Prix fixe three course? Degustation? Tasting Journey? Three major routes to take…

I learned about L’Espalier from an article in Cheese Connoisseur magazine, featuring their Maitre d’, fromagère Louis Risoli. Upon seeing the attention to their cheeses and this man’s obvious love of cheese, I thought I had to visit L’Espalier for the entire package when Boston came into travel plans.

The interior was nice for sure, dressy but comfortable, clean lines, metallic tones. The only thing I didn’t care for is the large window looking out to the wall of an adjacent building with the logo for Lord & Taylors, dominating the scene. Careful attention has been placed on lighting, and one wall features wines behind glass.

The breads, from Au Soleil bakery, were delicious. Especially ripe was the pretzel breads, with just enough chewy texture and the crunch of salt. The recipes, meanwhile, are inventive, with a focus on local, fresh ingredients. Meal pacing was excellent. In turn, L’Espalier is not inexpensive, but the service, food, and sparkle all translate to a grand experience.

Some of the things I was able to taste included oyster, escargot, foie gras with pistachio nougatine, and lamb loin. Perhaps the most genius of dishes included an heirloom tomato dish with parma ham, a noodle formed from agar agar, and a special strawberry cocktail with a rather special, sweet yet savory foam. Grand selections of cheese and desserts were in for the ride too.

L’Espalier translates to fine dining, for sure, but the flights of fancy don’t reach the most high peaks. You can find more adventurous cuisine elsewhere, even more traditional. Here, things are progressive and refined. Delicious. But somehow shy of greatness. Yet how many gustatory experiences reach the highest echelons?

Recommended.

I recently had the chance to visit the J. Child exhibit again at the Smithsonian’s American History museum. I also took advantage of the time in D.C. to visit two great places: Zaytinya near the convention center near G and 9th; and a new place for me, Sushi Taro.

“Z” is a tapas or “small plates” type of place, but instead of Spanish food, is centered around Greek and mediterranean fare. Everything we had, from the veal cheek, to the crispy eggplant, to the heirloom salad was great. Bright flavors, well-seasoned, and great service too.

Another delight was their trio of ice creams dessert… they make these in-house, and you can choose three. The strawberry/lemon verbena one was great, but the rich vanilla with phillo and their thyme ice cream were even better. I highly recommend Zaytinya.

Sushi taro was interesting: we opted for a tasting menu. They offered three of these: a “traditional” one, one centered on fish, and a third centered on soft-shelled turtle. We took the sushi route, and we experienced almost twenty different tastes of different seafood. The meal was significant, but not so much that you left feeling uncomfortable. The tastes between different fishes is subtle, but when that next piece is alone on the plate or with two companions, the comparisons become intellectual. Intellectual eating doesn’t sound fun, but I tend to think folks who seek out rare foods or food experiences are considering what they eat in a very intellectual way.

Sushi Taro ended the meal with a mango ice cream that sounded pedestrian. Coupled with green tea, this dessert was quite extraordinary. While new to me, I’d recommend this experience to others who want to experience more traditional Japanese flavors.

I started with Hanover tomatoes and roasted them in a 250 degree oven for 2 hours to a) remove the skins, and b) reduce some of the moisture. I also drizzled them with EVOO, black pepper, and some garlic slices.

The pizza crust was made from a mixture of:

• ap flour
• 1 packet yeast, warm water
• milk
• EVOO
• salt

I mixed the dough in the stand mixer and let it rise for 2 hours. Then, it was flattened and shaped with additional flour (I always leave pizza dough moist). The end-product was pretty good for crust, maybe a little too much; the yeast was especially active and rose fast.

The toppings included:

• base of grated parmesan cheese
• tomatoes with garlic
• fresh basil
• fresh mozzarella

That’s it! It wasn’t bad. The salad was a simple one, featuring a delicious heirloom tomato.

Ingredients:

• prosciutto di parma
• red wine reduction, with 2 Tbs honey
• meyer lemon zest
• torta de aciete or butter-toasted brioche
• fresh figs, sliced
• roquefort, gorgonzola, or another blue cheese, crumbled

Reduce a good red wine, adding honey and the lemon zest. Assemble the prosciutto over the bread or brioche. Top with figs, and then drizzle with wine reduction sauce.

Top with the cheese and serve, room temperature.

Learn more here, and how California emerged on the world wine scene.

So — we avoided eating anything like that. I am not sure what Belgian was, or what the ingredients were that made it taste bad, but I too stayed away from Belgian (style) waffles until at least in my 20s.

Of course, I don’t know what a waffle tastes like in Belgium. A friend insists they are made with whipped egg whites. For me, it’s all the shape. Big holes, thicker. Yummier, in fact.

So, I recently found this post from Blogger extraordinaire, Orangette. Lots of comments. Lots of netizens who like waffles. Good people, every last one.

She suggests the following recipe as a favorite, that will work in your thin or Belgian-style waffle maker.

• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. table salt
• 1 ½ tsp. sugar
• ½ cup whole milk
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil, such as canola
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• ¾ tsp. vanilla extract

I would like to suggest a few changes.

First, use ¼ Buckwheat flour and only ½ cup all-purpose flour. Second, skip the white sugar. Use brown sugar. And Molly suggests splitting the milks, 50% between Buttermilk and regular (whole) milk. I’d go 75%/25% on that. Following a commenter’s suggestion, more buttermilk means more lift from the baking soda and powder.

Cornstarch was a new ingredient for me in a homemade waffle, but I think it works great for that super texture.

Waffles! Celebrate life.

I started with their tomato stack (a seemingly reconstructed sliced tomato, with slices interleaved with cheese), a play on a caprese salad, which was good. Even better was a refreshing cocktail that was icy cold (apropos for the night I dined here) and tart.

The fried green tomatoes were good too, but overall there were far too many tomatoes and too little of the accompanying crabmeat salad. Both appetizers needed salt.

For my entrée I tried their special featuring two large crab cakes with a bacony potato salad. The potato salad came with a serious kick of spice that I enjoyed, but since bacon was a featured ingredient, I could have used more of that. Again, salt was needed to really flavor this food. The crab cakes were well-browned, but ultimately too big consider the amount of sauce presented on the plate. That really is a very weak complaint. The sauce was good. Provide more!

I wouldn’t have ordered this dish again, if it became mainstream: there were too many instances of finding shell in my crabcakes. That turned me off.

We also ordered a menu entrée of short ribs, and that was stupendous. It has a delicious sweet sauce, and the short ribs weren’t too greasy, and had that most tender texture that’s hard to come by, without any bones getting in the way.

So, while not a perfect first visit at Mezzanine 3433, I will go back. Seasoning can always be corrected with a stealth salt cellar and I really support using fresh, locally-provisioned ingredients.

The asparagus was marinated in lemon juice after being parboiled for 3 minutes to set the color. Prosciutto, salame, basil/EVOO-marinated mozzarella cheese, three types of tomatoes, and a olive-y dressing complete the dish.

If you go for a plain cup, like I did, or even a cone, you can enjoy the ultra-smooth texture of premium Goodberry’s custard. It’s 80% unctuousness and 20% flavor. A real treat.

If you’re more daring and treasure texture, go for the “Carolina Concrete,” a mixture of their smooth custard against the symphony of a dozen different additions, including nuts, fruits, or flavorings. The resulting “Blizzard-esque” result is so thick it stands in the cup, held upside down.

Recommended.

The menu was a difficult proposition. Everything on the menu looked appetizing, from the appetizers, through fig-accompanied cheese, pastas, and down to the most simple of salads with local greens.

Located in a former warehouse, the restaurant faces a parking lot across the street, with large double-high windows that allow a lot of light into a whimsical space. A smaller number of tables are positioned upstairs, where I gather the best views may be had. Large flowers have been painted on the walls, and a portal window into the kitchen reminds us there are folks hard at work making delicious aromas pour forth from their kitchen.

I only wish they’d blind some of those windows.

Service was generally good, save for a service mistake (spilled sauce), but I honestly felt a little rushed at times. With such good food, it’s okay to relax. A bevy of waiting customers wasn’t waiting for our table.

Small focaccia rolls are served, which had a perfect texture, even though they may have lacked exotic flavors. I tried their simple farmer’s lettuce salad which was unadorned save for a most delicious roasted shallot dressing. Their charcuterie plate and the more daring summer veggie salad were also noted to be fine dishes off the first course list.

Entrées ordered included the papardelle with ragu and parmesan, the fisherman’s stew with seafood, and a squash and ricotta ravioli. The pastas both came in tomato-based sauces, the ragù heavy on beef and not tomato. This was exceptional, I think, because the meat was not ground. I’ve actually never eaten an Italian gravy that wasn’t made from some combination of ground Italian meats. Here, instead, the meat was toothsome, adding great texture to an already flavorful and aromatic pasta dish. I only wish the noodles were stronger to hold up to the sauce. Their fresh nature made them ever so slightly difficult to eat alongside the larger pieces of meat.

The seafood dishes went down quickly, with diners noting the exceptional sauce or gravy. Garlic toast was served to sop-up what remained. Spoons were employed where bread left off. Good stuff.

Dessert was not in the cards, but a personal promise to visit Piedmont another time is. Recommended for honest locavore fare in an upscale, but none-too-fussy understated dining room featuring Italian flavors.

Coming in, on a late afternoon for a cool pick-me-up coffee drink, the waitstaff invited us to try their homemade (on premises) Italian-style gelato. With over 20 flavors, ranging from piña colada, melon, two types of orange, and a new flavor of jalapeño chocolate, we were enticed to take them up on the invitation.

They’ll give you free tastes, and I finally decided on a hauntingly good Sicilian-style pistachio. Its flavor reminded me of the incredible Zingerman’s-procured Sicilian pistachio spread from 2 years ago. Deep, sweet, and somehow, ultimately satisfying. The gelato texture was creamy and smooth. Exceptional, really.

While we visited twice for the coffee drinks, it was three times for the gelato. There are plenty of places to find ice cream, but should you find yourself in South Boston with an itch to slow down and take life a little easier, do check out the samples from the owners of Cafe Peroni. Their gelato and hospitality were both highlights of my travels.

When we walked in, we knew it must have been good: it was packed! They kindly accommodated us at the bar for dinner, where we met Stacy, their bartender. She seemingly made easy work out of filling cocktail orders with a swift hand and an authority. If professionalism was her hallmark, our waitresses were friendly and accommodating in equal measure. Interesting art pieces decorated the walls. Despite the crowd, it’s a place where you can still hold a conversation.

The menu should speak for itself, everything ordered during the evening was well-portioned and tasty. Texture, flavor, and seasoning were all in check. While exotic items may have escaped the menu, along with a cooking style that demands super-precise technique, they do pretty well here with their results. Our new friends in town recommended the salmon. A previous visit proved that the lamb was superb. Seems like there isn’t a good reason not to go!

Several desserts, including a chocolate decadence-style dessert, came recommended, although the bread pudding would have hit my sweet tooth. We opted for a healthier evening by skipping the sweets. Next time, I’m not so sure that will be apropos.

This is the pizza (half-sized) before topping it with cheese.

The result was delicious, with a deep, satisfying flavor.

The toppings include: chicken sausage, Niçoise olives, parmesan cheese, basic tomato sauce, salt, pepper, EVOO, and a topping of romano and mozzarella cheeses. I feel ashamed to say the sauce and dough came from Whole Foods. But pizza, especially when you have some of the basics already to go, is a simple, easy dinner to put together in no time. Just let your oven get hot, and use a pizza stone.

Well, let’s start more modestly.

Tart #2 is centered around tomatoes.

You oven-roast the tomatoes, and in this case, I used romas, scented with garlic, salt, and pepper with EVOO in a 200-degree oven for about 3 hours. The tart crust, following a recipe I found via my iPad’s Epicurious app, suggested an “easy” crust using puff pastry. That was easy… blind-baked the pastry in the tart shell, then it called for a unique mixture of cheeses with egg for the base.

• mozzarella (cubed) (2 parts)
• heavy cream (enough to moisten it) (.25 part)
• goat cheese (1 part)
• salt, pepper
• 2 eggs
• fresh thyme

You spread out that mixture, add the tomatoes and olives, and then bake it after topping it off with grated parmesan. It turned out well!

It was yet another opportunity to try the Keller technique with chicken: 500 degrees, 1 hour; no special butter or herb massage. Instead, just salt/pepper the chicken and get a nice brown skin. After carving your chicken, make a sauce from melted butter, lemon juice, Dijon-style mustard, fresh Thyme, and if you like, a little garlic or shallot.

As a side dish, I made asparagus with Taleggio cheese; used white balsamic and EVOO to dress the asparagus with garlic, then roasted the spears after a 1-minute blanche in water with the stinky Italian cheese.

For dessert, we made a raspberry, brown-butter tart.

This appeared on the cover of Gourmet some many months back now, but has turned out to be a favorite recipe.

The first pizza was my favorite, one I’d been itching to make for… ever.

Robiola Pizza

• robiola cheese (soft, runny, Italian)
• arugula
• truffle oil
• speck (in this case, applewood smoked La Quercia prosciutto
• chopped chives
• EVOO
• pepper

Roll out your dough, and put down the cheese, EVOO, and the chopped chives. Bake at a high-temp oven on a pizza stone.

When 2 minutes remain, pull pie, and cover in young arugula leaves and pepper. Continue baking, 2-3 minutes.

When the pie comes out, drizzle with truffle oil and then prosciutto or speck. Eat right away before all the meat melts!

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Choose your favorite BBQ sauce; I like a thicker, sweet variety for this pizza. Pre-cook your chicken breast with salt, pepper, and either chili powder or hot peppers in a grill pan (or over a grill). At the last 5 minutes of cooking, paint with sauce.

Paint the pizza dough with the sauce. Cover in thinly sliced purple, Bermuda onions. Put cut-up chicken breast on top, then cover in a variety of cheeses, to taste. I used a fontina-asiago mixture.

Bake until the cheese is bubbly.

Pear Macadamia Salad

• Asian pear
• Sweet pear
• greens mix (arugula, butter lettuce, radicchio)
• honey
• lemon juice
• EVOO
• salt, pepper
• spicy mustard
• toasted macadamia nuts

Make the dressing by whisking the lemon juice, mustard, honey, and EVOO with salt and pepper. Put the cut pears into this mixture, along with the onions and finally, toasted nuts.

Drizzle-out the dressing onto the greens before service, tossing to coat, then serve the salad family style, with the pears and onions on top.

Yumm-o.

Apple Sausage Salad

There is one ingredient I omitted due to my own personal laziness in going to grab it in time to make this dish, which is, purple onion. If you don’t like purple onion, then you still missed a great salad.

Ingredients:

• apple and smoked gouda sausage (3 links for 2 people),
• red leaf lettuce,
• romaine lettuce, chopped,
• bacon (cut into small strips, and fried),
• thin slices red onion,
• 2 apples, sliced (here, yellow delicious),
• dressing

To make a dressing, I used equal parts honey and mustard, then combined that with red wine vinegar, a dab of EVOO, and the bacon fat used to cook the sausage. Whisked together, it was a creamy dressing.

Served with country-style bread.

This place took over the spot once occupied by “The Track,” a place I never visited. There’s an edge inside Bonvenu, with some cool original art on the walls and a little sass from the waitstaff (I use sass here in a positive, fun way). The back of the dining room features a well-stocked bar. Interesting light fixtures set the real mood, with two large chrome chandeliers hanging in the center of the space.

I started with their mushroom appetizer with cheesy grits. The flavor combination was great, although I would have liked to have had more exotic mushrooms (mostly portobello was featured, with 3 shiitakes). No matter the fungus, the flavors were on, but I ultimately found the grits, on top of some great bread, filling me up fast.

My companion enjoyed their escargot special, each snail served on a little bed of puff pastry. “Great!” he exclaimed after they soon disappeared.

For entrées we ordered their scallops with onion rice and celeriac purée, and the red snapper. Both entrées were large. I am not sure I needed a big helping of rice after those grits, but the rice was moist and flavorful. I only got a few dabs of the special celery root purée, which from the tastes I had, was outstanding. If I were the chef, I might skip the rice, and go for a veggie with the purée (as the starch). Bok choy did make it on the plate, but it was underwhelming.

I enjoyed this entrée but the spice might be too heavy for some, as chili oil is used on this one. The snapper got a good review, although its side too suffered from ever a pinch too much spice.

The restaurant takes its name from Esperanto, which despite its meaning, always sounds a little spicy. The kick is in the food, and if I sensed there was too much, it was okay… a little kick of heat may distinguish the meals here from that you’d find elsewhere.

The atmosphere was a little noisy, but just about everyone seated in Bonvenu appeared like they were having an excellent time.

First, an salad in a mustardy vinaigrette featuring heirloom tomatoes and a poached egg.

This comes almost verbatim from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. The only thing I left out (and would recommend) were the croutons.

The main entrée was homemade mushroom ravioli with wilted onions and brown butter.

I first made a standard egg pasta dough, using 2/3 all purpose and 1/3 cake flour.

Then after rolling out the dough to a “7” on the pasta machine dial, we spooned our mixture, egged-up the interior, and sealed everything shut. This would have been so much easier with a pasta cutter. My big mistake was making giant ravioli with too much extra pasta hanging out. Next time, smaller little ravioli.

The sauce was made by melting onion in butter. Mine didn’t turn brown, but that’s okay if they do. I then removed those from the pan, added more butter until it became slightly brown, then added fresh garlic and the onions. This was tossed in the cooked ravioli before “service” and a final cheesing.

The filling, to wit:

• shiitake mushrooms,
• chopped onion
• chopped applewood bacon (or use pancetta)
• fresh thyme
• grated parmesan cheese
• ricotta cheese
• salt, pepper
• dried exotic mushrooms, hydrated in red wine, and chopped (porcini, morel)

I didn’t measure the ingredients. I used a low-fat ricotta, and the filling was delicious, but I would have liked it a little more “runny.” Next time, I would substitute a little ricotta for sour cream.

Delicious. I froze the ones I didn’t boil, so in the future, I’m ready for a nice giant-raviolo appetizer.

My favorite sandwich is their “true Italian hero,” a simple sandwich on great bread featuring prosciutto di parma, mozzarella cheese, and pickled red sweet peppers. I usually salt the cheese, and I’d kill for a little EVOO, but otherwise, the sandwich is sublime. It goes especially well with some of their San Pellegrino aranciata (Orange) water. Yummo!

What the restaurant lacks in decor it makes up for in variety. Among the treats are Chinese soupy buns (the best I’ve had in Richmond outside my own home), beef chow fun (wide noodles), and eggplant with basil. Young, professional Chinese folks in the community seemed to fill the dining room on my last visit, a telltale sign that the restaurant is doing something good.

The only curious aspect of this new place is the choice of a sushi bar. While some Americans may confuse one Asian person for another, or even the cuisines, I’m not sure how successful sushi is in a Chinese (here, with an emphasis on Cantonese cuisine) restaurant. We’ll see. So far, the Chinese part has been promising.

Tonight I served a salad and a rather homey, old-fashioned plate of classic spaghetti in a rustic meat gravy.

The salad was composed of avocado, two varieties of heirloom tomatoes, freshly made garlicky croutons, with crispy onions in a shallot/mustardy/honey dressing. These tomatoes were sublime… the one had such complex flavors, I thought it must have been the best I’d ever eaten.

The pasta gravy was made with veal, pork, and beef, carrots, garlic, tomato paste, onions, red pepper flakes, basil, and of course, tomatoes. Good Italian parmesan was shaved atop the DeCecco noodles with a glug or two of EVOO.

A DaVinci Chianti made for an exquisitely ripe match. Dessert came in the form of cappuccinos made a la minute. Here’s to more successful evenings of good food and company.

But I heard good things about an Ina Garten recipe that uses coffee in the cake batter. I tried it out.

I didn’t muck too much with the recipe since I’m not in a secure place to start messing with the careful formulas at play in baked goods. However, you can always play with the flavor profiles a bit.

Ina’s cake calls for coffee in both the frosting and in the batter. I kept things simple. I used a Scharffenberger cocoa in the cake, and used two kinds of Valrhona in the frosting. Because that was all that was left for the big “V,” it was an El Rey (the world’s best chocolate) that got shaved on top.

Ok, that was my only creative contribution: shaved chocolate on top.

The cake itself was moist, although the coffee flavor was not overwhelming. I almost think it could have used a little soaking of something fruity (not for moisture, but for the flavor) such as a berry or cherry something or another.

My only big mistake was only having salted butter at home: since I did, and realized it, I didn’t put salt into the cake, which called for it. Perhaps that’s why the cake is so much better when you get a little frosting mixed in!