~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEWSLETTER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 14, 2003
~~~~~~~~~~~
EDITOR'S NOTE: This newsletter is
also available on the very
comprehensive food site www.sautewednesday.com
, which has dozens of other links to food articles
from
around the world.
Cover Story: Dining Out in
Santa Barbara by John Mariani
by
John Mariani
Santa
Barbara
The
town itself is pretty, with a
pleasant attempt at plenty of Spanish mission architecture, and nestled
within
its nearby valleys are more than 60 wineries, including Au Bon Climat,
Fess
Parker, Daniel Gehrs, Firestone, Qupe, and Zaca Mesa. (visit www.sbcountywines.com
). Vineyards
are
also fertile ground for restaurants to spring up, and a recent visit to
Santa
Barbara indicated how closely allied the region’s food and wine really
are,
beginning with the appropriately named Wine
Cask (813 Anacapa Street;
805-966-9463 ; www.winecask.com
), which Doug Margerum has, since 1981, maintained as a wineshop,
caterer,
and first-class restaurant. here in a
spacious, off-white room with splendid coffered ceilings, stone
fireplace, and
wicker bistro chairs, one may partake of chef Alex Castillo’s
exceptionally
deep-flavored cooking, backed up by generous portions that seem to
belie
Californians’ dietetic consciousness.
The best way to give him a good run is to order the chef’s menu
at a
very reasonable $50 for five courses; otherwise, starters range from
$9-$19,
mains $22-$36.
There’s
some fusion going on
throughout the menu but not enough to be annoying.
I liked Castillo’s yummy lobster pot stickers
with a wasabi and passion fruit coulis, and the Hudson Valley foie gras
was
quickly grilled, not pan-fried, which required expert timing to keep it
meltingly velvety inside. It came with pears poached in bourbon, a
crispy
brioche and a pomegranate coulis. For
fish I had a pan-seared Chilean sea bass—a species some chefs have
stopped
using for its decreasing availability—but here it showed its luxurious
texture
well with a red quinoa ragout and wilted greens in a sprightly
Champagne-curry
sauce.
A
half chicken was rubbed with garlic
and herbs, then roasted to a golden crispness, served with a lentil
ragout,
braised endive, leeks and Napa cabbage—very much to my taste—and an
equally
luscious plate of braised oxtail with mashed potatoes laced with
crème fraîche
and accompanied by roast vegetables.
Rich as all this was, I could not stop myself from sampling a
little
cheese plate—three of them—with a glass of Ferreira “Duque de Braganza”
20-year
old tawny Port (California has yet to
come up with a convincing Port-style wine).
Since I’d already gone whole hog, I figured what-the-hell, bring
on the
chocolate dome with crisp almond cookie and mousse covered with ganache
and
served with raspberry coulis and crème anglaise.
The night was cool, I was with good company,
and the moon was high over the Pacific.
Bouchon (9 W.
The restaurant itself has
“cozy” written all over it. For one
thing it opens pleasantly to the outside to a garden patio, and the
furnishings
are as comfortable as they are charming in the way things are in
Provençal
inns, with plenty of golden light, savory aromas of plants, no-nonsense
chairs,
and good tables set with Riedel glassware for all wines.
The winelist itself carries more than 50
While
sipping on a glass of ’93 Brewer-Clifton Brut Rose, I tasted an
amuse-bouche of
braised arugula, lentils and carrot cubes whose sweetness and starch
was ideal
to spur the appetite. With an appetizer of ridgeback shrimp
sautéed
with
garlic-shallot butter, tomatoes, marjoram, and green olives set in a
pastry
shell, we drank a ’01 Babcock Sauvignon Blanc with wonderful crispness
that
went well with the vegetal flavors.
Sonoma foie gras (curiously, Sonoma foie gras is not much used
out here
by even the staunchest of California chefs, who prefer Hudson Valley’s)
was
quite good, served on brioche with plum preserves for sweetness and
deglazed
with a late harvest wine. With this the
’90 Far Niente Dolce was an apt choice, though too much sweetness in
the early
part of a meal can be cloying.
There
was more sweetness, tempered by sour, in luscious roasted duck breast,
not too
rare, with nutty wild rice, sautéed pears, cippolini onions,
braised
arugula
and a blackberry jus reduction—a lot going on here, but it was nicely
buoyed by
a ’99 Caernarvon Pinot Noir, from San Lucas in
Desserts
included a good old apple-strawberry cobbler, hot from the oven and
dripping
with vanilla ice cream, and a molten lava chocolate cake with coffee
ice cream
(why haven’t I yet tired of these chocolate cakes?).
Prices
for appetizers at Bouchon range from $7-$18, entrees $25-$32.
Santa
Barbara
For
pastas choose among ravioli dressed with nothing more than good
butter and fresh sage leaves, or bocconcini
alla trevisano, which is a gratin of crepes stuffed with ricotta
and
radicchio. He bakes his chickens in He
cooks chicken in a terracotta casserole, with tomatoes and red wine,
and there
is a daily special from the rotisserie—perhaps lamb or beef or
chicken--whose
aromas fill the room when you walk into the two -room restaurant, which
had a
lively bar crowd in the evenings.
None of this fine food and
drink will costs you very much. With no pasta above $19, and many
entrees under
$20.
NEW YORK CORNER
Pasha
by John Mariani
Having
invited some out-of-town friends who rarely get to New York to dinner,
I chose something I thought would be out of the ordinary, a Turkish
restaurant on the Upper West Side that has had a good reputation since
opening in 1997. Upon arriving first at Pasha
(70
West 71st St.; 212-579-8751; )
Chef and partner Kemal Binici, a native of Istanbul,
learned to cook from his mother, and in New York he reunited with
Turgut Balikci, an acquaintance from Istanbul, to open Pasha.
Together they are clearly intent on proving to guests a convincing
thesis that the food of the Ottomans is among the most interesting and
diverse in the western world. Thus we had to choose from a myriad
of appetizers that included beyaz
peynir, a thick slice of tangy feta that was slightly grilled
then served with paprika-dusted tomatoes, and a very fine, delicate
humus made with virgin olive oil. We were especially delighted
with patlican salatasi, a
mash of charcoal grilled eggplant that took on wonderful smoky flavors,
tossed with garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. Best of all the
starters we tried was manti,
a generous bowl of steamed dumplings that size of a child's
thumb. They were filled with ground, seasoned lamb and served in
a lush garlicky-yogurt sauce with mint. I could have eaten the
whole bunch of them and been happy with my dinner.
The seafood dishes didn't sound very exciting
(salmon with lemon zest and dill, and Chilean Sea bass with tomatoes
and bay leaves), but I was very happy with an expertly grilled dorade
drizzled with olive oil and lemon. We chose two lamb items: The
first was a good portion of grilled, very succulent baby lamb chops
sprinkled with oregano and served with grilled tomatoes and
peppers. Truly luscious was a fork-tender braised lamb shank (istem kebab) with tomatoes, onions,
and wrapped in eggplant slices. A special that evening were
kebabs of ground chicken done on skewers; they came golden brown and
very tender, spiced beautifully. We would have been perfectly
happy ending our meal then, but we did try some Turkish desserts,
including a nice crispy baklava.
Turkish coffee--strong, sweet and like an elixir--ended things off
nicely.
Pasha's winelist is nothing to get excited about,
despite the inclusion of just five Turkish wines. The two I tried, both
a white and a red Kavaklidere Selection of unspecified grapes (both
$30, at retail about $11) were pretty dreary.
There is a very charming outdoor canopied terrace
that seats about 14 people, with a good view of the passersby on
Columbus Avenue. Maybe even Harrison Ford and Al Pacino on their way
over for a bowl of that terrific manti.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PROLE
FOOD
The
verdict
is still not in on who exactly invented the ice cream cone, though the
event
apparently occurred at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair Exhibition, and
the
creator might well have been a Syrian immigrant named Albert Doumar,
who had a
curios shop in the
--John Mariani
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--A. A. Gill,
review of The
Pharmacy, Times Sunday Magazine
*
On July 20 at Chillingsworth in
Brewster, MASS, BBQ expert and author Steve Raichlin will be guest chef
and
sign his book, BBQUSA. For further info call 508-896-3640.
* Orient-Express Hotels announces two special packages: From Sept.
11-16 Reid’s
Palace on
Call 202-828-2600, or visit www.hotellombardy.com
*On
July 24 The Beverly
Hills Hotel (9641 Sunset Blvd.) celebrates
summer with Cuban Night at the Pool, an evening of
Caribbean cuisine and live Cuban jazz at the Cabaña
Club Café, for just $75 pp. Call
310-281-2919.
copyright john
Mariani 2003
