Cauliflower Pad Thai

This dish is not worthy of being the first post of my culinary diary, but then we have to start somewhere.

I had leftover flat noodles from the Hong Kong style noodle soup I made on New Years morning - I decided that I will make Pad Thai sans the meat. We also had two medium cauliflowers in the fridge that needed to be used up. So, this was a quick impromptu fix. I shallow fried the cauliflower florets with green curry paste to give them the spiciness and then tossed them over the bed of Pad Thai noodles. The heat of the green curry went well with the smoky sweetness of the Pad Thai.

Oh well, what else do you get for a quick-n-dirty meal?

Jake's Del Mar

This a was sudden plan. My hubby and I have not been out for sometime now. Ever since we bought our home, we have mostly been at home having 'take-out' from local restaurants, or I cooking at home (I LOVE my new kitchen!). We did go out occasionally, but no place really great. Then last month we got our dog, and since Freo came to our lives, we became almost like new parents - every moment we stayed away from the 'little one', we were thinking of him and wondering if he is lonely. It's been a month since he arrived, and it seems that he is now settled in, and we feel confident to leave him home alone in evenings.

So, we went out on a 'date' yesterday. We decided to try Jake's in Del Mar. We had previously been to Posiedon and was very disappointed. Jake's is right beside it. I have often driven by it wondering if it was any good. The reviews and website looked good, so we thought this may be a good one to try for our first dinner date this year. We called ahead and made a reservation.

It was a full moon night and the moon was quite close to the horizon and BIG - quite romantic. It was not too cold, we took our Mini with the top down, and I even wore a skirt! It was a lovely drive towards the ocean. We were seated promptly , but unfortunately not near the tall glass windows overlooking the beach and waves. We were told that for those seats, there may be a wait of an hour or so. Our seat was the third row from the window, but on a little elevation from the other two rows and so we could see the ocean. It was lovely.

The menu was just two pages. I like that. I do not like restaurants with more than two pages (e.g. Cheesecake Factory) - gives an impression that they are not serious about their food. The need to satisfy everyone is not required. What is required is a few dishes and get them perfect, every time.

For appetizers, we ordered Grilled Prawns with basil and prosciutto and dijon vinaigrette. Hubby got his usual, a Bombay Sapphire martini, stirred and not shaken - the right way to have martinis. I got a Peter Lehmann Shiraz. For dinner, I got the Macadamia Nut Crusted Salmon with wasabi mirin reduction, baby bok choy & hon shimeji mushroom stir fry. Hubby got the Brandt Farms Filet Mignon “oscar style"with creamy polenta, cauliflower cheddar gratin, and marrow butter.

Martini: He wanted two olives, but it came with one. He also thought the martini had a little too much vermouth and not enough gin. But overall, it was good. Infact, we were happy that they listened to him and stirred instead of shaking. (Oh! Bond spoiled it for Martini lovers. Did you know that Mr. Flemming had created that drink as a joke?)

Shiraz: What can I say, I am a Shiraz fan. Living in Australia only reinforced it. We were able to taste the best out there. This one was not among the best, but quite nice.

Grilled Prawns: Loved it. Five succulent prawns wrapped in prosciutto and grilled. They were served on a plate with shaved radicchio, cabbage, and Italian basil and drizzled with yummy dijon vinaigrette. I tasted a bit of the orient in the flavoring, but it may have been just me. The combination was excellent - a perfect balance of sweet and savory.

Macadamia Nut Crusted Salmon: Superb! The fish was cooked perfectly, not too dry and not too soft. Cooking fish is tricky, and I have been to several reputed restaurants where a dry lump had been served to me. People often forget the the principle of residual heat. You see, the fish will continue cooking for several minutes even after it's removed from the heat source. Hence fish should be cooked until it's medium, then removed the from the oven, microwave, stove top, or grill and let stand for few minutes to finish cooking. This restaurant seemed to have got it right.

The macadamia crust was both moist and crunchy. Underneath the fish was the baby bok choy and hon shimeji mushrooms, and further below was wild rice cake. The plate was drizzled with the light pink wasabi mirin reduction and the rice and vegetables had soaked up the sweet flavor very well. I was not able to taste the wasabi, just a hint of it's fragrance. The mirin was quite evident in the light sauce. I found the rice a bit greasy, may be it could have done with a tad less butter. The mushrooms were lovely - I am a big fan of mushrooms, so I loved to bite and taste each piece. The baby bok choy added a nice layer to the dish, the vegetable has a delicate 'watery' flavor and when you bit into the stems, it cleaned out your flavor palette so that the next bite of other food was again a sensuous discovery.

Brandt Farms Filet Mignon: Superb again! Oscar style is crabmeat, asparagus, and sauce béarnaise on top of the fillet mignon which came on top of the creamy polenta. The cauliflower cheddar gratin was served in a mini bowl - the kind one would serve french onion soup. Marrow butter is new to us, but it sure tasted great, with a delicate aroma of marrow (I would like to make it one of these days). Lets go bottom up. First, polenta - soft and creamy with a granular texture, a bit bland but perfectly complementing the steak, and soaking up the marrow butter flavor. The steak was cooked medium, red in the inside and juicy, full of flavor. The crab meat was delicious. The asparagus seemed to be grated in the crab meat, adding a nice crunchiness against the soft meat. The Béarnaise sauce was also distinct and rich - after all it's not your common Hollandaise! The cauliflower gratin was a bit of bland for our taste buds.

Service: Very disappointing! Yes, I know, what a shame, especially since the food was so good. Our server was Joe. At first he was late, we sat there twiddling our thumbs for quite a while. After taking our appetizer and drinks order, he vanished. No drinks for a long time. We sat there speculating that they probably were flying down to Oz to pick a bottle, or may be to France to get the vermouth! Eventually we got both the drinks and the appetizer. He forgot to tell us the specials and we had to ask for it. He took our meal order and then, you guessed it, vanished again, that too with our appetizer plates, forks, and knives. When the meal arrived, we did not have any silverware except for a fork each. We sat there exasperated, looking for him to ask for knives. I could still manage my fish with a fork, but how could P have his steak without a knife? We had to flag down another waiter and request a knife. Then, there was no refill for water, we had to again flag down another waiter. The food here is brought to the table by someone from the kitchen, and thank God for that, or else we would not have had anything to eat!

At the very end of the meal he came at last to ask us if he could take the plates away and get us the check. No questions whether we liked the food, or even polite courtesy. He also had this annoying habit of placing his hand on P's chair when talking to us. No good restaurant waiters do that! - this is Not a casual dining place, please! I was quite a bit mad at him. I also felt bad for the restaurant owners, with such a nice establishment, this waiter was literally killing the experience. Well, I am no great food critic, but this kind of behaviour will cost the restaurant some major demerits by the big guys! I was so mad that I made it a point to mention to the waiter that he provided us with bad service and that we had to wait for him a lot. He was slightly apologetic and quick to run away. We wrote about our disappointment on the check.

Bottom-line: I will give it 8.5/10. The food had the perfect balance of texture and flavors. It actually deserves a 9.5/10, but the waiter hurt the ranking. I hope the management will give the waiter some good training. I will however go there again, I loved the place. I would also like to meet up with the chef, his creations are superb!

After dinner, we went for a stroll on the beach. The waves were beautiful, white against the deep blue of infinity. But it was cold, the sand and the wind. We could not stay out there for long - our feet were freezing!

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PS: Yes, the format is a bit different. I am changing it.

Happy New Year

Yes, I have been very quiet for many months now. No, it's not that we have stopped eating out, it's just that I thought I did not have time to write detailed reviews. Oh! many reasons - new job, new house, new dog,.... Seems like life's a bit settled now and.... it's the new year. And it's the time for planning the year. Here are my plans for this year:

1. I will change this blog into something a bit more personal.
2. I will continue writing restaurant reviews.
3. I will add my own culinary experiments to this blog.
4. Most of all, I will make time every week to write a blog.

How about that?! :D

Wish all of my readers a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Harry's Coffee Shop

Rating: 8/10
Date visited: Aug 2, 2009
Party of Two
Breakfast

I was craving for good old diner type food. There weren't any diners in Australia (or we were not able to find one.), and in North Carolina the diners were chains like Waffle House which served very greasy food and made us feel like throwing up after couple hours. So we hardly ever went to diners for the last four years. In Rochester there was a nice little place close to our apartment - Mount Hope Diner. We used to go there once every 3-4 months for a big breakfast. I wonder if it is still there?

As I said, I wanted diner food - eggs, toast, coffee etc. This was one of our regular Sunday-morning farmers' market visit days and breakfast with coffee is a must. We had noticed Harry's during our previous trips to the La Jolla market (we had been to Pannikin during those trips). Breakfast is served here all day everyday. We took a seat out on the patio, to enjoy the view.

Service was a bit slow, but we did not care, in fact we liked it. We were there to relax and have a lazy morning. The waitresses gave us a lot of time to review the menu and order. I got the "2 x 1", that is two eggs and a waffle, and my husband got their unadvertised special - Machaca Con Huevos. Of course, we got coffee - the regular diner drip coffee (this was brought out quickly).

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2 x 1 I had ordered my eggs poached. (I thought I may try to have a bit less butter by doing so. After all I was going to eat the butter on the waffle.) The eggs came in a small bowl, and instead of two there were three poached eggs! I love eggs, I will never complain no matter how badly one cooks it. These were done right, white and firm on the outside while 'gooey' yellow inside. I could see that they used a poaching cup (because the eggs were perfect circles) and did not use vinegar during the poaching process (there was no smell or the stringy texture).

The waffle was delicious. It was thin, crispy, and golden. The butter was served on the side in a small ramekin and maple syrup in a packet. I was a bit surprised. Diners usually serve it the other way round - butter in small packages and maple syrup in a pourer. Anyway, I liked it very much. I took my time and slowly ate the whole waffle. (oooh! the calories!)

Coffee This being a diner, we weren't expecting great coffee, but to our surprise, it was quite good. I would rather have the regular drip coffee here than the bitter brown sludge that Starbucks serves. At diners I usually expect a bottomless cup of coffee, here it came in a nice thermos. Thumbs up for coffee here.

Machaca Con Huevos This was a new one for us. My husband was initially planning on ordering either the Chorizo and Eggs or the Huevos Rancheros (again!). But the waitress said that there is this unadvertised special and she highly recommends it. It turned out to be a wonderful surprise.

Machaca is beef that has been marinated, cooked, shredded and then dried. It is very similar to beef jerky but with mexican spices. It is available in the Hispanic section of large supermarkets or in Mexican grocery stores. Here they cooked it with eggs, peppers, onions, tomatoes. The dish came with a side of salsa and corn tortillas. It was very tasty and quite filling. I am sure my husband is going to develop a craving for it soon, and either we will have to cook it at home, or (more likely) we will visit Harry's again. I hope they make this a regular menu item.

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In all this was quite a satisfying meal and we will go there again. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Address: 7545 Girard Ave., La Jolla CA
Website: hhttp://www.harryscoffeeshop.com/
Ph: 858 454 7381
Timing: Mon - Sun 6AM - 3PM
Liquor served - No

Pectopah (Pomegranate)

Rating: 9/10
Date visited: July 31, 2009
Party of Three
Dinner

I am sorry, I am a bit late writing this review. It was at the draft stage for the longest time and I finally had the time this morning to wrap this up. As you can see, the restaurant got a very high rating from me. So this post will be long and I will highly recommend that you visit the place.

Now, let's start from the very beginning. We found out about this restaurant from our good friend at Maverick's Musing. In her honor we have named our weekly Friday dinner evenings as Maverick Fridays. As you will notice, since we came to San Diego, we have been have checking out a new restaurant every Friday with her.

The name - Pomegranate. How much of a influence does pomegranate have on Russian cuisine is a something I cannot find too many references on. Our Russian and Georgian friends have not extolled on the use of this fruit in their food. I know for a fact that pomegranates is very popular, almost a staple, in Persian food. But Russia and Georgia is far from Persia. So where did this influence come from? Food historians and gourmets, please enlighten me.

Pectopah is located at the corner of El Cajon Blvd. and Lousiana Street. You will find it difficult to spot if you were not specifically looking for the address. Where there should be a billboard announcing the name of the restaurant, all you will find is the number 2302 in copper, with a red pomegranate replacing the zero and an arrow through it. It's a blue, run down building with some metal chairs and tables outside on a makeshift patio and relatively unattractive to any passerby. Believe me, if we did not plan on going there, we would not have spotted it or even be tempted to go inside. It is that inconspicuous.

You enter through a small decrepit door into a dining area crowded with furniture. The decor is intentionally 'wasted' - rough unfinished wood, dissimilar rickety tables and chairs, some cobwebs and dust on the decorations, icicle lights that were not removed from previous Christmas. And I did notice some old (maybe, antique) brass tea servers on shelves.

A presumably Russian/Georgian waiter asked if we had a reservation, and we did not. About 80% of the restaurant was empty, so we did not think that there would be a problem about not having a reservation. Please note, at this time we were sort of taken back by the decor - it did not seem to be a very appetizing place, and then the reservation question. He asked us to talk (plead) with the manager. This manager was sitting behind a tall desk at the far corner of the restaurant, answering phones and doing accounts, and a friend of his was sitting beside him eating a plate of seemingly delicious bbq meats. The sight if the food made us feel a bit better - hmmm, this place may have some good food after all.

The manager sat us at the front corner of the restaurant. My husband and I sat on a bench and our friend across from us. I was brushing against a dusty, carved wooden bear and the bench's padding was ripped and the padding falling off! It was an odd experience; we have been to coffee places with 'ruinous' decor like this, but never to a restaurant. The walls and reachable portions of the ceiling were full of graffiti - comments from the happy satisfied customers in many languages, some Russian too. Reading these comments lifted our spirits a bit.

My husband and our friend ordered Russian beers, I just went with water (designated driver, you see). I was tempted to go for the Russian tea, but decided against it. For appetizers, we ordered the Khinkali. They claimed that they serve Vodka by the inch and Borscht by the bucket - so, we had to get Borscht. And for the main, we went for the Lamb Shashlik. And for dessert, how could I resist the Toad Sweat Ice Cream?

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Beer: They serve a full spectrum of beers from a St Petersburg brewery called Baltica. My husband went for the hard lager (#9 Krepkoe) while our friend had the light one (#1). Both liked their beers, commenting on the crispness, a nice refreshing finish for the long week. My husband liked the high alcohol content as well and remarked on the perfect balance of hoppiness and the alcohol.
No, they did not have the vodka by the inch after the beer. My water with lemon was good too. Heh! Heh!


Khinkali: The menu said that these are peasant style meat dumplings. Seven of those steamed delights were served to us with a sprinkling of fine white pepper on a white plate. The rim of the plate was dabbed with red hot sauce. Now, we had not done our homework on to the right way of eating these sumptuous dumplings (read here ). We just pierced them with our forks and ate the whole, including the 'kudi'. The juices did not escape much, we were quick. They were delightful.

These dumplings reminded us of a lovely New Years Eve spent at our Russian friends place in North Carolina few years ago. In keeping with the Russian tradition, we spent a good part of that evening making scores of dumplings and the devouring them with vodka and other exotic Russian liquors. It was a divine experience and we will always treasure the memory.
Now, they were from Siberia, and the dumplings they made were very similar in taste to the Khinkali we had - only the casings here were a bit thicker. This makes me wonder how different would Pelmeni (also on the menu) would be from the Khinkali. Well, we have to try it next time. By the way, if any of my readers happen to visit and have the Pelmeni, please let me know. I have a soft corner for dumplings.

Borscht: This is a hearty soup of beets, cabbage, potatoes, green beans, parsley, and some meats simmered to meld the flavors. It had a dollop of sour cream, and you could also taste the rich butter in the broth. It was indeed as tasty as promised on the menu, but not served in a bucket! (disappointing!) It came in a plain white bowl.

This dish reminded us of the vegetable stew that our moms would try to inflict upon us on wintry Indian mornings when we were kids, and we used to hate it with a vengeance. Well, our moms' version of the stew of course did not have the meats, nor the rich buttery taste. Even if it did, I wonder if we would have eaten the vegetables. I think as we grow our taste buds evolve and the taste and texture of vegetables becomes more appealing.

Shashlik: This is a kebab type dish served only on Fridays and Saturdays, and takes time (about half an hour) to cook. The menu proclaims that this dish saved the accord in 1944 in Yalta between Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt. Historians, any comments?

We had ordered the lamb version. The dish consists of 2-3inch chunks of marinated lamb grilled on a skewer, like a sheek kebab. They brought the meat on the skewer and then 'de-skewered' it at the table. Just before serving, a pomegranate jus was poured over the meat. It came with a Russian version of a salsa.

Again, too good - worth the wait and quite well deserving of a 10/10. The meat was perfectly cooked, not too rare, not well done - just right. The jus gave a tantalizing aroma to the dish. We enjoyed every bite of the succulent meat.

Toad Sweat Ice Cream - All the menu says about this one is that 'it's not for the faint hearted'. This comment just jumped out of the menu at me as a challenge, and I had to take a shot at this. You know what, I do not want to spoil the surprise for you, and so I will not give you details on what this dish entails. All I will say is that I highly recommend it and please share it with one or two friends - it worth having.
(A hint for those friends who had been to our place in Brisbane - remember Dragon's Crap?)

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As you can tell, I ranked this restaurant very high. The food is very good. I usually prefer spicy food, and there were almost none in this meal - but I still loved it. The only reason I gave it one point less than the perfect 10 was because of the decor and the inconvenient seating. Yes, the decor as it stands now gives it a le chique le cool appeal, but I would rather they fix it.

We will go there again. Definitely. Probably to celebrate a special occasion with friends. I already have a long list of dishes I want to try the next time I go there. Oh yes, we will book ahead this time. And I will ask the owner next time - why did he name the restaurant Pectopah? What is the special culinary relationship between the pomegranate and Georgian/ Russian cuisine?

A special note about their menu which explains all the dishes in a witty style.

Address: 2302 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego 92104
Website: http://russiangeorgianfood.homestead.com/
Ph: 619 297-4007
Timing: Mon - Sun 5PM- 10PM
Liquor served - Yes