two. ate.

My Italian grandmother used to make the most amazing soups. To be honest, she made the most amazing EVERYTHING...but a conversation with a foodie co-worker inspired tonight's dinner. I got to thinking about white beans (lupini, northern white, cannelini) and how well they go with sausage and my thoughts raced back to steaming bowls of chicken broth with various vegetables (plus escarole) that my grandmother made on a regular basis. I think that she just did these soups with what was on hand and so they always had little hidden surprises...

...so taking that thought as inspriation, I rummaged our freezer and turned up some sausage that needed to be used plus some of the remaining brown stock (reminding me once again about getting down to making a big batch of stock soon...). And for the record, I had 1 1/2 italian links, 1 chorizo and 2 Sheboygan brats - the chorizo and brats were from the amazing Dittmer's in Mountain View...

OK, we've got the meat and liquid...just a matter of vegetables.

Keeping it simple, I picked up spinach (in place of escarole, just because...), briefly passed by the turnips until some nice looking carrots caught my eye and threw in a couple of handfuls of crimini mushrooms. No time to do the beans proper-like so three cans of Great Northerns had to do.

Prep and cook was criminally simple: chop up garlic and yellow onion (mince and small dice, respectively), strip the half-defrosted sausage of their casings and chop them roughly, and short-julienne the carrots. Grab the heavy soup pan, medium flame...olive oil, garlic and onion then sausage (in that order spaced about 5-10 minutes apart).

Skim the fat from the sausage then about 6 cups of stock (since I'm running low I used half brown and half chicken with a bit of water mixed in - the sausage will flavor even if it was just water) and I threw in a dinky piece of duck glacé just for the heck of it. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat simmer some more. About 30 minutes later add the carrots and drained beans. Simmer for a while longer...

While the pot was bubblin', I cleaned the spinach and sauteéd it until it was limp-ish. Chopped the 'shrooms and did the same. Reserved the greens; the mushrooms went straight into the pot. 1 hour later, added a bit of peanut-coloured roux (fresh made, 'natch) and cooked until slightly thick. Killed the heat and we're ready to serve...um, later.

Service was as simple: heat the soup, swirl in the cooked spinach (drained of it's excess water), season and serve. Bread, salad, soup...oh, and a nice Sauvignon Blanc. I did my grandmother proud, I think.

Posted by wm. christman at 08:54 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The totally amazing Dream Theater is in town and my friend Tom (of Butter Pig fame), his girl anne, and Janet and I decided to join the festivities. But of course, we needed sustenance to gird ourselves for the 2 1/2 hour show. A day before the show, we wracked brains trying to find both a place within walking distance of the Warfield, a place actually open at 5pm *and* an available reservation. You'd be surprised at how that criteria is somewhat difficult in the restaurant-rich San Francisco. Finally, the chips turned up Azie...

...fortunately anne had dined at Azie before so it seemed like a good bet. Azie is a fusion-like place with a leaning toward Chinese. Well, sort of. To top it off, it's one of those "small plates", "big plates" types of places.

I think that the small/big concept is hard to pull off well. Lots of places do it with some success but I sometimes feel either budgeoned by the small plates (as in too much, too dynamic, too overloaded) or thoroughly underwhelmed (too small, ordinary flavors, lots of fillagree). That is where Azie differs.

Azie does small plates exactly right. Nice, little, compact bites that are richly flavorful enough to put you just on the edge of wanting more but satisfying enough not to order more. It allows you to order a bunch of dishes and bathe in a swirl of flavor point-counter-point. I went from dish to dish anticipating the next innovative twist like one navigates a good mystery.

The crispy curry calamari was not your ordinary fried tentacles and rings - there was a nicely tingling curry burn that caught me by surprise. The tuna sashimi was nothing like the plates you get in a Japanese restaurant - little cubes of tuna wrapped in thinly sliced daikon with the barest hint of avocado between the two. Mussels with red curry were briny and dressed in the sweet-hot Thai influenced curry. The white corn gratin was rich with a slight corn crunch and a velvety white sauce. And that was just under half of what we ordered...the rest was just as satisfying.

Other highlights included an excellent bloody mary (with a hint of soy), a light, non-leaden Mascarpone cheese cake and a very interesting after-dinner drink menu with single malts and calvados and other delights.

We (especially Janet) had our doubts about Azie hearing only "fusion" and thinking the worst but we were proven wrong. Azie is definitely a place to get back to in short order.

Posted by wm. christman at 08:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

We (belatedly) celebrated our 19th (!) wedding anniversary this past Saturday. We have been so busy that we decided to make this a low-key affair. Alexander's is a relatively new place, occupying the former El Torito restaurant in the very run-down Vallco Shopping Center in Cupertino.

While I have had lunch here many times (hi, Meriko!), we had yet to sample their dinner offerings...

We actually arrived early (by design) to have cocktails. A apple martini for Jan; a spicy bloody mary for me. Josh, our usual lunch bartender, made a truly kick-ass bloody mary. Lots of spice and vodka.

Once in the dining room (and it is large, although expertly hidden by the bar area), we found it to be a bit noisy but not overly so. And as you could guess, their forté is steak. Huge pieces of steak. Matched up with equally huge flavors. Since we both try and not stuff ourselves to the point of pain, we did a bit of "share" strategizing...

Our starters were a crab handroll and the lobster/shrimp dumplings. The dumplings were beggar's purses filled with a nice mix of the shellfish. There was a so-so lobster-based sauce and a pineapple-ginger relish scattered around them. Even though the sauce was just ok, the dumplings were very moist and packed with flavor. The pineapple-ginger relish added a nice sweetness but reminded me a little too much of pineapple upside-down cake. It was good in small dabs. The crab handroll was a pleasant surprise (it was a last-minute impluse order). A nice thick wad of dungeness crab rolled in a Vietnamese rice paper roll with nice, crisp vegetation and a little dab of vinegar-based sauce in a temaki (sushi handroll) style.

Our main was the 24-oz. Porterhouse steak with garlic butter and escargot which we shared. We got a prevue of the wild mushroom side in the bar so we ordered that plus "thumb" potatoes with Camembert.

There is much attention paid to pairings with meat at Alexander's that it nearly borders on annoyance. This was the story with the Porterhouse. The meat itself was *fantastic* - perfectly cooked rare. The garlic butter added a bit of punch but the escargot added nothing but fake extravagance. I don't have a dislike for escargot but I find them relatively boring and they don't really imply "fancy" or "extravagant" to me, although they do for lots of people. We should have had them leave them off. Fortunately, they didn't detract from the overall presentation.

The sides were pretty good as long as you ate them while they were warm. The potatoes and cheese were nice and creamy with that little Camembert bitterness. The wild mushrooms (market price: $18 (!) ) were pretty amazing. A perfect sauté with just the right amount of butter. With the meat, the mushrooms were a perfect compliment.

Speaking of compliment, we chose a half-bottle 1999 Chateau-Langoa Bordeaux. From the first sip, this was going to go very well with our selections. Although they brought it out just before the starters, we saved most of it for the meat course. It was smooth and velvety with that classic richness...a full mouthful with every mouthful. Worth every penny.

We opted for Alexander's dessert called simply "Chocolate". It was a chocolate crunch "cake" with layers of chocolate cake, chocolate mousse and a thin, crunchy layer of peanut butter. It came with a scoop of black pepper infused chocolate sorbet plus strips of vanilla and caramel sauces. There was a little dollop of white chocolate mousse on the cake. The greatest thing about this dessert was that it was just sweet enough and everything was nicely balanced. Even the black pepper in the sorbet was the little surprise in the mix - not too overwhelming at all. Alexander's also finishes their meals with a cone of pink cotton candy which we were enjoyed as well...

Service-wise, things were pretty smooth except the salad we ordered never came but our waiter offered to pack one up to go, free-of-charge. Since it was their fabulous iceberg with Shaft blue cheese (which I eat on a regular basis when I go there for lunch), we could not refuse. Other than that, everyone was attentive but not pestering. I must admit to being a bit wary after reading some reviews that specifically mentioned "poor" service.

Overall, a nice evening. Alexander's should stick to simple pairings because that simplicity won't obscure that they do best: steak.

Posted by wm. christman at 11:46 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)