Author Archives: Anne

Lazy Friday Night Supper

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Anne| 3 Comments
Lazy Friday Night Supper

Who says you have to cook to have a great meal at home? Sometimes you just need some really fresh produce, cheese, crackers and wine to create the perfect supper for a hot summer night…and let me tell you, last week in Los Angeles was HOT. I didn’t even want to boil a pot of water, much less turn on a single appliance.

Here’s what we had:

Smoked trout with dill which we purchased, plus a horseradish dressing whipped up using nonfat Greek yogurt, horseradish, a bit of light mayo, lemon zest and cracked black pepper.

Sliced baby roma tomatoes and Greek cucumbers, both from the Eagle Rock farmer’s market, plus a nub of Saint-André triple cream brie, one Laughing Cow Babybel and one Laughing Cow wedge- all of which I dug out of our cheese drawer.

A basket of various crackers and bread we had left in the pantry- some La Brea Bakery multigrain, seasoned Ry-krisp and some random olive oil flatbread crackers plus a green salad with balsamic vinaigrette:

Put together, it all looked something like this on my plate:

Not bad for a dinner on the fly, and it definitely beat sweating it out in the kitchen. I guess it’s one of those situation where each individual element might not look like much on its own, but together, makes a pretty great meal.

What’s your favorite lazy supper?

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Posted in easy dinner, easy meal, light supper, smoked trout, summer meal, wine bar food

Broiled Branzino Steamed Artichokes

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Anne| 1 Comment
Broiled Branzino, Steamed Artichokes and Panzanella Salad

Oh boy. Again with a post revolving around something beautiful purchased at McCall’s Meat & Fish Company. You must think I’m getting bribed with free slabs of Argentinean beef or some jumbo lump crab in exchange for multiple posts about this artisan butcher/seafood shop in Los Feliz, but I promise you, my love for their stuff is the only reason why I can’t seem to stop talking about them. Besides, if you met owners/butchers/fish mongers Karen Yoo and Nathan McCall, you’d know they’re honest, hardworking people whose main desire is to have their customers experience truly fresh and delicious food. Not only do they have the best stuff, but they’re always available for cooking advice or menu ideas, and best of all, they are two of the friendliest people around…which is saying a lot for a couple who work about 280 hours a week. Ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration but the truth is pretty close.

J and I decided that we’re going to try and buy our weekly supply of protein from local shops instead of the grocery store; ditto with our produce from farmer’s markets instead of a neon-lit supermarket. Food just tastes better when it hasn’t been forced to grow quickly or plumped up with chemicals, and we want everything we put into our mouths to taste great! Plus supporting local businesses and farmers is putting our money where it really counts.

Since we were buying for the entire week, I came home from McCall’s with a whole chicken, a tub of fresh non-GMO all natural handmade tofu (which I can’t WAIT to spoon into!), a pack of herbed smoked trout and two whole branzino. I felt like I hit the lottery as I carried my goodies home.

Initially, I was going to save the branzino for tonight (Monday) but they looked so damned pretty that I couldn’t resist cooking them up for Sunday dinner. Inspiration hit and before long, I had an exact menu in my head and it came together very quickly. Here’s what we had:

Steamed artichokes- I bought these gorgeous specimens at the Eagle Rock farmer’s market but then J pointed out that I’d probably end up heating up our already warm house (our poor, vintage floor-unit A/C can’t really compete with 95 degree heat) and since artichokes take awhile to steam, I almost decided to scrap the idea. Then I remembered my handy dandy Japanese rice cooker which also steams! Woot! I trimmed the tops, cut out the chokes, cut them in half (in order to make them fit into the rice cooker) and let them steam, insulated, for an hour. Easy!

The branzino was pretty much perfect as is, so I seasoned the outside and inside with salt and pepper, stuffed the cavity with lemon slices and flat-leaf parsley and drizzled a bit of olive oil on top before broiling for five minutes on each side (thanks Karen, for the perfect cooking time!). The skin got nice and crisp, and the flesh was flaky, tender, moist and utterly delicious. I made some salsa verde out of lemon juice, parsley, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper to drizzle on top but the fish didn’t really need it. I think J and I ate every available piece of flesh from each fish.

J and I’d eaten at Barbrix in Silverlake last week, and my favorite thing was a panzanella salad made with beautiful heirloom tomatoes. I did my best to recreate it with the heirlooms, cucumbers and arugula I’d bought (again, farmer’s market) and toasted up cubes of La Brea Bakery multigrain bread, then tossed it all with a simple vinaigrette of red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. The soft, juicy tomatoes combined with cool, crunchy cucumbers and slightly chewy, crisp bread soaked in the dressing is a lethal texture/flavor combo.

Every time we eat like this, I just remember that quality ingredients require little or no manipulation and shine on their own, which is the perfect way to cook (or not cook!) during these hot summer months. Food just tastes better when it’s fresh!

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Posted in Uncategorized

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Anne| 4 Comments
Meat ‘n Potatoes!

This dinner is from a couple of months ago, and I’ve been eager to share it with you, so here it is!

Our friends Henry and Jenn came over for dinner, and I know Henry loves his meat and potatoes and Jenn loves pretty much all food (like me!) so I decided to pick up some beef from McCall’s (yes, I realize I’m beginning to sound like their spokesperson but their meat/seafood is THE BEST!). I saw some Flintsones-sized bone-in rib eyes so I snatched those up, then went to the Farmer’s Market for some Yukon Gold potatoes and other veggies.

First of all, check out these babies. I mean, c’mon:

Here’s what we had:

The Girl + The Fig dried fig compote, goat cheese from the Cheese Store of Silverlake and some pepper water table crackers. The cheese was pretty dry and chalky, which was a tad disappointing.


Mixed green salad with heirloom tomatoes and fresh corn:

White on Rice Couple’s Todd’s amazing, incredible, life-altering Potatoes Au Gratin. I’m not overexaggreating. He and Diane were nice enough to invite my sister and me over for dinner a few months ago and they served this to us and let me tell you- it’s CRACK! It only has six ingredients, but Todd’s signature “break the crust” method keeps the potatoes tender and creamy while the top gets golden brown. We ate a pretty nice chunk out of it but still had some leftover; I’d take a spoon and eat it cold right out of the tupperware every day for the next four days. Not even kidding. It’s THAT good. Who needs chocolate or other such silliness if you have this?! Check out his step-by-step instructions on the method here so you can make it this weekend. Heck, make it today. NOW.

Here are those two, fat rib eye steaks, seared to get a nice brown crust and cooked to medium rare. They were delicious and the four of us polished it all off, easily. I think personally, I prefer a cut where there aren’t as many ribbons of fat- I know I know- it’s the best part but I guess I’m more of a filet mignon, skirt or flank steak girl myself. It was indulgent and delicious regardless. I only wish I would have plated the dramatic steaks in a more, er, dramatic fashion. Should’ve used my giant cutting board, but we were all so hungry I think we just wanted to eat!

Plum and almond tart. My plum tree literally exploded with plums this summer so I had plums coming out of my…um, front yard. This was one of the last things I made; I think I’m good on plums for awhile now! We served it with caramel gelato.

A wonderful time was had by all and once again, McCall’s didn’t let me down with the high quality meat they sold me for this dinner. Another thing that’s great about McCall’s is the husband-wife team of Nathan McCall and Karen Yoo are happy to answer any questions you have about their product, recommend ways to cook or order something in advance if you have a special request. “Enthusiastic” wouldn’t begin to describe how both come across about their business- you can see the commitment to quality, customer service and a joy and love for food/cooking in their faces. They rock!

Here’s what our dinner table looked like just before we sat down to eat. I’ll spare you the “after” photo!

More to come…..

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Posted in McCall's Los Feliz, mccall's Meat and Fish, meat and potatoes, potatoes au gratin, rib eye, White on Rice Couple

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Anne| 2 Comments
Still eating…..

…but obviously not blogging as much. A good friend reminded me today of why I love to blog so I’ll get back on it- I have some things saved up that I’ve wanted to share with you (hint: Flinstones-sized rib eyes!) and I will do my best to keep on blogging about one of my greatest passions- FOOD!
The photo above is one I took quickly after throwing together a plate of “healthier” homemade nachos. Nachos is something I rarely eat but crave often. I’m not a fan of fast food nachos, but good, bar-food or fine dining nachos are awesome. I had some chips, so I topped them with shredded chicken, black beans, diced avocado, red onion, tomatoes, salsa & non-fat Greek yogurt (the best substitution for sour cream in ANY recipe, seriously!) and warmed it all up for just a minute before finishing it off with some fresh cilantro and green onions. It definitely hit the spot.

This photo of some dumplings I ate for lunch today at Susan Feniger’s STREET came out oddly pink, but I think it was the tint of the reddish umbrella that shaded our table from the sun. This “Dumpling Sampler” consisted of Verenyk (Ukrainian dumplings filled with spinach and salty cheese served with sour cream and lemon marmalade), shrimp stuffed shiitake mushrooms and Mandoo vegetable dumplings which were my favorite, filled with Asian vegetables, sweet potato noodles and roasted honey yam and served with sesame dipping sauce. YUM!
More to come….

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Posted in blogging, Nachos, procrastinating

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Anne| 4 Comments
Scenes from Porto


So the Portugal vacation posts continue with this photo-heavy entry about what would end up being my favorite stop on our trip- Porto. The port town was charming, beautiful and I could walk the cobblestone streets all day looking at the colorful tile buildings and drinking Super Bock (Portuguese beer).

Let’s start with this perfect view from our room at the Pestana Porto Hotel. I mean, if this was the start and end of the vacation, it’d be enough to keep me happy for a very long time. How can you have a bad day when this is the first thing you see?

Across the water were all of the many port wine caves since Porto is famous for the production of the sweet wine. We walked into a few but didn’t really dive into port wine tasting since the weather was downright hot (95 degrees!) which isn’t the best time to be drinking the thick stuff.

Each port wine company had a ship in the water to advertise their wine:

Almost every liquor store had bottles and bottles of vintage port, like this one from 1937!

Let’s get back outside now- and check out the array of beautiful tiles found all over the city:

….like on this gorgeous church:

You’re probably thinking, “Wait, where is the FOOD? This is a FOOD BLOG, isn’t it?” Since we’d been eating a lot of Portuguese cuisine, we wanted to try some Italian food. After a lot of research, we heard about a place called Al Forno. Thanks to a very patient and resourceful taxi driver, we found it after 25 nervous minutes in the cab:

We found it was worth the drive because we had some of the best Italian food we’d ever had in this black squid ink pasta with shrimp:

…and this perfect pizza capricciosa, topped with fresh tomato sauce, mushrooms, ham and an egg (which I accidentally broke before remembering to take this photo!). The egg yolk was a deep orange color and so rich and really brought all of the fresh flavors together. Come to think of it, I think we get kind of screwed in the U.S. on eggs. Even when I buy from the farmer’s market, the yolks still aren’t as bright and rich as the ones overseas. I still dream about this pizza.

The Portuguese really love their sweet treats- check out this display of typical Portuguese pastries found at every coffee shop:

In additon to the popular port wines and vinho verdes, the locals seem to love the aforementioned Super Bock beer- which we enjoyed while sitting at an ourdoor cafe, watching the tourists walk by. The current ad campaign for the popular beer? “I Bock A Feeling” which I’m guessing is a play on the Black Eyed Peas song, “I Got A Feeling.” Too bad I hate that song since it ran through my head every time I saw that Super Bock ad. Ah well. At least it tasted good!

Here’s a lovely church door we discovered while walking through the streets getting lost on purpose:

….and here’s J, clearly touched by the Holy Spirit in some way since the rays of heaven seem to be shining down on him, ha!! (insert glorious church music here)

How I miss walking through the narrow streets of Porto….we’ll definitely be making our way back there at some point!

I’ll leave you with one, last photo of the port- a view I could look at every single day if only I was so lucky!

I can’t recommend Porto, and Portugal as a whole, enough if you’re looking for an inexpensive trip to Europe. The places, people, food and experiences will stay with you for a lifetime.

Pestana Porto Hotel
Praça da Ribeira, nº 1
4050-513 Porto

Al Forno
a de Sta. Catarina, 249,
Leca Palmeira, Porto, Portugal
229952980

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Posted in Al Forno Italian restaurant Porto, Europe, Porto, Portugal, Travel

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Anne| 2 Comments
Quick Supper: Grilled Miso Salmon + Spicy Peanut Noodles

Another quick post to break up the vacation ones. Right before we left, I cooked dinner for our friend SK who had generously offered to house-sit while we were gone. It was a Monday, I was driving home from work, giddy about my impending vacation and equally happy to be paying a visit to McCall’s to pick up whatever lovelies they had on special that day…..until (insert record scratch sound here)…I pulled up and saw the “CLOSED” sign staring angrily at me. Doh! In my pre-vacation haze I’d forgotten that McCall’s wasn’t open Mondays. *Sigh*

I jumped back in the car and headed over to Fish King, and once in the store I stood there for literally 20 minutes with some sort of cook’s block, not being able to think of a SINGLE thing to make for dinner. You know when you just feel paralyzed when standing in front of too many options? It certainly wasn’t Fish King’s fault for offering up multiple varieties of fresh fish, shellfish and poultry….I just couldn’t decide. I loitered for so long the staff started to look concerned, so I finally decided on some salmon and headed home, still wondering what to create.

Setting the salmon aside for a moment, I made some appetizers- I’d never made these before but was thinking recently of the many nights spent in izakayas (Japanese pubs) while living in Tokyo. One of my favorite things to order was pari pari cheezu which, loosely translated, means crunchy or crispy cheese. Basically it would be some type of white cheese wrapped in wonton skins and deep fried- sometimes with the addition of kimchee or edamame. I happened to have some shelled edamame in the freezer so I added those to the jack cheese in my version, which I sprinkled with black sesame seeds and sea salt and served with some leftover mustard sauce I had from my mongolian bbq lamb chops.

Luckily some inspiration struck when I saw a jar of peanut butter in the pantry, and the rest was all gravy. I decided to smear a simple mixture of white miso, agave nectar and mirin onto the salmon to broil, then made a dressing of some smooth peanut butter, sambal oelek, grated ginger, chopped garlic, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, agave nectar, green onions, cilantro and some water to thin it out. I just whizzed it all with my beloved Cuisinart hand blender (seriously, if you don’t have one, go get one!) and tossed it with hot, whole wheat spaghetti and some julienned carrots and cucumbers. It made a nice bed for the broiled miso salmon, and, garnished with some quickly blanched sugar snap peas- made a nice, balanced one-dish meal.

While in the pantry I also discovered a package of Japanese macha pudding mix that my mom had brought back from Japan. I had some of my favorite Pearl Soy Milk on hand so I mixed that with the powder, poured into ramekins and let it set up while we ate dinner.

I’d post a recipe for the noodles but all of the ingredients are listed above, and it’s really all about what you’re looking for- do you want them to be more peanuty? Add more peanut butter, less sesame oil (which is very strong). If you love ginger put more of that in and skip the garlic, etc etc. It’s a very flexible dressing and fantastic on cold, shredded chicken (add some Sriracha for some extra kick) or even a pile of shredded romaine.

Enjoy!

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Posted in macha pudding, peanut noodles, salmon. healthy dinner, soy milk desserts, whole wheat noodles

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Anne| 3 Comments
Scenes from Lisbon


As you know, J and I spent a few days in Portugal recently for vacation. We fell in love with the people, the food, the colors….the skies were blue for the entirety of our trip and we couldn’t have had a better time in the amazing country. We started our trip in Lisbon, and I wanted to share some of the highlights of the city we had the good fortune of experiencing with you:

The beautiful streets of Lisbon:

Arches near Santa Apolónia train station:


Pasteis de Bacalhau- Portuguese cod fritters, made with bacalhau (dried, salted cod)

Portuguese egg tarts, called pastel de nata, were so delicious we ate more than our share. The burnt sugar at the top made them especially yummy.

Some local graffiti….

A tiny butcher shop/grill cafe right near Santa Apolónia train station where we stopped to buy lunch to take on our high-speed train to Porto. I got a grilled pork sandwich which was good, and J got a whole, grilled chicken that was incredible. He said it was the best chicken he’s ever had, and wolfed it down before I could take a photo…just kidding;), but he did really enjoy it. A lot!

Laundry drying in the hot sun……

A typical pork sandwich on a peasant roll- this pork smelled heavenly- you could really sense the bay leaves- and was absolutely delicious.

I’m guessing you wouldn’t want to lean too hard against this particular building…isn’t it stunning though?!

Just a couple of the many magnificent display of colorful ceramic tiles, azulejos, found all over the country.

Speaking of ceramics, this store sold lots of original ceramic artwork and t-shirts designed by local artists ..

We bought a couple of the mugs you see at the very bottom of the photo above, although J was eyeing these one-of-a-kind ceramic roosters. I’m guessing our cat Cory would’ve been jealous had we come home with a new pet, so we bid them farewell.

Loved the outdoor dining set-up by restaurants along this long row of stairs- the sun was so bright you can’t see the city square in the middle but it was so cool to walk up these steps and watch people drinking vinho verde, enjoying the weather.

J, looking at how many stairs we had left to reach the top!

A restaurant interior made almost entirely of beautiful, blue tiles with matching tablecloths:

A shot of the smooth, cobblestone streets all over Lisbon- I have no idea how the Portuguese manage to walk so quickly over these slippery little suckers- I almost broke my neck on several occassions…I can only imagine what they must be like when it rains.

I’ll leave you with a little seafood porn….unfortunately we’d already eaten when we spied this display of giant shrimp and crab legs, but I figure it gives us a reason to go back…not that we need one. I’m already dreaming about a second trip!

Até a vista for now!

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Posted in Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

Posted on June 21, 2010 by Anne| 7 Comments
Father’s Day Dinner: Trio of Sliders

I wanted to take a little break from our vacation posts and toss in the Father’s Day dinner I made for my dad this past weekend.

I always think long and hard about what to cook when my parents come over for dinner because they love and appreciate food so much (where do you think I get it from?!) so I want everything to be perfect. Even though I’d emailed my dad and asked if he had any requests, he simply put, “surprise me!” as he usually does when I’ve asked him in the past. After days of mulling it over I finally felt good about a menu I’d put together in my mind (homemade Swiss chard/ricotta ravioli with pomodoro, fried calamari salad, roasted asparagus) when my husband J said, “SLIDERS!”

Now sliders aren’t something I think of for a special occasion dinner, nor were they something I’ve made before. Sure, I’ve grilled up a few hamburgers in my day, but truth be told it had been awhile. Although it was Father’s Day, J rarely requests something so specific and was really rooting for the sliders idea so I wanted to find a way to fulfill his wish while satisfying my need to make it special for the occasion. I called my friend Dylan for inspiration, and he suggested making several different kinds of sliders- use different meats, toppings, etc- go decadent with truffle oil or different cheeses, etc. That conversation definitely pushed me in the right direction and after a few minutes, we’d decided on a Trio of Sliders.

I bought the house hamburger from McCall’s which was nicely marbled with fat, ordered 2 ounce brioche rolls from Euro Pane, stopped at the CheeseStore of Silverlake for some cheeses and grabbed some fresh produce and quail eggs at the Silverlake Farmer’s Market and was good to go. I spent about an hour making my caramelized onion jam (with a touch of thyme, something I love in onion jam) and got the rest of my mise en place together before putting all of the elements together for dinner.

Here are the three kinds of sliders I made:

The “Drago Centro” Slider- J and I go to Drago bar at least twice a month and order off their small bites menu, and their Kobe Beef Sliders are our favorite so I tried to recreate it in these. Arugula, fontina and sautéed mushrooms (I used brown instead of the king mushrooms Drago uses):

The Blue Slider: Caramelized onion jam, Dijon mustard, arugula and St. Agur blue cheese. The exceptionally creamy St. Agur went so well with the sweet onions and the mustard cut the richness of it all. Probably my personal favorite of the night.

The Bacon/Egg Slider- White truffle oil, arugula, Nueske smoked bacon (also from McCall’s) and topped off with a sunny-side up quail egg. Once we sat down, we all broke the yolk and let it run over the burger….it’s like breakfast for dinner, but much more luxurious. I loved this one as well, and the quail eggs were surprisingly easy to get open without compromising the integrity of the yolk.

To balance out the rich sliders I just served a green salad, and a plate of blanched asparagus and crisp radishes with some Provencal aioli for dipping.

All of the sliders were delicious- in large part due to the high quality of the ingredients. The ground beef at McCall’s is a mix of Angus and chuck and was super flavorful and moist. The ladies at the CheeseStore of Silverlake were so helpful in the process of choosing just the right cheeses, the Silverlake Farmer’s Market had some amazingly peppery arugula, bright asparagus and fresh radishes, and Euro Pane baked up the lightest brioche rolls. So thank you to all of the staff for making my Father’s Day dinner possible!

Not only are you supporting local business by shopping at specialty stores, but it’s a fun and educational way to shop and you can avoid the neon lights of a supermarket altogether.

What did you do for Father’s Day?

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Posted in beef, cheeseburgers, CheeseStore of Silverlake, Euro Pane Pasadena, hamburgers, mccall's Meat and Fish, quail egg, Silverlake Farmers Market, sliders, St. Agur

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Anne| 2 Comments
Restaurante Pedro Lemos, Porto, Portugal

I’m going to jump ahead a bit in our trip, because I am eager to tell you all about a wonderful restaurant we had the pleasure of dining at in Porto, Portugal. I’ll start off by telling you that we both fell in LOVE with Portugal- both Lisbon and Porto – the people, food, scenery, culture, everything really. To me, Portugal holds all of the charms of other popular European destinations like Italy and France, but doesn’t have the high prices. I’ll be blogging more about this fantastic country, but I’d like to introduce you to Pedro Lemos to start off.

Pedro Lemos is the name of the restaurant where J and I had our one “splurge” meal, when we decided to break from the casual meals we’d been eating thus far on the trip and give fine dining a shot. After doing some searching on the internet, we decided to go to Pedro Lemos, the namesake restaurant of the chef, who, from what we read, was taking food from his Portuguese upbringing and elevating it to another level. Needless to say, we were very excited.

After a short taxi ride from our hotel, we came upon the beautiful space, with downstairs dining room for nonsmokers, an upstairs gilded dining room for smokers plus a bar, and an outdoor patio on the roof for those who prefer to dine al fresco. The greeting from Sommelier/manager Eduardo Neto couldn’t have been warmer- he expressed his delight in our visit and showed us to a candlelit table in the main dining room downstairs. Off to a great start!

The restaurant offers a varied a la carte menu as well as two different prix fixe menus- one five course, and one seven course. We wanted to go with the seven course but J isn’t crazy about foie gras (because he’s crazy, ha!) which was the first course, but after Eduardo assured us that the chef would replace J’s foie with something else, we decided to go for it, including the wine pairings. All of the wine (with the exception of champagne) on the list are from Portugal, and not having had much Portuguese wine knowledge, we were really looking forward to trying many kinds.

The meal started off with freshly baked bread, served with a fresh, soft cheese- similar to homemade ricotta- studded with fresh chives which was delicious. We also had the option to dip our warm bread into local, Portuguese olive oil, which was green and bright. We tried to eat the bread slowly, but tell me- what’s better than freshly baked bread…with cheese…and olive oil? What could be more appetizing?! If we didn’t have seven courses coming I think we would have been perfectly happy to sit and eat that bread all night.

By the way: Sorry for the dark photos- I didn’t want to use a flash, so this is the best I could do with my camera phone!

First course(s):

Me:
Ravioli de borras de Porto com foie gras recheado, em consumme de Rabo de Boi mergulhado- From the lees of port wine, the ravioli stuffed with foie gras from the ox tail, the aromatic consumme.
You can’t see it- but underneath this slice of perfectly seared foie gras is the ravioli, made from squid ink pasta and filled with shredded ox tail and more foie. What’s not to like?! As rich as this dish sounds, it was actually quite light.

J:
Bacalhau de boas recordacoes, sobre gelatin das bochechas a posta desfiada num ourico com seu aveludado, acompanhada das caras num caldo de poejas- The codfish from Chef memories, shredded in sea urchin shape, filled with its velvet chowder and set on a cheek gelatin & pennyroyal broth.
Bacalhau (salted cod fish) is practically the national food of Portugal and you see it on almost every menu in the country. In this preparation it was served in a “shell” made to look like that of a sea urchin- using shredded potatoes and floating in a beautiful broth. This was one of our favorite dishes of the night.

Second course:

Vieira corada numa cigala espetada- A sea scallop in a spit with masala
Another favorite- the seared scallop is actually hiding underneath the large shrimp, and it was served with a wonderfully briny oyster and paired with an apple and endive salad.

Third course:

Codorniz de capoeria, cogumelos, espargos e macas moribundas- The farm raised quail, mushrooms, asparagus and baby apples
I LOVE quail, and this one was seasoned perfectly- the teeny, tiny apples (local, of course) it was served with were remarkable- they looked just like cherries, but tasted like tart apples sweetened with warm spice. The dish reminded me of the holidays.

Fourth course:

Corvina de anzol, em tranche num engaco abafada- The meagre fish, stilfed in rake.
We’d never heard of “meagre” fish before, but after some investigating, it seems it is a fish found in abundance in the Mediterranean Sea with increasing popularity, especially in Italy. It was a firm, meaty fish that was delicious. It came with cabbage, turnips and a tender, sweet chestnut that went so well with the fish, I only wished there were more on the plate.

Fifth course:

O Leitao da nossa interpretacao- The suckling pig, from our interpretation
Ah, roasted, suckling pig. A very popular dish in Portugal, it was on my list of things to eat while there. For this dish, the chef slow-roasted a whole, suckling pig, shredded the meat, then compacted it back together in a cube and topped it with a square of crispy, salty, gorgeous pig skin. The deep fried parsnips and taro root were also crispy and light, and the orange foam was a nice touch to cut through the richness of the pork.

Sixth course:

Crème fresco de limao com mousse de queijo- Fresh lemon cream in a cheese mousse.
This light, lemon mousse tasted like a very mild cheesecake, topped with crumbs and paired with thin rounds of rich, dark chocolate. Really incredible.

Seventh course:

Baunilha “Bourbon” e framboesas- Bourbon vanilla and raspberries in a sponge cream.
A raspberry and vanilla whipped cream encased in layers of “caramelized” pastry, served with beetroot sorbet which was an eye opener. It tasted exactly like earthy, sweet beets but when paired with the rest of the dessert, it created a perfect harmony. I especially loved the flaky pastry coated in caramelized sugar. Wow.

Each course was paired with wine chosen by Eduardo who carefully explained the origin and properties of each one as we went along. The standout for me was the late harvest wine he served with dessert- the smell of it (similar to a muscat wine) literally made my mouth water, and it was so good that I actually purchased a bottle to take home. He was kind enough to line up all of the bottles once we were finished, so I could take a photo:

After our meal, Chef Pedro Lemos came out and spoke to us about his culinary journey to finally realize his dream of owning his own restaurant. He’d had a successful career in engineering, but decided to leave it behind (much to the dismay of family and friends) to follow his passion for food, which he’d had ever since he was a small child. After studying and working with numerous master chefs, he spent a few years in Lisbon before returning to his roots and opening up a restaurant in his hometown of Porto. If I remember correctly (we did have a bit of wine!) he said he’d only been cooking professionally for a few years, which just shows if you have a passion that strong for something, you can succeed. Although his food is very refined, every dish is created from one he ate growing up and is his personal interpretation of the Portuguese food he loves.

J, Chef Pedro Lemos, Sommelier/manager Eduardo Neto, me

Both Chef Pedro and Sommelier/manager Eduardo Neto are extremely committed to showcasing local ingredients and wine, and are two of the most passionately devoted people I’ve ever met. It was very clear that it is their mission to introduce people to Portuguese cuisine done on a fine dining scale, and if you ever have the good fortune of being in the beautiful city of Porto, I highly recommend you pay them a visit. It’s a culinary journey through the best the country has to offer, created by one of the country’s most promising and talent young chefs.

We were very lucky to have had the experience and will remember our meal for years to come.

Pedro Lemos
Petiscos/Vinhos/Guloseimas
Rua do Padre Luis Cabral, 974
4150-459 Porto, Portugal
Tel: (351) 22-011-59-86
www.pedrolemos.net

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Posted in Oporto fine dining, Oporto restaurants, Pedro Lemos, Porto fine dining, Porto restaurants, Portugal restaurants

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Anne| 2 Comments
Scenes From A Gourmet Supermarket in Ireland

We’re back from our European vacation and it was awesome! We went to visit my sister in a town called Drogheda which is about 35 miles outside of Dublin, and we also went to Portugal for a few days. I have a gazillion photos so I’ll try to cover the trip as thoroughly as possible without boring you all!

Drogheda is a small town, but has all of the conveniences of a city- you can read more about life in Drogheda on my sister’s blog, An American in Ireland. It’s a really cute place and the people are all so friendly- we met many of Clare’s Irish friends and they were warm, kind and welcoming- one of them even baked an apple pie from scratch at the last minute when she heard we were stopping by! Who does that anymore?! It was nice to be taken care of like that…but I’ll definitely be posting more on her friends and our other experiences in the days to come so you can get the full stories.

On our first day, the three of us strolled around and of course, had to make a stop at the local supermarket. One of my favorite things to do in any foreign country is to peruse the aisles of a grocery store and see what fun items they offer. Clare took us to the supermarket section of a popular department store called Marks & Spencer, and it did not disappoint. I only wish I would have bought more stuff to bring home.

An array of desserts, ready-to-eat, reminded me of the puddings common in Japanese grocery stores:

Honey roast ham flavored potato chips! You don’t even need a sandwich to accompany them since you’d get the meat flavor right in the chips:). Love how it is “reduced fat” too!

Canned oxtail soup- a cut above your Campbell’s beef broth, no doubt:

A huge selection of beautifully boxed juices:

Marks & Spencer is known for their “ready-meals,” and they have a “Gastropub” line of foods that go well with beer and wine. I’m pretty sure I’d be happy to sit down to this King Prawns, Cod, Salmon & Smoked Haddock Pie after a long day at the office!

Jaffa Cakes are uber-popular in Ireland (and England, I believe) but I can’t say I’m a big fan of jellied-fruit, so I wouldn’t really like these too much.

In the mood for lamb? You can get the New Zealand variety….


Or local, Irish lamb (I think I’d go for this one!

Eccles cakes look like scones, but are actually made from puff pastry (helllllo butter!) and are dotted with currants:

Is this breakfast or dessert? Sure, we have chocolate flavored cereal here in the US (CoCo Puffs!) but this one is ultra-fancy, featuring white/dark chocolate curls right in the mix!

I loved all of the cheese we ate in Ireland (actually, ALL of the dairy was fresh and delicious) and there certainly is no shortage of variety- check out these fruit-filled cheeses, perfect for a dinner party:

I’m sure potted meats fall under the category of processed foods, but I don’t care- few things go better with a glass of wine than salmon or beef rillet smeared on a slice of crusty French bread.

I might be outing myself as a total geek, but I’d prefer to spend hours strolling through grocery stores, gourmet shops and farmers markets than walking through clothing stores. What can I say, the local foods of different cities and countries are endlessly fascinating!

More to come…..

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Posted in An American in Ireland, Drogheda, gourmet grocery, gourmet supermarket, Ireland, Marks and Spencer