El Tule, Lambertville, NJ

Ever since Redneckhunter and I honeymooned in Peru, we've been disappointed with ceviche back home, until we heard rave reviews of El Tule from a friend of ours who had also been to Peru.

When you see El Tule from the street, there's no indication that it's a Peruvian restaurant.  The sign says Mexican Restaurant, with only a hand written chalkboard mentioning Peruvian cuisine.  Indeed they have 2 separate menus.

We were definitely there for Peruvian though, and quickly made them take away the Mexican menu.  We had even stopped at the liquor store to bring a six-pack of the native Cusqueña beer to the BYOB -- which the owner noticed and approved of.

There was a lot on the menu I wanted to try, but we had to make some choices.  So to get the most variety in fish, we opted for the ceviche trilogy and the tiradito trilogy.  Ceviche is marinated raw fish, so the texture gets firmer almost as if it were cooked -- the 3 varieties were Limeño (white fish marinated in lime, red onions, and cilantro), Mixto (with fish, shrimp, octopus, and calamari) - both served with those great big Peruvian corn kernels - both fresh and toasted and sweet potatoes - and Chifa (Chinese-influenced with pickled vegetables, black sesame, and peanuts).  Tiradito, instead, is not marinated -- just raw fish (like sashimi) with a sauce.  The three varieties were

yellow Peruvian pepper sauce, rocoto serrano cream, and Peruvian botija olive sauce. Everything was fresh and flavorful.  Because of our dinner companion we opted for just medium spiciness.  Even the red peppers were not too bad, not like the killer ones in Peru.

Then, so that we wouldn't overdose on fish, we also ordered a steak -- Bistec a lo Pobre, or "Poor man's steak."  We liked how the menu referred to its "beefy goodness" complemented by fried potatoes, fried plantains, fried egg, and rice.

 We were pretty full and thinking about passing on dessert when 3 words were uttered: "tres leches cake."  But since the other desserts sounded tempting too, we also got a flan and rice pudding.  Actually the tres leches was disappointing, so it's good we got the others.  The rice pudding was voted the favorite, followed by the flan, which had a nice caramelized, almost coffee flavor. 

El Tule
49 North Main Street
Lambertville, NJ 08530
(609) 773-0007

Mintwood Place, DC

We braved tornado warnings the in the DC Metro area to have dinner at Mintwood Place in Adams Morgan this past week. Chef Cedric Maupillier's new restaurant has garnered some rave reviews since opening at the start of this year. The place is casual and a bit noisy, but our food was great. At first glance of the menu, nothing jumps out, but everything we had was wonderful.
We started with a trio of "nibbles". First up was pickled devilled eggs.

We ordered a seasonal item, blanched radishes, snap peas, and baby carrots "a la croque au sel". The dip was an herbed butter and salt combination.
I realize I am a sucker for shishito peppers. Their version was simple- roasted and sprinkled with fleur de sel.

  

My favorite dish was a seasonal starter: burrata with spring garlic and asparagus. The perfectly cooked asparagus in combination with the creamy cheese and the fresh garlic flavors was out of this world.
My main was wild salmon on a bed of spring peas, carrots and sorrel. The skin was crispy and the fish was fatty and good.

Kathy & Karen both had the vegetarian dish, a marvelous five grain risotto with asparagus, peas, mushrooms, and broccolini.
Homer got the steak frites. It looked beautifully cooked. I tried one of the delicious fries.

For dessert, we shared a few items. Karen and Homer had the sorbet trio: strawberry, pineapple, and green apple. The winner was the apple.
Kathy had the blueberry tart topped with a Greek yogurt ice cream. It was loaded with berries.
I had the strawberry rhubarb crumble a la mode.

1813 Columbia Road Northwest
Washington DC
(202) 234-6732

Nine One Five Duval, Key West, FL

 On our last night in Key West, we had dinner at Nine One Five Duval. When we arrived, we grabbed drinks at Point5, their upstairs bar, and we liked our balcony table so much, we asked if we could just hunker down and have dinner there. They were generous and obliged our request.
We started with a nice appetizer plate of dolmas, yogurt, feta cheese, and pea hummus.

I had a beet salad with herbed goat cheese, mixed greens, and walnuts, and for my entree, I had the Sizzling Thai Whole Fish which consisted of a locally caught yellow tail snapper, deep fried, with a Thai chili ginger garlic sauce and basmati rice. It was really good. Kathy ordered the Veggie thin crust pizza from the lounge menu. It consisted of portabella mushrooms, caramelize onion, roasted red pepper, and thyme.

For dessert, we opted to grab a third slice of Key Lime pie at a location of the Key West Key Lime Pie Company. Their version was a lot creamier in texture than others we had tried during our trip.

915 Duval St.
Key West, FL
(305) 296-0669

Keys Fisheries, Marathon, FL

About halfway down on the drive from Miami to Key West, we stopped in at Keys Fisheries in Marathon for lunch. I ordered a Cajun fried hogfish sandwich. Hogfish is hard to get as it must be line caught. The meat is tender and had a great flavor.

I also had my first taste of Key Lime pie in the Keys. The one at the fisheries was nice and tart, and had a crumbly crust.





3502 Gulfview Avenue
Marathon, FL
(305) 743-4353

Pabu Izakaya, Baltimore

   One thing lacking in the Baltimore restaurant scene is a true Japanese restaurant. Most of the sushi restaurants in the area are Chinese or Korean run. I was very excited when they announced that Pabu, an izakaya run by chefs Ken Tominaga and Michael Mina, would open in the Four Seasons at Harbor East. I'm already a fan of Wit & Wisdom, Mina's first restaurant in Baltimore. I was also excited to hear that desserts would be made by pastry chef Chris Ford.
   Pabu is also promoting itself as having a master sake sommelier, Tiffany Dawn Soto, so when I first arrived for an early Mother's day meal with my parents and aunt & uncle, I ordered a sake cocktail, the Super X, made with Lillet Blanc, junmai ginjo, yuzu, and housemade falernum, a kind of simple syrup. It had a good tartness and sweetness to it.

   Since Pabu is an izakaya, we ordered a lot of small plates, starting with a couple tempura dishes. First was a dish with maitake mushroom and some seasonal vegetables.
   They also inadvertantly served us a plate of the meso anago (young eel) tempura.
Both dishes were beautifully fried, and in particular the eel was great.

   We ordered Jako, a small dish of minnows seasoned with ginger, shiso and goma. It's like the Japanese equivalent of beer nuts, a salty snack to pair with drinks.
   My father and I wanted to try their Rappahannock oysters served with a tasty ponzu sauce.

   Next was soy braised lotus root with sesame seeds and thin chili threads.
   I always order the shishito peppers if they are on the menu. They served a bowl with at least 20 or so peppers, nicely charred, topped with shredded bonito and seasoned with shoyu.

   Pabu's edamame dish had a nice flair to it as it was seasoned with chili oil and smoked salt giving it a good kick in flavor.

   Our next course was hirame wrapped uni tempura. They came as small nuggets on the stick. When you bit into it, you first would hit the delicious white fish meat and in the center was the wonderful sea urchin.

   We then proceeded to get several items from their Robata grill. First to come out was tiny Japanese eggplants served with a miso sauce. It was good, but I thought the sauce was a little heavy.
   We then got ika yaki, or whole grilled squid. It came with a side of the yellow Japanese style mayo.

   I really loved the beef tendon. It was soft and seasoned with a wonderful yuzu kosho ponzu sauce.
   We also got kokoro, sake-cured chicken hearts, which reminded me of very tender gizzards, and kariganebone, the shoulder blade of the chicken.
Somehow, they ended up giving us an extra order the the shoulder, but boy, was it good.

   My folks also really liked the erengi mushroom skewers served with garlic and more shishito peppers.
   After the small plates, each of us ordered a "main"  of either noodles or rice.
I ordered a tasting of nigiri sushi. Chef flies some fish all the way from Tsukiji market in Tokyo for the sushi.
   The rice was awesome, and the selection of fish was pretty amazing including mackerel, yellowtail, sea bream, and horse mackerel.

   My mother and aunt ordered Michael's Chicken Noodle, a chicken ramen with a really flavorful broth.

   My uncle ordered the soba noodles. It included a quail egg to mix with the dipping sauce.

   My dad had the unagidon which included a piece of foie gras on top the the freshwater eel.

  Of course we had to order dessert. With a pot of coffee from Lamill, first we had a deconstructed sesame ice cream sundae. In the large bowl was ice cream with cocoa meringues. In the smaller bowls, there was black tapioca, togarashi chocolate sauce, and caramel crumble.
 

   We also ordered the dessert omakase, a plate with four dessert items. There was a white chocolate bar loaded with whiskey. I really loved the honey panna cotta topped with yuzu gelee and tapioca.
   It also came with a green tea sorbet with lemon grass, melon and pineappple, and a small mochi with miso caramel ice cream.
   I'm already looking forward to go back to try promising looking items like Maryland crab okonomiyaki, octopus poke, and tsukune, as well as some ambitious looking rolls. 

200 International Drive
Baltimore, MD
(410)223-1460

Shadfest, Lambertville, NJ

Late April here in our neck of the woods in (close to the Delaware River in New Jersey) is shad season!  And no town loves shad more than Lambertville - so much so they throw a 2-day festival every year devoted to the fish and its tasty roe.  There's even an annual art competition that ends up being mostly fish-themed.

If you've never had shad roe, it's quite unusual. The roe sack is kept intact and generally pan-fried - see our post from last year's shad season.

Apart from shad, there's plenty of street festival food too.  Before we found some fish to chow on, we first got sucked in to pulling soda pop from barrel taps on truck, and stuffing our gobs with Wisconsin-style fried cheese curds.

Then it was off to sit and listen to local musicians with cupcakes and shad tacos with cabbage slaw on blue corn tortillas on the back patio of Lambertville House, courtesy of Caffe Galleria.  Down the block I had spotted beer-battered shad roe po-boys, so we were going to grab one for the car ride home, but alas, by the time we went back they were sold out - oh well probably better for my arteries...