MARIANI’S

  FEBRUARY 16, 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 http://www.grumpygourmetusa.com/links.html

 -Readers trying to reach me through e-mail cannot do so by hitting REPLY to this newsletter. Instead, write to me directly at johnmariani@prodigy.net .    

       Far too many people think of Texas as a one vast stretch of ranch land criss-crossed with superhighways and armadillos and dotted with sprawling cities like Houston and Dallas.  But the sheer variety of Texas' topography is one of its great appeals, from the warm Gulf Coast west of Louisiana and the long, wriggling Rio Grande territory nuzzling Mexico, up north into the dry flatlands, and westward over arroyos and deserts, mesas and mountains all the way west to El Paso and on into New Mexico.  The beauty of the state approaches you from a far distance, never at a glance, at the end of a twilight drive.  It might be the first glimpse of a mossy bayou, a flourish of flowering cactus,  or tall blue-green grass rippled by a soft breeze. 
      Two of these many facets of Texas revealed themselves to me not long ago, each with its own beauty, flora, fauna and climate, each home to unique properties run by people whose commitment to that part of Texas is based as much on respect for the land as for a desire to show off  its virtues to others.   Lajitas (877-525-4827; www.lajitas.com ), in the town of the same name, is a remarkable resort set on 25,000 acres of the Chihuahuan Desert and Big Bend river country, where owner Steve Smith developed a community with its own spa, golf courses, 60-acre bird sanctuary, hunt club, and a 72-room boutique hotel with two restaurants.  Sites here (without homes on them) can exceed $3 million. There's even a small airport where private jets land; otherwise it's a trek across the desert Badlands to get here.  The nearest towns are Presidio, Terlingua and Alpine (though "nearest" is a relative term in Texas; the nearest city, Midland, is 200 miles west).
      Remarkably there's not an inch of kitsch anywhere on the property, from the evocative western town to rooms built on the site of an army outpost that could be the setting for any John Ford Cavalry movie of the 1950s.  In fact, Gen. John "Blackjack" Pershing commanded here before World War I.  The rooms are cushy without being frilly, masculine without being yee-haw, the fabrics and furniture impeccably suited both to authenticity and comfort.  The golf courses are, of course, state-of-the-art and beautifully landscaped beneath the Chisos mountains, and there is an equestrian center where you can pick up a horse for the day, ride out at dawn to a campfire breakfast of daunting proportions (right), and practice six-gun and shotgun shooting at the Hunt Club range. 
       There are two restaurants at Lajitas, neither formal, both similar in presenting American western food.  The slightly more upscale room is called Octotillo, which is co-owned by Jeff Blank of Hudson's on the Bend in Austin.  Much of the menu is based on Texas-raised game, and beef is aged on premises for 28 days and herbs and vegetables are grown in gardens on the premises.  The wine cellar, which had a devastating fire last year, is building back up to speed.
     Ocotillo's (below)  has a splendid bar 30 feet above ground that affords a great panorama on the glorious Big Bend sunsets, and the main dining room is done with Native American artwork, big timbers, and terra-cotta colors. The kitchen here is run by husband-wife team Chad and Amber Burns, both under 30, and their personal exuberance shows in how and what they cook, which includes rattlesnake cakes with pistachios and cilantro atop a chipotle chile sauce--one of the most popular items on the menu. Portions are generous, plate presentations pretty, and flavors bold, like the Coca-Cola cowboy ribs in an orange-ginger BBQ sauce.  Fried green tomatoes come out crisp, sitting on a green chile-lime tartare, and there's  cabrito (goat) stew with fire-roasted green chili and corn.
     I have to applaud their carrying through a sensible western theme in their cooking, as when they inject tequila and apple brandy into a loin of pork that has been smoked then finished over a fire and served with apple-chipotle sauce.   You see their style in rabbit tenderloin and venison with prickly pear, roasted green tomatoes and corn chutney, and in chicken-fried antelope with red-eye gravy.  A center-cut ribeye weighs in at 16 ounces, marinated in Shiner Bock Beer then grilled over a hardwood fire and served with a green peppercorn sauce.  If you have the room, don't miss the Texas pecan pie dipped in Belgian chocolate or the bread pudding laced with bourbon, a vanilla-praline sauce and vanilla ice cream.  Prices for appetizers run a very easygoing $7-$8, entrees a more substantial $$24-$38.
    The glass-walled Candelilla (below left) is the second restaurant on property, somewhat more casual, and open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Chef Peter O'Brien, who's worked with Dean Fearing at Dallas' Mansion on Turtle Creek, toes the cowboy line as well as his colleagues at Ocotillo, while featuring a  Grill Menu whence comes a 10-ounce  "five-napkin cheeseburger" and an "Aye Chihuahua Pork Loin" crusted with pepper with an ancho-apricot chutney and jalapeno jack cheese on toasted ciabatta bread.  You might start off with braised baby back ribs or a tortilla soup; salads are large and make for a whole lunch, and there are a few Tex-Mex items like fajitas and enchiladas.  Prices for main courses at dinner here run $12-$26.

    








       Nothing could be further from the desert atmosphere of Lajitas while still expressing a strong Texas character than the tiny town of Cat Spring (about 1 1/2 hours from Houston), which Carol Davis is buying up in pieces.  This is a countryside of ranches and quiet farms where you hear the train whistle at  midnight and the wind smells like grass--a place that gives you a very good sense of what being a settler was like decades ago, for the area really hasn't changed much over the last fifty years.  Davis runs BlissWood bread-and-breakfast here (www.blisswood.net; 800-753-3376; 979-865-1100), five old houses filled with antiques, big wrought-iron beds, and peaceful porches, all  set on a working ranch of horses, buffalo, donkeys and llamas. I had an enchanting breakfast in a gazebo on a lake whose mist was rising.   Texas is nothing if not cinematic, so BlissWood and the town of Cat Spring would make a good setting for "The Last Picture Show" or a movie about a mustang-turned race horse.
      Right down the road Davis also owns Carol's at Cat Spring (979-865-1100).  I love the address: 10745 FM 949 sounds more like a small low-wattage Texas radio station than a restaurant.  I also love the look--a kind of roadside cabin (left) done in varnished wood impressed with ranch brands, splashes of artwork, and nicely separated tables.  It's a casual spot (anything goes as far as dress is concerned, which includes baseball caps worn backwards) with serious food and a real commitment to wine.   The cooking, via Chef Doug Atkinson, is solid from appetizers through dessert, and it shows just how careful good cooking must be, whether it's cornmeal-crusted catfish or barbecued scallops with a mango salsa.  You can tell that Atkinson--a fifth generation Texan--loves his own cooking--a virtue more chefs should possess; it shows in authoritative dishes like his angels on horseback, which are shrimp wrapped in bacon with a jalapeno-tomato butter sauce, and his trio of gumbos--bison, rabbit and duck.  There is the obligatory ribeye, topped with garlic-herb-butter, and Colorado River catfish broiled with lemon butter and topped with a white wine butter sauce.  An 8-ounce bison fillet (right) from Davis's ranch come in a Port wine sauce, and local hogs provide a fat pork chop with apple-butter sauce.  There are even some nice little kid's items here, including one called "Sponge Bob Square Pants Catfish."  Appetizers run $2.75-$9.95, entrees $9.95-$22.95.
     Desserts are, in a word, scrumptious--peach cobbler, pecan pie, triple chocolate cake, and the best carrot cake I've had since the 1970s.  The wine list, while not extensive, is serious indeed, and they hold some very popular, occasional wine dinners.
    If Carol's at Cat Spring sounds like a pleasant-enough roadside attraction, it is.  But the food is as good as any in Texas because it's true, it's carefully cooked, and it's lovingly rendered to be part of something worth savoring and saving, which is obviously Carol Davis' mission here. 

What a sweet name for a darling new East Village restaurant that does indeed have the warm ambiance of a hearth--and the decibel level of steel mill. When I came in off a street wind-whipped to well below zero, the affable, brickwalled, bare wood comfort of Hearth was a balm to both the body and the spirit, and as soon as I sat down and picked up the simple broadsheet of a menu, I knew the food would bolster me further.  When sommelier Hailey Rose (formerly of Gramercy Tavern)  came over and, without indulging in wine-speak, described some  small estate reds (from a 150 label list) that go well with chef Marco Canora's cooking, I was wholly won over--except by that extreme noise level, which made conversation with a friend over from Italy all but impossible without shouting, cupping my ears, and repeating the phrase, "Sorry, what did you say?" Someone later told me that the rear room, which is smaller and near the kitchen, was much less loud, but Canora and partner Paul Grieco (also late of Gramercy Tavern) really should do something about the intensity of the front room.
     Having said that, I can recommend just about everything else about Hearth, including its prices, which don't rise above $28 for an entree, and which offers a 4-course tasting menu at only $48.  Canora, who was most recently chef at Craft, where ingredients count for everything, has learned how to coax the most flavor from both standard ingredients like cod, duck and sirloin and those delightful but rarely seen items like lamb shoulder, black cabbage, and Brussels sprouts.  His trick is a very old one: he bases his dishes on an Italian soffrito of slowly-cooked vegetables and olive oil that add enormous background flavor.
    My Italian friend (when able to talk over the din) told me he wished more restaurants in Florence and Milan served food like Hearth’s, for Canora’s menu has a strong affinity for the wintry goodness of the food of northern Italy, along with many Mediterranean accents, like cannelloni made with a Niçoise chickpea flour crêpe called socca, stuffed with spinach and hen-of-the-woods mushrooms. He is also good as classic French dishes like a game bird terrine with red cabbage, green apple and tenderly cooked Brussels sprouts.
    We started off with those, along with delicious octopus braised till pliant in red wine, accompanied by celery root, celery and potato, while we also feasted on porchetta—roast baby pig with a core of arugula, fennel, and citrus, sliced thin and served with a confit of the pig.  It was so good I bought some porchetta the next day at my favorite salumeria.
    Now, you would think that Hearth would serve a wonderful array of lusty pastas, but they serve only one or two each night, including that socca cannelloni and a side dish of Canora’s soon-to-be-famous potato gnocchi.  But you won’t really miss pasta if you order other dishes like his braised shoulder of lamb and ribs with lamb’s tongue, escarole and borlotti beans—an ideal platter of food for a New York winter’s night.  Daurade (orata in Italian) is a golden bream, a pretty fish I’ve never regarded as among the more delectable swimmers of the Mediterranean, and Canora’s version, with fennel, black olives, and lemon was as good as  but no better than what most chefs do with this fish. 
    You may choose from a small selection of cheeses, along with a nice list of dessert wines that includes a raspberry wine from New Jersey and mead from West Sussex. Pastry chef Lauren Dawson’s desserts are just what you hope for—unpretentious and made for picking up every crumb with your fingers, from her milk chocolate tart with a semolina crust and peanut brittle ice cream, her banana cake with mascarpone frosting and chocolate sorbet, and fat apple cider doughnuts with apple compote and maple cream.  What’s not to love? Just look at the "Hearth Manifesto" to the right and you'll understand what the owners and staff are striving for. As I’ve made pretty clear, I’d love Hearth even more if it’s noise level were a lot less.  But this place is a keeper, especially if you live anywhere south of Washington Park  and need to come in out of the cold.

WHICH MIGHT BE EXPLAINED BY THE FACT THAT MILAN IS IN LOMBARDY

“Such refinement reminds me of certain expensive Milanese restaurants that have taken the soul out of Tuscan cooking.” —Marian Burros, in a review of “Sant’ Ambroeus,” NY Times (Jan. 16, 2004).

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AND THEY FINE YOU ANOTHER $2 IF YOU PUNCH OUT THE OWNER

According to an article in the Jornal da Globo, restaurateurs in Uberlandia, Brazil, are fining their guests $2 per plate if they don’t finish everything             on it because it is considered wasteful.

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QUICK BYTES

* On Feb. 24 at Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers, “A Preview of Spring Dining” grand tasting of  Robert Mondavi wines and Gosset Champagnes,  savories and sweets from 38 NYC chefs' new spring menus, a 30 silent auction,  including once-in-a-lifetime culinary and travel packages, will be held to benefit The Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP). This year's honorees are Danny Meyer and Michael Romano of Union Square Café. Tickets are $350, $500, and $1,000. Call 212-974-7111 or visit www.ccapinc.org.

 * In celebration of Leap Year and February’s extra 29th day, from now until Feb. 29, NYC’s  Dumonet at The Carlyle (212-744-1600) introduces a $29.04 prix fixe lunch menu and $29.04 bottle of Lincourt Pinot Noir.

* From Feb. 15-March 15,  53 different cities have joined together to present “Menus with Meaning,” a series of culinary fundraisers to benefit Women Chefs & Restaurateurs’ Scholarship and Mentorship Programs.  Ticket prices will vary according to location but most will run $75-$150.  Visit   www.womenchefs.org. or call 877-927-7787.

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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.

 John Mariani is a columnist for Esquire, Wine Spectator, Diversion and the Harper Collection. He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink (Lebhar-Friedman), The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink (Broadway), and, with his wife Galina, the award-winning new Italian-American Cookbook (Harvard Common Press).   To  purchase from amazon.com, click on the image below.

copyright John Mariani 2003