where did i go?

june came and went without a post. i suck. i guess it is because i have been spending so much time eating at diner 437. everything is good. i should do a roundup post on that. hmmmmm.

also, i have been cooking burgers to enter in the build a better burger contest. i have some that i like. hopefully judges like them too.

prepare for a mid-month onslaught of posts from toledo, n. michigan and chicago. we have big plans for chicago.

diner 437, st. petersburg, may 29-30

i met chef domenica macchia in september. i had spent the day handing out flyers in ybor city trying to get people to vote for me in -- well, you know what i was trying to get them to vote for me in. anyway, afterward, i felt like going someplace cool for dinner, and my pal laura reiley had been telling me about a place she was about to give 4-stars to for their food. laura is paid to know these things, so i was immediately interested. and it wasn't far from my house.

so pam and i went, and had a great dinner. at the end of the dinner, we gave our waitress a stack of the cards and asked her to ask her friends and the staff to vote for me. Ten seconds later, the chef was bee-lining out of the kitchen to come talk to me. she said it sounded awesome and she would vote for me. awhile later, when i was celebrating the results of the contest, i gathered up a crew to celebrate, and we went back to the place, which i won't bother to mention, but you can read about the dinner from that first night here if you want.

anyway, she treated us very well that night, and on a subsequent visit, which was her last night there as it turns out. the world being what it is today, it has taken her awhile to get a kitchen again, but short-happy version is, she does now, and you can go on tuesday when they open.

but i got to go friday, when they weren't open.

dom wanted people to try some of the things she put on the menu, to make sure they "worked." so pam and i went, and for additional opinions, i brought along the people i am just going to start calling my taste buds (unless they think that is weird and don't want me to), becky and jeremy. it seems like every time i have a decent meal lately, they are there.

so dom started throwing food at us. and we liked it. i may screw up the order they came out in, but here is the rundown:

warm olives and almonds: a huge bowl of 3-4 different kinds of olives and toasted almonds, with lemon zest and sea salt.

grilled skirt steak: this was fantastic. i loved the marinade and started guessing what was in it. i got a few key ones. i'm a big fan of skirt steak, so this was a fave.

the burger: it was a gargantuan patty, topped with dom's bacon-onion jam. i love the idea of chopping up the bacon and putting it in the caramelized onion. that way the strip doesn't pull out when you bite, leaving you with no bacon the rest of the burger. and she said she likes to cook the onion instead of just adding raw onion to the plate because "i'm a cook. i should cook it." argue with that.

the grilled cheddar: it was really good cheddar. she explained that it was six-month cheddar because if it was older, it wouldn't melt as well and would be grainy. i had no idea, but it makes sense. there were thin slices of granny smith apple on there, too, which added a nice crunch and acidity. turns out the menu says there is bacon, too. dom said she forgot that and thought this was one of her vegetarian dishes. whoops. it will be optional starting tuesday. also, we thought that it could use more apple. we're tough, tho.

the shredded short rib sandwich: the short ribs were a big deal at the previous place, and paid homage to dom's training ground in nyc, daniel. if you don't know from daniel, i'll let alan go to town in the comments. suffice to say: we want to go there. there were really good and meaty. i have had short rib sanwiches that were too broken down, with no texture or bite. these had bite. they were on a delicious country white bread and enrobed in melted fontina.

we also got to try a lot of wines they are thinking about putting on their list. i know almost nothing about wine. i know we had two malbecs and i liked one more than the other. i had a pinot noir that was ok. i had two sauvignon blancs, one that i liked more than the other, and a chardonnay that i didn't much care for. but don't take my word for it. i'd prefer dr pepper. (actually, pibb, but places are more apt to have dr pepper.)

that was it for friday, but we were invited back saturday afternoon to work out the menu item that has had me excited for a couple of months now: the crushed deviled egg sandwich.

i love egg salad. and i love deviled eggs. when dom was working on the menu, i noted that a lot of trendy menus have deviled eggs these days, some good, some meh. she said that she had the crushed deviled egg sandwich on her menu, and i couldn't wait to try.

now, i liked it because it seemed like a playful name for egg salad. dom insists there are differences between egg salad and deviled eggs. i always thought the only difference was in how you cut the whites. no no no no no no no no no, she says. i believe her.

so we tried three different dressings for the yolks. all were largely the same, but each had one major difference, none of which i will divulge. i will let you in on one secret, tho: after much diliberation, becky, jeremy and i chose B. actually, there wasn't all that much diliberation.

we also got to try two desserts on saturday: the rice pudding and the chocolate-banana bread pudding. both were fantastic.

dom has been determined to get me cooking, and i think the photo at the top suggests why that may not be the greatest idea. i take up a lot of kitchen. chefs are mostly pretty small. i mean, some are portly-ish, but i'm gigantic-ish. so, dunno. it was fun, tho.

hope you make it over there tuesday, because i hear there may be an interestingly named sandwich special. that's all i'm saying.

flip, atlanta, may 5

as low as my expectations were for good stuff eatery in D.C., they were that high for flip in atlanta. and my experience is that when i go somewhere with high hopes after pleasant surprised elsewhere, the place for which i had high hopes disappoints. it has happened several times, as weird as it sounds.

it did not happen at flip. without even loving everything, i was still blown away by it.

it is the second in the series of top chef contestant burger joints on the drive we took to D.C. and back. this one is run by richard blais, who was one of my favorite top chef contestants, and not just because he voted for me in mario's grilling contest. tho that didn't hurt.

one of the reasons i was happy to drive up to D.C. for the wedding is because i knew that that meant i could drive home through atlanta. that way we could see friends and knock off a couple of restaurants i had been wanting to try. flip was high on that list. and when i asked becky and jeremy if they would drive up to D.C. with us, i told them they would probably want to fly home because we were detouring through atlanta on the way home. to which jeremy's paraphrased response was, "WE GET TO GO TO ATLANTA?!?!?!?!?!" and much clapping.

flip is a burger place, but there is nothing typical about it. we found it out on the outskirts of downtown and walked in. the motif is very sleek, red-white-and-aluminum. there is a huge graphic element on the back wall that i wanted to study more, but i was hungry. they took us to one of the communal tables that runs down the center of the restaurant and i pulled back the aluminum bar stool. i yanked pretty hard, because it looked to be pretty heavy, and i nearly threw it at the ceiling. it weighed nothing. waiter said, "that happens all the time. they look heavy, don't they?" of course, then i wondered if it would collapse under my weight, either before or after eating there. but it held up fine.

flip has about 20 burgers. roughly half are beef-based and the other half are other stuff. sides are separate, and there are about a dozen, half are fried and half fresh.

here is what we had:

jeremy: the kobe burger. this is the only beef burger we ordered. you have a choice of american or japanese kobe. if you get the american, it is the second-most expensive thing on the menu. if you get the japanese, the price doubles. sweet. jeremy got the american, which, since it is ground, was totally the right call. there is a time to go for broke on japanese kobe, but a burger probably isn't it. the burger included a slice of seared foie gras and truffle oil, so it was definitely inspired by the daniel boulud burger. it was fantastic. for a side, jeremy got the vodka battered onion rings. richard says that the vodka makes them crispier. (watch a video here) they were spectacular. apparently, they make the batter to order. crazy.

becky: the knuckle sandwich. the name cracked me up. it is tempura lobster with green goddess dressing and pea shoot salad. this was the only thing at the table i didn't get to try, because becky said it wasn't really sliceable. liiiiiiikely story, 6. it did look like a construction challenge, and i wholly trust her when she says it was awesome. as her side, she got the tempura asparagus. which i just realized means she got tempura for her burger and her side. i thought it was amazing how crisp and fresh the asparagus tasted despite the fact that it was fried. really, really good ingredients. you can't MAKE it taste that good.

pam: the cinco de mayo burger. we went on may 5, and the special burger of the day was in honor of the holiday. it was a pork burger topped with roasted jalapeno mayo and tequila lime slaw. the slaw was really bright. really exploded in your mouth. you know, in a good way. her side was the pickled vegetables, which are not fried in any way. they came in individual canning jars. nice touch. i didn't inventory the vegetables, but there were definitely carrots in there, and i suspect beets. probably some sort of turnip or radish. they were good, but i expected them to pop a little more. they weren't very assertive.

me: the shrimp po-boyger. i am a sucker for decent wordplay. also for shrimp. i have had shrimp burgers before. the one at cafe ponte was amazing, but it really wasn't a burger. it was two big shrimp on a bun. this was a burger. the construction of which escapes me, but it was very tasty. sometimes when stuff is processed into an unnatural state, it doesn't taste like itself anymore. this was shrimp. and that little thing on top: that's a fried slice of lemon. if i lived in atlanta, i would go to flip twice a week. once to have this, and once to have something else until i worked my way through the menu. for a side, i had the sweet potato tots, which i was really looking forward to, because i am a HUGE fan of the tots. these were good, but probably a bit misnamed. they were fried mini-patties of mashed sweet potato. there was none of the shredded graininess that make tater tots what they are. they were good, i would eat them again, but they weren't really tots.

we also got an order of duck-fat fries to share, because they had duck fat fries. and we have no shame.

and now about the shakes. they are frozen with liquid nitrogen. the way this works is ... well, best i can tell ... it's just magic, ok? there is probably science involved, but there is stuff in a glass, then they pour some other stuff in it, but it doesn't look like anything but fog is going in, and next thing you know the stuff in the glass is frozen. if that isn't the dictionary definition of magic, i have no idea what is.

there were four shakes on the menu. there were four of us. who's good at math?

they split the shakes into half-servings, so pam and i got to split halves of each, and becky and jeremy shared halves of each. i didn't specifically LOVE any of the shakes, but they were all good. and there is nothing cooler than sipping a drink that is spewing fog.

here are the four:

nutella with burnt marshmallow (front): perfectly good. my love of nutella is no secret. i wish the flavor of that had been ratcheted up a bit. the marshmallows are nice, but they weren't a natural fit with the nutella. i mean, i'm picking at nits, here. i finished it.

spicy chocolate mole (back left): same issue as with the nutella. i liked the idea, i just wish the flavor had been a little more aggressive. chocolatey-er. spicier. again, its not like i left any.

krispy kreme (back right): this is the one that everyone talks about, and while it wasn't exactly what i had envisioned, it was my favorite. no small feat when there is nutella in the contest. i expected something that was a little more about a distilled essence of krispy kreme taking the form of a milkshake. what it seemed more like was a really good vanilla shake with donut bits blended in. i'll say it again: there is NOTHING wrong with that. and i don't know how to do the thing i had been expecting, so i'm not coming at it all high and mighty. and in the end, it was gone. so there is the bottom line.

we had those three floating around the table as we ate. afterward, there is no dessert menu, but becky, jeremy and i looked at each other. we all knew there was a shake we hadn't had yet. pam was out at this point, but we decided that if there is a foie gras milkshake (left) on a menu, it would be irresponsible to leave without having it. where else are you going to get a goose liver milkshake? it was based on vanilla, and flavored with foie, and i think he said amaretto. the foie really wasn't a flavor element, or really even textural. it was more of a mouth-feel thing. it was definitely detectable, and tasty. but having had it once, i don't really need another one.

come to think of it, when i saw richard at the top chef event in ybor, he made sweet ice tea shakes, and i might have liked that better than any of the four we had at the restaurant. interesting.

i'm so going back. just, when? actually, i know he is working on putting them in other cities, and i have heard that tampa is on the list. that is a good list for tampa to be on.

still owe you flip

i haven't written post for flip burger boutique in atlanta yet. it is still on my list of things to do. i just finished a story about it and good stuff eatery for the paper. needed to get that done. hope to have the post done soon. many, many pictures.

watershed, atlanta, may 4

so, a couple of years ago, a new restaurant opened in atlanta called watershed. it was supposed to be upscale southern food, so i was interested. and since it was the project of one of the indigo girls, that just made it more interesting. heck, i like closer to fine. but i was never in atlanta at a time when i could make the time to go blah blah blah. then their chef was named best chef south at the beard awards, and i had a mission.

so, a confluence of events led to me finally getting back to atlanta, a city that i am frankly not otherwise all that crazy about. first, i was driving to washington dc, so i could plot a course through it on the way home. second, pam's friend jodi just moved there from northern california. third, there were two other places i wanted to go to while there (flip and the dekalb world market). so we had a plan.

so, along with becky and jeremy and jodi and adam, pam and i went to watershed. and as an aside, that was the best way to go to watershed. i'll explain:

most of the places i go to are just me and pam. our strategy is usually that we each get an entree and we share an appetizer and dessert. and by "share," i mean that i get an appetizer and dessert and pam watches me eat it. sue me.

with the crew we had, here is the damage we did to the watershed menu:

there are eight appetizers. we had four.

there are 13 entrees. we had six.

that is, for all intents and purposes, half the menu. that's the way to do it.

here are the entrees we all shared:

-- butter bean hummus with crudites and homemade pita: i thought it was a little chintzy when they brought us only one pita to go with the hummus. but with all the fresh vegetables on the plate -- celery, french radishes, cucumber slice, green beans -- and some feta, we actually didn't even finish the one pita. apparently, they have done this before.



-- saute of wild mushrooms with cheese and country ham on toast: this was small. not sure everyone got to try it. so glad it started at my end of the table. even looking at the photo now, i can't tell you what kind of shrooms were in there, and i didn't ask about the cheese, but it was very assertive. a very good dish, and one that you didn't need a lot of to appreciate.

-- creamy stone ground shrimp grits and pullman plank: possibly the coolest looking piece of toast ever, and interesting grits. the shrimp was actually a flavoring in the grits, so you didn't even see them. in fact, when we asked how it was done, the waitress brought out the chef's cookbook to show us the recipes for the grits and the homemade shrimp paste that went into them. very cool.

-- fried oysters with red pepper catsup: i like oysters, but don't love them. these were fried, and therefore delicious. loved the catsup, too.

on to the entrees.

to quote several of my previous posts: "there was duck on the menu, so guess what i got."

actually, i considered not getting the duck because it was roasted. roasted to me usually means cooked through, and that is not how i prefer duck breast. but the waitress said they could do it medium rare, so i trusted her. and look at the picture. it was medium rare, if that. perfect. very tender. it came with swiss chard and mashed carrots, as well as some figs. all excellent.

pam got the hot vegetable plate, and what wasn't on there? first thing i saw was cauliflower, which is like kryptonite to me. but i tried it. it was ok. it was fried. anything can only be so bad when fried. there was also sauteed cabbage, mashed rutabaga, collards, sweet stewed tomatoes (which were like candy), some butter beans and corn bread. a pretty impressive plate, considering, you know, the lack of meat.

i got to try everyone else's dishes too. all seemed equally excellent. here is what they had:

jeremy: grilled all-natural pork chop with mac-n-cheese and collard greens.

becky: fresh fish of the day, which, on this day, was pan-sauteed flounder, with peas that becky compared favorably to those we had at babbo precisely a year earlier and vidalia onions.

adam: braised lamb shank with butternut squash-sweet potato puree and sauteed spinach. this was the most impressive looking dish on the table. it was described as "flintstonian."

jodi: butternut squash pancakes with braised cabbage and gingered beets. which reminds me: pam and i shared a side of the gingered beets. i liked them. but, it had beets in there. and ginger. so, it had a lot working in its favor.

we killed two bottles of wine, and i have no idea what they were. i like someone to tell me what i want to drink, and jeremy and adam played that role here. both picked whites, so i was happy. i remember that they were out of jeremy's first choice. i liked them both.

for dessert, i had the chocolate pecan praline parfait. it was pretty. it was good. but not the most memorable part of the meal. which is fine.

becky had the cheese plate, and when they said that all the cheeses were from south georgia, jeremy was already starting to plan their next trip to see his family there.

it was a blast of a night. could not even believe what a great time we all had together, and hope we can all do it again. after all, we only ate half the menu.

bbq; salisbury, nc, and atlanta, ga; may 3-4

we spent sunday driving from DC to atlanta, and in salisbury, n.c. -- home to cheerwine soda -- we decided to stop and look for bbq. first we found richard's, but being sunday evening, it was every bit as closed as almost everything else in salisbury. but college bbq was open. so we went there. it is "college bbq" because it is near catawba college. who knew?

to be clear: not fancy. looked like the building had probably been a convenience store in a previous incarnation. and it looked like there was at least one too many booth in the place. the first booth we sat at did not allow us to actually put our feet on the floor without entangling them with our boothmates. crazy. luckily, before we got our food, a table opened, and we jumped on it.

i got the small chopped bbq tray. that gets you a little paper boat half-full of pork and half cole slaw, wrapped in paper.on the side, you get a bun and two hushpuppies. when i opened the paper, i thought that the cole slaw was a pork tartare. i never would've guess slaw. it was interesting, tho. minced cabbage and onion with a heavy hand of horseradish. never had anything like that before. i made a sandwich out of mine, adding plenty of the vinegar-y bbq sauce as i went. it was different. i liked it. and i had cheerwine. in fact, we stopped at a k-mart leaving town and bought a bunch of cheerwine straight from the epicenter of cheerwine. we bought four cases because they had four cases. we left the diet.

once in atlanta, our lunch monday was at fat matt's, an establishment that jeremy may have mentioned once or twice, on occasion, in passing, suggesting that he wouldn't mind going there if it all fit in the schedule and everything. ok, he may have mentioned it more than once or twice. and we may have built a part of the trip around going there because of his interest level. or something.

fat matt's is big with the sauce. it was very tangy and spicy, and burned my lips. it was good, but my lips actually hurt for hours. in a good way. mostly. the ribs were very juicy and tender. the chicken was good, and baked beans were based on the bbq sauce. and they had mac and cheese. all good.

and jeremy was happy.

central michel richard, washington dc, may 1

there were four restaurants that i kind of targeted going to DC. cityzen, minibar, citronelle and central michel richard. lunch on friday was my most open option for one of those, and for a number of reasons central michel richard was the best choice.

i got there as they were unlocking the doors and sat at the bar. by the time i was done with my appetizer, the place was packed.

i started with the spinach and goat cheese tort, which was like a very fine green custard on top of a phyllo crust and topped with little chunks of green bean. the goat cheese wasn't terribly discernible, but the smooth texture with the crisp bean pieces was nice. there was lightly dressed frisee on the side.

for the entree, i had the pied de cochon. pig's foot. my only previous experience with pig's feet was going to the stop and go in oviedo and seeing that gallon bottle at the checkout filled with a not-to-be-found-in-nature red liquid and a bunch of gelatinous science fair project rejects. never had one, but saw them.

this was NOTHING like that.

it was a foot that was braised and picked clean of bones, then mixed with mushroom formed into a perfect cylinder, breaded and fried. it was huge. the meat was crazy tender and it was served with a really rich sauce that made an already huge portion feel even bigger. seriously, if it had been half the size, that would've been ok. it came with onion straws and more frisee, this with little lardons. mmmmm, bacon. it was also supposed to come with mashed potatoes, but i subbed out for mac and cheese, and it was not surprisingly really, really rich. the surprising thing was that the little cast iron pan held penne pasta that seemed to be perfectly aligned. was it a coincidence, or is it someone's job to line up all the mac in the mac and cheese? don't know. impressive, tho.

for dessert -- and i had to consider skipping dessert because i was pushing full -- i was choosing between the "candy bar" and an apple dessert. the bartender was describing the two to me, and the woman sitting next to me leaned over, grabbed my arm and said, "get the candy bar. it may kill you, but it's worth it."

that's an endorsement. and it was accurate. it was like a giant kit-kat bar, chocolate mousse over a layer of crispy candy and a hazelnut sauce. again, i would not have felt cheated if it had been half the size. but it was not. so i felt stuffed.

here was the cool thing about central: i felt like i was the only person at the bar that the bartender and wait staff didn't personally know. they knew them by name. they knew what they liked to drink, they knew what they had one day last year, they knew how they liked their hamburger cooked and what they liked on it. it was crazy. i want to be a regular there.