Goodbye...
Veronica's Test Kitchen will be shutting down soon. It's been a sweet three years. Is it the end of my blogging?
Veronica's Test Kitchen will be shutting down soon. It's been a sweet three years. Is it the end of my blogging?
I know I’ve been a slacker with blogging lately – no new recipes for weeks now. But most of you know I’ve entered the wedding business and cooking anything worth blogging about with a full-time computer job and the season in full swing is truly impossible. I cannot tell you how many pounds of buttercream my trusty mixer has churned out – so much so that I have committed the recipe to memory that I do not have to spend 15 minutes looking for my cheat sheet.
Anyway, before all the “marryment” began, Hubby and I indulged in some restaurants that we’ve been meaning to return to. Richmond has a pretty fair share of non-chain restaurant per capita. Some get rave reviews for reasons I don’t understand and some just do not get the recognition they deserve.
Richmond peeps, if you have not tried Sensi, you are missing out on one of the best Italian restaurants in town (which is why HH was first in line at his Broad Appetit booth). Paolo Randazzo is the master of his craft. He has the best fried calamari I’ve ever tasted - and believe me “Hungry” Hubby and I have tried plenty - never rubbery, always perfectly crisp and melt-in-your mouth tasty. And if he happens to offer the grilled variety that night – get it. If you like squid, you will not be disappointed. Just to let you know how much HH loves calamari, on our cheat day while we were on the Body for Life program years ago, we went to Franco’s ( Paolo’s old restaurant) and he wanted two orders of calamari for dinner all to himself – he would not share them with me. So I ordered one for appetizer and he shared that too. Our server was cheeky and she said out loud that she doubts HH can finish all the calamari – and she was right. J
Anyway, my entrée on our visit to Sensi was Maine Lobster over orzo pasta in caper cream sauce. This was one of Paolo’s signature sauces and each “grain” is just coated enough to deliver that medley of complex seasonings to your palate. But it was “Hungry” Hubby’s ginormous veal chop – all 16oz of it- that was a revelation. We almost never order veal because we think of it as a pretty boring meat (veal parm or scallopini anyone?). But since it was Sensi’s most popular dish, HH decided to give it a try.
I was beyond impressed and I would have gladly eaten my dish as well as his. Each bite was a study in succulence and flavor. Buerre noisette added the buttery dimension while the garlic chips extended the savory punch of a flawlessly seared exterior.
Paolo always has the same trio of desserts which he executes fabulously. And Sensi is the only place in Richmond where I never leave disappointed in the last course. The trio is a warm flourless chocolate torte, a creamy goat cheese budino (Italian crème caramel) and a hazelnut semifreddo. Uh…can I say orgasmic! The warm torte offers robust chocolate flavor which I find lacking in many Richmond restaurant desserts, the budino was oh so deliciously creamy which my tongue gladly savored. I was too stuffed to finish the semifreddo but HH had no problem being the disposal.
This dinner was weeks ago and I took my time to write about it because none of my words would have given justice to the sheer pleasure I had with this meal.
I had to try very hard to discern a taste of foie from the foie gras terrine. However, I did enjoy our second course of pan-seared scallops, mache greens and mushrooms immensely – it’s hard to go wrong with mushrooms after all. HH and I both ordered the soft-shell crab special for our main course. Without a doubt it was perfectly cooked – lightly breaded and crisp - but both HH and I took issue with the overall flavor of the dish. This very well might be classified as nitpicking, but with Acacia Midtown being run by a chef who was awarded as one of the best new chefs in 1999 by F&W, one cannot help but analyze the logic and creation behind his offerings.
What can I say, I am my father’s daughter and he had a habit of dissecting dishes too.
I think soft shell crab is, by nature, very rich and heavy – taste saturation comes quickly, so we thought it could use more tartness to cut through all that glorious crabby fat. I think it came with a lemon butter thyme sauce but the taste of lemon was but a nuance. It was brilliant that it was served with German potatoes though, as the mustard did aid in balancing out the overall dish. But you know that feeling of wistfulness whenever a dish would have been nirvana if… that was how we felt with this dish.
Ahh…dessert. Unfortunately, this has been my continued pet peeve with Acacia. This time it was probably my fault for ordering the devil’s food cake knowing from the looks of all the box mixes I've seen at the supermarket that this would never be my kind of cake even if it was baked with panache by a skillful chef. I took the first bite and I was done by my second cursory one. Again, this was partly my fault…somehow I was expecting big chocolate flavor when it was not in the character of this particular cake. But then there was nothing that appealed to me on the dessert menu either so I settled…
But let me tell you, Acacia was packed on that Wednesday night.
So I wondered and pondered: maybe this was the type of fare people wanted over here. And suddenly, the daunting dilemma that faced all the great chefs of Central Virginia dawned on me. Richmond is right smack in the middle of the East coast. Not quite south and not quite north, you’ve got a mix of folks who want conservative southern cooking but you’ve also got the folks who have been exposed to bolder flavors available to the north of the city like Washington DC and New York.
And the reason why Dale Reitzer’s cuisine works? It’s mostly upscale south with some European flair mixed in. I’ve been highly enamored by his crabcakes over cheesy grits (and I generally do not like crabcakes) and his rendition of polenta with mascarpone was simply to die for. And though I admit ignorance with southern cookery and desserts, I hope that he would come up with a knock –the- socks- of-me apple tart next time – please?
Before this week gets away from me, I better announce the winners of the cupcake cookbook giveaway.
24 Erin
I think my favorite combination is rich moist chocolate cake with homemade cream cheese frosting! YUM!
83 Mary
Oooh - That cupcake in the picture has made me so hungry :) And I would love to have MY cupcake topped with swirls of milk chocolate buttercream frosting AND a thicky creamy layer of cream cheese & raspberry frosting! (I can feel my hips growing just thinking about it lol)
Someone as food obsessed as I am really shouldn’t be selling at a food festival. Conflict of interest. Let me explain.
The festival was set to open to the public at noon. At 11:30 am I was fretting about missing out on Sensi’s offering of butter-poached lobster over lemon risotto rather than when to take out the macarons and cupcakes for display. I had the “Hungry” hubby go back twice to check since the first time he went the dish was not yet ready. Well, he was first in line and once Sensi started serving at NOON, he bought three of the pasta and 1 zabaione. When he got back to our booth, he already consumed one plate and I proceeded to stuff my mouth with the other. Nice big claw too…and then customers started to show up. Luckily, HH let me finish eating…but I wasn’t sure if I had a piece of tarragon stuck in my teeth as I smiled widely at the next customer.
Oh, and he managed to snap a picture of the Sensi booth while all we remembered to take of the Petites Bouchees tent was when it was devoid of any of our macarons and cupcakes.
Sensi
Petites Bouchees
See what I mean…priorities were messed up.
But the good news is, I sold out of my macarons halfway through the festival and had one cupcake box left by closing time! The key time period was between 1-2pm just when everyone was looking for something sweet to follow the unbelievable onslaught of $3.00 plates. My thanks to all bloggers, blog readers and all the Richmond folks that made a sweet stop at our tent, I truly appreciate the support! And to those who stopped by when I already ran out of macarons, I will make sure to have more next time. Maybe device a way to reserve macarons via twitter eh?
Other notables: I thought Café Rustica was going to be a no-show until I saw Chef Andy cruising down Broad Street at 11:00 am in his pickup truck (suppose to clear out cars and trucks by 11:30 am), stopping by Kuba Kuba’s tent asking “ Where’s my booth?” – rebel ;). Anyway, he managed to set up quickly in time to turn out his signature mediterranean short-stack (shrimp, scallop and crabmeat cakes). We also traded desserts, some of my macarons for his griddled pound cake with strawberries .
How I wish I was able to try Acacia's fried sugar toads – I totally forgot! And the heat kind of put a damper on my appetite…but oh well maybe next year I can strategize better J.
Update: 06/09/2009
I seriously had so much fun, I keep on dreaming of opening a storefront...but I know what is like having grown up in the restaurant business. By the way, in a previous post where I asked about flavor combinations, that poll worked out pretty well. For macarons, I paired the chocolate -espresso buttercream with Hazelnut and salted caramel (big crowd favorite). And for the cupcakes I mixed more of the chocolate and carrot together and that seemed like a winner too. So thanks to all that participated!
Remember at the Bridal Show earlier this year, I nearly lost my voice repeating all five flavors of my macarons plus three flavors of cupcakes 300 times. Well this time for the Broad Appetit, I am more prepared ( I hope).
Let me present to you the macaron food pyramid. ("Hungry" Hubby undertook it upon himself to take pictures of the macarons stacked up like this...)
And the cupcakes? I am very excited to unveil....
... Petites Bouchees Cupcake flags! They are made by the ultra-talented Jen of Miss Pickles Press who I found while visiting Courtney's blog Little White Book. I am very impressed with the quality of Jen's work and look forward to working with her in designing more fine paper goods for Petites Bouchees.
I will try to remember to take pictures of our setup at Broad Appetit. I just baked 350 macarons and 160 cuppies and I am so freaking exhausted - not to mention having to package them. But they are totally worth it because they are too cute!
Oh and Richmond peeps, please visit the Petites Bouchees booth. We're #65 and are between Madison and Monroe! The cupcakes with the flags are in limited availability, so stop by early :). See you all (hopefully) at the Broad Appetit!
Yes, I have another giveaway. Too busy to cook/bake for the blog, but not too busy to blog ! J
But first, let me announce the winner of the cupcake wrappers – Joey of 80 breakfasts, Congratulations!
34. joey said...
Before anything -- congratulations on your gorgeous cupcakes appearing in the wedding magazine! Well deserved indeed as they are truly fit for a beautiful bride :)
Secondly -- Yay!!! I can finally join a contest! :) So for the macarons, I would pick chocolate with espresso buttercream and hazelnut with salted caramel. For the cupcakes I would pick chocolate-chocolate glaze and vanilla with vanilla rum buttercream! Although of course, all sounds absolutely delicious!
I have not always been a fan of Martha Stewart. Especially after the very memorable Daring Baker Crepe Cake fiasco that is now known as the Crap Cake. But when I was researching packaging for my little Petites Bouchees business, I was very impressed with her style, colors, and the overall elegance of her products.
I have her Martha Stewart magazine issue where she featured cupcakes on the cover and I must say her recipes and pictures are indeed inspiring. There really is no secret recipe to cupcakes (sounds like Kung fu panda), but a cupcake allows you be as creative or as simple as you want it to be. And knowing the Martha, her new book will be chock full of her fantastic ideas.
So, I want you all to join in on the fun. I am giving away 2 copies of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, because I want to whisk up some nostalgic joy these summer months! All you have to do is leave a comment between now and June 12th and state what you would do to decorate or what you would like to have on a cupcake. It might be a simple swirl of buttercream, a dollop of whipped cream topped with a plump raspberry, it could be anything! And yes, I’ll be shipping worldwide!
Robert Steinberg: Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate