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

Versailles Restaurant, Miami

I spent a few days in Florida recently. I flew into Miami in the early morning, and went to Versailles Restaurant in Little Havana for a Cuban style breakfast.
I started with a strong café con leche. For the meal, I had the special of eggs and ham with grits and Cuban toast. The grits were really loaded with butter, and the toast was even more buttery. I ate my whole basket of bread.

While I was at Versailles, I saw chef Michelle Bernstein eating at a nearby table. I also perused the menu, and drooled at the thought of the Tocinillo Del Cielo, a double egg yolk flan dessert. It literally translates into "Heaven's little pig".

3555 Southwest 8th Street
Miami, FL
(305) 444-0240

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...

Trattoria Machiavelli, NYC

Guest blogger petitesoeur wanted to share her lovely meal at Trattoria Machiavelli on the Upper West Side:

Breathtaking Tulips & Expertly-made Pasta

One of the best things about New York City is that you can pretend you are somewhere else. Sitting among the 15,000 tulips ablaze in the West Side Community Garden, I'm in Holland rather than on West 89th between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues.

And sitting at the Trattoria Machiavelli's bar, eating a perfectly-prepared Pappardelle Alla Pecora Nera while sipping on a 2009 Aglianico Del Vulture, it was easy to imagine myself have a late afternoon leisurely lunch in Rome.

Trattoria Machiavelli
519 Columbus Avenue (corner of West 85th Street)
http://machiavellinyc.com/

Piatti di Pasta Fresca Fatta a Mano
Pastas are all handmade in the traditional style by Andrea Fiano [pictured left]

Pappardelle Alla Pecora Nera
Sauteed Pappardelle with Tomato Sauce Topped with Prosciutto Crudo, Grilled Zucchini and Fresh Basil

Westside Community Garden
http://www.westsidecommunitygarden.org/