Seafood - - Page 7

by Liza

Culinary Institute of Amazingness

When I told Gansie I was going on a work trip to Hyde Park, NY (home of FDR) she immediately screamed,

OMG that’s where the Culinary Institute of America is!! You have to eat there!

Luckily, the client had the same idea and made reservations at the Institute’s St. Andrew’s Cafe.

When we were driving to the restaurant, it felt like we were at a normal college campus, except all of the students were walking around in chef outfits. And the campus is gorgeous with one building that looks like an Italian villa. There are 6 total restaurant on campus, but I was pretty stoked about the one we went to because it had blooming tomato plants and herb gardens growing around the entrance.

The food was absolutely amazing! I ordered the Pan Seared Salmon (medium) with Saffron Pasta and Tomato Broth, Haricots Verts, Feta Cheese, Kalamata Olives. The pasta was in large ribbons and literally was the best pasta I’ve ever had in my life (I mean I love saffron) and the salmon just melted in my mouth (is that weird?) Everything was seasoned to perfection. I literally don’t know how I managed to hold myself back from licking the plate (which I am prone to do). Well, I did use a piece of bread to basically wipe up every last morsel of deliciousness.

in Desserts 6 comments

by tvff

Go Fishing with Your iPhone

I try to be a socially-responsible eater, but it’s tough to take an absolute stand and commit to one of the usual categories. I’m not a locavore, a vegetarian, a vegan or an organics-only diner. The main problem is that, even if I could get on board from a taste perspective, I know I’ll never keep at it. Heck, I can’t even swear off eating human brains because I know that diet will go to shit during the inevitable zombie outbreak.

But one area I do try to do my best to make wise choices is when I purchase and eat seafood. The numbers are startling and the prognosis grim when it comes to the future of many of the most popular seafood choices. It’s no surprise when you hear about customers asking high-profile restaurants like Nobu to lay off the bluefin tuna.

The challenge for a responsible seafood eater is not just picking the right species of fish, but there are also considerations such as the location from which the seafood was taken (geography as well as farmed vs. wild) and the method by which it was taken, with some techniques vastly preferable to others. Keeping it all straight can be difficult.

Fortunately, the folks at the Monterey Bay Aquarium have made it considerably easier by issuing “Seafood Guide,” (iTunes link) a free iPhone application that provides diners and shoppers with the latest info about how to make choices that support sustainability. Armed with the necessary information, I wanted to see how easy it was to be a smart diner on a trip to Bonefish Grill, a national chain of seafood restaurants.

in Fish 4 comments

by Bliz

A Meal with Legs — Lots of ’em

Editors’ Note: Some of you may already know Bliz from his work over at A Moveable Feast. We’ve asked him to stop by ES and share some of his culinary exploits and photographic hotness with us.

I love my friends. They give me the freedom to assign menus with the authority of a fascist dictator. They complement my efforts despite my failures. They smile and eat dishes that I myself stopped eating after a few bites. But while I appreciate their support, a twisted part of me really likes to see them squirm when I serve up something they weren’t expecting. So last Saturday, the gang got a taste of braised octopus with home fries. The reactions, to say the least, were mixed…

by rooms

Why Waste Perfectly Good Bacon Grease?

So I was at the ‘real’ grocery store the other day; I don’t go there very often because I do 75% of my food shopping at Tran’s Market. Anyway, whenever I do go I usually stop by the fish counter because I love seafood, but I like to eat it the day I buy it. So I picked up some Haddock, and then I noticed they also had these beautiful creatures called Mahogany Clams in the display.

They have a thick shell like a quahog and similar size, but much more beautiful. I asked the guy about them, and he said that he didn’t know what they were like, but probably good, not very good sellers because people didn’t know what they were. A ringing endorsement.

I live in Maine; apparently we don’t like to try new things here. I asked if they were local and he said he thought so, pretty much all their shellfish is local. And they were 15 cents a piece! Cents, my friends. There was even a little cents sign. Remember the good old “c” with a diagonal line through it? I was sold.

I picked up a dozen and a half.

My plan was to make clams casino, which I had never made, but knew contained bacon. I looked up a bunch of recipes and the common theme was mix some stuff with butter, cook your clams until they just open, put the butter mixture on top with a bit of already cooked bacon and broil until brown. Something about throwing out all that perfectly good bacon grease and then using a bunch of butter just didn’t make sense to me, so my version of bacon-y good mahogany clams casino after the jump.

in Bacon / Cheese / Endless Bacon / Pig 2 comments

by 80 Proof

Yo Yo Momoyama

I have a new found love: sushi.

So brand new that I have only eaten sushi 3 times in my life. Hated it the first time, and in typical 80p fashion, placed raw fish on the back-burner for 5 years. Why eat something I knew I hated?

Well a couple of weeks back, Gansie and I met a friend for happy hour at a pan-Asian, fusiony type place. I took my rightful place at the table by ordering some salmon teriyaki while the others checked off which rolls they liked. But then a funny thing happened, I tried one piece of yellowtail. Then another, and another, until I was asking if I could have the last piece.

This brings me to last week, when Gansie and I were planning for dinner. I happened to be reading JoeHoya’s blog, Capital Spice, and caught his review of a small, unknown sushi place on the Hill, Momoyama. If you think that this post will be a review, you are sorely mistaken. I know nothing about sushi — couldn’t tell you if I was eating a dollar roll, or Japan’s finest. I advise you all to read JoeHoya’s account for accuracy’s sake.

First things first, it took us 10 minutes to find this place, and we have a combined 16 years of DC experience (man, that statistic does NOT make me feel young). It’s on 2nd street, which looks like an alley and is about one block long. Momoyama itself is a row house that backs into an office building and faces a 30 foot high grey concrete wall. Sunset views are lacking here. But it adds to the impression that this is your little secret. Anyways,”review” after the jump.

in Fish 5 comments

by gansie

Restaurant 3

Step away from the television sets—ESPN will still be there when you return to your favorite buffalo-sauce-stained bar stool. Clarendon has a new spot in town — Restaurant 3 — and it doesn’t pay homage to the Redskins. Say hello to tuna lollipops, ready to be dipped in wasabi cream and cooled off with bites of seaweed salad. Mero, Japanese sea bass, will also catch your attention: This silky fish, atop a creamy mixture of risotto and roasted acorn squash, will surely replace any memories of fried snacks.
For: Exchanging SportsCenter for sea bass.
Entrées: $15-$28. 703-524-4440. O, B, V. 2950 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington.

A version of this originally appeared in the Onion – AV Club / DC local edition

in Uncategorized 4 comments

by gansie

Spice Master: Contestant #2

Editors Note: Yesterday you got to see how a pack of 12 spices inspired bobby to create an intricate lamb and couscous dish. Today, you’ll find out how JoeHoya reinterpreted those same Tunisian spices. And tomorrow – we’ll leave it up to ES readers to pick the Who Cooked It Better: Spice Master.

Spice Master Contender: JoeHoya

“It’s a walk-off.”

When the Who Cooked It Better gauntlet was thrown down, I couldn’t help but smile. As anyone who knows me can tell you, most of my kitchen improvisations involve cumin, paprika, chili powder, or a combination of the three. Working three of the spices from the Tunisian fun-pack wouldn’t be the problem – editing would. I needed to find a dish that highlighted the spices without going overboard.

And I wanted to do my best to incorporate that elusive Tunisian flare, so I did some reading and found out that Tunisian cuisine involves a fair amount of seafood (I also found a recipe for a pine nut pudding and a garlicky chickpea soup, but I figured both would be dismissed as obvious pandering to BS and Gansie).

In the end, I turned to John Ash’s “From the Earth to the Table,” a cookbook my wife and I picked up after we saw it in a winery in Temecula, California. We’ve found some real winners in this book before, and Elizabeth reminded me that one of them is a delicious tomato-curry soup served with riso (a rice-like pasta, similar to orzo only smaller and easier to overcook.)

Full disclosure – I’m not really a recipe person. I like to use them more as inspirations than blueprints, adding ingredients that make sense (or that I happen to have on hand.) In this case, however, I tried to stay relatively close to the original recipe and then supplement or replace with the Tunisian spices we had to work with.

Click through: full recipe, another pic, serving suggests

in Recipe 3 comments

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