FlavBlog

We’ve been visiting Wes Johnson’s SALT since he opened it late last spring.  We live within walking distance to this converted old mansion formerly the location of Savor restaurant.  Given its close proximity to our home, focus on local ingredients, and fresh seasonal menu, we’ve had several dinners and brunch at Salt. Wes has been racking up the awards recently:  RTF’s best new restaurant and winner of the Chef battle at Taste STL. We have generally enjoyed dining at Salt, and we’ve watched Wes grow and enhance the restaurant over the last 6 months.  Robin found out via twitter (@enjoysalt) that Wes and co. were planning a beer and wild game dinner, featuring her favorite, sour beer, so we couldn’t pass it up.

On prior trips to Salt we’ve enjoyed several dishes, that are now basically permanent members of the menu.  The “seared scallop” with mustard, cedar smoke, and herbs is one of our favorite dishes, comes served in a tiny mason jar, and traps the cedar smoky goodness inside…for us, one of the better seafood dishes we’ve had in St. Louis.  Wes also prepares a fantastic lamb dish, well seasoned and cooked perfectly on the rare side with herbs and jelly. In addition, they make a now somewhat famous sorghum lacquered duck, and duck-fat fried chicken.  The trend here is that Wes likes to use more non-traditional meat varieties…he takes a more creative, risky approach to his cooking than many of the other chefs in St. Louis.  (This isn’t to say we don’t have adventurous chefs, just not as many as we should).

The beer portion of the sour beer dinner was largely organized and put together in a team fashion.  Chris Shea (Morgan Street Brewery, Assistant Brew Master) and bar manager Matt Obermark worked with Wes Johnson to pair some rare sour beers with wild game dishes influenced by seasonal autumn flavors.  The dinner took place deep in the old mansion’s wine cellar at a large communal table and was presented family style with generous platters for all of us to share.

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As the football playoffs roll on and we peer outside at a cold, snow-covered St. Louis, we finally update the blog after a long absence and a difficult move from Seattle.  As many of you already know, this past October we moved from the beautiful Pacific Northwest to the Mississippi Valley.  It was tough to say goodbye to so many wonderful friends, colleagues, food, farmers, the Opera, breweries and wineries, the mountains and sea…but we now start a new chapter in our adventures and careers.

We have spent the last 2 1/2 months settling into our first home (A townhouse in St. Louis Central West End, GasLight Square), and we have only just started to explore the city of St. Louis.  This post is a compilation, a short list of some of the highlights of those past 2 1/2 months..and some of the things we’ve discovered:

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Portland, OR is a gem of the United States.  Located 2 hrs from the Oregon coast line and about an hour or more from mountains, the city is a young and vibrant place…especially for food, wine, and beer lovers like ourselves.  Earlier this summer, we took a trip down to Portland knowing that our typical “bi-annual” trip from Seattle is likely to cease once we move to St. Louis this fall (more on that in a future post).  Our trips to Portland would be overwhelming to some [see our last “PDX Food Rampage”, at our friend’s Dawn and Eric’s blog: WrightAngle], but they are simply fantastic adventures for the palette.  We drink and eat so much variety, experience such creativity, that we can’t stop going back.  And what’s more, PDX is much cheaper than its West Coast counterpart heavy weights like Seattle, San Fran, and LA.  Here we will attempt to summarize the highlights from our 3 day trip this past July, but it by no means will include all of our adventures.

Olympic Provisions | Our first stop in PDX was Olympic Provisions, which came recommended by our friends Eric and Kye.  Located in an industrial part of southeast PDX, Olympic Provisions is housed in a restored cereal mill.   The spot was created with intent to highlight European and North African styled charcuterie and to showcase local ingredients from farms and producers in the area.  We went for lunch and selected 2 dishes.

The first was the “tea sandwich”, made with a well seasoned paste of summer English peas, sprouts, red onions, and ricotta salata on fluffy white bread with no crust.  This was the perfect summer sandwich.  It reminded me of the deliciously light cucumber tea sandwiches my mother and our neighbors would often make for me when I lived in England.  We also ordered the charcuterie plate, which really highlights the masterful qualities of Olympic Provisions.  It came with a house made chorizo that was very true to the art of this sausage variety….robust spices, chewy texture, and beautiful color.  The charcuterie plate also came with house made sopresetta and pork pâté which were also well made and authentic.  We each had a Double Mountain Brewery, Kolsch alongside our lunch.  Olympic Provisions has a large selection, and one could really fill up on lunch or dinner here, but even for an afternoon snack, it is worth a short visit. Olympic Provision’s charcuturie is now becoming more widely available throughout PDX and can be purchased at select stores.

Olympic Provisions

107 Southeast Washington Street
Portland, OR 97214-2103
(503) 954-3663

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Allium opened on Friday, May 28th and we visited on Saturday, May 29. With somewhat limited food options on the San Juan Islands, we jumped at the chance to eat at Lisa Nakamura’s new restaurant.  Lisa’s trained in Seoul, Munich, Paris, and  with Chef’s such as Gerard Pangaud, Thomas Keller, and David Kinch.  (Our friend, Dawn passed along the news of the opening, a big thanks to to her).

The “Bite of Orcas” (a Wild Life benefit) happened to be scheduled on the same day as our visit to Orcas Island so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to snack on some local food, and we’d heard via Twitter, that Allium would be there serving up treats. Typically, I like to avoid these activities, because after a while I become overwhelmed with the crowds and the shoving for tiny morsels of food. However, since the population of Orcas is relatively small, we took full advantage of our numbers -3- Michael, my mom, and I. We had samplings of pretzel bread with braised pork, and onion marmalade, blackberry pie, clam chowder, wheatberry and rhubarb salad, and pomegranate ice tea.

I asked for reservations early (5 pm) at Allium so I could avoid a late ferry return to Friday Harbor. This proved wise because even on the second night of opening the restaurant was full by the time we left, at 7:00pm. We had a beautiful window view of the East Sound. For these first few evenings the restaurant lacked a liquor license (Michael referred to it as our “Mormon dinner”), but planned on having one later in the week (in fact, they have wine now). Michael and I ordered the Rosemary lemonade and my mom selected the Bellini temple (peach nectar with soda and ginger ale). Mom’s drink tasted almost as good as the real thing, I felt the lemonade tasted like a solid “lemonade.” I missed the rosemary but it definitely had the puckering tartness from the lemon zest. Normally I skip eating pre-dinner bread, but previously in the day I had a small taste of the pretzel bread and I knew I would need more. It was served with butter and a red onion marmalade. I could have ended the evening with only the pretzel bread and jam and been perfectly content.  Allium’s pretzel bread has a hard crusty exterior with a soft doughy center. It tastes sweet, yet has small hints of sour and salty.

To Start:

-Creamy Carrot Soup with julienne of radish and fresh cilantro: The word creamy does not truly speak to the smooth, buttery, and feather-like texture of the soup. Chef Nakamura must have really pureed the soup to create enough air to make the spices dance?

-Smoked Paprika Braised Pork Shoulder stuffed in mini soft flour tacos topped with mango rhubarb salsa and guacamole: Now that rhubarb is in season and if it is on the menu, I will order it for any or all courses. That being said, Chef Nakamura cleverly used the main ingredient in this dish for multiple dishes. (We had it in the pretzel sandwich at Bite of Orcas.) The taco was a refreshing balance with each bite, as the smoky braising liquid mixed with the sweet and tart salsa that oozed out onto my fingers.

-Yukon Gold Potato Gnocchi, Yakima asparagus, drizzle of white truffle oil: Nothing is better than potato and truffle oil. It doesn’t matter if the potato is fried, roasted, or boiled….truffle oil makes everything better. The blanched asparagus cut through the gnocchi as it melted in the mouth.

Bigger:

-Open Ravioli with Forest Mushrooms, Black Dog Farms duck egg pasta, sage, Mt Townsend cirrus cheese: Take two strips of “lasagna width” sheets crossed like and “X,” fill with king oyster, shiitake, moussam, and morel mushrooms, sage, and cheese. Then, cross over the other sheets to make a square. It makes for a gooey, woody, earthy-herbaceous combination.

-Pan Roasted Alaskan Halibut, olive risotto, pickled kumquats: The saltiness in the olive risotto balances out the richness of the lightly roasted, yet moist Alaskan Halibut. I felt that the kumquats didn’t add the intended depth to the dish, but were nice addition for color. Roasted turnips were seemed a second thought to the dish as the vegetable.

-Half-a-Chicken Coq au Vin Leg, Roasted Breast smashed potatoes, spring onion medley: Yum! Yum! Yum!…is really all I can say. First off, there was both dark and light meat to dredge through the rich wine reduction sauce.  Michael felt that the wine reduction brought out some sort of intense huckleberry components from the wine.  Perfectly cooked onions and dense potatoes added the heft to the dish. One cannot go wrong with the Coq au Vin dish, but Chef Nakamura and team hit this one out of the island! The portion was huge and no way could I eat all it. I asked for the last portion to go. Unfortunately, I never received the to go box from the kitchen, and only until I was back at Friday Harbor did I realize this was the case. Sucks, because the next day I would have enjoyed the leftover chicken….

End:

-Rhubarb Meringue Pie with candied citrus and whipped cream: The square pastry base was flaky and held the very tart rhubarb puree, egg whites, and sugar. The whipped cream spiraled to a point rising out of the center. The candied citrus added color dimension to the dish, but little flavor.

-Almond Pound Cake with strawberries, passion fruit, and mint syrup: The cake was dense and heavy but had strong notes of almond. Disappointingly  strawberries are not quite in season, but often used in dishes too early this time of year. Cultivated strawberries can ruin a dish (these were bright white inside), not only on appearance, but also in taste.

-Not ordered but received: Chocolate Espresso Semifreddo bourbon sauce chantilly cream: Strong flavors of coffee wafted in the air from the semifreddo, but the bourbon sauce was the key to cutting through the sweetness of the chocolate. Michael had this with a french press of Local Goods coffee – called Peruvian Dark from the Matagalpa region of Nicaragua.  Osa also mentioned that Local Goods is making Allium their own special blend, which will be fun to try on a future visit.

Final notes:

Osa Caudill (House manager and one of our servers), Chef Nakamura, and team produced an excellent evening with flavors that comforted our palettes, a fantastic view that you could spend hours staring at, and a wonderful friendliness that reaches across the islands. Do not pass up the opportunity to eat at allium. It is worth way more than the ferry ride to get there.

Click here for more photos from the San Juan weekend.

allium

310 Main Street

Eastsound, WA 98245

(360) 376-4904

Seattle is a beer mecca, an absolutely outstanding city to sample the very best of America’s more recent explosion in craft beer.  For the past 6yrs we’ve been fortunate enough to experience and sample the Northwest’s finest IPAs, porters, stouts and sours, some of which you may have read about in this blog (beer).  This past week Robin and I explored beer, in an intense night-after-night adventure, through the vehicle of Seattle Beer Week 2010.  We tasted so many fabulous beers to write about each in detail here, but I will try to highlight the events, and the beers that we thought stood above the rest.

Chuckanut Beer Dinner at Delancey: Chuckanut is a brewery out of Bellingham Washington and they paired up with arguably Seattle’s best pizza joint Delancey, to bring forth a beer dinner to be remembered.  We shared the fun evening with  our friends Dawn and Eric (WrightAngle).  The dinner was hosted by Kevin Davey of Chuckanut, who described the philosophy, history, and beers from the brewery as the evening progressed.  Basically, the concept for most of the beers was that they are heavily inspired by the travels of the owners and brew master throughout Germany and Eastern Europe.  The beers we had that evening, with the exception of the Stout, were all in the classic German style brewed with German style yeasts, and local German hops.  The Kolsch and the Pilsner were both crisp and delicate, slightly fruity with a mild accent of hops.  The pairing of the Kolsch with Kumomoto oysters and beer-vinegar with shallots was my favorite pairing of the evening, although the Pils was the favorite beer.  All the dishes were well crafted and seasoned perfectly, especially the duck fat roasted potatoes.  The pizzas at Delancey are always the show stopper and we all agreed that the classic Brooklyn, essentially a margherita sans the basil, was the best, with its tangy sauce, beautiful texture, and well seasoned crust.  The final beers of the evening were the Helles, a Munich style beer with crisp finish and slightly sweeter aspect, the Stout which was toasted with hints of coffee and bitter cacao, and an Alt- or fruity German ale, with very malty character.  These beers were all great in their style, but their pairing with the pizza and soup didn’t seem come out as a strength.  In any case, the event was quite fun, and we were exposed to a series of delicious local Northwest brews outside of the tradition of local Northwest IPAs, porters, or stouts.

Delancey

1415 NW 70th St.

Seattle, WA 98117

Art of the Table open house with Pike Brewing and Dog Fish Head: We’ve been to beer events at Art of the Table before, which have been simply fantastic.  Dustin Ronspies and Matt Younts take their food and beer passions both very seriously, and they pair food nearly perfectly with beer.  Having access to the breadth of excellent choices from Dog Fish Head and Pike Brewery made leaving work early in the mid-afternoon really very worthwhile. First of all it was a great chance to meet and chat with several  players in the beer industry. We had the great opportunity to talk with Rose Ann and Charles Finkel, owners of Pike Brewing as well as Sam Castiglione of Dog Fish Head, and Matt Younts. It was a small group so we had the chance to ask questions and get the stories behind these 2 brewery’s excellent beers.  The event offered 6 small plates along with 3 beers from each brewery.  The highlights were as follows: The Midas Touch, a spiced beer (DogFish) brewed with a 2700 yr old recipe was Robin’s favorite (I also enjoyed it). Hard to describe, but the best I can do is- it is like drinking saffron infused honey with a hint of malty beer flavor. It was paired well with saffron caulifower, carmelized onion, and hummus flatbread.  We also enjoyed the 90 minute DogFish Head IPA, brewed by injecting hops into a closed kettle each minute for 90 minutes.  This IPA is perfectly balanced and well rounded, even the hop fearing folk are likely to enjoy it. It was paired with an Albacore Tuna Poke, Spicy Jicama, Nori, top on a fried wonton.

Pike Brewing brought forth their Double IPA, which first debuted last year during Seattle Beer week.  This beer has a more chewy hops flavor, a bit more heat, but still has nice malt balance in the finish.  It was paired with a shooter of cumin-corriander carrot soup, topped with cilantro-preserved Lemon-yogurt which contrasted the bitterness of the hops well.  We were told that Pike downtown has lots of great seasonals on tap including a dry wit beer, which sounded fabulous for this time of year.

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