This Spring some friends invited me to join them for a culinary tour of New Orleans. I was excited about eating in New Orleans, but my research for the trip got me thinking about the whole state of Louisiana and the rest of the South. After so many years of international travel, it was high time I got to know places closer to home. I decided to extend my visit into a road trip through Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia.
Having spent most of my years on the East and West coasts, I thought of the South as the real America, somewhere I might find the real fried chicken, grits, biscuits, collard greens, bbq and other dishes that we call comfort foods -- the original versions rather than adaptations of these dishes brought to big cities by transplants or enterprising hipter gourmets.
Probably because I watched too many reruns of the Andy Griffiths show, I had a vague notion that I’d find sweet Aunt Bee cooking up some incredible fried chicken and baking pies at a roadside diner. I though I might get lucky and find some small town with interesting characters or befriend a fellow diner at lunch counter who would direct me some out of the way bbq shack. Another side of me feared being stopped on some backroad by a corrupt sherrif trying to ticket outsiders. Basically, I had no credible information and no real clue what to expect. Aware of my complete ignorance, I was ready for an adventure to enlighten myself about Southern culture and more importantly, eat some good food.
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Next Up: New Orleans
Thursday, March 25, 2010
BRUNO'S ***'
In preparation for my trip to the South, HM arranged a training session at Bruno's. I hadn't been in years and was interested to see what the new chefs had done with the place. Upon entering I noticed that it is still a bar, most of the seating is the same, though I think some of the high backed booths have been removed. It's comfortable place for a drink, but what about the food?
We had a very wide selection from the menu. Started with hush puppies, I'm not one for hush puppies having eaten my fair share of them as a kid (Long John Silver's was my father's second favorite fast food place). These were nothing like Captain Silver's version – they were perfectly fried, tender (not crumbly) and not greasy at all. I'd have them again. Next, the smoked trout pot, which was really a brandade of smoked trout. We smeared the brandade on thinly sliced toast points and found the combination of smokey, salty and creamy flavors well balanced. The Frito Pie was just o.k., I think this suffered from a lack of chili, all the elements were good, but there seemed to be far more fritos than chili, -- one of us had had this dish before and she said the ratio of chili to fritos was different last time, probably just an oversight. Tangent - here's a preview of a fantastic Frito Pie I had in Atlanta:
Fox Bros BBQ - Frito Pie
Mac n Cheese – this was fine, but even better were the grilled asparagus with pork belly and a soft cooked egg. The asparagus was well seasoned and grilled to a smokey tenderness, the soft cooked egg had a runny yolk and the pork belly, good execution of a tried and true combination.
Onto the main courses. Oyster Po'Boy, if they served these at lunch, I would come regularly. Crispy cornmeal coated oysters on good french bread with a spicy bright slaw – very good, also thought that the bread on the sandwich was exactly right (airy and toasted) staying out of the way of the rest of the flavors. The chicken fried steak had a crispy outer coating flecked with herbs – I'm not a chicken fried steak person, but I liked it. Our friend from Louisiana proclaimed that it might be the best chicken fried steak he'd ever had.
Finally, the bbq pork ribs, now I have been a regular at Memphis Minnie's for some time, and for some reason my last few visits were not as good as before (the brisket has been a bit oversteamed from sitting too long). I suspect that turnover at real bbq joints is as important as it is for sushi places. Luckily, I now have a new place to go for ribs. Bruno's pork ribs were smokey tender, with a bit of chew. The bones were cleanly frenched and served with sauce on the side. They don't need the sauce, but the sauce is pretty good a South Carolina vinegar style of sauce. We got the ribs with spicy cheese grits on the side. The texture wasn't as smooth as expected, but the cheesy grits spiked with green chile flavor hit the spot. To top it all off it came with a beautiful, fluffy on the inside, crispy on top, biscuit served with honey butter on the side. We all agreed, these chefs know Southern food.
We sampled all of the desserts that night. Churros, whoopie pie and some kind of toffee cracker that they called Crack. The toffee cracker crack was a matzo cracker sandwiched between two pieces of toffee and punctuated with a hit of sea salt. Toffee is fairly easy to make, but often the flavor balance is off, either it's too buttery or too sugary. This one was perfect and the matzo cracker in the middle was brilliant, a good way to emphasize the crispiness of the toffee and add an accompaniment to the sugar – and of course the sea salt added the right hit of salt at the end to bring out all the flavors. So far so good, and then came the churros. These were about five churros coated in cinnamon sugar, looking exactly like what you see in Spain. Wow, a crispy exterior crunch gave way to a soft moist interior – hands down the best churro I've eaten. I would return here just for these churros – (I would've also loved the nice little pot of chocolate to go with them). Then I moved on to the whoopie pie. It was what you'd expect, a orange whipped cream sandwiched between two soft airy pieces of “bun” made of chocolate cake. It tasted just fine, but I'm not completely sure because all of my senses were temporarily overloaded by the pleasure of the churro I had just had.
The service was very friendly and welcoming. The chef came out of the kitchen several times to look at the tables. At the end of our meal he came over and checked on us. I love it when the kitchen is really intent on taking care of you with their food. I mean, not just satisfying you getting your order out and over with, but taking care of you and genuinely hoping that you enjoy their food.
Unfortunately, the bar atmosphere and loud music at Bruno's does somewhat of an injustice to the kitchen by distracting from the food. On the bright side, this is seriously good comfort food. One of the better meals I've had this year, good enough to put up with the loud music. I'm looking forward to my next visit.
Favorites: Churros, Churros, Churros, Ribs and spicy cheesy grits, oyster po boy, Toffee Cracker Crack, chicken fried steak.
Mission at 20th
We had a very wide selection from the menu. Started with hush puppies, I'm not one for hush puppies having eaten my fair share of them as a kid (Long John Silver's was my father's second favorite fast food place). These were nothing like Captain Silver's version – they were perfectly fried, tender (not crumbly) and not greasy at all. I'd have them again. Next, the smoked trout pot, which was really a brandade of smoked trout. We smeared the brandade on thinly sliced toast points and found the combination of smokey, salty and creamy flavors well balanced. The Frito Pie was just o.k., I think this suffered from a lack of chili, all the elements were good, but there seemed to be far more fritos than chili, -- one of us had had this dish before and she said the ratio of chili to fritos was different last time, probably just an oversight. Tangent - here's a preview of a fantastic Frito Pie I had in Atlanta:
Mac n Cheese – this was fine, but even better were the grilled asparagus with pork belly and a soft cooked egg. The asparagus was well seasoned and grilled to a smokey tenderness, the soft cooked egg had a runny yolk and the pork belly, good execution of a tried and true combination.
Onto the main courses. Oyster Po'Boy, if they served these at lunch, I would come regularly. Crispy cornmeal coated oysters on good french bread with a spicy bright slaw – very good, also thought that the bread on the sandwich was exactly right (airy and toasted) staying out of the way of the rest of the flavors. The chicken fried steak had a crispy outer coating flecked with herbs – I'm not a chicken fried steak person, but I liked it. Our friend from Louisiana proclaimed that it might be the best chicken fried steak he'd ever had.
Finally, the bbq pork ribs, now I have been a regular at Memphis Minnie's for some time, and for some reason my last few visits were not as good as before (the brisket has been a bit oversteamed from sitting too long). I suspect that turnover at real bbq joints is as important as it is for sushi places. Luckily, I now have a new place to go for ribs. Bruno's pork ribs were smokey tender, with a bit of chew. The bones were cleanly frenched and served with sauce on the side. They don't need the sauce, but the sauce is pretty good a South Carolina vinegar style of sauce. We got the ribs with spicy cheese grits on the side. The texture wasn't as smooth as expected, but the cheesy grits spiked with green chile flavor hit the spot. To top it all off it came with a beautiful, fluffy on the inside, crispy on top, biscuit served with honey butter on the side. We all agreed, these chefs know Southern food.
We sampled all of the desserts that night. Churros, whoopie pie and some kind of toffee cracker that they called Crack. The toffee cracker crack was a matzo cracker sandwiched between two pieces of toffee and punctuated with a hit of sea salt. Toffee is fairly easy to make, but often the flavor balance is off, either it's too buttery or too sugary. This one was perfect and the matzo cracker in the middle was brilliant, a good way to emphasize the crispiness of the toffee and add an accompaniment to the sugar – and of course the sea salt added the right hit of salt at the end to bring out all the flavors. So far so good, and then came the churros. These were about five churros coated in cinnamon sugar, looking exactly like what you see in Spain. Wow, a crispy exterior crunch gave way to a soft moist interior – hands down the best churro I've eaten. I would return here just for these churros – (I would've also loved the nice little pot of chocolate to go with them). Then I moved on to the whoopie pie. It was what you'd expect, a orange whipped cream sandwiched between two soft airy pieces of “bun” made of chocolate cake. It tasted just fine, but I'm not completely sure because all of my senses were temporarily overloaded by the pleasure of the churro I had just had.
The service was very friendly and welcoming. The chef came out of the kitchen several times to look at the tables. At the end of our meal he came over and checked on us. I love it when the kitchen is really intent on taking care of you with their food. I mean, not just satisfying you getting your order out and over with, but taking care of you and genuinely hoping that you enjoy their food.
Unfortunately, the bar atmosphere and loud music at Bruno's does somewhat of an injustice to the kitchen by distracting from the food. On the bright side, this is seriously good comfort food. One of the better meals I've had this year, good enough to put up with the loud music. I'm looking forward to my next visit.
Favorites: Churros, Churros, Churros, Ribs and spicy cheesy grits, oyster po boy, Toffee Cracker Crack, chicken fried steak.
Mission at 20th
Saturday, March 20, 2010
What a Gas!
Slideshow
Cooking with some form of gas.
Menu
Edible Cocktail - Gin & Tonic Gelee
Smoked Cheese Plate
Feta, "Watermelon", Mint and Apple
Endothermic Caesar Salad
"Burgers" - Smoked Beef, Steamed Bun & Pickled Roots
"Ketchup" - Roasted Gazpacho w/ Smoked Fish & Creme Fraiche
"Milkshakes" - Kumquat-Ginger Milkshake w/ kumquat smoke
Chocolate Honeycomb & Coffee
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Hawaii
SLIDESHOW
Hawaii Eats March 2010
KCC Farmer's Market - bbq abalone, delicious abalone bbq'd on the half shell. One stand had - excellent kalua pork, smokey and moist without being over cooked and stringy. The vendor said that it was done traditional emu style (by burying it), it was definitely better than a lot of the KP I've tried.
Kaka'ako Kitchen - the shoyu chicken is the best, the mahi is fine, but the chicken is delicious.
Side Street Inn - the fried pork chop is delicious though fatty and I'm not sure it's worth the price tag, the spicy chicken is boneless pieces of skin on chicken fried and topped with a salty spicy sweet sauce - these are really lack luster, far too much breading and not enough meat and the sauce is not very good.
Wailoa Bakery - best shave ice, finely shaved until it becomes the texture of ice cream. The Azuki bowl and the green tea flavor are my favorites.
Million - the pork neck soup is delicious, not too spicy and full of flavor, the pan chan are good and the service is very friendly. I also loved the homey comforting beef brisket and tendon soup. The broth is a white pork bone based broth with a straightforward clean flavor. Good when punched up with a bit of salt and dunked in rice.
Leonard's - the li hing sugar malasada was new to me, I think between the original, cinnamon and li hing, the cinnamon is the best.
Hank's Haute Dogs - they had a Monday special of Italian Beef. I got it spicy, it was fine, the meat could've been less cooked, but they definitely got the jus and bread right. I also liked the hibiscus lemonade a nice acid punch to cut the richness of the sandwich.
Tanioka's - got the spicy ahi, spicy marlin and giant clam pokes. The poke here is excellent. This time I noticed the simple clean flavors in the spicy marlin. My companion loved the giant clam poke and I agree that it's one to get again. The spicy ahi was good, though perhaps over marinated because I felt the spices overwhelmed the ahi, it was just a bit too strong.
Champion Malasadas - these were really good and in just one visit, I prefer them to Leonards. The plain sugar malasada had an eggy almost custard like tender interior while the custard filled malasada was more standard, though I appreciated the fact that the custard was tasty and not too sweet.
Shrimp Trucks
Romy's - exactly as I remembered it. Super juicy and fresh prawns are the thing to get, I got the garlic preparation which is o.k. if you like toasted garlic flavor, though I thought the spicy shoyu dip that accompanied it was a good counterpoint. Next time, get the steamed prawns with cocktail or shoyu on the side.
Fumi's - they didn't actually have a shack the last time I was in the area. They have a lot of different preparations and they recommended the garlic prep. The spicy shrimp looked firey red, a little too red, while there was also a butter garlic spicy which added garlic to the mix. I went for that and was pleasantly surprised by the slightly tart garlic and red pepper sauce. The shrimps were very fresh and I would come back.
Giovanni's - I remembered really loving the scampi sauce here. This time, it was just o.k. I think what sets it apart is the cooked garlic. The garlic is cooked so that it is soft and has that roasted garlic flavor, there also appears to be plenty of olive oil in the sauce. I found it a bit rich so I squeezed plenty of lemon onto it and added the hot sauce. The hot sauce is probably the best thing at Giovanni's, probably a combination of butter and red chili. The shrimp themselves were the least impressive of the three places, but with such a powerful sauce you didn't taste much of the shrimp anyway.
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Monday, February 22, 2010
TACOLICIOUS ***
I happened to be on Chestnut and needed a late weeknight dinner. Good chance to give Tacolicious a whirl. I was a bit wary of the place because I haven't had much luck with a similar sustainable organic Mexican kitchen situated on the other side of town, and from the first time I saw it in the ferry building, I just wasn't sure to make of the comical name. Did it make sense to eat Mexican food in the Marina at a place called Tacolicious? I thought to myself, I'll probably leave wishing I had just gone to a taqueria in the Mission. And yet, ignoring my preconceived notions paid off. After one visit, Tacolicious won me over.
The salsa had fresh flavor, nice acidity with a hint of spice. After we polished off our first round of chips, we started on a ceviche appetizer. The marinade was a tad too acidic, but the fish was fine and some little pieces of jicama(?) added a nice crunch. On to the tacos, very good across the board. In order of my preference: braised short rib, smokey chicken, and crispy fried fish. I was excited to see the fried fish tacos, though the fish was less than crispy by the time it got to our table. More impressive were the smokey chicken and the braised short rib tacos. The whole set came with a trio of salsa, each of them top notch.
I never ate at Laiola, but it's clear that the kitchen is taking its casual menu seriously. Tacolicious is at the top of my list for the next time I'm in the Marina.
Chestnut/Fillmore
The salsa had fresh flavor, nice acidity with a hint of spice. After we polished off our first round of chips, we started on a ceviche appetizer. The marinade was a tad too acidic, but the fish was fine and some little pieces of jicama(?) added a nice crunch. On to the tacos, very good across the board. In order of my preference: braised short rib, smokey chicken, and crispy fried fish. I was excited to see the fried fish tacos, though the fish was less than crispy by the time it got to our table. More impressive were the smokey chicken and the braised short rib tacos. The whole set came with a trio of salsa, each of them top notch.
I never ate at Laiola, but it's clear that the kitchen is taking its casual menu seriously. Tacolicious is at the top of my list for the next time I'm in the Marina.
Chestnut/Fillmore
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