Restaurant Round-Up: Birthday Week

I still need to write some wonderful things about New York, don't I? I will probably visit New York yet again before I get around to finishing up that project. Anyhoo.

My birthday (and the birthdays of many of my friends) is at the end of September, so the husband and I spent a whole lotta time dining out between September 26th and October 3rd. We went to a couple of old favorites and tried some new places, too.

First up, we went to ChaChah. We'd intended to go to PM instead, but it was crowded and ChaChah offered up the opportunity for immediate seating on the patio. Win.

I love the food at ChaChah. Arnold Myint, the chef is very creative and seems to combine some of my favorite things with new flavors to create wonderful dishes. The delicious tagine was gone from the menu, but replaced by a "menestra" of seasonal vegetables flavored with a hint of Meyer lemon preserve. Though, because the chef strives to keep the menu "fresh," the menestra is now gone, too--replaced by another vegetarian dish that I'm sure I'd love. Though I could survive on pinchos and salad and dips (which I don't see on the menu right now--Arnold, you rascal). And dessert...that night, we had a coconut milk-based flan flavored with cardamom. Spectacular. In addition to the food, ChaChah (and PM) have fantastic cocktails. I can't wait to go back postpartum when I can actually enjoy one with liquor.

Incidentally, the tagine wasn't the only thing I noticed missing from the menu since our only previous visit back in March for Husband's birthday...gone also were the high prices on the large plates. Replaced by very, very reasonable prices. How refreshing.

Next up was brunch at Allium. We'd never been before and hadn't thought much about it (we don't make it to East Nashville often) but that's where a friend was having a birthday brunch. There are several vegetarian options, but I'm not a fan of eggs so I had Raspberry brioche French toast. What I really wanted were popovers (!), but the popover o' the day had bacon in it.

The food was very good (Husband thoroughly enjoyed his Shrimp Benedict or something like that), the place is really remarkable for two other things: the view and the service. The view (see photo) speaks for itself. When it's patio time again, be sure to visit. The service...wow. When one friend couldn't decide between two side dishes, the server offered to bring a half serving of each. I've never heard a server offer that. I was impressed (and so was my friend). And when I asked about the popovers, I gave a back up choice of the French toast, but neglected to mention that I'd want hash browns on the side instead of bacon. No worries, he picked up on that on his own and even said that if he'd gotten that wrong, he'd bring out another side. I think I fell in love right then.

Our next stop, mid-week, was for my actual birthday. I chose Zola because it'd been quite some time since I'd eaten there and because I'd heard of a special vegetarian menu. The chef, Deb Paquette, has always had a vegetarian option and been able to accommodate special requests (I have never forgotten that phyllo burrito stuffed with roasted vegetables and Israeli couscous), so I was very curious about the menu.

The verdict? Eh. No phyllo burrito, sadly. I did have a very tasty empanadilla, but the other options were a bit disappointing to me, but that's because (at the time), they were heavy on eggplant. I don't care for eggplant. I won't bother to tell you why, but I don't. No fault of the chef's, of course. Ya can't please everyone and she's not a psychic. What vegetarian doesn't like eggplant? Anyhoo. I'd actually filled up on a really delicious brie bruschetta with these wonderful little candied hazelnuts.

But the thing that Husband and I discussed the most was the service (seeing a theme?). The service there is really great...the servers know the menu inside and out and make great recommendations. But something on this night just wasn't right. We just didn't see this guy very much. We waited for a long time to order, to get drinks, to get bread, to get our food. We were there for over two hours and we didn't even have dessert. Halfway through, we figured out the reason, though--the table next to us. Every time the server came by, he had to spend at least ten minutes with these people. I think he just eventually started avoiding them--and us, since we were so close. We were just unlucky. It was annoying, but I can't blame him too much. Whoever wrote this must've been in the dining room that night. On the upside, we weren't tempted with dessert and that's a good thing because there was an Italian wedding cake from The Fresh Market waiting for me at home. My favorite.

We finished up the week with a Saturday night dinner at City House. Many of my friends and online foodie friends have raved about City House, so a big group of us met up for dinner.

What I hadn't thought about before was that all the fans of City House are omnivores. The real draws at this restaurant are cured meats and the specials. We, however dined from the menu and I chose from the few vegetarian options.

I started out sharing a "margherita" pizza with the husband. I use quotes because there was no sign of the (what I feel is) the required fresh basil. The pizza did have a good flavor and though I love thin crust, this crust didn't hold up well to the watery sauce. It tasted great, but was a thin, soggy mess. A little thicker crust and a lot less runny sauce (plus a few leaves of basil) and this pizza would be perfect.

Next, I had "Conchiglie, Shittake, Potatoes, Garlic, Oregano, Grana Padano." An adult's version of shells and cheese, right? It's hard to go wrong with a pasta dish, but this one just didn't come together right. I've heard that City House gets their pasta fresh from a local pasta maker, but the shells didn't seem fresh. And I thought it was maybe the heavy hand with the cheese, but others have said that the pasta dishes there were too salty. It was too something. This could have easily been a good, simple and light dish that's satisfying, but it was just not great. Just okay (but too salty). Roasted mushrooms over a really good egg fettucine with olive oil and a bit of cheese would be great. I think this thing got overthought. Try saying that three times fast.

While the food was okay, the service was not. There was a steady decline in the quality of service we received over the week and this guy really punctuated that. First, he took drink orders for just half the table and then disappeared (we had a party of seven). Then, he seemed annoyed at having to explain many of the words on the menu (if a sugo is a sauce, just say so, mmkay?). But the worst was that he didn't really seem to understand the food very well and wasn't able to explain the menu at all. When my friend asked if the butter beans could be substituted on the catfish plate, he started with a very blunt "no." It was startling, actually. And he never did explain that the reason was that it was not a side dish, but part of a sauce that was made for the fish. There was not a big ol' pile of butter beans on her plate, which is what one tends to imagine when ordering catfish.

There were highlights, though. The drink menu there is great--the menfolk really enjoyed their artisan beers and manly cocktails (my husband's new favorite drink is a Dark and Stormy). But my favorite part of the night was dessert. I'm told Rebekah Turshen does the desserts and I'd met her at a Slow Food Nashville event and had some of her linzer cookies--yum). The husband had a chocolate terrina (so chocolatey, so smooooooth) and I had one scoop each of salted caramel gelato (not quiiiiiite salted caramelly enough, but very good) and chocolate orange gelato (superb). An apple dessert was topped with a mascarpone gelato that was also amazingly delicious.

So I don't know that we'll ever go back to City House, but I will say that it's got a fun atmosphere and a great bar area. Just limit your group size and come ready to dine on some swine.

Shew. I'm still kind of de-toxing from all that restaurant food. Though we only have about four more months of freedom until we're tethered with a newborn, so I expect we'll be dining out a lot this winter!

Ginger Peach Ice Cream

Really, I should be writing about all the great food I ate in New York. Not just because I want to re-live it or brag but mostly because I don't want to forget. And as we all know, once something's on the internet, it's there forever.

But before summer ends (oops!), I wanted to share this recipe. Because it's mine, all mine! As in, I tried to search for a good ginger peach ice cream and came up with nothing. So here ya go.

Ginger Peach Ice Cream
Makes 1 quart or about 8 servings

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 large or 3 medium eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons grated ginger root
4 or 5 fresh or frozen peaches (skinless), pureed
Peach preserves (optional)

Beat milk and eggs together in a large saucepan. Add sugar, ginger and
vanilla extract, and cook over medium-low heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until slightly thickened and registering 170F on a thermometer. If you don't have a thermometer, just cook it long enough so that it thickens like a custard but does not boil.

Remove from heat and allow to cool. Stir in cream and pureed peaches. Mix with a stick blender (this is what I do--I don't pour it through a sieve and have never had an issue with my custards). Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours and then pour the mix into your ice cream maker according to the directions. Afterward, the ice cream will still be soft, so stir in some peach preserves for a ribbon of peach and store in the freezer.

I really like ginger, so I added more. Eh, I don't really recommend this. The colder the ice cream got, the more gingery it tasted. And some other add-ins might have been nice. Maybe some cookies or something to resemble a pie crust? Mmm...

So why ginger peach? Well, back during peach season, my eyes were bigger than my body's ability to eat peaches in a timely manner. Peaches are wily little fruits. One day, they're too firm, the next day--poof!--mushy and moldy. The fact that I keep my house at 80 degrees (even hotter on the kitchen side of the house) doesn't help. Anyhoo. Once any peach started looking questionable, I just tossed it in the freezer. Even after two months, they were fine even without being wrapped up. I let them thaw, skinned them and they were ready to go. Also? I love peaches, but I'm not a huge fan of peach flavor. But one day, I just thought, hey, ginger would be a great compliment to peaches in ice cream! And I was right. I really like this recipe a lot.

No skins and no garlic? What?

I'm sorry to spoil the drama of such a well-written post, but no skins and no garlic? I just don't know. I have long known that leaving my skins on was bad form, but no garlic? At times, I've forgotten to add it and have felt something lacking. So, I just don't know. But cook eat FRET speaketh the truth...

It's really time for me to get out my pasta rollers again. I spend my weekends cleaning my house instead of engaging in more satisfying domestic activities. I must remedy that.

A preview of NYC and Asian noodles

Husband and I spent the week before Labor Day in New York City. There is so much to see and eat (oops! I mean "do") there, that I actually created a spreadsheet in order to get as much of it done as possible. So when I get the energy, I'll tell you all about the wonderful food we had. I think I will divide the posts into these categories:
1. Sweet stuff & bagels
2. Pizza
3. Fine dining
4. All the rest

But in the meantime, I'm recovering from the flu and from taking Tamiflu. The Tamiflu was worse--dry mouth does not even begin to describe this feeling. I feel like I swallowed a hive of Africanized bees. Also, awful headaches, hallucinations/nightmares and awful stomach pains. Really, the flu was much more pleasant.

I don't think I picked it up in NYC; it's much more widespread here in the south and my symptoms didn't show up until about 36 hours after getting off the plane. I think it happened somewhere en route. Anyway, so after a week of indulgence, we come back here and eat takeout for nearly another week.

But I finally found the energy to make it to work on Friday. I'm still tired and can barely speak, but I needed to catch up. I did leave a few minutes early to beat traffic. No dice. Five mile back-up on the way home (I am hating the "stimulus package" and the ensuing construction that now f's up my commute), so I made a detour and drove past a local market, The Produce Place in hopes of being inspired to actually make something for dinner.

Oh, worth mentioning here is that a couple of weeks ago, I watched an episode of "Hoarders" and completely cleaned out the refrigerator and pantry, so not only do I know everything I have, it ain't much.

I did recall finding Lo Mein noodles I'd forgotten about (still good!) and some teriyaki flavored baked tofu (good, too!).* So I wandered the aisles with those in mind and picked up some fresh shiitake mushrooms and some carrots and headed home.

Then, I just started cooking. Husband got home and I put him to work on the carrots. Sliced up and sauteed the mushrooms in sesame oil. Boiled and cooled the noodles. Then had him grate some ginger from the freezer (still good!) and cut up the tofu. Then, in the saute pan, I poured in more sesame oil (after removing the mushrooms), a little garlic, about a tablespoon of grated ginger, some sugar, a little sriracha, soy sauce and rice vinegar. When the sugar and ginger were dissolved, Husband dumped in the noodles, mushrooms and tofu into the pan. After everything was nice and warm, it all went into a bowl with the shredded carrots and some gomasio (still good! and because I have yet to make it to the international grocery for more sesame seeds).

And it was good. But I can't really tell you how to replicate it exactly, but it's not hard. The most important thing to remember is to heat the oil/sugar/ginger/garlic/soy sauce/vinegar mixture on LOW heat so that the ginger and garlic infuse the mixture and do not burn. Very, very important.

I was really proud of myself for throwing this together. And proud of the husband for helping out so much.

*If you've seen the show "Hoarders," you'll understand all these "it's still good!" references.

You want fries with that?

I have a bit of a reputation for hating chain restaurants. It's not so much chain restaurants as overprice mediocrity that bothers me. There are chain restaurants I love--Cracker Barrel, Sonic, Baja Fresh... and those that I hate--O'Charley's, Applebees, J. Alexander's, Chili's... Okay, the list is too long for me to write here, but what most of the restaurants I don't like have in common is that there's this level of falseness that's presented as genuine. Oh, nevermind--that's too technical and can apply to Cracker Barrel. My problem is that the food is often overpriced and under-good. Why go to O'Charley's for potato soup when it's nothing like what potato soup should be? And do people really pay multiple dollars for 1/4 of a head of lettuce with dressing? Also, they all seem to be essentially the same restaurant. And then there's this place that's popped up around this area called Cheddar's. Cheddar's? It's like the Mike Judge really wanted to bring Chotchkie's to life but didn't want to be that cheeky about it.

And then there's Red Robin. I'd read on Nashville Scene's Bites blog that it was beloved by several. Something about milkshakes, maybe. Why go to Red Robin when just down the street there is a locally-owned, long-standing treasure called Bobbie's Dairy Dip? Excellent food and excellent frozen treats.

And then the other day, a coworker mentioned he'd gone to Red Robin for lunch. "Eh," I muttered and sort of shuffled away. As I was doing so, I heard the words "bottomless basket of fries." I turned on my heels. "What did you say? Bottomless basket of fries?"

"Yes, steak fries, too! All you can eat! And they have veggie burgers, you know."
"No, I did NOT know. EITHER of those things." Y'see, I've been on a bit of a fry kick lately, even going so far as to pay a co-worker to go to Arby's for me. Bottomless basket of steak fries is good, but a bottomless basket of curly fries would be deadly to me, I'm certain (coming close is the standard side order of fries at Beyond the Edge--oh, how I love them).

So I spent the afternoon thinking about unlimited fries and when I got home, I asked the husband what he was going to cook me for dinner (ha!). He said, "What do you want?" and I said, "Well, I was thinking about Red Robin."

Naturally, he thought it was a joke. When I told him it was not, he practically gave himself whiplash getting out of the recliner to get his shoes on. He did not want to give me the opportunity to change my mind.

So we went. Observations:
1. The vast majority of the patrons at Red Robin had small children with them. I guess because it's a kid-friendly place that actually serves alcohol. We were one of only three parties in the whole place without a minor. I don't usually go to such places. Actually, I can't think of such a place.
2. The service is amazing. No trouble getting that second basket of fries.
3. Second basket of fries was the priority, so I did not have a milkshake and ate only three or four bites of my Gardenburger. I took it home and ate it later. Though fries don't re-heat well, so the last remaining fry that I simply could not fit in my stomach stayed in the basket.
4. Dang, steak fries, unlike their skinny counterparts are like those expanding sponges inside your stomach. I was miserable after what seemed like just two reasonable sized portions of fries.
5. The husband, seizing the opportunity to eat red meat whenever possible, got something called a Banzi burger. All I could see was cheese. Though could I really say anything as I was scarfing down hand over fist of empty calories? No. My Gardenburger on wheat with shredded lettuce and tomato was very nice (and healthy), however. Bocas are an option, too (but I prefer Gardenburgers--I just like the taste more).

So yeah, I did it. I was lured in by the call of the fat and I participated in what I can only deem a spud bacchanalia. But I probably won't go back soon. There is a Sonic nearby, after all.