duck, eggs and lamb OH MY

I am determined to attempt healthy living for the next few weeks. Obviously I cannot fully cut out delicious foods, but I look at these posts and through all the food pics on my phone and I realize that full-on gluttony is probably not sustainable - for my wallet or waistline (which has already been feeling the detrimental effects).

Anyway, before launching into a full scale fitness regimen, we thought it only apropos to indulge in one final decadent meal. So, we went back to Garces Trading Company. Our first meal there had been so amazing (full review) and we knew there were still quite a few things we wanted to try.... so off we went.

Since it was just the two of us dining this time, we knew we had to be smart about our selections. Though we wanted to order the deep dish pizza, one of the Plats du Jour and several pastas, that just seemed a tad aggressive. We ended up with a generous, but reasonable smattering of dishes: the duck confit salad, the special lasagna, and the lamb ragu.

Lyonnaise Duck Salad: duck confit + poached egg + bacon lardons + mustard vinaigrette
There is no way I would really call this a salad; it's more of a plate of awesomeness with some greens mixed in throughout. The duck confit and the poached egg were of course perfectly cooked. We salivated with anticipation as I broke the egg over the tower of duck, greens and bacon lardons and gave it all a thorough mix.

A super pleasant surprise was that there were also tiny slices of fingerling potatoes threaded throughout as well. The richness of the egg and duck were cut by the mustard vinaigrette, while the bacon lardons added a hefty saltiness that really brought everything together. If you're expecting a salad, you may be disappointed, but honestly - duck lovers will never be disappointed by this.

Pappardelle with Lamb Ragu: sunchoke puree + piave vecchio 
This pasta dish comes with a very generous portion of lamb ragu. At first bite, it was a bit game-y and we were afraid we were going to regret the decision to order this over a reprise of the gnudi we had so enjoyed the last time. However, we took the time to give this pasta dish a thorough mix as well. Tossing everything together allowed the piave cheese and the sunchoke puree, which was layered at the bottom of the plate, to coat the pappardelle and the shredded lamb meat. What this did was to add a creaminess to the entire dish, which tempered the game-iness of the lamb.

The lamb meat itself was really interesting. It had a hint of mint in it and it really worked well with the peas and the sunchoke (which is apparently like a cross between a rutabaga, potato, sunflower seed, and water chestnut, heh) puree. It's amazing how much more we liked this dish after we mixed everything together. It just goes to show - make sure you trust your chef, you know?

Lasagna: oxtail + short rib + baby spinach + ricotta
Sunday's daily special is the Lasagna and this is really the reason we had decided to have dinner at  Garces. The picture makes this look like a huge family-size portion and I'll say that while it's big, it's not enough to feed 4 people. Maybe 3 people... needless to say, we had leftovers to take home.

What I really liked about this lasagna was the baby spinach and the ricotta. The fresh baby spinach seemed to have been blanched and drained before being layered into this lasagna and the flavor was very bright. The ricotta was creamy perfection and a nice complement to the heavier chewier cheese that formed the top layer.

I felt a bit undecided about the meat. It was certainly an interesting take on traditional lasagna... and the meat was... tasty. I am pretty sure it had some lemon notes mixed in, but it still felt somewhat heavy. If I had to say, I think that maybe there was a disproportionate amount of meat in the meat layer, and possibly could have been improved by a heftier ricotta and/or spinach layer. Overall, it was a good dish, but I can't shake this feeling that it's not one that I would rave about or even recommend...

Anyway, it's Garces Trading Company, and I love it here. Plus, we went for an early bird dinner - arriving around 5pm on a Sunday and it was wonderful; we didn't wait at all! And of course, we had a lovely bottle of a Spanish white wine that was already chilled and was such a reasonable $13.99! God, I love this place.    

Good Meal but the Death of my Scallop and Risotto dream

Heh. This is mostly a positive review. I promise.

Last night, we went to Mercato. To put things into context, you have to know this about me - Mercato is (hmmm, was, perhaps) one of my favorite places to eat in the city. Admittedly, it had been just about 2 years since I had last eaten there, but prior to that, I had eaten there at least 4 or 5 times in a year's time. Each time, I had ordered similar dishes and each time it had been consistently wonderful.

The dishes we ate last night were mostly wonderful, but I found several things very disappointing.

But first, the FOOD. Soopah and I both had the tasting menu, which at $48 for a full 4-course meal, is very reasonable. What I love about these set pre-fixe tasting menus that are offered at many BYOBs is that there is so much flexibility. You're usually allowed to order off of the entire menu and at Mercato, that was definitely the case. The tasting menu allows you to select one dish from each of the 4 sections off of the menu with very few restrictions (sometimes they do add an up-charge for certain dishes). Take note that this is a CASH only byob so come prepared. If you're forgetful like me, no worries - there is a deli a block away on 13th St that has an ATM for your use.

:: Mercato ::
address: 1216 Spruce St., Philly
what we ate: 4-course tasting menu
We really debated whether or not to partake in this. Mostly because it was super humid hot and we couldn't decide if we were hungry enough to eat 4 courses! The downside to the tasting menu is that they require that all guests at the table participate so it was an all or nothing decision. Because I had always spoken so highly of Mercato and Soopah was finally going to get to try, we opted YES. Also, I warn you - this is a long post. How can it not be since we both ate 4 courses each?!

INTRODUZIONE

Whole Grilled Artichoke: 

extra virgin olive oil + sea salt + zesty citrus aioli

This was delicious AND fun to eat. They take an entire whole artichoke, basically roast it, soak it in olive oil, then grill it to order. What results is an incredibly flavorful dish - with each leaf you pull off dripping and coated with coarse black pepper and olive oil. Add to that a few grains of seat salt that they offer on the platter as well as the creamy citrusy aioli and it's just DIVINE. 

We really took our time eating this and enjoying each leaf before we devoured the hearts at the end. (Hmm, that sounded odd...). 

Grilled Calamari: 

basil pesto + cannellini beans + radicchio + pepperdew peppers + scallion + parmesan slices

We attacked this appetizer all wrong at first. It arrives at your table, plated in a way and separates the calamari from the rest of the bean, pepper and radiccio salad. Of course, in eating it separately, we found that the basil pesto coated calamari was a bit flat and boring, while the salad had very complex set of flavors. 

It doesn't LOOK very pretty, but once we started eating both components together, we found that it tasted delicious. And MAN, do they use good cheese here. The parmesan slices were so nutty and flavorful - I could have just kept eating those all night. I don't think this would be our favorite dish and I doubt I would order it again, personally, but it was quite tasty. 

PASTA

Pappardelle: 

roasted mushrooms + caramelized cipollini + crispy parsnip + pancetta, arugula + sage brown butter + parmesan

We have been tempted by various papparedelle dishes at a bunch of places we've been to - Varga, Garces Trading co, but had always ended up ordering something else on those respective menus that we couldn't pass up. So this time, we were determined to order this dish.

The flavor of the roasted mushrooms were awesome! They completed soaked up the sage brown butter sauce and were extremely flavorful. The crispy parsnips were an interesting topping to this pasta dish - they almost tasted like casava chips and provided a crunchy texture, but I'm not entirely convinced that it added something special here. I was ambivalent about that. If I had to criticize, I'd say the pasta was probably a bit over cooked, but still delicious dish, overall.

Braised Rabbit: 

black pepper fettuccine + grape tomatoes + spinach + pecorino + garlic, white wine basil sauce

I had to order this because whenever I see rabbit or the menu, I feel compelled to give it a shot. I definitely wasn't disappointed. The garlic white wine basil sauce was super flavorful and the fettucini had a nice spicy flavor from the black pepper. Plus, the rabbit was really flavorful and tender and not at all gamey.

CULMINARE
Grilled Petit Tender Filet: 

garlic chive mashed potates + grilled asparagus + truffle butter

Soopah ordered this medium rare and it came out perfectly cooked. Also, apparently this is a newly adjusted recipe for the filet and it was excellent. The sauce and truffle butter work really well together and perfectly complement the meat (as long as you don't take too large a piece of truffle butter with each bite). 

See that huge white thing that looks like a slice of mozzaralla? That is the truffle butter! Crazy, right? But delicious, yes yes yes. 

Pan Seared Diver Scallops: 

wild mushroom and english pea risotto + parmesan crisp + truffle oil

Okay, this dish was so disappointing it was almost enough to mar the entire experience for me at Mercato - not that there weren't several other less-than-perfect factors (which I'll detail later), but all were forgivable except for this one. I have been referencing this particular dish at Mercato as the perfect example of how to do risotto AND scallops well - both in conversations and on this blog. Basically, I had ordered this every time I had been to Mercato and it has always tasted amazingly perfect. Last night, it was far from it.

Where do I begin? The scallops were most definitely overcooked. I know it's hard to cook scallops perfectly, but I expected so much more than this. As for the risotto, it was horrible. It was like they decided that since it was the end of the evening (we were the last table there), they may as well dump the rest of the parmesan that was leftover into this dish and then overcook the risotto itself. The result was a sticky clumpy pile of risotto that had stringy pieces of cheese hanging off with each bite. Way too heavy, wayyy too rich and not in a good way. The mushrooms were barely even noticeable and honestly, neither was the truffle oil - this is what happens when you OVER-CHEESE. 

Even more disappointing still, is when I mentioned to the server that this dish had decidedly gone downhill since I last had it and maybe had the chef changed since then, he basically dismissed it saying it was prepared in the same way it had been 2-3 years ago (and obviously I was just being a pain in the ass). Le sigh.

DESSERT: 

Tiramisu and Gelato Trio 

The tiramisu and the gelato trio (cappucino, dulce de leche, strawberry cream) were both pretty tasty, but nothing especially memorable. Plus, by this point, I was so sad about the state of the risotto dish that I had basically lost the will to eat or enjoy anything more for that evening.

DISAPPOINTING THINGS WORTH MENTIONING
Overall, the meal was good. There were definitely highlights and lowlights, but I found there were a few things that were extremely disappointing/annoying.

• Upon our arrival, we stood around for an excessively long time while the female server walked right by us no less than 6 times. Each time I said "excuse me" I was brutally rebuffed. With silence and not even a sidelong glance. 
• Our wine glasses were greasy and had what I swear was leftover butter smeared all over them.
• Though we asked for new replacement glasses, we did not receive until later when we were ordering.
• My water glass was also also dirty/greasy and they FINALLY gave me a new one, but never took the dirty one away. 
• There were a SH*T TON of mosquitoes hovering around our table and they really liked how I tasted, apparently. So I walked away with 9 new bites - Yes yes this is not Mercato's fault. I'm just saying it definitely detracted from the experience. However, what IS their fault is that we sat outside because the inside of the restaurant seemed like the depths of hell in terms of temperature. I guess they just don't turn on the AC until it's over 100 degrees

DESPITE THESE THINGS, though, we still had a pleasant meal, so I'm not sure if that can be attributed to the fact that we are just awesome and enjoy each other's company, if the dishes that WERE good were interesting and tasty enough to carry us through, or that we're just older and more patient now and recognize that every dining experience can't be a perfect one.... hmmm. Ew. Well, we're definitely not old, so it must be that we're AWESOME. 

AMIS: fried artichokes

one of the 2 highlights of our experience at Amis. Overall, largely disappointing Vetri venue.

osteria (oooooooooooo-steria)

smoked sturgeon w/persimmon, grilled octopus w/arugula, mushroom gnocchi, chicken liver rigatoni, pork ribs