What I Ate This Week

Oh friends, reporting to you three days late, but I have an excuse—we were out of the country without internet access… in South Africa!  We just got back last night and I’m still sorting through literally thousands of photos/videos, but I couldn’t wait to share with you our finest meal in S. Africa.  Among our adventures, we spent a day in Stellenbosch, part of South Africa’s wine country.  It was an amazing day, not least because this area is one of the prettiest wine-growing regions we’ve ever seen!

For dinner, we went on some advice we had gotten and headed down a lonely and quiet side road to the gated winery called Rust en Vrede.  ReV (“Rest in Peace” in Dutch) is one of South Africa’s most famous red wine producers, and they make bold, vibrant reds.  I can tell you from experience that the vintages on offer are simply incredible—bold, fruity, and rich in color.  They were a perfect running accompaniment for a simply stunning meal.

The place was eerily quiet when we arrived, and no wonder—it was a weekday night in the off (winter) season.  We were convinced that the 10 employees front of house (including a master sommelier, maitre d’, three servers, and at least one person who just seemed to be getting paid to watch our every move and let others on staff know if we needed something) were going to be there to wait on us exclusively.  However, by the time we got into our first course, there were a half dozen tables full.

The place is decked out in voluptuous deep oranges and reds, and has a “rustic fine dining” feel to it, down to the planked wood ceiling.  We were in love with the atmosphere from the first moment, and the hushed-without-being-reverential atmosphere the amazing help provided enhanced the physical vibe of the place.  After a day out exploring and wine tasting, this was the kind of rustic food spa we were seeking!  Rust en Vrede offers a six-course chef’s tasting menu or a four-course option (where each course had three choices)—we went the route of the latter because we were transfixed by some of the choices there.  It’s actually a good thing, because even this four-course option took over three (lovely) hours!

Dinner started with an amuse of French onion soup.  It was bold and rich, so much so that I asked if they used their wine in the recipe but they don’t…just an excellent cooking sherry.  I don’t know as I can remember as appetizing amuse as this in a long time.  Awesome.

This chaotic-looking dish was a starter of swordfish, swimming among islands of brussel sprout “leaves” and root veggies.  The fish had a nice crust on the outside but was moist and flavorful.  And I think Boca has some serious brussel sprout competition—these were perfectly cooked and I enjoyed the thin and delicate texture of eating them by the layer!

S’s first course was a rich and flavorful tomato soup (perfect for those cool South African winters).  The consistency was thick, almost like tomato sauce, but the flavors were bright and vibrant—no doubt cooked in some of the house wine.  It was served with a bright red cherry tomato and three kinds of melty cheese.  It was stunning and actually gave me a bit of “appetizer envy!”

Second for me was simply “quail eggs”—you can see them as the boldly-colored little poached items sitting next to shards of pan-fried pork.  I was a bit surprised that the quail eggs seemed almost to be a side attraction, until I tasted them with the pork.  Because of their preparation, they literally exploded in the mouth providing a lovely richness that contrasted with the succulence of the pork.  The zesty tomato-based sauce added yet another dimension.  Somehow, despite the potential hazards, this dish held true to being cohesive and not chaotic.  Lovely!

This little “garden” of a main course is filet of springbok, an emblematic antelope of South Africa (and for those who have seen Invictus, you may also know it as the name of the national rugby team, who had a bit of a hard time during our trip!).  Like venison, antelope can be easily overcooked, so I was pleased (though not surprised) to see how perfectly cooked it was.  The flavor was delicate and easily picked up some of the braising juices, which added some richness.  Sharing equal billing were the braised carrots and these most incredible lightly-fried balls of whipped potatoes that briefly caused our world to stand still.  I thought the presentation here (just as my main first course) was unnecessarily busy, but the food overcame this criticism by being near perfect.  Wow.

And it all wrapped up with a classic chocolate molten cake, properly prepared and gooey, alongside a little scoop of odd and unusual parsnip ice cream which kept things from getting runaway sweet.  This is also a good time to mention the incredible china they used which had the rough texture of unfinished pottery.  I do believe it’s the first time I’ve ever thought to comment on the china a place uses!

Anyway, this was a class meal all the way and a touch off the beaten Stellenbosch track.  I wish we had also come earlier in the day for a full wine tasting, but we enjoyed what we had so much we brought a bottle of their (surprisingly mild and well-rounded) shiraz.  If anyone decides to make the trip to South Africa, do yourself a favor and make it over here—only 45 minutes or so from Cape Town and worth every minute!

This coming weekend we’ll be back to the “typical” Cincinnati food thing, and will include a couple of other little South African culinary highlights!  Stay cool, people!

Well, gang, here’s something I didn’t expect: I’m writing this from the Atlanta airport, one day after I supposed to be on from here and in “radio silence.”. But, as it happens, our flight into ATL came in over 4 hours late and so we missed any chance of connections and were stuck with a nearly 24 hour delay without our luggage. Curse you, Atlanta summertime weather!

So with these unexpected lemons, we made a coarse lemonade, filled with deliciousness.

We started at Spondavit’s- it’s an interesting and frankly awesome place that was walking distance from where Delta put us up for the night. (Despite the bad weather and delays, the Delta folks have been awesome.) rather than call it a night, we made a go for it and were so pleasantly surprised. It was 1am on a Tuesday morning and the place was lively, not because of the bar but because of the seafood- only in Atlanta! We enjoyed delicious clam chowder, a robust bowl of gumbo, and a literal bucket of crab legs and jumbo shrimp with all the trimmings. The soups were bold, the crab was fresh and sweet, the shrimp was succulent, and the gin was a good apology for losing a night of vacation. A lucky find on our part!

For lunch today, we took a cab to Midtown to Mary Mac’s Tea House, a veritable institution of Southern cookery. Amidst a genteel and (as always in Atlanta) diverse environment, we enjoyed heaping helpings of some of my favorites: fried okra (stunning), collard greens, Mac/cheese, fried green tomatoes, catfish, meatloaf, and of course, peach cobbler and pecan pie. Oh yes, folks, this was a restorative meal- I whole-heartedly recommend this place, and if I come back I may just get a vegetable plate, it was so good. (oh, and sweet tea to die for)

And after an afternoon at the silly, endearing, and very Atlanta World of Coca-Cola museum, we learned that our flight tonight was delayed (still is, actually- oh joy!), we made a snack stop at that ATL institution, The Varsity. I’ve only been to their Athens, GA location before, but this was somehow even more chaotic, even on a Tuesday afternoon! We had hot dogs, of course, and S had a really tremendous (and timely) Coke float. “What’ll ya have?” indeed!

And so now we sit at the airport hoping our plane leaves for exotic places in 2 hours. So far the traveling haven’t particularly shined on us, but then again maybe they have. We’ve had an awesome day and are charged up for what’s ahead- I just wish I had a change of clothes!

That’ll probably be it until we get home from the trip at which point there’ll be oodles of stories, I bet. In the meantime, enjoy and here’s hoping the hot weather eventually breaks in the ‘Nati!

Hyde Park is one of those neighborhoods that’s easy for East Siders to take for granted.  After all, there are lots of interesting shops, it’s one of the few really walkable neighborhoods, and there are lots of lovely places for sitting on the square.  For such a progressive neighborhood, it hasn’t always been the most innovative place culinarily.  I don’t mind the places on the square, but HP is full of places I go to for convenience and atmosphere, not necessarily because of their awesomeness.  But when change comes, there are a lot of curious neighbors.  Such was the case on Friday at Poco a Poco, HP’s newest entrant, now 4 days open.

One always need to proceed with caution during a soft opening, but we were excited about the place  because there really isn’t much in the way of interesting Mexican foods on the East Side.  So we ventured in, after calling ahead for a reservation.

As others have written, the interior really doesn’t look much like Red, its super-masculine steakhouse predecessor—it’s much brighter.  It’s no less crowded, though—we had to squeeze into a tiny table—as they were totally full it was our only option so we made the most of it.  The menu is interesting—pretty much all Mexican and Mexican-inspired dishes.  The choices wouldn’t be out of place on a menu at Nada but each of them are a bit simpler, at least by description.  We decided that we’d try a variety of foods, but we started with some cocktails.  S had a mojito which “wasn’t bad” and I almost got the margarita until they told me it was made with well tequila and sour mix.  Instead I settled on an almost-too-sweet sangria.  Here’s tip #1:  if you’re going to have an actual drink menu, and you’re in Hyde Park, put some classier choices on display, too—I almost went for a beer instead!

The lights were very bright on Friday, but our harried but super-courteous server told us this was easily the dimmest night yet, as they had had television crews there shooting for Food Network the past few nights which meant that the lights were necessarily very, very bright.  In any case, we tucked into some chips and salsa, which weren’t complementary.  No bother, though, as the quality of these easily make the $2 an afterthought—seasoned with a kind of robust seasoning salt, the chips were light and crispy, and tasted homemade to me, while the salsa was then but very flavorful.  Not hot per se, but good essence of tomato and vegetables.  (They do have a house-made hot sauce which was just plain lovely—lots of heat to be sure, but not so much that it overwhelms and not such that one can only taste the hot!)

Our other appetizer was empanadas, a bit of a surprise, honestly, because most upscale restaurants tend to find the empanada a bit pedestrian for their menus.  This one was both delicious and interesting, with well-cooked but firm vegetables ensconced in a flaky delicious dough.  Even the zesty tomato sauce on the side was well-balanced.  This was an excellent appetizer and gave us lots of hope for the meal!

There were many reasons I ordered the “pork shoulder” main.  Besides being what is, for me, the most flavorful meat to prepare, it’s also one of the simplest looking things on the menu and pork shoulder is one of the really truly Mexican preparations—simple and delicious.  This version came out in a squared cast-iron serving bowl (as do many of their soups and sides) with some grilled flour tortillas.  (Nothing against northern Mexico and their flour tortillas but I’m always happier with corn!  I just wish there was a choice.)  It was just delicious.  The pork was appropriately fall-apart tender and was chipotle-spiced, alongside some pickled jalapenos for heat and a fresh crumbled cheese.  The flavors were balanced and bright—this is exactly what I had hoped for from the tingas at Nada but wasn’t able to get.  Even on a crazy-busy opening weekend, they took the time to make this dish a special one.

I wish I could say the same about the ubiquitous fish tacos.  S is a fish taco lover so it is no surprise that she jumped to it.  I was dubious only in that the menu didn’t list a kind of fish, and the server didn’t know.  But it arrived on the table, a beautiful pair of tacos with crema and lime.  Unfortunately, the fish was cooked to the point of being unrecognizable—it was hard and dry, and conveyed no real flavor profile—it was a big disappointment.

The sides saved the day—the (not pictured) black beans and rice is more of a “moros y cristianos” style of dry-mixed beans and rice, and unlike the underseasoned tacos were, if anything, too salty but at least moist and tasty.  The highlight was clearly the “charred corn” side—the only issue is that it struck me as a misnomer.  The corn may or may not have been charred, but the flavor profile was 100% “Mexican-flavored creamed corn.”  It may not sound good, but it was flavorful, bright, and creamy, and was the one thing on the table we kept coming back to.

All in all, it was a promising visit.  The place was packed full of people, but for the most part (hostess aside), the staff was unfailingly apologetic (even when they didn’t need to be), courteous, and very, very hard-working.  If I hadn’t just started my vacation this weekend, all the running around of the servers could have stressed me out!  They certainly looked harried, but that’s to be expected.  One of the co-owners spent some time with us and was exceedingly gracious—I sense they may be worried about if they were really “ready” to open, but to be honest, I don’t think you can ever know until your first Hyde Park Friday night, and I think given what they were up against, they performed admirably.  There are still a few kinks to work out—besides those above, the other one I’d put on the list was the near constant flow of filled garbage cans being taken from front of house through the dining room into the kitchen/back area of the restaurant; no one really wants to see big, full garbage cans pass inches from their dinner.  But we will be back—the place feels genuine and good-natured; let’s hope that they get on a path of continual improvement, poco a poco.

Bucking my “pita history,” my trip to Mythos results in a curious order: Greek spaghetti. As it turns out, a bit of a meatier version of Cincinnati chili with more focus on seasonings vs. cheese. Surprisingly nice! (Greek spaghetti, Mythos on 4th/5th and Main/Walnut)

P.s. They have Mello Yello on tap now!

Happy 4th (5th) of July, everyone!  I hope you’ve enjoyed a rollicking & patriotic good time.  As usual, the weekend of the 4th brought me great joy, as we always have several of our good friends from in town and out (most from Michigan) and we have lots of fun little adventures.  In addition to the couple below, these included a fun night out at The Celestial and Terry’s and a lovely breakfast at the National Exemplar.  Oh, and while I’m talking about The Celestial, may I just put in a plug for their tremendous bartending staff.  I mean, they make a mean cocktail there and I enjoyed a few selections that blew me away.  But that’s another blog.

Northside Afternoon!

As we had friends in town, every year we like to show them a little bit they haven’t seen before, and this time out we took a trip up Hamilton Ave. to Northside.  Once there, we had an excellent lunch at Melt, the sandwich shop with swagger.  I had my consistently tremendous lunch of the Hoffner, which is a roast beef sandwich with swiss and horseradish mayo, along with their legendary roasted rosemary potatoes with curry ketchup.  Holy cow that was nice.

I should say, by the way, that the other folks in the party all had a little something different and they were all tremendous.  Is there anything these folks can’t do?  I’ve said it before and will say it again—if you like interesting home cooking & creative combinations—and ESPECIALLY if you’re vegetarian or vegan—GET DOWN TO MELT!

My semi-secret motive for going to Northside—well, apart from a stop at Shake It Records which netted me a cool 10 discs for $10—was to check out the new Picnic & Pantry “micro-grocery.”  It sounded quintessentially Northside (at least as far as Cincinnati is concerned!) and I was more than a little curious.

I’ll say this—for a space that was until recently a diner, they’ve done a tremendous job.  It’s a tiny boutique but they’ve got loads of interesting little offerings—lots of organic produce, several kinds of basic organic groceries, interesting spices and grains by the pound, and even a lovely-looking case of Jeni’s Ice Cream (I’ll definitely be back to try that!).  And the have several Melt sandwich selections ready for pick-up-and-go which is a nice and smart touch.  All-in-all, it’s a convenient, cute, and inventive little shop, even if buying all your groceries here would break your bank!  If you’re in the neighborhood or just looking for a little “organic retail therapy” it’s worth a visit.

And Finally… a little bit of party

I’ve written before about my once-a-year summertime bash I throw for friends, and this year we did the same thing.  In deference to the World Cup among other things, the theme was “American Safari” and included lots of classic American grillout dishes (such as ribs from Rendezvous in Memphis, burgers, brats, and some really nice-but-hot baked beans from a recipe in the new Good Stuff cookbook-really good by the way!) alongside some interesting African-inspired bits (such as delicious peanut-marinated “pepper meat” skewers and some interesting buffalo and camel sausages which were nicer in theory than execution).  All in all, a lovely time with just the right and crazy amount of food carnage.  And a week or so of delicious leftovers “in the bag.”  Thanks to my friends that made it a night to remember!

Everyone, enjoy your week (hopefully it’s a short one!) and here’s to more summertime food fun!