Tasting Brunello di Montalcino at Aroma Osteria

Last week we met at Aroma Osteria in Wappingers Falls to sample Brunello di Montalcino's, one of Italy's best wines. I was really looking forward to this tasting, as Brunellos are not wines that I often order in a restaurant. Brunello di Montalcino is arguably one of the best that Tuscany offers. The wine spends a minimum of three years in large casks before bottling (more for Riserva), and typically spends another ten years in the bottle before it is ready for drinking. Few local restaurants have the resources – the proper cellar and the cash flow – to store wines for decades. At our tastings we typically bring our own wines, and Wednesday we each brought only wines bottled earlier than 1999. The earliest bottle was a 1975 Castel Giocondo. Most of the wines we tasted had original purchase prices of between $30 and $40. If a restaurant has Brunellos on their wine list, they are typically offered at multiples of these original prices. This is as it should be. They should be compensated for storing wines that long, and tying up that much cash in inventory for a decade. (I just have a problem paying that much for a wine I know they paid $30 for!) I would rather drink my own, which is exactly what we did on Wednesday. The restaurant decanted each of the bottles that we arrived with.

My "Tailgate Paella" recipe makes it into the Food52.com Finals!

I had a wonderful surprise at noon today when my Twitter feed announced the two finalists in Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubb's Food52.com paella recipe contest. The winning recipe will appear in the next Food 52 Cookbook. One final entry was for a "Moorish Paella", prepared with lamb sausage, and cumin and harissa.  My entry, the other finalist, was for the "tailgate" paella that I prepare for cookouts, campfires, fishing trips and football games.  It has, on past occasions, fed the West Point "B" parking during Army football season, and made guest appearances at Giants stadium.

The food52.com preparation of Rambler's "Tailgate Paella"

I think the uniqueness of the preparation - cooking it on an outdoor grill - caught the judges' attention. It has also been the centerpiece of many a kitchen dinner at home, with variations of this recipe prepared stove-top.  Cooking it on an outdoor BBQ - especially a Webber kettle - produces a crispy, smoky, finished product that goes nicely with outdoor dining.  The Food52 website also prepared a slideshow video of Merrill and Amanda's preparation, which you can view on their website.  You can also view (and hopefully vote for) the recipe in the contest here:  Food52.com  The info is all under "Your Best Paella" recipe contest.  I'm thinking TV Food Network?  Or not.

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Tasting Notes - Akari Sushi, Poughkeepsie Train Station

Tasting Notes - Akari Sushi

35 Main Street

Poughkeepsie Train Station

Lunch & Dinner, 7 Days
www.akarisushi.com

We stopped in at Akari yesterday for a quick bite before heading off to see Joan Baez at the Bardavon. (What a great show, but I did notice that all of the other aging hippies are looking older) The dining room at Akari is tiny but comfortable, but we were lucky to find two seats at the three seat sushi bar. Sitting at the bar is always my preference; I like to talk to the sushi chef and watch the preparation.

We were immediately offered an appetizer of razor thin slices of Spanish mackerel, which set the tone for a wonderful dinner. My combo platter ($20) included a cup of steaming hot savory miso soup, and a tossed salad of sliced iceberg lettuce. While we worked our way through the opening course, I watched as the sushi chef prepared an artfully presented dish of salmon roe roll, salmon sushi and sashimi, yellow fin tuna, sole, yellow tail and a “white tuna”.

PS Akari does not have a liquor license, but they are fine if you BYOB.

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Tasting Notes - Bull & Buddha, Poughkeepsie

Bull and Buddha
319 Main Street
Poughkeepsie, NY

This post was updated November 10, 2012. You can read that review here. 

We stopped in for a quick dinner this evening, but were tempted into sampling the "Chef's Tasting" sushi dinner.  For me, the most attractive selections on the Bull and Buddha's menu are the sushi offerings.  The dishes are prepared by  the most capable hands of Makio Idesako, who prior to coming to Poughkeepsie ran the Amici Sushi kitchen for John Novi at the Depuy Canal House in High Falls.  Trust me these are capable hands.  For the grand total of $45 per person (Poughkeepsie dollars) we were treated, over two hours,  to ten scrumptious courses at the sushi bar.  You really should do this at the sushi bar, for watching the preparation and presentation is half of the fun (and I sense that Makio enjoys the audience) . I suppose you should do this with a glass of Saki, but we enjoyed a glass of Albarino with our seafood. The sushi offerings included crispy (unagi) fresh water eel, and a separate larger platter of salt water eel.  Makio brought sampler platters of sushi (with rice) and sashimi (sans rice), which included salmon, tuna and yellow tail. We enjoyed a crunchy roll of shrimp tempura and avocado, a whole soft shell crab, Zuwai Gani (snow crab), slices of octopus, fluke, tuna belly (toro), and broiled yellow tail cheeks. I should also note that Makio apologized for the "hastily prepared" selections and suggested that advance notice for the Chef's Tasting Menu will give him time to properly prepare for the dinner. I can't imagine how good that will be, but I look forward to it.  

The original blog-post about Bull & Buddha can be read - here

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Tasting Notes - Bacco, Rte 44 Poughkeepsie

Bacco Restaurant
718 Dutchess Turnpike
Poughkeepsie, Ny 12603
845-454-1882


Update May 2012 - Bacco Restaurant has closed


We had dinner last night at Bacco, the new Italian eatery in the Arlington Liquor Plaza in Poughkeepsie, across from Adam's.  The space is largely unchanged from the last tenant's floor plan. The bar still in the stocking stages (although we did encounter a FB Friend there sampling the available inventory).  The restaurant  opened just three weeks ago and it is too early to pass judgement.  We tried a scallopine of veal, a Milanese style veal cutlet, & a mixed grill of chicken breast, sliced steak and sausage, which got the best review.  My appetizer of octopus and home fry style potatoes was a very nice presentation, but slightly overdone - which is a bad thing to do to octopus.  We'll give them some time to work out the kinks and revisit. 


A more recent visit was posted here on January 24, 2011:

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Mercato Osteria & Enoteca, Red Hook, NY

Mercato Osteria & Enoteca

61 East Market Street

Red Hook, NY 

Reservations: 845 758 5879

Once in a while, things fall nicely into place. Last night our plans included taking in the new production of “Doubt”, being staged by the Tangent Theater Company in Tivoli. It is a play we had missed at Vassar's Powerhouse Theater and regretted ever since. For some time we have also been looking for an opportunity to have dinner at Mercato in Red Hook, a genuine osteria (family run roadhouse) which has been up at the top of the local foodie buzz charts since they opened three years ago.

I love when a plan comes together. We were hoping to have dinner at 6 PM, leaving us enough time to make the eight o'clock curtain. I also like to stop and have a glass of wine at the bar before dinner, and scope out the menu and the space. A peek at the restaurant's website confirmed the “Enoteca” was in fact a wine bar, and it turned out to be the classic bistro bar, complete with white marble bar top, and a fabulous selection of Italian wines. We should not have been surprised by the scope and quality of the selections, as one of the proprietors, Francesco Buitoni, honed his considerable skills with Tony May and Mario Batali in New York, including a stint as sommelier at Batali's Otto. The list offered over fifty selections representing the many regions and grape varieties of Francesco's native Italy. Mr. Biutoni operates the restaurant with his wife and long time partner Michele Platt.

After seeing the bar and the wine list, they had us right there; the food could have been passable and I would have been happy.

Tasting Notes - New Menu at 36 Main, New Paltz

Chef Adam Sternberg introduced his new fall menu last week, and we stopped in with the Wednesday Night Boyz to sample the fare.  Luckily for us, Theresa was on the bar, Pinot Grigio at the ready when we arrived, and she shared the new menu with me.  The offerings include nine "small plates" and eight entrees.  The small plates are designed as appetizer fare, or perhaps for sharing, but many of us used them as a main course this evening. We started with plates of duck wings from Maple Leaf Farm ($12) deep fried and tossed in a spicy sweet and sour glaze. Crispy pork shanks ($9) were thankfully held over from the summer menu.  They are  glazed with a piquant Thai chili sauce, and served with a blue cheese dressing.  I had the Crab Rockefeller ($14), plated with three individual servings of crab, blended with spinach and bread crumbs and quite tasty.  One of my tablemates ordered the night's special, a platter of sliced duck breast cured with pastrami seasoning.  Very nicely done.  An old standby of Hudson Valley foie gras is always a favorite, plated with Chorizo stuffed figs and bacon strips.  We also ordered an entree portion of roasted chicken breast ($26) from Wellington Farm, served with braised leeks, feta cheese, and socca, a flat bread made from chick pea flour and oil.  A nice combination of flavors that was very well prepared.  The new menu also offers a cod filet with pork belly and brussel sprout hash.  The hash is also offered as a side dish, which we tried and enjoyed very much with our apps.  I was glad to see the blue cheese potato chips are also still available as a side for $6. I saved the short ribs cannelloni ($26) for my next visit.  It is served with porcini bechamel and baby carrots.  36 Main remains one of our favorite destinations.  The kitchen consistently puts out a good selection of well prepared interesting dishes using locally sourced products whenever possible.  The atmosphere is comfortably casual yet the staff is always professional and attentive. And they have a really friendly fun bartender.  What's not to like?

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The Perfect Loaf of Bread

6 AM, Saturday Morning

In days of yore, before the TV Food network, before recipe “apps” for your phone, before PriceChopper offered freshly baked breads all day, when artisanal referred to hand made shoes - there was Wonder Bread, or worse. If you grew up in Queens, you had Dugan's bread delivered to your door each morning, along with a bottle of milk. It sent bread lovers everywhere looking for alternatives. If you were lucky enough to live near an Italian neighborhood, you might find “Italian bread” from the Bronx at the local deli, or better yet freshly baked at the local Italian bakery. Those loaves only lasted a day and cost a quarter so we only had them on special occasions.  

A good loaf of bread can be so much more than a side dish at the edge of the table. A really good loaf of bread can be the reason to sit down and eat.