I have more fun making cocktails than drinking them.    Everyone has their cooking niche, and though I think I’ve got some skills all around, I get the geekiest when I’m talking about creating items for cocktails.  I’ve made my own maraschino cherries, my own ginger syrup (recipe to come), my own cream soda syrup, grenadine and bitters are happening this weekend (thank you, Colonel De, for finally getting in quinine!).  There’s nothing quite like making a well-balanced cocktail from homemade ingredients, particularly for someone whose cocktail experience has been subpar– that is, until they met you. Lucky them!  The first time I made a daiquiri– simple syrup, lime and rum– for Terry, it was a revelation.  I’ll never forget the look on his face, and that’s really why I enjoy it so much.

Making my own cocktail supplies is my elementary way of getting into canning, something I fell in love with as a kid (though, strangely, no one in my family did it– I just read about it frequently and found the idea of pulling jars of preserves or green beans or something else out of the pantry that you canned yourself romantic. Blame Little House on the Prairie).  The art of canning and pickling isn’t lost, but it certainly isn’t something that is done as often at home as it used to be, when the fruits of the home garden were preserved for use over the winter.  Now, I don’t have a home garden, but pickling and preserving (even just the refrigerator sort of pickle) has definitely piqued my interest in doing some real canning once we have a bounty of spring produce.  Jams, jellies… oh yes.

But back to pickled onions.  They’re similar to pickling red onions, but the brine is a little different.  These are easy to make, and not just good for cocktails– they’re great on a crudite tray, as a garnish, or straight out of the jar.  No judgment.  The light of the refrigerator illuminates the best of us.

16 oz pearl onions, either fresh or frozen.

1 cup rice wine vinegar

1 cup regular vinegar

1 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon pickling spices (Get the Colonel’s)

canning jars

butcher’s twine

cheesecloth

If your onions are fresh, peel them.  If they’re frozen, pick out any that may not be whole.  You want only the ones that are whole and plump (that goes for the fresh ones, too).  To be honest, it’s easier to use frozen (and they taste just as good, though they might not be as crisp) as the fresh are a bit fussy to peel. Some of us like to peel. Pick whichever you like.

Place pickling spice in a square of cheesecloth, and tie tightly with butcher’s twine. Make sure the twine is long enough so you can tie one end around the handle of the pot (for easy removal).

In a large saucepan, combine all of the liquid ingredients, sugar and the pickling spice bundle and heat to a simmer.  Add the onions, and boil for just a minute.  Remove spice bundle. Pour into sterilized pint jars, place the covers on top, and allow them to come to room temperature.  Refrigerate once they’re at room temperature and they’ll keep for about three weeks.

Use them to garnish a Gibson, which is simply a Martini garnished with the onion instead of an olive, or just fish them out with a fork at midnight.  Your secret is safe with me.

It’s another good year for Cincinnati restaurants and AAA Four Diamond ratings.  Six restaurants received Four Diamonds, the second-highest rating by AAA.  The longest running Four Diamond-award winner in Cincinnati is The Palace.

• Boca Restaurant
• Daveed’s at 934
• Nicola’s Restaurant
• Orchids at Palm Court
• The Celestial Steakhouse
• The Palace Restaurant

Congratulations to all of the restaurants!

A few tidbits of news, brought to you by this view:

I’m in San Francisco for work and this is my office view right now.  I love Cincinnati, but man, that view.

Shanghai Mama’s will reopen on February 1, adding another option back to Cincinnati’s late-night dining scene.  They’ll have a new menu and a new look, as they had to gut the place entirely after their fire last year.

Roxy’s has shut their doors and posted a sign that they’re moving to Over-the-Rhine.  No exact address, no date of move, and really can’t quite figure out where they’re going, as I’ve contacted management and haven’t even gotten an answering machine.

Dusmesh is aiming to open a second location in Norwood– no time frame as of yet.

When going to pizza places that proclaim to be any sort of East Coast style, I try to bring along one of my many friends who are natives of New York or New Jersey as a judge of authenticity. One of my coworkers, who is always up for lunch, happens to be a native New Yorker, so I suggested cashing in a Groupon and grabbing lunch at Aponte’s.

Aponte’s is in Mason, in an area of Mason I had no idea existed (and I’ve worked here for five years). It’s “downtown” Mason, which I haven’t ventured into except for Wildflower, so it was fun to discover a whole new area of restaurants to try out.  It’s easy to find (right across from Domino’s, coincidentally) and you enter in the back.  The place is essentially an homage to New York sports: memorabilia from the Yankees, Mets, Giants and other local teams cover the walls and ESPN is on the TV, so it has a bit of a sports bar feel.  Don’t be confused, however: the menu is all east coast.

Though there were lunch specials to be had (a personal pizza and a soda for $7, for example), we stuck with splitting a pizza and some garlic knots.  All of their dough is homemade, as is their sauce, and they are proud to use 100% whole milk cheese (instead of part-skim mozzarella), as they don’t want to sacrifice flavor.  Good for them– so many places use frozen dough or subpar cheese, and it’s nice to be able to get a good, traditional pizza at a good price (I wonder how Domino’s does across the street).

Garlic knots were good– very garlicky, and a generous portion (several were taken home).  It was a good way to sample the dough, as traditionally these are made with leftover pizza dough.  I’m not sure I’d order them again, as it seems silly for me to fill up on bread before I eat… bread with sauce on it, but they were quite good.

We ordered a pepperoni and onion pizza, and both of us thought it was particularly good– the crust was a little crisp, but still chewy; the sauce was spicy and the toppings flavorful.  It’s hard to find true East Coast style pizza in Ohio, the land of people who cut their pizza into squares (like our Detroit brethren) but this is good. It’s not New York fold-it-in-half pizza, but that’s not the style it’s going for.  I’d be happy to grab a pie on the way home from work, or maybe even make the trek up on the weekend.  It’s good stuff.  Even the New Yorker approved (though he said we had to go to Flying Pizza for the real, New York stuff– and that’ll happen soon).

Enzo’s, a mainstay of Race Street for almost five years, has a new manager and a new menu. Terry Lee, the former owner of OUTSIDE and a fixture of Over-the-Rhine for nearly as long as Enzo’s, has taken over management duties and added his own flair to the menu. New items include the GrilledChee, a Mexican-inspired sandwich, the Milagro, and daily specials that have a touch of Lee’s native Alabama. They are also partnering with Pho Lang Thang to feature Saigon Phin Vietnamese-style coffee. Sounds like fun– though they’ll be closed for Martin Luther King Day, you can find them open weekdays only from 7 AM to 6 PM.

La Petite Pierre, a fantastic little French place on Camargo Road in Madeira usually promotes “fill the pot” events– that is, you can bring in your pot and they’ll fill it with whatever delicious traditional French dish they’ve prepared, and you take it home to enjoy it there. This weekend, however, they’re opening their dining room, and here’s the menu (it sounds fantastic):

Appetizers
Moules a la Marinere
Tarte Flambee
Lobster Bisque
Crispy Sweetbreads
stuffed in artichoke bottom cups with duxelle mushroom sauce

La Petite Pierre House Salad

Tartiflette: yukon gold roasted potato layered with bacon, carmelized shallot & reblochon cheese on greens

Entree
Veal Osso Buco with preserved lemon risotto & roasted garlic

Tuna Steak au Poivre with pinot noir sauce, potato spinach gratin & sage-roasted baby carrots

New York Strip with maitre d’hotel butter, pommes frites, tomato provencale

Trio of Lamb fleischnaken, rack of lamb & merquez

Desserts
Banana & Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding with Rum Caramel Sauce
Chocolate Expresso Pots de Creme
White Chocolate Mousse

I’m so happy to see tartiflette on the menu– it’s a favorite dish of both The Better Half and mine (though we didn’t get any on our last trip to Paris; it’s very common at Christmas markets around the city) and I’ve been meaning to try to make it at home– reblochon is difficult (if not impossible) to get in the United States because it is made from raw milk, and it’s illegal to import raw milk cheeses into the country.  Most often, reblochon is something else but repackaged and renamed (which is not illegal– interesting article over on The Kitchn about this).  I would most certainly like to taste their version.  It’s bacon, cheese, potatoes and shallots: what could be better?

I used to go to Trio all the time.  It was a favorite of my former in-laws’, and we celebrated many birthdays there in the early years of the Aughts.  I swear, during that time their menu rarely changed, and once I no longer had to go there, I didn’t.  In fact, I’ve been ignoring them for about five years now, but recently, my mind was changed.

Thank you, Trio, for not staying comfortable with your menu that your clientele obviously liked, and expanding a bit.  You’ve won me back.

The first time I revisited Trio, we joined friends for dessert one night.  I had remembered them having good Key Lime pie, and didn’t object.  I’m glad I didn’t.  The five of us had their chocolate flourless torte, banana cream pie and Key Lime pie and all three were fantastic:  the banana cream pie was not-too-sweet (so many are so sweet that your teeth hurt) and a generous portion.  The Key Lime pie had three inches of meringue and a tart, balanced filling.  The flourless torte was dense with good chocolate and complemented by raspberry sauce.  All were simple but excellent, so when my coworker invited me to a holiday lunch there, I didn’t balk as I may have a few weeks before.

I just adored the dish I got– diver scallops with brussels sprout and hot bacon slaw and  Maker’s Mark butter.  The butter was faintly scented with bourbon, and the brussels sprout slaw was addictive.  The scallops were perfectly cooked– a great presentation.  My coworkers enjoyed their dishes too– one raved about his Grouper “California Style” (which looked really good) and the other loved her Cobb salad.

I’ve learned my lesson: Trio’s a great option when in Kenwood and they’re certainly trying to attract new customers with their menu.  I’ll go back (even if only for the scallops and banana cream pie).

West Siders, please let me know if I’m incorrect in this (and I know you will), but I stand by this statement:

The West Side doesn’t have many good, independent restaurants.

There. I said it.

And in talking with a bunch of West Siders last night, they agree.  We struggled to come up with really good restaurants (and they’ve all lived there for years).  Sure, you have standbys like Sebastian’s, Price Hill Chili and Maury’s Tiny Cove. You have some pretty good places, like Vitor’s and Primavista. But there’s very little “ethnic” food, and the trend is more greasy spoon than innovative (or even exotic) cuisine.  ”The only restaurant anyone thinks of over here is Price Hill Chili.  For a nice meal, everyone just drives to the East Side,” one said.  ”Even our Applebee’s stinks.”  Ouch.  When I lived there, I remember being so frustrated by the fact that I had to drive out of the West Side to get anything that wasn’t a double decker or chili– that is, until Thai Taste came in.

Thai Taste specializes in Thai food, of course, but also has a sushi bar and a limited Chinese and Vietnamese menu. Their sushi is good– that I can recall– but their standouts are their Thai dishes. They have the standards (pad thai, pad see ew, thai spicy noodles, etc.) as well as Thai desserts. The atmosphere isn’t anything special– it’s a hole-in-the-wall with pan-Asian decor– but it really doesn’t matter since the food is very good.

I happened to be over on the West Side last night, and realized that I really ought to revisit Thai Taste. On my way over, I called and ordered two dishes: pad see ew and pad thai, and was told it would be ready in 15 minutes. It took me about five minutes to get there, and was ready about five minutes after I arrived. Ten minutes isn’t bad for carryout.

For $25, I got two dishes– pad see ew with shrimp and pad thai with chicken, both at a level 4 spiciness (their scale goes from 1-10). The pad see ew was good, but not the best I’ve ever had. The noodles were a little sticky (probably not from the 15 minute drive home) and the vegetables were mostly broccoli; I prefer the Chinese-style broccoli to the big, thick chunks of broccoli in the dish, but overall, the flavor was good. I think I could probably go up to a 5 on their spiciness scale.

The pad thai, however, is fantastic. It’s a little on the sweet side, which is counteracted by the spice (again, I could have gone up to a 5), and the noodles are the perfect texture and consistency. The chicken is all white meat and sliced thinly. It’s quite a bit more moist than most pad thai I’ve had (I’ll have to add a little bit more sauce when I make my own– I like that consistency). It’s one of my favorite pad thais in town.

Portion sizes are huge– two dishes easily fed two people with plenty of leftovers. They also offer tofu, pork and beef as the protein in their noodle dishes for an extra charge. Thai Taste has been around for about five years and seems to do a steady business– I hope other restaurant owners can see the success Thai Taste has had and choose to open in the same area.  Maybe Indian?  Residents, what would you like to see?

My friend Brian always has the best restaurant recommendations.  They’re not always something I’d pick myself, are usually right under my nose (but I’ve never noticed them) and are usually pretty good.  Chef’s Cafe was his most recent pick, found on Fields Ertel Road– not the super-busy, scary part but the other side of Mason-Montgomery Road that is more quiet, sedate and residential. And, apparently, they have World-Famous Chicken Salad.

Chef’s Cafe is completely unassuming in a small strip mall on the edge of Sharonville and  Mason.  I am sure I’ve driven by it a hundred times and never noticed it.   It’s been there for 18 years– since before Mason was the booming suburb it is now– and its success can be attributed to more than 83 tons of that famous chicken salad.  They have a contract to sell it at Bigg’s/Remke and Jungle Jim’s as well (in case you can’t get there for lunch).

Of course, if it was that lauded, I had to try it.  You can get their sandwiches on a choice of bread– white, wheat, rye, croissant or pretzel bread (though they were out of croissants on the day I was there).  I chose pretzel bread, and the sandwich was topped with lettuce and tomato.  You get a side as well, and I chose a creamy, but still-tangy coleslaw.  The chicken salad is good– the texture is interesting, as it’s almost pureed: it’s very smooth, and not chunky like many chicken salads.  It’s got a good kick of onion, and not too much mayonnaise.  It’s a pretty solid chicken salad (though I think I prefer mine a bit less smooth).

Their egg salad, which Brian picked (on white bread) was actually better than the chicken salad– a mayonnaise and mustard-based salad, with big chunks of egg, pickle and carrot.  He picked a chunky applesauce to go with it.  I admit– I’m a sucker for applesauce (I think it has something to do with my German grandma. Then again, I’m pretty sure a good part of my preferences have to do with her influence!) and theirs was fresh and good, with small chunks of apple for texture.

They also have pastrami, corned beef and other deli meats as options, and can cater with some notice. A sandwich and a can of Dr. Brown’s (the sign of a good deli, in my opinion) runs about $8, which is reasonable for a good quality lunch.  Service is quick and friendly, but they get busy right around noon– so get there a bit earlier.

Several readers have asked about MoCA in East Walnut Hills, as it closed rather abruptly. Here’s what I found out. MoCA, a mainstay of East Walnut Hills for four years, closed December 30 due to “irresolvable differences” with the landlord. According to a post by owner Joe Balbo on their Facebook page, “We hope that the landlord has great things planned for the space as I believe the loss of MoCA will leave a hole in the neighborhood as it has my heart.”