Restaurant: Samar (a Stephan Pyles concept)

We've been eating out a lot, well, every day this week so I haven't posted any recipes (thus, more restaurant reviews than usual).  We'll be cooking up some new dishes this week so stay tuned!

About Samar. . .

Samar opened up a few years ago in downtown Dallas, and I'd been wanting to try it since I love Mediterranean, Spanish and Indian food.  I was thoroughly and completely disappointed.

While I understand that a restaurant can have an "off" night, when I told a friend of mine about my experience, she said that 2 of her friends (separately) told her that they had awful experiences as well.  While the restaurant is very intimate and beautiful, the food and service were the worst I've experienced at any restaurant.

The restaurant only holds maybe 75 people and wasn't busy, yet:

• It took over 15 minutes to get our drinks.
• Their 'Specialty Cocktail' menu only has 11 cocktails listed, and yet their bartender didn't know how to make one that our friend ordered.  It wasn't like he ordered an off-the-menu cocktail -- it was one that was listed ON the menu.  Their excuse was that another bartender had created the cocktail and didn't teach the other bartender how to make it.
• I wanted to order the Sherry Cobbler cocktail, but they were out of an ingredient.
• When the server brought the drinks out, he brought out the wrong ones or maybe he got confused.  There were 7 of us, and he set down 3 drinks and then took the other 4 back to who knows where.
• Our friends ordered a dish which they were out of.  Note: We went on a Thursday at 7pm when a restaurant should have a delivery, be prepared, and not be out of anything yet.
• The falafel, naan, hummus and chutney were all fine but nothing to write home about.
• We love foie gras and ordered the 'Potatoes and Chorizo' that has a fried organic egg on top and Hudson Valley foie gras.  It was by far the WORST foie gras in appearance and taste I have ever had.  If you didn't know what it was, you would've thought it was mistakenly placed on the plate ~ just a piece of fat thrown on the side. 
• I was really looking forward to the 'Seared Bay Scallops' -- and now that I'm looking at their menu again online and realize it was listed under their 'Small Plates,' I guess I can understand why the scallops were just 1/2 an inch in diameter.  I was expecting larger ones and at first thought (with excitement) that the olive oil poached potatoes were the scallops.  To my dismay, they weren't.
• Finally, dessert.  It's really hard to mess up dessert, but they managed to do so.  I ordered the 'Chocolate Samosa with Candied Rose Petal Sauce.'  The rose petal sauce was amazing in flavor and interesting in texture, but the samosa was hard as a rock.  It had the texture and consistency of something that has been baked or fried before and then was microwaved again.  The 'Dark Chocolate and Spiced Pecan Baklava' was hard to cut into and not flaky at all. 

All in all, it was the worst restaurant experience I've ever had.  While I usually try a restaurant 3 times before I give up on it, I won't be going back since others seem to have had similar experiences.

Translating Menu Descriptions

This New York Post article (2/21/12) by Carla Spartos has the following glossary for the "hungry, tired and befuddled."
http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/food/it_menu_mania_AbxhKJZXXpFFi1s88or8fO/1

• artisanal: “Not made by a big corporation, often refers to foods and beverages made in smaller quantities,” explain authors Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. Frequently connotes something of Brooklyn or Portland, Ore., origin, though some experts argue the term has been rendered meaningless.
• bespoke: “A hoity-toity term for handmade,” says ICC’s Candy Argondizza. Often refers to cocktails specifically tailored to a customer’s tastes. But as Time’s Josh Ozersky points out: “Just because extra care is taken doesn’t necessarily make it better. Unless the guy who’s making it is a great bartender, it could be the mixology equivalent of getting your hair cut at barber college.”
• black label: “Refers to a special blend of beef used when making hamburgers, which was popularized by Minetta Tavern’s black-label burger made with Pat LaFrieda meats — but Wendy’s has since jumped on the black-label bandwagon,” say Dornenburg and Page.
• biodynamic wine: “A step beyond organic [with] very specific guidelines,” note Dornenburg and Page. The winemaking process may involve lunar cycles and burying cow horns packed with dung. We’re actually not kidding.
• degustation menu: Synonymous with a tasting menu. “You’re putting yourself into the chef’s — and, if you desire, the sommelier’s — hands to determine the menu, with a possible choice of a certain number of courses,” explain Dornenburg and Page.
• foraging: “It conveys the idea of this noble savage wandering in the forest,” Ozersky says of the movement pioneered by chef René Redzepi of Copenhagen’s Noma restaurant. “It does have legitimacy in high-level restaurants. But if you’re eating in Brooklyn, the last thing you may want is something growing in the backyard.”
• grass-fed: “Refers to cattle fed only grass and not corn, which is not part of its natural diet — the beef tends to be leaner and more flavorful,” say Dornenburg and Page. But Ozersky, who finds totally grass-fed beef “leathery,” argues that “all cows eat some grass. It’s a question of whether it’s finished with corn and grain.”
• heirloom: No, not your grandmother’s pearls, but veggies bred for flavor, not appearance. “Their beauty is their imperfection,” notes Argondizza. “Heirloom and [in the case of animals] heritage practices preserve agricultural variety and protect biodiversity,” add Dornenburg and Page.
• house-made: “The new homemade,” say Dornenburg and Page. Ubiquitous, yes, but a meaningful, verifiable term. “It says there are craftsmen in the kitchen — that there’s a lot of care taken,” says Argondizza. The term often modifies nouns such as “charcuterie” and “burrata.”
• line-caught: “Suggests it’s caught by a fisherman, not dredged up by evil, unsustainable methods,” explains Ozersky.
• locally sourced: “Cooking with ingredients available locally — whether within 100 miles or another limited radius,” say Dornenburg and Page. But not everyone is completely sold: “I’d rather have fresh cauliflower from a good produce store like Dean & Deluca then cauliflower from some farm that’s a week old,” says Ozersky.
• market table: “This is the same as ‘farm-to-table.’ It means you’re buying directly from the farm and cutting out the middle man,” says Argondizza. “That’s a big statement.”
• wood-roasted: “It lets the public know, ‘We have a wood-burning oven. Our food is going to have a rustic, roasted flavor,’ ” says Argondizza. A more precise term than the more meaningless and marketing-driven “fire-roasted.”

Restaurant: Panda Express (yes, the fast food place)

I never thought I'd say this, but this article makes me want to try Panda Express.  I'm not an orange chicken fan but would be willing to try theirs. 


http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/02/22/147256897/panda-express-takes-sweet-and-sour-beyond-the-food-court

Restaurant: Marquee Grill in Dallas

My new favorite bar in Dallas is Marquee Grill at Highland Park Village.  Note: It's a restaurant, but I LOVE the bar area.  The menu features new American cuisine from Executive Chef Tre Wilcox.  If his name sounds familiar to you, he was on Season 3 of Top Chef and has appeared on Iron Chef America.

About Marquee Grill and why it's fabulous:

• The food is friendly and complex (and I think it's so much better than the food at Fearing's and Stephan Pyles).
• The cocktail list is one of the best I've seen if you like complex classic cocktails.  My favorite is called 'Autumn Sonata' which has gin, poached pear puree, lemon juice and port wine.  I've ordered it there every time.
• I could eat dessert there every day.  The 'Marquee Chocolate Tart' in the photo above has caramel popcorn and salted butter ice cream that will change your life forever.  The chocolate has different 3 different textures ~ denser cake, a lighter cake, and a hard chocolate ganache shell on top that you have to break like with creme brulee.  We did try the 'Chocolate and Chile' dessert which is bittersweet chocolate cake, guajillo ganache and red corn tortilla ice cream.  My favorite part was the ice cream which was, well, interesting;  the cake wasn't anything to write home about and was a little too light and bland for me.
• The environment is cool and trendy but not overly pretentious -- and there's great people watching.  The patio upstairs overlooks Highland Park Village that still has lights in the trees, so it's lovely. 
• There is plenty of parking, and you can go shopping before or after stopping by the restaurant.

If you ever want to go, let me know and I'll meet you there!  I want to go there for brunch one day and get their bacon & waffles.
http://marqueegrill.com/

For all you Scrabble players out there. . .

For all you Scrabble players out there who love the game and love to cook, I highly recommend you get the Cooking Edition.  I guarantee that you will have a blast.  It's the same Scrabble game that we know and love, but there are bonus points for making cooking-related words and 'Recipe Cards' that put a twist to the game. 

For instance, one of the cards is called 'Microwave Oven' which says:  Play a word in 15 seconds and get a double word score. 

Another is called 'Ketchup' which says:  If you are in last place, add 20 points to your score.

Now, if only there was a Words with Friends Cooking Edition version. . .

Crepes A La Cart in Breckenridge

My Blue Lagoon Crepe
(Nutella, blueberries, brown sugar, Bailey's Irish Cream)

You can watch your crepe being made



Le Menu

Just got back from Breckenridge, and I must say that besides skiing, one of my favorite things of the trip was the crepes from a little cart (it was like a stationary food truck) called Crepes A La Cart.  I love crepes, and while they're easy to make, there's something special about them.  Maybe it's because there aren't many places around town in Dallas that serve them or that they can be intimidating and time consuming to make.  I made them once last year -- they turned out nicely but weren't as thin and beautiful as the ones from the cart which had a perfect texture and were crispy on the edges.

When I heard that there was a crepe cart in Breckenridge, I made sure to seek it out.  It was just a few blocks from where we stayed and became our afternoon snack after skiing.  I tried 'The Parisian' (melted brie with honey ham and Dijon mustard) which was savory and delicious and ordered 'Blue Lagoon' twice (blueberries with Nutella, brown sugar, and Bailey's Irish Cream).  There were so many I wanted to try, but I guess I'll have to make them myself.  Perhaps we'll throw a crepe party this spring and try out some of the other combinations. . .

Murray's Cheese Shop (at Kroger)

Dallasites, we are so very lucky to have a Murray's Cheese Shop at our Kroger (on Mockingbird & Greenville). 

Did you know that Murray's started in Greenwich Village and has been a NYC landmark since 1940?  Their mission is to offer the world's tastiest cheeses and specialty foods.  The company has a partnership with Kroger, so select Krogers have a Murray's Cheese Shop in their stores.  The people at the counter are so incredibly nice and will let you taste any cheese and will cut any amount you want.  In addition, their prices are good, so I prefer to shop there instead of Central Market. 

Check them out on the weekend because oftentimes, they'll have wine & cheese or beer & cheese pairings. 

http://www.murrayscheese.com/

Free Yogurtland Tomorrow (2/6) from 4-7pm!

This just in!  To celebrate National Frozen Yogurt Day on Feb 6th, Yogurtland is offering free frozen yogurt and toppings tomorrow from 4-7pm!

See here for details:
http://www.yogurt-land.com/

Starbucks Hot Cocoa, Cake Pop Mix and Blonde Roast

All right, everyone knows how much I love Starbucks, but three of their products I've tried recently haven't been stellar.  I think they needed some more research and feedback from their consumer insights team!

Starbucks Hot Cocoa
I didn't realize Starbucks sold hot cocoa in retail, so when I saw the 'toasted marshmallow' flavor on the shelf at Target (by the way, it's described as rich, velvety cocoa with fluffy, handcrafted marshmallow minis), I had to try it.

My description:  blunt, not sweet, anemic on chocolate flavor, really tiny marshmallows, and where's the toasted flavor?

Starbucks Cake Pop Mix
I received the cake pop mix for Christmas and made them yesterday with one of my friends.  Well, they were good, but really, you don't need the mix to make cake pops (or cake balls for that matter).  For those who don't bake very much, want a nice package with everything in it and haven't made cake pops before, this kit is perfect.  Note:  I don't think each cake pop is worth 230 precious calories.

Starbucks New Blonde Roast
Supposedly a lighter flavor, I don't think it is.  It tastes similar to Pike Place Roast.  Or, maybe the barista gave me the wrong coffee.  I'll try it again a few more times before I decide if I like it.