As we are wont to do, here is our most recent “weekend in food” roundup exchange.
Shana:
Hey there,
This weekend rocked pretty hard food-wise. Since we had to cancel our NYC travel plans, I sorely needed to eat and cook some fabulous food. And eat and cook some fabulous food I did.
Friday night we headed to Logan for dinner. We ate and drank very well, but I still have some reservations about that place. Perhaps I should blog about it? Sitting in orange-walled Logan on October 31 made us feel like we were sitting inside a pumpkin. (In a good way. Really.) And the view of Washington Street was great: we saw a troupe (troupe?) of synchronized swimmers, some bugs and a flyswatter, and a few of our friends dressed up western-style.
Saturday morning I took my leftover gorgonzola pizza, heated it up, and slathered raspberry jam all over it. It might sound weird, but was surprisingly delicious.
Saturday afternoon had me making granola and pickled grapes. Not granola WITH pickled grapes, mind you. Because that would just be wrong.
For dinner, we decided finally—finally!– to scale the whole-fish-baked-in-salt mountain.
And we did, successfully and deliciously and non-economically, with branzini from Monahan’s. The first course was a lovely potato leek soup, and some assorted nibbles (cured duck breast from Tracklements, cornichons, and pickled prunes). We served the branzini with Tantre farms salad and a salsa verde that was tangy and crunchy; it offset the amazing moist and tender branzini so nicely.
Brunch and dinner will be the subjects of future G3 posts.
How about you?
Maria:
It was good! Friday night we tried out the food from A Knife’s Work (that I wrote about on the blog this weekend). I’m really excited to try more. Saturday morning we had pancakes, of course, because Children Like Routine and Saturday is Pancake Day. And there were egg and bacon sandwiches for lunch. On Saturday night, we decided to go a bit simpler than usual and threw a pizza on the Big Green Egg. John had taken the plunge and ordered some special “farina tipo 00″ which is supposed to be the key to “vero Napolitano” pizza, and I have to say that it did make a difference in producing a crust that was just the right combination of softness and crispness. We aren’t sure if it’s really much different from pastry flour though. We both spent some time rolling both around between our fingertips and didn’t feel or see a noticeable difference. In an attempt to use up the surplus of Tantre Farms peppers, I roasted poblanos, jalapeños and some green-red bell peppers for the top. Along with some chorizo, white cheddar and smoked gouda they made for a tasty, if tongue-tingling, sort of Mexicali pizza. Gouda’s a little weird for pizza though. Too waxy — I think smoked mozzarella would work better.
I made granola too. Must be that time of year. I put chopped dates in this time; I like that. This week’s theme is “eat up your root vegetables.”
And radishes. There’s quite a stockpile of Tantre radishes in the fridge.
Anne:
OK my weekend from a food standpoint didn’t rock as much as yours did. Friday night we went to Cafe Habana. We started off with the Chicken Croquetas – mistake! Did not taste like chicken, and served with this very strange dipping sauce that tasted like rancid oil. Bizarre – and disappointing. Our server directed us to the comment card. But then things were up to snuff – the Hearts of Palm salad is lovely – with papaya, golden raisins, mint, and toasted pepitas – I love this combination! Bright and fresh. Then we both ordered cuban sandwiches – I got the smaller Media Noche and substituted yuca frites for the fries. They serve the yuca fries with this wicked garlic sauce, which I enjoyed but I’m sure anyone I was standing near at the Blind Pig later that night was wondering what just hit them. I had to eat a big handful of parsley from the pot out on my deck when I got home to kill the taste (parlsey is AWESOME for this – but you have to eat a good bit of it).
Other than Cafe Habana, the highlight of my food weekend was G3 “layyydayyys brunch” at Shana’s on Sunday morning. Shana is a MASTER at poached eggs and Maria’s cake was luscious – of course being the lazy one I just brought the champers and oj. I think you may possibly see a separate post coming on that as Maria took some fabulous photos, so I won’t say more here, except that time spent catching up with the G3 girls over mimosas and great food was divine.
[...] Since we had to cancel our NYC travel plans, I sorely needed to eat and cook some fabulous food. And eat and cook some fabulous food I did. Friday night we headed to Logan for dinner. More [...]
Sounds like an appetizing way to spend a weekend, though, would love to hear more about how the salted fish goes, and what kind of pizza-perfectionist
orders specialty farina! Details please! Cafe Habana is a fun place with good drinks and decor and passable Cuban food (it ain’t Miami)… BTW, a Cuban medianoche is ham, pork, swiss cheese and pickles — see here: http://www.tasteofcuba.com/medianoche.html
I gotta say I recently went to Logan and was unimpressed. Too spendy for what I got on my plate. But the cocktails are great!
Umami1 – The salt-baked fish was a preparation I was intimidated by initially, but it was really easy to execute. I followed this recipe, pretty much:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Whole-Branzino-Roasted-in-Salt-233705
The tricky part was filleting the fish when it was done, but that’s just because I don’t have much experience with whole- fish cookery.
[...] Let’s get back in the kitchen and on the mean streets of Ann Arbor where this blog belongs. Way back when, before the election, the three of us got together for brunch, to chat, use up the dwindling [...]
[...] Or, perhaps some of you are in agreement–it’s too expensive for what you get, as Mom mentioned in the comments the other day. While I can’t afford to dine out like this often, I do like to do so once in [...]