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It's been a while since I dined at Ty Fun in Tremont (mentioned earlier in the topic). I joined some friends there last night for a feast that was was absolutely delightful. A friend arranged with the proprietors, Sonny Tingpatana and Greg Binford, to give us a sampling of delicious Thai dishes. The actual menu was left entirely up to Sonny - whatever he thought appropriate. We started out with chicken wings which were very flavorful but not as spicy as I expected (more about that later). Sonny told us that this was his father's recipe. I guess Dad likes cilantro. This was a great start to the meal. Next up, a chopped pork dish served as a lettuce wrap. I think Sonny told us this contained pork liver and intestines. It didn't taste particularly organ-y, but it sure was good. (This brought up a discussion of things he's hesitant to serve on the regular menu. Apparently one of his favorite dishes has a Thai version of blood sausage. I told him I'd be glad to try it). This dish was fairly spicy and highly aromatic, with Kaffir lime providing the high notes. A stuffed bitter melon soup followed. Sonny told us that the bitter melon was blanched to tone down the bitterness. This dish had a palate-cooling effect. Then came a flurry of dishes served in quick succession: Duck and eggplant curry. This had two types of eggplant (Thai and Indian). The coconut-based sauce had a nice touch of Thai basil. Beef with broccoli, baby corn, and flat noodles. Rich flavors, not terribly spicy. Red Snapper, served whole. This was fried crisp and served with lots of vegetables. My only (minor) complaint would be that the fish cheeks were cooked to the point of being dried out. (My friend Nancy noticed that too, with a note of sadness ) The rest of the fish was moist and tasty. Again, I was surprised that the sauce was not especially hot. Crisp tofu with vegetables. Several of my friends remarked on this dish being quite delicious, despite their usual indifference to tofu. The tofu was pressed before frying, so it had a dense, meaty texture. The sauce was silky and lightly flavored. Again, not especially spicy. Ground chicken with green beans. The beans had just the right level of crunch. Nice! I've mentioned several times that some dishes were less spicy than I expected. All were nicely seasoned and very aromatic, but only the ground pork lettuce wrap dish really had a heat level that made me take notice. I don't mind a bit of heat, but I don't seek it for it's own sake. I'm much more interested in a balance of flavors, textures, and aromas - which this meal provided in spades. A couple of my dining companions prefer a higher level of heat, and at their request a dish of nam prik nam pla was provided. Sonny told us: don't ask for hot sauce, ask for prik nam pla, which is sliced bird's eye peppers with fish sauce. Delicious! (and HOT!) This was a most enjoyable meal. The unanimous verdict was that they should do special tasting menus on a regular basis. I know many of my friends (not just those of us who were there last night) would be delighted to try whatever Sonny decides to cook up. Photos link to a Flickr set if you want to see larger images.

I finally made it to Feast last week. I've been working in Houston and Feast was on my "short list" of places to try. I met up with a friend from Cleveland who happened to be in town. We both were delighted with Feast. We knew that this was our kind of place when our server announced the evening's appetizer special: Pig snouts! Served with capers and pickled vegetables. Delicious! We also tried the marrow bones with parsley salad (a là Fergus Henderson? - I believe the chef at Feast worked with him in the past). Gorgeously executed. The atmosphere at Feast is relaxed and friendly. The food was outstanding. I'll be back.

I was driving through the area on Wednesday and decided to stop by Roast. I'm a big Michael Symon fan, and this was the only (current) restaurant of his that I hadn't experienced. I really lucked out, because they were introducing a revamped menu and the executive chef was in the house. I was not expecting Chef Symon to be there, so that was a nice surprise. Here are a couple of new apps on the menu: Beef Tartare with Uni Foam and Avocado. I think that's the description - the web site hasn't been updated with the new menu yet. The texture and seasoning of the beef were spot-on. Just a hint of chili (I think), and the meat was cut in a nice fine dice - lending the perfect degree of "tooth". The uni topping adds a subtle and refreshing hint of the ocean. The quality of the sea urchin is impeccable. I have to admit to being a bit nervous ordering this. When uni is fresh it's absolutely sublime. My experiences with uni in the U.S. have been mixed. This was on a par with what I've had in Japan. When you say "Michael Symon", the word "seafood" is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. But he's as serious about serving great seafood and vegetables as he is about red meat (his obvious signature). Speaking of seafood, another new menu item: The Lobster Roll This is a half-portion (comp disclosure - Chef Symon brought this out for me to sample after I'd already had the tartare and the "Roast Beast of the Day".) I was already pretty full, and intended to just taste a bit. I finished the whole thing. This is a classic Michael Symon dish: Take a familiar, somewhat humble dish (yes, lobster used to be humble), pay attention to the quality of the ingredients, and add some subtle "upscale" touches. The lobster meat was delicious. Nice big chunks of tender, flavorful lobster. Pretty much what you'd expect on the northeastern seaboard, but very welcome here in the "Heartland". It was dressed in a lovely mayonnaise. There's your "haut" upgrade. A great sauce, with a touch of herbs (tarragon?). Also, the bun was appropriately split from the top, and it was soft and slightly sweet. Again, echoing the classic "humble" dish. My main dish was the "Roast Beast of the Day", which on this occasion was spit-roasted baby lamb with salsa verde and cracklings. This was very reminiscent of the slow-cooked suckling pig they do at Symon's Cleveland restaurant Lolita. Funny how suckling pig and baby lamb seem so similar. Baby goat (kid) also has that quality. I'd like to see what they do with a more mature animal. Maybe it takes too long to spit-roast a big hunk of pork, beef, or ( ) mutton. I liked this dish, but when I return to Roast I'll try something else from the mains. Or just order a bunch of apps, all of which look awesome. Dessert was a "Beer and Pretzels" sundae that sure sounds like a Cory Barrett treatment. I didn't ask who does their desserts. I was already stuffed, especially with the half-portion of lobster roll. Somehow I managed to make room for dessert. Wish that Detroit were just a bit closer. Can't believe I just said that!

That was precisely my worry - that it couldn't possibly live up to my expectations. I needn't have worried. We had a mishap at our table (surprisingly, it wasn't me ), and a gentleman at another table had a Black Truffle Encounter with his necktie. Despite the warnings from the waitstaff to not bite it in half with your mouth open. Speaking of warnings, did they mention that the bowl for HP/CP is wax and isn't intended to be eaten? I guess in the early days of serving that dish there were some misunderstandings... Thanks for the report, Holly. Glad you enjoyed your meal.

Lobster-roe compound butter sounds awesome. Jean-louis palladin had a procedure for drying lobster roe to use as a garnish. I don't know whether this is a classical technique or something he came up with. You par-cook the roe wrapped in plastic wrap in simmering water for a few minutes until it turns red. Then chill, break it into small bits, and spread it on parchment. Into a 400 ℉ oven, toast for 15 minutes, break up clumps, toast another 15 minutes, then cool. Force the cooled roe through a fine sieve to make beautiful little "rubies" of roe. Nice. (Also agree about the tomalley not being deadly if you don't eat it often.)

The dry container for the Vita-Mix works great for nut butters. The only downside is that it's a pain to get the stuff out of the container. The bottom of the Vita Mix container doesn't unscrew, so there's lots of scraping with a silicon spatula, unless you don't mind wasting quite a bit.

OK, Ann Arbor is starting to sound better and better. A charcuterie workshop with Polcyn would be awesome.

Cleveland's Greenhouse Tavern was named one of Bon Appetit's Top Ten Best New Restaurants in America for 2009. Congratulations to Chef Sawyer and the gang at GHT. Very well deserved! Here's the blurb from the linked article:

Sorry to hear about the vandalism. I just read Trevor Corson's book The Secret Life of Lobsters. He describes some of the cutthroat practices in the trade. Lobster prices have dropped to $8.99/lb in Ohio, which is cheap for here. I guess the substantial markup is due laregly to shipping costs. Still, I'd like to see more of our money going to the lobstermen. MPBN Story here NECN Video here Retail lobster prices here in Portland are at historic lows, $3.99 to $3.49 per pound for 1 1/4lb, $4.99 for 1 1/2lb. ←

Pig-Pickin' time?

I had to Google "grigne" to be sure I understood what you were talking about. The texture of the bread was impressive. I failed to get any shots of the interior, but it had the expected distribution of air pockets one expects in a good French bread. I think a visit to the bakery is in order.

I failed to mention the bread and butter service. The bread from Blackbird Baking Company in Lakewood has great flavor and a nice crust. The butter tasted cultured (the way I like it!) and was softened to room temperature. A very welcome touch.

Bar Symon 32858 Walker Road Avon Lake, OH Exec. chef: Matt Harlan Sous chef: Jason Bryson Pastry chef: Cory Barrett Cleveland restaurateur Michael Symon has opened a new casual place serving a wide selection of beers and a full menu of food ranging from bar snacks to entrées. The beer list is impressive: about ninety beers and ales, forty of them on tap. I joined NancyH, her husband Bob, and torakris at Bar Symon for dinner last night. The place was full, but we were able to get a table without too much delay. (Be prepared for a longer wait on the weekends, though). The menu is far too large and varied for us to explore in one sitting, but we did our best to get a representative sample. As with all of Symon's restaurants, the charcuterie is made in-house. We started out with a "Big Board" selection of three sausages: Smoked Kielbasa, Spicy Lamb & Mint, and Pork & Fennel. These were accompanied by pickled vegetables, three different mustards, and grilled bread. It's hard to pick a favorite here - they were all terrific. I should also mention that the bread was exceptionally good, with a great smokey flavor from the hardwood grill. The Tuesday special is goat tacos. The meat is mild and tender, the seasoning just lively enough. Very nice. Next up, some P.E.I. oysters. These were served with lemon wedges, cocktail sauce, and lambic mignonette. I usually keep it simple when the oysters are this good, but the mignonette was light and fragrant. My main dish was a plate of "Barberton Style" fried chicken with truffle honey and parmesan, served with a side of soft polenta. The portion is surprisingly huge. I managed to eat most of it, though - it was just too delicious. Another surprise is the prices at Bar Symon. The most expensive entreés are just seventeen dollars. The beer list is skewed toward the ten-dollar-and under range, with many at just four or five bucks. (There are a few exotic beers on the list that are quite pricey). Now that the initial buzz is starting to die down it's easier to get a table, at least on a weeknight. The full food menu is available at the bar. Chef Harlan and general manager Nolan Cleary are both Symon restaurant veterans, having worked at the original Lola and Lolita in Tremont. There are some familiar dishes here - the charcuterie, the chicken, the polenta are similar to what they serve in Tremont. But Bar Symon has a different feel to it compared to Symon's other places. The decor is less fancy, there's a big bar with loads of beer on tap, there are flat-screen TVs over the bar (one of them tuned to the Food Channel ). I'll definitely be back.

Here's the first of the short rib dishes I made. (Yes, I made two different dishes with beef short ribs. ) Pastrami-Brined Short Ribs After seeing Ruhlman's blog post about making pastrami from short ribs, I posted a link on Facebook. Judy spotted my link and dropped some hints (ahem!) that those would be awfully nice to have at the Gathering. The cross-cut ribs (flanken) came from Hickory Acres in Oberlin, Ohio, just a few miles from my home. Ruhlman used regular-cut short ribs for his recipe, so I had to adjust the method, particularly the spicing. The brine recipe is from Ruhlman & Polcyn's Charcuterie. I slightly misread the recipe as I was measuring out ingredients on the scale, so I'll summarize it as executed. It should be a mix of white and brown sugars skewed toward the white, but I accidentally swapped them. The spices and seasonings were also tinkered with. I quartered the recipe because I use vacuum-sealed bags for brining and don't need as much volume. 1 L water 85 g kosher salt 55 g brown sugar (would be white sugar in the original) 11 g pink salt 8 g pickling spice 22 g sugar (would be dark brown sugar in the original) 15 ml honey (from Ohio Honey, a local producer) 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 small shallot, minced Brine the meat for a couple of days, or longer if you have thicker cuts. Remove from brine and sprinkle with dry spices. I used a mix of coriander and black pepper, toasted a bit before grinding. Traditional pastrami is covered in coarse-cracked spices, but I ground mine finer because I thought coarse spices would be too much on the thin cuts. Smoke at relatively low temperatures (~ 112 ° C / 235 ° F) for a couple of hours. The picture above is after smoking but before steaming for service. To serve, wrap the smoked ribs moistened with a bit of water in foil and place in a low oven (135 ° C / 275 ° F) for about an hour or until the meat has reached the degree of tenderness you like.

The libation dudes. Aaron (on the left) made a Part and Parcel. I don't remember what Ryan made, but I think it contained some bitters sent down by Toby from TVH in Chicago who was unable to attend himself. In the foreground is a big jug of iced tea with lemonade made by White Lotus. She and Dance also held a tea tasting of an interesting variety of green teas. I somehow managed not to take a picture of their setup.

It doesn't surprise me that your photos are much better than mine. I have a couple shots of the desserts. Some yummy pies (who made those?) and Kerry's incredible Bacon Bark, made with Ron's home-cured and -smoked bacon. In the foreground are two delicious cobblers served with Shatto Dairy cream. I believe that these were made by nyokie6. As if the cheese course she contributed weren't enough! I didn't get any pics of Kerry's chocolate cups filled with strawberry-rhubarb mousse. Hopefully someone can post some photos of those - they were very pretty. And tasty!

Judy and Aaron did a fantastic job organizing this gathering. Many thanks to them and everyone else who made this such a fun event. I've been uploading photos to imagegullet and Flickr. I'll post some of them here, but others will probably have better pics than I. Here are a few from today's brunch at Crum Farm at Redbud Hill. Check out this menu: What a spread! Here are some of the gorgeous tomatoes, served with a mayonnaise dressing made with bacon fat. Sort of a sauce gribiche variant, only porky. You can tell just looking at the tomatoes that they're something special. We also enjoyed some outstanding pastries. Here is a platter of kouign amann. (The wild blackberry - peach syrup was for the French toast). There was a lovely loaf of challah as well. The chefs really made an impression here. Every dish was absolutely terrific. The produce grown on the farm is exceptional. They supply heirloom tomatoes and vegetables to some of the top restaurants in the area. The farm itself is a beautiful setting for a casual meal like this.

A quick stop by Bichelmeyer Meats to pick up the short ribs. Joe Bichelmeyer (second generation owner) gave us a tour of "Rocky's Locker", the aging cooler with lots of hanging beef and pork. (We didn't buy all of it, though the box of ribs looks pretty substantial.) Unwrapping a tamal made by Bichelmeyer's daughter in law. We also tried the chicharonnes. Tasty!

After dinner at Lidia's we walked up the street to Manifesto for cocktails. We started with a sampling several cocktails from the menu. My favorite was the Beautiful Red Bell - gin, bell pepper, lime and mint. Many of the drinks feature unusual ingredients. Everything is made fresh from scratch, along the lines of VTR in Cleveland or the Violet Hour in Chicago, to name two places visited in recent Gatherings. This is exactly the kind of place I like. After the first (sample) round, we selected a second round from the menu. I chose the Brothers Perryman, which is a Negroni variant with a touch of Saint Germain in addition to the gin and Campari. Very nice.

Dinner at Lidia's was a great start to the gathering. It's a big space with interesting decor. We were seated at two long tables - chairs on one side, banquettes on the other. The menu is quite varied. They have a special pasta tasting that several at our table tried, a seasonal menu featuring corn, an extensive wine list, and some very nice desserts. Quail from the seasonal corn menu: Pork "ossobuco" with barley rissoto: A trio of house-made gelati with with biscotti:

Randi, dinner at Lidia's was wonderful, and Manifesto was great as well. I'm uploading some photos now, so I'll have a more detailed report. Many of us were out on the BBQ tour today, so we're just getting back to the computers. You'll be hearing from us soon!

I can report that my luggage isn't packed yet. I can report, however, that cooking for the Saturday event is already underway. The reason being that some things just take too much time to do on the premises. I smoked some pastrami-cured short ribs today. They've got some good "Heartland" bona fides. The farm that raised the beef is within walking distance of my home. The pastrami cure recipe is from Michael Ruhlman (Ohio) and Brian Polcyn (Michigan). The peppercorns and coriander seeds were not Heatrland grown, I'm sorry to say. I can't do this entirely in KC due to the time required to cure the beef. I realize that bringing beef to KC is a bit of a coals-to-Newcastle thing. I also want to stress that I AM NOT SETTING MYSELF UP FOR A COMPARISON TO RONNIE'S PASTRAMI!. Sorry for shouting. I just wanted to make it clear that this isn't a competition (I would lose ). This is grass-fed beef, which means that it has very little marbling (unlike the totally luxurious Wagyu beef Ron used for his pastrami). Also, I don't have a "real" smoker, just one of those gas-fired things with a cast iron box to hold the wood chips. Nevertheless, I'm happy to offer this up as something to taste early in the evening. This is NOT the "meat course" - that will also be (hopefully) beef ribs, but an entirely different preparation. Also, I will not be wearing fish pants.

We have one "Certified Green" restaurant in Cleveland. Greenhouse Tavern opened recently on E. 4th St downtown. Here's their mission statement. They are certified by the Green Restaurant Association. I assume that they must have met the requirements for renovating an existing building. From the Plain Dealer: I know that they get as much local produce as possible. Obviously they can't get everything locally.

Let's hope it doesn't go to Chang's head...

Ko won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best New Restaurant. last night.