Hawthorne Lane: Take TWO

Last week, I took Karen out to celebrate her birthday. Since it was a "school night", I thought that it would be nice to go somewhere interesting, fun, and low key. So, I decided to take Karen to TWO. Located in the space once occupied by the restaurant Hawthorne Lane, TWO was born out of chef/owner David Gingrass' desire to reinvent his restaurant to have a hipper and more casual atmosphere. We had the opportunity to visit Hawthorne Lane twice before it closed, the last time for its final cooking class.

While Karen had already been to TWO once before for lunch, I had not visited since our cooking class. While there were some differences in the decor, notably the wall panels and the lighting fixtures, the place still seemed to be quite similar to its previous incarnation.

Soon after we were seated, we were pleased to be presented with their starter plate of flatbread and biscuits. The flatbread was deliciously cheesy with a hint of heat and the biscuits were flaky and wonderfully buttery.


After a round of drinks (Karen ordered a mojito and I got a glass of Gloria Ferrer sparkling wine), we were ready to order dinner. We started out with a decadent appetizer, slow-roasted marrow bones served with crusty bread and caramelized onions. There was the perfect amount of marrow in the order: one bone for each of us with enough marrow to spread over the toasted bread. Despite the richness of the marrow, there was just the right amount so that we didn't feel overly sated by the starter before our main courses.


Since we were both pretty hungry, we decided to order a couple of entrées which we split. The first main course was braised beef cheeks with gaufrette potatoes, maple glaze, and horseradish crème fraîche. The beef was really flavorful and fall-apart tender and went very well with the horseradish. The maple glaze was interesting, having a slight hint of port, but was perhaps a touch sweet for my taste. Nevertheless, this was an excellent dish.


Our second main dish was a pan-fried pork cutlet, which could be prepared in two different ways. We could have ordered it with broccoli rabe and lemon, but opted to have it with spicy marinara and aged provolone cheese. The huge cutlet was deliciously tender and not at all greasy. With the marinara and cheese, it was reminiscent of a veal parmesan. It was another fine dish, though given the heaviness of the marrow and beef cheeks, it would have been more prudent to go with the lemon and rabe option.


For our side, we continued with the rich food theme and ordered some truffled macaroni and cheese. I enjoyed the mac and cheese, though the truffled flavor was a bit too strong for Karen's liking. I am curious if they used real truffle oil or something that came out of a laboratory.


Though we were getting quite full, it was, after all, Karen's birthday, so we ended the meal by sharing a decadent dessert, their signature "TWO Chocolates" mousse cake. The dessert consisted of semisweet and milk chocolate mousses, devil’s food cake, and caramel rice krispies. It was wonderfully rich and delicious. Even though I'm not a dessert guy, I'd definitely order it the next time I'm there.


So, there you have it, a fabulous birthday meal. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't do anything special for Karen, as per my OpenTable request, but the food was great and the service was prompt and attentive, so we really can't complain too much.

Cooking for Mom

My mom was in town for the past few weeks to help out with the wedding planning, so I had a rare opportunity to cook for her on Mother's Day. Since we were doing engagement photos on Mother's Day, we actually decided to cook dinner for my mom on Saturday. My mom didn't really have any preference as to what she wanted for dinner, so it was up to us to decide what to prepare and serve. We spent a good part of the morning deliberating various options but ultimately, Karen came up with the fabulous menu that follows.

We began our dinner with a simple fennel and orange salad. It was crisp and refreshing and a nice way to start off our meal. Plus, it was fun to suprême some oranges.


For the main course, Karen decided to go with surf and turf. The "surf" dish was roasted sockeye salmon with roasted plum tomatoes and caramelized lemon slices, courtesy of Dave Lieberman. Not only was it a fabulously colorful dish, it was quite delicious as well (even though I did overcook the salmon a little bit this time). We used Meyer lemons in the dish, which added a bright, citrusy flavor.


The "turf" component of our meal was a roast of the Bay Area-favorite Fred's Steak. Not the prettiest thing to look at, but in this case, looks are deceiving - it was wonderfully tender and flavorful as usual.


We didn't neglect our veggies. In fact, we had two sides of vegetables. The first was a side of roasted purple cauliflower:


We also enjoyed some tender asparagus tips, which we roasted with garlic and sesame oil.


Yes, it was a lot of food. Probably too much, but it was a lot of fun to cook for my mom. Of course, we didn't forget dessert. For the sweet ending of our meal, we had macerated strawberry and raspberry shortcake with a little bit (okay, a lot) of whipped cream and mint chiffonade.


It was a very hearty and satisfying meal. I have to give kudos to Karen for putting together such a fantastic menu. My mom loved the dinner and is looking forward to many more meals cooked by us in the future.

United v. Lufthansa, Part II

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been on a road a couple of times in recent weeks. Shortly after my trip to Minnesota, work took me to Europe for another week-long journey away from home. On this trip, I flew United, so I had the opportunity to sample their Business Class cuisine. As you might recall, I wrote about my dining experience on Lufthansa earlier this year, so to be fair, I figured that I should share my thoughts about United's culinary offerings. This time, I remembered to bring my camera so that I could share my experience via pictures.

On its international flights, United offers exclusive menu selections created in partnership with Chicago restaurateur Charlie Trotter. Known for his highly regarded eponymous restaurant, Trotter worked with United to create several different dishes for First and Business class passengers on U.S. outbound flights.

For dinner, we started with citrus-cured smoked salmon with caramelized fennel citrus salad and organic yuzu-miso vinaigrette. This Trotter-designed dish was pretty good. The salmon was tasty, as was the fennel citrus salad. I didn't really see the need for the vinaigrette though; there was enough dressing in the salad and the salmon was fine without a sauce.


For the main dinner course, I chose another Trotter-inspired offering, a mustard-braised pork medallion with roasted banana fingerling potatoes and rosemary honey glazed carrots. This dish was not good. The pork was dry and lacking in flavor. It was overcooked as well; I prefer pork to be cooked to medium, with a just slightly pink center. On the other hand, the carrots were completely undercooked. It felt like I was eating warm, but raw carrots. In hindsight, I should have probably picked the Boursin lasagna instead.


For dessert, I had vanilla and strawberry ice cream. It was quite nice, especially with the glass of port that I enjoyed to help me fall asleep.


After a good six hours of sleep, it was time for breakfast. Once again, I had another Trotter-created dish: Florentine quiche with Hollandaise sauce, pork sausage, and crispy bacon. The quiche itself was decent, but the Hollandaise sauce was quite odd, having a consistency similar to crème brûlée. I had a taste, but it just didn't seem quite right. One of my colleagues got very sick the following day and he thinks that it might have been related to eating the sauce. The sausage and bacon were okay, about what I would expect from airplane breakfast meats. The highlight of this meal was the accompanying fruit platter, which was quite good, especially the cantaloupe.


On the return trip, there weren't any Trotter-inspired items, so I just went with what sounded good. I was flying back on the late flight, so dinner service started soon after takeoff. The starter was marinated prawns and salami with pineapple mango chutney, vegetable ratatouille, artichoke hearts, and stuffed green olives. This plate was good, though I didn't care so much for the chutney.


For the main course, I selected the pan-seared filet mignon with porcini mushroom sauce, roasted potato wedges with rosemary, and lemon brown buttered asparagus. I should have known better than to go with a beef entrée. The filet was way-overcooked, definitely well-done, quite tough, and totally dry, even with the mushroom sauce. I can't even vouch for the claim that it was a cut of filet. It could have been a hunk of round, for all I could tell. The out-of-season asparagus was stringy and overcooked. I should have gone with the herb and cheese stuffed gnocchi with spinach cream sauce.


Since I had ice cream on my previous flight, I decided on the cheese platter for dessert, which included grapes and crackers to go with the Bavarian Blue and Red Cheddar cheeses. The platter was excellent. The cheeses were very flavorful and paired well with the grapes. I would have definitely liked seconds on this dish.


Since I enjoyed the cheese platter so much, I selected the cheese plate for the snack just prior to landing. The plate had Cheddar, Brie, and Chaumes cheeses and a selection of fresh fruit. The fruit was excellent, surprisingly ripe and flavorful. The cheeses were excellent as well. It definitely hit the spot.


The final verdict? Eh, the food was okay, with a few hits and some misses, the Trotter effect notwithstanding. I guess that there's only so much you can do using those heating units in the airplane galley, so even though the concepts might have been good, the execution was lacking. (Of course, the contestants on Top Chef seemed to do reasonably well under those conditions.) One interesting side note is that United has actually gone back to using metal knives in their flatware in Business class. I always thought that it was a bit silly to offer plastic knives when the airlines were still using metal forks.

An Afternoon in Bodega

On Saturday, Karen and I drove up to the Bodega Seafood, Art, and Wine Festival in Sonoma County, about 90 minutes north of San Francisco. What started as an overcast and cool day turned into a sunny and warm one as the day progressed. We listened to some music and checked out some of the pieces being sold by the many artisans and craftspeoples exhibiting their work at the festival. Of course, we also had a chance to check out the delectable cuisine being sold by the many food vendors in attendance. Here's a rundown of some of the food items that we encountered (and devoured):

A shrimp po'boy on a Dutch crunch roll. We were a couple of bites in before we remembered to take a picture:


Teriyaki chicken with a side of garlic fries. The chicken portion was huge:


Some homestyle macaroni and cheese:


A funnel cake topped with powdered sugar, strawberries, whipped cream, and cocoa powder:

Range: Our Dinner in Pictures

Last weekend, Karen and I were finally able to meet up with Tesha and Jeremiah for dinner out on the town. Even though my ex-pat friends have been back in the Bay Area for over nine months, it's been amazingly difficult find a mutually workable time to get together for a nice, sit-down dinner due to our exceedingly busy schedules. In fact, we were fortunate that Tesha had just flown back from Europe last Friday and was eager to meet up for dinner (despite the jet lag).

Karen and I thought that we would introduce them to one of our favorite dining spots in San Francisco, Range (842 Valencia Street; 415-282-8283), a Mission District destination featuring American cuisine. Karen has this knack for picking out up and coming restaurants before they become the buzz of the town. Range was one such find, a restaurant that we visited well before it received its Michelin star rating.

We started our dinner with a round of drinks. The ladies both opted for a peach bellini, while we guys went for the cocktails: Jeremiah had a Dark and Stormy, while I chose the Siren. While we were sipping on our drinks, we ordered a couple of appetizers. We put in for an order of the chicken liver mousse, the silky smooth and fabulously tasty starter. It was so good that I probably could have devoured the entire serving by myself. Since Tesha isn't a big fan of offal, she started out with a bowl of the lentil soup, which was also quite good as well.

After we polished off the starters, we each ordered a glass of wine to go with our main course. Rather than going through a detailed analysis of each of our entrees, all of which were very good, I'll let the photos do most of the talking.

Karen ordered the Alaskan halibut with a stew of pancetta, flageolet beans and fennel:


I went with the slow cooked pork shoulder with romano beans and a morel mushroom sauce:


Jeremiah ordered the special of the evening, roasted quail on a bed of trumpet mushrooms:


After some deliberation, Tesha picked the pan-seared hanger steak with fingerling potatoes and a horseradish sauce:


As usual, the food was fantastic. Each dish was generously portioned, full of flavor, and just well-executed. As delicious as the entrees were, the desserts, made in-house by pastry chef Michelle Polzin, might have been even a bit better.

The bittersweet chocolate-armagnac soufflé with chocolate sauce:


The strawberry shortcake with lemon cream:


Freshly made crêpes with blackberries and ice cream:


The Three Sister's Serena cheese plate with raw cow’s milk cheese with date purée and hazelnuts:


A snapshot of us, the happy diners:


Once again, our dinner at Range was excellent. It is simply a great place for dinner, whether you are celebrating a special occasion or just passing though the neighborhood during the evening hours. Range is one restaurant that I plan to visit again and again.

Garlic Crab Noodles

A while back, Karen and I went out with a few of our friends to celebrate the beginning of the dungeness crab season, which starts in mid-November and runs well into the new year in this area. We chose to have dinner at PPQ Dungeness Island (2332 Clement Street; 415-386-8266), which specializes in this crustacean delicacy. The restaurant features several different preparations of crab, including roasted, drunken, and curry versions. As tasty as the crab is, a necessary component of the meal has to be a big plate of garlic noodles. The version served at PPQ Dungeness Island is very savory and pairs wonderfully with the sweet and delicate crab meat. Karen just loved these noodles and ate so much at that dinner the she coined a new phrase, garlic noodles full, to describe her state of being afterwards.

Last night, I decided to surprise her with a little treat by making her a crab dinner which included, of course, a large plate of garlic noodles. I thought that it would be an interesting twist simply to add the crab directly to the noodles to create a plate of garlic crab noodles. Yesterday afternoon, I dropped by Costco to pick up some Phillips jumbo lump crab, but they apparently were completely out of stock. Luckily, their Seafood Roadshow was taking place at the store this weekend, so I was able to obtain several nice looking king crab legs.

When I got home, I took half of the crab legs, cracked them, and removed the meat from the shell. (Helpful hint: A pair of kitchen shears come in quite handy for this task.) I would use this crab meat for the noodles. For the remaining legs, I would prepare them using the Alton Brown recommended cooking method and served them alongside the noodles. On my way home from Costco, I had picked up some fresh egg noodles from 99 Ranch Market. I prepped the noodles by quickly dunking them in boiling water, rinsing them with cold water (both to stop the cooking and to remove the excess starch), and draining them in a colander. Now I was ready to made the garlic crab noodles.

I set up my wok on medium-low heat and melted a generous amount of sweet butter. After the butter had melted, I threw in about six cloves of minced garlic and cooked them until they were just about to turn brown, about 3-4 minutes. Next I threw in the drained egg noodles and jacked up the heat to medium-high. Quickly stirring the noodles to mix in the garlic and butter, I poured in about a 1/4 cup of oyster sauce, and a small amount of granulated sugar which I mixed in with a bit of nước mắm, a Vietnamese fish sauce. I stir-fried the noodles for several minutes until they were thoroughly heated through before the final step of mixing in the king crab. Since the crab was already cooked, I didn't want to toughen the meat by overcooking, so I was careful to take the wok off the heat as soon as it got up to temperature. Here were the results:


Karen and I both really liked the noodles, but the next time that I make the dish, I think that I'll make a few tweaks. First, I'll add in some more garlic. I was afraid that I would overpower the crab so I held back a little, but I think that the dish can handle some additional cloves of garlic. Also, I might use an extra-virgin olive oil and butter mixture instead of straight butter to give the flavor a little more depth, though I'm not sure how the taste of the oil will mix with Asian flavors of the oyster and fish sauces. I also wonder if it would be good to add a few flakes of dried chiles to add a little kick to the dish. I guess that we'll all know the next time that I make garlic crab noodles.

Kicking Off the Summer with Beer Can Chicken

For many people, Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of summer. Of course, the start of summer also means the start of grilling season (not that I waited until this past weekend though). Yesterday, I decided to kick off the summer grilling season with one of my all-time favorites: beer can chicken. Popularized by Steven Raichlen (who even wrote an entire book on this dish), beer can chicken comes in many forms, but the basic idea is the same across all recipes: take a whole chicken, season it with some rub, put an open, half-filled can of beer in the cavity (i.e. shove it up the chicken's butt), and hot-smoke it over indirect heat until it's done.

On the way home from work, I stopped by BevMo to pick up the key ingredient: a 12-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon, my official beer of choice for beer can chicken. I have bottled beer at my place, but you can't substitute bottles for cans in this instance. (Alright, I like to use PBR because it's cheap, okay?)

As usual, I decided to make two chickens, as it doesn't take any more fuel to make two chickens than it does to cook one. (In this day and age, it's best not to waste energy.) First, I took two whole chickens that I picked up at Costco this weekend, removed the giblets from the cavities, and washed them out very well (both inside and out). After patting the chickens dry with paper towels, I seasoned them with a dry rub. For these chickens, I used a generous amount of McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning. Yes, I know that they make a chicken seasoning, but I like the steak version; plus, that's what I had on hand. I also like to use Penzeys Galena Street Rub, but I didn't have enough for the two chickens.


After seasoning the chicken, I opened two PBRs, drained out half of the can (I made an attempt to drink the extra beer, but it's just not that good), punched a few additional holes in the top with a church key, and poured in some of the excess rub. Then, I put a can into the cavity of each chicken and folded back the wings so that they wouldn't burn while cooking.

In order to cook a whole chicken thoroughly without charring the exterior, you need to cook the chicken over indirect heat. Therefore, I would only need to use one of the two burners on my grill. I know that a grilling purist would probably make this over a charcoal or wood fire, but I like using gas, as it is easier to regulate the heat and smoke. (Yes, I have made this recipe over charcoal on a Weber grill, but I still like using my propane rig for this better.) On the side without the flame, I placed a foil pan to catch the drippings from the chickens, which I would be placing above. On the other side of the grill, over the lit burner, I set a smoker box which I filled with hickory chips that I soaked in water for 20 minutes. The hickory would provide the smoke that I wanted to flavor and color the chicken.

Using the can and the two drumsticks, you can form a fairly stable tripod so that the chicken is cooked upright. This is the secret to beer can chicken. The beer will steam out to keep the chicken moist as well as to help cook the inside of the cavity. I placed the chickens on the grill in the upright position, taking care to leave some space between the chickens.


I started the burner on high in order to get the wood to smolder. After 5 minutes or so, I saw that there was a decent amount of smoke coming from the grill, so I dropped the temperature to low and left the chicken to smoke for the next hour and half or so, turning the chicken every 30-35 minutes to ensure even cooking.

After the 90 minutes were up, I took my instant-read probe thermometer to check on the doneness. Even though many people think that you need to cook chicken to 180 degrees F, you really only need it to get to 165 degrees F in order to kill any nasty bug. Counting on carryover heat, I pulled the chickens off the grill once they hit 160 degrees F in the thickest part of the thigh.


After a short rest to allow the juices to redistribute, I took one of the chickens, carefully removed the half-filled can of hot beer (no, the beer won't completely evaporate), and placed the cooked bird on the cutting board.


A few deft cuts later, I was ready to eat!

Redd is the New Black?

Last weekend, Karen and I headed to Napa Valley for a short getaway to celebrate her birthday. In addition to taking her on some wine tastings and indulging her fondness for massages, I wanted to take her out to a nice setting for a birthday dinner. I had heard good things about Redd (6480 Washington Street; 707-944-2222), a relative newcomer to the high-end dining scene in the town of Yountville. Named after executive chef Richard Reddington, Redd is located on the south end of Washington Street, just down the road from The French Laundry and Bouchon and next to Thomas Keller's latest venture, Ad Hoc, which we visited earlier this year.

Unfortunately, Karen's birthday fell on Mother's Day weekend this year, so all of the prime-time reservations had been booked well in advance. When I called a couple of weeks before her birthday, the only available slots were before very early (i.e. before 5:30) or quite late. Since we wanted to have a relaxing time and didn't want to be in a rush to drive up to Napa, we opted for the late time slot. Of course, this meant our dinner reservation was set for 9:30pm.

We arrived at the restaurant a few minutes early and were immediately seated at our table. We are both fond of tasting menus, but given the late hour, we were unsure about whether we should instead order a la carte this time, or if we would go with the five- or nine-course menu. Eventually, we settled on the five-course menu, though we felt a little boxed into this decision, something on which I will elaborate in a moment.

One of the interesting things about the tasting menu at Redd is that though everyone at the table is required to order the menu (just like at many other places), each diner gets a different dish for each course. So, for our five-course menu, we were going to get the opportunity to taste ten different dishes.

Our dinner started out with fish dishes: hamachi sashimi with sticky rice and edamame in a lime ginger sauce, and yellowfin tuna tartare with avocado, chili oil, and crispy fried rice.



I really liked both of these dishes. The tartare was especially good, highlighted by the contrast in textures between the tuna and the rice, which was very crispy. The sashimi was also quite tasty; the fish was very fresh and well-prepared.

The second course of the tasting menu consisted of two seafood courses. The first was a John Dory filet with creamy jasmine rice, mussels with chorizo in a saffron curry nage. The other plate was a caramelized diver scallop over cauliflower puree and almonds with a balsamic reduction. (Apologies for the washed out photos of these dishes; there's only so much that you can do with a little point-and-shoot digital camera with those lighting conditions.)



The fish, mussel, and chorizo dish sounded odd to me, but the flavors worked pretty well together. The scallop dish was also quite nice and had a nice contrast in textures with the shellfish, califlower puree, and nuts.

Our next courses were the glazed pork belly with apple puree, burdock root, and soy caramel and the quail with broccoli rabe, sausage, chili flakes, and white beans.



I thought these dishes were decent, but perhaps not quite as good as the other courses. As we were eating this course, Karen said that she thought that the dishes up to (and including these) were on the verge of being too salty. I too had noticed that while the first bite of each dish seemed to be bursting with flavor, there also appeared to be an increasing note of saltiness with each additional bite. Perhaps you could chalk this up to personal preference, as neither of us are heavy-handed with NaCl, but I suspect that others would have found the dishes to be saltier than the norm, if not too salty.

Next came the meat courses: The Napa Valley spring lamb, served two ways (braised and roasted) with spring vegetables over a bed of creamy mascarpone polenta, and the Prime New York steak and shortribs, with fingerling potatoes and creamy ramps.



Luckily for us, these dishes were not oversalted. The lamb was very tender and flavorful, with nary a hint of gaminess. Both preparations of the beef were also tasty as well, with the New York steak roasted to a near-perfect doneness. The portions on both plates were really quite substantial, especially for a tasting menu course. We asked our server about the portion sizing, and she said that the a la carte portions are substantially bigger.

For dessert, we had very different plates; the first dessert was a Meyer lemon flan with crème fraîche, accompanied by cream cheese ice cream with tapioca pearls and a homemade tangerine soda. The second dessert was a peanut honeycomb parfait with a chocolate peanut butter giandula.



Both the desserts were very good, though by this point in the dinner (and at this time in the evening), they were a touch on the heavy side.

Overall, despite what we perceived to be a heavy hand with the salt, we thought that the food was very good. There were a lot of interesting and innovative combinations of flavors and textures which worked well together. However, we were disappointed with one aspect of dinner, namely the service. We found that the wait staff, while courteous and friendly, was somewhat impersonal and seemed hurried. Even though our dinner took two and a half hours, both of us felt rushed by the staff. I know that five courses over 150 minutes can hardly constitute being a short and hurried dinner, but on the flip side, it does taken something unusual to make people feel rushed over that time frame.

Though, given the time, we were leaning towards going with the five-course menu instead of the nine-course one, our server came over and told us that the kitchen informed her that no nine-course menus would be served after 9:40pm, so we could only go with the five-course menu. What kind of rule is that??? We were seated at least fifteen minutes before that deadline, but we took a little bit of time to order our drinks and to peruse the menu, and hadn't gotten around to placing our order until a quarter to ten. As it appears that we were the last party of the evening, was that rule set up to exclude the last party (and only the last party) of the evening from ordering the nine-course menu? That rule simply doesn't make any sense to me. As I mentioned, we weren't leaning toward the nine-course menu anyway, but it would have been nice to have that option or at least be told in advance of this deadline, lest we want to have a three and a half hour dinner starting around 10pm. Don't get me wrong, I understand that the chefs and staff don't want to hang out all evening, but I just don't get why they would institute a rule to exclude a single party from going with that option. Though the food was quite good and worthy of a return visit, the flap in service takes them down a couple of notches in my book.