The Bitten Word

Wild Rice-Crusted Fish

Bon Appétit (September 2015) 

There were a lot of things in the September Bon Appétit that stopped us in our tracks. It's the magazine's annual Best New Restaurants issue, and it's filled with buzzy new chefs, great cooking tips and tantalizing dishes we'd like to sample.

One thing that really drew us in was this fish, which is served at Spoon and Stable in Minneapolis. It's one of those aha! dishes that you can't believe you've never thought of before: Instead of crusting a piece of fish in breadcrumbs or panko or almonds, Chef Gavin Kaysen uses ground wild rice.

We had to try it for ourselves.

That Time We Were Oyster Farmers (And Learned to Fly)

Virginia Beach in the Off Season

 

Way back in March, Zach was invited by Endless Vacation magazine to write a feature about Virginia Beach in the Autumn.

So in the earliest days of spring, we hopped in a car and went to sample all that Virginia Beach had to offer. It was a jam-packed/meal-packed weekend as we ran from one activity -- kayaking! indoor skydiving! climbing through treetops in an adventure park! -- to another. 

Virginia Beach rolled out the red carpet, but we had one experience that's really stayed with us: a visit to Pleasure House Oysters. 

Here's the scene:

It's mid-afternoon on a Sunday, and the sun is starting to lower in the sky. It's one of those early days of spring -- sunny but still cold -- that indicates longer, warmer days are coming. We meet the owner of Pleasure House, Chris, on a dock. He outfits us with waders (very flattering, as you can see from the photo above), then we all climb on the boat and head out to Chris' farm. 

Concord Grape Shrub

Bon Appétit (September 2015) 

 

Grape soda.

Do you have fond memories of it as a kid? Neither of us drank it all that much, but it still strikes a nostalgic chord. All of those candy-colored, sugary-sweet soft drinks -- grape, orange, cherry, lemon-lime -- take us back to slip-n-slides, Blockbuster nights at home, and grade-school pizza parties.

In absolutely the best way.

So there was a hint of childhood memories as we made the base for this sweet, grapey cocktail.

But there are a couple things about this drink that make it decidedly not for kids. The vodka, obviously.

But also? Vinegar.

Braised Chicken Thighs with Savory Marinated Peaches

Fine Cooking (August/September 2015)

 

We had a terror-stricken moment at the farmers market this past Sunday. There we were, walking around, minding our own business, when we looked up and saw something that instantly filled us with dread.

What we saw were four little words on a handwritten sign at our favorite fruit stand:

Last week for peaches!

The horror!

We mentioned the other day that we've had a harder than usual time saying goodbye to summer this year. We still are. And the end of peach season isn't helping.

If you can still find peaches where you live -- supermarkets should still have plenty for a little while longer and will work quite well in this recipe -- here's a wonderful way to enjoy them: Braised Chicken Thighs with Savory Marinated Peaches.

 

Visiting (The Other) Portland

(image: City of Portland, Maine's Facebook page)

 

We recently celebrated the wedding of our good friend Sue to her wonderful groom Adam. (You'd know Sue from countless Fakesgiving dinners. She's one of the few who's been at every single one we've had.) We were extremely happy to witness their special day.

But we were also thrilled because their wedding was held in one of our all-time favorite places: Portland, Maine.

We've visited Portland 4 or 5 times over the years -- it's a wonderful small town that's very convenient from the East Coast or eastern Canada. The flight from Washington, D.C., is just an hour and 15 minutes. It's a perfect weekend getaway.

What you'll find in Portland is a compact downtown with lots of great shops in stately historic brick buildings, along with a working waterfront of fishing boats (with plenty of tourist-oriented whale-watching ships as well).

But what might surprise you about this town of 60,000 is what a fabulous food destination it is. Bon Appétit dubbed Portland "America's Foodiest Small Town" way back in 2009, and the city's food scene has only gotten markedly better since then.

So we wanted to share some of our favorite Portland spots with you.

 

Fore Street

Let's start with our favorite restaurant in town, which also happens to be one of our favorite restaurants on the planet: Fore Street. It's not new (it opened in 1996). And it's hardly a secret (it ranked in Gourmet's Top 50 Restaurants in the U.S. in 2001 and 2006, and it's been nominated for a national James Beard award multiple years). But it's outstanding: The produce and meat and seafood are local and consistently amazing. The fresh-baked bread is phenomenal.

But it's the space that makes Fore Street truly special. The woodplank ceiling, the weathered brick walls, the iron posts and window casements, the open kitchen with crackling fires in the hearths -- everything about the restaurant is welcoming and warm and cozy and perfect.

Dining room at Fore Street (image courtesy forestreet.biz)

 

Steak Sauces: Tomato Nam Prik

from The New York Times 

When we were eating our way through Thailand a little while back, we'd find all sorts of things on our plate: raw beef, shaved papaya, sizzling shrimp, spicy noodles.

But there's one thing you can almost bank on seeing every single meal in Thailand, no matter what you order: nam prik.

It literally means "fluid chile," and that's exactly what it is -- a fiery hot chile sauce that's as ubiquitous on Thai tables as salsa at a Mexican restaurant. 

Like salsa verde, nam prik is kind of a catchall term. The sauce can be thick and chunky or thin and pureed. Nam prik can even be a paste or almost dry, like a powder. It can include any number of ingredients -- garlic, lime, onion and, of course, hot chiles. 

What really distinguishes nam prik, though, is that it usually includes dried shrimp or shrimp paste or some other preserved fish. That -- along with fish sauce, which is also a fairly universal ingredient in nam prik -- gives the sauce its telltale funky undertones. (If you're making nam prik, and at some point you recoil from the fermented, fetid odor, congratulations! You're doing it right!)

We're probably making nam prik sound more out there than it really is. Really, it's just a zesty chile salsa with an umami undertone.

And turns out? It's delicious on a steak.

Steak Sauces: Blue Butter

from The New York Times

As much as we enjoyed that Creamed Spinach Sauce, it actually wasn't the first thing we gravitated toward when we initially read Mark Bittman's piece on making steakhouse steak at home. 

This was.

Bittman wrote that of the five steak sauces he came up with for this feature, this was the one he liked the most:

My favorite is what I call ‘‘blue butter,’’ a blend of blue cheese and butter, about which one of my friends said with a sigh, ‘‘I wish I didn’t know about this.’’ 

We really liked the flavor of this blue butter. How could you not? As Bittman said, it's literally a blend of blue cheese and butter, of fat on fat. Those (and salt and pepper) are the only ingredients.

But while we loved the taste, we have to say we found this a little overwhelming in its richness. A couple bites and we were done. It seemed like the kind of thing you would slather on a subpar piece of steak. But we'd painstakingly prepared a (pricey) ribeye, and we wanted a sauce that would complement the taste of the meat, not overpower it.

If you do make this, know that a little goes a very long way. It's heavy and rich and creamy and sharp -- all things we love, for sure. We just weren't in the mood for it.

Maybe it was a seasonal thing? It seemed awfully heavy for a steak in August. Check back with us in January -- we'll probably be slathering this blue butter on everything we can find.

 

Steak Sauces: Creamed Spinach Sauce

from The New York Times

Bittens, we have done you a great disservice.

How in the world -- how in the world?? -- is it possible that we've never talked to you about Keens?

Keens is a steakhouse in New York City. But if you ask us, it's not just a steakhouse, it's the steakhouse. Open since 1885, Keens is housed in a gorgeous series of wood-paneled rooms on West 36th St. in midtown Manhattan. The neighborhood around it has changed, as all neighborhoods do -- most of the restaurants around Keens today are Korean BBQ joints.

Back in the day, Keens was a gentlemen's-only restaurant and bar. Men who frequently ate there could store their tobacco pipes there. More than 90,000 people ultimately were on the roster of the Pipe Club -- men like Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein and J.P. Morgan -- and today all of the walls and ceiling of the restaurant are covered with pipes.

The ceiling at Keens (photo from Keens)

 

Anyway, it's the food at Keens that's truly outstanding. There's nothing in the world quite like a rare Keens porterhouse -- perfectly red in the middle and sizzling and crisp on the outside -- with an icy dry martini.

Oh, and some creamed spinach.

You have to get the creamed spinach.

One Last Look at Summer

Bittens, Monday is Labor Day, which means that summer is coming to an end. We've had a wonderful summer -- mostly just staying in D.C., but we did get to spend some time in Provincetown, Mass., at the very tip of Cape Cod.

For whatever reason, we're taking the end of summer especially hard this year. Sure, fall is going to be great, and we know we're going to get excited. But we're definitely still in mourning mode over here.

We wanted to share some snapshots of our summer. You may have seen some of these if you follow us on Instagram.

 

We had some nice pool time. DC public pools are free to residents, and we go whenever we can.

 

 

Sautéed Summer Squash with Parsley and Garlic

Cook's Illustrated (September/October 2015)

In these waning days of summer, we're finding ourselves a little clingy with produce.

Like hoarders at a going-out-of-business sale, we're scarfing down all the tomatoes, corn, eggplant and beans that we can. We're getting it from our CSA, the farmers market, the supermarket and our own backyard garden. (How veggie-crazy have we been? When a friend posted on Facebook this week about his bumper crop of tomatoes that he wanted to give away, we had a brief moment of "should we??" --despite the fact that we already have more tomatoes than we know what to do with.) 

In particular this year, we've had a lot of summer squash in our house, but no thanks to our own garden. Our garden squash has struggled (we have yet to harvest more than one, and whatever we harvested wasn't what we'd planted!). Our CSA, though, has given us big piles of squash and zucchini each week. 

But here's the deal with late-summer produce: It's easy to fall into a rut.

That tomato salad that tasted amazing the first time you made it can seem a bit bland after a half dozen meals. So we're all about keeping it fresh and trying the new, even in the final days of summer. 

Case in point: these beautiful Sautéed Summer Squash with Parsley and Garlic, which instantly became a summer classic for us.