Palm & Pine

Tracie had told me that she had had a good dinner at Palm & Pine earlier in the conference.  I always appreciate a recommendation, and a glance at the menu online suggested that I would be happy there.  So when my meetings ended on Monday, I decided to just enjoy a dinner by myself at the bar there.  I got there shortly after opening and parked myself.

It wasn't too far from the hotel, so it was a nice little walk over.  The place wasn't too busy that early.  It was loud.  Interesting music, as far back in the 80s as Asia, of all things.  I read news and such on my phone and sipped my first drink (essentially a variation on a New York sour). 

I was almost done it when the sticky grilled rib tips came out. 

Yep, sticky.  Also, tasty.  And a nice, little heat to them.  I finished my drink, ordered another, the House of the Raisin Sun (I didn't get the name of the first, alas, and I cannot find it online). 

The corn babies came out,

and I started on them.  Then I nursed the (not as sweet as I thought it might be) second cocktail a loooong while.  The restaurant lagged a little, I have to say.  Small kitchen, they were busy, but the third item (from the small bites menu) I ordered was the corner store crudo. 

I read, and sipped carefully, and waited.  Finally, it came.  The crudo was tasty, truly, but wow, three small bites and two cocktails, and that was almost an hour and a half.  I paid up politely and left.

I appreciated Tracie's recommendation, to be sure, but I am glad I wasn't ravenous.  I'd go back, though - good food and interesting drinks.  Next conference, perhaps.

a few recent cooking observations

1. Blood orange souffles, by the time you get to the bottom of the dish, start to become a bit of a marmalade-y chore. I'll stick to other souffles in the future.
2. Why would anyone go for microwaved nachos or nachos with "cheese" sauce when oven baked are so much better. That's a rhetorical question, no responses need, you know I'm right.
3. I may no longer eat baby back ribs, but apparently I haven't lost my ability to cook them.
4. Chocolate cake good.

dinner in honour of Brian

Sad, but true: our friend/neighbour/teammate Brian is leaving Chicago. His partner, Giuseppe, will be in Chicago next weekend to help Brian finish off the last bits that need finishing and then export him out of the country. No more Project Runway nights or other casual dinners out. A nice piece of our social lives here in Chicago, gone.

Happily for us, though, Brian is moving to Vancouver. Last night's dinner in honour of him promises not to be the last dinner I make for him.

I think it may only have been once that I made us food for a Project Runway night at Brian's place, and it was a bunch of baby back ribs. When Brian, Daniel, Conrad and I were together recently - was it at Nightwood or a team brunch - the recollection of those ribs came up, and we decided that I would make us more on the evening of the team going-away party. Food first, then off to a gay bar. I rather enjoy ribs, so I was up for it.

Four of us became five with the addition of Rudy, and Conrad and I shifted plans for dining from the kitchen to the dining table. Cooking and set-up was not too difficult, and by the time the guys arrived (and nope, no photos of them, sorry), we were relaxing. A bottle of Champagne chilled, a few things to nibble on. Conversation started.

As for the food, well, it was fine enough. A rundown:

When I make ribs, I season them with salt and pepper, wrap them in foil, and bake in a low oven for 2+ hours. I don't have a standard sauce recipe. I usually mix up some sweet, some sour, some salty, and taste as I go along. The sauce yesterday had a mixture of garlic, ginger, sriracha, ketchup brown sugar, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and white wine vinegar. I usually unwrap the ribs then brush on the sauce a few times as they cook a while longer.

I don't make rice or pasta or potatoes for me and Conrad when we're alone, but I made up rice yesterday, returning in spirit to something we used to do at the restaurant, firecracker rice. I cooked basmati then tossed it with green onion, pine nuts, currants, diced red pepper, and a sauce mix. I reheated the rice before serving and placed mounds on each plate.

I'm a brassica fan - the vegetable sides give me away. Broccoli unadorned to add some green to the plate. A red cabbage slaw to add some purple. The slaw used a vinaigrette with a bit of sesame oil to tie it to the vaguely Asian flavours of the ribs and rice.

It all made for a satisfying plate of food, I think, I hope. And I didn't stop there, of course. A simple dessert of a ginger cake plated with a thin, quick creme anglaise and dried sour cherries soaked twice in brandy.
Best part of that is that there is a nice, big piece of extra cake leftover, and I'm mildly tempted this morning, before Conrad gets up, to slice a bit and toast it up for my breakfast.

A good meal, and as I noted, not the last meal I make for Brian, I am sure. As for Daniel and Rudy, well, they both liked the food AND cleaned their plates, thereby meeting the the conditions for being invited back.

success/failure (sort of)

Table is all set, a balance of shamrock, ivory, turquoise, and sunflower Fiestaware. Glasses are out for some pink wine to be poured. Nuts are there for snacking. The ribs? They came out of the oven from their first bake a while ago, and now they just await a sauce I threw together from ketchup, soy sauce, sriracha, molasses, vinegar, and I think that's it. It should be a good dinner with John and Bryan.

Should be.

Dinner, in fact, was. I had everything all set so there was minimal fussing in the kitchen, and I could even join Conrad and our guests on the balcony for a while before glazing the ribs, getting them back in the oven, and getting the veggies going (corn on the cob and salad). Finger bowls, even, finger bowls!
We ate, it was good.

And then came dessert.

Ah dessert, I am so out of practice. I tackled a new recipe that evening, and didn't quite get it right. See that?

That's a mango upside down cake. Doesn't look too moist and syrupy, though, I know. In fact, it looks rather like a coffee cake topped with streusel, and truthfully, that's how the upside down part turned out. It didn't stay soft and runny, getting soaked into the cake. Well, a little. Instead, it hardened into something of a candy (not too hard a candy, mind you), and I had to work at it to get the brown sugar mixture out of the pan after I turned out the cake. Once I had smeared it back on the cake top, it hardened a little further, and essentially became the streusel. I blame it on using too fine a shred of unsweetened coconut. Darn it.

Still, it tasted pretty fine with a dollop of whipped cream (stirred with a bit of yogurt for tang and coconut extract for scent). If I'd not told anyone, they'd never know.


But I can't lie to you, the three people in the world who read this blog. Sorry. Sort of a cake failure, but one that we devoured altogether easily in the end.

hot spicy nuts

How is THAT for a title that will get some traffic my way from Google?

;-)

In fact a simple post for this, my 600th (yes!) blog entry. Not too shabby. More than my journal entries for the awkward coming-out years. And more delicious, too.

Sunday night I joined a number of teammates in watching the Oscars, and the mixed nuts shown above were my simple contribution, along with a bottle of red wine. It's a nice, easy recipe that fits well into a lot of parties. Mixed nuts toasted gently, tossed while hot with a mix of butter, cayenne, salt, chopped fresh rosemary, and brown sugar. Serve warm and enjoy. The recipe comes from the Union Square Cafe cookbook, which I rather like.

I also made some ribs that afternoon with the intention of taking them to the party. With Conrad out of town, however, I spent the better part of the afternoon wrestling with how anti-social I felt. Ultimately I went. The ribs, on the other hand, stayed home. Good for a couple of lunches and a dinner.

I'm glad I did go. I didn't win the pool (16 out of 24), but Dan (the host) and Lee (the social director) put together a fun evening for about two-dozen of us. Nice. I'm glad that the Smelts are getting back into events like this.