Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Wonderful Panchan
The generosity and masterful cooking prowess of the Korean restaurant never cease to amaze and delight me.
This is all the stuff you get free with your meal!
Fried Cookie
Not much background explanation needed, it is clearly a battered and deep-fried oreo cookie, but these were surprisingly good.
Seriously, they whip the fried snickers bar and scotch egg with authority.
And they pair marvelously with Gordon Biersch Marzen.
Disfrute!
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Ruth's Chris, Underacheiver
Ruth's Chris, Underacheiver
The bowl of cheese next to the steak is actually the gratin the restaurant is semi-known for. It is sad when you can get recognition for your starch just by adding 5lbs of cheese to it. I like cheese as much as the next person, but two inches of it melted over some diced undercooked potatoes doesn't make a good gratin.
The steak was tough and sinewy, and the flavor really wasn't very good at all. I ordered it rare, thinking that was the best way to experience a steak served at a place that is known for good steaks. Also, I really like rare meat. There was no good tender meat, though, and it actually tasted like it might be a little off.
For the steak and the cheese and raw potato soup it was $50. I would never go there again anyway, but the bus boy spitting on the sidewalk in front of my patio table cinched it. Ruth's Chris is a loser.
A few to choose from..
If you click the picture you can read the print on the board. A staggering selection, served up by enthusiastic-cheese worshipping communists, er...I mean, employee owners.
The Classics
Paul Fernandez, Old Fashioned
I wrote a post, but blogger ate it again. So, basically the drink is an old fashioned. It is good. Try it at the Hedley Club, ask for Paul.
Ciao.
Trout a la Fabulous!
La Pastaia makes a perfectly tender and wonderful trout that is butterflied and then turned inside out so the skin is in the middle, wrapped around rosemary and lemon, and the perfectly cooked, crisp filets outside are surrounded with prosciutto. Can I get an "Amen," brothers and sisters?
Hey, kid! Get me a popsicle!
Communing With Nature
OK, so it isn't really food related, but I'm sure that kid would have bit the walrus if not for that pesky glass. And, I wanted to try out my phone camera at the Indianapolis Zoo.
Coo coo ca choo...
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Um, Si-NO.
Truly awful.
Somehow I felt compelled to try it. I've visited every restaurant in Santana Row at least once, and being known as an eater, people rely on me to know about such things, so I have to try everyplace at least once.
Now, I have suffered for you, so that you don't have to. I have paid money for gross food, dirty dishes, chipped plates, smokers sitting next to me and rude staff. Please honor my sacrifice by heeding this advice: Stay away! I saw so many things wrong with this restaurant, I can't even list them all here.
Let me begin by saying I am also not a fan of Straits, which is also in Santana Row and owned by the same people, or company, or "recruiters-of-the-worst-service-staff-of-all-time" or whatever they are. Straits has a wonderful pan-asian menu and some good drink ideas (the ginger infused vodka is nice.) The food even tastes pretty good. My problem with it is that I once had a bartender there serve my martini in a wine glass, because, and I quote, he was "sick of washing glasses tonight." If that weren't bad enough, (I mean, what do I care? Pour the cold gin right in my cupped hands, whatever) he made the drink in a dirty shaker, so it came out with lime pulp from kamikazis or cosmos or something. Ick. I mean, ick. Surreal.
So after a few months, I go back, don't ask me why I am so forgiving. And when my gentleman companion mentions that we might only have dessert, the hostess, halfway to our table, tells us we can't sit down-we have to sit at the bar if we're not having dinner. Strange policy, rudely delivered. Not that it matters, but the restaurant wasn't even half full. And don't think for a second about cover averages, because we drink and we drink expensive. We have no hobbies except eating and drinking. It pays to seat us. OK, anyway, I'm not a fool and I didn't have high expectations of Sino, either. We ordered some dim sum appetizers, which took about 40 minutes. In the mean time, a few servers (?) walked by with dim sum on trays and offered us other things we didn't order. This is just poor design. The reason dim sum works well at real restaurants is that you get the things off the carts (where they are hot and covered by the way), as they go by. You don't order and then wait while uncovered trays of cold, dry dumplings make the rounds from under the heat lamps through the dining room. Revolting.
When we did get our food I was sure I had gone too far in my pursuit of restaurant truth-I was sure we were going to get food poisoning. Beef balls were pink inside, crab dumplings were cold. The picture shows plate of crab claw dumplings with the charming garnish of Taco Bell shredded lettuce/carrot mixture and a maraschino cherry. Blegh.
Our drinks also took a long time. Maybe 20 minutes. To get a drink menu. A drink menu with stains and the first page torn off. And the drinks? Disgusting cocktails that sound good and yet taste terrible. I probably couldn't have enjoyed the hot pink gin and rose flavored atrocity less if the bartender walked out from behind the bar and threw it in my face.
A woman on the near the window but still in the restaurant smoked most of her cigarette before being informed that smoking wasn't allowed. I had to get up and find the server and ask him to do this. Also, a couple came in and sat at the table next to us, and after about 10 minutes of neglect they got up and walked out. Another couple came in about a half hour later and sat at the same table where none of the plates and napkins were cleared. The staff let the new couple use those settings!! Including the water! Gross!
Goat Milk Ice Cream, Part 2
Maybe you remember how excited I was that goat milk ice cream even existed?
Well, I could barely contain my enthusiasm when I saw it for sale at my local Whole Foods. You know I am food crazy, so you might not be surprised to hear that I stood for about 20 minutes in front of the freezer trying to decide which flavor to try first.
Pumpkin, for the holidays? Black Mission Fig, because when have you ever seen fig ice cream? Vanilla to appreciate pure, unadultered goatiness? They also had strawberry, which I think would totally go with goat milk, chocolate, chocolate cabernet, and lemon chiffon or something.
I finally settled on two, Pumpkin and Chocolate Cabernet. I feel a little bad about chickening out on the fig, but last time I tried a new fig thing, (Trader Joe's greek yogurt), it was pretty awful. Also, I never liked Newtons. Figs are only good fresh.
Omigod! It just occurred to me that the ice cream, being frozen, could have been flavored with fresh figs! Damn it! Well, clearly I will have to go back to WF tonight.
Anyway, the ride home I was giddy with excitement and trepadation. Would it be super goaty? Creamy? Ice-milk-like? Would I feel stupid for spending $14 on two pints of ice cream? Would I even be able to finish two pints of ice cream? (My record with Ben and Jerry's is not very good, it generally ends up turning to an ice freezer-burned lump with a couple spoonfuls removed.)
So, last night I tried the pumpkin flavor and it was heavenly! Very creamy without being too thick, and with a slight goat kick (heh, heh, "kick"). The fruit and spice flavors were fresh and clean-no trace of fake flavorings or cloying sweetness. Wonderful!
Well, I could barely contain my enthusiasm when I saw it for sale at my local Whole Foods. You know I am food crazy, so you might not be surprised to hear that I stood for about 20 minutes in front of the freezer trying to decide which flavor to try first.
Pumpkin, for the holidays? Black Mission Fig, because when have you ever seen fig ice cream? Vanilla to appreciate pure, unadultered goatiness? They also had strawberry, which I think would totally go with goat milk, chocolate, chocolate cabernet, and lemon chiffon or something.
I finally settled on two, Pumpkin and Chocolate Cabernet. I feel a little bad about chickening out on the fig, but last time I tried a new fig thing, (Trader Joe's greek yogurt), it was pretty awful. Also, I never liked Newtons. Figs are only good fresh.
Omigod! It just occurred to me that the ice cream, being frozen, could have been flavored with fresh figs! Damn it! Well, clearly I will have to go back to WF tonight.
Anyway, the ride home I was giddy with excitement and trepadation. Would it be super goaty? Creamy? Ice-milk-like? Would I feel stupid for spending $14 on two pints of ice cream? Would I even be able to finish two pints of ice cream? (My record with Ben and Jerry's is not very good, it generally ends up turning to an ice freezer-burned lump with a couple spoonfuls removed.)
So, last night I tried the pumpkin flavor and it was heavenly! Very creamy without being too thick, and with a slight goat kick (heh, heh, "kick"). The fruit and spice flavors were fresh and clean-no trace of fake flavorings or cloying sweetness. Wonderful!
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