Fun Playing With Birthday Dinner in the Dark

As readers of this blog know, I am a huge fan and supporter of Cleveland's Dinner in the Dark, and its three founding Chefs - Brian Okin, Jeff Jarrett and Ellis Cooley. I was a little surprised and a lot delighted when they announced that July's edition would be on July 11. Took all of the usual planning out of my birthday this year, which was kind of nice. And to make it even better, Brian asked me if there were any particular chefs I might like for them to invite. First - I asked him to cook, since he seldom has at DITD. Next - I gave him a short list. Of course, I was in the dark as to who actually said "yes."

The dinner was held at the newly opened Market Garden Brewery, next to the West Side Market in Ohio City. We arrived a little early and walked through the spacious outdoor beer garden, into the restaurant, and began with a stop at one of the two comfy bars for a "beer cocktail" that totally pleased the Birthday Girl: The Sweet & Stout. House-brewed St. Emeric's Stout is mixed with Pernod, Godiva Dark, Cynar and Aztec Chocolate Bitters. An unexpected combination that worked brilliantly as a pre-dinner drink.

Working our way into the back room, which looks like it can accommodate private parties up to at least 60 people, we took our seats and noticed the lovely centerpiece.

Buckeye Zakuska Featuring KJ Greens' Produce

Our host in all things cocktail, Joe DeLuca, announced that we would be enjoying the traditional accompaniment to zakuska (cold pickled vegetables) - ice cold vodka, provided by Buckeye Vodka out of Dayton Ohio. Let it be known throughout the land that yours truly not only tasted and enjoyed the KJ Greens radish, but actually had a second! And since our host venue produces craft beer, our meal was accompanied by the juice of the barley rather than wine this month.

David Chin of The Market Cafe & Wine Bar provided our amuse (as well as the intermezzo later in the meal):

The sweet smelling and tasting shrimp were accompanied by nori, fried noodles, KJ microgreens and a chili-soy dressing.

Our first course came from DITD co-founder Brian Okin, who enthusiastically embraced the "open mic night, jam session for chefs" concept with his dish:

Veal Calf Fries

Brian was "unavoidably delayed" coming up from the kitchen to describe his dish, so everyone dug in, still in the dark about what we were eating. The star of the plate was the perfectly fried orb at 12 o'clock in this photo. The contents were pink and so tender that it melted in the mouth - delicious! Sort of like a sweetbread, but not quite. What could it be? I guessed calf brains, which I knew couldn't be right because bovine brains are definitely a no-no these days. Turns out  that I wasn't that far wrong (depending on how you look at it) - "calf fries" are calf testicles that have been, well, fried. This version was served with two delicious relishes: corn, ramps, speck and radishes, and a warm roasted tomato marmalade. The final touch was a from-scratch carrot oil. All I can say after eating this is that we've gotta find this guy a restaurant to cook in!

Chef Rocco Whalen of Tremont's Fahrenheit offered a sort of "surf and turf" for the next course:

East Coast Tuna, Topped With Asian Dressing Over Salad and Sweet N Spicy Shortrib Slider

Simply beautiful and finger-licking good. Thank you Chef Rocco!

Ohio Beet Salad

Our next course came from Chef Mike Nowak, Executive Chef of sister restaurants Bar Cento and Market Garden Brewery. The salad included gorgeous Gold & Red Beets, Orange, Ohio Honey, and Chervil and was accompanied by creamy Lucky Penny Goat Cheese, Verbana and Black Truffle.

The intermezzo presented in an unusual fashion. First, an ice-filled glass:

 

Then - the opportunity to play with our food - thank you Chef David Chin!

Fresh Blackberry Puree

Mixed Melon Puree

The idea was to combine the flavors and textures to make your own snow cone. Most refreshing!

I was already feeling rather full by the time the next course, chock full of seafood, made its way to the table:

Cioppino (fish stew)

Scallop, shrimp, mussels, squid (including tentacles!), and lobster, topped with grilled bread and bathed in a velvety tomato-based sauce prepared by Bar Cento and Market Garden Chef De Cuisine Adam Lambert.

The final savory course was presented by another of the chefs I'd suggested to Brian - this will be the ONLY DITD where they'll be allowed to do a course, because they (usually) provide a complimentary meal to all of the volunteers involved in putting on each month's event every month! And what a doozy Chefs Walter Hyde and Scott Slagle (of Fat Casual BBQ) came up with!

Picnic on a Plate

"Chicken & Grits" - whole bone-in breast split and stuffed with Gorgonzola cheese, coated with grits and smoked - and a dry-rubbed smoked rib, rest atop a green salad, julienne of sweet potato, whole strawberries, candied pecans, and the meats were topped with BBQ sauce made from Ohio Honey, fresh strawberry and local maple syrup. The Gorgonzola and the grits picked up such a unique and smoky flavor. This dish succeeded in evoking the picnic of my dreams; thank you Walter and Scott!







Dessert came from the able hands of Megan Jenny of The Cleveland Cupcake Company, though most of this went into a box for Tuesday's breakfast because I was too darn full to eat it. Each bite was wonderful, and if you are anywhere near Cleveland Heights, you need to give her sweets a try.

I feel truly honored that DITD was held on my birthday and it was a most fitting way to celebrate. Next month's edition will be held on a Saturday rather than a Monday, but will otherwise remain true to the formula ($65 plus tax and tip gets you 6 courses+ of food, wine pairings, and a fabulous time) at a unique location - the Culinary Vegetable Institute. I hope you can join us on August 27 at 6:30pm for another amazing dinner, which will benefit as always a local charity. July's event benefited Cleveland's Saint Martin de Porres High School; August's dinner will benefit Veggie U, which brings the joys of local, sustainable and whole food into elementary school classes!

Fun Playing With Birthday Sushi at Pacific East Solon

Bob and I shared two fabulous meals for my birthday on Monday. First - lunch at Pacific East Solon. We started with two items from the sushi bar "specials" board, then completed the meal by sharing three rolls and two inari.

Toro Nigiri

The fatty tuna offered rich texture and great flavor.

Torched Waygu Beef

Asparagus Roll

Victoria Roll

Lobster salad, tuna, escalor tuna, avocado, masago, mini rice puff wrapped w/ soy bean paper (they held the cucumber at my request). 

Iso Maki 

Tuna, salmon, yellowtail, avocado, mayonnaise, bonito flake, seaweed flake wrapped w. special seaweed (they again held the cucumber at my request).

Inari 

Bob had never before enjoyed this delicacy; I had forgotten how much I love this simple dish. Fried tofu skin is stuffed with slightly sweetened sushi rice and sesame seeds. 

I don't know why we don't visit Pacific East more often; their raw fish is pristine and their service exquisite. Happy Birthday to me.

Fun Playing with Zha Jiang Mien (Noodles with Meat Sauce)

Zha Jiang Mein is a staple dish of Beijing, and is the Chinese version of pasta with meat sauce. I had a hankering for it last week, and thanks to Ohio City Pasta, we had everything we needed on hand:

Ohio City Pasta Wheat Somen

Sauce Ingredients

The sauce is one part each of the above components. From left to right - Chinese Chili Paste with Garlic, Brown Bean Sauce (note that the label says simply "Bean Sauce" - this version has chunks of whole broad bean in it, whereas the inferior "Ground Bean Sauce" does not), and Wei Chuan Hoisin Sauce (my preferred brand because it has no artificial preservatives; most Hoisin Sauces have sodium benzoate added). You can probably find versions of each of these at your local supermarket; these varieties are more readily sourced at an Asian grocery store.

For half a pound each of meat and noodles, I used 2TB of each sauce component.


Smashed and Chopped Garlic

While the scallion is the only vegetable you'll see in most recipes for this dish (though thin strips of raw carrot are sometimes recommended as garnish), I wanted this to be a one-pot meal - so red pepper and carrot were added to the mix.

Chopped Scallion for Garnish

The role of ground pork was played by a large half pound of Italian Sausage from our Breychak Farm hog, casing removed

Half a cup of homemade Duck Stock (from the freezer) is combined with sugar and cornstarch

The sausage is browned at very high heat, then the garlic and vegetables are added (be very careful to not scorch the garlic). High heat plus pork fat = beautiful color in the vegetables.

After a few minutes, I deglazed the pan with a bit of sherry, then lowered the heat and stirred in the sauce mix:



Once the pan got bubbly, I stirred and added the stock/sugar/cornstarch mixture:

As the sauce bubbles and thickens - noodles cook in boiling water for 2 minutes and are turned into bowls. The sauce, which traditionally is quite oily (though I didn't add the 1/2 cup of cooking oil the traditional recipe calls for to the browning meat because our Berkshire hog sausage yielded plenty of nice pork fat, thank you), is spooned over the pasta:

The chili paste gives this dish a nice bit of zing, and the veggies added some crunch. Comfort food in a bowl! It was so good that we ate  Zha Jiang Mein again the next night, made with leftover grilled chicken meat and Ohio City Pasta Whole Wheat Spaghetti, which wasn't quite as toothy as the somen, but still produced a tasty dinner.  Fun playing with noodles and meat sauce can make a great weeknight dinner!

Fun Playing Pop Up Easy Japaneasy with Chef Lee Anne Wong

Perhaps the greatest film in the "food and sex" genre ever made is Juzo Itami's Tampopo - a self-described "noodle western". In Tampopo ("Dandelion"), the hapless widow Tampopo recruits Goro (think Burt Reynolds in "Smokey and the Bandit") to go with her in search of the perfect bowl of ramen. Merry  food-related madness ensues that must be viewed to be fully appreciated.

When dating my husband in the early 1990s, I laid down two pre-conditions to moving to Cleveland from the East Coast - a quality brewpub and a Chinatown. While Cleveland had (and has) both of those things, one of the two gaping culinary omissions that remained here (the second being a good locally made knish) has always been the lack of a real ramen shop. Yes, several of our Asiatown restaurants offer noodle soup, and some of it is pretty good. But, until now, there has been no place to go, say after a viewing of Tampopo on DVD (and when will they release a print of it containing all of those wonderful, deleted scenes?) to quench the thirst for truly great ramen.

James Beard Nominated and Food & Wine Best New Chef winner Jonathon Sawyer is coming to our rescue very shortly with the opening of Noodlecat, 234 Euclid  Avenue, Cleveland, 216-589-0007. Noodlecat will be Cleveland's first full time ramen house,* and is scheduled to open around July 15, 2011. Though the noodles will not be made in-house, they will be produced to Chef Sawyer's formula by the best pasta purveyor in Cleveland - Ohio City Pasta. 

Chef Sawyer is also a principal in the recently formed Brick & Mortar Pop-Ups venture, which is celebrating Noodlecat prior to its opening with two short pop up dining series. The first one began last night and concludes tonight; we were fortunate to snag a late reservation.

Though last night's pop up was very well attended, as of this writing, there are still a few seats available for tonight's second go round; if you enjoy Asian food, do not miss this opportunity to play with Easy Japaneasy as conceived and executed by Top Chef alumnus Lee Anne Wong!

We chose the four course tasting menu ($44) with Beverage Pairings ($20); all items are also available a la carte (except alcohol, available only as a pairing for this special event). As we waited for our first course, we played with the condiments on the Noodlecat tables:

The house concocted chili sauce is in the squeeze bottle, a house concocted spice mix is in the shaker, and behind these two is a bottle of charcoal-filtered soy sauce.

Togamashi - Spice Blend 

Soy Sauce

This is no ordinary Sriracha, though it begins with that Southeast Asian condiment. Chef Sawyer also blends ketchup, chili paste, red wine vinegar and other secret ingredients to get this just so. Not too hot, but exploding with flavor, the Sriracha complemented several of Chef Wong's dishes, so I'm glad we decided to play with it! A sprinkle of Togamashi is on the right side of the spoon.

We enjoyed two different styles from Japan's Hitachino Brewery, which was a victim of the March 2011 earthquake; Noodlecat scored a cache of beer from the last batches brewed before the disaster. Both beer styles offered real malt and hop flavors rarely seen in Asian imports; what a shame to lose them. Here's the XH; the more malty of the two:

Get them while you can at Noodlecat.

Course #1: Fingers (well, actually finger foods - but Chef Wong likes to play with her menu has much as her food).

Oyster Roast - Togarashi Garlic Bone Marrow Butter

Yes, you read that correctly - Bone Marrow Butter. Even if you think you hate oysters - these will win you over. Each slurp melted in the mouth, leaving perfect contentment behind. Really.

Tonkatsu Sliders - Mustard-Katsu Sauce, Cabbage Salad 

These patties did not want to slide at all - crispy yet amazingly tender and bursting with real pork flavor, Chef Wong explained that the meat had been tenderized but not minced, which explained the velvety texture. The bun, eerily similar to the burger buns at B Spot, perfectly complimented the meat and held together through the last bite despite the wet condiments. A unique and delicious take on the ubiquitous slider.

Course #2: Sticks (to be eaten with chopsticks, of course).

Shrimp and Fresh Waterchestnut Gyoza- Scallion Ponzu 

I am a sucker for dumplings, so we had to try the gyoza. Freshly made dumpling dough was expertly stuffed and perfectly cooked. Though there are some acceptable replacements for fresh waterchestnuts (such as jicama), canned waterchestnuts are not among them and this dish showcased why only the real thing (or a real substitute) should ever be used (one bite of the real thing and you will know why canned waterchestnuts are not food).

Hatcho Miso Marinated Beef - Asparagus Tempura, Parmesan Dashi Fondue

This East-West fusion was dressed to impress. Tender, tasty beef was almost the underling to the exquisitely crispy, tempuraed asparagus and the tender bits of blanched asparagus that dotted the plate. Easily manipulated with chopsticks - the asparagus bits ensured that none of the creamy fondue got away uneaten! The beef took on a whole new dimension when a modest dab of the Sriracha was applied. Swirled in the fondue - it was a whole new taste sensation that danced on the tongue.

Course #3 - Slurp.

Zosui - Local Eggs, Chicken and Scallops, Mitsuba

This version of zosui (rice soup) was made extra creamy by the eggs. The fresh lotus root chips provided textural contrast, and the thinly sliced nori and scallop flavor lent to the intense umani-ness of the dish. Mitsuba is also known as Japanese Wild Parsley, and it added another new (to me) flavor dimension to the party. A happy party.

Udon Stir Fry - Mama Style Cabbage, Ginger, Bacon

Any dish whose description contains noodles and bacon will probably make it to my place. This one added freshly pickled ginger and fresh corn (where did that come from this time of year?) to the toothy udon and thinly sliced slabs of fresh bacon. A pleasant glow of chili heat also emanated from the bowl, making the end product lip-smacking good.

Dessert: 

Soft Serve with Caramel - Black Sesame Brittle, Matcha Rice Krispies, Marinated Mango

A perfect ending to an amazing dinner. It didn't even matter that the ice cream was melting - the toppings offered so many contrasts in texture and taste that we couldn't stop eating, and the rice krispies happily sopped up the cream but remained wonderfully crunchy to the end. I want some right now!

I can't get any more Matcha Rice Krispies, but you can - if you email Brick and Mortar Popups:  contact@brickandmortarpopups.com - there may still be some seats available for tonight's second Pop Up! Chef Wong sure knows how to play with Japaneasy Food!

The second Brick & Morter Pop-Up will feature Cleveland's "Great Food Truck Race" alumnus Chris Hodgson, food truck chef extraordinaire and owner of Dim & Den Sum and Hodge Podge food trucks. It will be held July 11 and 13 at Noodlecat, and tickets for the prix fixe affair may be purchased on Eventbrite. 

*There is another, albeit late night only, recently opened option for ramen in Cleveland - Chef Dante Bocuzzi offers his Zuzutto (Slurp) menu at Restaurant Dante in Tremont - but it is only available Monday-Thursday 9-11pm and Fri-Sat 10:30pm-1am. I've heard it's delicious, though I have not gotten there myself yet.