Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Memorial Day Weekend Eating

Memorial Day weekend should be synonymous with barbecue. Unfortunately, I was on the road. I traveled from CT to D.C. to visit my brother at Georgetown and had to settle for restaurant fare up along the way. Nonetheless, I'm happy to report that I did come across a few memorable dishes. On a side-note, it should be illegal to have as much fun as I did riding around the neighborhood on my brother's moped on a sunny day.

Hook: I loved this seafood restaurant on M street. Barton Seaver is young, energetic, and passionate and those attributes resounded in the dishes and staff.

What stood out was the Sea Urchin, three-ways (pistachio-orange, almond-black pepper, and orange-crispy orange) and the Halibut with potato-herb galette, scallion creme fraiche and chard.

The Halibut was cooked at 156 degrees in a custom "steam box" which allowed for 100% humidity. This allows the fish to not lose any moisture so it came out extraordinarily moist. I can't really figure out if cooking it sous-vide would have been much different because the principle of avoiding moisture loss is similar.

I couldn't get over the chard. It was simply just deep-fried whole! Here I was thinking about whether they had dehydrated it or added some sort of chemical, but it was just deep fried. No batter. No nothing. The chard ended up looking beautiful and crumbled into tasty powder when prodded with a fork.

The potato galette was perfect as well. It ended up being just a thick fried potato cake. Crispy on the outside and super creamy on the inside.

The wine was an excellent bargain and I recommend that people look out for it in stores because it's relatively unknown. It's an Italian white called Taburno Greco di Tufo Campania, 2006. Fruity but dry and crisp, I think it's a versatile white that's not completely boring.

In Alexandria, VA, I stopped by a Thai place called Bangkok 54.

Pretty much run-of-the-mill but their Crispy Pork Belly with Chili-Basil was outstanding. It tasted like it was braised with aromatics, cut into strips and then deep-fried. I was in heaven.

When I returned to CT, I stopped into the new Craftsteak at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods. With high expectations, I was reminded of how hard it must be to get good staff in parts of Connecticut. For the money, it was definitely not worth it. The seasoning was totally inconsistent from one dish to the next. One dish was unbelievably salty, the next had no salt at all. We should have sent back half of our meal but didn't. Next time a server prematurely asks me how everything is, I feel like saying, "Honestly, I don't know yet!" We ordered:

Pickle Point Oysters from PEI. Unlike most east coast oysters, their brinyness was tamed by a nice mellow cucumber taste.

Marinated French Sardines: cured with champagne vinegar and mirepoix, they were eaten with the skin on and were definitely memorable.

Frites: these should have been perfect. Unfortunately, they were horrible--soggy and salty.

Morels: Awesome, right? They're in season and hard to find. Too bad these were poorly seasoned and $20(!).

Ramps: braised in buerre fondue, the cook forgot to salt them. We ended up dipping our frites into the ramps to compensate.

Asparagus: perfect! Thick and simply blanched and grilled.

Fresh Ricotta Ravioli, Pickled Mushrooms & Country Ham: This would have been perfect had they not unnecessarily fried the ham which made it rock hard and too salty.

Sweetbreads: I wish these were crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside but putting a mediterranean
mixture of tomato confit and olives on top made them unhappy and soggy.

We drank Hitachino Nest's White Ale
which is basically just a kick-ass version of Hoegaarden. It's pricey but worth it and would have been a perfect beer to drink outdoors during the sunny Memorial Day.

All in all, I ate a lot this weekend. Nonetheless, I was truly jealous of those who were eating lovingly made barbecue with family and friends outdoors!

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