First Crush- San Francisco

I heard so many good things about the food in San Francisco (especially from one of my fave bloggers, Feisty Foodie).  I was incredibly excited when I was asked to travel there for business (I had never been) and extended the trip to include leisure travel with Mike over Christmas week.  I was so excited to try so many different restaurants in SF (plus I knew it was prime artichoke growing territory… MMM!) and we planned the last 2 days in Napa where more wonderful nomming was to take place.

It was just my luck that I came down with a wicked case of food poisoning or a stomach bug about an hour before leaving for the airport.  (I do not wish having stomach problems like that on an airplane to my worst enemy!)  It actually had me completely in bed for 24 hours after the trip and sans food for the first two days.  I somehow dragged myself to work on Day 2 but it wasn’t pretty (I was so bad off that I never would have gone in had they not paid for me to fly out there and I knew I actually had to SHOW UP or risk them not reimbursing me).  By the end of that evening, I was finally feeling semi-capable of nourishment and went with chicken soup from Westin’s room service.  It was actually quite tasty and I’m pretty convinced it was slightly magical as that was the turning point.

By the next night I convinced myself I was well enough to eat again.  We were staying in the Union Square area and used our Urban Spoon iPhone app to pull up a convenient restaurant.  First Crush sounded like a good place so we went for it without much research (very uncommon for me!)

We started with something that sounded right up my alley: roasted winter squash with chestnuts, pearl onions, squash puree, and pomegranate reduction.  It was really, really good!  I was a bit dissapointed that there weren’t more (and bigger) chestnuts since I love them, however, I got over this very quickly with the amazing flavor combination and freshness of the ingredients. 

Mike went with the pistachio crusted wild hawaiian walu with rainbow carrotes, roasted fingerlings, fried shallots, and glace de veau. The crust was perfect and the fish was moist and flavorful.

I ordered the artichokes braised a la barigoule with toasted barley, flageolets, sunchokes, and lemon oil.  It was good but I was expecting a bit more robust artichoke flavor.  (I think I expect too much of my favorite veggie).  I really enjoyed it, however, and I’m glad I ordered this dish.

Overall, for a random restaurant in the middle of an unknown city, I thought we found a gem.  None of the desserts sounded especially appealing (which was surprising for a wine place… I always expect those 2 to go together) so we skipped.  What we ordered, however, was especially fresh and very tasty.  We enjoyed this first meal at First Crush very much.

Total Nom Points: 6.5 out of 10

An Austrian Brasserie

I have passed by Klee on 9th Ave between 22nd and 23rd many, many times while I lived in the neighborhood. I had heard good things in various blogs and magazines, but it was always right there, so I just never went. Our last weekend in the apartment led me to make sure we knocked this one off the list. I didn’t know much about it, and assumed Klee Brasserie was probably french. Turns out it’s Austrian, which was interesting as I was just reading my Great Aunt’s fascinating book about her departure from Austria during the Holocaust (my Grandmother also left Austria when she was 11 and came here by way of Cuba).

We came a bit before the dinner rush without a reservation, so we sat at the bar and it was quite nice.

The menu looked great, however, when the waitress came to tell us about the specials I knew the “reasonably priced” dinner was going out the window. The Oktoberfest menu featured a few selections made with a special Mangalitsa Pork, however, the special featured pork belly with crispy skin. Pork Belly? Crispy Skin? I don’t think there are four more beautiful words in the English language. (I’m such a good Jew!)

Before I get ahead of myself, however, we did have an appetizer. We chose the side of three roasted squashes with Spanish cheese spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg as an app. This was great, and the cheese really made the dish.

Mike chose the Lancaster roasted chicken and sausage with brussel sprouts, chestnut, and orange whip. (In the pictures, the sausage is under the greens). This is a great example of how what you order at a restaurant really makes a difference. This dish was just okay. The sausage was tasty but the chicken wasn’t anything special.

To contrast, my pork was so good I wanted to lick the plate. I thought she said it came with roasted fingerling potatoes, but it was a purple potato mash (of sorts) with big chunks of roasted potato in it. It was good and all, but the pork belly… wow.

Check out the picture. Crispy skin, layer of delicious fat, then perfectly cooked belly. Nom Nom Nom. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

It did take some time for our desserts to come out, but it was nice that the chef sent out a cranberry drink of some sort. As someone that isn’t overly keen on cranberries, I was impressed by how much I enjoyed this.

Since we were already living indulgently (hey… we were rewarding ourselves for packing all day), we went for a dessert drink of amaretto on the rocks (if anyone doesn’t know how to make that… you take some amaretto… and you pour it over ice). It was quite rewarding.

For dessert, I chose the Sacher Torte with Schlag (they had “shlag” on their menu!) It had a layer of apricot and was very, very tasty. I especially liked the torched top of the whipped cream squiggle. Gave it a toasted marshmallow quality.

Mike chose the Peanut Butter and Banana Pudding with salted honey crisps. The honey crisps were more like VERY sticky popcorn (that was quite hard to eat) and the pudding was quite peanut buttery but not enough banana.

Overall, the food was interesting and delicious, but really varied depending on what was ordered. My dishes were all great (in the 8 Nom Points territory), Mike’s were just so-so (in the 6 Nom Points territory). Therefore…

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

An easy and delicious evening meal

Mike and I decided to cook last Friday night.  Originally I intended to make my famous Kasha Varnishkas, however, the grocery store near me didn’t have any Kasha, so we had to make new plans. 

We opted for a menu of “Awesome Honey Glazed Pork Chops” (recipe courtesy of allrecipes.com), roasted butternut squash with chestnuts, and a simple, yet delicious Rice-A-Roni Long Grain & Wild Rice.  The entire meal took about 15 minutes to prep, however, the roasting of the squash and the cooking of the Rice-A-Roni made the entire meal cookable in a little over an hour.  If you need a good meal and don’t want to put too much effort into it, I highly recommend this combination! 

The hardest part was the squash, which had to be cut up into little pieces.  Thankfully my brandy new pealer took the skin off the squash with ease.  The problem, however, became cutting the slippery squash! 

It all worked out in the end, however:

The leftover squash and chestnuts with the honey pecan sauce were absolutely incredible the next day.

Without further ado, here are the recipes:

_______________________________________________

Awesome Honey Pecan Pork Chops (check the link to see it and the comments on allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 1 1/4 pounds boneless pork loin, pounded thin (we used thin cut pork chops)
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour for coating
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans (we doubled this to 1/2 cup since it didn’t look like enough)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a shallow dish, mix together flour, salt and pepper. Dredge pork cutlets in the flour mixture.
2. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add chops, and brown both sides. Transfer to a warm plate.
3. Mix honey and pecans into the pan drippings. Heat through, stirring constantly. Pour sauce over cutlets.

 _______________________________________________

Roasted Butternut Squash and Chestnuts
(This was originally a recipe for Sweet Potatoes that I revised slightly. Thanks to Aunt Linda for the inspiring original recipe)

Ingredients:
Squash or Sweet Potatoes
Steamed/cooked Chestnuts (I buy them in a box from Trader Joes and Asian Markets usually sell them)
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil

Directions:

NOTE:  Start them in a cold oven, it has something to do with getting them warm, but not too quickly
 
Cover a cookie sheet with foil.  Spray with Pam.
 
For squash: Peal it.  For sweet potatoes: Scrub potatoes well.  Dry with a paper towel. Cut off skinny ends.

Slice into pieces about ½ inch thick.
 
Dump into bowl and add some salt and pepper.  Not too much.  Then pour about 1 ½ tsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil into you hands and rub both sides of each round. (I stirred them all in a bowl and made sure it was evenly coated… it turned out fine)
 
Place in single layer on the cookie sheet.  Cover tightly with foil.  Put into cold oven.    Turn oven to 425.  Bake for 30 mins.
 
Remove from oven and remove the top layer of foil.   Return to oven for another 15-25 mins, until the bottom edges of the rounds are golden brown.
 
Remove from oven and flip over each round.  Return to oven for another 15-18 mins.

Throw the chestnuts in with the squash and roast another 3-5 minutes until bottoms of the squash are golden brown and chestnuts are warmed.
 
Try not to eat them all before sitting down to dinner.

 _______________________________________________

Rice-A-Roni

Buy.
Read.
Follow directions.
Eat.

 _______________________________________________

Happy Nomming!