dinner thrown together-success!

Tonight I played in a softball game with my coworker Sheila so I didn't have a lot of time for dinner. I was starving because I had a light lunch so I wanted to have a filling, but healthy dinner, so I threw this meal together. I guess I would call it my version of an on the run seafood scampi? Who knows, but here's what I did:

I bought a bag of frozen shrimp, scallops and calamari from Trader Joe's and the bag was almost gone, just enough for a single serving, so I put the frozen seafood in a colander and let cold water slowly run on it to defrost. While that was defrosting I diced half a shallot and added that to a saute pan with a little olive oil. Once the seafood was defrosted I added them to the saute pan to cook. When the shrimp, scallops and calamari were about halfway cooked I added a spoonful of diced garlic. I also seasoned the seafood with salt and pepper, dill, and fresh basil and when the seafood was completely cooked I added a couple splashes of white wine and a squeeze of lemon wedge and turned the heat down to let it simmer.

While all of this was going on I decided to make a different kind of starch to accompany my seafood dish. I didn't really have time to make pasta and I didn't feel like rice, so I decided to try something new, quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah") it is a similar texture to couscous and has a light, nutty flavor. It's also really good for you. I bought a box at Trader Joe's a while back and after I saw that it can cook in the microwave for 6 minutes (there is also an option for stove top preparation) I knew it was meant to be!

When the quinoa was done, I poured it in to a bowl and then mixed in the seafood and sauce and I was ready to eat! I also squeezed a little more lemon juice before I started to eat.

For a meal I prepared in about 10 minutes, I was pretty impressed. The seafood was really good and the mixture of the white wine and lemon worked really well with the seafood. And of course garlic makes EVERYTHING better. :) I also really liked the quinoa, I'm excited to make some more recipes with it, because it is a nice alternative to pasta.

Sorry no photo..no time!

1/2 Restaurant Review: Chalk Food + Wine

This past week was Cincinnati Independent Restaurant Week. A group of Cincinnati restaurants that are locally owned and operated each offer a three course tasting menu for $25.08. It's not an incredible deal, but it was a good excuse for Erin and I to try a new restaurant in the area. She will be posting her experience separately, to talk about her choices on the tasting menu.

We considered our many choices and all the Jean-Robert restaurants sounded good. Jean-Robert is a local French chef who runs several restaurants in the Cincinnati area. Neither of us have been to any his restaurants, but he has a reputation as one of the most refined chefs in the area. His flagship restaurant is Jean-Robert at Pigall's. But, they weren't offering the restaurant week special, so we decided to go to one of his newer ventures: Chalk Food + Wine.

The concept of Chalk is comfort food with a fine dining flair. Regardless of the food and the menu, the atmosphere as you walk in to Chalk is modern and fun. The front of the restaurant is a sleek wine bar with several high top tables. We were sat in the back dining room, and got a glimpse at a small rear patio, which I'm sure would be fun in the summer. There was certainly a casual and cool feel to the menu and the wait staff, who were dressed in t-shirts and jeans. The menu was separated into familiar categories with different names: Starters, Hand Food (sandwiches), Eat Us (entrees), Friends (sides), and Sweets.

We decided on an appetizer, calamari steak prepared two ways, to supplement the modest tasting menu. The duo was a nice start to the meal. The first was more of a traditional calamari- breaded and fried with tangy tomato-based sauce. As a "steak" it was a little thicker and tougher than I like, but still great flavor. The second presentation was a salad of onion, cucumber and carrots in some sort of Asian type of sweet and sour dressing. There were some big chunks of calamari and the dish was very fresh and flavorful.

For my first course, I chose the barbecue chicken and sweet pea salad. It was as elegant as fried chicken and peas could be presented. There was a small piece of fried chicken placed on a neat pile of green peas. It was topped with a little barbecue sauce and a delicious onion ring. The highlight of the dish was a garlic puree. It was a mild, with the flavor of roasted whole garlic cloves and went really well with the peas.

My main course was lamb porterhouse. It was a small piece of lamb leg, complete with bone. It was cooked perfectly, just barely medium with a simple salt and pepper seasoning. It was served with some mashed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms. The natural juices of the lamb and mushrooms made for a great sauce and a hearty dish.

My dessert was a peach bread pudding. It was served with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. I'm a big fan of bread pudding and it was a nice finish to the meal.

Just glancing at the regular entrees and the rest of the menu, the prices seemed very reasonable. The atmosphere was modern, but still relaxed, and it is in an underrated part of town- Covington. Great service and very good food, made for an overall very pleasant experience. I don't know if its the place to go for gourmet fair, but for your favorite comfort food with some flare at a unique place, Chalk Food + Wine is great choice.

Grade: A -

Ryan's Restaurant Review: Via Vite

Last night Erin and I went to see Wicked, the Musical. It was really good. Before the show we wanted to eat a Palomino downtown because we had a gift card. However, we didn't make reservations and they wouldn't have been able to get us in before the show. So we decided to go across the street to Via Vite. The restaurant is located in Fountain Square, downtown Cincinnati and was opened by the owners of Nicola's, an Italian restaurant in Over the Rhine.
Erin has been to both Nicola's and Via Vite, but this was my first experience.

As you walk in there is a beautiful open bar area with views of some of the kitchen. We were seated immediately in the small, very modern (post-modern?) dining room. I was surprised to see that we were one of only 4 or 5 tables seated, but by the time we left the restaurant was packed and there was a wait for tables (to the extent that I heard a host tell the bus staff to "clear this table immediately and set it for two!" right as we stood up from our table). I had the feeling that we were about to be treated to a fun dinner with creative dishes and presentations. The waiter lost a little bit of the atmosphere as he stumbled through reading his spiel about the specials. Plus, he quickly got on my bad side when he forgot my vodka tonic for several minutes.

We decided we didn't feel like a heavy dinner so instead decided to start with the "Assortment of bruschettas". It was 6 or 7 toasted crostinis with a different topping on each one. They were all delicious. There was a traditional basil and tomato; crab salad; pesto with an anchovie; olive tapenade; chicken liver patte; and roasted pepper and garlic. Erin liked the traditional the best. The crab salad was clean and amazingly fresh. The pesto one was very good with the salty anchovie. The olive tapenade was hearty and delicoius. The chicken liver patte was good and, well, it was liver. My favorite was the roasted peppers. The meal was off to a good start.

For our next, and final course, Erin decided on the Inzimino described as a traditional Tuscan stew of calamari and spinach. I went with a salad with Boucheron goat cheese, spring mix of greens, raspberry vinaigrette and pistachios. We also shared the mussels alla marinara with garlic crostone. The Inzimino, was, in a word, bad. It was cooked in a dark sauce(?) and came in one mushy dollop in the middle of a bowl. The calamari was almost nonexistent, just one step away from mush. It was incredibly overcooked and lost all flavor of the octopus. Both Erin and I are big fans of calamari, and I have never seen it prepared in such a way to make it totally lifeless and bland. The spinach was also cooked so much that it tasted like nothing.
Erin actually asked our waiter what sort of "broth" it was cooked in and he said it was prepared for hours with a lot of red wine. Well, the lesson learned here is that calamari should NEVER be slow cooked for hours and that it is crucial to let good, fresh ingredients shine.

My salad, on the other hand, was very good. The pistachios added a perfect contrast to the yummy raspberry dressing and the creamy, melted goat cheese. It also was a nice compliment to the mussels which were prepared with a light, diced tomato sauce with just a touch of garlic. The mussels were perfectly cooked, not too mushy and not too rubbery. I thought the sauce could have used either some more garlic or some lemon. Near the end of the meal I actually asked for some lemon, but I never got it.

All in all, the service was disappointing, but it was noticeable that the waitress taking care of the table next to us was much better prepared and professional. As Erin said, we were 3 for 4 in good dishes. And even though that stew was almost unforgivable, I would be willing to go back, if for nothing else to try some of their bigger entrees. Grade: B.