Winter Restaurant Week 2011

Another Restaurant Week has come and gone. I dined at three restaurants this time around!

I've had two previous Restaurant Week dinners at Harvest; their deliciousness, plus the restaurant's convenient Harvard Square setting, made me come back for more. I was surprised with how bland and average this meal was, though the dessert was a breath of tangy, fresh air. My appetizer was a white bean veloute, or soup, with pancetta, croutons, and olive oil. The soup tasted like mild, watered-down bean dip, and the tiny pancetta crumbles provided some crunch but little pig flavor. The entree was a smoked chicken breast served over polenta with golden raisins and cooked wilted chard. Sure, it was a nice chunk of meat, but the preparation was so ordinary, and the accompaniments so small and unseasoned, that this entire course would have been forgettable if not for the need to make blog notes. My dessert was a key lime parfait with gingersnap crust, lemon sauce, and raspberries. I have previously raved about Harvest's fruit desserts, and this one deserves equal praise! The parfait in question was a frozen treat, robustly flavored with key lime, of a consistency somewhere between ice cream, pudding, and whipped cream. It was smooth, light, occasionally crystalline, and pungently citrusy. The chewy gingersnap base crumbled at my fork's touch, and was thoroughly spiced. The lemon glaze and raspberries were the sweetest parts of the dessert; they tempered the tang and spice of the other components, and tied all flavors together nicely. Believe me, this picture does not do it justice! I only wish that I had more time to savor the dessert; instead, I hastily snarfed it down to make a performance in time.

My second RW dinner was another repeat adventure, this time to Sibling Rivalry in the South End. This dinner will go down as one of the best restaurant meals I've ever had, so please enjoy the images of all three courses! I started with ancho chile-spiced steak tartare, accompanied by salsa verde, avocado in cilantro oil, and a cheese pupusa with picked cabbage. How can I accurately convey this appetizer's sheer perfection? The degree of spicing on the steak was just right, and the meat itself (mixed with capers) was incredibly soft and tasty. I also loved eating bites of the pupusa, which had a seasoned maize-dought exterior, with pieces of oil-drizzled avocado.

My entree was mustard-glazed salmon paired with lump crab meat, tomatoes, spinach, and new potatoes. The mustard cream sauce had only a hint of spicy tang, which I liked; the fish it had been poured over was smooth and flaky. The crab meat - probably my favorite seafood - and spinach - definitely my favorite leafy green - were just icing on the proverbial cake. Sib Riv really knows how to do fish!

I had the orange pound cake with sauce Suzette and orange compote for dessert. The cake was not nearly as dense as the average pound cake, which helped it soak up the ample honey-citrus sauce. I would have called it a tea cake instead. The cake's orange flavor was quite subtle, but the assertively sweet yet tart sauce remedied any citrus deficiencies. The "compote" was actually orange slices drizzled in honey and garnished with almond slices. This pleasant and light dessert was a perfect way to end an indulgent meal, and was just as memorable - as well-executed citrus desserts must be! - as the phenomenal courses preceeding it. I really can't wait to return yet again to Sibling Rivalry!

I traveled to uncharted territory for my last RW treat. Bergamot, barely over the Cambridge line in Somerville, serves "progressive American cuisine" in a comfortable, intimate, yet fancy space. I really loved the mood of the place, and the food mostly rose to the occasion. I had a difficult time choosing an appetizer, as each had some ingredient I did not want - so, I ordered the goat cheese salad with shiitake mushrooms, oranges, and toasted hazelnuts, and left most of its frisee untouched. All non-greens fixins were tasty, and went together well. My entree was one of the most unique dishes I've ever seen! I ordered plantain gnocchi with black beans, avocado, red pepper, and portobello mushroom confit. I cannot extol the virtues of this delicious dish enough. Plantains are one of my favorite fruits, and I was amazed at how well they took, with slight seasoning, to gnocchi form. The beans were chewy and spicy; the avocado was tender and creamy; the mushrooms were smooth and earthy. All components combined into a dish bursting with flavor and satisfaction that did not burst my stomach. (I am so happy to have had gnocchi, and not been saddled with a stomachache afterward.) My dessert was also unique - a chocolate cremeux with olive oil dust and avocado - but Bergamot may have tried too hard with it. The cremeux itself was a fabulous whipped confection of cream and smooth milk chocolate, but the avocado accompaniments fell flat. The fruit was not ripe enough, so it did not have its full flavor potential. The balls and droplets seen in the picture, as well as the chunks encased within the cremeux (?!?!), were consistent with the chocolate dessert's texture, but were rather devoid of taste. I left them on my plate or carved them out, focusing only on the chocolate. Fortunately, my forkful of the grapefruit sabayon with madeleine was pleasing all around! I would give Bergamot another try based on their brilliant entree. Maybe their appetizers and desserts will rise to the occasion when not dealing in limited selections?

And now, for an alert from the non-food world: Happy Spring!

A Chocolate Crescendo Tasting

You may have read my occasional commentary on the temptations available at the Finale desserterie chain. All my earlier Finale visits involved siting down in their Cambridge or Boston restaurants and ordering a plated dessert off the menu - the typical Finale experience, I'm sure. I was lucky enough to have an atypical yet equally delicious Finale visit earlier this week, thanks to a chocolate tasting at their Brookline location that was hosted by their executive pastry chef!

 

The Chocolate Crescendo plate is the newest sharable dessert on Finale's menu. The plate holds a combination of classic Finale desserts and adventurous accents. Nicole Coady, the aforementioned pastry chef, eagerly discussed her two inspirations for the contents of the plate: chocolate, of course, and the flavors of Thailand. Thai flavors, really? Yes! I hope that anyone who is apprehensive of such tastes entering the dessert realm will reconsider their position by the end of this post.

Each taster was presented with a plate of 5 miniature desserts, along with pours of 5 sweet wines paired specially to each dessert.

• Peanut Butter Lime Truffle - this truffle was the most unusual dessert on the plate! A rich filling of peanut butter mixed with white chocolate, lime juice, and honey is enrobed in lime-tinged white chocolate and dusted with cayenne pepper. The smooth, peanutty center melded perfectly with the creamy white chocolate. The lime and pepper provided surprisingly welcome kicks, and their flavors worked perfectly with that of the peanut to create a unique savory/tangy/sweet experience. As my friend Jill exclaimed, "it's like pad Thai, in a dessert!"
• White Chocolate Panna Cotta - (A disclaimer: I've never liked panna cotta.) White chocolate is added to the usual cream/gelatin mixture to create a slightly sweeter, more solidified cream dessert. The panna cotta square sits upon a forgettable biscuit "crust" that is supposed to be ginger-flavored, though I couldn't taste the ginger. The best part of this dessert is the spice-infused apricot slice sitting on top! You can't go wrong with spicy-sweet fruit, and I wish I could have had a dessert's worth of these slices in place of the panna cotta.
• Creamy Coconut Truffle - this stellar truffle has a center of intensely sweet white chocolate and coconut cream. That sweet center is covered in rich but not bitter dark chocolate, which in turn is tufted with chopped coconut flakes. I love coconut's flavor, though not its flaky texture and questionable moisture (dried-out flakes are the worst!) - so, this truffle's coconut cream may be the best way I have ever experienced coconut! If this little treat had been available for individual purchase, I probably would have left the restaurant with several.
• Chocolate Symphony - ah, the Symphony cake. So many desserts in one! Finale's version has layers of light, spongy chocolate cake at the center, with mousses of different Valrhona chocolates separating them. The mousses are spread beyond the edges of the cake layers, so that the exterior of the Symphony looks like mousse alone. We have bittersweet chocolate at the bottom, followed by white and then milk chocolates. A chocolate wafer imprinted with Finale's logo sticks jauntily out of the cake's surface, and a confection of crisped rice tossed with dark chocolate and crystallized ginger takes up the remaining area. The cake itself and mousses were tasty, though fairly typical. The chocolate-ginger-rice treat, however, was memorable for its airy lightness and tongue-tingling pungency.
• Noisette Cupcake - Nutella is the best bread spread, hot chocolate additive, ice-cream topper, and...cupcake/frosting mix-in? Okay, the last one may be a bit of a stretch, but I still loved the miniature hazelnut cupcake! The cake base is moist and chocolaty, with chocolate pieces mixed in. The "noisette" addition cut through the chocolate and was very nutty, which makes me think that actual roasted and powdered nuts, rather than the aforementioned spread, may have been used to flavor it. The light buttercream frosting is smooth, creamy, and spiked with Nutella. The applied frosting is then dipped in a chocolate glaze, which gives the cupcake a smooth, polished appearance. The dramatic garnish extending off the top right of the image is a hazelnut dipped in cooked sugar, which is left to drip off the nut and solidify into a sticky-sweet prong. It sure looked pretty, but did not have much taste.

The dessert wines and ice wines paired with the first three desserts were exceptional, though I did not like the raisin-y sherries poured for the last two.

Overall, I think Nicole's inspiration really added to the overall dessert experience, even though I'm never one to be dissatisfied with chocolate alone. Carefully yet effectively executed spiciness, fruitiness, and nuttiness expand chocolate's appeal, to great effects! This tasting gets me thinking about what other cuisines could leave a footprint on an elaborate chocolate plate. Any ideas?