MARIANI’S
January 5,
2004
NEWSLETTER
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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, as well as at The Grumpy Gourmet at
www.grumpygourmetusa.com .
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Cover Story:
Dining Out on Florida's Gulf Coast by John Mariani
New York
Corner: The Sea Grill by John Mariani
Prole Food: Angelo Brocato's by
John Mariani
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DINING OUT ON FLORIDA'S
GULF COAST
by John Mariani
It used to be
known as the "Redneck Riviera"--a sobriquet never used
with much affection--and driving along 30-A on Florida's 160-mile,
16-county Gulf Coast from Apalachicola to Panama City through Destin
and Pensacola you can still see plenty of rickety shacks and
questionable motels, along with the requisite fast food joints, that
made the name stick. But over the last ten years this long
stretch of beautiful coastline has been transformed by a number of
million-dollar-plus properties that have provided the region with
a very high degree of posh.
The most celebrated development in
the Panhandle is Seaside, used as the setting for the Jim Carrey
movie "The Truman Show" and so chosen because it looks like a perfect
Hollywood movie set of a kind Beaver Cleaver or Andy Hardy would feel
right at home in--a bit sterile, if a pleasant place to retire to.
And there are several good restaurants that date from the same
period,
including Johnny Earle's Criollas
in Grayton Beach and Cuvée
Beach in Destin.
A recent trip down the coast proved that the region
has definitely shed its former image and become a fast-growing string
of communities very much on the high end, beginning with Seaside's new
neighbor, WaterColor, a 499-acre resort community in Seagrove Beach,
with a far more diverse architecture than Seaside and a fine new
resort, the WaterColor
Inn (34
Goldenrod Circle; 1-850-534-5000;
www.watercolorflorida.com),
designed by David Rockwell. 
If Seaside looks regimented
right down to the last detail, WaterColor shows how
regional and period details count in the windswept, screened porches
and verandahs,
and a view of the blue sea that blows all stress out of the cluttered
mind (right). Guests at the
60-room Inn all have a panorama of the Gulf right
out their window wall, so you can stroll out slowly and down the
Boardwalk,
swim in
the surf or the resort's pool, visit the next-door Beach Club with a
much larger pool, or take a shuttle over to the Inn's Camp
Creek Golf Club, with its 18-hole course.
The restaurant at WaterColor is called Fish Out of
Water (below, left), and the
theme leaps out at you as soon as you enter, with a
fascinating iron railing of hand-blown glass "seapods." You go up the
stairs
to find a big open dining room fronted by a raw bar. The seafood
motif is carried through in the dining room with silk lampshades
painted
with Gulf fish on them. Even the ceiling lighting is shaped like
sea turtles shells, and the lights are turned off so that they do not
disturb the sea turtles on the beach outside the floor to ceiling
windows.
Chef Jason Brumm, previously at
Café 30-A, specializes, as you might guess, in seafood, and he
has obvious familiarity and respect for the local fish species and
knows best to treat them as simply as possible. Appetizers
include Chinese-style dim sum, a
plate with a potsticker, spring roll, sushi and satay with appropriate
dipping
sauces; for the heartiest of appetites, there’s braised
As an entree, fine-grade tuna is served with a rice cake and
crab-soybean potstickers
and a mango-chile vinaigrette; white grouper comes with carrot-orange
ravioli, a cucumber salad and a passion fruit coulis spiked with Scotch
Bonnet chile. Chilean sea bass is accompanied by a scallop-black
truffle ravioli, a leek fondue and an oyster mushroom nage, and for
something in the Southern culinary tradition, there's Lowcountry shrimp
and scallops with creamy grits, asparagus, and roasted corn-chanterelle
ragoût. Brumm's food has heft, not heaviness, and all
seafood
came perfectly juicy.
Meateaters are not
left in the lurch,
however, for the menu also lists a rack of lamb with caramelized
vegetable cannelloni and a spiced espresso lamb jus; a filet mignon
with cabernet reduction; veal loin with pancetta, pumpkin tortellini
and white truffle jus; and
duck with a sweet-sour blackberry reduction
and marmalade, confit and figs. There is, to be sure, a lot of sweet
flavors in Brumm's food, which he might want to tone down.
Desserts are
every bit as hospitably
proportioned as everything else here, starting with a nightly
soufflé, a
blackberry upside-down cake with vanilla ice cream, and the “Ultimate
Sundae,”
which closely lives up to its billing, with scoops of housemade ice
cream
covered with chocolate and toffee, macadamia nuts and a lollipop cookie
crust. At $8 this is a no brainer; go
for it.
There is a 6-course tasting menu at a remarkable
$65. Otherwise, à la carte appetizers run
$7-$12, entrees $27-$33.
One of the most popular
spots in the area--here, tellingly, since 1986--is Bud & Alley's
(Cinderella Circle;
850-231-5900; www.budandalleys.com), whose co-owner, Dave
Rauschkolb, is a very serious restaurateur who knows not to make things
too serious for guests who come to the region to relax and who
are likely to show up in
tank tops and
flip-flops. B&A's is certainly a casual spot, and a lot of
people like to eat upstairs al fresco.
Downstairs (left) the a/c
feels
mighty fine on a hot Gulf Coast evening. But
unlike so many of the fried-fish-and-salad joints in the region,
B&A's has a solid kitchen, led by partner and chef Scott Witcoski
and chef de cuisine Sam
Wooley, 
who walk a fine line
between robust, delicious sandwiches and
"Florida Big Bites," like a fish of the day sautéed and served
with mixed greens and roasted new potatoes. The Cuban sandwich is
chock full of tender roast pork, Black Forest ham, Swiss and sliced
dill pickles
with hot mustard, and his Cuban Steak Frites is very good--a generous
slab of seared tenderloin on grilled country bread and a bed of sweet
onions, avocado, and cucumbers, a zesty salsa, lime, olive oil
and
flash-fried sweet potatoes. Begin here with a mess of
fresh Gulf shrimp with a Southern rémoulade or Florida blue crab
claws with cilantro and lime. The tiramisù is nothing to get
excited about, but the baked banana with Cointreau, bread pudding,
cream and vanilla ice cream is to die for, or at least scrap the diet
for.
Particularly striking about B&A's is its terrific
wine list, several closely-printed pages with
plenty of big names from Caymus to Quintessa, and remarkably deep in
Meritage styles and zinfandels. There are, however, few
bargains here, with big price hikes over retail, like '98 Pezzi King
Maple, here $67, at retail about $25; '00 Mer Soleil Chardonnay
$87 vs $40; '00 Franciscan Oakville Magnificat, $105 vs $40; and
'99 Silver Oak Cabernet, $140 vs $55. Such prices are in
disappointing contrast
to a food menu wherein appetizers run $3.95-$14.95 and main courses
$19.95 to $27.95.
The son of wealthy
textile owners whose mill and
house were confiscated by the communists and who were subsequently
jailed, Zambori (right) wound
up in an orphanage. But despite great
deprivations he grew up as an imposing, very strong young man whose
skills in judo got him onto the Hungarian national team. But in
1969
the communist police arrested him and sent him to a forced labor
camp, from which he escaped through those mine fields to reach
Austria, then emigrated to New York, where he worked as a dishwasher,
then joined the U.S. Army, entering the elite ranks of the Green Berets
during Vietnam. Afterwards he married, got an engineering degree, and
made his way well up the corporate ladder, taking off 14 months to
study at France's Cordon Bleu. He returned to open
Sándor's in a year a hurricane wiped out the area, yet, as you
might expect,
he's endured to this day, always taking time to learn more from
respected European and American culinary masters. He is a man of
great sophistication and the humility of one who knows just how good he
really is.The story itself is daunting, but what is more amazing is the quality and care that goes into everything this gentle giant of a man cooks. His multi-course meals, served in a genteel dining room of striped wallpaper, crystal chandeliers, good linens and silverware, soft lighting, and European artwork, are clearly what he loves to cook, and that love shows in the attention to detail on each plate, beginning with a marvelous soup of Belgian salsify with white truffle oil. Truffles show up in a cream sauce with tender gnocchi to very good advantage. (I scarfed down two portions!) His crawfish in fragile puff pastry comes with a Pananga curry sauce that seems just right in vividness, and his lamb tenderloin takes on Eastern Mediterranean notes from accompaniments of beluga lentils and spanakopita, along with an impeccably made sauce périgourdine. His Angus filet mignon was flavorful, not at all mushy, and came with potato dauphinois and a Hungarian-style wild mushroom ragoût that manifests an obvious pride in the cooking of his native country. And, not to miss a continent, Zambori steams Gulf grouper over Lapsang Souchong tea, then serves it with a truffle butter with bayaldi and umeboshi plum sauce.
For dessert his sorbets are as lush and fruited as any I've had, and I've also had no better molten chocolate cake, here served with pistachio white chocolate and raspberry caramel.
Sándor's wine list has about 120 labels, and Zambori delights in recommending specific wines to go with your dinner choices, and he's got a very good taste for such things.
But then, Zambori is full of surprises, because his joie de vivre impels him to be so.
Starters run $7.25-$12.75, main courses $27.95-$36.95.
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NEW
YORK CORNER
The
Sea Grill
Rockefeller Center
9 West 49th Street
212-332-7610; www.restaurantassociates.com/theseagrill
You are sitting
beneath
the gaze of a gilded Prometheus, overlooking a shiny silver skating
rink,
surrounded by some of the most majestic skyscrapers in New York, and,
if it’s
Christmastime, there’s a fifty-foot lighted tree rising in the midst of
it
all. The scene takes your breath away. And
you want great food too?
Fine. You are dining at the Sea Grill
(below) and you will be eating
some of the best seafood in the ocean, and doing it in a shimmering
space smack up against that grand
rink where you are alternately entertained by skaters of every age and
the
requisite appearance of the wonderful Zamboni rubbing it all fresh and
gleaming
again.
And despite the usual high
traffic here
at lunch and dinner, you’ll be cordially greeted and seated, and your
wait staff will make you very happy you’ve come. You
choose a wine from a very good list in every category
(though
especially strong in white wines for obvious reasons), and open a menu
full of
Chef Ed Brown's seasonal dishes and specials of the
night, depending on what species Chef Brown culled from the
market that
day. Thus, you are assured the sweetest
Current
appetizers
include an array of cold shellfish, every one plump and delicious,
served with
traditional cocktail sauce and a saffron aïoli. He’s currently
featuring a
woodsy wild mushroom soup--one of the very best I’ve had all year. For main courses don’t miss the
Nantucket
bay scallops with black truffles and chervil, or the
superb tuna wrapped in prosciutto with
foie gras, and red wine and Sauternes
jellies. Just to see how Brown fares on
land, we
ordered a filet mignon with glazed cipollini onions, and truffled
mashed
potatoes; I can’t say I’ve had a tastier filet mignon in eons.
You might well start off with a platter of iced, raw
shellfish, or
perhaps a variety of caviars. But that
would be too easy. Instead order Brown’s nonpareil Asian tuna tartare
with
sesame seaweed salad and a jolt of wasabi—similar to others but
surpassing
all. His longtime staple, a chowder with
lobster, shrimp and clams, is as dependable and delicious as this great
American
broth can be, and his sea scallops “Rossini,” with sautéed fresh
foie gras and
lavish shavings of black truffles is a tour de force variation on a
dish
usually made with filet mignon. We also
liked the red mullet with fresh hearts of palm and a dash of pistachio
oil.
Brown poaches his lobster in butter, then serves the pieces in a
frothy, creamy
cappuccino, while his wild mushroom soup is laced with a truffle
essence.
With these
starters we drank a crisp, medium-bodied Brocard Montamins Chablis ‘00, then followed with a superbly
structured Clos de la Roche, Pierre Amiot, ‘99.
This is sumptuous cooking, but notice how few
ingredients are in every dish—two, perhaps three, focusing in squarely
on the
seafood itself and providing notes from other ingredients to which he
does very
little.
A good deal of the fun at
The Sea Grill is in the dessert menu, which mixes good old American
items like
Key lime pie with a blackberry compote and a
fabulous warm chocolate steamed pudding that gets a European blessing
of
Valhrona chocolate sauce and pistachio ice cream. Homey apple tarte
Tatin has
the addition of quince with the delightful addition of Calvados ice
cream. There’s
even an eggnog crème brûlée with cranberry compote,
or you can get very fancy
with a chocolate pecan pyramid that is extremely rich and extremely
good.
Dinner appetizers run $9-$14, entrees
$24-$32. The Sea Grill will hold a Chậteau Ste. Michelle wine
dinner on Jan. 27 at $65 pp.
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PROLE FOOD
New Orleans has long been
a city with a
strong Italian-American heritage and Angelo Brocato’s (214 North Carrollton) reflects that
rich food
culture in this delightful pastry shop and ice cream store with its
wrought-iron tables and chairs, old family photos (the one below
dates back about 30 years), and showcase of 20 different
types of biscotti.
Brocato’s has been
around for a century
now, and nothing has changed here in all those years, certainly not the
Sicilian-style ice creams this family operation has been making all
those
years.
Most of the flavorings are still imported, the best cream is used, and
the crisp, twice-baked cookies are an ideal accessory to the rich
cheesecake
ice cream, cassata (various
flavors of ice cream studded with chocolate
atop
spongecake), baci (chocolate
and hazelnut), cappuccino and Amaretto.
The
Italian ices are lusciously fruity, served in little paper cups and
squeezed
down to the last slurp of melted lemon, mango, pear or passion fruit
juice.
--John Mariani
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. . . BUT
FIRST
SLIP INTO A BLACK NEGLIGÉE
Noting that
lifting 20-pound turkeys from the oven
“can be bad for your back, according to experts in naturopathy and
osteopathy,”
Anthony Greenbank, in his new Book of Survival: The Original
Guide to
Staying Alive in the City, the Suburbs & the Wild Lands Beyond,
recommends:
1. Keep the turkey
close to your body, lowering yourself on one knee, keeping the knees
apart to
keep the load close to you and using your leg muscles to help lift.
2. Before you actually
lift, actively set your back muscles, then raise your head, tuck your
chin and
stomach in and slowly straighten up.
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QUICK BYTES
*
From Jan. 23-25Master Pastry Chef Vincent Mary from the Lenôtre
Cooking School in Paris will teach a group of guests at
NYC's Sofitel authentic French
pastry making, from basic techniques to more sophisticated
creations.
Guests will receive a complimentary chef’s toque, personalized chef’s
jacket, apron
and pants and wield a recipe binder. The weekend program is
priced
at $1,000 per room, based on double occupancy, and includes
accommodations,
breakfast daily, lunch, dinner and an elaborate opening reception,
exclusive of
taxes and gratuities. A diploma in pastry perfection is included.
Call 212-782-3029.
*
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MARIANI'S VIRTUAL
GOURMET NEWSLETTER is
published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John
Mariani.
Contributing Writers: Robert Mariani. Naomi
Kooker, Kirsten Skogerson, Edward Brivio,
Robert Mariani, Mort Hochstein. Contributing Photographers: Galina
Stepanoff-Dargery,
Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry
McLoughlin.
copyright John Mariani 2003