Veronica's Test Kitchen

LFM: Sensi - the cure for the jaded diner

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)

Heart attack in a bottle

Why are the best-tasting food bad for your health? I think I consider that the biggest injustice a foodie faces. The solution is not really avoidance but moderation, right?

Anyway, my brother is in town with his family - visiting from the Philippines. Catching up on news includes talking about food and reminiscing midnight sojourns into the kitchen or those morning breakfasts of dried fish and crab fat. Yes, crab fat.

And guess what? I've got a couple of bottles in the pantry.

Suffice to say, you do not want to have it for breakfast everyday but have to have it as occassional indulgence - pure heaven in a bottle!

Taba ng Talanka

(crab fat)

4 oz. crab fat

1/2 onion diced

juice of 1/2 a lime ( or according to taste)

olive oil

Saute onion in enough olive oil. Add the crab fat. When it is heated through, add the lime. Serve over hot rice.

YUM!

Crab fat is available in most Asian grocery stores but if you can find the Navarro's brand , it is considered the best.

Hawking my macarons at the Farmer's Market

The "Hungry" Hubby and I got up at 5am this morning. I had some cupcakes to frost and glaze plus we had to pack the macarons in little polka-dot packs of three. HH started snapping pictures of me piping cream cheese frosting on the cupcakes even as I sternly warned him not to include me in the picture  because I was wearing the dreaded hair-net (mental-note to ask my hair-stylist about better head gear for kitchen work).

We were 15 minutes behind our target schedule but traffic was so light we still got to the Farmer's market with plenty of time to unload. We were first assigned a corner booth:

But I got tired of shifting the cupcake boxes because of the sun shining on them that we decided to move. The macarons were fine because most of them were in the cooler.

Our next booth was in total shade. The problem was we did not have an opportunity to hang the banner.

As all of you can see in the picture, the market was sparsely attended. HH and I were afraid we would end up with a ton of macarons leftover. But the Richmond blogging community (bloggers and readers) came through for me! I was able to sell almost 70% of my goodies - I thought that was pretty good considering the light traffic through the market.

I was glad to meet all of you and would love to hear feedback and suggestions about the macarons.

Plus I finally met Rva Foodie, his lovely wife Karen and cute little Jasper.

I had a fantastic time hawking these little bites! For our first time at the market, the HH and I did not do too bad at all in terms of preparation. What we would need in the future is a little table to set our things on and extra fabric we could use to block out the sun - we might not be so lucky next time to get a stall in the shade when the Market gets busy in May.

Again my thanks to all who were able to make it the 17th street Farmer's Market.

Let me leave you a picture of the MAC-Mobile.

See you at the Farmer's Market!

If you are in Richmond , Va tomorrow please stop by the 17th Street Farmer's Market. I will be having macarons available, flavors tomorrow are chocolate,pistachio, vanilla , hazelnut and raspberry. I plan to have chocolate and carrot cupcakes too...that is if the vino does not get in the way of my baking tonight .

LFM: Umami ...Unagi... Umi

From now on , I'm abbreviating Local Food Musing to LFM.

            I was pretty stressed when I got back from San Francisco. Aside from dealing with jet lag, I had a couple of orders to fulfill as well as take over a very high profile system at my day job. When I’m under a lot of pressure, I can’t eat. My appetite vanishes. All I am left with is a knot in my tummy telling me I’m starving, but after a couple of spoonfuls, I can eat no more.

            During times like this almost every cuisine makes my stomach turn. The oyster Po-boy I usually crave would make my nose twitch in disdain. Good for losing weight but very bad for my overall health and blood sugar. In all this turmoil, there is one cuisine that I usually turn to: Japanese!

Maybe it’s the lightness of the ingredients (if you do not count tempura) or maybe it’s the umami (also known as the 5^th taste) of the dashi. For the rumblings of a picky belly, a nice hot bowl of miso soup always conjures up a heartening dish.

So, in between baking orders, I quickly checked myself in the mirror to make sure there was not enough confectioner's sugar on me to make me look like a geisha and dashed out to look for this relatively new restaurant called Umi located in front of the Short Pump Town Center on Broad Street. I could not find it at first and thought I would end up with Chick-Fil-A again. But I finally spotted the bistro after doing another pass through the area.

I was really craving Pork Katsudon but they did not have it on their menu so I settled for a shrimp tempura bento box which I rarely order because I felt that most of the other stuff that came with it was filler. To my surprise, the accompanying shrimp siumai tasted like it came from a bona fide dim sum place. The miso soup was definitely the best I’ve had in town – most Japanese restaurants couldn’t get it right and you usually end up with something that tasted like water and salt – this definitely had umami.

Okay… for someone who thought she lost her appetite, I also ordered two unagi (eel) sushi and a baby octopus salad. I preferred the baby octopus I get from Hana zushi restaurant in the downtown area…but the unagi…OMG was the bomb! It was slightly warm, crisp outside but the flesh just melted in your mouth. Did I mention that unagi was my favorite dish in Japanese restaurants? (okay so is Katsudon)

I had such a great meal there that I went back 2 more times in the past week and a half with the “Hungry” Hubby and a couple of friends.

I have had the plum duck, which I’ve seen on Messy Chef's restaurant review of Umi. It was delicious although I could have been happy with less plum sauce. The “Hungry” Hubby thought it did not taste like duck. I told him it definitely was duck and not go looking for the strong flavor of the Moulard or Muscovy because we were in an Asian restaurant and they definitely would have used a milder-flavored duck like Pekin.

We’ve also had an assortment of sushi and sashimi which were clearly very fresh and a seleciton of appetizers that was very good.

            I really did not like the garnishes that they put on their plates, some of which are very tall they can very well take out an eye. And they should probably train their staff to be attentive without being intrusive. A couple of times on my third visit our server kept on interrupting my conversation with my friend to a point that my friend and I got really …really annoyed.

            Other than that, I can’t wait to take my brother and his family to this place as I have spotted Uni (sea urchin) and Toro (fatty tuna) on their specials menu twice that I’ve been there. I’m going to reserve ordering that for special occasions.