Follow-up to Despaña, Princeton

As promised, and long overdue, here's a follow-up to the Despaña post.

We sat out on the upstairs terrace and ordered from their tapas menu.  I was tempted to order one of everything, but the waitress brought me back to my senses.

We didn't order the pan con tomate, but they brought a basket of it out - wonderful.  They couldn't, however, bring plain bread when we asked for it to go with our jamon serrano. Oh well.

The absolute best thing we ate were the croquetas with jamon iberico - 1) seems so wrong to use the world's most expensive ham in croquettes, but 2) tastes so right! We had these at the preview event, but when they are fresh and hot from the fryer, they are heavenly!

 

We also ordered eggplant fritters - not what I was expecting - instead of pancakes, these were like eggplant fries; and a paella mixto. We had also ordered a gazpacho that never came, so was cancelled; and last were shrimp which were super garlicky, but a little too salty, and just too much after the paella.

Definitely a place we'll be going back to. They serve a different menu at lunch, with salads and sandwiches that you purchase at the counter and bring upstairs.

I also loved the Cow Statue of Liberty glasses -- too bad they weren't for sale!

Despaña Princeton
235 A Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ 08540

Despaña, Princeton, NJ

We've been eagerly awaiting the opening of the Princeton outpost of Spanish food market and cafe Despaña.  It's finally opening this Friday June 21.

We were lucky enough to get to the sneak preview event last Friday, along with other locals, New Yorkers come down on the train, and we even met a Spanish couple who had come from as far as Ottawa. The wine was flowing, a trio of Spanish musicians were playing, the weather was beautiful, and they were serving up a huge paella and fideos on their rooftop deck.

Inside, they were carving up a leg of jamon iberico -- we spent some time parked by this station, where we each ate probably at least $50 worth of meat.

 

There was also croquetas, papas bravas, tuna on crostini, cheese, jamon and more... 

Here's a picture of the jamon iberico about halfway through the evening...

We are hoping to get a table for a real meal this Friday - will report more later!

Despaña Princeton
235 A Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ 08540

Mistral, Princeton, NJ

We were around over Memorial Day weekend, the opening weekend of Scott Anderson's (Elements) newest restaurant in downtown Princeton.  Small plates, lower price point than Elements, BYOB and great central location -- what's not to like, right?

The answer (for now, at least) is service. When we walked in we were told that it would be roughly 20 minutes to seat our party of 5 (they only take reservations for parties of 6 or more), but we were shafted when some "friends of Scott" came in behind us.


Over an hour later, we finally sat down. Not sure, but seemed like a couple other parties were in the same boat - there was definitely confusion as to who was getting seated and who wasn't.

The waitress was nice and helpful and recommended getting 2-3 small plates per person, extras of things that everyone wanted to taste.  So we made a checklist on our place mat menus and were excited to finally eat!

No complaints about the food, but there was no sense of "coursing" or paying attention to the pacing. Plate after plate were just shuttled to the table. We'd have to quickly finish off a previous plate in order to make room for the next, and flag someone down to take it away. (I also didn't get why stuff had to plated on such large plates given the concept.)



Here's the rundown of what we had (not all pictured):

Fennel salad -- orange, mizuna, cilantro, olive oil

Kimchi pancake -- housemade kimchi, tamari, scallions

Pork Belly Salad -- chinese chili, scallion, sesame oil

Semolina Gnocchi -- spinach, morels, spring onions, green garlic, parsley, breadcrumbs

Housemade Bucatini -- Lump crabmeat, scallion, chipotle pepper

Hamachi tartare -- lime, honey, curry, papadum

Grilled Calamari -- artichoke barigoule, crispy artichokes

  

Grilled octopus -- “papas bravas”, caper aioli, smoked paprika

Sweetbread Cannelloni -- short rib bordolaise, chard, honshimeji mushroom

Weisswurst sausage -- caraway, mustard, pickled cabbage, marble potato

Lamb Merguez Sausage -- chickpeas fresh and dried, harissa, sheepsmilk cheese, mint

Korean short rib -- soy, ginger, ramp kimchi, shishito pepers

The standouts for me were the short rib (apparently slow-cooked for 48 hours), bucatini (wish there were more), hamachi tartare, and pork belly salad.  The weisswurst and merguez were also delicious.  My least favorite were the calamari and sweetbread canneloni - both just a bit bland.

All in all, it was just the feeling of being rushed through our meal.  Frustrating especially since we waited so long.  Our wait time was longer than our meal time.  Maybe we shouldn't have been so decisive as to order 15 plates all at once, and should have added more to our order halfway through...

 

Desserts came highly recommended, so we ordered one of each.  The Lemon posset with candied citrus and shiso was the favorite - such an interesting flavor and so refreshing yet luscious at the same time.

The other one that surprised us was the innocuously named Chocolates.  The cucumber (melon too perhaps?) sorbet that accompanied it was great! 

 The other two -- Rhubarb cobbler with sorrel and buttermilk and  Hay & vanilla panna cotta with biscuit and asian pear -- were delicious as well, just less surprising.

Let's hope they get it together with the seating and serving.  I have the feeling that going back, we'll try to make sure we get 6 people together and make a reservation. 

Mistral 

66 Witherspoon Street Princeton, NJ 08542

609.688.8808

Chef's Table at Elements, Princeton

The list above (printed on plantable seed-infused card stock) was the inspiration for our recent Chef's Table at Elements. With so many courses and extra "snacks" this post will mostly just be a list of courses and photos, but hopefully you can vicariously experience Chef Scott Anderson's creativity at work.

We started with some fun cocktails and mocktails, and a bread basket with housemade focaccia, grossini, crispbread, and twists.

Next they brought out a sampling of amuse bouche: clockwise from left (radish with housemade mayo, salad of local beets and apple, sweet potato soup, murcia (blood sausage), and avocado mousse.


Course #1 was a salad of mixed greens with lardo, shaved ricotta, and asparagus puree. Asparagus being currently in season in NJ, they became an ongoing motif throughout the meal. The wine pairing for this was Grinalda Vinho Verde from Portugal.

Snack #2 came out next -- fresh kindai tuna tartare. By this point, we were starting to think we better pace ourselves if the "snacks" were going to number as many as the actual courses.


Course #2: Shimaaji (Striped Horsemackerel) with trout roe hollandaise. Wine: Bodegas Castillo de Monjardin El Cerezo Chardonnay 2009.


Snack #3: "Spaghetti & Meatballs" - where the "meatballs" were beak muscles of calamari and the "spaghetti" were julienned asparagus.


Course #3: Hamachi "short rib" - a playful presentation with fish bones as "ribs" - on sweet potato noodles, with a sauce of yuzu, nasturtium, and thai chile. Paired with: Dewatsuru Kimoto Junmai Sake.


Course #4: Blowfish tail and razor clams, on sticky rice. Paired with: Rio Maggio Telusiano Falerio. There were 2 sauces - one was a gingery puree, the other was slightly citrusy. The greens were black bean shoots. With a table full of mostly Chinese people, we thought maybe the texture of the sticky rice could have been better, but of course we were all comparing it to our moms' - who can beat that right?


Snack #4 was the piece de resistance - a foie gras "cookie" - yuzu-infused foie gras torchon sandwiched in between parmesan shortbreads -- absolutely rich, decadent, and delicious!



Course #5: California snails with whey and bonito foam, with cabbage, on macadamia nut puree. The snails were delicious though I wished I could have tasted more macadamia nut flavor. Wine: 1994 Kalin Cellars Chardonnay Cuvee W Livermore Valley.

Snack #5: Morel stem stuffed with pork butt and smoked ricotta. We got an added treat when we were invited into the kitchen to see the delivery of morels by their mushroom guy. They were the hugest morels I've seen in person!


Course #6: Duck breast with shaved asparagus, evergreen pine puree, english peas, glazed radish on wild rice. This came with two pinots: Robert Sinskey Aries Pinot Noir Carneros 2006 and 2009 Melville "Estate-Verna's" Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir.


Snack #6: Anchovy tart with olives and goat cheese, on chorizo puree.


Course #7: Lamb loin, vadouvan sauce (a North African curry) with housemade smoked ricotta, carrot and japanese almonds. This reminded us of Japanese curry. Wine: 2007 Dunham Trutina Red Blend.


Course #8 (Palate cleanser): Sheeps milk yogurt, with diced fennel, asparagus and apple, and housemade granola.


Course #9 (Dessert): Chocolate dome with dark chocolate ganache shell and milk chocolate mousse inside, with hibiscus puree, sorbet and ice cream. Paired with: Dow's 10-year-old Tawny Port.


Finally ending with a plate of petit fours: (front to back) pistachio hazelnut macaroon, blood orange gelee, passion fruit tart, and mango shortbread. We were fat and happy by the end of this great meal.

Elements
163 Bayard Lane
Princeton, NJ
(609) 924-0078

The Best Darned Blueberry Muffin!

Redneckhunter recounts the story well. A small coffee shop in Princeton, NJ, Small World Coffee, gets its start selling muffins made by a lady in town. They are amazing muffins. The proportion of blueberry and muffin is mindblowing. How does the muffin stay together?
The coffee place gets more well known for their coffee, and the lady decides to stop making the muffins full time. Now, these legendary blueberry muffins are only made on weekends. One tray only, and they are usually sold out by noon. Redneckhunter attributes this largely to some "regular" who sweeps in and buys half the tray each morning.