Still under construction...

...I'm still working on a template I like. This one may just stick for now, considering that Blogger likes to eat sidebars. Yuck.

Meanwhile, I'm working on reviews of Cincy Chic Chic Chef (last one in the series is this coming Wednesday!), Kellogg's Country Kitchen, Mt. Adams Fish House and a lovely dinner Terry made for me this week, so don't think I've stopped eating. I probably SHOULD, but I haven't.

I can has domain name?

Lolcats do rule the world, don't they?

Anyhow, you can now reach my blog via http://winemedinemecincinnati.com The RSS feed has not and will not change-- I just wanted an easier way to tell people how to find my blog if I didn't have a card on me.

I'm going to do a bit of housekeeping and make a few improvements over the weekend. Stay tuned!

Good stuff: Just Cured

I mentioned that I had bought some Just Cured salmon last week-- great, subtle flavors and it's local! Val over at Cincinnati Locavore did a great post on his process. Go and check it out, and check him out at Findlay Market this weekend!

Mini Review: Chan's Asian Wok

Oof.

I call this a mini-review only because a) I've only sampled one dish and b) twice now, I've eaten my meal without taking a picture. Bad blogger!

Chan's Asian Wok is next door to Half Price Books in Mason, near my office. I wandered in there one day when I left my lunch at home and had an inkling to grab a quick sandwich at Subway. Chan's was between Half Price Books and Subway, and it smelled really good, so I went in.

Wow. For $4.50 I got some of the best take-out, "Americanized" Chinese I've had in a long time. I got the chicken teriyaki with steamed rice and veggies, which had a bunch of not too sweet, not overly salty sauce over bits of chicken breast and crisp-tender vegetables. According to their menu, everything is fresh, nothing frozen and they try to cook healthfully. It's incredibly obvious-- this is not your usual, sickeningly-sweet, overly salty, nearly-unidentifiable dark meat, but some really high quality stuff.

I stopped in there today and got the same thing-- again, it was quick, fresh and delicious. I also saw a huge new banner-- apparently they were just voted to the Top 100 Chinese Takeout Restaurants in the country! Pretty nifty. If you're in the Mason area, check them out.

Review: Taste of NFL

Okay, okay, anyone who knows me knows that I'm sort of sports-stupid. I really like watching baseball, but every game Terry and I go to, he ends up spending half the game explaining things to me. I know TJ Houshmanzadeh, Carson Palmer, and Chad Johnson by sight; everyone else is just a big guy in a jersey. I know more about football than I used to, thanks to Terry and our friends Tracy and Ron, who have all at some point or another explained things while we watched a game. My lack of football knowledge stuns my mother, who is a huge Bengals fan, and who had season tickets while I was growing up. She's also still despondent that I don't know how to swim, despite several summers of swim lessons. It just goes to show you that just because you expose me to something, it doesn't mean it will stick.

My lovely blogger-buddy Shannan emailed me a few days before the Taste of NFL event to see if I wanted to go-- 30 chefs? Sure! Good cause? Even better! The event was a blast-- lots of Bengals players around to sign autographs, several of them pouring shots of vodka for anyone who wanted one, some really cool auction prizes, and all of it benefited the Freestore/Foodbank, which is so important, particularly in a time of economic downturn. I read somewhere that demand on food banks are doubling and even tripling, so having a huge organization like the NFL raise money and give money to food-related charities is so important.

Another great sign? Many of the executive chefs were serving food behind their tables. I chatted with Chef Travis Maier from Seny, spotted Jean-Robert de Cavel slinging French Castles behind his station, Chef Paul Sturkey was at Mesh's station-- everyone brought their A-game to this event, and it showed.

I don't think I tried all 30 dishes, so I'm just going to highlight a few of my favorites.

Julie's favorite dish of the night: mesh's pork belly with sweet potato mash.

The pork belly was braised in cider, the sweet potato mash wasn't too sweet or too overspiced, as sweet potato mash can be. It was not the perfect summer dish, for sure, but it was perfect for fall and football (pigskin? get it?).

Terry's favorite dish of the night: The Palace Restaurant's Croquette of Wild Mushroom and Oxtail with Port Wine Reduction.

Crispy outside, rich inside, melt-in-your-mouth good. He went back for a second one, which we didn't do for any other dish.

Other awesome dishes:

Seny's "steak and potatoes".

I really couldn't wait to try this, as I knew it would be something interesting. It was a fun twist on steak and potatoes-- a piece of rare strip steak topped with potato skin "caviar", with a side of pickled potato and avocado puree. It was presented to emulate sushi. Very pretty and quite tasty. I talked to Chef Travis and asked what people thought of the dish-- he said people loved it once he explained it, and he really wanted people to ask questions so he could educate. Awesome!

Jeff Ruby's Surf and Turf of Tuna "Bacon" and Braised Pork Belly on Spiced Watermelon-Sweet Corn Emulsion

This one was really good-- loved the emulsion, loved the amazingly light-tasting pork belly-- but was thrown off a little by the chunk of slightly underripe watermelon. Still, the tuna/pork "surf and turf" was delicious.

Cincinnati Cooks! Maple Chicken and Ribs

I didn't try the ribs, but I did try the chicken. Lovely, sticky sauce-- very maple-y. I'd like to try this at home, actually, as it seemed simple and had that air of home-cooking. Cincinnati Cooks is itself a program of the Freestore/Foodbank. It is a job training program, and graduates of the courses are hired by local companies, and the food they use to cook and cater is all donated. The catering brings in revenue, which allows the training program to flourish. Fantastic! Their catering menu looks really good, too; I will keep it in mind for my next catered event. Check them out here.

My only complaint (if I can call it that) is that it was elbow-to-elbow, making it a little hard to eat at times, but such is the nature of an event like this. It was a great time, for both foodie and football fan. This is the kind of event where someone could take a spouse or friend who wasn't a huge football fan and they would still have a great time. I hope to check it out again next year, but in the meantime, I need to get to the Palace restaurant-- Terry wants some more croquettes!

Mini Review: Florence Freedom

Terry and I love minor league baseball. We used to have Dayton Dragons seasons (well, part of a season pack), and we occasionally go to Florence Freedom games. They're fun-- you don't really watch the baseball, you watch all of the silly stuff that goes on between innings. And compared to GABP? The food is fantastic. The Dayton Dragons' food is a home run (did I really just say that?)-- awesome hot dogs, sausages with sauteed peppers and onions, really good nachos, microbrews, the works. Florence Freedom food isn't too bad, either. I've had several things that were decent there: grilled hamburgers (a little dry, but tons of condiments), fries (really good!), saratoga chips and chicken fingers (actual chicken tenderloins; a bit dry but A for effort). Plus, it's a lot less expensive than GABP (great for familieis with kids), and they have days where beer is $1.

If you have the opportunity, check out the minors-- you can see up-and-coming baseball stars AND get a pretty good food experience.

Cincinnati EATS: Lavomatic

The first Cincinnati EATS appeared to be a great success-- a ton of people, all happily munching on Chef Joanne Drilling's food at Lavomatic. Our friends Ted and Tracy joined us, where we met up with Vudutu and his lovely significant other Donna as well as Jean-François Flechet (the Taste From Belgium guy). We were a darn lively table.

A couple of issues-- I don't think Lavo is quite set up for this many people all eating at once, but it was a pretty good try. The menu was chilled cucumber dill soup, chicken, and a pavlova.

The chilled cucumber soup was creamy, with plenty of dill. It wasn't low fat by any means-- I could taste the heavy cream-- but it was perfect for the steamy day we had last Tuesday. This was my favorite part of the meal, but I am very partial to chilled soups.

We're going to pretend that picture is in focus, okay? The chicken was a great idea-- lots of zucchini, roasted tomatoes, and garlic-- but the final product was not so great. It was a bit dry and needed some more sauce for both flavor and moisture. This was where you really noticed that the kitchen wasn't used to turning out 100 chicken breasts at the same time. It was obviously high quality chicken, but even really good chicken won't hold up well to overcooking. Definitely an A for effort, and I expect that if I tried this on a regular evening, it would be fine.

And now we have one of my favorite desserts that, sadly, won't be available much longer: pistachio pavlova with strawberries and citrus curd. The curd was perfectly sweet, yet tart, and the pistachio meringue was crispy and just a tiny bit chewy-- probably from the humidity. Meringue doesn't do very well with humidity, thus we won't see this on Lavomatic's menu until next spring. The salty-sweet combination is always a favorite in my book.

In all, I really can't wait to see what Cincinnati EATS comes up with for their next get-together. For $36, this really can't be beat.

Congratulations! AAA Four Diamond awards announced

Congrats to Boca, The Celestial, Daveed's, Orchids, Jean-Robert at Pigall's and The Palace for winning AAA's 4-Diamond award. The Palace has been winning it for 20 consecutive years. This is AAA's highest designation; we have no 5-Diamond restaurants or hotels in Ohio.

Remember when we used to wait to see if the Maisonette would get its Mobil stars? Sigh.

Cincy Chic: Sushi

Cincy Chic Chic Chefs is in its fourth week-- only two more before they change locations to EQ at The Party Source in Newport. Last night, Chef Chris (who just turned 21, and is now a certified culinarian, the first step for American Culinary Federation certification, congrats, Chris!) made sushi for us. He explained what sushi is (sushi is the rice, not the fish) and made several rolls, with the audience's help. It was definitely fun, and took the mystery out of sushi for many of the women (and a couple of men!) in the audience. You can find the recipes, podcast, and video on CincyChic, presented by Screaming Bob!

It was also Amy Storer's birthday-- we celebrated with chocolate cake and pink champagne. Later, a couple of us went out to Aoi-- I won't do a full review of Aoi because I only sampled a couple of rolls and because I didn't have my camera (though Amy was kind enough to snap a picture)-- but I can't wait to go back. The rolls we shared were awesome!
Another fun night with Cincy Chic-- when are you going to join us?

Review: Seny

I was going to come up with some ridiculous pun on Seny's name (pronounced "sehn") but at 4 PM on a Tuesday, it's pretty lost on me. I'll let my readers (or The Boyfriend) fill in on that one. It would be a "Seny" to skip this restaurant? That might work.

For some reason, Terry and I wanted tapas on Saturday night. I wanted something that could potentially be light, and we definitely wanted to try something new. We looked at Relish in Mason, but their menu looked less like tapas and more like entrees, so we decided on Seny.

Seny, in case you didn't know, is owned by the Maier family of Frisch's Big Boy fame. Don't worry-- no tartar sauce and fish sandwiches here. Their son, Travis, went to culinary school and apprenticed in Spain, then came back here and opened a restaurant. There has been a bit of controversy, mostly because Travis Maier isn't as experienced on paper as some of his chef-owner counterparts in the city, and I had heard some mixed reviews. Instead of heeding the gossip, we decided to dive in.

We were pleasantly surprised.

First, the service: it was laid back and knowledgable. The waiter was incredibly well-versed and enthusiastic-- and became moreso as I demonstrated that I was excited about the food as well. He explained that the dishes didn't come out in any particular order, so we ordered what we liked and noshed until we were full. He understood the nuances of the food. For example, the kitchen had forgotten rosemary oil for one of the dishes, he noticed, and brought some out so we'd have the full experience of the dish. The meal itself was a great deal-- five generous dishes, two drinks apiece, $65 + tip. One of Terry's beers, however, was taken off the tab-- it was half foam, being from a newly tapped keg. We were never rushed-- a good thing because it was far too fun to linger, people-watch, take in the scenery, and listen to the live Spanish guitar.

There were two menus: tapas modernas and tapas tradicionales, as well as a daily special list. We ordered mainly from the tapas tradicionales list, as well as the scallops from the tapas modernas.

Patatas bravas: smoldering hot potatoes, fried and covered with mayonnaise. What's not to like? The mayonnaise is heavy on the paprika, which made it smoky and lovely, and the potatoes were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Very filling.

White gazpacho: this was the most surprising yet delightful dish of the evening. A soup, made traditionally-- almonds, garlic, breadcrumbs, olive oil and grape puree. At the bottom? Sliced grapes. This was sweet, cool. refreshing, garlicky-- all at the same time. I've found a recipe for it and I'm going to have to make it this summer. I think I prefer it to the more well known tomato based gazpacho.

Charcuterie: Chorizo, Serrano ham, house-cured pork loin and salami with a couple of gherkins and two caper fruits. My favorite was the house-cured pork loin, which was salty and a little less rich than the chorizo and salami. Of course, if rich is what you're after, the salami is a great bet-- well marbled and certainly not the stuff of salami sandwiches in your Cincinnati childhood (maybe if you were a child in Europe!).

Scallops: This is about the time the lights went down, thus the change in photo quality. Boo! Perfectly cooked, paired with bacon, crimini mushrooms and watercress in a light saffron cream. The waiter came by to put on the rosemary oil, which complimented it nicely-- I love the combination of woody, smoky and sweet-- and encouraged us to soak up the cream with the bread on the table. Yum, yum, yum.

Una copade vino rojo: A deconstructed glass of Priorat's Miserere 1999. That's all it said on the menu. When the waiter came by, I asked, "Is that what I think it is?" and he explained that the flavors of the wine were deconstructed onto a plate into individual components. I was right: molecular gastronomy in Cincinnati, here we come! I was so, so excited about this, and the waiter was excited that I was excited. Terry was excited that I was excited. It was a table of excitement, let me tell you. It did not disappoint, and I managed to actually write down the individual components:

Concord grape gelee-- not your mama's grape jelly, this was slightly sweet and a little richer than the Welch's variety you're used to. You got a bite of it in just about every bite of the rest of the dish.

Blackberry spheres-- not heavy on the blackberry, indeed, a bit lighter and less jammy than I was expecting.

Grape caviar-- green grapes processed into a caviar-like "puree".

Vanilla pearls-- tiny beads of vanilla flavor

Vanilla char-- the dish was brought out with a bit of still-smoking vanilla bean, which is an amazing scent.

Chanterelle mushrooms-- for the woodsy quality in the wine. Very different.

paprika-- for a touch of spice

a tiny bit of edible rose

The entire plate was surrounded by a bit of rosewater foam and watercress. The entire dish was an experience, and after taking a bite, then taking a sip of the wine, each element the chef was highlighting was apparent. It was beautifully done, and one of the more impressive dishes I've seen in Cincinnati. Price? $11. Not bad, really.

In all? I am so impressed and excited by this place-- it's just what Cincinnati needs. A bit of comfortable food, a bit of cutting edge stuff, a lot of attitude, a lot of ego, but some family roots. I will definitely go back again-- and I look forward to doing so.