Marquee Brunch at the Creative Alliance, Baltimore

I'm a fan of Blacksauce Kitchen, and their biscuits at the Saturday morning Waverly Market in Baltimore, so when I heard that they were going to be making brunch at the Creative Alliance in town, I could not pass up an invite to go. This was the second time running the event, and the host said they had got out some of the kinks from the first date the month before.
We ordered several items off the "Small Plates" part of the menu to start.
Before those items arrived though, they brought us small biscuits to start. These were not as good as the ones they have on Saturdays, but they were still tasty.
Our first item was an aged rum sticky bun. It had a generous rum flavor to it, and was my favorite of the starters.

The next item was warm beignets with a sweet lime glaze. I wish there was more of the sweet-sour glaze because it was so good.
We also ordered a small plate of their double smoked bacon. It had a sprinkle of pepper and was topped with what seemed to be a homemade ketchup.

We ordered three "Large Plates" and passed the dishes around so we could all try them.
My favorite item was the beef brisket with poached eggs on top of cider braised greens. The beef was cooked beautifully and had a great flavor that was complemented with the greens.
The second dish was the beef shortribs, fried okra pickles and stoneground grits. The beef was nice and tender.
Our third plate was smoked almond French toast with apple compote on a sweet potato shallot hash.
They are planning another brunch the first Sunday in December.

Savor the Central Coast, San Luis Obispo, CA

The day after we attended a wedding in Monterey, our friends from Santa Barbara proposed to meet us halfway in San Luis Obispo.  They came up with the wonderful plan to check out Savor the Central Coast, a huge food and wine festival celebrating that region.

The event took place at the 15,000 acre Santa Margarita Ranch. The weather was gorgeous and with a half price Groupon, I felt like it was a great deal even though I and our pregnant friend didn't partake of any of the wine tasting.  Just tent after tent of free food!  Here's a sampling of what we ate:

I think the absolute best thing we had was the maple bacon donut from SLO Donut.

Their donut holes with whipped cream and fresh berries were yummy as well!

Lamb tagine with loads of local olive oil.

Mozzarella tomato and pesto on focaccia by ByScotti.

Cookies by Brown Butter Cookie Company.

Whiskey marinated beef from Harris Ranch.

Lamb tacos from Central City Market

Homemade cavatelli with wild boar ragu from Artisan Restaurant

Cured meat from Allesina

Fresh oysters and abalone ceviche

And teeny tiny cones of merlot raspberry truffle ice cream

The Roseda Beef Farm Tour & Cookout

Fougoo, Redneckhunter, & I went on a Slow Food DC event at the Roseda Beef farm in Monkton, MD in Baltimore County one weekend. It included a short history of the farm and business, a hayride to their cow pastures, and a BBQ cookout.
Roseda raises Black Angus cows to specific genetic standards with no hormones, and they age their beef 2-3 weeks before going to market.
In the pasture, the cows gathered around our trailer, grazing peacefully.
For dinner, the hosts had slow smoked the beef. We tried several cuts, the tenderloin, the shoulder, and the rib. My favorite cut was the very rare piece for shoulder I got on my second round of meat.

We also enjoyed some salad, baked beans and grilled corn on the cob with a selection of butters including wasabi and maple syrup (from syrup taken from trees on the farm).
Dessert was a strawberry shortcake made with fresh local berries and a lot of Redi-whip. It was a beautiful evening to have dinner in the Roseda Beef farm barn.

The Country Cat Dinnerhouse Bar, Portland, OR

On my last evening in Portland, OR, I had a memorable meal at The Country Cat Dinnerhouse Bar, located on the southeast part of town. They serve farm-to-table food that is unpretentious and just plain good.
I ordered a good cocktail for starters, the Summer in the City, Russel's Reserve 6 yr Rye, Punt e Mes and fresh muddled strawberries.
Our table got several starters to share. We had the this sliced Country Cat's onion rings and a wedge of butter lettuce topped with Green Goddess dressing and a poached egg.

They gave us an additional complimentary appetizer that was awesome: braised pig face with croutons and a duck egg.
For my entree, I ordered the cast iron skillet fried chicken. It came with a sweet cream biscuit and bacon braised greens. The fried chicken was great, seasoned beautifully and not heavily battered. I was only able to eat two of my pieces, but the third was still good eaten cold the next morning.
We had two sides, the baked beans and the mashed potatoes with gravy. The gravy was loaded with meat.

I tried nibbles of my friends' dishes. Beth got the wonderful red wine braised beef with an asparagus and spring onion bread salad. Matt got the Country Cat's Whole Hog plate which included rolled pork belly, a brined pork loin chop, and smoked shoulder with grits and cider soaked cherries.


We tried a couple desserts. First was a rhubarb upside down cake with salted caramel and whipped cream. We also had the trio of puddings: chocolate, butterscotch, & creme brulee. This came with homemade cookies.
I'm happy that my last dinner in Portland on this trip was the best meal of the whole trip. Can't wait to head back.

7937 Southeast Stark Street
Portland, OR
(503)408-1414

Beast, Portland, OR

Because of the recent series of Top Chef Masters, I was looking forward to dinner at chef Naomi Pomeroy's Beast in Portland. The restaurant is set up to serve customers all together in two seatings, and the menu is a set six course prix fixe with no substitutions. Despite being called Beast, the dinner we had was veggie heavy, and I was disappointed that we did not get to have pork for our main course. I've also included the wine pairings.
We started with a chilled cream of spinach soup with a fried artichoke. The soup was really good, capturing the taste of spring.
Schloss Gobelsburg Gruner Veltliner Steinsetz 2009 (Austria)

The second course was a charcuterie plate. It included five items: Olympic Provisons' salami, pork pate with fennel & chili flake, chicken liver mousse on leaf lard cracker, steak tartare with quail egg & toast, and a foie-gras bon-bon topped with sauternes gelee.
The chicken liver was awesome, particularly with the cracker. I also enjoyed the tartare. The foie-gras bon-bon got mixed reviews in my party, but I like a sweet foie sometimes.
O.S. Winer Riesling Champoux Vineyard 2010 (WA)

We followed with a small palate cleanser, a citrus rhubarb thyme sorbet. It was a little sour and tart mixed with sweet.

Our main was originally listed as duck, but instead we had a Rainshadow El Rancho game hen served with caramelized turnips, lovage, white wine braised fennel, and demi-glace. I found the hen a bit disappointing as it was dry especially with my anticipation for a fatty duck. The veggies were excellent though.
Benoit Courault Anjou Rouge Tabeneaux 2008 (France)

The fourth course was a salad of arugula, shaved zucchini, and lemon oil with sheep's ricotta and a green garlic toast. The rose wine that was paired with this was really sour, and while it went well with the salad, it was not pleasant to drink on it's own.
Chateau Mourges du Gres Fleur D'Eglantine 2009 (France)

The next course was a cheese plate. We had three cheeses: a Washington state ladysmith cow's milk, a French cow's milk cheese, and a goat's milk cheese. Sorry, I can't read my handwriting in my notes.
They arrived with a yummy anise & fleur de sel shortbread, honey, Angelico plums, and fried Marcona almonds.
Domaine Richou Anjou Blance Chauvigne 2009 (France)
Dessert was a chocolate souffle topped with a smoked salt ice cream with balsamic macerated strawberries.
All in all it was just an ok meal, definitely the least memorable of my trip.
Clos Serre Romani Maury NV Roussilon (France)

5425 Northeast 30th Ave.
Portland, OR
(503)841-6968

Portland Food Carts: The Gaufre Gourmet & Koi Fusion

Portland had the most food carts I've seen in any city. They are everywhere in town, and they offer a wide diversity of foods. While I was in town, I managed to squeeze a few in during the days I was there.
In Old Town, I dropped by the Gaufre Gourmet, which made Belgian liége style waffles. The waffle uses brioche style dough not batter, and ends up denser and more rich than regular waffles.
I ordered their ABC Waffle, which is topped with fig jam, camembert cheese, bacon, and arugula. It was really good, particularly the fig jam with the waffle.




Kitty corner to the waffle cart, Korean taco truck, Koi Fusion was parked, so I popped across to give them a try as well.
I ordered their kalbi, short rib, taco and the spicy pork taco. Both were really delicious. The tacos reminded me of the ones from the Kogi trucks in LA, but they were cheaper, and the corn tortillas were more fresh, so they did not have to cook them like they do on the LA truck. Portland win.

Aburiya Raku, Las Vegas

On my second night in Las Vegas, I had a great late night dinner at Japanese Robata grill and restaurant, Aburiya Raku, located just west of the city's Chinatown area.
We started with a series of cold dishes before sampling items from the grill. First was a bowl with poached egg, mountain yam, nameko mushrooms, okra, sea urchin & salmon roe. This was a wonderful slimy bowl of briny, eggy, fatty goodness. All the components blended so well together.


We ordered a serving of Raku's housemade tofu. They offered to split the portion into a cold portion which arrived first and a hot portion for later. The cold tofu was reminiscent of fresh mozzarella in texture and in it's clean flavor. At the table, you had the option of toppings for the tofu including: green tea Hokkaido sea salt with shitake & seaweed; yagenbori shichimi, a blend of seven kinds of chile powders, koregusu, an oil with Okinawa chili, Awamori, and island peppers; and a soy sauce deuced with plum. The tofu also came with bonito, onion, & shredded daikon.
I found myself using the green tea salt the most.

That evening, there were some specials. We first got the kampachi, or amberjack, sashimi. It's a mild white fish with a good flavor to it.
We also got a small salad of hotaru ika, or firefly squid, sunomono style.






Out last cold started was the Kobe beef liver sashimi. It was sliced thin with a very thin slice of garlic on top. The texture reminded me of tuna sashimi, and raw, the liver does not have a strong "offal" flavor. It's much cleaner tasting.
We got the second half of our housemade tofu "agedashi" style. It's lightly fried and served in a dashi broth with salmon roe and onions. It was good, but I did prefer the tofu straight up simply because it was so fresh.

We started our grill items with vegetables. First up was roasted tomatoes. They immediately blew me away. With this as a start, I could taste the flavor imparted by their Japanese charcoal smoke throughout the flesh and skin of each tomato. It was remarkable.
The following bacon wrapped asparagus was a little underwhelming to me after the tomato. The bacon hid the smoke flavor I think.




I liked their shishito peppers. It's one of my favorite items to get at izakayas. Eating them is a bit like Russian roulette. Some are very mild, but every so often, you get one that is really spicy.
The directed flamed Japanese eggplant was just alright. The texture of the eggplant was soft and pleasant, but it seems to be very bland, hidden away in the forest of bonito.



Next up were our meat skewers. My tablemates ordered the apple marinated lamb chop and the duck with balsamic soy sauce. The lamb was wonderful. It was soft, juicy, and packed with flavor.
I found the duck not as memorable. The sauce was good, but the meat was alright. I think the flaming dried it out a little.





Raku has two options for Kobe beef from their grill. The first we tried was the Kobe beef skirt steak with a thin piece of garlic. The beef prepared this way was great.
I also had the Kobe filet topped with fresh wasabi. This was less fatty than the skirt, and with the kick of the wasabi, reminded me of pit beef with horseradish.





We ordered one chicken item, the tsukune- ground chicken sausage. It was light, juicy and delicious. I do prefer my tsukune with a little cartilage, but unfortunately, Raku's did not have any. It was still quite good.
I got my cartilage fix with the next course, the pig ear. This was awesome- fatty with a little bite of the cartilage on some pieces.
I also really loved the Kurobata pork cheek. I was in piggy heaven. The pork was so rich, it felt like eating 1 centimeter thick chunks of bacon.
My favorite of the robatayaki was the Kobe beef tendon. I got two large chunks. They were incredible, and each chunk had different flavors. The first piece I had was very smoky, savory and meaty, whereas the second piece was more juicy and sweet. The flavor contrast blew me away.
For dessert, we ordered two "sorbets". They were more like slushies, but both were very good. The first was tangerine which was pleasantly sweet with a little tang. My favorite was the strawberry. Maybe this was because it was topped with condensed milk.








5030 Spring Mountain Road # 2
Las Vegas, NV
(702)367-3511 ‎