Amy's Food Adventures

A Tale of Two Dinners

On Wednesday eveing I had dinner with a client at one of the best restaurants in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Savonna in Gulf Mills, PA. It's a very plush Mediterranean restaurant that specializes in seafood, inserted into a colonial-era building (it was once a fairly dreadful restaurant called the Picket Post Inn). Its chef, Domonic Filoni was just named one of the ten best new chefs in the U.S. by Food and Wine magazine.

No one (at least no one I've ever met) has had a bad meal at Savonna. The food is great, the service impeccable, and the wine list nearly endless. We were no exception. I had sauteed foie gras with a fruit conserve and buttery toasts, followed by roasted Chilean sea bass with truffled mashed potatoes, baby leeks, and cauliflower. No one passes on Savonna's dessert menu, certainly not me. I selected the Peach Trio, a tiny glass of Peach Foam, a miniature peach tart, and a single slice of peach in a sugar glaze. My comrades (who had feasted on duck and Bronzini (a Mediterranean fish), selected souffles in a decadent Chocolate and a summery Raspberry.

While I was navigating through that, sighing pleasurably (and singing for my supper), my husband was eating his way through some leftovers that I think he enjoyed just as much. I had made a batch of Picadillo, a South American savory dish of sauteed ground beef flavored with chopped onions and garlic, ginger, chopped fresh hot peppers, tomatoes, raisins, and pine nuts. It simmers a bit (with some wine, stock or water to make the ingredients into a saucy mixture) and then gets served over rice.

Now I need to eat more carefully, so we'll have some fish for the next few days, I think.

Just a Little Italian Dinner

When we want to have friends over (any number of friends) for a really nice afternoon or evening of food and drink and we mainly want to spend time with them, not in the kitchen, we've learned to do the shopping and cooking the day before and offer them this justly popular Italian meal. It's really more about assembling good things than cooking, although you can do as much cooking as you like. It's infinitely expandable -- you can make as much of anything as you need or you can just add more dishes.

This Sunday, we served:

A table full of antipasto: ripe canteloupe slices and figs with slices of Prosciutto; fresh Mozzarella cheese with red and yellow tomato slices and basil leaves, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil; roasted beets, cut into wedges, dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and toped with bits of goat cheese and pine nuts; a platter of roasted peppers, long stem artichockes and asparagus, all with balsamic vinaigrette and lots of decorative fresh herbs; assorted breads and butter. You could add a cheese board, Italian sliced meats, a bowl of white bean salad with Italian tuna, or some slices of the French version of pizza, dense with soft cooked onions and decorated with black olives or anchovies.

We followed it with a room temperature filet mignon roast served with a green herb dressing (just parsley and cilantro chopped with lots of garlic and a jalapeno pepper, then mixed with fresh lime juice and ollive oil), and a casserole of polenta slices (from a roll), topped with parmesan cheese and baked until crispy. You could add a roasted chicken or a loin of pork, and, of course, more vegetables or a green salad.

We ended with a huge bowl of mixed berries topped with Lemon Chantilly (Lemon Curd mixed with Whipped Cream) and Coffee. For a big party, we would have added a big cake or two and an assortment of little cookies and chocolates.

Lots of red wine flowed and a good time was had by all. Total cooking time, by the way, was less than 3 hours.

In Texas Nearly Everything is Big

More time on the road. Saturday I spent a lovely afternoon eating in the kind of personal, old-time restaurant that mainly survives in small places. The Peanut Bar in Reading, PA started out as a Prohibition Era roadhouse and has morphed into a friendly (peanut shells on the floor) bar restaurant, where the food doesn't look or taste like every other chain. We enjoyed especially their crab-based features including a Crab in Alfredo Sauce in a puff paste shell and a crab and avocado salad. Note: homemade desserts, including local Pennsylvania Dutch-style specialties like chocolate pretzel pie, to die for. Then we got to the real reason for our trip. A visit to the Reading Art Museum (another local treasure), which was offering a special show on glass maestro Dale Chihuly. Maybe you have to be Bill Gates to afford his chandeliers (which go for tens of thousands of dollars and up), but anyone can enjoy an afternoon being dazzled with what this talented northwestern artist does in glass.

Unfortunately, my next meal on the road was aboard an American Airlines flight to Dallas. They thought that a 3 hour and 45 minute flight didn't deserve food so I had to wait until I arrived at the Gaylord Texas resort (a city unto itself), just six miles from Dallas Airport, to eat. But first I had to traverse the miles from the giant lobby through the giant corridors to my giant suite. Even the bed was more than king-sized!

My room service meal was giant sized, too. Another episode in my continuing saga to find a hotel which actually possesses a recipe for Caesar Salad (not this one). But they did have this great corn meal-based crisp, loaded with berries and served with (no surprise) a giant amount of lemon ice cream.

I was at the Gaylord for a Rational Software Developers' Conference and I can't leave without mentioning the ironic and excellent meal I had in Ama Lur, Stephen Pyles Texas-style tapas restaurant. You will recall that tapas are the small plates served in Spain as appetizers or, indeed (if you eat enough of them) a complete and very tasty meal. Ama Lur has a huge selection of tapas but they seem confused about what size portion to serve. Some of the tapas were pretty small (seviche, corn meal cakes with black beans, grilled meats), but some of them were enormous (a stack of chili flavored onion strings was at least 8" tall and covered a dinner plate). No one complained, however; the food was too good.

You don't want to hear about the delectable non-food American Airlines served on the flight home. Let's just say that two slices of cucumber, a wedge of tomato and four bits of lettuce are not a salad and that pizza crusts are supposed to be made of dough, not cardboard.

I think I'll cook my own dinners for a while!

Summer Cooking

When we are picking tomatoes and basil on the terrace, it must be summer.

So it's time to break out some of our favorite vegetarian recipes. This week we had eggplant lasagne, always a hit. It's a version of lasagne, without noodles.

Cut an eggplant lengthwise in thin (1/4") slices; place them on a sprayed cookie sheet, spray the top sides, and cook under the broiler for just long enough to brown lightly. turn and brown the other side. reserve.

Mix an egg into a pint of skim Ricotta cheese and add 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley, 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese, a minced clove or two of garlic, and lots of freshly ground black pepper.

Slice a large onion and brown in olive oil with 3 sliced cloves of garlic and 8 ounces of sliced mushrooms.

Spray a 9x13" pan and layer it with tomato sauce, eggplant slices, ricotta mix, onion mix, 4 ounces of shredded mozzarella. Repeat. End with another layer of tomato sauce and a few spoonfuls of grated parmesan.

Bake covered at 350 for 45 minutes and uncovered for another 10 minutes. Let settle for 10 minutes before serving.

IN LA

Don't ask about the dreadful food I ate on the airplane on the way out here, but let me tell you about the great dinner I had at Patina at the Disney Center (the new symphony hall). Sitting outside, in a bamboo forest, amid bat-winged black umbrellas in LA's dusk we ate incredible seafood (a quartet sampler of Diver scallop Napoleon, seared tuna, lobster salad, and yellowtail with frozen Ponzu sauce). I had a torchon of fois grasse with peach sorbet and peaches, followed by seared fois grasse served with brandied cherries and a piece of brioche french toast. With 45 cheeses on the cheese cart, I couldn't pass it up. I had Epoisses de Borgogne, Rochebaron (a creamy blue) and Irish Cashel Blue, with candied almonds, dried apricots, and wondrous dark raisin nut bread. Yum!

Hot Holiday Weekend

The Fourth of July was hot and muggy in Philadelphia. That meant we went for lots of cold soups and simple grilled stuff. No one was into doing much cooking until it cooled off.

But the markets bursting with summer produce are very secutive. It's hard to pass up all the goodies even if they lure you to the stove. So some cooking took place.

Every spring and summer we eat lots of Asparagus Soup. It's very simple, quick, and delicious. Saute a chopped onion in a tablespoon of butter until softened. Add 1-1/2 to 2 pounds of cleaned asparagus, cut into 1" lengths. Mix it into the buttered onion and saute for a few minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of flour (I use Wondra), stir, and cook for a minute. Then add a can of chicken stock, 6 cups of water, salt and pepper, and a tsp of thyme. Stir it all together and cook for about 20 minutes until the asparagus is tender.
The sensible thing to do next is to let the soup cool down. I do if I have time. In any case, what you want to do is to put all of the solids and some (perhaps a cup) of the liquid into a blender and puree it. Then reunite it all and reheat, adding some cream (anything from half-and-half to heavy), until it seems right to you. Retaste for salt -- it usually needs a bit more.

This is, by the way, the recipe for all kinds of vegetable soups, French style. I've made carrots, leeks, leek and potato, potato, mushroom (add some dried, soaked porcini), and countless combinations.

We also had an English Colonial dinner one night -- a kind of tamed-down Chicken Curry which I've been eating for at least 30 years. It's so easy it's embarrassing -- the original version came from a 1960's diet book, although we've gussied it up a bit since then. Mix three cups of buttermilk with a tablespoon of garlic powder (not garlic salt and not real garlic -- neither of them work here); combine with a few brisk turns of the whisk. Now use that to marinate pieces of chicken. We used whole chickens cut into eight pieces in the old days, skin, bones and all. Nowadays, I'm likely to cheat and use a few boneless and skinless halved breasts and four to six boneless and skinless thighs. It can marinate, covered, in the refrigerator, for up to 24 hours. When you're ready to cook it, saute a big onion, chopped in a tablespoon of butter or vegetable oil until softened, then add 3 tablespoons of flour and 3 tablespoons of curry powder and stir. Cook for a minute. Add the grated rind of a lemon and a 1" piece of peeled ginger, grated (or a tablespoon of ginger paste). Stir and mix some of the buttermilk marinade into the spiced onions. Then add the chicken pieces and the rest of the marinade. Bring to a simmer and cook gently for about 45 to 50 minutes until the chicken is tender. Serve with basmati rice and chutney. We'd add a bowl of cucumber raita (chopped or grated cucumber mixed into plain yogurt, seasoned with a small bit of cayenne). If you like, you can spice up the chicken with a minced fresh hot pepper or two, added with the lemon rind. And you can add a handful of raisins, too, if you like a sweet and spicy taste.

On the Fourth of July, our daughter was our hostess, hinting mysteriously of something more interesting than hamburgers and hot dogs, our traditional menu. She certainly came up with something special! The meal started with gazpacho, from our family recipe, then went on to big pork chops, grilled with halved apricots and quartered heads of radichio (all brushed with olive oil). All of the grilled delectables were presented topped with a balsamic vinaigrette mixed with shallots. They were served with the first corn of the season and a potato dish rather like a Spanish torte, thinly sliced potatoes baked with cheese and eggs. Dessert was strawberries and blueberries over sponge cake, topped with unsweetened whipped cream and a few pecans. I think Florence can be in charge of all of our holiday meals from now on!

San Francisco

Eating in San Francisco is always an embarrassment of riches. Sometimes we opt for nothing but new restaurants we've been reading about in Bon Appetit and Gourmet and Food and Wine. Sometimes we prefer to revisit old favorites (there are lots of those). Sometimes we're so busy working that food is not the point, although San Francisco will treat you kindly even when you don't have much time for food. There is good, casual cafe- and trattoria-style food on nearly every corner.

This time, after a few days embedded in a very cold hotel in Santa Clara, eating banquet menu and room service food, I was ready for something more interesting.

We stuck mainly with old favorites, visiting Rose Pistola, a wonderful casual Italian restaurant in North Beach (which has Italian restaurants of every description). Rose Pistola is modern and has sumptuous food. We like it because it has an emphasis on appetizers and fish. Sometimes I just have a lot of appetizers. Who can resist a chickpea crepe (as on the waterfront in Nice), topped with carmelized onions and black olives or a salad of roasted peaches and arugla sprinkled with Balsamic vinegar? They also have divine pastas, risottos, and gnocchi. At the next table, a couple was sharing a giant platter (a tray, really) of a variety of fish and seafood, fried or broiled, and decorated with grilled vegetables and lemons. So much that they kept trying to get us to eat some. It's that kind of place.

We also visited old friend The Fog City Dinner, down near the waterfront. We've been coming here for years and it's always good. Again, they have lots of great appetizers and many guests make a selection of them a meal, but they also have plenty of "regular" entrees. The food here is imaginative and cross cultural including things like my husband's favorite red curry mussel stew (it includes tidbits of fresh piineapple), a raw bar, breads you can order from the menu (they're worth the price), lots of sea food specialties (I had a tuna tartare and they also have a tuna ceviche) such as crab cakes with aoili. Desserts (of course) to die for.

We found a new restaurant, recommended by the concierge, as "just around the corner" from our hotel. Scala's is an Italian Trattoria with a much more sophisticated and eclectic menu than you'd expect (and a waiting list if you don't have a reservation). The food is great, ranging from seared foie gras and amazing salads to lots of pasta choices and interesting presentations of fish and meat. Good service and a very nice wine list. So good we tried to go back and couldn't get in (one hour plus wait!).

We almost never go to San Francisco without a visit to Yank Sing. This multi location diem sum restaurant has the best diem sum in San Francisco (perhaps the best in the U.S. -- not the best in the world -- we've had better in Singapore and Canton). The selection is amazing. Many kinds of steamed dumplings, including not just pork and shrimp, but also chicken and black mushroom, seafood, scallop, and many others. We love the Chicken Curl (chopped chicken served in a lettuce leaf), the Peking Duck presented with its own tiny steamed bun (we've never seen it served this way anywhere else), the fried and steamed fresh fishes, and the vast assortment of stuffed things -- green and hot peppers, eggplant, etc. They also have wonderful Chinese desserts, including fruits filled with their own flavors of gelatin. All served in an elegant setting. And yes, it does cost twice as much as diem sum at home, but it's definitely worth it.

We couldn't get to Yank Sing on our first try because San Francisco's Gay Pride Parade was in the way (literally, our cab couldn't get across town). So, since we had tickets to see Fahrenheit 9/11 we had lunch at a small restaurant near the theater on Van Ness -- a little Peruvian place where the best thing was the incredible sauces, a fierce pink pepper sauce and a wonderful green sauce based on cilantro, onions, garlic, parsley, oil and vinegar. The waiter said it's meant for grilled meat or chicken, but we ate it dipped onto bread! Little restaurants like this, with their treasures of enthic soups, appetizers, and main dishes, largely unaltered to suit homogenized tastebuds, are one of the real treats of San Francisco. We had grilled seafood, a worthy sauce vector, and lots of beer.

Next time (August) I'm planning on being more adventurous and trying some new places.