BCD Does BDT

by Xani and Erin

The night after our delicious meal at RA Sushi, the whole BCD family headed down to Washington, DC for yet another birthday celebration. For a family with only four people, it sure seems like we do a LOT of birthday celebrating ! This time it was very belated birthday celebrations for Mom and Xani (whose birthdays were in January and February, if you recall!!). After months of "reminding" everyone of how badly she wanted to go, Xani finally got her chance to eat at Blue Duck Tavern, in the newly renovated Park Hyatt.

Xani first heard about BDT from FoodRockz, a DC-based food blog that she totally lurks on. Anyhow, a Foodrockz review and a few notable mentions on Chowhound earned BDT a place on the "must try" list. They specialize in "wholesome American fare prepared through simple, time-honored cooking methods such as roasting, braising, preserving and smoking." Not to mention their use of local, seasonal ingredients, and plenty of items on the menu you don't see too often (sweetbreads! bone marrow!) But we'll get to that in a moment...

We arrived at BDT and were immediately struck by the HUGE doors-- this picture doesn't even do them justice. They were immense. Inside, the space is airy and open, but with classic, solid wood furniture, and a really cool, very open kitchen. Also, instead of vases of flowers for decoration, there were huge baskets of shallots, bulbs of garlic, fingerling potatoes and other pantry items all over the restaurant-- love it!

We were seated near (or very nearly in) the open kitchen. We could see the big wood-burning oven, and chefs working on the line and prepping the various foods as we looked over the menu. It was so cool! Speaking of the menu, it was clear at first glance how seriously the chefs take the use of local, seasonal ingredients: alongside each menu item was the name of the farm or supplier and where they were located. There was even someone from Fells Point, MD!

We started with a couple of cocktails, and a few nibbles of their very good bread. Then, it was time to order! For the first course, we ordered Braised Pork Belly with Cauliflower and Radishes, Frogs Legs and Sweetbreads, Foie Gras Brûlée with Savory Raisins, Bourbon Preserved Peach, Crumbled Pecans, Toasted Brioche, and Wood Fired Bone Marrow with Garlic Parsley Crust, and Grilled Sourdough. Are you drooling yet?? Let's review each dish:

Braised pork belly: Like most pork belly we've had lately, this was delicious. Very good flavor, well-cooked, and tender. It was not as good as the pork belly Xani had at Craft, which was more moist on the inside and crispier on the outside than the BDT version. But it was quite tasty, and we enjoyed the crunchy radish and cauliflower accompaniments, and especially the extra-crunchy bacon perched on top.

Frog Legs and Sweetbreads: Ooooh yeah this was yummy. The exact preparation isn't on the website so we may have forgotten some of the finer points, but the frog legs were perfectly fried into little "lollipops," and the sweetbreads were sauteed, or maybe braised. Either way, they were GOOD. Just rich and scrumptious. The frogs legs tasted a little bit like chicken, as the saying goes, but like really moist, flavorful chicken with a perfect crunchy exterior. Ribbit-licious.

Bone Marrow: Both of us had been looking forward to this dish the most. We have grown up in a household where it's okay to gnaw on the bones of a steak or lambchop (both BCD Mom and Grandma P. are known for their love of bones), so we were anxiously awaiting the opportunity to get a full serving of the good stuff. The dish came out with three 3-inch long segment of bone, cut laterally to expose the marrow, then roasted. Alongside was a perfectly roasted head of garlic, some roasted cippolini onions, and some toasty bread. This dish was. the. stuff. Anthony Bourdain has been quoted as saying he would want roasted bone marrow as his last meal on Earth and now, we totally get it. Think about the best butter you ever had. Then multiply it by a bajillion. That's what it was like.

Foie Gras Brulee: The surprise hit of the first course. Not that we didn't expect it to be good, but it was SO good, and so unusual. It was served in a shallow bowl with the foie on the bottom, a thin brulee on top, and then all kinds of interesting toppings including little bits of fruit, nuts and poppy seeds (leading to a not-so-subtle game of "is there something in my teeth?"). We were all suprised at the flavor, which reminded us all of a rich, runny cheese. There was also a little bit of spice/heat in the dish, which was unexpected. We're probably not doing a very good job explaining this dish, but that just means you should go and try it yourselves!

Next, the main course. We should mention here that throughout the meal we were drinking a very tasty Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir called Oriel. Props to our waiter for picking something that went well with our eclectic food choices, and which was in our price range! For the main dishes we ordered Kansas City Strip, Grass-Fed with Roasted Lemon, Smoked and Pastrami Spiced Duck Breast and Confit of Leg, and Roasted Casco Bay Cod, Cod Cheeks with Sorrel. We also ordered some sides: the Heirloom Grits with Goat Cheese, Hand Cut BDT Triple Fries, and Morel and Cherries in Papillote (this dish sparked a short debate about what "Papillote" means. BCD Dad said it meant the cherries and mushrooms would be served in puff pastry. Xani was pretty sure it meant they would be served in a package of aluminum foil or parchment paper or the like. Well, would we even be bringing it up if she weren't right!? FYI: "en croute" is when things are baked in puff pasty.)

"en papillote!"

Strip Steak

Cod

Ze Duck

All of the mains and sides were high-quality, well-executed dishes, even if they weren't quite as exciting or unusual as the dishes from the first course. We really enjoyed the steak, which was a substantial portion and a perfect medium-rare. We were interested to see if having grass-fed beef would taste any different from corn-fed, and it actually was! Not that we are tooting our own palate horns or anything...

Both preparations of the duck were lovely, with the confit of leg being especially moist. The cod was a slight disappointment-- the cheeks were a little fishy-tasting, and the rest of the fish was a bit oily.

Ta-da!

BDT Fries

Grits

The morels with cherries turned out to be the winning side dish-- they were so tender and the sweet-tart cherries really complemented their earthy flavor. The waiters did a table-side presentation where they cut the bag in which the cherries and morels were cooked, and all the wonderful smells released around the table. Very cool.

The grits had excellent texture and flavor, but lost some of their appeal after they cooled a bit. And while we were especially excited about the duck fat fries (since we're always comparing fries in restaurants to Xani's home-cooked recipe), they were a little disappointing. They were very thick, and when they first arrived on the table we thought they were brioche toasts! This thicker shape meant a lower surface/volume ratio, i.e. less crunchy exterior per fry. Xani's recipe triumphs again!!

Finally, dessert. We were all pretty stuffed by this point, but how could we resist homemade apple pie and ice cream!? We couldn't.

Apple Pie, just like Grandma used to make!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Ice Cream

Yogurt-Blackberry Sorbet

The pie was really spectacular, with a flaky crust and big chunks of still-firm apples. The two ice creams (served in adorable slightly frozen mini-ice cream buckets!) were strawberry rhubarb and yogurt-blackberry sorbet. Both were superb-- sweet, smooth and fresh-tasting. Then, a special treat from the kitchen to celebrate the (belated) birthdays:

Chocolate covered apricots! Yum!

We had a wonderful meal and a simply lovely time at Blue Duck Tavern. The use of simple, but very high quality ingredients in classic preparations created an absolutely fantastic meal. The celebrations may have been belated, but thanks to the great food, service and atmosphere of BDT (not to mention the great company) they were no less special. We've already started recommending it to everyone who will listen!

Happy belated birthday, Mom and Xani and Happy Fourth of July everyone!

E & X

New Sushi

by Erin

Last weekend, we had the opportunity to dine at a relatively new sushi restaurant called RA, located in the chic Harbor East area of the city (right around the corner from Pazo, for those of you familiar with Charm City). RA is not your typical sushi bar with ladies in kimonos and small babbling fountains – far from it – and it was a lot of fun! And we’re not the only ones who think RA is a fun and unique place to be – when we walked in on Friday night, it was packed!

The overarching theme of the restaurant is “rock and roll sushi,” and everything from the decor to the servers to the cuisine fit into this category. The restaurant itself is decorated in reds and black, and the rock music is pumping through the sound system. All of the waiters and waitresses are decked out in black, sporting lots of piercings and some very cool tattoos. Our waitress had these awesome earrings that looked like razor blades with stars punched out of the middle (unfortunately, we forgot to ask her where she got them)! But most importantly, we were there to eat (big shocker there).

RA’s menu consists of both traditional and more modern, “rock and roll” sushi dishes. They have a lot of appetizers, some sashimi plates, and lots of unique rolls and nigiri sushi. While we can be pretty traditional when it comes to sushi, as true foodies we'll try anything, so that we did! We ordered a bunch of RA specialty items, and a couple traditional sushi dishes that we just couldn't resist.

But first: cocktails! The booze selection at RA was quite impressive. Not only did they have lots of specialty cocktails, but they also had quite the selection of beer, wine, and sake. We couldn't resist the cocktails though: Xani ordered the Moanin' Mango, made with a blend of Dutch vodka and sake, mixed with a spicy mango syrup and a splash of 7-Up and soda. This was very refreshing but definitely had some spice to it when it hit the back of your throat. I ordered the Effen Around in the RA, which consisted of Effen Black Cherry Vodka, Cointreau, sweet and sour mix, cranberry juice, and orange juice. Yum! This was really delicious and fruity, and I really liked the black cherry vodka, which I'd never had before.

Moanin' Mango

Just Effen Around in the RA

Then it was time to start eating! We started with their signature dish, the Viva Las Vegas Roll, which had some rice and cream cheese rolled in nori, which was then tempura fried, and topped with a spicy tuna and crab mixture and a slice of lotus root that had been deep fried. This was a very unique dish and it was on almost every table around us! It was very beautiful and had nice flavors and textures. Xani, however, gave each piece a "cream cheese-ectomy" before she would eat it--there are some lines that must not be crossed!

We then tried the Pork Gyoza, which were some of the best we've had in a long time. They were deep-fried and super crunchy and hot, freshly out of the oil, but not too greasy. They were crispy and had wonderful flavor, especially when dipped in the garlic ponzu sauce.

Next we had the Chili Ponzu Yellotail, which was one of their sashimi plates. This dish was really delicious and very unique. The yellowtail was thinly sliced and topped with fried pine and cashew nuts, and served with a Kochjan chili ponzu sauce that was sweet and spicy. So good!

We also had the Tootsy Maki (makes me think of "how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsy Pop?"), which had crab, shrimp, and cucumber, rolled with tempura bits and topped with the eel sauce we love so much. We also had the Spicy Lobster Roll, that combined some Latin flavors in the sushi roll: it had lobster, cilantro, jalapeno, lettuce, avocado, and cucumber all rolled up in soy paper, not nori. This reminded me of when I had sushi in LA, and everything was made with soy paper instead of nori!

Tootsy Maki

Spicy Lobster Roll

One of the best specialty sushi dishes we had was the Crispy Spicy Tuna, which was different from any spicy tuna roll I've ever had (although Xani had had something similar in LA a few months ago). A mix of spicy tuna, sesame oil, masago, and chili sauce is placed atop a crispy sesame rice ball, which was crispy on the outside but chewy and sticky (in a good way) on the inside. This was truly a great bite (or two -- I learned the hard way that I should have eaten it in two bites. Although Xani was able to eat hers in one bite-- I believe her exact words were "This is where it pays to have a really big mouth." Um, yeah.).

On the traditional side, we got some of our favorites, including soft shell crab roll, hamachi (yellowtail) nigiri, and am ebi (sweet shrimp with deep fried heads!). The menu even lists that it comes with the heads! Unlike the am ebi at Sushi King and Matsuri, the head was not tempura-battered before it was friend, which made it taste more like the head-on, shell-on shrimps you would get at a traditional Chinese restaurant. The raw shrimp bodies were, as usual, totally delicious.

Soft-shell crab roll

Comin' atcha!

She loves those shrimp heads!

We also ordered Xani's and BCD Dad's favorite thing: uni (the roe (eggs) of a sea urchin). I had only tried uni once before, about 5 years ago now, and I didn't like it. But, I decided to give it another try. After all, this was the year I came to try (and like or love) raw oysters, fresh white anchovies, canned anchovies, gefilte fish, steamed clams, mackerel, and monkfish liver. Why stop now?? Before committing to the whole bite, I tried a bit of the uni on its own, per Xani's suggestion, and whaddya know? It tastes like the ocean! And just like Xani had explained to me, when you put the uni with the soy and wasabi, it is one of the most delicious bites of sushi, ever. It truly is very luxurious and flavorful, and totally awesome. Go Team Uni!

Uni and Hamachi

After my breakthrough and snacking on the last few rolls on the table, we perused the dessert menu. We ended up ordering the Raspberry-Mango Sorbet and the Green Tea Ice Cream. The sorbet was beautifully presented and was very sweet and refreshing. The green tea ice cream was surprisingly complex and almost tasted like chocolate.

Raspberry-Mango Sorbet

Green Tea Ice Cream

It was a great end to a delicious and interesting meal. The atmosphere was fun and the service was great. Our server was very helpful and entertaining, and even gave Xani a fist-pound when she ordered some Sapporo! Right on, girl. RA really has something for everyone, if you are looking for traditional sushi or something totally different, or something in between. It is a very lively place, and it has good happy hour specials, so maybe instead of another dinner, our next visit will be for snacks and cocktails...and uni.

Kampai!

EP

Old Sushi

by Xani

Wow, THAT'S an appetizing title, huh? What I meant to call this post is "Amazing Sushi Dinner We Had Several Weeks Ago That I'm Just Now Getting Around to Posting" But that's a little wordy, don't you think?

Um, anyway, the sushi. The whole BCD family got together one evening for dinner at Sushi King, a Columbia restaurant that has been open, in my estimation, since the beginning of time. I certainly remember coming here when I was pretty young-- maybe eight or nine years old? (This was back in the day when my favorite roll was Unagi (eel) and EP would only eat tempura shrimp! Man, how things have changed.... you will soon see that our current sushi tendencies fit squarely in the Weird Food category.) Now we especially like going to Sushi King because they always offer a variety of interesting chef's specials in addition to the regular and sushi menus. The BCD fam LOVES us some unusual sushi, and this is the place to get it! As soon as we were seated at our table and had a few sips of cold sake in our bellies, it was time to investigate the specials and come up with a sushi game plan...

This was the first any of us had heard of "Sparkling Sake"-- but I can't resist anything with bubbles!

So much food, we have to write down our order

We pretty much made a meal of the specials, including Hamachi cheek, round clam, scallop, monkfish liver, conch, cobia, and salmon belly. We also ordered a couple of sushi rolls, and some Am Ebi (our favorite!). Does that sound like a lot of food? It was. Did we eat it all? Stay tuned to find out!

First up came the Hamachi cheek, also know as "fish face," because, technically, that's what it is. A big piece of the cheek is roasted/grilled and served hot, with a soy dipping sauce. This dish is fantastic-- don't be afraid of it just because it's face (if it's any consolation, there are generally not eyes attached to the face-- not that we have problems with eyes, but maybe some people do?). The cheek meat is super-rich, flavorful, and has plenty of crispy skin to go around. Absolutely fabulous....

We made short work of the cheek and moved onto the next course, which included round clam sashimi, scallop sushi and sashimi, and monkfish liver:

Round Clam

Scallop

Monkfish Liver

Again, these are slightly unusual dishes but each one is a little masterpiece. The round clam is very much like eating clams from the raw bar-- the pieces are slightly chewy, salty, and taste like the ocean. Eating them with a little wasabi and soy is an interesting change from the traditional cocktail sauce you might use at the raw bar. The scallop is served two ways-- the large, roundish muscle we all think of as a scallop is sliced and served as nigiri sushi (large pieces on top of sushi rice), while the other pieces of the scallop (additional muscles that are usually discarded) are cut up and served as sashimi. I particularly like the variety of textures in this dish-- the scallop sushi has a wonderful smooth texture and a mild flavor. The sashimi pieces are a little chewier and have a more intense taste. The scallop was also served with a spicy, creamy sauce on the side-- an interesting change of pace for the palate after lots of soy and wasabi. You can have your seared scallops-- I only like mine raw! Finally (for this course) the monkfish liver. Now I KNOW some people out there are squirming. But honestly, this is one of my favorite new discoveries. Often called "the fois gras of the sea," (which we said REPEATEDLY while eating it) monkfish liver does indeed have a fois-like texture, if a slightly ocean-ier flavor. Sushi King serves it sliced with soy, cucumbers, tobiko, and (another surprise hit of the night) pickled carrots. If you ever run into this on a menu (I spied it once or twice on menus in LA, but my fellow diners were too weirded out to try it!) just put away your fear of liver and give it a shot. Pretend it's not even liver-- who knew fish had livers anyway?!

Finally the rest of our order came out on a GINORMOUS platter (complete with fake plastic tree):

Here we have soft-shell crab roll, am ebi, salmon belly sashimi, uni (with quail egg), salmon roe (also with quail egg), cobia, conch, and probably some other stuff I can't remember anymore. The point is, it was all DELICIOUS. I could eat this exact meal at least three times a week until the end of time and be a very happy person. Again, everything was super-fresh, and there was a fantastic variety of flavors and textures on the platter. Soft-shell crab roll is super-crunchy and a must-have (we love our crabs in MD !), as is the am ebi. We've blogged about this dish before-- raw shrimp bodies served as nigiri sushi along side the deep-fried shrimp heads-- perfection. The salmon belly was extremely rich and fatty (as most "belly" sushi is-- toro, or tuna belly, is pretty easy to find but Sushi King is one of the only places we have found salmon belly, too), and the uni was, as usual, just such a luxurious and wonderful treat. The raw quail egg on top took it into the "decadent" category (or the "even more disgusting" category, for some of you, I'm sure). As I recall, the conch was sortof a non-starter-- chewy with not that much flavor. But everything else was excellent, as evidence by this:

Oh yeah, we ate it all. Not only that, we ordered more!! A few more pieces of that salmon belly sashimi, and a couple other things I think (no pictures here as I'm sure we didn't want to document the fact that we were going for Round 2!). But hey, it's just raw fish, it's good for us, right??

I know this isn't the sushi dinner that 99% of Americans are ordering. There's no California Roll, no deep fried spicy tuna, and no cream cheese. Not that I don't like those things (ok, I don't like sushi with cream cheese), but sometimes its fun to try new and unusual, or even weird things and realize, holy crap, this tastes great! So next time you are at your local sushi joint, be sure to check out the chef's specials. If you're lucky, maybe there's some fish face in your future!

Kampai!

X

Sweet as Meli

by Xani

I don't know how many of you out there know this, but EP and I, well, we're pretty close. We spend a LOT of time together. And we're lucky to live close to one another (even closer now that I've moved-- we live on the same street!), and during the school year we work/go to classes only blocks away from each other. This makes it easy to get together for coffee breaks, lunches, etc, etc. But this summer, with EP all the way in Ft. Meade for her summer job, and both of us super-busy with various work, school, and personal obligations, it seems like there is hardly time for a catch-up email or text! WTF?!? So, last week we made a date to have dinner together and officially catch up. This was also a perfect excuse to try another restaurant on our list!

We decided to try Meli, the newest offering from the Kali's Court restaurant group. Meli is also located in Fells Point (right down the block from Mezze and Kali's Court), in a super-chic, multi-level space that includes a dining room, a cozy downstairs lounge, and a patisserie featuring a variety of sweet treats and coffee (and they're open for breakfast!). Also, the whole space is tied in with the over-arching theme of the restaurant: honey. Meli means honey in Greek, so in addition to honey appearing in many of the dishes, there are flowers on the walls and chairs, and honeycomb patterns on the ceiling and railing of the stairs. Sounds like it could be pretty tickity-tack, but we actually loved the decor and vibe of the whole place. It was upscale but we didn't feel under-dressed in our standard summer attire-- business casual clothes and Reef flip flops! (We know, it's "a lotta look," but after a day in heels, you can understand.) Lighting was nice, and service was friendly and super-helpful; we both agreed that the techno-ish music was out of place, as was the Vegas-casino-style carpeting, but we soon forget these small flaws as we dove into the menu!

While enjoying the bread (served with honey butter, natch), we decided, with the help of our friendly waitress, Danielle, to share a few starters and one entree. It was a tough decision! We finally ordered and after a tasty amuse bouche (tomato and cucumber with marinated onions on top) began with the soup du jour, a sweet corn chowder with old bay creme fraiche and a mini-crab ball.

This was excellent! So sweet and rich, with the fresh, summery taste of corn shining through. EP dug in first (tough to share a bowl of soup) and I was literally counting her spoonfuls, ready to stab her with a fork if she took more than her share! The mini crab ball was excellent, leading me to believe that the crab cakes here are a safe order, if you are into that type of thing. We ate every. last. drop. of this soup, and anxiously awaited the next course, which was grilled tomato salad, with mâche, Fleur de Sel, balsamic honey, halloumi cheese, and a lobster mac and cheese, with cheddar and gruyere, Parmesan crust and cripsy onion rings.

Um, ok. This tomato salad was AWESOME. The tomatoes were perfectly ripe, sweet, and delicious, with a great smoky taste from the grilling. The salty, smoky cheese and tart balsamic were perfect complements. I was surprised they didn't grill the accompanying bread slices, too, but I didn't even WANT the bread, the tomatoes were that good. This dish and the soup were just everything wonderful about summer-- tomatoes, corn, crab, grilling. Just made me feel like summer is the best thing ever, and forget for a moment how bitter I am that my air conditioner is STILL broken!

I guess being in this summer mode made me slightly less excited about the lobster mac and cheese. It was good-- the crispy onion rings were perfectly crunchy, the sauce cheese-tastic and the pasta (a very intricate shape that EP and I had never seen before and couldn't identify) not over-cooked. But it didn't blow me out of my seat the way the truffle mac and cheese did when we were in the islands, mon. I will say it was a substantial portion and could be a satisfying meal in itself on a cozy fall or winter afternoon.

Finally, the entree: seared veal hangar steak with chantrelle mushroom ragout, asparagus, mashed potatoes and yucca chips. I was really excited to try this because I've never even heard of veal hangar steak before, although I really enjoy the beef version. We ordered it medium-rare (of course!) and it came out perfectly cooked, tender and flavorful. The mushroom ragout was fantastic as were the crunchy grilled asparagus, and yucca chips. The mashed potatoes were good, if a little dense, and they were the only thing that remained on the plate when we threw down our forks in defeat!

After dinner we continued to chat about EP's day in prison, her upcoming birthday, friends, family, and of course, FOOD! We lingered over a coffee and an espresso, as we were "too full" for dessert. But apparently Meli just couldn't send us away without something sweet, because on our way out, as we examined the various interesting honeys for sale in the bakery, an friendly employee offered us a box of homemade cookies, gratis! How lovely!

Somewhere between finishing our coffees and leaving the restaurant, we miraculously found room for a cup of sorbetto from Pitango, right around the corner. Half-lemon, half-Granny Smith apple was the perfect end to a lovely summer evening. I was so glad that EP and I could find time to share a great meal and spend some QT together. Let's do this every week!

Happy summer everyone!

X