Friday, August 10, 2012

Tips, Taps, Desserts

I've heard a lot about Brian Poe's cooking, thanks to friends who know him and his food. So, Jeff suggested we check out Poe's newest venture, The Tip Tap Room. What's in a name like that, you ask? Basically, meat (offered as tips from animals both everyday and exotic) and beer (flowing from the taps). As if meat and beer weren't enough, I was told they had good desserts. Never one to shirk dessert duty, we went. And an epic meal happened!

(Disclaimer: This is going to sound like a lot of food, but even the main portions were all appetizer-size or slightly smaller. So, we got little tastes of lots of things!)

The appetizers kicked things off right. Here is rock shrimp fried in kataifi and nori noodles, served with cucumber salad in a sweet chili ginger sauce.
Rock shrimp are small, sweet, and crisp. Their sweetness was a nice complement to the umami of the noodles wrapped around them. Those noodles were also crisp, but the sauce had softened them in places; so, there were a variety of textures in play. The sweet chili ginger sauce, with its fiery, tangy, and sugary notes, also played into the depth of the dish. I must confess, I forgot about the cucumber salad when I saw our next appetizer. Poe's take on grilled figs, stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped in pancetta, was another burst of varied but complementary flavors.
Sweet figs, tangy cheese, and salty pancetta were all soft delights. Burnt balsamic butter gave extra flavor to those pieces of pancetta that fell onto the plate! I liked having the balsamic flavor, often too vinegary for my taste, incorporated into something creamier. I could enjoy its unique taste without being overwhelmed.

The main course (meat course?) came next. The item at left is a yak burger with beer cheese and bacon. The little bit of beer cheese I had - most of it ran off the burger - was tasty, and the bacon was distinctive thanks to Poe's "Beacon Hill" curing process. I'm glad I tried yak, but I don't think I'll get it again. Yak is really lean, and it had none of the moisture that I usually enjoy in medium-rare meat. It was still tender, though, and the burger nearly fell apart as I ate it. The flavor was earthier, grassier, and more natural than beef.
The burgundy (!!!) meat at right is an ostrich tip. I hope its extraordinary appearance suggests how extraordinary it was to eat. The tip had marinated for a day prior, and was therefore succulent and tender. Ostrich is tougher than other birds, but the marinating softened it considerably. Some enjoyable chewiness remained, though! The flavor is unlike any other meat's. It's deep, and gamey, and doesn't need any salt or spices. Wow! I'd eat this again, and again, and...again.

An epic meal, right? Just wait. Things were about to get crazy, which apparently happens when your friend knows the chef and you advertise your love of desserts to said chef. We had planned to share the bread pudding. That apparently wasn't enough for Chef Poe. He surprised us with...

3 DESSERTS.

My eyes grew wide as the staff brought them all out at once. Let's go through them in as much detail as I can muster; please excuse my spotty recall from this taste-bud overload!

I don't normally like this type of dessert, but the bread pudding was to die for! It was made of brioche pieces that had been mixed with blackberries and white chocolate.
The bread was soft and chewy, but not too dry or soggy. (Most bread puddings I've had are one extreme or the other.) The brioche's pleasant vanilla flavor wasn't overwhelmed by the pudding's other parts. There were only a few berries throughout, which makes me think that berry juice or jam contributed most of the fruit flavor and color. The white chocolate worked well with the vanilla notes in the bread, and added a creamy consistency to the dessert that would have been missing otherwise. A dollop of whipped cream and a mint leaf served as garnishes. Then, the whole thing was drizzled in whiskey caramel. I love caramel, but dislike whiskey; fortunately, this sauce had much more of the former. It was a great sugary topper to a surprisingly complex dessert.

Next up was a lemon souffle with raspberry sauce!
I loved the pure fruit flavors in this dessert. Nothing was unnecessarily sweetened, so every bite was full of vibrant tang. The souffle was light as air, with so much flavor relative to its density. The raspberry sauce was a substantive anchor to the dish. A glaze reminiscent of thinned lemon curd was drizzled over it all, and a mint leaf plus streusel-like crumb topping were the finishing touches.

I've saved the best for last. This dessert wasn't on the menu, but I hope it gets there someday so everyone can try it! Behold a unique take on the brownie sundae, with brownies in port sauce in the foreground and a chocolate pudding cup in the background.
The brownies were your average dense, chocolatey baked goods, cut into small squares and positioned beautifully around the plate. They sat on small pools of a really strong port sauce, with aggressive raisin and alcohol notes, and were covered in stripes of chocolate frosting. Some strawberries added a fruity twist. I liked how many flavors there were in that small space, but the piece de resistance was hiding in the pudding cup. Here's a closeup of the treats within.
First of all, what do we see here? Deliciously creamy Valrhona milk chocolate feves and white chocolate batons, whose virtues I have previously extolled in these pages. Smaller chocolate shavings across the percent-cacao spectrum. Light-as-air whipped cream. Crunchy caramelized sugar. So many different kinds of sweet! And secondly, what's hiding beneath? The chocolate pudding, mixed with some creamy alcohol - Kahlua, or Baileys. This is how I like my desserts turned "adult", with something that itself is a liquid dessert. I absolutely loved this "desserts within desserts WITHIN DESSERTS" approach.

I think I've hit on something the Tip Tap Room does well, in both the sweet and savory realms - multifaceted gastronomic delights that give you as much as possible in every bite.

Jeff and I got through most of what was before us. I felt guilty leaving some delicious bites behind, but I know I'll be back for more. Thanks, Chef Poe and the Tip Tap Room, for a really unique dining experience!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Dessert Dump, Summer 2012 Edition

Dessert Dumps are going to become a fixture of summer blogging. It takes much less time to photograph and eat a dessert than it does to write a post, so that I'm overflowing with bloggable desserts in no time but am less full of words for them. So, here's some "blogging lite" on select delicacies from June and July!


Drunken Dutch Delicacies
Have you ever had stroopwafels? I hadn't heard of them until a happily hopped group of us stumbled up to the Bocoup Loft after the American Craft Beer Festival, where a stroopwafel manufacturer had dropped by and left a boxful of product. This pizzelle-like Dutch treat, made of two incredibly thin cookie-sized waffles with caramel pressed between, is intended for enjoyment with a warm beverage - if you set the stroopwafel on a mug of steaming something, that warmth will soften the stroopwafel and melt the caramel, turning it into a gooey, chewy treat. Here is an image of stroopwafels in their ideal use case.
Alas, I was not so careful in my consumption. I snarfed mine rather quickly like it were any old cookie, as befits post-Fest fun and hunger, only pausing to say "yeah, this is good". However, I'd gladly give them a "proper" try. (Bocoupers, are there any left?!)


Italian Finger Desserts
Another summer, another patio party at Dante! This summery fete was a blast due to the company of fellow foodies, literal splashy decor (beach balls and kiddie pools filled with water), local media coverage (yours truly was "Spotted in Boston"!), and, of course, plenty of delicious eats.
I was impressed with the dessert pictured at left. It probably has an official Italian name, but I'm going to call it a genoise cake ball. The two vanilla cake pieces were stuck together with amaretto cream, and the entire ball was then coated in amaretto chocolate and crushed almonds. Delicious and heady, the amaretto-chocolate combination was really winning. Genoise cake is usually so accommodating of creams, ganaches, and liqueurs. At right is an eclair filled with light peach custard and covered in an even lighter peach glaze. The chocolate dipping was sturdy and flavorful.


A Pre-Retreat Repast
It takes four hours to drive from my company's headquarters to our retreat center in Maine. Our caravan of 10 turned it into a day-long excursion, enabling the purchasing of, er, "retreat supplies", a waterfront seafood lunch, and gluten-free desserts along the way! The dessert in question came from Portland, Maine's Bam Bam Bakery. I never would have guessed that my peanut butter bar was gluten-free, it was so full of the usual baked goodies and then some:
The bar had a crumbly shortbread base that was then layered with fudge and marshmallow Fluff. Crisped rice that had been mixed into peanut butter came next, and chocolate chips topped it all off. Ooey, gooey goodness, and just as much of a treat as anything made with standard flour. I only wish I had more water on hand to wash it all down; that peanut butter / Fluff / fudge combination really sticks to your mouth!


Sunday Sugar...and Seafood
What do you do when you go to the North End for a meal at The Daily Catch, only to find that they're closed for the next half-hour? Why, cross Hanover Street to Mike's Pastry, of course, and enjoy an appetizer of dessert! I was glad to revisit this favorite college haunt to try their newer cannoli flavors. When I was in school, the chocolate mousse cannoli was a big deal; now, though, you get an ice cream shop's worth of varieties! Here is my Oreo cannoli, minus a bite or two.
Mike's now crushes Oreo cookies and mixes them with standard ricotta cream cannoli filling. I'm not the hugest fan of ricotta cream - hence that mousse cannoli back in the day - but I absolutely loved it with the Oreos added. (I guess I need my cookies with cream, eh?) The Oreo filling was in a standard cannoli shell dusted with powdered sugar; the fun touch was that both ends were dipped in cookie crumbles! Yum. I didn't sample this espresso cannoli - darn! - but I am told it was delicious.
Also, for the record - The Daily Catch has the. best. scallops. I have ever had!


Thanks for putting up with this blog's on-schedule Dump! Next up will be a full post on an unusual and interesting dinner, with desserts to match...