The Winter 2009 Restaurant Week period has come and gone, and during its two weeks I was fortunate enough to experience several noteworthy restaurants. The desserts, for the most part, were also noteworthy!
I had wanted to dine at Sibling Rivalry in the South End, affectionately referred to as "Sib Riv," since summer 2008's Restaurant Week. This restaurant experience was well worth the wait, and will be worth a repeat visit! While most restaurants offer a limited menu for RW, Sib Riv let its guests choose from the full menu. The variety of Chef David and Chef Bob (yes, sibling)'s creations was impressive, though both my appetizer and main course were from David's side of the menu. My appetizer was handmade pappardelle pasta served in a mushroom sauce replete with rabbit meat (surprisingly tasty, although stringy), chanterelle mushrooms (flavor burst!), and dried tomatoes. This dish would have been a standout as a main course, and it was surely the best appetizer I ate in these two weeks. [An aside - you may notice a mushroom theme as a counterpoint to the dessert theme in this entry.] My main course was salmon, baked in a crisp pastry shell with spinach and mushroom duxelle, with a creamy lemon sauce and tomato fondue on the side. I really enjoyed this unexpected assortment of ingredients - I had never had salmon with mushrooms or spinach (two of my favorite foods) prior! The dessert was a rich little bit of caramel chocolate mousse. The mousse, which had hints of both milk and white chocolate, was complemented by a dollop of caramel creme anglaise as well as swirls of two different caramels across the plate. I enjoyed mixing the mousse, creme, and sweeter caramel (one was too bitter) into a bite of dense chocolate, airy sweetness, and sticky sauce. While the portion looked small, the mousse was dense enough to make you full when you were halfway through. Other Sib Riv items of note: (1) their bar uses Sailor Jerry rum in their house drinks - a rarity! (2) A delicious bottle of lighter-than-usual syrah was enjoyed. This restaurant has quite the wine list! (3) The dining room is not partitioned, and our booth along the leftmost wall had a full view of the restaurant, but it seemed acoustically separated from the general hubbub and gave a nice feeling of intimacy. I highly recommend Sib Riv for any special dining experience!
I cannot give the same ringing endorsement of Tangierino, a Moroccan restaurant on Charlestown's quaint cobblestone-and-gas-lamp Main Street. The decor and atmosphere are phenomenal - the booths and hallways are draped in sumptuous fabric; assortments of geometric lanterns with brilliant stained glass are suspended from every ceiling; framed "portraits" of veiled faces with strong, haunting eyes hang on vibrant red walls; seating is low, plush, and comfortable; strains of Mediterranean music (and the occasional elaborately-garbed belly dancer) make their way through the dining space. The food, however, does not merit enthusiasm. I considered my chicken b'stila appetizer to be a meat-sweet violation - and I am normally tolerant of bizarre flavor mixes. Imagine baklava...with chicken...and mint yogurt. Each ingredient alone would have been tasty, but the combination left me raising my eyebrows and pushing half of it to the side of my plate. I really enjoyed my main dish - seven-vegetable couscous - but a vegetarian friend who ordered the same dish found scraps of meat in hers. Those with dietary restrictions, beware! The last course was a flourless chocolate torte that would have been more accurately described as grainy chocolate gelatin. The "torte" was garnished with whipped cream, strawberries, and chocolate sauce; at least those tasted as they should have, though the chocolate sauce was somewhat weakly-flavored and thin. This dessert disappointment closed out a questionable meal. I had never tried Moroccan cuisine before, and I won't write it off entirely because I did enjoy my couscous, but Tangierino has definitely given me pause.
In the second week of RW, I found myself returning to an old favorite. Harvest, in Harvard Square, delivered a delicious meal yet again! The outdoor seating was understandably closed for the season, but our table was against a glass wall overlooking the courtyard - which, although empty, was still charming due to a fire blazing in a stone fireplace. Regardless of the time of year, this restaurant manages to be charming, inviting, and natural. My appetizer was a panzanella (bread salad) with crispy artichokes, parsley crostini, and burrata drizzled in balsamic vinaigrette. The burrata, or creamy mozzarella, was so smooth, and it provided a good textural counterpoint to the crunchy, bitter croutons. For the main course, I enjoyed a tart of forbidden black rice that was cooked with carrots, turnips, bok choy, and hen of the woods mushrooms. The explosive flavors of the rice and mushrooms were made even better by the faintly-spicy chile oil drizzled across the plate. I would love to recreate this in my kitchen sometime - while the spices may be difficult to replicate, the rice and mushrooms wouldn't. Dessert was a chocolate peanut crunch. This mousse-cake-like confection had a creamy white chocolate layer, a slightly denser milk chocolate layer, and a dry dark chocolate layer with peanuts and crisped rice interspersed. I was reminded of the Cheesecake Factory's chocolate tuxedo cream cheesecake, though this was fortunately lighter. A spoonful of vanilla creme fraiche and chocolate ganache completed the dessert. I enjoyed it, but I would have liked less white chocolate and cream / more crispy crunch!
My last Winter 2009 RW night was spent at Aquitaine, also in the South End. I had wanted to have dinner at this restaurant since going there for brunch once in 2008; dinner did not disappoint! To start, this restaurant has the perfect evening-dining atmosphere. There are high ceilings with exposed pipes and ducts, nearly-as-high (and wide!) windows, brick walls, mirrors, and soft incandescent lighting in the form of large globes pendant from the ceiling. The occasional Toulouse-Lautrec-esque poster completes this modern take on a traditional French bistro. The food was equally perfect! The tomato bisque appetizer had a robust tomato flavor, and was not overly creamy. Noteworthy details on this comfort classic were a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, and a large crouton thickly spread with goat cheese. I ordered tagliatelle with mushrooms as my main course; the hearty pasta was cooked in madeira cream and tossed with an assortment of mushrooms as well as spinach. Aquitaine's dessert was THE best of this four-restaurant tour - a dark chocolate torte with espresso-chocolate ganache and vanilla chantilly cream. The torte was warm, rich, and textured (hints of espresso powder added a pleasant graininess); it melted in my mouth! The ganache, warm enough that it was thin and spreadable / plentiful enough that it covered the entire plate, soaked perfectly into the torte and filled plenty a spoonful, and the vanilla creme acted as a breath of fresh air against the intense, dark flavors of the other ingredients. I could have eaten this dessert all night. Sigh, if only it were included on Aquitaine's regular menu...the thought of never eating it again is somewhat distressing! Perhaps this can be an inspiration for me to expand my baking into the world of fine desserts - a torte from my kitchen seems rather ambitious, but hey, I'll do what I have to to get a good dessert.
If you have not already, I hope you have the opportunity to try (most of) these restaurants! I, in turn, need to reevaluate my restaurant list, now that several of my top picks have been sampled. At this point, Bonfire and Sel de la Terre - oh, and Olives! - are pending...
No comments:
Post a Comment