What we're watching ....

amidst some busy times, a thoroughly fascinating documentary film on the great sushi master Jiro. Dining at his celebrated, sushi only, Michelin 3-star restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro, may well be beyond the reach (or even interest) of most, but this movie offers a mesmerizing glimpse into a chef, his craft and notions of 'perfection':

From the superlative, to a mixed bag of a book by Tyler Cowen, "An Economist Gets Lunch". Primarily included here because his blog has long been on my reading list and led me to some good eats around DC. A fascinating premise, if he focused on tying economics and food, which crop up every now and then. Instead, his skewering of foodie pretentiousness and holier-than-thou "locavores", both easy targets to begin with, is upstaged by his own, albeit in a different sense.

palate pleasers....

An amuse-bouche [aˌmyzˈbuʃ] is variously defined as a "little bite of delight before the meal begins". From wiki - Amuse-bouches are different from appetizers in that they are not ordered from a menu by patrons, but, when served, are done so for free and according to the chef's selection alone. These [..]...are served both to prepare the guest for the meal and to offer a glimpse into the chef's approach to cooking.

Seemingly de rigueur at many restaurants, seeing an amuse bouche in RVA restaurants is still somewhat of a rarity and comes as a pleasant surprise ...Wish more RVA places had them...

Recent outings to two newer entrants to the museum district - the Belmont Food Shop and Deco were very pleasant. Rather small (cozy?) (the former more so) with some very interesting menu options and good execution on the cooking, BFS and Deco both harken back to a simpler (and welcome) dining approach in different ways. No prizes for guessing that at least one of these scored nicely in our minds with a terrific mouth tickler!

Edit: The BFS has quickly (and deservedly) shot to fame in the RVA food scene. Its become so much harder to score a table, but all of this of course bodes well. Res secundae!

A taco twist?

After a couple of visits to the former and several to the latter, we are leaning towards ending up at Tio Pablo instead of Don’t Look Back . Nate’s truck has been good to us on several occasions (at different times of day) but DLB just doesn’t seem to be recapturing the old magic. Within a narrowly defined set of parameters including more interesting options (e.g. nopales, al pastor), TP is scoring higher.  
I think I feel kind of bad for this taco apostasy.  

Akelaŕe awesomeness !

Recently, we were extremely fortunate to indulge in our splurge meal at the spectacular restaurant Akelaŕe. It was a tossup between the brightest culinary gems in the region - Arzak, Mugaritz and Akelaŕe. Suitably helped by chatter at Chowhound, we settled on the last one for this extravagance. Chef Pedro Subijana is a master and pioneer of modern gastronomy and trompe d'oeil cooking and we were certainly not disappointed. .

Obligatory disclaimers for any who stumble on this blog precede - this ramble has no Richmond connection and primarily serves as a repository for friends/acquaintances. Faced with extraordinary art on the plate and palate, we threw principle into the Bay of Biscay and in between oohing and aahing, had to unashamedly take pictures of the array of delights put forward by this superlative kitchen. Apologia for the food porn.
A contemporary, dark entrance took us to the crisp, dining room with breathtaking views overlooking the azure waters of the ocean from atop a hill. Typical of this part of Basque country, there appeared to be quite some inspiration from the sea in the cooking at Akelaŕe.
The amuse bouche was quite a delight: a "Sea Garden" on a bed of "sand" which was nothing more than flavored bread crumbs. This little  twist itself had me quite excited about the way Chef Subijana thought. Starting with Oyster leaf and ending with Seaweed Coral, (goose barnacles tempura), this was an light explosion of taste to set the stage.

Presented below are some highlights from both the fixe-menus we tried (Aranori (A) and Bekarki (B) were the two options and we had both at the table), hence the larger sampling of pictures ! Some of the titles were the ones we saw on the menu itself. A divine 2001 La Rioja Alta Viña Ardanza suggested by the sommelier, accompanied our meal.

(A) "Mollusks in Fisherman's Net" with rice and borage cream and a beautiful garlic flower to round out a ravishing presentation.

(A) Pasta "carpaccio" with piquillo and parmesan mushrooms

(A) Hake, breaded in Monkfish dried skin over "beans" made with mussels and rice. The skin was described as a monkfish "habit" which was amusing.

(B) Xangurro in essence, its coral blini and "gurullos" accompanied with pasta that looks like rice grains.The txangurro is a sort of Basque crab casserole with the meat reinforced by its juice.

(B) Razor shell with veal and cauliflower mushrooms

(B) Sauteed foie gras with "salt flakes" and "grain pepper". This was a rather terrific dish that tricked the eye - the S&P were actually dark rice puffs that looked like peppercorns and flakes of sugar that looked like salt. Some theatrics as they liberally doused the foie gras with the salt and pepper...

(B) Turbot with its "kototxa" (the latter being the cheek of the fish) and its crispy skin made into a chip.

(B) "Desalted" cod presented in a fish box with edible shavings and  cod tripes in tomato water.

(A) Red mullet, head and bone's praline, liver and onion with delicate little fusilli's stuffed with parsley, soy and 'ajo blanco' sauce. They called it "whole-grain red mullet" because the entire fish was used. I think I could have had an entire meal with the fusilli alone!

(A) Charcoal grilled lamb with wine lees that made for a nice decoration of sediment crystals.

(A) Roasted pigeon breasts with mexican mole and cocoa. My first time with this different avian and I just didnt want to disturb this beautiful dusting of cocoa. 

(A) Dessert I- "xaxu" and coconut iced mousse was a recreation of an egg and almond with a foamed coconut ice cream. The latter was delightfully light and melted in ones mouth.

(A) Dessert II - an apple tart with puff pastry toasted-apple cream, puff pastry praline and edible apple paper. The paper was like an apple leather but what was so fascinating was the writing that made the presentation quite delightful and intriguing. Wonder if this is made by some kind of food inkjet printer!? Interestingly, they state that their apple tart doesnt have any fresh apples.

(B) Dessert I - Milk and Grape, Cheese and wine in a parallel evolution - This was a complex and conceptual dish meant to be eaten left to right, highlighting the aging and transformation of both milk and grapes as they originate all the way to their maturity. wow !

(B) Dessert II was Layered strawberry and cream with a reconstructed strawberry and some basil seeds. The wavy plate with little niches had to be one of the prettiest plates I have ever seen. Do they make plates after coming up with dishes or do such plates exist and are repurposed to such creations?

With full stomachs and minds, we finished off with some coffee and petits-fours.

Overall, the food was spectacular with clever touches all around. Lots of "" used above were simply because of delightful alterations and interpretations to components. Akelaŕe perhaps lacked some knock-off-socks surprises but was simply beautiful and delicious. We were quite stuffed by this decadent dining and took our time letting each course settle. The vibe considerably less formal than other 3 star places and although it may sound silly, for this level of dining, the attentiveness of service was quite ordinary. The friendliness of the staff on the other hand was spectacular. We asked for and were taken on a little highlight - being able to see a Michelin 3-star kitchen at work, including the training kitchen and test-labs. We also walked around the little garden where the kitchen sources many of their ingredients. 4 hours later as we sauntered into the Basque countryside, we all agreed that this was one of the best experiences we'd ever had.
Thanks for reading !!

The 1-ingredient icecream redux

I decided to revisit the intriguing 1-ingredient "ice-cream" that was blogged about a few years ago and actually try it. Bananas with that magic window of time between perfection and soggy ripeness are the basis for this terrific idea. Originally seen on the Kitchn,  this is an extremely easy way to get a rich and healthy dessert, without the use of an icecream maker, any diary products or additional sweetening agents.

A simple enough process: slice bananas and freeze for a couple of hours. Add frozen pieces to a food processor and blend. Lots and lots of blending & spatula work later, you end up with a nice creamy consistency....Voila !!

Simple and Delicious! Add toppings to taste - chopped almonds, cherries, chocolate sauce....so many variations abound but the simple 1 ingredient banana seems best and true to spirit..

In trying to understand why this works (why do bananas work and other fruit not?) - some theories (including one from the great Nathan Myrhvold) postulate  that its due to the pectin content. Pectin is essentially a complex sugar found in cell walls, which is used as a gelling agent. When bananas ripen, the enzyme pectinase breaks down the pectin resulting in the characteristic softening. A quick check shows that on average, bananas have around 1% pectin. In comparison, an orange has around 2.3% and an apple ~0.8%. So I am tempted to think that this not the only component. Is it the fat? Bananas have only ~ 0.3g of fat. It does have sugar ~ 28 g. I think that the combination of the sugar, pectin and the fat together with low fiber content undergo shear in the food processor such that the emulsions formed during freezing are broken. This then appears to result in coalescence of the fat with the resulting creamy texture.  

One note is that this ice-cream needs to be eaten soon. If you try refreezing, it becomes hard again and needs to be reprocessed back to its original creamy consistency. Luckily a reversible process !

3 is a odd number

Pete Wells has an interesting discussion on the concept of "small plates" over at the NYT (The Big Problem with Small Plates). Over the last year or so, we've noticed quite an increase in the number of places in Richmond that have hopped on to this trend.
Some places around do small plates better than others, but typically it does appear that the amounts served, coupled with the prices charged dont often make this a workable concept for the diner(s).
So is this an issue of supply-side economics or does "plate sharing" indeed drive traffic positively?

I like the solution in many parts of Spain -not only are the tapas/pintxos of reasonable size but they also can come with an option of a raciones which is larger and meant to be shared by larger groups.

Blog title comes from the pedantic mathematical conundrum of having to share 3 items on a small plate - 3 scallops, 3 slices of bread etc! I love 3s (trifectas, triumvirates, trinities and all) but does this help any but groups of 3x ?

Huevos con chorizo y tomate !

1111!!11! for farmer's market produce.

Edit: Riches abound. There is a new Farmer's Market in town. This one is in Carytown:
The Carytown Farmers Market is now open ! Now serving RVA on Sundays.

Life cycles

It was with some sadness that I read of more restaurants closing in Richmond. Even considering the fickle nature of this business with its high turnover rate, this is of course, unfortunate at many levels. From a purely statistical perspective, a well-cited study of restaurant closings estimated that in the first year, 26% close. Another 19% close in the second year, and 14% in the third. Roughly, 6 out 10 restaurants close in 3 years! So I was curious about the restaurant landscape in RVA over the last 3 years.

I remembered analyzing restaurants way back in 2009; Style Weekly at the time had listed 55 restaurants among the city’s favorites - a fair sampling. So going back to the data from 3 years ago, it was somewhat heartening to note that many of these have stood the test of time. 43 of these 55 are still around (~80% if you’re counting!). Of course, we must remember that several of these were open for years prior as well.

Importantly, most of these still rate highly. In the interim, a few meteors have flashed us by, some brighter than others and a few new stars are burning brightly now. No jinxes but we’ll revisit today's list in 2015 !! Apologies for the quasi-morbidity and Good Luck to all and those yet to come...
Cook from life !!

The Red Devils

Wine sponsorships of sports teams seem relatively rare in comparison to the ubiquity of say, beer ... So the union of two devils (logo coincidence?) was certainly interesting when Concha y Toro, the huge Chilean wine conglomerate joined up with the big bad boy of the Premier League a few years ago. To mark the IPO of Manchester United on the NYSE this past week, we raised a toast with a glass of their widely available Casillero del Diablo... EPL begins in 1 week !

Sally Bell's kitchen

Boxed lunch from Sally Bell's kitchen @ 708 W Grace Street.
Sandwich + potato salad + 1/2 deviled egg + cookie + cupcake ~ $9