I am so fascinated by blogger MarketMan's Lechon Chronicles . His obsession for this particular roasted fare wins the Test Kitchen award of excellence. I am so inspired, I am determined to roast a lechon - although in the confines of my oven - before the end of this year!
I will be closing my shop for the month of August and will reopen September 1st. I've already hinted of new macaron flavors in a previous post but will now be adding new cupcake flavors as well. There MIGHT be new offerings added too besides the lineup of macarons , cupcakes and financiers. These all depends on the outcome of the recipes I am tweaking.
This will also give me more opportunity to play (and blog more) in the test kitchen :).
I will be announcing the changes on August 25 and with it will be giving away very special prizes! There is one available date of July 26th for those who still want to order macarons for local pickup or delivery.
I am accepting pre-orders for September and beyond. So if you have a special occasion planned , don't hesitate to send me an email with your order.
I have not mused about the local food scene in a while, probably because I've been disappointed in a couple of places that had rave reviews in several magazines as well as word-of-mouth from a couple of friends. First was the Phoenician, both the "Hungry" Hubby and I had the kebob sampler - the chicken was really tasty but the beef shish kabob and the kufteh was a big disappointment. Then there was Comfort. I had such high hopes for this place but the barbeque pulled pork was dry and too sour for my taste. I do give high points for their macaroni and cheese though. I was left dreaming of the sublime food scene in San Francisco or New York. Can't we just have a little of that over here, after all there are tons of restaurants sprouting up everywhere. I cannot even convince HH that real Japanese food is superb and is not just sushi, tempura or hibachi steakhouses.
Sigh...if only there was a Nobu in Richmond (yeh ...keep dreaming right?) .
Well, anyway back to Sensi. I really did not want to go out for my birthday. I just wanted HH to grill me a nice Dry-Aged CAB New York strip and I'd be all set. But , he wanted us try Sensi again and I finally thought it might not be such a bad idea after all and I can get to dress up.
Sensi does have the air of contemporary restaurants you might find in New York. As I perused the menu, I found excitement again coursing through my veins... and through my belly. My eye caught several Maine Lobster dishes from bisque to entree. I was all set to pick one of those when our waiter described the specials in agonizing, delicious detail and made me confused about what I wanted to order. I was not planning to review our dinner so I did not take detailed notes. But here is what I remember:
First Course: Pasta
Sensi, after all was an Italian restaurant and we know Paolo makes great pasta so we decided to have them as our starter.
Lump Crab Stuffed Ravioli - Delicious. The baby leek sauce we suspect was either flavored with bone marrow or maybe the crab fat itself. At any rate , we lapped up the rich sauce greedily with some bread.
U10 dry packed Scallops over lemon-basil risotto - The scallops were perfectly seared and was as tasty as this type of scallops ever could be. The risotto could have been cooked just a bit less since I prefer a little bite to it.
Entree:
HH had the slow roasted veal - stuffed with peas and some artichoke hearts. It was served over a sauce that reminded me of osso bucco.
I had the 16-ounce Australian Wagyu rib eye steak served with herb butter , roasted garlic and shallots. Cooked perfectly in everyway, the fat was evenly charred to release the very flavorful, succulent beefy taste. Wagyu is a very marbled type of meat. If you like lean cuts , this is not for you.
The chef also sent us a surprise course of gnochhi before our main course. It was cooked simply with enoki mushrooms and pancetta but I just love sinking my teeth into this pillowly dumpling.
My dessert was the trio of semifreddo, budino and flourless chocolate torte, HH had the sorbet combination. I think I was too stuffed to truly enjoy my dessert though it was pretty good down to the strawberries that garnished it.
Though the dinner was not perfect in every way, I must say I will be coming back. That is how I gauge if I liked a restaurant or not is my willingness to return.
I must say though that a couple-friend of ours was underwhelmed by Sensi, so it might also be a matter of taste or the service that night at the restaurant.
Places I want to try next, Zed's Cafe and Deluxe (I heard they have buttermilk fried chicken - I am so craving the perfect one)
... was not bad actually.
Since today is my birthday , I get to do what I like - wait in line for the new release of the Iphone 3G. Now I've never done such a thing before for an electronic gadget but for some weird reason I thought it would be fun. And it was! We got there at 6:00 am, and were probably the 30th in line. We had the sense to bring a chair which made waiting for a little over 2 hours bearable. Before the store opened its doors at 8:00 am, the line grew at a steady pace.
Set up was pretty quick. They were able to activate my phone in-store...and although there was a delay connecting to Itunes, I was out of the Apple store by 9:00 am toting my new toy, my birthday gift from the "Hungry" Hubby. Thanks, Hon!
Uh...I swear I have not lost my mind. There exist such a thing. An enzyme called transglutaminase acts as a bonding agent for different types of proteins. It is not a new discovery. It's mostly used in industrial applications like improving the binding of sausages or restructured steaks but has recently found usage in restaurants that would like to create more consistent portion sizes. In upscale restaurants, it may be used to create something unusual like this tuna-scallop example from my Harold Mc Gee seminar last year.
I do not really see an application in the home kitchen. But a girl has to try and satisfy her curiosity , right? I was able to get an Ajinomoto representative to send me a sample of Activa -its brand name- a couple of months ago since I couldn't find it anywhere( It has since become available at Lepicerie).
I finally found the opportunity to play with this ingredient last weekend as the "Hungry" Hubby was making kebabs again and I had him set aside 4 pieces of tenderloin for me. Activa is in powder form. All you have to do is to sprinkle it liberally at the point where you want to fuse the meat , press it firmly and refrigerate overnight.
We salted the chunks of meat before throwing it on the grill. That way , we could make sure that seasoning did not affect the bonds that formed.
I know I did not do a very professional job glueing the pieces together, but at least the chunks held.
The small piece that broke off in the picture was a natural separation of the meat.
There was no weird after-taste that came about from the use of Activa. The meat remained succulent, retained it's texture and beefy taste.
The Ajinomoto rep told me that once the packet is opened , it is important to seal and freeze the remaining powder as it loses its effectivity very quickly once exposed to air. That is another reason I think this will be my first and last experimentation with transglutaminase.
So, I’m back! For the first 2 weeks of June, I had to attend to my day job plus an influx of macaron orders. Remember I mentioned some exciting projects? One is underway and won’t be finished until the end of August… I am so psyched about it. The second was supposed to be a minor kitchen renovation to add a second oven but that fell through because we decided to get one of those stand alone kitchen ovens instead - the ones that restaurants use. You see, when you are an IT person like me - a database administrator- you always think of your backups. I’m always afraid that if my one and only oven fails – what do I do with my orders. We also inquired about a generator from the electric company but got a sticker shock – that’ll have to wait.
I was also busy in the Test kitchen. First, experimenting with a new ingredient called gellan. This is what Pierre Herme uses to make some of his gelée cubes. A question that came up often in class was when to use gellan and when to use gelatin, he said it all depends on the texture you want.
My passion fruit gelée needs some more work. I don’t like the texture- the graininess in the mouth feel – the gellan probably needs to be cooked some more. My raspberry one did not turn out any better either and acquired the texture of tomato paste … yuck! So, if any molecular gastronomy geek can guide me as to its proper use, I will be eternally grateful :). But I am most excited experimenting with the macaron au sucre cuit. I think I’m close to getting the results I want. I take back what I said about this method before. It is not any sweeter than the French Meringue way. Now whether I will use this for my business still remains to be seen – I find it more involved but has a better rate of return for big orders with multiple flavors. Anyway, here’s a sneak peek: I will reveal my new flavors for Petites Bouchees towards the end of August. But most of you familiar with PH’s macarons probably could already tell what the cocoa-dusted yellow one is. J My grubby little fingers have thoroughly smeared sticky syrup on my PH recipe book - I'm finding some pages stuck together! I’ve also received multiple requests to publish some of the recipes from his class. I am looking to make the Emotion Ispahan soon and maybe… that’ll be the first ;). And last but not least, check out this cute watercolor from Cakespy. Isn’t it the most lovable thing to have? I know I had to have it the moment I laid eyes on it. Jessie also has an etsy shop here.
Robert Steinberg: Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate
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