Fun Ringing In The New Year with Dante's Food!

We were fortunate to ring in the New Year with good friends and Chef Dante Boccuzzi at his Restaurant Dante in Tremont Ohio. Diners had the option of a prix fixe tasting menu or the full a la carte menu. Three of us did the tasting and one created her own tasting from the regular menu.

My evening commenced with a lovely cocktail, which I did not photograph, that had been featured in a recent Cleveland Plain Dealer article - a Ginger Sidecar created by Dante Mixologist Alesya Pochynok, made with Hennessy cognac, fresh lemon and lime juice, simple syrup and Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur. 

Once seated, we were each presented with a complimentary glass of champagne and this amuse: 

"Shot" of Lobster Cappuccino, Vanilla Oil

A luxurious start to our repast - rich with cream (one small taste sent me running, happily, for my Lactaid) and deep lobster flavor, with a gentle touch of vanilla.

Maryland Crab Parfait

I couldn't decide which flavor I liked more - the pristine crabmeat, or the creamy avocado mousse above it. The bitterness of the arugula and the blood orange vinaigrette cut the richness just enough.

Truffled Spaghetti Carbonara

This was most definitely NOT the simple carbonara that Chef Dante demonstrated on Good Company Today last week! The deftly cooked, made-from-scratch pasta took my breath away (I'm a sucker for pasta). Mated with a buttery, creamy, truffly sauce, pancetta, parsley, black pepper and a perfect poached egg (sorry, no yolk porn, you'll have to take my word for it) - this was heaven on a plate and a truly special dish for the auspicious occasion. All three of us doing the tasting menu reached for the bread basket and wiped our plates completely - it was that good.

3 Preparations of Duck: Roasted Duck Breast, Cotechino Sausage, Foie Gras Mousse, Lentils

I was already reaching satiety when this plate arrived (and indeed, most of the breast meat came home in a leftovers box). So, I slowly savored the amazing foie gras mousse, both on its own, and combined with the toothy Italian Lentils (an Italian tradition for New Year's Eve) and the house-made duck sausage. That multi-tiered bite may have been the single most amazing morsel of food I tasted in 2010. 

"Surf and Turf": Braised Beef Shortribs, Roasted Sea Scallops, Celery Variations

I did reach "uncle" during this course - but not before I enjoyed every bit of that scallop! I skipped the big hunk of raw celery on top of the beef, and most of the slice of root atop the scallop, but the pureed interpretation on the plate did not tip my anti-celery meter and was a creamy accompaniment to the scallop and the two bites of shortrib that I managed. Most of the shortrib joined the duck breast in take-home mode, simply because it would have been gluttonous to try to consume any more.

predessert: Comice Pear Salad, Pomegranate Sorbet

This is what the menu said, though none of us tasted much pear flavor - and the fruit slices in the bottom were most certainly citrus (probably blood orange) and not pear. My guess would be that Chef Dante was not pleased with the quality of the pears he received, and changed the dish up accordingly. No harm done; we loved it.

Chocolate Tasting: Spiced Hot Cocoa, Ganache Tartlet, White Chocolate Ice Cream

What better way to end a celebratory meal than with a chocolate tasting! Like most house-made ice creams, this one melted a little fast - but that was fine with me. I dipped my bites of the tartlet into the creamy pool and I was very happy.

We, together with a number of other customers, lingered at the restaurant through the dropping of the ball, sharing in party favors and a complimentary drink with Dante, his wife Monica, and the rest of the staff, to toast the new year, and then we all trundled home to the first hours of 2011.

New Year's Eve is often referred to as "amateur night" for a lot of reasons - I am delighted that our experience at Restaurant Dante was reasonably priced ($110 with wine pairings/$70 without) and everyone in attendance (and, for the most part, on the road driving home) was well behaved. I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, but I did make one this time: to get back to Restaurant Dante to play with Dante's food again soon! Ok - I also resolved to try Dante's new Japanese restaurant Ginkgo promptly when it opens, hopefully by the end of March 2011.

Fun Playing With Ramps and Asian Goodies

This last weekend yielded a lot of great foods to play with. Spring has finally sprung, and we made tracks for the North Union Farmers' Market at Shaker Square. We acquired two lovely bunches of ramps, with the roots still intact. We set aside one bunch to plant, and the second to eat. We also got some lovely lettuces and eggs.

Since the season is still early, we allocated more time to the market than we needed to shop it and meet our friends for lunch at Wonton Gourmet. So, we headed to Asiatown, and did some produce shopping at Tink Holl Market. 

There were about a dozen different varieties of mint, as pictured above. Also, lots of Asian vegetables and not-so-Asian vegetables, and fruits. A cornucopia of goodness!

I'd never seen fresh galanga stem before.

We bought some of this intense, giant-sized cilantro, and it played nicely in the dinner we cooked Saturday  night. But I'm jumping ahead . . . .

The freshest, most exquisite water chestnuts I've ever worked with or tasted. Simply amazing. Go get some!

Not one bit of yellow, or mush - not a speck of rot or imperfection. I don't know where or how Tink Holl got these - but I want more! And the ginger - simply exquisite in texture and freshness.

But again, I digress - we had a fabulous lunch at Wonton Gourmet before we dug into the spoils of our shopping trip! (To read about Wonton Gourmet - including prior Wonton Gourmet posts - Wonton Gourmet (3211 Payne Avenue, 216-875-7000, no website), each of the last 8 words, and a couple of the upcoming words, has a link to a different FPWF WG post.) Our crew of 6 was joined at the last minute by the Whittakers and lovely Isabel, who happened fortuitously on Wonton Gourmet before all of our party had arrived. 

After starting with the requisite Turnip Cake, Chive Pot Stickers and Donut Wrapped with Rice Roll, we enjoyed these new or revisited Wonton Gourmet selections: 

Ningko (Rice Cakes) with Chinese Sausage

We've had this before, but not lately - house made, toothy rice cakes tossed with lap cheong (Chinese sausage) and a type of Chinese bacon, veggies and a light sauce - heavenly!

Salt Crusted Calamari

Lovely squid is breaded and expertly fried. Haven't had this in a long time - but this was dynamite - especially with bits of the fiery hot peppers scattered on the plate.

Braised Brisket over Noodles

The word "brisket" means a very different thing to a nice Jewish girl and an old country Chinese. "Brisket" refers to a beef cut also known as "tendon" - loaded with connective tissue and braised to tenderness. I was intrigued to try this new dish on the wall-menu.

This dish was the perfect counterpoint to the spicy Sichuan Fish (shown here). Loaded with not-quite-sweet but intense anise flavor, and the crunch and chew of the noodles - there were almost no leftovers. Though a few chunks of the intensely fatty meat were too much for even this group of power eaters.

 
Garlic-Sauteed Pea Leaves

Our hardy group of 8 adults and one wonderfully adventurous one-year-old managed to consume a delightful feast - which I might note worked out to about $13/per person. Wonton Gourmet is an affordable gastronomic adventure not to be missed!

Anyway, since we lunched at Wonton earlier than we usually do, we actually found ourselves hungry at dinner-time. And so, we dug into the goodies we'd acquired at the farmers' market and Tink Holl.

The centerpiece for the meal was the package of thick, round rice noodles called "banh bot loc". A little internet research revealed names such as "silver thread noodles" and even "mouse tail" noodles to describe this delicacy. In my mind's eye - I was seeing a fried noodle dish served sometimes at Dim Sum, which could incorporate our ramps, and our protein of choice.

So sorry - I completely forgot to introduce you to our protein of the week. Please, put your hands together for another amazing ham from our Breychak  Farms Berkshire Hog half:

 

Bob roasted this lovely on Friday.

For Saturday's dinner, chunks of ham married with the rice noodles, water chestnuts, scallions from the fridge (which needed to be finished before we could dig into the ramps), gorgeous ginger from Tink Holl, garden garlic, oyster sauce, mushroom soy, light soy, a touch of sugar, Chinese Flowering Chives, from Tink Holl, and a sprinkle of the cilantro-on-steroids from Tink Holl:


Rice Noodles After A Short Soak in Hot Water






The combination of tastes, textures and flavors was simply marvelous!

Sunday night - I was craving Italian flavors. I knew that we'd just acquired all of these fabulous Asian ingredients - but the ramps just seemed to cry out for this treatment:


Ramps, Ham, Frozen Garden Peas, EVOO, Cheese, Linguine

 

More marvels!

Finally, Monday night. Despite Spring asthma that is bedeviling my health - I put together this lovely repast (with help from my sous chef Bob):


Yi Mein (Medium-Wide Chinese Egg Noodles)



This particular variety has been among my favorites for Asian noodles for years! Wish I could get some without artificial colors or preservatives - but can't help loving them!


Ramps Sauteeing

 
Plum Creek Egg Yolk for Finishing 




Pasta Carbonara

Inspired by Chef Dominic Cerino's Blue Egg Carbonara - Yi  Mein noodles were cooked and tossed with sauteed ramps, sauteed ham, EVOO, a mixture of egg and white wine, evoo, salt and pepper, cracked black pepper, grated Parmesan, chopped parsley, and a raw Plum Creek Farms egg yolk. OMG - we almost inhaled the whole thing!



Tis the season to visit the early farmers' markets and to play with the goodness to be found there! I can't wait to combine the seasonal goodness with the other toys we picked up at Tink Holl - including Asian eggplant and fresh snowpeas (they actually snap - try that with your supermarket snow peas).  Stay tuned for more fun playing with these lovely foods!