Special Guest Blogging: Restaurant Review by His Lordship

Since the parental units and the baby brother are in town for the holidays, we've been eating out a lot, and tonight, we tried a recently-opened tapas restaurant my dad had read about in the tourist magazine at his hotel. I thought the meal, while pricey, was very good indeed, and my family seemed pretty pleased as well. The significant other (who shall henceforth be known as "His Lordship", to avoid the inherent potential confusion with Jehovah caused by my earlier references to "the Lord") also enjoyed the meal quite a lot, but he also had such strong opinions about the price point of a certain menu item that he was moved to write an online review on CitySearch to get it off his chest. However, since CitySearch ruthlessly caps reviews at a meager 150 words, he did not get to do real justice to his deeply felt beliefs, and had to settle for a hopelessly truncated version.

I should observe that nothing, but nothing, makes His Lordship crankier faster than a bad or overpriced meal. He has very exacting standards regarding quality to price ratios, and while he's willing to compromise on quality if the price is low enough, and, conversely, to gladly pay good money if the quality is high, there is a decided point at which the perceived cost/value disparity is so great that he'll go postal. I'm not talking about being a bit peeved; I'm talking about a surly, argumentative funk so palpable that I will do nearly anything to jog him out of the ensuing dark humor. While the rest of this meal was good enough to stave off that particular demon, there was one thing that really set him off, and since his restaurant rants are, after the funk, usually rather entertaining, I thought it would be nice to give him a forum in which to fully express himself. Thus, in his own words, here's His Lordship's full review of tonight's meal:

All right, you've seen the prices as you walk past this new restaurant front in Center City. We know that you will be paying a pretty penny for some tasty food, but come on, $12 for ONE empanada? (Description: "Amada's Empanada: Spinach, Manchego & Artichoke") I asked the server about this after taking one bite and he proceed to tell me that the $12 empanada had aged Manchego and plantain dough. Let me get one thing straight, the food was excellent and as long as I have the perception of value (through ingredients, taste, amount, presentation, etc...) I am going to be game, but $12 for ONE empanada (see description again)?! Download the menu and compare the prices and the price for that small empanada will jump out at you (I admit that it said empanada singular and not plural, as my friends pointed out to me).

Okay, enough about the empanada (it was small too, about 2-4 bites worth). The service was good and the ambience was a bit loud but not too overbearing. The feminine drink I had (All About My Mother), a lavender grape gimlet, was a great start to the meal but the white wine sangria, according to my tablemates, was a bit wimpy. Service was knowledgeable and attentive, and was always ready to bring more bread. (Take note from other reviews: make sure you request bread...)

My friends who have been to Spain also pointed out (as other have here) that this "high concept" restaurant atmosphere is not authentic tapas, but in America it seems that tapas has been mostly available only in "elite" status.

Okay, I have been complaining and possibly nitpicking at what was all in all an exceptional dining experience which was highlighted by the lamb chops, which were possibly the best I have ever had (tender, juicy, perfectly seasoned). The sea bass was also memorable (crispy, flaky, served with clams on the side with the best sauce of the night, an herb cream sauce). The traditional octopus was tender and perfectly cooked. The baked goat cheese was creamy and slightly smoky and the tomato sauce was just sweet enough to balance the tanginess of the cheese (but I could probably make this at home easily) and the fava bean salad was nicely seasoned and a fair size. For those looking for value, the roasted pork over beans is a large portion although does not rise to the preciousness of most of the other dishes. Try the crema catalana with the cinnamon under the brulee and the hint of rosewater. I agree with previous reviews that with each bite, you truly get a taste experience that you can savor and you only need a few bites to experience the essence of the dish.

The next time I have clients to take out and can expense the meal, I will take them to Amada.


By the way, I strongly suspect that "$12 empanada" is now going to be the gold standard and ready shorthand for any overpriced item in the foreseeable future.

Holiday Cookie Blogging, Part I

I'm in the middle of the holiday cookie baking frenzy, having already made three kinds of cookies in the past week. One was an experimental batch to use the snowflake cookie cutters I bought in a holiday-induced bout of temporary insanity which made me forget that I have insufficient patience for cookie cutter cookies. The other two are going to be mailed out as holiday gifts, so I'm not going to post the recipe yet, so as not to spoil the surprise.

In the meantime, there has been some demand for the recipe for the cookies I sent out last year, an almost laughably Californified but still addictively yummy shortbread that combined two wonderful flavors abundantly found in California gardens: rosemary, which grows like kudzu and is used as cheap ground cover, and Meyer lemons, which are intoxicatingly floral and aromatic, but often difficult and expensive to find if you don't grow them yourself. Since I had to leave my beloved Meyer tree behind (along with my kaffir lime, which I miss nearly as much) when we switched coasts, I have to make do by mixing some orange zest in with ordinary lemon zest, which evokes some of the same magic and is far better than lemon zest alone.

Rosemary-Meyer Lemon Shortbread
Makes about 4 dozen

1 1/2 cups butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons very finely chopped fresh rosemary
3 tablespoons freshly grated Meyer lemon zest (or 2 tablespoons regular lemon zest and 1 tablespoon orange zest)
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream together the butter, sugar, rosemary and zest in a mixer until very light and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated, taking care not to over-mix, which would make the cookies tough.

Divide the dough into two equal blocks, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 325.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out each block to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut the dough, using square or round fluted-edged cookie cutters approximately 2 inches across, and place the cookies on parchment-lined cookie sheets. Place the cookie sheets in the freezer or refrigerator briefly to firm and cool the dough again and avoid spreading in the oven.

Bake in the center of the oven for 12-14 minutes, or until pale gold but not browned. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Notes: The amounts of rosemary and zest can be varied according to your tastes. I wouldn't add much more of the rosemary, but you can decrease it at will, and you can also increase the amount of zest if you prefer even more lemony cookies. Also, you can gather the scraps after the first cutting and roll out another batch, although the quality will decrease a bit from the first. They will still taste lovely, but the texture won't be quite as meltingly delicate.