Archive for March, 2008

We became the Olive Garden restaurant tonight—at least that was the inspiration.

I built three “dishes,” plus we augmented that with a pre-made blueberry pie for dessert. A prodigious meal, by the time it ended.

Breadsticks

Simple: I halved a French-style baguette, and topped it with EVOO, salt, pepper, and garlic. I augmented one slice with bleu cheese. It was served alongside both the salad and the soup.

Salad

The salad was a big deal, and was served second, after the soup (below).

A composed salad is simply one that builds on layers, not unlike a trifle. This one had a myriad variety of ingredients, leaning on Italian influences. Seen above were the Easter radishes that crowned the lettuces.

We made a house dressing using dried Italian herbs, spicy sweet mustard, EVOO, and red wine/pomegranate vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Carmelized onions were next (above), and below, we add heirloom tomatoes.

Finally, we added more ingredients, including applewood-smoked bacon, artichoke hearts, marinated mozzarella balls, roasted red peppers, and bleu cheese.

Topping all of that was two Italian salumi: spicy and sweet. This salad was simply delicious. A real winner among MessyChef salads.

Asparagus Soup

We also wanted a simple soup. I used the other half of the onion from the salad, and sweated that with garlic in butter; I added in stages an entire bunch of asparagus.

Chicken stock and water added flavor to the soup.

The important part is to add the asparagus from the stem-end first, then work your way up to the tips over time. You want the roasted flavor from the first cut, but the bright green from the rest. We puréed the mixture in a blender and combined that with half a small carton of heavy cream.

I supplanted the natural flavors with chili, cayenne, and salt and pepper when the onions were getting started. I like smooth soups; but then you wonder, what is in it? We finished the soup with three flourishes: fresh lemon juice, then sautéed asparagus tips with garlic in bacon fat. I like to remind folks what the flavor is, and some nicely crisped asparagus tips did the job.

As Rachel Ray might say: Yummo!

Great friends to share the enthusiasm of food with helped make the meal special, along with our normal good conversation. The only bad part of the meal was losing some games of Wii tennis. I needed practice!

I finally found the opportunity to try Richmond’s grandest Brazilian meat restaurant, Texas de Brazil, located at the Regency Square Mall in Henrico County. TdB is a national chain, I’ll note, one that on the weekends fires-up flaming torches outside, and features (all the time) a central two-storey wall of wine inside its dining room. Drama is part of the experience at TdB.

The idea at a churrascaria is that different meats (beef, pork, lamb, chicken) are cooked over flames and brought out, cut and dispensed from long swords, right at your table. The swords are the spits by which the meat rotates over flames. The tradition is born from a rustic cooking style of men who lived on the plains. In modern parlance, it means you can summon these meat mongers through symbols on your table (red/green) for a break of meats, to “more meats please!”

The extravagance of having a variety of meat, a splendid food bar, and all you can eat service comes at a cost, of course. But matched was TdB’s service. Two servers were very friendly, and everything was very efficient. You certainly felt well cared-for at TdB.

I started by going to the food bar (some call it a salad bar, but it contained much more than your typical salad bar). Marinated artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, various salume, tomatoes, various cheeses, roasted peppers; there was a lot to be had. Then cooked shrimp, savory mushrooms, potatoes au gratin, and black beans were featured for warm items. They do allow you to only sup from this food bar, if you so choose.

But the meat is where the dining room drama continues: most tasty was their “house special” sirloin steak, pork sausages, and bacon. Less successful was the bacon-wrapped chicken (too dry) and their pork loin (again dry). Every meat had its own unique seasoning, and the variety of meat was impressive.

I had been encouraged to not eat the entire day before going—“you’ll want to save room!” We did leave “stuffed.” It’s an American abundance thing, for sure. And one, despite your politics, you ought to try at some point. TdB is not a restaurant I’d visit often, but it’s nice to know it’s close to home when you want to celebrate with friends, treat out of town guests, or simply satisfy your own personal craving for meat.

Another area TdB shined was through its table-side “extras:” very creamy mashed potatoes and fried cinnamon bananas. What amazed me was how long the mashed (or even whipped) potatoes stayed warm. They were creamy and delicious. The bananas were like a special exotic treat.

Readers may ask how I’d compare TdB with our other local Brazilian steak house, the Impanema Grill. I think the meats at IG have been on par with those of TdB; where one might have a better steak, the other may have a better chicken, etc. The complete dining experience would win at TdB: their food bar is 2-3 notches above what’s offered at IG. But IG is also about half the price for each diner compared to TdB, so you may get what you pay for. If meat is your primary draw, then IG might be the more pragmatic choice.

A new season of Top Chef started tonight on BravoTV.

I love this show. The four losing dishes tonight were sad; but I agreed with who had to go home. Be sure to tune-in next Wednesday!

Several weeks ago (now), we had our good neighborhood friends over for a 3-course dinner: stuffed zucchini, lemon risotto with Asian chicken thighs, and a raspberry cake dessert.

The first course was my favorite, and one I’ve done at least 5 times now. The secret is to stuff the zucchini with a variety of chopped Italian deli meats (mortadella, sopressata, salami, etc.), breadcrumbs, garlic, and parmesan cheese. To stretch what I had this time, I also added back a little bit of what was scooped out of the zucchini. A balsamic glaze completes the picture after they’ve roasted and toasted in the oven.

This combination was less successful. I somehow botched the lemon risotto this time, I am not sure how. The chicken got good reviews. It was tossed with a Joe’s Market-brand sauce (from Ukrop’s) after spending some time in the oven, along with some chopped herbs. The chicken thighs were marinated in a variety of spicy sauces from the Tan-A Asian market.

These were already cut into the right sizes from the Fresh Market. Yum. It was worth it, as making this from scratch was beyond my energy level.

Tonight, while shopping for a gourmet menu, we became so overwhelmed with the task of figuring out what to eat, that we went to go get a sandwich. It was simpler.

Perhaps you’ve eaten at the Quiznos chain before; I actually like their Italian sandwich. It’s well-proportioned, tasty, and even their dressing/sauce is good. I remember going to one that had opened in Avon Lake years ago, next to a new Tops supermarket.

At that franchise, it was always smokey. They did something wrong with their “toasty” oven that it was always burning something, and spewing out smoke. Weeks later it had been tamed, but the smell and smoke still stayed, despite both being reduced considerably.

Move ahead several years. I’ve eaten at Quiznos here and abroad, from an Alaska mall food court, to another franchise here in Virginia, just off Parham Rd. From San Diego to Roanoke. No matter, I always seem to find fault with which ever franchise I visit.

So, might there be something wrong with the corporation that trains these franchise owners? I compare my experience to another well-known sub shop, Subway. I have had mostly great experiences in those stores, by comparison.

Quiznos? It takes forever for the guy to take the order. He wasn’t making any sandwiches when we walked in. Then, I wanted to pay. There’s a girl sitting at the computer surfing the net. She doesn’t budge. The guy is working on more sandwiches. I figure out this girl is the owner’s daugther, maybe she doesn’t work there; well, get her out from behind the counter like she does. Mom is filling dressing bottles. She can’t be bothered to check us out, either. The poor sandwich maker has to do the whole shtick.

And this was a good experience. Go to another one in town, and you have to repeat your order no less than three times (on a good day). That’s right, you’ll be asked what you want, and I’m not kidding, I’ve had to repeat myself three times. Four on one visit; five on another. But mostly it’s three. Is there any reason for this (save for the fact that the kids working there have the short-term memory of a flea)??

The concept of Good or Quality customer service is not part of their training, I can certify that. Another one in town is atrocious. The guy who owned it hired his own kids. They spent the entire time talking on the phone; you couldn’t be bothered to get a word-in for anything. And in the one I visited tonight, they actually posted that “talking on your cell phone while ordering was prohibited.” Prohibited? Yeah, customers, that is rude, but not necessarily more so than the sign.

And what’s with so many of them being dirty? I mean, the places look nasty. All of them I’m recalling here have been nasty dirty. Tonight, the one we visited (at 6:30 PM) had both trash bins chock full. So chock full, in fact, that there was no place to put your garbage or the plastic tray they want you to not put into the trash. We sat ours on top there, crowning the heap of trash. Four employees (or three, if the girl didn’t count), all too busy to really help you a whole lot, and certainly, they couldn’t be bothered to clean the refuse area.

MMMmmmm toasty, sure. But there’s got to be a limit to what we can tolerate with mediocre to poor service, dirty dining rooms, and super-long wait times. And how many times do you need to be asked it you want lettuce on the sandwich when you already told them three times “I want everything on it?”

Evidently in Quiznosland, lettuce isn’t a part of everything.