Pre-moving reminiscing (6/1/07)

So it turns out that when, as a couple, you are simultaneously graduating from medical school, moving to a new city, buying your first home, angling for a promotion, starting medical residency and dealing with family health emergencies, it tends to make you neglect certain other things in your life. Things like blogs. But now that big moving day is almost upon us - it's time to reflect on the things we will miss about South Philly and Pittsburgh respectively, although we can't wait to explore all that NoLib & Fishtown have to offer. Part I: Pittsburgh, to be followed shortly by Part II: South Philly.

Pittsburgh

Chaya
Farofa will miss Chaya (www.chayausa.com) the most. We went here for the last (snif!) time right prior to FrenchFries' graduation and ordered everything we could fit on the table, as is apparent in the photos.

The fish here is always fresh and luscious, the service is wonderful, the ambiance is totally charming, as befits its status as a family run Squirrel Hill institution. The fact that it is closed on Sundays (which for some reason seems to be FrenchFries' default sushi-craving day) and that waits can sometimes be a little longer than is typical in the 'burgh (think 20 minutes, not the 2 hour Philly 'long waits') are minor annoyances at worst. One tip is to talk to the chef Yasu-San in advance if you want anything special. Far and away the worst thing about moving to Philadelphia is the fact that neither Farofa nor French Fries has yet found a sushi place in Philly that hits the sweet spot of consistently delicious fresh fish, affordable pricing, sweet ambiance and perfect service, the way that Chaya always did and are starting to fear that they never will. Adieu sweet Chaya - you will be missed.


The Quiet Storm
FrenchFries will definitely miss Chaya as well, but her biggest regret about moving away from Pittsburgh is no longer being able to go to the Quiet Storm (www.quietstormcoffee.com) at any hour of the day that she pleased and get anything off the menu, knowing that it will be incredible, super-filling and vegetarian or vegan without any hassle as well as not taking a big bite out of her wallet. FrenchFries actually has nearly no photos of the food at the Quiet Storm, mainly because it tends to be mostly inside by the time it occurs to anyone to pull out a camera. If you are lucky enough to get to go there, I reccomend ordering any (or all!) of the following: Ginger lemonade (sweet & tart lemonade with gingerrific syrup)/Ginger-lemon shake (lemon sorbet, soy milk & the same fantastic ginger syrup), Quiet Storm 'Home Fries' (a HUGE pile of mashed red-skin potatoes covered with tender scrambled eggs, soy sausage, sweeeet carmalized onions, cheddar and super-tangy aioli - my personal favorite), the big-as-yer-head breakfast burrito (stuffed with a lot of the same things as the 'home fries,' plus great black beans and minus sausage, onions and aioli and with the advantage of wicked portability), artichoke-green chile dip (defies description, addictive in a way that is impossible to quantify), apple panini (same really good cheddar makes another appearance, this time melted on sun-dried tomato bread with apple slices and apple butter - have you ever had cheddar on your apple pie? Well, this is better), Pierogi Quesadilla (the cheddar, smashed potatos and carmalized onions make another appearance [there may be a theme developing], this time with sauerkraut and sour cream in quesadilla form), home-made chili on or off the Dirty Nachos. FrenchFries doesn't mind long distance driving that much and is seriously considering a couple Pittsburgh pilgrimages this fall for the sole purpose of eating there.

River Moon Cafe
This has been our go-to place for romantic, just the two of us dinners for F&FF for so long now that we couldn't believe that we hadn't already blogged about it. The River Moon Cafe (rivermooncafe.com) is nestled in quiet, queer-friendly Lawrenceville and has the cutest chef we've ever met (in the cuteoverload.com sense rather than the L Word Soup Chef sense) as well as some truly fantastic food.

One of the real draws here is their enormous tea list - this is the place that can be credited with turning Farofa from an inveterate member of the 'hot chocolate is the only non-disgusting hot beverage' club to a bona-fide tea drinker (for anyone out there who is trying to turn their mate into a tea drinker, FrenchFries would like you to know that it was the Black Currant tea that did the trick plus lots of patient positive reinforcement over a matter of months). The menu is pretty traditional, relying on standards like filet minon, steak a poivre, pork chops and pasta but the execution is exquisite. This has also been one of our favorite places to go for brunch as they do a package deal that includes drinks, fruit, pastry, a side of crispy potatoes or polenta and a main dish for $15 - and is always very tasty. I hope that they start to get a little more business with the new Children's Hospital is opening a few blocks away as it is frequently a little too empty when we have gone.


Other favorites from the four years in Pittsburgh:

• Mi Mexico (sadly closed - tiny little taqueria, replaced by Cuzamil, which is average americanized texmex)
  
• D's SixPax & Dogz (ignore the name - go for the >900 beer selection and the fantastic hot dogs & french fries - far better than the Dirty O/Original Hot Dog Shop)
• Green Mango Noodle Hut (the best Thai in Pittsburgh, order EVERYTHING)
  
• Thai Cuisine (my favorite Thai until Noodle Hut opened, still very good)
• Pierogies Plus (hot potato & cheese - if you have anything else, I don't know you)
• Tram's Kitchen (divey Vietnamese, to-die-for spring rolls)
• Square Cafe (dyke-a-licious, really good pancakes)
• Mineo's Pizza (greasy, cheesy, oh so good)
• Mad Mex (part of the Big Burrito group -Pittsburgh's answer to Philly's Starr empire - best margaritas in the 'burgh)
• Kaya & the rest of the Big Burrito group (although Kaya and the other members of this group have had some misses as well as hits - see valentine's day for a reminder)
• Abay (Great Ethiopian food, no more, no less)

If you are looking for more, I generally think the folks at PGH Micro-reviews do a good job, and I agree with most of the consensus opinions there. Soon to come - things that we will miss about not being in South Philly anymore.

Kaya (2/14/07)

Farofa and French Fries will take almost any excuse to have a romantic dinner out - and Valentine's day is no exception... except that all our favorite restaurants jack up their prices to high heaven. We decided on Kaya because it's been a long-standing favorite of ours for evenings when Farofa knows that she'll want meat, and French Fries wants 'fancy vegetarian' and their fixed price menu was actually comparatively reasonable - $45 for a vegetarian tasting menu, and $55 for the meat-eater's version. In the past we'd been really impressed by Kaya's small plates, and the idea of a chef's tasting menu with lots of small plates seemed like a sure bet for good food, even on night that is apparently the restaurant business version of 'amateur night'.

First Course: Farofa got seared rare tuna with avocado, ginger-horseradish pickle, and shiso leaf, and French Fries the vegetarian starter of papaya and mango salad with romaine, dressed with a chili-lime vinagrette.



Farofa: Having been spoiled by my first sisho experience, I admit my hopes were way too high for such a standard dish. It was a fine piece of tuna (3 actually, which was 2 too many) and I really liked the shreaded ginger on top, but the sisho had no place in this plate and tasted like an elder house plant.



French Fries: In retrospect, I actually think that this salad may have been one of the better parts of an overall disappointing dinner. At the time, there was some grinching on my part about the not-quite-ripe mango, but the warm papaya, sweet corn and the cilantro and lime dressing made up for that slight failing. It was crunchy and fresh tasting - hard things for a salad to manage in Pittsburgh in the middle of a blizzard - and I cleaned my plate - which wouldn't happen again until dessert.

Second Course: Farofa had lobster beignets with a lemon-chili mojo and French Fries gobbled some shiitake mushroom dumplings with sweet soy dipping sauce.



Farofa: Yikes! This sauce was so hot the tears rolled down. Even though it was a bit too much to enjoy in larger amounts, it was tasty and zesty, a good combination with the would-have-been lobster beignets, had there been any lobster in them. At first I thought I couldn't taste it because the dipping sauce's flavour was too overwhelming, but it turns out it was just fried dough - maybe they had a lobster in the kitchen *while* they were frying it...



French Fries: I did gobble these - but it was hunger providing most of the appeal, as the balance of flavors was tipped way too far towards sweet, even for my notoriously limitless sweet tooth. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I like shitake and soy far better when they are savory and salty, respectively. I think most of the fault with this one fell on the dumpling wrappers rather than the actual choices made for the filling, but still, not an appealing dish aesthetically or gastronomically.

Farofa: The first thought that came to mind when French Fries plate arrived was how it looked like something from Top Chef, where every contestant used a porcelain spoon to serve sauce at one point or another.

Third Course: Farofa was given striped bass, served with littleneck clams in a coconut/chili broth with potatoes, corn and bok choy. French Fries instead had Tofu Pho.



Farofa: The Striped Bass was flavourfull and the the tasty coconut sauce made me wish for a nice piece of bread for dipping, but I could have done without the clams (which were a bit chewy).



French Fries: While I know that even the concept of vegetarian phở is blasphemy to true phở purists, I was looking forward to a nice big bowl of broth with, I had assumed, thin slices of fried or fresh tofu and lots of rice noodles and chile. Instead, I got a VERY large block of lightly fried tofu set atop some rice noodles that appeared to have had something of a passing acquaintance with broth in their past. I tried to keep my hopes up in the face of the lack of resemblance to the phở of my dreams - and, while the noodles were indeed flavorful and tender, the dish couldn't overcome the fact that the tofu hadn't been marinated (or had any attempt made to produce a flavor in it other than 'soy product') and the carrots were raw- their crispness in awkward contrast to the soft rice noodles.

Fourth Course: Farofa had a filet of beef with guajillo chili jus, served over warm chayote an hominy salad and French Fries had grilled tempeh served with fried pole beans, cauliflower puree and black olive mojo.

Farofa: Hands down the best piece of beef I have had in a months. Maybe one of the top 3 I have ever tasted in the United States. It was cooked to medium-rare perfection and and I delighted myself in it slowly and hapilly - the reduce wine sauce was a perfect match, just tangy enough but not too sweet - This was also my introduction to hominy, accompanied by seasoned carrots and chayote, complementing the stellar beef. The serving was probably larger than I needed, but I licked the plate clean.

French Fries: Farofa's meat came out before my 'main dish' and looked beautiful even to my vegetarian eyes. It looked even better in comparison when my dish appeared and the seitan not only suffered from the same lack of seasoning that the chunk of tofu had before it - it also had the addition of a centimeter of burnt char on the bottom. I tried a bite - it was inedible. I ended up eating the fried pole beans which were tasty, if a little over salted. I've never had burnt food at Kaya before, so I have to assume this was an aberration for the restaurant as a whole - but in the context of this dissapointing meal, it was the last straw.

Dessert: Farofa lived the V-day dream with a chocolate torte with raspberry-chili coulis and French Fries gratefully munched on Banana Cake served with caramelized banana compote and rum syrup.

Farofa: After this, I decided I don't like chocolate custards. I'm sure it was perfectly fine as a dish, but I need some flour in my chocolate dessert.

French Fries: Basically just banana bread with smashed, rum-drench banana on top, but it was filled with cinnamon and soft and tender in my mouth and so, blew the rest of the meal away by dint of not being burnt, bland or boring. If only the rest of the meal had stuck to these basics, I would have been so much happier. And while I haven't mentioned either the service of the ambiance up to this point (too distracted by complaining the crummy food) - both were warm and welcoming, especially nice because the weather outside was so lousy.

Farofa: **** out of 5
French Fries: * out of 5

Forks Down Verdict: An outstanding filet trumps any meal shortcomings. Unless you are a vegetarian.

Kaya
2000 Smallman St
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 261-6565

Memories of Food Past

French Fries is on the interview trail for residency programs in Emergency Medicine and the food she has been eating has been pretty uniformly grim. At the pre-interview dinners with the residents it is usually great company but greasy undercooked bar grub to accompany it. At the interview day itself they do their best to keep the interviewee blood sugar up through the grueling process but sticky neon danishes and steam tray lunches of questionable provenance do not a gastronomic adventure make. With that and with the many Xmas shows on television referencing Ghosts of Christmas past, FrenchFries raided both her and Farofa's photo collections for some memorable meals of the past year.

New Year's 05: Sushi From Philly's Maki House and a HUGE fruity/cheesy salad with pear, Gorgonzola, dried cranberry and grapes





Valentine's Day: A giant box of Godiva Truffles with awesome flavors like candied apple, peanut butter & jelly, passion fruit and Mexican Hot Chocolate ("a little picante" remembers Farofa fondly).



Summertime Visit to Philly Faves: Off to Valanni for Brunch ("Steak n' Eggs" and a flatbread with spicy hummus) and La Creperie for Linner - meals at odd times to coincide with endless sunshine hours.







French Fries' Birthday: To a Pittsburgh's home of tapas at Ibiza where Farofa gorged on Osso Buco with Lentils but made the meat-fest up to French Fries with a home-cooked meal a few days later.