cakeypal: December 2007 Archives
Thursday night, John x3 (Johnnie, John B, and John J.) and I had dinner at the Frontera Grill, one of the Chicago restaurants run by famed Mexican cookbook writer, Rick Bayless. The restaurant focuses on creating authentic regional dishes made with organic ingredients. There are often long waits for a table, but the food is so very worth it.
We started our meal with chips and two kinds of salsa, then a superb combination appetizer platter. The cheese quesadilla "bites" (on the right) were the least satisfying element of the platter, although they were still good. The chicken taquitos with crema (at the back of the plate) were out of this world. All the fried tortillas tasted fresh and crisp with a deep, roasted corn flavor. The rolled tortillas provided a tasty wrapper for the delicious chicken--and the crema and cotija cheese completed the dish with a smooth, creamy finish. With each bite, an explosion of flavor engulfed my taste buds. I would never have guessed that I'd rhapsodize about chicken taquitos, but there it is. The fruit and vegetable salad (at the left) combined jicama, cucumber, and pineapple topped with citrus juice and spices (chili powder?). The crunch of the sweet vegetables was carried over into the ceviche (at the front of the plate) which, of course, also includes fish "cooked" in citrus juice. I had never tried ceviche before, but I have to say this dish was divine. This appetizer plate was really the highlight of the meal for me--and it was huge which meant that I had less of an appetite for the rest of the meal.
Since we ordered our meal after having consumed large amounts of appetizers, I decided to order two small plates rather than a full meal: queso fundido and sopes. I loved the queso fundido, melted cheese and chorizo topped with grilled onion and pepper. The cheese was warm and gooey and the pieces of chorizo gave each bite a burst of spicy flavor. What's not to love about melted cheese! I ordered the sopes because the menu description included the words "roasted tomato," a taste that I craved after the almost tomato-less appetizer plate. The sopes nestled the soft shredded beef mixture with the small piece of avocado. Although I liked the corn sopes and the tomato sauce, I wasn't quite as fond of the beef. Still, I quite enjoyed both dishes.
John B. ordered the carne asado bravo which he described as having a spicy, smoky flavor. He loved the sweet corn tamales with crema and the grilled green onion garnish. As I look at this photo, I want to go back to Frontera Grill and try this!
Johnnie ordered camarones. The shrimp were prepared with poblano chiles and squash on a bed of what looks like a tomatillo based sauce. Since he's been raving about Frontera Grill ever since, I can assume that he enjoyed his meal.
I save the best for last, the dish John J. ordered (that I wish I had!), the torta del elote. This corn tart included a mushroom like substance called huitlacoche, a fungus that grows on corn. John let me try a bite of this dish and it was amazing, earthy, "slightly bitter with a sour brassy flavor at the end" (to quote John).
The service at Frontera Grill was astounding. Multiple waiters helped bring food, fill water, bus dishes, etc. We never had to wait for anything, yet they were relatively inobtrusive. They definitely contributed to making our visit to this restaurant such a pleasurable experience.
None of the other restaurants we ate at in Chicago even came close to Frontera Grill's food. In fact, I didn't take any more pictures of food on the trip (not at Star of Siam--Thai--or Sayat Nova--Armenian . . . or even of Japanese Oriental Restaurant--Sushi/Korean--on High Street in Columbus where we ate before returning to Athens last night). As an aside, I loved the sizzling hot Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap at JOR with its rice, vegetables, beef, and fried egg. I also liked the spicy tuna roll and the seafood pancake. I even tried (and liked) kim chee and pickled turnip!
In any event, if I ever return to Chicago, I'm headed directly for Frontera Grill. As soon as I return to Fresno, I'm also cracking open the Rick Bayless cookbook I bought recently to try my hand at preparing sophisticated Mexican food.
I'm in Chicago for several days at an academic conference. Yesterday, we arrived early enough to walk up and down the Magnificant Mile and to eat a couple of interesting meals.
We had lunch at Eppy's on Ontario Street downtown. We saw the colorful sign from across the street and decided to give it a try. As we walked down the stairs (it's lower than street level), we saw a small but cozy deli full of local businessmen eating a quick meal. I ordered the tomato basil soup and potato salad, Johnnie ordered the roast beef sandwich. My soup had a very strange taste, although I did like the chunky texture. Johnnie's sandwich, on the other hand, was quite good with its brightly colored meat and horseradish.
I laughed at the handwritten sign claiming that Eppy's came about due to the owner's anger at eating a Subway's sandwich (I feel your pain!) and later seeing the "Soup Nazi" episode of Seinfeld. The quirky owner greets everyone and seems to really enjoy his work. One thing that is unusual about Eppy's is that one pays AFTER the meal instead of before.
After shopping, walking, and resting, we were finally ready for dinner. Alex joined us for sushi at Kamehachi's, a recommendation of the concierge at our hotel. Also, on Ontario Street, this restaurant is well decorated and lit, giving off a golden glow. We ordered two appetizers: vegetable tempura and a vegetable spring roll. We especially liked the latter with its red and green tofu wrappers filled with shitake mushrooms, avocado, noodles and cilantro, served with spicy sesame dipping sauce.
In addition to the Kamehachi platter, we ordered special salmon rolls, spider rolls, and summer rolls. The presentation was nice, but most of the sushi was just okay.
On the left side is our favorite roll of the night, the special salmon with scallions, cucumber, and tempura drizzled with eel sauce. The smoky salmon and crunchy tempura played nicely together. The summer roll on the right combined tuna, yellowtail, green bell pepper, avocado, cilantro, spicy mayonnaise, spicy sesame oil and lime. Although there was a lot going on in that roll, it was flavorful. These two rolls flank the spider roll made with soft shell crab.
The kamehachi platter combined a number of different kinds of sushi including a spicy tuna roll on the upper left and a California roll on the upper right. The spicy tuna roll was my second favorite of the evening.
Although I'm still not sure that I love sushi, I'm glad to have branched out to new flavors and textures. I look forward to continuing this culinary adventure.
Spending Christmas away from my family has made me reflect on what elements of the Christmas festivities are meaningful to me. I think the most important element is being with loved ones. Gifts and Santa might be symbols of that love, but they ultimately don't really matter all that much. What matters are the thoughtful and loving behaviors, gestures, and expressions of our connections with others.
Paul and Jeremy invited Johnnie and I over for Christmas dinner. They live in a charming mint green house atop a hill overlooking Athens, Ohio. Jeremy's a blogger, too, and it was interesting to hear how he feels his blog is a collaboration with Paul. They talk over subjects for entries and Paul often will edit Jeremy's writing after he's done.
I suppose collaboration could be the theme of our meal, as well, since everyone made something. Johnnie got up early to make his pumpkin pecan pie with homemade crust. I made a salad with baby greens, raspberries, pecans, pear, and raspberry vinaigrette as well as green beans with tarragon. Paul made delicious sweet potatoes and Jeremy made a wild rice dressing and gravy. I think they both helped with the turkey and cookies. Our meal was quite delicious, as well as lovely to look at. Although I took pictures of my own plate, I found Paul's plate more aesthetically pleasing.
Here's a picture of Johnnie's pie.
Underneath the pecan layer was a base of pumpkin pie. We ate our pie in the living room looking at the lovely view and the sophisticated tree decorated with white and blue ornaments. I enjoyed our discussion as we watched the wintry day become a peaceful night.
Thanks to Paul and Jeremy for the good food, friendly conversation, and great generosity to us.
Johnnie loves Thai food, so we tried a couple of restaurants while he was here. One that we like all right for take out is Bangkok Restaurant (1627 East Ashlan Avenue). And the last night Johnnie was here, we went to Sweet Ginger Thai Cuisine (3050 W Shaw Ave Ste. #105). Neither are great, so (now that I've found good Mexican) I'm now engaged in a new search to find good Thai.
Nevertheless, we shared some good moments at Sweet Ginger. First, I enjoyed the spring rolls with two sauces. The vegetables were crisp, balancing nicely with the soft rice noodles, and the peanut sauce was . . . peanutty!
I also really enjoyed the Pad Se-ew with tofu. I like the sweet sauce that covers the noodles and the mix of veggies and tofu.
I also enjoyed what I ordered, the Masaman Curry that comes with potatoes, carrots, and peanuts, although the green curry tasted like there had been problems in the kitchen that night--some kind of cardboard-like flavor infused the sauce.
Of course, the thing I most enjoyed about the evening was having Johnnie meet Samina, Alex, Maya, and Cyrus. Although Johnnie and Samina both feel like they know each other through me, they had really only met when Johnnie attended Samina's presentation the first weekend we met. I'm glad they were able to spend a little time together before he left, since they are two of my favorite people in the world.
Still, Million Elephant is my favorite Fresno Thai so far, but I'm open to trying new places.
I'm obsessed with food right now. Maybe it has something to do with the beginning of winter--fresh produce and herbs are harder to come by (heirloom tomatoes are just a vague memory) and cravings for comfort food have taken me over. I buy new cookbooks (Get Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food . . . NOW!), and I'm reading Julie Powell's memoir about the year that she made every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume One (it's called Julie and Julia if you haven't read it yet, or check out the blog where it all began: The Julie/Julia Project). I've also been adding a lot of food blogs to my personal RSS Reader. My favorite is still The Girl Who Ate Everything. I also love the photography on La Tartine Gourmande and I've marked the most recipes on Well Fed.
I made 11 entries on my food blog during the month of November, while on The Icing I only made 3. I still love The Icing, really I do. It's just that I ate a lot of good food in November and I wanted to blog about it.
My refrigerator is full of food. Johnnie returned to Ohio this morning, so now it's up to me to eat through my provisions. If you haven't entered my food blog on your RSS Reader yet, please do. I foresee some cooking in my future.
Last week, Johnnie and I visited Tom in Santa Cruz. Tom has been living there this semester in an attempt to breathe better air (Fresno air quality is horrible, if you didn't know). While grooving to the sounds of Chic, we toured Tom's new digs, complete with mannequins embedded in the backyard upside down (his roommate is an artist). Then, we decided to go downtown for lunch. At first, we thought we'd go get sushi, but somehow we ended up at Cafe La Vie, an organic, vegetarian restaurant. The restaurant is located in what looks to have once been an automobile display showroom--in other words, floor to ceiling windows in a curved front. Decorated in a Polynesian motif (according to the website), bamboo plants adorn each table and the backs of the chairs are wicker.
Both Johnnie and Tom started off with freshly made juice: Johnnie had a natural ginger ale and Tom had an orange, carrot, and celery drink. I think both drinks contained quite a bit of ginger, enough to give each swallow a strong kick.
Johnnie's vegetable barley soup arrived next. The presentation, with its lopsided bowl, was cute, but the soup just wasn't that tasty, in Johnnie's opinion.
Tom ordered the Ginger Yum Yum Bowl: noodles, carrots, scallions, and more ginger. I'm not sure that Tom loved this dish, but he did take it home to finish later . . . so I think he at least liked it.
Johnnie had the veggie burger with coconut aioli, avocado, tomato, and spinach on a sprouted wheat bun. I had major food envy when I saw his plate. Being the great guy he is, Johnnie gave me half his burger, and I can attest to its messy, flavorful goodness. I had to eat it with a fork . . . eventually. Johnnie enjoyed the salad, too: a mixture of crisp lettuces, julienned vegetables, and a sweet dressing.
I ordered the Live Sample Platter which included three appetizers. At the top of this picture, you see the autumn rolls: stringed beets, carrots and green onions wrapped in a thin slice of zucchini. I dipped these in the ginger sauce in the center. On the right is the No Bean Hummus. Although it may be hard to believe, hummus made without beans is still good! La Vie combines tahini, jicama, sunflower seeds, lemon juice and spices in their version. I really enjoyed dipping the carrots and zucchini in the hummus. At the bottom of the plate is the Caprese: sundried tomato cashew cheese on top of a walnut/vegetable cracker. I think all of this food, even the cracker, was made from raw ingredients. I could eat this platter every day for lunch--lots of veggies and dipping sauces. Perfect.
I first remember eating with raw foodists in about 1986--lunch at a friend's house in Santa Monica. I loved the sunflower sprouts on the salad and enjoyed the simple dates for dessert. Although I know I'll never become a raw foodist, after this meal I think I could and should incorporate more raw fruits and veggies in my diet. Raw food flavors are so crisp and clean.
