The Pescy Gourmet

Farmer's Market Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Chantrelle) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:53:00 +0000

Wednesday nights are my night to experiment with different ingredients within a similar dish. I get Ahi at the farmers market and see what I can dice together. All the ingredients except the salt, pepper, pine nuts and nanami togarashi are from the farmer's market or my garden.

Tonight:
Ahi (obviously)
1 clove garlic
1 medium shallot
1 avocado
1/2 of a cucumber
a handful of toasted pine nuts
juice of one lemon
4 baby green onions
a handful of basil from the garden
a few sprigs of parsley (also from the garden)
yummy olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
nanami togarashi sprinkled on top

Everything minced or diced accordingly.

Mix, eat on toast and love life.

Balzac

noreply@blogger.com (Chantrelle) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:10:00 +0000

Balzac - inside La Stampa Hotel & Spa
35 Dawson Street, Dublin, D2, Ireland
Phone: (353) 1 677 4444

I couldn't eat at Boccaccio every night, so I poked around online to try to find somewhere else in Dublin with edible fare. I found a few good references to Balzac so we decided to check it out. Like the rest of Dublin, it follows the trend of ridiculously high prices and exorbitant wine markups. Unlike most of the other places we've been to however, the food was good as well (not just expensive).

I ordered the Poulet Vert - Herb Roasted Poussin, Watercress and Lemon. This is not "first date" food, at least not for me. I can't have a whole bird served to me and dissect it with only my knife and fork; I dive in with my hands and I'm a mess. But luckily this time I was a mess of flavorful juicy poultry. On the side I got the green salad which was supposed to be served with the French dressing (which I hate) so they dressed it with a simple vinaigrette for me which was very tasty. There are much more elaborate dishes available on the menu but I took the safe route based on experiences of other Dublin restaurants falling short. I think I chose wisely, they did this classic dish very well.

Along with the meal we got a bottle of Gevrey Chambertin Burgundy. Overpriced but familiar, a very good bottle.

For dessert I also chose what I thought was a safe route. I got the Raspberries with Lemon Cream and Lavender Shortbread. The lemon cream was inedibly sweet. I just stuck with the raspberries and the buttery lavender shortbread.

Of the fancy pants restaurants in Dublin that we've been to, I think the food here was decent. If told I had to return to one of the pricey places I've been to, I'd choose this one. How's that for a backhanded compliment?

Boccaccio Ristorante Italiano

noreply@blogger.com (Chantrelle) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:05:00 +0000

Boccaccio Ristorante Italiano
18 Dame Street
Dublin 2, Ireland
Phone: (+353) 1 679 7049

I've been to Dublin twice now. The first trip was in the summer of 2006, the latest was just this past June. Sure, there's the Book of Kells, churches that are nearly 1000 years old, but what about the food!? Both times I tried to do my research as to where to eat, and although Dublin is coming into its own as a tourist destination with a couple of Michelin stars, I could not find a restaurant I wanted to return to for a second meal. That is until we found Boccaccio.

It has very much the same atmosphere as Limoncello, in fact every meal at Boccaccio closes with a complementary shot of limoncello. So in brief it's everything I love about Italian cuisine: a relaxed atmosphere, a family feel, and phenomenal food.

We went there twice in the week that we stayed in Dublin. The first night I ordered Linguine al Granchio (Pasta with crab meat claw, spring onion and fresh tomato concasse). The crab-tomato sauce concoction can easily be muddled. Either you can't taste the crab, or the crab takes over with the fishy/wharfy taste -- neither of these problems existed at Boccaccio. The crab was fresh and added a creaminess to the tomato with more than a hint of spice.

We ventured back the night before our plane was to leave which was a busy Saturday night. We didn't have reservations and the place was packed. After giving my sob story of wanting to eat there one more time before flying back to the states, they fit us into a table as long as we could order, eat, and get out of there before a huge party was arriving at nine o'clock. Deal! I don't need to linger, I just want the food!

This time I ordered the simple dish that so many restaurants don't seem to be able to master, Spaghetti alla Bolognese. This was a classic ground beef version, nothing fancy, but high-quality meat that wasn't drowning in sauce; a perfect ratio. With it we ordered the house wine: “Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Perugino Rosso” which, like in any good Italian restaurant, was highly drinkable and didn't break the pocketbook.

Both nights I closed my dinner with the Tartufo Limone with Limoncello (Lemon ice cream with a soft lemon liqueur center coated with chrushed lemon meringue). I was in lemon heaven. It was creamy, it was tart, and with a shot of limoncello poured over it, it had a kick! I highly recommend it, along with the light-as-a-cloud Tiramisu.

I don't know if I'll find myself in Dublin again anytime soon. It's an incredibly expensive city to visit. But at least now I know that if I do go back, I have a place to eat... and eat, and eat.

Black China Cafe

noreply@blogger.com (Chantrelle) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:30:00 +0000

Black China Cafe
1121 Soquel Ave.
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
(831) 460-1600

Given that I just grabbed a sandwich to go, this review is based on very limited input. Having said that, the sandwich was exquisite. They called it an open faced sandwich, but it was really more like three pieces of bruschetta. Toasted francese with a large pile of delicious hummus (not at all bland or pasty) topped with cucumber, cherry tomatoes, basil, fennel seeds, and sesame seeds. It was the perfect sandwich for a lovely sunny spring day.

Keep an eye on this page, I have a feeling I'll be adding reviews as I go back more often. I have to go back, I didn't come home with any of their famous dessert!!

Gabriella Café

noreply@blogger.com (Chantrelle) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:29:00 +0000

Gabriella Café
910 Cedar St
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
(831) 457-1677

It had been a while since I'd been to Gabriella Café, they seemed to have a slight downturn in the kitchen a couple years ago, but that is the case no longer. We had an outstanding meal.

Since it was my husband's birthday, we started the meal off with a 1998 Roederer champagne. It was lovely with the amuse bouche sent out by the chef: an oyster with lentil "caviar." The oyster was a perfect size with excellent flavor but I think I needed a squeeze of lemon or a dash of vinegar to bring a little acid to it. Nevertheless, it was a great opener.

We stared at the list of antipasti and salads for quite awhile not able to decide which ones to get. The way we solved that problem was by getting all of them! Well, all but the Pigs Blood which just grossed me out. Anyway, the first to come out was the Chili Mint Shrimp (with green garlic anchovy white bean purée). The shrimp had a good char on the outside, and was cooked flawlessly. Served at the same time, the Seared Kampachi Spine had tremendous flavor but was quite the challenge to eat, seemingly having more bones than flesh. The flavor was so good however, we sucked the bones clean!

The winners of the evening, without question, were Hamachi and the Marinated Asparagus dishes. I eat as much raw fish as I can, so I have a lot of palatial experiences (experiences with the palate) to compare this to. This was some of the best hamachi I have ever had. It was on par with the Ahi we ate in Hawaii that was just an hour out of the water. Complementing it were two fried sides: a shrimp polpettini that wasn't overwhelmingly shrimpy just scrumptious, and fried spring onion, both of which added a good contrast to the freshness of the fish by being fried and crunchy (and I'm not typically a huge fan of fried food). The asparagus dish was served with a rustic salsa verde which was acidic, smoky, buttery and overall just yummy. The asparagus was perfectly crunchy and a wonderful, fresh reminder that it is spring. It also included "Upland Cress" which is a type of cress I'd never tried; it had a nuttiness similar to arugula but with an almost musty flavor, I'll have to keep an eye out for this market, I very much enjoyed it.

Having moved on from the Roederer, we needed a hearty red wine to go with our entr&actue;es. The chef recommended a Ridge Lytton Springs, and although we would have loved it, we've got that in our cellar and wanted to try something we didn't have. So we went with a 2005 Alfeo Super Tuscan.
I have to say, it went very well with my braised beef cheeks. If you would have told me a couple of years ago that I would be ordering beef cheeks, I would've thought you were insane. I remember watching an Iron Chef episode back when it was on the Japanese station and just subtitled—pre-Food Network bastardization of the show—entitled Hohoniku Confront! a.k.a. Battle Beef Cheek. They were so excited about the portion of the cow that they got to use for this battle, the commentators had the on screen drawing tools they use for football games, which they were using to point out the perfectly gelatinous-looking areas of the beef cheek that were the best to eat. I think I may now understand the love. The meat had all the flavor of a slow cooked stew meat, but was amazingly tender and buttery, not at all stringy, with the ideal amount of texture. It was supposed to have been served with polenta, but that already had cheese in it so that was out for me, so they substituted a braised Umbrian Chicerchia herb salad instead. The Chicerchia is a cross between a fava bean and a chick pea and that is exactly what it tastes like. I would say that's another thing I want to look for in the market but fava beans are so much work to shuck, if these are the same, I will never make them! I'll leave that to the fancy-pants chefs at places like Gabriella.

The dessert menus came and I was shocked to see that there wasn't a single chocolate dessert on the menu… what was I to do? Well I wasn't disappointed. I ordered the "peas and carrots" which I was pretty positive didn't involve peas or carrots. It was gelato prepared in a way that reminded me of a terrine without the wiggly-Jello aspect: pastel layers of gelato. I much prefer this preparation!

We had a meal without disappointment, with a few surprises, and a desire to return soon to an old favorite haunt.

Tavernetta Limoncello

noreply@blogger.com (Chantrelle) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:08:00 +0000

Tavernetta Limoncello
503 Water Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
(831) 427-0998

I've been driving by Limoncello meaning to go there for a while. We finally decided, somewhat on a whim on Saturday night, to try out dinner there. Not the smartest move on Saturday night on Easter weekend, without a reservation. But we waited for about half an hour, and got a table outside. While waiting we could hear everyone raving as they left the restaurant after wonderful meals. I couldn't wait for mine.

I started with an antipasti of Crostini di Melanzane al Funghetto (Toasted bread topped with fried eggplant, garlic, tomato, parmesan and Romano cheese). If you been reading my reviews for awhile though, you know that I got it without cheese. It was absolutely fantastic. The eggplant had no bitterness in it whatsoever, and was cooked perfectly. I shared one piece (with cheese) with my husband, and devoured the other three pieces myself.

For my main course I got the Strozzapreti al Sugo di Carne (Corkscrew egg pasta in a southern italian style meat sauce). I just recently began eating meat again. I'm not sure what changed, but it started tasting good to me again after 15 years of not eating it. I love how many more things I can eat off the menu now and after ordering this particular dish, I'm really happy I fell off the wagon. It wasn't just a ground beef Bolognese sauce, it had what I believe were whole pork spareribs, but given that meat is new to me again, I'm not the best at identifying it yet. No matter what it was it was delicious! One of the things that is still creepy to me about eating meat is gnawing flesh off a bone, this was so good I had no problem with that this time! I was munching away!

My 3 1/2 year old son got the Linguine Li Galli (Flat spaghetti with a tomato, onion, caper sauce). He's a huge fan of the caper. He was not disappointed either, the capers were huge and there were plenty of them. It's always a bonus to find a very good restaurant that is kid friendly and still has amazing food (like here, Ristorante Avanti, and Caffe Lucio).

The waiter was very adamant that nothing in the kitchen is "precooked.." Apparently there are a lot of people who don't understand the "slow food" concept in this town. Caffé Lucio also had to post a sign that cooking fresh food takes time and you need to be patient. Even when dining with a three-year-old I understand that there's going to be a wait, actually I expect there to be a wait, if there isn't one I get worried. Everything was served in a reasonable amount of time and what little wait we had was filled by a lovely 2001 Castello Romitorio Brunello di Montelcino. I think Brunello is my favorite Italian wine. It never seems to disappoint.

The only problem with the meal was that I couldn't finish it! Really not a problem in the end, since I also got to have for lunch today.

I'm already looking forward to heading back and I really want to try their paninis at lunch. But now I know reservations are highly, highly recommended! It is popular for good reason, we had an excellent meal. Santa Cruz is definitely not lacking for a good Italian meal. But just like Italy, each place has their own style, specialty, and flair. Welcome back to the neighborhood Limoncello!

Addendum: I popped into Limoncello for lunch today. I was torn, so I asked the waiter if I should get the Panino con Bistecchina (Marinated flank steak in homemade bread) or the Cacuzzo con Calamari al Sugo (Calamari in a spicy tomato sauce in hollow bread loaf). He confidently recommended the flank steak and, not having had the calamari, I don't know if it's better, but I wasn't let down with the recommendation. I was trying to decipher what the marinade was, and was told it was a secret, but all I could figure out was fennel seeds. I think that was the best steak sandwich I've ever had.
For dessert I got what was, I think, their signature dessert. It was a frozen parfait swirled with frozen limoncello yumminess. It was pretty as well as delicious and I could have easily devoured three or four of those, but really I was stuffed.!
So Limoncello has my wholehearted recommendation for both lunch and dinner!!

Shogun

noreply@blogger.com (Chantrelle) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:09:00 +0000

Shogun Japanese Restaurant
1123 Pacific Ave
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
(831) 469-4477

When I go to places regularly, I tend to forget to review them. I have a hard time choosing which meal to review, which dishes to talk about, and due to my indecision, nothing gets written. I've been going to Shogun for years. I've never once had bad food. I've never once had mediocre food. It's always the freshest fish, the largest portions, and all-around excellent cuisine.

I just had lunch there today. I always try to get an assortment of fish so I can sample all the wares. Today I got an Hamachi Sashimi appetizer, a Nancy Roll (maguro, avocado, cucumber, macadamia nuts), and fresh Sake nigiri. No matter how many times I eat there, I'm always amazed at the size of the slices of nigiri. This time the salmon tasted more like butter than fish. The Nancy Roll is one of my favorites, combining maguro with the exquisite fattiness of avocado and macadamia nuts and adding cucumber to cut through that fat. And when I'm not hungry enough to order more than one thing, which really never happens, I will always choose the Hamachi Sashimi as my one dish. It never fails to please.

There is a lot of sushi competition in this town, not as much as taqueria competition, but I keep coming back to Shogun. It's consistent and good, and those are two things that are very important when you're talking about sushi more than most any other food.