Archive for May, 2009

Acacia Midtown is located at 2601 Cary Street in Richmond, just east of Carytown.

Inside you will find an inspired menu, minimalist decor, delicious eats, and a dining atmosphere that’s too loud. While some folks like the urban atmosphere (roaring noise from talking and pulsing house music), I’d have liked the whole Acacia experience better with a few decibels less noise. But let’s move on to the food.

The asparagus, shiitake, and duck confit salad was interesting and creative. It forced these separate ingredients together in perhaps “new ways.” Despite the oddness, the dish was cohesive and fit. The dots of sauce were made from Chinese hoisin sauce, which tied to the mushrooms and duck. The asparagus took on a new flavor profile and my appetite was duly piqued.

The appetizer of beef tongue was good, if not a tad on the sour side. I didn’t eat it, but my companion tells me it was a winner.

The grouper was overcooked by just 5 seconds, but it was still a wonderful base for the flavorful sauce scented with sour notes and applewood smoked-bacon. The broccolini was sweet, not bitter, and the combination of two onions was sweet and intense. I paired this with pinot noir, but felt the particular one offered was too acidic for this dish. Pair with something with enough requisite sweetness.

The dessert of pine nut sponge cake with strawberry sorbet was “interesting.” The flavor combinations were spot-on, but ultimately the dessert felt a little flat. Their French press service of coffee was delicious.

Acacia is likely a place you’ll want to visit. I might suggest a weekday night to avoid the overwhelming volume level, or else plan to sit closely to the ones you want to hear. I’m never a fan of curved half-bowl plates, as the utensils you sit down have a nasty habit of falling into the dish, their handles becoming sticky with sauce. Food service was quick for a busy night. It was good service, but lacked the polish of world-class service. When we arrived around 7:30, the older crowd was on the way out, and by the time we left at 9:45, the younger crowd had replaced them.

A good first visit to Acacia’s new home in Richmond, VA.

Would you like a very most excellent chocolate chip cookie?

(The only problem is, you’re going to have to wait a bit…)

Take your favorite recipe, and make a few adjustments.

• Instead of using room-temperature butter, melt your butter to a brown stage. Not burnt, but to the point you’d take it for a “Sage and brown butter sauce.”
• Use good chocolate. That’s a given. I used dark chocolate.
• Take your ratio of granulated to brown sugar, and tip it in favor of the brown. Don’t use light brown; use dark brown sugar.
• Add a shot of espresso.
• Wait. Don’t bake the cookies right away. Wait 24-36 hours before you use this dough. It will make all the difference.

This is the type of treatment that will make the crispy on the edge, chewy-in-the-center style chocolate chip cookie. They may just become the world’s best.

It was a week ago last Sunday that I watched a program on television, CBS Sunday Morning, that featured a story on Going Cold Turkey from Meat.

The basic idea was this: a fire station’s crew went vegetarian to stay fit and healthy. I like vegetables and salads. Would going vegetarian be a challenge? Would it improve the way I feel?

After enjoying a Sunday celebratory dinner with pork baby-back ribs, we began Monday with no meat in sight, at least for a week. Come Friday, we were being challenged by not feeling very full all the time (a late afternoon snack fit the bill), but then it ended early. I was invited to a luncheon I felt I had to attend and eat, where roasted chicken was being served.

I ate the chicken.

Then we went back on the veggie wagon, ending tonight, with our second helping of homemade minestrone soup.

We didn’t go vegan: we still ate milk, dairy, and eggs. We never once really craved meat. My gastrointestinal issues still (to this moment) torment me, so I can’t say it was any easier on the bowels or the pipes. I am not sure I lost any weight, because to make up for the hunger issues, I made up for it with vegetable-based carbs.

Yet going vegetarian was a challenge. Restaurants cater to meat eaters. My whole thinking of meals centers around a protein (such as beef, fish, chicken) and without the said protein, your culinary point of view is handicapped. We ate salads and soups, and even a homemade tofu dish with mushroom-flavored soy sauce and edamame beans. Noodles with vegetables (instead of meatballs) were delicious, as was my beforementioned minestrone.

So, after a week of no meat, where do I stand? “Are you going vegetarian full time?” a friend asked. Probably not, I wager, simply because I don’t have ethical concerns with eating meat. Perhaps going a month is a better test for any health benefits, but for now, I do have a plan inspired by this experience.

First, I plan to eat less meat. I plan to treat the eating of meat more as a privilege than as an American right. Second, I want to try and succeed at eating fish once a week. Meat may take on a role in only two meals each week. For my own health, I also plan on reducing portions. And as a struggling diabetic over the past three years, I plan to adopt new technology in my life to help better manage my disease.

Still on my list: I have a lot more to learn about eating without meat. I plan to learn more recipes I deem “gourmet.” Vegetables can be delicious on their own and there’s no shame in that. Living as a week-long vegetarian has shown me the struggles other vegetarians encounter, at least when starting out.

Living more healthy might start with cutting more out than just meat. That’s my next challenge.

Despite the odd coloring on the outside of the building, we were drawn to the lastest Short Pump magnets like the rest of the far west-enders. We visitied Mimi’s Café on a busy weekend night.

Mimi’s is a chain, and in regards to our Mimi’s, is so new that wrinkles were still in the process of being ironed out on the evening we visited. On the way out, I heard a manager lecturing another employee on how to handle a particular situation. Service for us was devastatingly slow.

One thing I found interesting at Mimi’s was the decor. They seated us in a back room with a curved brick ceiling. Eclectic French country might be one way to describe the decor, with well-padded, dark-patterned carpets, an exciting use of color, and the sense that you were visiting perhaps someone named “Mimi” in her forest cottage.

All this quaintness didn’t exactly translate to the menu. The presentation of 3 or 4 different menus when we sat down was both confusing and nonsensical. They had a special menu, a healthy menu, the regular menu, and there might have been more - yes - a menu with a “3 course menu special.” The prices were reasonable in today’s climate, but then again, you typically get what you pay for.

We both ordered salads that came with muffins. I am not sure eating a muffin (an awful, fat-free blueberry muffin at that) at night, with dinner, is normal. They serve you bread, but most of it was sweet. Then a big, giant muffin. Odd.

The salads were lackluster, but passing. They took forever to come out; while drinks and bread was timed fine. We also tried their fried zucchini appetizer which was served hot, but again, took a lot of time to come from the kitchen, and in my opinion, is a failed menu item. The thick zucchini slices were more like large dill pickles, and despite the crunchy coating falling off, the insides were still mushy - as a watery zucchini “spear” is likely to be. It came with two sauces, a creamy sauce and a tomato-based sauce.

Despite having a server who was trying hard and who was friendly, we decided Mimi’s wasn’t our type of place. They do serve breakfast, and we may return to try that (where muffins are more welcome). My ultimate hunch is that Mimi’s was designed to cater to retired women who like to lunch. It’s certainly a family-oriented place, but not the hidden-French cabin that serves gustatory delights we’d label gourmet.