Camacho Watcho

I’ve eaten out a lot lately…

First of all, Sea Change is an amazing addition to the neighborhood. I have eaten there several times and everything has been perfect. The mussels in green curry (don’t forget to spoon up all that tasty broth) and braised short ribs are foods to dream about. I also recently checked out L’Ecosse, the new Scottish restaurant at 48th and Chicago – solid comfort food and creative dishes from a former White House chef. I even tried haggis…and liked it! Then this past week I tried Volnay Bistro in Wayzata, which was…well, not the best of dining experiences. I hope to see a turnaround from a restaurant with such an idyllic setting.

With all this eating out – I was looking forward to cooking a few meals at home. But to be honest, I’ve tried a few recipes recently that just haven’t been up to snuff. The corn risotto with seared scallops underwhelmed me. However, the leftover risotto, amped up with some additional seasonings and veggies, was pretty tasty stuffed into green bell peppers a few days later. Even pasta dishes that I normally love, just haven’t been as tasty. I blame the weather.

This all changed when I made the Herbed Ribeye with Mustard Sauce, which I topped it with crispy fried sweet onions and served on a bed of roasted green beans and onions. Oh, yeah…that satisfied.

Herbed Ribeye with Mustard Sauce
adapted from The Best of Food and Wine 1986 Collection
serves 2

1/4 c dijon mustard
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 TBSP creme fraiche
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp rosemary, crumbled
1/4 tsp tarragon
1/8 tsp coarsely ground pepper
2 6-8 oz ribeye steaks

1. Combine the mustard, Worchestershire, ginger and clove in a small bowl. Cover and set aside.
2. Mix all the herbs in a bowl – basil through pepper – then press mixture evenly onto both sides of steak. Grill or broil steaks as desired. Allow to rest 5 minutes, tented with foil.
3. Stir creme fraiche into mustard sauce, along with any meat juices that have accumulated on the platter. Serve sauce on top of steak.

The roasted green beans and onions were tossed in olive oil with salt and pepper at 375 for 20-25 minutes and the fried onions were thinly sliced and fried in vegetable oil (without any batter) until crisp. Drain onions on paper towel then serve on top of steak.

While I like to have a good time, I have to admit that bachelorette parties get a little much for me nowadays. So when I got the invite for a friend’s bachelorette party at Spill the Wine for a five-course dinner with wine pairings, I was ecstatic! Food, wine, friends…perfect!

The group of fifteen of us gathered there a few Saturdays ago, seated on the wine bar side as the restaurant was full with a wedding reception. *What a great idea for a wedding reception location!* Individual menus printed with both the courses and the wines sat waiting for us, which of course I loved!

The first course was a salad with radishes and a mango vinaigrette paired with a Radcliffe sauvignon blanc. The salad was good, perhaps a little too much vinaigrette on mine, but it paired well with the light sauvignon blanc. *You may notice the hefty wine pours from the previous picture…I wasn’t complaining!

The next course was a beautiful piece of salmon (a generous portion in my opinion) with warm peaches and balsamic vinegar. I loved the salmon, but wasn’t crazy about the Valley of the Moon chardonnay it was paired with – it had absolutely no flavor.

The third course was my favorite. Perhaps this was because it was comfort food and I had had two glasses of wine by this time, but I loved the wild mushroom croquette with cream sauce. The table was buzzing about how good this dish was, which I equated to a scoop of hot dish with a lightly crisp exterior. Yum! And the wine – Luzon monastrell/syrah was a very nice pairing.

Unfortunately the next course, grilled beef tenderloin kabobs with red onion and peppers, was a flop. Overcooked, dry and absolutely no seasoning sums up this course. The Root 1 cabernet sauvignon was good, but not good enough to save the dish.

Last, but definitely not least, we were served dessert. Vanilla bean ice cream with a triple berry coulis (the menu only listed raspberry so the additional berries were a yummy bonus)! Paired with a sweet dessert wine, I was in heaven. There is something so simple and tasty about ice cream and berries.

I’ve always really liked Spill the Wine. They have a nice wine menu and good wine specials – $15 bottles of wine during happy hour and 1/2 priced bottles on Mondays. The food is good – the salads are consistently great.

And our wine dinner?

Overall it was good. It had its highs and it had its lows. However, for the bargain price of $35 for five-courses plus wine, I thought it was a great deal and a fantastic idea for a bachelorette party.

I’d like to think this wasn’t my fault, but I walked into the storm last Thursday with full knowledge of the consequences. There is no one to blame but me.

Rewind eight days to researching how to make jucy lucys for this Heavy Table video. I’ll skip the details, but let’s just say that I managed to eat four jucy lucys in five days and had drawn up the white flag in surrender. No more jucy lucys for a while…or so I thought.

The Thursday after making the video, Kyle and I attended a wine tasting at Sorella Wine and Spirits. We love Sorella and had heard of a South American wine tasting class put on by the Wine Company, a representative of which had recently returned from a trip to Chile and Argentina and would be sharing his experience and some wines from those regions. I had been to wineries in Chile and Argentina when in South America in 2007, so I was looking forward to it, knowing it couldn’t possibly live up to the actual experiences, but was hoping to at least be introduced to some new wines from those regions that are available in the US. The class was mediocre, but we did try a few wines that we liked – Bianchi Torrontes, Errazuriz Wild Ferment Chardonnay (my favorite), Bianchi Malbec and Errazuriz Cabernet Sauvignon – so we were pretty happy about that.

The problem is, when it comes to tasting wine…I don’t follow the rules. I know you’re supposed to just taste the wine and then pour out the rest, but nine times out of ten I don’t. I just drink it. So, after tasting ten or so wines that night, I was getting a bit pickled. Not to mention ravenous.

The Blue Door Pub

At that point, we decided to hit up The Blue Door Pub. We thought it was about time we stepped up to the plate to try their Blucy Lucy. I had read so many great reviews about this burger here and here and here and, despite my previous four lucys that week, I decided I was hungry for more.

As expected, The Blue Door Pub was packed when we arrived so we waited a bit in the crowded room for a table – ordering a couple beers to tide us over. When our table finally opened up, we barely glanced at the menu (although it is quite an extensive listing of juicy blucy offerings) and put in our order. I went with their signature Blucy Lucy (stuffed with garlic and blue cheese) and Kyle hit up their special, the Merriam Park Lucy (stuffed with blue cheese, garlic and bacon and topped with red currant jelly).

Let me first talk about Kyle’s burger. It was a little on the underdone side, unfortunately, but it was tasty. We agreed that the red currant jelly on top was the perfect sweet accompaniment to the salty burger, but wished the bacon had been crisp and that there had been a little more cheese inside. Overall a great tasting burger with a ton of potential with a bit of tweaking.

As for the Blucy Lucy? Honestly, I know it was partly due to the combination of all the wine, beer and lack of water I had had that day, but that burger truly rocked me. The amount of blue cheese stuffed inside the half pound burger was insane – and it didn’t taste like cheap blue cheese but was creamy and dry. The garlic was the perfect background flavor to it, not overpowering but definitely present. Overall I really liked this lucy – it was my first experience with a lucy outside the traditional American cheese version – but, it dominated me. I finished it, but was cowering inside as I did. Beer was left on the table and fries were left in my burger basket…and I pled for mercy.

The Blue Door Pub will definitely be on my list to try again, after a short jucy lucy detox period, of course. With proper training (hydration), I think I could hold my ground with the Blucy Lucy. I still prefer the traditional American cheese version of the jucy lucy best – The Nook and Matt’s rock this scene – but The Blue Door Pub is a nice twist on the Minnesota favorite.

The Blue Door Pub
St. Paul, MN

Restaurant Week 2009 came and went with minor fanfare for me. I had hoped to make it to three new places last week (I loved my two visits last year), but managed one – Barrio Tequila Bar. Although it was only one place, the tasting menu for $30 was exactly what I had hoped for.

But before I get to the food, I need to take a step back. You can’t go to a tequila bar and not drink a little tequila (or, maybe that’s just me). And my choice? Of course, I immediately ordered the Macho Camacho margarita. Up until l I changed my last name, I was asked on a frequent basis if I am related to Hector Macho Camacho. But, no, I’m not related to Hector or any other boxers (unless you count my dad who did a little boxing in college). Regardless, I was excited to try this margarita that shares my maiden name. And this drink did not disappoint – a citrusy blood-orange beverage that came just shy of a puckery knock-out.

Once our thirsts had been quenched, we could concentrate on the food. The tasting menu was actually a great value. We started with housemade guacamole, a trio of salsas (ancho chile, salsa verde and habanero) and queso fundido with crab. The best of these were the salsas, especially the salsa verde (I just love tomatillos!). I liked the guacamole but it could have used a kick and the queso fundido was good but I didn’t think it really needed the crab. These were all served with the tastiest of tortilla chips – honestly, so good…we went through three baskets and could have taken down more.

The next course was the pork posole – their version of this brothy soup consisted of a piece of tender pork shoulder served with lettuce, radishes and jalapenos. After stirring in a spoonful of their salsa verde, it was my favorite dish of the evening. Last, we were served a trio of tacos – steak, fish and pork. Again the pork reigned as the best of the bunch, as the steak taco was served on a fried tortilla shell and the sauce for the fish was a mask of mayo.

The downfall of the evening, however, was the service which can be only be described as unprofessional and uncoordinated. Do they really think it’s okay to hold a beer next to my face while I’m taking a bite – trying to get my attention to hand a fresh beer to my dining companion sitting kitty-corner to me? No – walk around the table and hand it to him yourself. And did they really think it was acceptable to bring my friend’s entree (who did not order the tasting menu) as she was eating her salad and while we were still on our first course (of a four course meal)? Absolutely not – we sent it back and had them remake it 45 minutes later when we were done with salads and appetizers and the entire table was ready for entrees. These incidents were singular events among numerous occasions of being asked by servers to hand them a dirty plate from across the table or having them try to take dishes away before they were finished. It’s unfortunate that these incidents happened, but it’s even more unfortunate that this doesn’t seem to be a one-off experience, as others have relayed similar experiences to mine.

Despite the service, Barrio is a great addition to the downtown scene with its sleek yet western throw-back vibe. And although it’s not my first choice for a casual neighborhood spot, I have a feeling that an ice-cold Macho Camacho and chips with salsa verde are in my very near future.

Barrio Tequila Bar
925 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN

Last Sunday I was craving a burger, but of course, not just any burger…I wanted a jucy lucy. My first inclination was to head on over to The Nook or Matt’s, as I know how much I love their lucy’s. Instead, in the spirit of trying new things, I decided to hit up Adrian’s instead.

To be honest, I had never heard of Adrian’s. I had even eaten in that neighborhood at Pepito’s and Cafe Levain a few times and had never even noticed the sign before. Given that it isn’t spoken of much in jucy lucy circles, I should have been prepared. But I went in with high hopes…just looking for a grease fix.

We arrived right at noon (opening time), so of course we took them by surprise by immediately ordering up some beer, burgers and fries. We were told we’d have to wait on the burgers, as they were just getting going for the day but that the beer and fries would be right out. No problem. I didn’t mind the wait – the beer was cold and the fries were crinkle-cut and crisp. With the addition of a little salt and my mustard-ketchup mix, I was appeased for the time being.

My jucy lucy was served a short time later with the standard warning to wait before eating, for danger of being burned by the cheese. I used the time to size up the enormity of this burger. The largest jucy lucy I’d ever been served, this was two massive patties of beef, a tall bun and cheese melted on top (not standard issue in the lucy world). At this point I figured I had waited long enough so I tentatively dug in.

Let’s start with the bun which was dry and dense and really didn’t complement the juicy burger in the least. One of my biggest complaints about burgers is the bun, and for good reason…it’s rarely done right. As for the patties? They were cooked perfectly – medium – but unfortunately there was just too much burger and they were packed so dense (maybe needed a higher fat content in the beef?) that, while the cheese was plentiful, the balance was totally off. This did explain the extra slice of cheese melted on top, an attempt to balance out the cheese to meat ratio, but it just didn’t make up for the overload of beef contained in the sandwich.

Overall, I was not impressed with Adrian’s jucy lucy. In the future I’ll be taking my jucy lucy cravings elsewhere.

Adrian’s Bar and Grill
48th and Chicago Ave. South
Minneapolis, MN

I am excited to share with you a new project that I am involved with – a daily online magazine called The Heavy Table.

The vision is a dedicated source of food and drink information of the Upper Midwest, with an initial focus on the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin. The official launch of the magazine was today. If you haven’t had a chance yet, head on over to check it out: The Heavy Table.

Girls’ night last week led us to Sen Yai Sen Lek in NE Minneapolis. Thai food is always an easy sell for me (yum…curry!) and I was excited to try Sen Yai Sen Lek, as it’s been on my (ever-growing) list of restaurants to try since Twin Cities Eats wrote about it.

The main dining room of Sen Yai Sen Lek is brightly painted in reds, blues and purples and is offset by light colored wooden tables and booths. There is also separate bar area with a lounge with couches and tables. I’m not sure that I would ever lounge there but it gave the place a nice, casual atmosphere. We were seated at a booth in the dining area and given menus to peruse.

A bottle of Prosecco for the table was quickly ordered (remember, it was girls’ night), along with a couple of appetizers. The Po Pia Tod (crispy spring rolls) were fresh, tasty and had not even a hint of greasiness. The lettuce wraps (Miang Kam), served DIY style with a variety of filling options from dried shrimp to toasted coconut, were interesting, but I can’t say they were my favorites.

Our food arrived shortly after. I had ordered the chicken curry special which was served with a side of vegetables and a thai omelet. To be honest, my order was driven from a love of curry (swoon) and my curiosity getting the better of me about the omelet. I love Thai food, but I don’t know a lot about it…is a Thai omelet a pretty normal thing? Regardless, the omelet turned out to be tasty – light, fluffy and filled with veggies. I’m not sure that I needed it alongside my curry dish, but I definitely enjoyed it. The other entrees that we tried were also very tasty – fresh ingredients, good sauces and steaming hot.

My curry special was much larger than the other portions and I was able to take the rest of my meal home to eat as two lunches. Bonus! But then, of course, Kyle tried a bite of my leftovers and started craving Thai food, so we ordered takeout on Monday night and tried two more dishes. This time we went with chicken Pad Thai and Pad Prik Khing with beef instead of pork. The Pad Thai was tasty, the Pad Prik Khing was just ‘okay’. If the beef had been more tender (which could be because of the substitution) and the dish had been spicier and saucier, I think I would have enjoyed it more.

Overall I enjoyed Sen Yai Sen Lek, both as a restaurant to sit down and dine and as a to-go option. It’s not my new favorite Thai restaurant in the downtown area – The King and I is just SO good and Kindee Thai is tasty and right by my house – but I liked it and would return.

Sen Yai Sen Lek
2422 Central Ave. NE
Minneapolis, MN
612.781.3046

It’s been a busy couple weeks and I haven’t had a chance to share everything that I’ve been up to, so I thought I would do a quick roundup.

I had the pleasure of trying a few new restaurants; the Sanctuary on Washington Avenue near the Guthrie and Bradstreet Crafthouse Restaurant at the Graves Hotel. The Sanctuary food was simply delicious. Honestly…if you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it. You can see that I would have licked my ice cream bowl clean, but that just wouldn’t have been polite. For more photos and to read the full review, click here.

The Bradstreet Crafthouse Restaurant was a solid experience, but the cocktails elevated it to a higher recommendation. Have a seat at the bar and get ready to experience some high quality cocktails. For more photos and to read the full review, click here.

I also made a few dishes at home. One was a hit, my favorite pork tenderloin with tomato jam (that I made this summer and froze so I could enjoy the taste of summer in the depths of winter) but the other two dishes, curried root vegetable soup and shrimp coconut curry still need a little work. They were tasty, but they didn’t blow me away.

Oh, that’s right…you were wondering about the burlesque part…I know how your mind works. Since you asked…I also had the opportunity to photograph The Underpants Show on Friday night at Bryant Lake Bowl. A hilarious variety and burlesque show featuring all types of talents. The show is monthly and is definitely worth checking out. More photos and review is linked here.

Kyle’s birthday was last week so to celebrate, we decided to keep it low-key, grabbing a drink and a burger at The Herkimer. A brewpub with an extensive food menu is always intriguing to me.

A large space with several cozy booths and shuffle board along one wall, I can envision going back for a beer on a frequent occasion. The food, however, was a little lacking. It wasn’t bad, but considering that we ordered items that were supposed to be spiced up a bit, the food was a bit bland.

Kyle got the Puerco sandwich, “Cuban braised pork, peppers, onions, pepperjack cheese, and chipotle mayo”. There was definitely shredded pork on the sandwich….but the rest? It didn’t strike me enough to remember.

I ordered the Cajun burger, “ground beef seared in Cajun spices, pepperjack cheese, with a side of bleu cheese dressing”. Again, there was ground beef and a bun, but no spice came through at all for me. Both orders were served with their award winning sweet potato fries, which were crispy and, yes, tasty.

In short, I wouldn’t call the Herkimer a food destination. I may have to go back just to try their after 10pm Happy Hour special of 5 mini burgers, sweet potato fries and a pint of beer for $10 (come on….it sounds like a good deal!), but otherwise I’d just go to enjoy the casual atmosphere and brewpub beer.

Oh, and I apologize for the photography (I was lazy and just had my little point and shoot camera)…and for my obsession with trying to take this shot of me drinking my beer. I never quite got it right, but this is my best attempt. Thankfully, no beer was spilled in the photographing of this shot.

Before moving to Minnesota, the thought of going to a farmers market in the winter seemed ridiculous. Not that Illinois doesn’t have cold winters, but I just couldn’t imagine anyone braving the cold for outdoor activities like Minnesotans do. Of course, in the years that I’ve lived here, I’ve since gone to the Holidazzle parade, the St. Paul Winter Carnival and have taken part in a bonfire held on a frozen lake. My perspective has definitely changed.

So a couple weeks ago it didn’t seem so crazy for Kyle and me to bundle up and hit the farmers market in search of some good, local meat to stock up on. Not knowing what to expect (except the cold), we were really pleased to see a few farms representing with fresh and frozen meat. I guess the plus side to being a vendor during this time of year, is that the refrigerator is literally the outdoors. We didn’t last outside for long, instead we scoped out the meat and then headed inside to check out the indoor scene across the street inside Golden’s Deli first.

The indoor market is made up of 10 or so vendors mainly selling honey, apples (and apple donuts!), bread, chocolate and cheese. We weren’t in the market for many of these items, but we did pick up a basket of Honeycrisps (they are just too hard to pass up) and some cheese. But not just any cheese…stinky cheese.

I had never heard of Love Tree Farmstead cheese but I’m certain I will become quite familiar with their cheeses from now on. Love Tree produces wonderfully strong, stinky (in the best way possible) cheeses. And bonus…their animals are all organically raised in Wisconsin! We tasted several cheeses (they are very generous with their tastings) and loved each one better than the last. We finally decided on a huge hunk of “fish bait” cheese to take home with us (I’m assuming the name gives you a pretty good idea of its stinkiness). It didn’t last long in our household, as we greedily gobbled down each bite accompanied by crispy, light crackers and deep rich red wine.

On our way out we stopped by the meat vendors again and bought a whole chicken and a 5 lb. roast. I’m looking forward to pulling those out of the freezer to make some tasty meals soon.

If you haven’t made it over to the winter market this year, I would recommend stopping by. It’s open Saturdays 9am – 2pm on 5th and Wall in downtown St. Paul.