ends of the eggs that came up with the best non-commercial method of getting presentation eggs that also tasted good.

Come back one week from now to check out week number three of the great hard-boiled egg experiment and see if older raw eggs lead to easier peeling (and better looking) cooked eggs.

Kitchen Challenge: Hard-Boiled Eggs, Part I

2011-06-03T06:00:00.021-04:00

I LOVE a nicely hard-boiled egg. I love them with just a little kosher salt, I love them as egg salad, I love them pretty much any way I can get them. I've even gone so far as to go through multiple batches, changing up my hard-boiling "technique" so that I can consistently get them cooked just the way I personally like them: yolk just barely set, no green ring, whites tender as all get out.

My problem stems from the fact that peeling these little ovular delicacies can be ... well, gentle reader, there is no better way to say this ... a real pain in the ass. And for all that care and dedication you put into cooking the perfect egg, when you end up with a peeled egg that looks like it might have taken a tour of duty through the worst parts of Afghanistan, it can make you feel quite frustrated. Of course, if the destination for the eggs is in something else (e.g., egg salad, potato salad), it isn't quite as big a deal. But if you are going for presentation eggs, then this is just not acceptable.

About three weeks ago, I bought a dozen eggs from my local Acme store with the intention of using them in baked goods or as fried eggs for my breakfast. Due to life being the crazy whirlwind it can be, they sat. And sat. And sat. Before I realized it, they had been in there for three weeks and I hadn't used a single one. I wasn't worried about them spoiling as the "Sell By" date hadn't come and gone. But I knew that they weren't the freshest of eggs anymore. Many a person has been told that you should use "older" eggs to make hard-boiled eggs because as the eggs age, the membrane inside the shell that makes them hard to peel when fresh slowly degrades.

With great anticipation, I placed the eggs in my pan, filled it with cold water until it covered the eggs by about an inch, turned the burner on high and waited. After about four or five minutes, the water finally came to a boil, I slapped on the lid, and pulled the pot off of the hot burner and started my timer for exactly eleven minutes. After eleven minutes, I pulled the lid off and moved the pot over to my sink where I proceeded to run cold water into the pot and swirled the eggs to cool them off more quickly for about five minutes. What happened next was not pretty.

Occasionally I'll come across an egg whose peel just doesn't want to cooperate. And that usually happened with fresher eggs. But these were at LEAST three week old eggs! Surely the first one, stubbornly refusing to peel nicely wasn't indicative of the whole lot, was it? You'd better believe it was! Every. Single. Egg. Was. Crap.

Frustrated, I posted a message onto my own personal Facebook account. Some thirty-seven responses later, I had all manor of suggestions of "tricks" that I should have done in order to ensure egg peeling success. I was about to call "Shenanigans!" on the whole lot of my friends (who were, after all, just trying to be helpful) when it dawned on me that I ought to take the core of their suggestions and try them out for myself. So that is exactly what I've decided to do. Starting with this post and for the next three Fridays, I will be posting the results of a semi-humorous scientific experiment to see what exactly is the best way to get an egg out of its shell after hard-boiling it.

To that end, on Wednesday, June 1st, I returned to the same Acme store from which I had bought my previous dozen and bought four dozen eggs, all of the same brand, same "Sell By" date, one for each week of the experiment:

Each dozen will yield three test cases and a control. The control will be to prepare the eggs in exactly the same manner in which I am doing now. The three test cases will be to use baking soda in the water when I am cooking the eggs, to prick the end of the egg before cooking it in salted water, and to use a commercial egg cooker and follow the manufacturer's instructions.

For the non-commercial cooking, I will be using the same amount of water in the exact same pan on the exact same burner each time:

For the commercial egg steamer, I have consulted with one of my friends who absolutely swears by hers, Darlene, and picked up a similar model from Bed, Bath & Beyond, the Cuisinart Egg Cooker. Like Alton Brown, I am a firm believer in very few unitaskers in my kitchen. However, she and a number of others convinced me with their platitudes for these little devices that I needed to include one in the testing. Here is the egg cooker that I will be using for this experiment:

Each week, I will rate each batch on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the absolute worst and 10 being the absolute best. The criteria I will use to judge will be:

* Ease of peeling
* Outer appearance of hard-boiled egg
* Taste
* Texture

In judging taste, I am not looking for flavor of the egg so much as any flavor that was imparted by the cooking method (for instance, by the addition of baking soda to the water).

So, Part I will be cooking the eggs 24 hours after purchase; essentially as fresh as they can be. Ready for the results? Here we go!

Control Group

6 cups of cold tap water
Time to come to boil: 12 minutes, 30 seconds
Time boiling: 1 min
Time sitting off heat: 11 minutes
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes

Control group ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 7
* Outer appearance: 8
* Texture: 9
* Taste: 10

Commercial Egg Cooker

Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes

Commercial Egg Cooker ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 9
* Outer appearance: 10
* Texture: 10
* Taste: 9

I noticed a slight smell of sulfur while peeling the eggs. That being said, this was the first batch I ever cooked in this device and the less than perfect results could entirely be me having not optimized using the device. Next time I will use slightly less water (which is what controls how long the eggs cook). I think an adjustment on my part next week will produce even better results. I did notice a slightly similar taste in the eggs.

Baking Soda In The Water

6 cups of cold tap water
1 teaspoon Arm & Hammer baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
Time to come to boil: 12 minutes, 25 seconds
Time boiling: 1 min
Time sitting off heat: 11 minutes
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes

Baking Soda In The Water group ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 10
* Outer appearance: 10
* Texture: 10
* Taste: 10

Salt In The Water and Egg Pricked

6 cups of cold tap water
2 tablespoons kosher salt (sodium chloride)
Time to come to boil: 12 minutes, 35 seconds
Time boiling: 1 min
Time sitting off heat: 11 minutes
Time cooled under cold water: 3 minutes

Salt In The Water and Egg Pricked group ratings:
* Ease of peeling: 9
* Outer appearance: 6
* Texture: 10
* Taste: 10

So, overall, this week's winner for peeling and appearance, by just a hair over the commercial egg cooker, was the addition of baking soda to the cooking water. For taste and texture, it was essentially perfect across the board. I'll be interested to see if a week's worth of aging in my refrigerator changes the ratings significantly. Come back next Friday for the next installment!