Le Bec Fin

Tuesday nights at conferences has become the traditional night for me to dine out with RAD. Formerly my department head, he remains good dinner company and a fellow foodie. Man, do I hate that tag for all that it fits!

Conrad was tempted to come out to Philadelphia simply to come to tonight's restaurant (he's in Honolulu instead, poor soul), Le Bec Fin. Long regarded as one of the best in the city, it lived up to its reputation, I think.

But back up a moment: I didn't report on last night's dinner. There's good reason for that. My date, it turns out, took a too-lengthy nap and slept through our appointed time to meet. After 35 minutes of sitting at Matyson without him (and not opening the bottle of Quail's Gate Pinot Noir I'd brought to Philadelphia with me), I went ahead and ordered. AJ's loss, sadly for him. The smoked sweetbreads with fried poached eggs were a magnificent starter. Stunning. The fragrance filled the restaurant, tantalizingly. Yum! After that, the chicken breast was merely fine while the butterscotch pudding was excellent comfort food. I should go back there, and I highly recommend it.

Okay, back to tonight!

We stuck with the four course menu and supplemented it with a cheese course after the salad. RAD started with a vodka cocktail while I went for a white Bordeaux, but with dinner we shared a bottle of a Sancerre that somehow evoked lime and apple blossom (honeysuckle, perhaps?) for me. It was a great selection, and we dug in to our food happily.

First up, a little amuse-bouche. Not memorable, in fact, but no matter.

RAD's crab cake.

My cassolette of snails in a Champagne and hazelnut garlic butter sauce - good and garlicky!

RAD's sauteed grouper filet, panisse flavored with orange, snow peas julienne, red bell pepper sauce.

My salmon confit in olive oil, braised celery and fennel, jus de poulet flavored with star anise. The star anise was not so strong, and the fish, topped appealingly with roe, was cooked so perfectly that embellishment with sauces seemed kind of beside the point.

We didn't take photos of the simple salad, though I will say it was dressed just wonderfully if simply. On to the cheeses, and we were invited to have as many of the 12 or more selections as desired. Don't ask me to name them! Up first, RAD's cheeses,then mine.

Dessert came on a cart,
and it was another matter of selecting what we liked and having a sample, as many different ones as we liked. So, then my desserts.

By this point, he was having a French red dessert wine, while I held back and finished the glass of Gevrey-Chambertin I had ordered. Yes, we drank well tonight to boot!

And good gosh: petit fours!

So, I am well fed and contented. The food last night was arguably more interesting, but there's not two ways about it, tonight was food prepared immaculately and delightfully well. A gorgeous room and good company. I am, indeed, happy with the caveat tha I wish Conrad had been here to enjoy it, too!

Susanna Foo

A briefer post than the last, sort of. More photos - food ahoy! - but less text save for descriptions.

I have to thank Chris and Ronnie for treating me to dinner. We had a quiet window nook table, and that gave us ample opportunity to catch up. Now if only we can get them to come back to Chicago so we can treat them to a dinner or two there!

Susanna Foo was our choice for Saturday night. I'd heard about it on my last trip to Philadelphia, and given that the owner has a Library Science degree as well, I rather wanted to go. Ronnie owns a Foo cookbook, too, so that made her especially interested. Chris? He has come to like a wide variety of good food, so he was quite willing.

I wasn't disappointed, though I had the curious feeling of wishing I'd had some of the other dishes I saw. No, mine was very tasty, I can promise, but I was torn between 4 or five regular menu entrees plus one of the specials, and fine as mine was, I wish I'd been able to taste some of the other things I saw on the menu or at other tables. Ah well.

Unusually for me, I opted for a cocktail at first, the Renoir, a concoction of elderflower cordial, Sauvignon Blanc, and soda water. Fun, and good, though I switched to a glass of a Shiraz with my main course.

The menu on the Web site is not up to date, so I don't have detailed descriptions for everything, alas.

My caramelized foie gras with pineapple foam.

Ronnie and her spring rolls.

Chris and his shrimp and Granny Smith apple potstickers.

My WuXi Beef Shortrib.

Chris' Szechwan Seafood.

A blurry shot of Ronnie's duck.

Ronnie's trio of citrus desserts.I didn't have dessert either - wow, what is wrong with me - but just sipped my wine slowly.

Philadelphia story so far

I couldn't resist the title, sorry. I'm corny, and there's an oh-so-tenuous connection to the movie for me.

I've not blogged in several days. Last week was a very busy one in Chicago leading up to my trip here to Philadelphia on Friday. Conrad is not with me - he's in Honolulu right now, and I am busy with events at the ALA Midwinter Meetings. Back to Chicago on Wednesday, but still more to do.

I'll separately blog the dinner on Saturday with Chris and Ronnie, but to otherwise give you a sense of what I've been doing:

• Task force meetings, vendor presentations, visiting exhibits, two candidates' forums, and attendance at a Round Table social.
• Swim practice with the Philadelphia Fins - the swimmers I met were all very very welcoming, and I delighted by that and sorry I couldn't go for dim sum with them.
• Dinner last night at Amada with my roomie, Martin, and David from Houston. I forgot to bring the camera, but it's just as well as sometimes it's nicer just to be able to go and dine. Funnily enough, the host was one of the Fins, and he recognized me from the practice earlier that day. The food, I should add, was outstanding. We all settled on the chef's selection of tapas, and there were multiple highs like the piquillos rellenos (crab stuffed peppers), the garbanzos con spinacas (chickpeas with spinach - marvelously garlicky!), albondigas (lamb meatballs with shaved manchego), and the madre e hijo (chicken breast cooked sous-vide style with fried egg, fingerling potatoes, and black truffle). We all had the wine pairings with it (including a Portuguese red that had a delicious scent of violets) and shared two desserts of which the Manchego (sheep cheese)Mousse with Pistachio Shortdough, Apple Crumb, and Apple Cider Sorbet was my favourite.

Above all, though, I want to highlight Saturday's visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Good gosh but that's a magnificent building with a remarkable collection.

I had the opportunity on Saturday morning to attend an early morning lecture by the author and photographer of a book called Rocky Stories. The Museum steps, you see, are featured in the Rocky movies thanks to the iconic scene in the first film where Rocky runs up the steps and celebrates with a solitary jig at dawn at the top. Tourists and others come to Philadelphia to see the steps and do the same run/jig. Okay, I get it. It sounds hokey to me in so far as I've never seen the movie, but you know what? The two men speaking put together what sounded like a fascinating book about everyday people and celebrations of their personal triumphs. I fell for it and bought the book and got it signed.

A handful of hours later, and I was meeting Chris and Ronnie on the steps, admiring the city view before heading inside.
The weather was quite fine - sunny and around 12 Celsius - and the view is terrific. I hadn't seen them since they visited Chicago the year after their wedding, so it was great to catch up as we wandered through the galleries.Afterwards, it was a nice stroll back to the city center and on to the restaurant for dinner. But that will keep for the next posting, I think.

comforting food (Mexican flavours)

I think this may count as our first dinner party of 2008. Congratulations us!

:-)

Bryan and John came for dinner tonight.We hadn't seen them since before the holidays thanks to their cruise through the Hawaiian Islands for Christmas. SO nice to hear about their trip and catch up with the two of them. And, of course, to feed them.

I set out some small things to nibble on:tomatoes, little crostini (store bought, sorry - I wanted to make today relatively easy on us), a couple of cheeses (the hard wedge is the Neals Yard Dairy English Cheshire Appleby and the soft half-round is Langa Bonrus Sheep and Cow's Milk),a dish of a caramelized cauliflower and shallot puree, and a dish of olives. We opened a bottle of Joie Noble Blend and quickly dove in to conversation.

Dinner was a simple affair. I think I've mentioned before how bloody lazy I am, and today was no different. A one-pot main course: a stew of pork and black beans with a sauce made from tomatillos, some poblano, cilantro, and chicken broth. I topped each dish with a bit of sour cream (stirred with lime juice), some shredded jack cheese, and a sprinkle of green onion and radish.
Conrad has a bad habit, I should say, of capturing me when I'm busy in the kitchen, and vain creature that I am, I wish he wouldn't!


Alongside the stew were biscuits.
Biscuits for Bryan - a man from The South. Brave of me. He was very nice about them, and they were fine enough, I think. Not standard biscuits but made using some masa harina.

After that came a green salad with a dressing of lime, charred garlic, and oregano.

Conrad had told me that the guys were bringing dessert from the bakery at Cafe Selmarie. Alas, wires got crossed, and I found myself planning dessert on the fly. Keeping with the idea of easy, lazy, comforting foods and Mexican flavours, I sent them into the living room after dinner and whipped up some Mexican Chocolate souffles.
Not too bad an effort, all things considered!

NYE

Honesty compels me to admit that New Year's Eve is pretty much my least favourite celebration of the year, and if it wasn't for past experience suggesting that ringing in the New Year at Yoshi's would be delightful, I'd otherwise be content to stay home and order in Thai food or sushi.

Nevermind me, I'm a curmudgeon at times. We had a very good time last night, dining with our friend Frank at the bar at Yoshi's. Yoshi had made up a set menu for the revelers, and we enjoyed it greatly.

Kaiseki style appetizer: baked half shell oyster florentine on a bed of spinach with Mornay sauce and domestic sturgeon caviar; sea scallop mousse terrine with crab meat and sauce remoulade; duck liver mousse pâté coated with black truffle. Yes, those are little diced bits of aspic. Yoshi and his team spent much time on the meal, and I fear that details like the aspic get lost on most people. The pâté was a highlight, I should add.

Soup: lobster consommé matsuyake dobin-mushi. Because, of course, I only like the pricey mushrooms. After eating the solids with chopsticks, we consumed the consommé through the spout of the kettle.


Salad: Hawaiian kampachi salad with wasabu microgreens and blood orange vinaigrette.

Entrée: combination of roasted Wagyu beef rib-eye steak with smoked red wine sauce and half lobster with motoyaki sauce. The red wine sauce kills me every time.


Dessert: combination of tres leches, pumpkin crème brûlée, and fresh berries. The cake? Super moist and another high point. A great way to close the meal.

The three of us shared a bottle of the San Simeon Pinot Noirand otherwise caught up on our holiday travels. We hadn't seen Frank since before Christmas, so we had a present to give him as well.

And then, 2008. We all cheered and hooted and got caught up in the spirit of it.
Once we'd rung in the New Year, we walked home. The snow had abated some but not entirely. Conrad and I were in bed before 1:00, contented.

Also, I think this sweater/tie look is kind of cute on me. Ah yes, I start 2008 as vain as ever!