Blue Hawaii Restaurant
NEW YORK CORNER: Le Bernardin by John Mariani NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR: MONTES OF CHILE PUTS THE MOVES ON NAPA by John Mariani QUICK BYTES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WHAT'S NEW IN PHILADELPHIA? by John Mariani
Philadelphia, like Boston, is such an easy city to visit in a fairly short time, for its manageable size, the condensed historic sites, and the easy access by plane, train, and automobile make for a wonderful weekend trip. And you will eat very well, from high-end classics like Le Bec Fin to splashy efforts like Buddakan and Morimoto, these last two among Über-restaurateur Steven Starr's local, now expanding, empire. Chinatown is pretty dreary, though Susanna Foo (see below), not in Chinatown, is one of the finest Chinese restaurants in America. There is good, old-fashioned Italian food, but the city is not rich in the more modern Italian restaurants that have opened up all across the country in the last five years. Fortunately the city's restaurant sector has not been inundated with chain restaurants as so many other cities have, so there is a lot of breadth and depth of homegrown talent. Here are some of my current favorites. RAE 2929 Arch Street 215-922-3839 www.raerestaurant.com My first encounter with Chef Daniel Stern was when he was exec chef at the highly posh Le Bec Fin, where he followed the owner's decrees in a big ticket restaurant, so his first solo venture, Gayle, was nearly a 180 degree turn--a 35-seat restaurant in Queens Village where he was doing a kind of personalized bistro fare. This year he did a real double Axel and opened Rae, a 220-seat extravaganza with a mezzanine seating 40, an glass-enclosed atrium seating 200 (right). and plenty of additional private dining space, all set within Philadelphia's finest 21st century skyscraper, the Cira Centre, just across from the train station. This is a lot to chew on, and I trust Stern doesn't burn out: Rae is open seven days a week and even serves a family-style Sunday Supper, quite a bargain at $45. The place itself is huge and expansive, gleaming with burnished steel, gauzy draperies, and a kind of high-toned diner booths. In fact, it is not dissing to say that Stern's menu straddles both the menus of a great diner with that of a wonderfully, homey bistro in France. You might wish to begin, therefore, with a rich, cheese-gooey French onion soup, or the delectable rabbit nachos, or a bright gazpacho. This being Pennsylvania, he has taken an old favorite, chicken-and-dumplings, and made it his own, and from his ethnic heritage he's plucked Jewish-American ideas like calf’s liver with melting sweet onions and veal kreplach with artichokes. The large menu also offers contemporary takes on braised short ribs with pancetta dressing and wild striped bass with favas in a red wine sauce. A thick, succulent NY sirloin steak comes with scallion pancake and ramps. I was not much in love with the truffled pizza (if you can't make great pizza, why bother with the trendy?), and skate with fettuccine and clams didn't show much flavor. For dessert go for pastry chef Elizabeth Brozoski's four chocolate variations, one better than the next. or the very fine cheesecake. There's even good old apple pie. If Rae is trying to offer something for everyone, I believe anyone will have a terrific time here and find just what he or she wants to eat. Rae is a testament to American food, with all its antecedents and history behind it, and in the hands of a great chef like Stern, it all seems brand new. The winelist, overseen by Ryan Davis, is also first-rate, though with the typical Pennsylvania mark-ups. Rae is open daily. At dinner appetizers run $9-$18, main courses $22-$45. 707
(215) 922-7770 Somewhat in the same culinary style as Rae, 707, near The front of the restaurant is a bar-café designed for maximum interaction among people seeking to meet other people. Beyond is the deep chocolate brown dining room (right), with roomy booths, and nicely set tables, each with a pin light above that brings brightness into the room and spotlights the food, all of which is very colorful on its own. Where to begin on a menu that opens with very tasty For dessert give in to temptation and share, if you must, a classic banana split or toasted pound cake with vanilla ice cream--two simple items I'd forgotten could be so very good. They even do funnel cake, which is simply a guilty pleasure. TINTO www.tintorestaurant.com
José
Garces, just 34 (right),
is one of Philly's favorite chefs, for he's proven time and again he
knows what people really love to eat when they go out, and it's never
the same old thing. He was formerly at the funky Mexican place El Vez,
then at Alma de Cuba. In neither did I think he was spreading his own
wings as widely as he could, so I applauded when he opened his own
place, Amada, in 2005, which focused on tapas and dishes
cooked à la plancha, with 40 wines and sangria
available by
the glass.
Tinto isn't a radical departure from Amada, though it brings the menu closer to Spain's Basque country, which includes San Sebastián, the capital of tapas, although there they are called pinxtos. Garces expands his menu with a broad range of charcuterie, cheese, brochettes, bocadillo-style sandwiches, and shellfish, with about 100+ wines with which to wash them down, many stacked in a wall of bottles (left). The main dining room is a shadowy delight, with a 22-foot bar made from reclaimed orange-stained lumber, Spanish tiles, and high-top tables where you sit at counter chairs--not the most comfortable way to dine, but they seem appropriate here. Downstairs is a deluxe lounge (left). With three friends--you should bring at least that many--I ate all over the menu, starting with charcuterie that included a torchon of velvety foie gras with membrillo fruit jelly and a coarser country-style pâté. Among the pintxos were marinated anchovies with the sweetness of melon, along with cured duck with membrillo, frisée lettuces, and a walnut-mustard vinaigrette. There is, of course, Serrano ham, some wrapped around sweet figs. The brochette pintxos make for a good first course or even a main--lamb loin with eggplant, bacon, and sherry reduction, even Kobe beef with a romesco sauce. Among the mariscos I enjoyed baby squid with its own ink dying rice and crabmeat, and a turbot cooked à la plancha with a sauce laced with anise-flavored Pastis and citrus. I was particularly happy to taste pil pil, the classic Basque dish of cod in a creamy olive oil mayonnaise. Of the meat courses I tried and like the black beans studded with pork belly and chorizo and braised cabbage, a really hearty and delicious dish. Desserts include a Basque cake with black cherries and pastry cream, a goat's milk mousse with orange blossom gel and olive oil caramel, and "Scent of a Woman," which tastes better than it sounds--vanilla cake with cava jelly and rose essence. Tinto is open for lunch Mon.-Fri., and dinner nightly. Appetizers and pintxos run $6-$14, main courses $11-$24. SUSANNA FOO GOURMET
KITCHEN If
José Garces is well known to Philly's foodies,
Susanna Foo is an icon.
Back in the 1980s she had a fine Hunan restaurant that broke from the usual pack (Philadelphia's Chinatown is pretty weak), then opened a fine dining room on Walnit Street named after herself that has for two decades been rightly credited with bringing modern Chinese food into focus in America, even as it languishes elsewhere. Three years ago she opened a similar restaurant, named Suilan, in Atlantic City's Borgata but she tired of the trek out there and returned closer to Philadelphia, opening the new Susanna Foo Gourmet Kitchen in nearby Radnor, and it's an easy drive from downtown (at least after rush hour). It's a very smart-looking restaurant on two levels, with an open kitchen and good sexy bar and lounge. The Chinoiserie is of high caliber throughout, and Ms. Foo has expanded her horizons here, balancing, as she always has, Chinese and French techniques, though now there is somewhat more of the latter than is the case downtown. I began a lovely meal with some tuna and fluke sashimi, then "popcorn" pork ravioli made with roasted corn. Excellent and tender Littleneck clams sautéed in a wok had the good bite of jalapeño and garlic with an assertive, but not at all salty, black bean sauce. Lamb "pillows' were indeed tender and light, with grilled eggplant and sun-dried tomato sauce--not particularly Chinese perhaps but really delicious. A very fine slice of silky salmon was marinated with a citrus-ginger cure and served with an heirloom salad and citrus vinaigrette, while scallops were seared and served with rich pork belly and sweet potato puree. Asian flavors came back to the fore as a grilled black sea bass with tempura-fried zucchini blossoms, roasted shrimp, and Thai green curry--my favorite dish of the day--but not by much: a sensationally good Mongolian lamb came with Chinese risotto and grilled abalone mushrooms. The meal ended with a tasting of chocolate--hazelnut wonton, molten cake, crunch, and opera torte--which just goes to prove chocolate knows no ethnic or geographic boundaries when it comes to satisfaction. Susanna Foo is a treasure, and Radnor should treasure having her in its midst. Lunch, and dinner daily. Dinner starters run $5-$13, entrees $15-$28. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NEW YORK CORNER By John Mariani Le Bernardin 155 West 51st Street 212-554-1515 www.le-bernardin.com I
am often asked what my favorite restaurant in NYC is, and I hem and
haw, then answer that it's an impossible question. But then (I've got
this down
pat
by now) I say, "Well, if a bomb were to drop on Manhattans, and I could
save only one restaurant, that restaurant would be Le Bernardin."
Le Bernardin is open for lunch, Mon.-Fri.
and for dinner Mon.-Sat. Lunch is fixed price at $64, dinner at
$107, with a tasting menu at $180, with wines $320. There
is a private Salon dining room (above) upstairs. by John Mariani When Montes winery (right) was founded in Since World War II more than half the country’s vineyards had been ripped out owing to over-taxation and low wine consumption. A badly managed economy under the brutal dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, who was not replaced until 1988, didn’t help either. Back in 1980 Montes is wholly owned by Chileans--Aurelio Montes, Alfredo Vidaurre, Pedro Grand, and Douglas Murray, who have committed themselves to produce only premium wines that will compete internationally. In that they have succeeded quickly, having built a prestigious reputation for its traditional Bordeaux-style blends of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, and petit verdot called Montes Alpha “M.” In 2001 they invested heavily in a winery in After less than a decade in business Montes now exports 95 percent of its total production to more than 83 countries on five continents. The U.S is its largest market, with more than 170,000 cases shipped. Now Montes’s aim is to find a niche within the At a seminar this month held in A retrospective of Montes Alpha M wines from The 2000 and 2001 were both well knit, very pretty wines, light in the bouquet but gaining fruit on the palate as the minutes passed and the wine opened up. The 2003 was quite vegetal, like a still-tight The 2004, with 14.9 percent alcohol, is out of balance right now, light in the nose but with opulent fruit and a hot tannic finish. I’d give this two to three years to come around. Finally the 2005 showed itself still unyielding but with abundant fruit and almost a caramel finish, far more in the I also had a chance to taste 2006 barrel samples of the 100 percent carmenère, a varietal that grows very well in the dry altitudes of If I brought any notion of the overriding concerns of the Montes wineries in
John
Mariani's weekly wine column appears in Bloomberg Muse News,
from which this story was adapted. Bloomberg News covers Culture from
art, books, and theater to wine, travel, and food on a daily basis, and
some of its articles play of the Saturday Bloomberg Radio and TV.
DEPARTMENT OF WRETCHED EXCESS, NO. 8,966 Australian microbiologist/artist Gary Cass has created a dress made of a cellulose slime skimmed from red wine vinegar, which is sprayed on and must be kept wet at all times or the dress will disintegrate. “This is art,” says Cass, “It is not meant to be practical.” For a look at the garments go to www.bioalloy.org/projects/micro-be. DEPARTMENT OF WRETCHED EXCESS, NO. 8,967 Every day for the last 17 years now Lee and Mary Humphrey, both 84, of Sussex, England, have eaten two double hamburgers, fries, and coffee at 11 A.M. sharp at the local McDonald's. They recently even moved in order to be closer to the McDonald's and estimate they've spent $40,000 at the fast food restaurant. saying they intend to "feast on their fast food for their rest of their lives." QUICK BYTES *
On
Sept. 26 in
* On Sept. 27 photographer Alan "Battman" Batt and Pernod Ricard will host The 3rd Annual Great Gathering of Chefs at The Atrium at * On * In
*
Starting Oct. 15 San
Domenico NY will begin its “Daily White
* From Oct.
15-26 in NYC, to celebrate
Portugal's Presidency of the
"European Union," the Portuguese Mission to the United Nations will
host, at luncheons in the Delegates' Dining Room of the U.N.,a two-week
Portuguese Food Festival, featuring Portuguese
chefs, incl. Marco Moreira, from Foz Velha; Pedro Nunes, São
Gião; Francisco
Meirelles, Sessenta Setenta, and from Madeira Island, Francisco
Quintal, Casa
Velha do Palheiro; Albino Marques, Porto Bay Hotel; José da
Silva, Porto Bay
Hotel; Martinho Neto, Porto Bay Hotel. Call
212-963-7626. *
The Chesterfield Palm Beach is
featuring a “Taste of England: that incl.: 3 Days, 2
Nights in a Deluxe King Room; English
Breakfast; 2 tix to The Norton for The
Treasures from the V&A Exhibit; Dinner
with a bottle of Champagne ; Private Lesson for Two at
the nearby National
Croquet Center ; Afternoon
English Tea
for Two at The Chesterfield; From $859; offered from Oct. 24-Jan. 6.
Everett Potter's Travel Report: I
consider this the best
and savviest blog of its kind on the web. Potter is a columnist
for USA Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and
Luxury Spa Finder,
a contributing editor for Ski
and a frequent contributor to National
Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com and Elle Decor. "I’ve designed this
site is for people who take their travel seriously," says Potter.
"For travelers who want to learn about special places but don’t
necessarily want to pay through the nose for the privilege of
staying there. Because at the end of the day, it’s not so much about
five-star places as five-star experiences." To go to his
blog click on the logo below:
Tennis Resorts Online: A Critical Guide to the World's Best Tennis Resorts and Tennis Camps, published by ROGER COX, who has spent more than two decades writing about tennis travel, including a 17-year stretch for Tennis magazine. He has also written for Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, New York Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Esquire, Money, USTA Magazine, Men's Journal, and The Robb Report. He has authored two books-The World's Best Tennis Vacations (Stephen Greene Press/Viking Penguin, 1990) and The Best Places to Stay in the Rockies (Houghton Mifflin, 1992 & 1994), and the Melbourne (Australia) chapter to the Wall Street Journal Business Guide to Cities of the Pacific Rim (Fodor's Travel Guides, 1991). Click on the logo below to go to the site. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher:
John Mariani. Contributing Writers: Robert Mariani, Naomi
Kooker, Kirsten Skogerson, Edward Brivio, Mort
Hochstein, Suzanne Wright. Contributing
Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery, Bobby Pirillo. Technical
Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.
Any of John Mariani's books below
may be ordered from amazon.com by clicking on the cover image.
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