Messina Hof – Food

Tapas @ The Wine Bar

Italian Meat & Cheese Plate – Assorted Italian meats, domestic and imported cheeses.  I don’t really know any of the names for the individual items, but many of them were standard issue.  There was your typical white and yellow cheese, ham, and round crackers, but then there was another white cheese with something like an herb rub on it that was quite good.  Then there was the “sausage”.  We’re still not entirely sure exactly what it was, but the closest thing I could equate it to is some of the duck sausage I’ve had.  However all the duck sausages I’ve ever seen have been no bigger that quarter size and are usually sliced very thin.  And since this was an “Italian Meat” plate it couldn’t have been chorizo either.  So the mystery continues but it was quite good.  Too bad the store didn’t open early enough so we could get some (that and some Port chocolate too).

Dinner @ The Vintage House

Initially we were going to go for the Chateaubriand Dinner for Two but we were so wined-out by this point (wow I didn’t really think that was possible after the last Napa trip, but I guess there were at least some small breaks in between venues there and today was fairly non-stop) that we didn’t want to go for a full-on package deal.  So we both decided to go with the Filet Mignon (Grilled 8oz filet of beef with bacon bordelaise and topped with hollandaise and a touch of Japanese horseradish) medium of course.  This actually comes served on top of mashed potatoes with some little onion rings on top   The cut of beef seemed to be rather generous as we’ve seen 7oz and 9oz steaks quite regularly; perhaps it was just the dimensions though as it was a nice thick cut but still cooked just right.  The tenderness was quite notable, and yes I’m aware I’m talking about a filet here, but I mean even for that.  Even more notable was the lack of any surgery-requiring bits.  Even on a filet there’s usually at least something I have to trim off, a little nub or a thin strip of fat or something, but nothing here at all, it was entirely edible.  On the first bite I definitely noticed a “lack” of flavor, but really that could be better described as a purposeful non-overabundance.  This steak had an excellent sauce over it, almost cherry-like in nature and obviously derived from one of the port wines here.  So after a couple more bites I could appreciate that the steak wasn’t seasoned in the usual “stand-alone” way and it allowed the natural flavors of the beef to be present and almost serve as the medium for introducing the bold sauce flavors to your palette.

For dessert we opted for the usual dual option attack and ordered up the Chocolate Flan Cake and the Cherries Jubilee.  The couple of (homemade) flan cakes I’ve had in the past have been very good but I could definitely see at the time the potential for non-greatness.  Unfortunately the streak has ended; not that it was bad, as of course the Independent Food Theory states, but it wasn’t stellar.  The cake was just cake, and the flan didn’t really have anything special going for it either (which at least means it wasn’t eggy).  The cherry dish wasn’t super fantastic either.  I suppose it could possibly be due to me maybe starting to get sweeted-out by this point although that didn’t seem to be the case at the time.  It had a lot of ingredients going on: butter, brown sugar, cinnamon,  orange juice, lemon juice, various liquors, rum, the port fudge, and of course cherries (and I could even be forgetting a couple).  It was prepared table-side in full-on flambe action then served on top of vanilla bean ice cream   I think what saved it was the fudge; every time I had a bite with a fair amount of fudge in it it was really good, all the others were just ok.

Breakfast @ The Villa

The “European-style champagne breakfast” had a table set out with a few meats, cheeses, and fruit along with milk, orange juice, and cranberry juice with some various pastries at the end.  There was also coffee and what appeared to be toast making materials off on another table.  Once you grabbed that and munched for a little while you were presented with the option of champagne or mimosas; I think pretty much everyone opted for the later (thus why I went for the cranberry initially, knowing that was coming).  Then the hot plate arrived with a decent sized solid hash-brown (so McDonalds format, not IHOP) and a quiche-like substance.  There was great debate over whether it was chicken or tuna.  I actually tried a couple bites and it was ok.  But that’s certainly not my style of dish so I really couldn’t rate it accurately.  Plus once the taunting of the possible tuna began my brain pretty much put a halt to any further consumption of that particular item.  So I had my mimosas, most of an apple turnover, part of a chocolate muffin, and a couple more pieces of that really good sausage to finish my meal.

Five Guys

Five Guys

While Howard Stern is on vacation I listen to Bubba The Love Sponge.  For the past few weeks he’s been raving about this burger joint he frequents named Five Guys.  It got to the point where he was talking about it every day, about the particular configurations of burgers he would get.  Then people would start calling in saying things like “I had never heard about Five Guys before, found out there’s one near me, tried it, and it was amazing”.  After a couple days of that a manager from a Five Guys called in and they had a discussion about how the burgers are made, if there were any special ingredients, and what makes it just so damn good.  The Bubba crew got on the Five Guys website while they were on the air and commented they were located in roughly half the country; so the search was on.

And it just so happened there were two located very nearby where I was going to be for a trip, so accommodations were made to facilitate a visit.  When a 400lb man tells you about a really good burger place you go!   Let me begin by saying that the default burger starts at two patties.  Also notice how the burger was wrapped in foil.

Apparently here is the middle part where I was going to go into intricate detail describing the awesomeness of the various flavors, and thus why I hadn’t actually posted this yet.  I don’t quite remember the exact experience at this point but suffice it to say it was legen – wait for it – dary (hmm, perhaps that certain How I Met Your Mother episode was about this place? Thankfully, at least if you have one somewhat close by, they’re not nearly as hard to find)

So if you ever get the chance definitely make an effort to go hit one up.  And if you’re lucky enough to have one in your area try not to go too often

http://www.fiveguys.com/

Do Your Business Elsewhere Please

Here’s something I saw in a local restaurant; looked like it was in bumper-sticker format. Not exactly something I want to be thinking about while I’m eating.

Jimmy John’s

Well it finally happened, the official boycott is in place. Actually now that I think about it I’m the second person I know to boycott here, although for a completely different reason. Anyway here’s the rather interesting back-story:

My usual lunch crew and I would frequent Jimmy John’s somewhat regularly. We try to save the sandwich places for when we’re in a little bit of a time crunch, so we weren’t there all the time, but definitely often enough to know the owner. Of course the owner and I had an interesting relationship; he knew me as the customer that ordered the sandwich that shouldn’t exist. The thing was, the wheat bread there was so good (and if you’ve read any of this blog you’d be able to safely assume I’d normally select white bread) I would get an Italian sandwich with wheat bread instead. I remember the very first time I ordered it he said “you know, only about 1 in 100 people order that”. Over time that number increased to 500 and then eventually 1000. So he most certainly knew who I was.

The owner would also tend to have some interesting story going on at the time. In the beginning it was just normal stuff, not even necessarily restaurant related. But then the day came when he started making too much money. Based on his pretty darn good location, and pretty darn good food he was the #1 revenue generating JJ’s around. So of course, as The Man is like to do, things started getting complicated. The actual owner of the franchise as a whole wanted to buy-out this particular establishment so he’d have all of the profit for himself. Of course the owner of the restaurant didn’t want to give it up for the exact same reason.

That’s when the games began. All of a sudden this JJ’s was “the worst JJ’s around, particularly when it came to health and quality issues ” and was thus in jeopardy of violating the franchise licensing agreement, how convenient (I actually just checked and since August ‘06 they have received zero demerits from the Health Department inspections). This went on for a little while as The Man and the owner battled out franchising issues; then the trickle of JJ’s paraphernalia disappearances began. As it became more and more apparent that the owner was going to lose that battle one way or another he started preparing for the worst. First it was the crazy signs (your typical random Americana on the walls), then the napkins, etc.

Then the day finally came when tape was placed over any trace of the name Jimmy Johns, the menu was completely renamed (but not redone thankfully) and when the credit card slip printed out we discovered we were now eating at The Sandwich Shop With No Name.

TSSWNN lived on for a few weeks as we heard about the impending legal battle. There was a definite “climate shift” after these few weeks. Not only was any trace of the corporate junk long gone, now ingredients had started to change. We always wondered what might happen to his suppliers. We speculated whether he’d be able to continue on some kind of bulk-purchase program which surely had been going on with all the official JJ’s, if he’d be able to continue with some kind of independent agreement, or if perhaps there’d be pressure from The Man for the distributer to stop supplying this particular establishment. Whatever it was, one day they started “running out of things” and replacing with something else. So the day came when the awesome multi-grain wheat disappeared and was replaced with standard issue wheat. On this day I felt compelled to proclaim to the owner “well, you finally found a way to beat me, I’ll be having white today.”

Shortly after all this, upon our next attempted visit we were greeted by a sign on the door saying they were closed. I can’t remember exactly what the sign said, but I do remember there being some discussion around if they just so happened to be closed that particular day, or if it was a true out-of-business type closed. Perhaps it was just us hoping it was a simple closed for the day, but that had never happened in the past, and of course given the sequence of events so far it was fairly certain it was the more terminal kind.

Some weeks passed, then we heard from a fellow member of the usual lunch crew that he had spotted some kind of Grand Opening banner on the place. He also mentioned that it seemed to be possibly re-corporatized, but was only able to judge by the appearance of the outside from a distance. So we figured in a couple weeks we’d do a recon mission.

It was decided that we would attempt to determine the true new ownership of the revitalized establishment. If the previous owner was there, then perhaps some arrangement was made and things would be relatively back to normal. However if we didn’t see the owner (he was there almost every single time) or anyone we might recognize we would turn around, walk out, and not look back; the boycott would be on.

The fateful recon day comes. With a Schlotzsky’s nearby the plan was to scope out the situation at JJ’s and then have Schlotz as a backup. We arrive in the parking lot and the front-door signage is back in full effect. Approaching the door it was easy to see all of the Americana had returned to the walls in essentially the exact same pattern as before. What we weren’t quite prepared for was the complete onslaught of boisterousness exuded by the completely new staff. As we walked in the door no fewer than 8 youngish and far too enthusiastic employees (I can smell corporate kool-aid a mile away) shouted “hey guys, welcome to Jimmy John’s!!!” We paused for a few seconds, partially due to being stunned by this barrage, to take in the scene, to search for the new owner, to linger long enough that our presence would be noted (since surely the “warm” greeting was a mandated knee-jerk reaction), and finish assessing the situation. With no sign of the owner or any of the previous employees I proclaimed in a voice hopefully loud enough to be heard over the continued yelps of hello yet not enough to disturb the poor souls ensnared by the new evil “That’s it, the boycott is on!”, pulled an about-face and high-tailed it outta there.

And so ends the tale of the local Jimmy John’s. Their Italian (or Ferrari towards the end) sandwich was quite splendid and no one can quite do it the same; but we’re getting some new sandwich shops opening up and they’re starting to pick up the slack.

Holidaze

I had a bit of a “moral” dilemma a couple days ago. It all started when the groceries at home were starting to dwindle. I knew I needed to go to the grocery store but really didn’t feel like going on the 2^nd. So then the sequence began; I knew it was rather futile to go to the grocery store on the 3^rd as all of the hotdog & hamburger buns would surely be gone. I tend to shop rather late (we’re talking 11pm timeframe) because of my “line disease” (that’s a whole ‘nuther post) so it’s pretty much a guarantee the “seasonal” items aren’t there when I am. I didn’t go on the 4^th either since they tend to have rather limited hours, if they’re even open at all; so it’d be a madhouse again and in all likelihood I probably wouldn’t be awake and ready to go (with time to shop) before they closed.

And so here it was, the evening of the Fourth of July, and since it’s been raining like crazy I hadn’t made any plans to blow stuff up this year, and I’m out of food. Now normally when one is “out” of food you can scavenge and usually drum up some semblance of a meal, but I’d already been doing that for two days. So came my dilemma.

I’m a pretty big stickler for time off. Vacation time is just that, there is to be absolutely no work during it. This is even more true when it’s a National Holiday. Personal vacation is one thing, but when there is a federal holiday going on, particularly one celebrating our nation’s independence, I pretty much expect the country to shut down. And so there is my dilemma. One of the things that makes this nation great are those very freedoms we’ve sought after from the beginning. If you run a business you should be able to do what you want with it. So here I am, in need of food, and have to decide if I really want to give my patronage to an establishment that is causing people to work on a holiday. In the end I was pretty darn hungry, and I figured at least the employees are getting double-time pay, so it was time to eat At least it was typical American fare.

They were pretty busy too, as they were one of the very few places open. I suppose you could say they had a chronopoly.

Exit, or not.

So I ran across this rather disconcerting scene the other day.

Unfortunately it’s a place I like to frequent, so I’m not entirely sure if I want to say where this is or not.  I’m sure the Fire Marshall would take quite an interest in this particular setup.  At first I was thinking “oh, well at least the table is on the hinged side” but then I noticed the chair.  It’s a little hard to see, but I didn’t wanna linger too long in setting up the pic.

Vin Bistro

Guess it’s about time I finally get around to posting this.  I actually went back on 10/2, it’s now 11/1.  But I did write some notes in my draft of this right afterwards so I should be able to recall enough detail.

—

What used to be known as Zin Bistro has changed to Vin Bistro in order to further point out their emphasis on wine. Also mentioned on their website is “…some confusion with another great restaurant chain in town (Zen) has prompted co-founders Deitrick and Heath Hoselton to finally decide to change the name.”

One thing that I liked a lot, and worked out particularly well was real online reservations.  We’re not talking your standard “fill out a form which goes to some random company then they fax something to the establishment that hopefully an employee will eventually pick up and ultimately enter into their system” scenario; this thing actually links directly into their booking computer in that particular location so you can see exactly what’s available and know you definitely have a reservation.  Which is almost essential on a Monday since it’s 1/2 price wine bottle night (unless you are a frequent regular, which appeared to be the case for the couple that happened to walk in at the same time; the maitre d’ offered to clear a table right behind the podium that had all of his stuff on it).

This place is dangerously teetering on the line of classification for being yuppified.  One thing I absolutely love about where I live is that casual means casual.  I rather dislike places that assume when they say casual and they still basically frown upon even business casual (and for that I would mean at least a collared shirt, more likely some kind of dress shirt, slacks, and dress shoes of some kind).  In this town when people see casual they won’t even think twice about going in a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals.  Now I didn’t quite take it to that level, since I knew this was a nicer establishment, but you won’t often find me in anything other than a Polo (short sleeve of course), jeans, and the ever-present sneakers.  If I can’t wear my Nike’s you just earned a huge checkmark on your way to being yuppified.  But anyway I digress slightly.  It looked like most other people there took things more seriously, some of who (particularly the large table one over) were there for some type of business related event.  Suits were not uncommon, and the rest were in your typical “The Man” state of dress… think managerial type.  But whatever, this is my town, I’m here for the food and wine, let’s get it on.

I have in my notes that the website is a little outdated.  I believe I was primarily referring to the menu, as it was a bit different in person.  Looking at it again I’d guess maybe 25-50% of the dinner menu is still present, but I do recall being a little surprised at the time I was there and was looking for particular offerings that weren’t.  The wine-pairing style is definitely still present, as that is of course one of the main ideas here.  The (daily?) specials obviously aren’t listed online, nor would I expect them to be, but they sure did sound good.  That’s probably the route to take on a subsequent visit.

On to the food…

Angus Beef Tenderloin
Veal demi-glaze and Pittsburgh onions with French green beans and herbed fingerling potatoes

Edna Valley Syrah 2003, Paragon Vineyard, San Luis Obispo, California
Notes of chocolate, sweet berries and a little coffee are the perfect mate for juicy beef nestled in a rich and intense classic veal reduction

I think I really should start off by saying that the beef alone probably wasn’t worth the price.  I was talking with a friend only a couple days later who coincidentally went the very next night after I was there.  He described a similar feeling, although there was one key difference between us (aside from his being a vegetarian and my being a meatetarian), he, and others in his party that do consume meat, did not opt for the wine that was suggested as a pairing and I did.  The wine pairing really works well, as one would hope since that’s the jist of this restaurant.  The beef alone was decent, better than the ribeye of course; the wine was pretty good, and I’m not much of a red drinker, but together, quite good indeed.  Although at $30 for the beef and $12 for a single glass of wine, did the taste really justify $42? ehhhhhh.  Thus another thing that kinda leaned towards a risk of yuppification.

The potato wedges I found to be rather unappetizing actually.  I’m sure I didn’t make it through more than 3 or 4 of them.  Especially when the au-gratin-esque side that my dining partner received was vastly superior.  I also found the glaze to be a bit off-putting.  Certainly wouldn’t want a bite of meat fully covered in it.  A light application was tolerable, and what kept it that way was that the wine worked well with it.  The onions however, rocked.  Hard to beat some good ‘ol caramelized onions.

And now on to my favorite part…

Crème Brulee
A Rich Classic French Dessert Highlighted With Fresh Berries.

The Vin Sin
A Rich Chocolate Torte Topped With Dark Chocolate Ganache And Accented With Raspberry Coulis, Crème Anglaise And Finished With A Chocolate Cigar. 

At least that’s what the online menu says.  The Vin Sin is a standard, so that’s accurate, but the Crème Brulee I had was actually three small brulees: a Green Tea, a standard Vanilla, and a Coffee.  The presentation was nice, three small crème brulee dishes, I like to refer to them as crucibles (I’m a chemistry guy after all), on a long rectangular plate.  I happened to overhear the waiter discussing various dessert options a table over and Crème Brulee was mentioned, so that got the hankerings flowing.  I was starting to lean towards it anyway, and then when I saw it was paired with the Beringer Nightingale it was absolutely decided.  This is of course due to the fact that by far the primary reason I was here on this night (aside from Discover card starting to offer 5% at restaurants the day prior, muahaha) was to re-experience this nectar of the gods.  Ever since one extremely pleasurable trip to Napa and having the opportunity to sample this at the Beringer reserve house I’ve been seeking a local source.

All of the flavors worked extremely well together.  Not that I ever rapidly took a bite 1, 2, 3 style, but there’s that bit of aftertaste of course.  And without going into a long diatribe about the awesomeness that is the Nightingale, I’ll just say it’s obviously a dessert wine, has an amazing amber almost caramel color, and has that cool effect where you know it’s thicker than water when you slosh it around in the bottle a bit.  Needless to say it’s extremely sweet, which is great for me   I found that the wine, if you can even really call it that, paired best with the straight vanilla, which really isn’t a surprise.  However it did work interestingly well with the green tea by providing a good contrast, which was also the case with the coffee.  This crème brulee was cooked just right, although brulee’s do tend to offer a somewhat forgiving margin of error; you’d really have to toast the hell out of the top before it got unbearable (unlike my previous bad flan experiences).  The flavors were strong, almost potent, but just safely under that line.  Thus bold but not overpowering, as could be a concern particularly with the green tea; just how I like it.

Since it’s been a while I can’t 100% fairly compare the Vin Sin to the comparable flourless offering at Chez Zee.  But I do seem to remember thinking at the time that the Vin Sin may have won that contest.  Although with the crazy dessert overload fiesta at CZ last time, and the other chocolate dish taking top spot at the time, it may not be a fair comparison for yet another reason.  But sticking with the bold and rich theme the Vin Sin delivers; the chocolate was dark and the raspberry sauce strong and balancing.

Chez Zee

Hit up Chez Zee again, this time around with some co-workers that’s been in the works for a while now; everyone was finally in town this week.  Thursday is Roasted Pork Tenderloin day: Served with black cherry sauce, macaroni and cheese, and fresh vegetables.  I wouldn’t exactly call Chez Zee upscale or fancy, but their dishes are way better than your average Bennigans meal.

With offerings like Pecan Crusted Brie and Gorgonzola Jalapeño Pasta it might seem like macaroni and cheese would be a little out of place.  And of course there was the expecting ribbing of my receiving it with my order.  But I have actually read about a recent movement of even gourmet restaurants attempting to gourmet-ify the lowly mac & cheese.  I’m happy to report this mac & cheese was quite tasty; the pasta was cooked the right amount and the cheese was thick but not syrupy.  Initially I was also shockingly in the mood to at least try the vegetables, mainly since I didn’t feel like attempting to negotiate a trade for the French Onion w/ Roast Beef soup that was the day’s offering.  I started with the sliced carrots, but I like my carrots (they aren’t green) cooked fairly well so they’re pretty soft.  These weren’t cooked much at all so they weren’t super crispy (I’ve been known to eat fresh carrot on rare occasion) but certainly not soft.  But of course I’m not one to really effectively rate veggies.  I sampled a couple of the other items in the pile (and yup, you guessed it, I wouldn’t have a chance at identifying them) and I was out of the mood.

So on to the main course.  This was a lunch special so I figured I wouldn’t be receiving a ton of food.  This was perfectly ok as it was actually all part of the master plan.  This was only about 40% of the reason I was here today.  I really like pork tenderloin, especially when it’s cooked right.  Well, maybe more like only when it’s cooked right.  After a particularly bad experience with some undercooked rosemary pork tenderloin in San Francisco (unfortunately the night before a Metallica show, but of course once the music got going I didn’t care at all) I always check for any traces of pink.  I also usually flashback to some crazy educational film I saw back in grade-school that described how eggs of parasites tend to dwell in pork meat and you better cook that stuff thoroughly to kill off those little bastards.

Anyway, the pork tenderloin was sliced into appropriate thickness pieces.  It probably wasn’t cooked this way, but it did provide a good inspection opportunity.  Everything was in order so it was time to dig in.  The very first thing I noticed was a rather strong flavor in the sauce that I could only describe as being somewhere in the spicy mustard family.  Possibly even a hint of wassabi essence.  Not being a huge fan of hot mustard (which goes along with my general dislike for that “chemically hot” taste, like Tabasco or hotwing sauce that will literally melt the styrofoam that’s containing it [shudder, flashback to college days] ) I found the sauce almost a little off-putting at first.  But as I had hoped the severity of the piercing flavor died down soon as its effects were diminished over time as tolerance grew.  The black cherry portion of this sauce was good, although any real resemblance of cherry was well overpowered by the chemical twinge.  Looks like for dinner they offer porkchops with black coffee bbq sauce, I’ll have to give that a try next time and compare.  The meat itself was tender, as you would expect, and had hardly any surgery-requiring bits at all, it was already trimmed quite well.

And now on to the major part of the reason I was here, dessert.  This place consistently wins awards for Best Desserts in town, and they deserve it.  Being the pseudo-dessert-connoisseur that I am, it’s quite clear why this place was originally recommended to me.  Last time I had the Italian Cream Cake, one of my favorite cakes.  This time around I had my heart set on the CoCo Leches Cake.  But today was a bit of a unique situation.  As I sat back and heard what people were considering ordering, it became clear that certain sub-groups were forming.  There were a couple people trying to decide between B and C, and a couple others deciding between D, E, and F.  So I made my proposal: how about we get a little family-style action going?  That went over quite well.  I also suggested we get some small plates, and upon the arrival of everything put one piece on a place and then rotate.  That way in the end everyone had 6 different pieces of dessert to try.  So in the end the list was:

• CoCo Leches Cake
• Key Lime Pie
• Fresh Fruit Bavarian
• Maida’s Cake (flourless chocolate cake)
• Crème Brulee
• Mocha Fudge Torte

The last selection I’m rather proud of as one member of our party didn’t really have a preference and allowed us to order for him.  The torte was bouncing around as a suggestion in the D/E/F crew but ultimately wasn’t selected.  I didn’t want to pass that one up so I chose it as our “free pick”.  Good thing that happened as it ended up being amazing.  I’m well into “96% Rule” territory now.  It’s going to be very hard to pass this up as I attempt to force myself to try the remaining items.  Definitely the winner, although I thought the Bavarian was a solid second.

The Mocha Fudge Torte is also a flourless item.  Usually I don’t think of flourless as being all that big of a deal, but in this particular application it worked exquisitely.  Usually with any fudge-based dish you get a little bit of “graininess”.  I’m not talking sand-like grit, but it’s almost like a not completely dissolved sugar feeling.  This was completely smooth, and incredibly rich.  Now I’m a big fan of very rich things, give me some super dark chocolate any day, and this thing was very high on the rich-o-meter.  But it was so freakin’ good it wasn’t too difficult to “battle through the flavor” as your desire for more easily overwhelmed that.

The CoCo Leches Cake was actually a lot like the Italian Cream Cake, a lot.  I think it worked out well that I ended up with a decent amount leftover (when I was attempting to show folks just how big some of the desserts were they wouldn’t quite believe the size I was indicating, so were still shocked upon the arrival of the real thing), so I was able to re-sample later without all the other flavors of the other dishes competing for tastebud time.  At the time of initial consumption, particularly when directly compared with the other quite rich dishes, it almost seemed just a bit lacking.  However when appropriately sampled later the ample amounts of coconut did provide a good amount of flavor.  The texture was nearly identical to the Italian Cream Cake, although there was a bit of soakage on this piece, although not nearly enough for me to really consider this to be in the true “Tres Leches” family.  I guess they really couldn’t have too much sour cream flavor in the icing either because of the strong presence of coconut.

The Key Lime Pie was good, although nothing too particularly stand-outish about it from a normal piece.  Of course the strong flavor of the Key Limes was there, but not a whole lot else you can do.  It didn’t have too much of the bitter flavor that you occasionally encounter, so that was nice.  The substrate was smooth and allowed the bite of the limes to dominate without competition.

I’m not a huge fan of chocolate cake, but Maida’s Cake is not your average chocolate cake.  Being a flourless item it was smooth, almost like a pudding or custard consistency.  It had a couple layers, dark and white/light.  The darker layer was definitely the chocolate layer although wasn’t like a dark chocolate type flavor, mainly a semi-sweet / milk chocolate flavor.  The lighter/white layer could almost be considered just a really thick topping layer; although admittedly it may have suffered a bit from a rather saturated palate at this point.

Crème Brulee is always a fun adventure.  Thankfully almost all places that serve it don’t take the caramelization process to the extreme as burnt sugar can ruin your experience in a hurry.  From what I could see this brulee had a good dose of flame applied to the top giving that excellent charred feeling and taste.  One thing in particular I appreciated about this dish was the subdued flavor of the custard.  This allowed the punch of the crust to really come through in a pronounced way, which of course is the point of this whole thing.  Sometimes you’ll have one with too much vanilla or other flavor in the base and you don’t get that good contrast between the two layers.  The base here certainly wasn’t lacking in flavor though, a good balance was reached, producing a happy mouth.

The Fresh Fruit Bavarian was very good.  I am a fan of cheesecake, although too many places tend to screw it up one way or another, especially when attempting to combine it with fruit.  I’m pleased to report that Chez Zee knows what they’re doing in this department.  This combo is somewhat of a double or nothing deal, and they scored double on this gamble.  I believe I had all parts represented in my sample.  Here’s the official description: Sweet shortbread pastry crust, filled with a light flavored cheesecake, and topped with seasonal fruit and cinnamon streusel. I really liked how the cinnamon streusel bits complimented the sweet shortbread crust.  It’s practically a requirement to have some sort of grahmcracker-esque crust and the sweet shortbread served this duty proudly.  The cheesecake itself tasted very similar to what I grew up with, so that was a nice bonus for me personally.  Apparently the fruit of the season right now is primarily blueberries, which worked well.  It all came together very nicely and I looked forward to getting another streusel bit in the next bite, an excellent touch indeed.  A full piece of this should have significant coverage.

I also got another look at the wine list in person, and their dessert wine selection is even better than I remembered

Café Mangù

Ok, since this is the first time I’m posting about this place (even though I’ve been many times) I should mention upfront that they were very close to being blacklisted.  However not for any food or service related issues, this near-blacklisting happened even before my first visit.  You see, I was finding it difficult to go eat at an establishment that is basically pronounced Cafe Man-goo.  I just couldn’t believe such a poor choice in name was made.  But at the same time, for a name like that to actually go into production, obviously the people involved never even thought of it, thus one must assume they’re a little more concerned with the cooking than with the business/name/language which in some cases works out quite well, as long as they’re able to stay afloat.  So I finally gave them a try and the quality of everything else more than makes up for this rather trivial concern.

So I hit up Café Mangù again last night, and as usual I am still reminded of this fact by the garlicky taste that lingers on forever (I think I hit the 3 day mark once after a particularly flavorful meal).  I wanted to change it up yet again, as this is one of the rare places that offers a good many dishes I can eat without having to perform too much surgery.  As anyone who’s ever been to or been told about a Cuban style restaurant knows, get the pulled pork, called Lechon Asado here.  I have had this numerous times, and it’s on the lunch menu which is great.  But since this is a relatively safe place, I don’t have to worry too much about the “96% rule”, so I try to venture out and change it up a bit each time.

This time around it was the Bistec Encebollado. “Top Sirloin, marinated in fresh garlic, sliced onion, wine vinegar and soy sauce.  Pan fried and served in [its] juice.”  And of course the usual 3 sides: Arroz Congri (Rice cooked in stewed black beans, fresh herbs, fresh garlic and pork), Mariquitas (Light and crispy plantain chips w/mojo), and Yuca (Freshly cooked Cassava, boiled or fried).

Probably my only gripe about the entire meal would be the quality of the cut of meat, particularly for sirloin.  I’ve had their skirt steak offering (Churrasco Argentino) and I’d say that the quality of beef really wasn’t all that different.  Normally I’d expect quite a difference between skirt/flank steak (typically used in fajitas) and sirloin.  It was cooked appropriately though, with a good amount of pink in the interior of the rather thin slab-o-meat.  But I do actually appreciate the thin cut particularly in these pan fried applications.  So to retain pinkness, and thus some semblance of tenderness, was a nice accomplishment.  Once I determined the orientation and position of the bad bits, post-surgery the rest of the meal was pretty good and proceeded without incident.

I didn’t opt for my occasional Caipirihna to accompany my meal, although I was tempted.  It’s nice that they offer them here as they are rather hard to find; but I’m glad to see they’re starting to catch on locally.  Luckily I can whip up a very tasty one at home and I’m very popular at parties.  The sides provided this time around were of better than usual quality.  Lately they’ve been slicing their Mariquitas larger and more importantly thicker.  This provides for an excellent consistency in the interior and gives a nice thin crunchy exterior.  The Yuca last time around was cut a little too small and thus was overcooked, but this time I only had a couple diminutive pieces and the rest were just right.  The Arroz Congri has always been consistently good, and thankfully I have yet to be subjected to the wrong side of the “When available” stipulation.

Then it was on to dessert.  Café Mangù has one of the best flans around.  I almost always get it when I’m in there.  But since this evening I was in a change-it-up mood I went for the Tres Leches instead.  Now this was a rather significant violation of the “96% Rule” as the flan is known to be extremely good, while in the past the Tres Leches has been a bit dry and somewhat lacking in flavor.  But it had been a good while since I’d had the TL there so I figured I’d give it another go.  Also something that played into my decision was that occasionally they will overcook the flan which makes it go from excellent to poor in a hurry.  All it takes is a little burnt flan to ruin the taste.  And as luck would have it this is exactly what happened.  My dining partner’s flan was a good sized piece, but unfortunately was rather dark, bordering on black in some areas.  However it was obvious that the Tres Leches recipe has been modified since my last consumption.  Initially I was concerned that I had received a corner piece, but the lake of sauce covering the plate alleviated my concerns.  This extra moisture made for easy progress through the edge sides, hardly making them stand out from a conventional side.  I’m very pleased to report that the level of application of cajeta sauce has greatly increased.  This combined with the ample milkage made for a very good dessert experience, for me at least.

PF Changs

It’s not often that I find myself at PF Changs, I suppose perhaps because at times it seems to be bordering on the threshold of being too yuppified, but mostly because it’s a tad out of the way, always pretty busy, and not super cheap either.  But when I’m there the service, food, and scenery is always good.

One thing they tout on their website is having an extensive wine collection, particularly differing ones per location that are supposedly customized to that establishment and the region it’s in.  But I’m going to have to disagree here.  Sure they have a lot of wines listed in the regular menu, and the separate wine list, but when the one Gewurztraminer you offer has hardly any spice to it and while you do offer 2 Rieslings they are both very standard issue ones that I see everywhere are aren’t all that fantastic either I gotta say I’m a little disappointed.  Although I do hear the mixed drinks are rather good.  But if I’m chowing down on some spicy chicken I want some good spicy white wine to go with it.  So this time around, no wine for me or the table; although admittedly it was a rather different crew.

Last time I had the Wok Seared Lamb and it was awesome.  So I was yet again faced with the “96% theory” situation.  Do I stick with something I know is really good, or do I gamble on the 4% chance that I might encounter something better?  But if I lose I’ll have to “suffer” through an inferior meal.  So I took a slightly different route, I went with an old tried-and-true, Crispy Honey Chicken; and when I ordered it I received an “oh man, I didn’t see that on the menu, damn where was that?” from the person who ordered right before me.  So nothing too fancy to report here other than being treated to “Olga’s Special Sauce” to which I of course felt obligated to make a joke about at some point during the meal.  And before you go thinking Olga = old scary lady, she was actually pretty cute, think Milla Jovovich (and I love me some Milla, 5th Element style), with slight Russian-based accent to boot.  She was pretty friendly and made good eye contact as well.  I did go with a little spicing up of Olga’s Special Sauce once we exhausted the first batch (by flying through some serious Chicken Lettuce Wrap action) after much debate as to whether we should wait for Olga to generate some more for us.

Then on to the desserts.  Last time I went with the standard Great Wall Of Chocolate, but it was rather dry so I was not impressed.  I even questioned the mysterious new waiter (what happened to getting more face time with Olga?) on the dryness status of today’s offering of GWoC.  To which he of course replied, oh it’s always quite moist, they heat it up in the microwave, blah blah blah, but slipped in a sentence that alluded to its cold storage technique that revealed the most likely cause of the issue.  Perhaps Olga’s Special Sauce could rectify the dryness problem?  The special of the day was German Chocolate cake which I was quite tempted by.  Other intriguing options were “chocolate mousse” and Banana Spring Rolls.  The earlier fore-orderer went with the German Chocolate cake, so that was out, as I was hoping for some dessert sharing action (although family style was not invoked on the main dish portion of the meal).  It was clear post-orderer was going to go with the Bananas, so the mousse it was.  I really wanted to try the Banana dish as I felt it would be rather similar to my lunchtime Empanada experience (particularly with banana on the brain at the time, how prophetic) and it would be quite interesting to compare.

And now for a bit of a surprise, the “chocolate mousse” showed up in cheesecake form.  It was shocking enough that when it was being handed in my direction (Olga had thankfully returned) I said something like “<muttered beginning>… chocolate moouse?” and the reply was basically “yes, this is the chocolate moouse cheesecake”.  While this worked out great for me, I do enjoy me some good cheesecake, for my usual eating companion, not so much.  This also worked in my favor as at that point I knew I’d be consuming a significant portion of the slice, and it was pretty good.  Especially when I was able to extract and isolate the almost dark-chocolate-esque portion of the moouse layer.

I did manage to get a taste of the Pineapple & Coconut icecream that accompanied the Banana Spring Rolls.  This was quite well executed I must say.  I really appreciated and enjoyed the subdued tones of pineapple flavor, allowing the coconut flavor to dominate with a good backing of premium vanilla.  There were no chunks of pineapple present, and the flavor was something between the artificial pineapple candy-like flavor and a true fresh pineapple (which can be almost bitter in some circumstances), it fit in nicely.