Review: Bar Food and Chimay Tasting at Morton's

Morton's and I have had a tumultuous relationship. One of my very first posts here was about a mediocre experience there back in January. A friend, however, is quite a regular there and encouraged me to go-- at least to try the bar food. The bar food, he emphasized, was really good. So, two weeks ago, we decided to try it-- we had also heard that they were showing the Vice Presidential debates.

Morton's has a fantastic happy hour, with $5 bar bites both right after work (5-6:30) and late night (9:30-11). We were there for the latter.

We picked up three appetizers: prime mini cheeseburgers, as suggested by my unnamed associate; blue cheese fries, because you can't go wrong with potatoes and blue cheese; and the crab cakes.



The mini cheeseburgers were very good-- fresh bread with a nice crust, well-seasoned, flavorful meat, and nice, fresh toppings. I was very generous and let Terry eat the last one (as there are three on the plate).

The blue cheese fries were okay-- again, can you really go wrong with blue cheese and potatoes-- lots of blue cheese and a cream sauce over their regular fries. Their regular fries are only OK, if Morton's did pommes frites, I'd probably have rated them as over-the-top.

The crab cakes were stellar-- big chunks of crab, good flavor, nice remoulade-- they were little bites of crabby goodness. I'd definitely order these again; I could easily make a meal out of them.

To drink, I had their pineapple vodka, which, in the words of a certain friend on Twitter, is "guzzleable". She's not kidding-- sweet, pineapple-y, and goes down easily. Too easily. Downside? A little expensive for just vodka and fruit on the rocks-- $12. But it's Morton's, so you forgive them, and probably order another.

That great experience made me much less hesitant-- in fact, I was enthusiastic-- about attending the Beer for Bloggers event at Morton's on Tuesday. I was joined by 5chw4r7z, Ms. 5chw4r7z, Evan and his girlfriend from Buy Cincy, Michelle and Kevin, and K and her husband. They did this to promote a Chimay-based event on October 24, which will feature the menu we tasted, three different kinds of Chimay presented by a Chimay representative, and a $5 donation to Make-a-Wish Foundation for $45. Not a bad deal.

I'll leave the beer tasting notes to Michelle and Kevin, but I must admit that I really love Belgian wheat beers, and the story of Chimay is pretty interesting. Plus the glasses are cool-- they're designed so you really get full appreciation of the nose.



Three Chimay varieties were served: Chimay Grand Reserve (blue), Chimay Cinq Cents (white), and Chimay Premiere (Red). My favorite was the Grand Reserve, but I loved how the premiere paired with the chocolate cake.

But on to the food...


We were welcomed with a presentation of smoked salmon with horseradish, onion, capers and lemon with grilled bread. The salmon was lovely, and I love the classical presentation.


The tuna tartare was interesting-- the combination of wasabi cream, cucumber tuna and avocado made it reminiscent of a California roll. I liked it quite a bit, and it paired well with the crisp Chimay White. It's one of those things I want to go home and recreate.


The filet sandwiches were good, but not as good as the mini burgers I'd had two weeks before. Though the steak is undeniably good, the presentation-- a little mustard mayonnaise and some very soft, unimpressive bread leaves a bit to be desired. Tasty, but it did not blow me away. I realize that Morton's is limited by their corporate menu, but other chains give their chefs a bit of leeway-- I'd love to see that happen at Morton's. This was paired with the Chimay Blue, which was my favorite of the night-- a bit heavier in body to pair with the beef, but not overwhelming. Yum.


Chocolate sponge filled with thick, gooey chocolate sauce. How can you go wrong? Michelle had a whole one and Kevin and I split a half. It was pretty good-- and half was more than enough for me. The Chimay Red was lighter than I thought it would be, and cut the richness of the chocolate cake well.

Morton's treated us very well-- I talked with their marketing manager, Jason, about prior experiences and he was receptive to criticism and invited me back to try again. I probably will. In fact, I ended up at the bar afterwards, sipping a Negroni (my new favorite drink) with some friends.

Thanks to Annemarie and Jason from Morton's and Lauren from Wordsworth for the experience!

Full Disclosure: Yes, this was free, and I have received comped meals before. If this happens, I will always tell you, the reader, and I will always be honest-- there's no reason not to be.

Reader Question: Where would you go for your last meal in Cincinnati?

Our lovely Cin Twin, aka Amber, is leaving town for Denmark in just a couple of days. She chose her last meal in Cincinnati: Via Vite.

So I'm wondering... what's YOUR ideal last meal in Cincinnati? If you were to leave and never go back (or were on death row, or whatever), what would you eat?

I'll reveal my choice in a bit-- I have a feeling you'd guess, though.

Mini Review: Starbuck's Signature Hot Chocolate, Salted Caramel

Bearista
Originally uploaded by winemedineme

Even the avowed non-chain person likes Starbucks. I do. When I can, I go to Coffee Emporium or Sitwell's, or any number of my favorite local coffee spots, but since there aren't any (that I've found) within a few minutes of my office, I had to settle with Starbucks. Settle indeed-- I wanted to try their Salted Caramel hot chocolate before I hunkered down for a conference call at noon. I guess you could say I drank my lunch!

It wasn't bad. I got a grande, but a tall is more than enough. It's not as sweet or as thick as the Chantico (remember that? Like hot pudding!) and not quite salty enough. I realize that it's supposed to be just a hint of salty-sweet, but instead you get just a few hints of salt in the first few sips. All in all, pretty tasty, ethically produced cocoa and vanilla extract, and I got that cute bear (I love the Starbucks bears, particularly the Halloween ones. I'm apparently 5) to boot.

What's your favorite coffee beverage-- Starbucks or not?

Review: Taz, Mason

My friend Dave IMd me the other night. "Have you tried Taz?" he asked. "Nope. Where is it?" "Mason," he replied. "And it's better than Mythos."

Mythos, as many of you know, is the gold standard when it comes to gyros for a lot of people in Cincinnati. Me, I've always been a loyal Sebastian's fan, but as I have had gyros elsewhere, I've found theirs to be lacking: watery tzatziki, not a lot of meat, clear across town. I don't think I've had Sebastian's once since I moved to OTR.

For additional motivation, Dave added, "And they're 7.50 with a drink and fries." Sold!

Steve (who seems to be my at-work blog companion these days) and I headed over to Taz for lunch today. It's on Mason-Montgomery Road, next to Pizza Tower and behind Frisch's in an old Fazoli's. The owners have redecorated the Fazoli's with tapestries, sheer curtains and pillows to make it feel like you're dining in the classic, storybook Sultan's palace. Not bad for Mason.

We each got the same thing-- Gyros Supreme with fries. The difference between the regular Gyros and the supreme is the addition of some feta. Honestly, there wasn't enough feta on it to taste, so next time I'll just go with regular Gyros.

This was the biggest Gyro I've ever seen. It was absolutely stuffed with meat, tomatoes, onions, and thick, creamy tzatziki-- not watery at all. We could have easily split the gyro and been more than full. The meat was well seasoned, particularly good for what is probably the standard gyro meat and the bread was slightly crispy, warm, and delicious. The tomatoes were pretty fresh-- sometimes they can be tasteless, but these were obviously in season. The fries were okay, the kind with the slightly crunchy coating. Not bad.

Their dinner menu is pretty impressive, too. I'd love to come here for a Lebanese/Greek feast (their menu borrows liberally from both cuisines). For $10, with tip, this place is a steal. Taz may have stolen my gyro heart.

News: Iron Horse Inn Reopened

Looks like my buddy Drew wrote about the Iron Horse Inn reopening. Awesome! I can't wait to try it out-- I've heard their wine dinners used to be fabulous. I hope they restart them!

(Real content later, I promise.)

Review: Trattoria Roma

Do you guys ever watch Kitchen Nightmares? I love that show. It would be fun to make a drinking game from it: every time Gordon drops the f-bomb, drink a tequila shot. I'd be down for the count by the first commercial break.

It's also helped me, in a small way, to become a critical diner. It's not that I subscribe to WWGRD? (What Would Gordon Ramsay Do?), but there are some things he's pointed out that I agree with-- one of which is, if available, use high quality ingredients.

Trattoria Roma has been a favorite of mine for years. I'd never ventured much past pasta with them-- I loved their tortellini alla vodka (which is off the menu but supposedly you can ask for it) and their tiramisu (which I liked until I had better tiramisu). Trattoria Roma feels really fancy when you're 18 and you've not spent a lot of time downtown. Now, it feels just a tiny bit dingy, but in a charming way. It is incredibly slow if there's nothing going on at the Aronoff, but when there is, you're greeted buy a maître d' who is straight out of the Godfather, slicked back hair, Italian accent and all. At times you wonder if someone is going to burst in with a tommy gun and take people out, St. Valentine's Day Massacre-style.

Our first problem with the high-quality ingredients? The "Mediterranean salad". It looked like a good idea-- mozzarella, olives, and red pepper with Balsamic vinaigrette. Its execution, however, wasn't. The black olives were the big ones that come in a can, and the red pepper wasn't freshly roasted, but also jarred. The mozzarella was tasteless, and it was all served atop iceberg lettuce. This is a "dump" salad-- dump a can of this and a can of that. Really not worth the $10. Gordon would send it back. He might even throw things around and make the chef cry.

Pasta? Come here for pasta. Terry got veal Parmigiana, which was good, if overly sauced with a very good, richly flavored tomato sauce. There's not a lot of subtlety here-- big flavors, big portions, moderate price tag. If you think about the owners targeting their clients, which is the theater crowd, it makes sense. The theater crowd is looking for something fast, fancy (but not too fancy) and familiar (but maybe slightly exotic). You can take your grandma here, and you can take a date here. It won't blow them away, but it's not chain Italian, either. Gordon would probably be OK with it, but comment on the oversaucing.


I got the tortellini in cream sauce with artichokes and peas. This is where we get into the "use quality ingredients". The peas and the artichokes were canned. Frozen would have been better-- and understandable-- but it didn't detract from the very nice cream sauce. Gordon would cut out the peas and artichokes and just call it tortellini Alfredo.


In all? This is a totally safe restaurant. It's not amazing, but would probably please someone with simple tastes. It fills the "downtown, traditional Italian" craving pretty well, and it is a good pre-theater choice. Is it Nicola's? No. It's not trying to be. It could be improved with fresh ingredients, but for a simple bowl of pasta, this is a good choice.

Recipe: Simple Salsa

Salsa
Originally uploaded by winemedinemeI seriously don't know why I buy salsa in a jar anymore. It's so darn easy to make it myself, particularly in tomato season (unfortunately, as I've heard from many of the farmers down at Findlay, tomato season has been cut short by the storms from last week). When it isn't tomato season, cherry tomatoes make a great substitute as they tend to be sweeter and more flavorful even "off-season". My friend Maria got this recipe from another friend, and I've made it several times in the few weeks since she shared the recipe with me and it's gotten rave reviews, including "the best salsa I've ever had!" Awesome.

Most of the recipes I post are up for interpretation; change it to your tastes. This is how I've been making it lately. I like a lot of onion and cilantro in mine.

1 container of cherry tomatoes, or 6 or so homegrown tomatoes. Heirlooms work well, and look so pretty, with all of their different colors!

1 red or white onion, chopped semi-coarsely

1-2 jalapenos, chopped finely. I use 1, some people like it super spicy. I am not one of those people.

1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped. This is also to taste. I like a ton of cilantro, but some people say it tastes soapy. I think it tastes fresh.

1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely. I love garlic, so I use 2.

Zest and juice of 1 lime.

Salt to taste

This is so easy and a great way to practice knife skills. You just chop everything up, throw it in a bowl, juice the lime over the top of it, zest the lime over the top of it and mix it up. Taste it-- it probably needs salt. Add some. Taste it again.

You could easily modify this recipe to be more or less spicy, more or less citrusy, add some peaches or pineapple or corn or beans or whatever. It tastes best if it's sat around for an hour or two. You can take a half cup or so of it and add it to some mashed avocado for guacamole. It's just tasty stuff-- you'll never go back to the jar.

Review: OK 218, Chinatown

It's taking me forever to get these New York posts out, but they're so fun I just can't not post them.

I knew that when we ended up in Chinatown, I wanted to find some Peking duck. I can't think of a single restaurant in Cincinnati that does an authentic Peking duck-- many do roasted duck prepared Peking-style, but I wanted the exceptionally crispy skin that you can only get with proper preparation. As we walked up Grand Street, I saw a place with ducks hanging in the window. That's probably not the best way to judge a restaurant in New York, but it was there, and Terry had never had Peking duck, so it was an easy judgment.



OK 218 is a restaurant that serves the community. We were definitely the only tourists there, and to be honest, our service wasn't fantastic. It consisted of me ordering and the waiter bringing us tea--unasked for but expensive-- and then efficiently (if not artfully) preparing the Peking duck in front of us. If you're looking for a fancy, white tablecloth Chinese experience, you will not get it here. But that really shouldn't matter: it's really good.



Peking duck is served in little packages of pancakes, skin, scallions, a bit of meat and Hoisin sauce. The crispy skin appears due to a multi-step process, including blowing the duck's skin away from the muscle with air, boiling the whole duck briefly, then covering the duck with maltose syrup in order to make it shiny and brown. And tasty. Did I mention tasty?



Peking duck for two with nothing but duck, pancakes, scallions and sauce was $14. A complete dinner, with side dishes, was $28. If you happen to walk down Grand and want some duck-- try it!

Tweets about Quacks

Terry and I visited Terry Lee at Outside on 12th street in Over the Rhine on Saturday. You see, both Terrys are from Alabama-- within an hour or two of each other-- and spent a good amount of time talking about stuff from home. By then end of an hour, Terry Lee got invited to my Thanksgiving dinner, we all got a hankering for barbecue, and Terry was sent home with some maple chips for his smoker.

After a big lunch at Pit to Plate, we drove up to Jungle Jim's and picked up a duck. They had frozen ducks, completely prepared, but since we wanted to smoke the duck tomorrow, we went with a non-frozen duck: a Confucian duck.

That means it was a whole duck, just defeathered and, you know, dead. I had the butcher chop off the head (sorry, I'm not too squeamish but the head is a little much) and we took it back to Terry's to become a yummy smoked duck, as he's the one with the smoker and I didn't want to find the cats playing with duck guts. You think they wouldn't.

I decided to tweet about the experience, because it was pretty darn amusing.

Smoking a duck today. Only wine to touch my lips will be the stuff the duck is marinated in. I SWEAR. about 2 hours ago from TweetDeck

I have to eviscerate a duck today. Maybe I will be drinking wine. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Google "eviscerate duck" No. "prepare duck". No. "gut duck". Hot damn! about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

I can't get my hand up this duck's ass. Dammit. 38 minutes ago from TweetDeck


Duck frozen inside. While up to my wrist in duck guts, BF hands me garbage can: "For the duck's guts or yours, whichever come up first." 29 minutes ago from web

Duck update: Bought duck because it was not frozen. LIARS. Finishing up gutting once upper duck anatomy is thawed. Drinking wine now. 13 minutes ago from TweetDeck

Back to the duck gutting. 01:41 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck


OK. Backbone removed, heart and lungs removed (lungs HARD. really.). Soaking in milk. Relax time! 02:06 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck


@YatPundit If you check back in my tweets, you'll see today's Duck Saga. Julie 1, Duck 0. 02:11 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck in reply to YatPundit

@ChasingPolly Jungle Jim's has nothing on duck guts. It was this or watch the Bengals lose. I choose duck guts. 03:10 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck in reply to ChasingPolly

Duck nearly finished with its milk bath. Big bowl of milk and blood. Call me Elizabeth Bathory. 03:10 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck

Duck now drying. Preparing rub. 03:22 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck

In my excitement to take out the backbone, I did it backwards. It was a very skilled de-breast-boning, because the breasts are intact. Whew 03:30 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck

Duck now on smoker with maple chips, apple juice and beer. Happy duck. 03:32 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck



naptime while smoking happens. 04:14 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck

Great. Water in the smoker is boiling, but temp gauge only says 200. We'll see how this works out. 06:19 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck

Hands still smell like duck blood, despite loads of washing. Or is it my guilty conscience making me imagine things? Out, damn spot! 06:52 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck

Duck is out of the smoker, about to go into the oven for a few minutes to crisp the skin. 07:03 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck



Currently eating duck. Slightly overdone (will tweak times next time) but OH so great. Worth the duck guts. 08:35 PM September 07, 2008 from TweetDeck



As you can see, yes, it was overdone and yes, it was boned incorrectly, but it was good all the same. The sauce is apple cider and granacha (the smoking liquid), reduced and thickened with a bit of flour. Terry deemed it a bit too sweet upon first tasting, but it went well with the duck. The maple in the smoker added a nice complexity that was subtle and not overwhelming.

I'll definitely be smoking duck again, but I think next time I'll leave the gutting to the professionals. I'm sure that my Twitter friends will appreciate it.

News: Palace Sous Chef Opens (Another) Restaurant

I know, I've been lacking content recently. To tide you over, I have a bit of gossip.

A little bird named Kate tweeted me this: Former Palace sous chef Chris Kritikos will open a location of his Clermont County restaurant in Covington. It will be a pizza place, named Gramma's Pizza (like his other location-- thanks, Emily!).

Seems like everyone at the Palace is going Italian, aren't they?