Carnevor

You can't say that The Man Who Is Still Working and I aren’t doing our share to stimulate the economy. Not only have we hired half of Waukesha County’s labor force to repair our decrepit house (more on that in a future episode), but we continue to do our share of stimulating the local restaurant economy.

Last weekend we extended our generosity into downtown Milwaukee. And we weren’t the only ones to do so. Carnevor Restaurant was packed on Saturday evening, and one might assume that everyone placing orders had noticed the prices on the menu. Entres range up from $34, which includes some of Carnevor’s toppings and sauces, like bearnaise or blue cheese, but many of the sauces are extra, like the oscar topping for an additional $9.

I suspect you’ve all heard of Carnevor and you probably know it is situated among other lovely restaurants and clubs on Milwaukee Street. All of the establishments along this block just north of Wisconsin Avenue share a much appreciated Valet service. Inside, Carnevor’s sleek, clean, modern decor includes clusters of bamboo poles surrounding the light fixtures and large, curved wood ceiling joists – Kay said it felt like sitting inside a whale. Considering this whale's interior is pretty narrow, the tables are graciously spaced, and the noise level does not overpower conversation.

The service is good, and not intrusive. And the food is as delicious as you'd expect. I’d read the menu and some reviews on Yelp.com before we went, so we knew which dishes had received raves. One of those was, believe it or not, the Mac and Cheese ($11), a small plate to be shared around the table. We started with that as a sort of appetizer, and all agreed – it was delicious. The menu says it has goat, maytag, pecorino, nutmeg and cinnamon. Interesting. My Man, the Connosoir of Kraft Dinner in a Box, thought it was good. No raves, but good. The rest of us thought it was yummy. Let’s see: I followed that course with the Lobster Bisque ($9), which is not to be missed. As with all of Carnevor’s dishes, it is RICH, and loaded with hunks of lobster. Kay started her meal with a tasty Beet Salad ($8) with arugula and goat cheese.

For my main course, I ordered the Scallops ($27), six huge sea scallops which were perfectly pan seared and served with a butternut squash puree (I could live on that stuff, happily) and a few steamed sugar snap peas. The Red Meat Man and Doc each had an 8-oz filet mignon ($34), while the 10 oz. Lobster Tail ($45) was calling to Kay. For side dishes we tried the creamed corn ($7 and okay), the truffled mashed potatoes ($11 and very good), and the mini twice baked potatoes ($5 and not worth more).

Did I mention that the wine list at Carnevor is REALLY outrageously expensive? Often the four of us share a bottle of wine – or two. But at Carnevor, buying wine by the bottle would be enough to stimulate the Bank of America! The cheapest bottle was $60, with an average bottle running about $150 - $300 and some were over $1000! Not all of these bottles are of fancy wines. For instance, the Merryvale Starmont '05 merlot that Carnevor offers for $80 a bottle is available all over the web for under $20. Carnevor’s prices for wine by the glass are also ridiculously expensive. I had a glass of Rodney Strong Pinot Noir ‘07 for $13. It sells for $15- $20 A BOTTLE in your liquor store.

Let’s compare Carnevor to another of Milwaukee’s great restaurants: Dream Dance. Carnevor has a very good chef, but he/she is not as creative with ingredients as is Chef Gorman at Dream Dance. The prices are comparable, EXCEPT for the wine. Dream Dance states that they are not trying to make their profit on the wines, and this seems to be true. As one of their less expensive wines, Dream Dance offers a bottle of Ridge Geyserville Zinfandel ‘06 for $34. This is exactly the price for which I found it offered on the web. And while Carnevor offers over 100 wines by the bottle, Dream Dance offers over 700!

And if you are looking for the Best Big Red Beef Filet in town, The Big Red Meat Man still contends that Bonefish Grill is right up there with the best. For $19, he contends it is just as good as Carnevor’s filet mignon.

Hmmm... Maybe Bonefish Grill is just the right sized restaurant stimulus package to offer, at least while we are also stimulating several construction trades.

Stirring the Pot

Banana Orange Muffins

So you tell me you liked that brownie recipe. I didn't want you all to think I'm not cooking, now that I'm calling my blog "Cooking on Donmar." I served these delicious muffins with lamb stew. Tasty, tasty. And don't these muffins seem like they must be healthy, what with the fruits and a whole cup of wheat germ?

Someday soon I hope to be able to tell you I prepared edible venison. Yesterday I bought juniper berries at Penzey's - the best purveyor of herbs and spices anywhere, headquartered about a mile from my house. I have venison in my freezer from a local hunter. Tubeworm told me that one needs juniper berries when cooking venison. She's sending me a recipe, but if you have other favorites, send them along. I'll let you know if The Man declares that Venison Is Not Too Funky To Be Eaten. Of course it IS red meat; how funky can that be?

Banana Orange Muffins

1 1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. brown sugar
3 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 c. wheat germ
2 medium mashed bananas (about 1 c.); lumpy is okay
1/2 c. orange juice
1/4 c. oil
2 eggs
1/2 c. pecans

Mix dry ingredients. Stir in wheat germ. Make a well in the center. In separate bowl, stir together bananas, juice, oil, and eggs. Pour into dry ingredients and stir briefly. Fill 12 greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool in pan.

Recipe: Fudge-Topped Brownies

Okay, so Tubeworm and The Man Who Eats '50's Food like the Fudge-Topped Brownies. I'll settle for that as a recommendation. Here's the recipe (which probalby dates from the '50's):

Fudge-Topped Brownies

1 c. butter, melted
2 c. sugar
1 c. flour
2/3 c. cocoa
1/2 t. baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 c. milk
3 t. vanilla (divided)
1 c. walnuts, chopped (if you can find them)
1 (12 oz.) package choc chips
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together butter, sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, eggs, milk and 1 1/2 t. vanilla. STIR IN WALNUTS. Spread in greased 13x9" pan. Bake 40 min or till brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. While brownies are baking, in heavy saucepan, melt chips with sweetened condensed milk and remaining vanilla. Spread over HOT brownies as you take them out of the oven. Cool, then chill. Cut into bars.

Then put a couple of them in a baggie in your purse, and take them to Starbucks to share with Tubeworm when you go with her for a cup of coffee.

Bask in the rave reviews.

Stirring the Pot

Why Buy Desserts

So I’m going to make Fudge Topped Brownies. My extended familys’ kids are coming tonight for beer and pizza with their cool aunt. I’m making this dessert for them. When I grocery shopped yesterday I made sure I had all the ingredients. I measured out the flour, the sugar and cocoa, the baking powder. Next ingredient: walnuts. I know I have walnuts. I saw the package somewhere this week when I was writing my grocery list. “You’ve got walnuts,” my brain said. It also said, as I faintly recalled this morning, “That’s an odd place for walnuts.”

So where are those walnuts? I keep nuts in the freezer. Of course I don’t expect to find them there, since that is where they are supposed to be. I look in this cabinet and that. I look with the cereal in the pantry. I look in both refrigerators. No walnuts. There is no point in asking The Man Who Does Nothing With Food But Eat It if he has seen the walnuts. He’d only have seen them if they appeared on his plate. I’m about to go to the store for more walnuts when I get some ice out of the freezer for a glass of water and whoa! What are walnuts doing in THAT container? Okay. So my brain DIDN’T say they were in a weird place. It said they were in an odd container.

Okay. Let’s make these #$(%&$# Fudge Topped Brownies. I chop the walnuts and start adding ingredients to the mixing bowl. Yummy, yummy. People with acid reflux are not supposed to eat chocolate, but a little lick of the batter proves delicious. I grease the pan, pour in the batter and put the pan in the oven. The ingredients for the Fudge Topped part of the recipe wait on the counter to be melted together and poured over the top of the baked brownies.

Meanwhile The Man has been working on labels for a mailing for the land trust. I pop into his office to admire him – no, no, – to admire his work, though he is pretty cute on Saturday mornings. Anyway, after kissing his bald spot and listening for about five minutes about how this program or that makes labels, I return to the kitchen to clean up my Brownie baking mess. And there on the counter, in its cup measure, are the chopped walnuts. Hmmm... I quickly survey the recipe. Oops. The walnuts are not supposed to go into the Fudge Topping. They were supposed to be mixed into the dough before baking. I whip the pan out of the oven, dump the #$(#$U) walnuts on top and stir them into the now-warm dough that has thickened around the edges, the pop the pan back into the oven.

Is there any chance these brownies will continue to rise and taste like anything but bricks after having their oven time interrupted?

So I'm telling you: Just buy desserts at the bakery. That way you won’t spend your day questioning your sanity – and have to throw away the whole #$R9(&(* batch.

Stirring the Pot

Whole Foods #2

Did you read what my friend, Hilde, the Tubeworm, did with her stuffed chicken breast from Whole Foods? THAT’S what I’d call being creative in the kitchen. I just plunked my chicken breast stuffed with broccoli and cheddar cheese (so it said) into the oven for a while, testing it now and then with a meat thermometer. I did not overcook it, but the meat was dry. And the stuffing had something in it besides broccoli and cheddar that stirred up the acid production in my stomach – again. Is this fair? I, who loves to eat, can eat only small portions at a time and must be sure nothing contains anything delicious, like fat, tomatoes, citrus, coffee, hot spices, mint, chocolate, etc. Anyway, I agree with Tubeworm that the stuffed chicken breasts would feed four, but that four will not include me. I have whole chickens in my freezer from a local farmer whose meat I’d much prefer, just plain roasted. Even My Man Who Only Eats The White Meat of Fowl didn’t care for the Whole Foods chicken breast meat. We threw more than half of it away.

The haddock I made the next night I would not buy again either. Oh well. When I opened the package, it smelled like it does when you walk into the Empire Fish Co. store. Hmmm... And then I tried to serve the garlic bread from Whole Foods. It was a half loaf of Italian bread, sliced the long way, spread with garlic and olive oil. I paid $9.95 for it, which I thought was a lot, but decided it looked really good, so.. Well, it was a total loss. The loaf was dry, old bread, even unable to be revived when warmed in my oven. I threw it out.

So... Hilde and I have decided: we’re glad we made the trip to the east side to check out Whole Foods (also known as Whole Paychecks), but we will continue to do our shopping at Grasch’s. Whole Foods vast selection of bulk olives was exciting, the tomato basil soup I bought was very good, and their cheese section is extensive, but Grasch’s has them beat in both the deli department (by a LONG shot) and the meats and fish section. Whole Foods fish section is huge, with a greater selection, but that may be the problem. Can they sell that many varieties of fish and have them all be fresh? The bakery we tried from Whole Foods was very good, but Grasch’s is too. And I have never gotten stale bread from Grasch’s. Of course Whole Foods has a much larger organic produce section. Grasch’s produce is lovely, but the organic section is limited. In addition, the Health Hut on nearby Bluemound Rd. is a small organic grocery that is adequate for most fresh produce.

Last night I made lamb chops for dinner. I buy a whole lamb (butchered, of course) from a local farmer who raises them “free range”. (I have no idea if there is any other way to raise sheep. There are many areas in which I am not an expert. Farming tops that list.) Anyway, The Man Who Never Notices What He Has Eaten Unless He Doesn’t Like It commented upon biting into his lamb chop, “I think you should always stick to preparing your own food.” I took that as a compliment for the lamb chop. I used a lamb chop recipe from www.epicurious.com If you want to try it, go to the site and search for “Cider-Glazed Lamb Chops.” Tasty, tasty.

And now I am going to try to figure out how to establish a cookbook of my favorite recipes on the epicurious website. I think you can save recipes from their site in your “favorites” and even type in your own recipes, and even your mother’s. Why am I keeping files and folders and searching for the old recipes that I like?

Dragging myself oh-so-painfully into the 21st century,

Stirring the Pot

Whole Foods Fills the Refrigerator

My house is filled with the delicious aroma of vegetables roasting. If I can remember how, I’ll show you a picture of them. This is a combination of eggplant (my favorite vegetable for roasting), snap peas, carrots, onions, and the real treasure: golden beets. Yummy! And you’re asking, “Where did you find golden beets, Stirring the Pot?” Well...

My friend Hilde and I made a trip to the Whole Foods superstore on Milwaukee’s east side today. In addition to all those beautiful, organic vegetables that I’m roasting, have I got food to cook! I am going to be actually “cooking on Donmar” for quite a while.

I’d been to Whole Foods in Madison and in Charlottesville, VA, where one of my daughters shops. But neither of those stores compares to Milwaukee’s in size. Hilde and I were there for over three hours, scoping out the healthy stuff.

This massive store makes up the first floor of Columbia/St Mary’s office building. With free parking in an underground garage, it is very convenient. Hilde and I began our morning adventure admiring the bakery department. This led to a pre-shopping tasting in the in-store coffee shop and some shared pastries. I would highly recommend the spinach and feta stuffed croissants, and they make a mighty fine dark chocolate mocha.

Next we perused the cheese selection, which rivals Sendik’s on Capital Dr in Brookfield – and that’s saying a lot. Whole Foods had 5 different cheeses from Carr Valley, plus the award-winning Pleasant Ridge cheese, and one of my favorites - Drunken Goat cheese. I also picked up a stilton with lemon peel, which turned out to be a lovely new flavor combination for me.

Next we visited the olive bars. There were two of them, with perhaps 20 or more types and combinations of olives and other pickled delights. Be sure to pick up some of the pickled sun-dried tomatoes and the garlic-stuffed green olives and the Kalamata and feta cheese combo.

I could go on and on, describing the deli and the produce and the beautifully displayed fresh fish counter and all the aisles and aisles of organic canned and packaged goods and the flowers and ... Go and see for yourself.

Tonight I will roast some garlic and herb coated haddock filets, serve them with some of the roasted vegetables, slices of garlic and olive oil Italian bread and a fresh watermelon I cut up, all from Whole Foods. Other meals this weekend will include a roasted chicken breast stuffed with cheddar and broccoli and some of Whole Foods own crab cakes on Sunday, risking the wrath of The Man Who Only Eats Red Meat Happily. I’m assuming he may eat haddock, as he will eat cod, though usually only if it’s deep fried and beer battered. And I can feed him crab cakes on a rare occasion, hidden beneath a remoulade sauce (which I also bought at Whole Foods). I know he'll be pleased with our weekend lunches of tomato basil soup from WF’s deli and produce section and the chicken pot pie from WF's deli.

As there is already a whole (cut up) lamb in my freezer, plus some locally raised buffalo and beef, either I must stop grocery shopping or you all had better come over for dinner soon. The table is set...

Stirring the Pot

Swig, Again

Our latest venture to Swig was a hit. Again. Swig, you MUST ask your chef to give a cooking class or two to the chef at your owner’s other restaurant, Water Buffalo. It has a smashing location, but the food is not up to Swig!

We have taken to going to theater early on Saturdays if possible, leaving us enough time to really hang out with friends and enjoy some of the terrific food this city offers. So last Saturday found us at Swig after a performance of “The Sum of Us” at the Studio Theater. Both the theater and the restaurant are located about a block apart on Broadway.

Though the play didn’t deserve raves, the food did. First the play: the acting was magnificent. It is worth going to see Brian Mani anytime he is performing anywhere in the area. He is a regular at the American Players’ Theater in Spring Green. But the writing left much to be desired, in my opinion. Full of the lowest form of humor, very crude sexual jokes, it doesn’t redeem itself with brilliant dialogue. Ah, well. It was an excuse to see friends and support local theater...

On to Swig, the highlight of the evening. We were once again with Doc and his wife, Kay. You may remember that at Swig you can order “small plates” and try many items. Three of us ordered cups of the evening’s special soup, Crawfish Chowder, which was excellent, with nice chunks of crawfish and a tasty stock. Of course My Man Who Eats Nothing That Does Water Aerobics did not try this, but had a cup of the house Tomato Basil Soup (also delicious). We all shared one order of Swig’s yummy Tempura Snap Peas ($6.75) and one 4-piece order of Classic Bruscetta ($6.50), a lovely, not at all oily, combination of chopped fresh tomatoes and tasty basil on crostini.

Kay and My Man shared the Sesame Beef Tenderloin Skewers - 3 of them for $27.50, and SO worth it, while Doc ordered an entre of Braised Pork Tenderloin ($14) that came with sauted apples and was fork-tender, and I ordered the special entre of the night, the three-cheese ravioli with sauted shrimp. It was delicious. We had coupons for a glass of wine each, which, with 4 more glasses of wine, plus a couple of Pepsi’s and a couple of coffees resulted in a total bill of $155, including the tip. We think that’s a deal!

Sure beats cooking on Donmar.

Stirring the Pot

Dream Dance Dinner

It’s not that we don’t eat out anymore. It’s just that when you get away from writing, it’s really difficult to start up again. “I don’t have time,” my brain says. Or, worse yet, “I can’t write.” But I’m going to give it a try, as we have eaten some special meals lately that deserve a review.

I’ll start with last night’s extravaganza of eating. Have I written about Dream Dance before? We’ve eaten there before, but this was the first time at the new digs, in the new addition to the Potowatomi Casino in The Valley. Their menu features Wisconsin foods like locally-made artisanal cheeses and locally-raised venison. Chef Jason Gorman has received many accolades, and this year he is one of the 2009 Wisconsin Cheese Chef Ambassadors. Dream Dance has a separate cheese menu offering trays of 15 artisanal Wisconsin cheeses – my kind of place! I was drooling to the waiter, Troy, while reading of the Dream Dance Vanilla Goat Cheese, and he brought us two generous slices with some French bread to try it. A charming man.

The food was delicious and plated with the care of works of art. After reading a review from the Journal/ Sentinel on the web, I had decided I would like to try the Sprecher Root Beer Venison Rossini with Lakeside horseradish potatoes ($40). With thick slices of mushrooms in a wine sauce atop the generous venison steaks and truly delicious horseradish-flavored mashed potatoes, it was an entre to die for. I ordered a half -bottle of 2005 Duckhorn merlot ($31) that was perfect with this rich dinner. Dream Dance tries to offer wines at about the price you would buy them in a liquor store. I searched the web. The cheapest price I could find for a full bottle of this wine was $50 and it went up to $80. $31 for a half bottle in a restaurant is a bargain. The wine list at Dream Dance includes quite a selection of half-bottles, which worked well for me, as I was this evening’s only red wine drinker of the four of us. The others at our table enjoyed a couple of bottles of a German Reisling kabinett (I think about $28 each).

Our friend, Mrs. Doc ordered the Diver Scallop Cordon Bleu, which was plated beautifully with trumpet mushrooms, Wisconsin’s Nueske’s ham pieces and a sauce made from Roth Kase’s Gran Cru Gruyere cheese ($38). It was beautifully done, though Mrs. thought it was a bit too salty for her taste. She and I did push our share of our bill over the top a bit by ordering two Baby Romaine Salads, served with the most delicious parmesan-crusted bread stick “crouton.” The red romaine leaves were drizzled with truffle Caesar dressing and garnished two tiny deviled quail eggs. How can they prepare this for $12?

Doc and My Man got into the Big Red Meat part of the menu. Doc ordered a 16-oz. Kobe Style Beef Ribeye Steak ($48), at the recommendation of one of our servers. Doc said it was delicious, if huge. Duh. That’s a pound of meat. Doc also had a side of red cabbage ($6) and split the order of The Ultimate Baked Potato for Two ($18) with My Man. We frugal Milwaukeean’s think that $18 is an exorbitant price for a potato, regardless of its size, but the tray of horseradish sour cream sauce and strips of Nueske’s bacon did make it seem almost worth it. My Man polished off an 8 oz Black Angus Filet ($30). He said it was grilled perfectly, but he thinks he has had better filets at, believe it or not, Bonefish Grill and Point Comfort Place! Neither of these restaurants should take up ink on the same page as Dream Dance.

We finished the evening with coffee and a couple of desserts. There was no winner between the Chocolate Creams - three chocolates, cake and orange sauce ($10), and the even richer Marbled Custards ($7) towered over by a trellis of burnt sugar threads.

Twice during our meal Chef Gorman sent out individual trays of delicacies. On the first ones were three tiny appetizers, the best of which, and one of the hits of the evening, was chopped salmon sashimi on a cracker topped with a bit of wasabi flavored roe. Mmmm, mmm.

Our service on this Tuesday evening was not quite up to par for a restaurant of this caliber. Troy and our other servers, Peter and Ryan, were all very charming and knowledgeable. But we waited a bit too long for some of our wines and for the coffee to arrive. And when the coffee did arrive with our dessert orders, some of the dirty dinner plates had not yet been cleared.

But would I go back? You bet!

Stirring the Pot

The Food Shack in Jupiter, FL.

Egrets and sandpipers. Palmettos. Orange groves. That is my image of Florida. When I rented a condo for two weeks in Jupiter, I never gave a thought to restaurants. I’ve been here two days. Two dinners in local restaurants has provided one more reason to travel to Florida – or at least to Jupiter, Florida.

We’d never have found, nor put up with the wait to be seated at, the Food Shack, without the recommendation of our well-traveled daughter. She was here two weeks ago and through Zagat, found this tiny eatery in a strip mall. After driving for two and a half days from frigid Wisconsin, we arrived at The Food Shack at 7:30 PM to find people sitting on benches outside, standing in groups in the parking lot sipping wine, sprawled in and on cars. There were 30 people outside, waiting to get in. We were told our wait would be 30 minutes. We waited perhaps 45. Inside the Food Shack we were fortunate to be seated at the bar. It was amazing. The restaurant only holds 50 people and changes its hand-written menu every day. There were 5 guys in the kitchen whipping out fabulous salads and seafood dishes in a long, narrow kitchen in which they could hardly pass each other - and never did. The chef (and owner, we surmised) dumped piles of shrimp, skewers of scallops, quarter-pounder-sized crab cakes on a hot griddle right in front of us. Often he had ten or twelve large filets of fish on at once, each having been put on at a different time. He’d just push his spatula down gently on the top of each and that seemed enough for him to determine exactly when it was done. A plate of a special salad for that entree would show up behind him, he would gently place the main dish on it, a waiting waitress would drizzle on the appropriate sauce and garnish and serve it to a drooling customer. This did not take long. We had our meals in just a few minutes after being seated in the packed, tiny restaurant.

A tiny problem was obvious with just a glance at the menu. It was almost entirely seafood. The Man Who Prefers To Eat Animals Who Chew A Cud was going to have to be very generous to his lovely wife. He was. Beer-battered, deep fried is the only preparation that can make a swimmable item edible. And there it was among the starters: Beer-battered grouper cheeks over a salad of Asian pears, strawberries, bananas and greens for $12.50. And standing out like a cow on the beach was the special plate of the day: Barbequed short ribs served with a skewer of ginger crusted sea scallops, sweet potatoes O’Brien, and a slaw of apples, cabbage, almonds, grapes and crasins for $26. It easily fed the two of us. For my starter I ordered a red-skinned potato and crab cake that came atop a salad of greens, yellow tomatoes, strips of pimiento, green olives and pine nuts. And if this only SOUNDED good, that would be one thing. But it was ALL delicious. Even The Man admitted it was, in his expansive description, “good.”

A better critic, my daughter, the one who has lived everywhere from Finland to Alaska to London to Connecticut and traveled everywhere, said she would move to Jupiter just to eat at the Food Shack. Now THAT’s a five-star recommendation.

Stirring the Pot

Hinterlands Restaurant

We returned to the Third Ward this week to have dinner with our friends, Doc and Kay. We chose to try one of the Journal/Sentinel’s restaurant critic's top 8 new restaurants of 2008. Carol Deptola gave The Hinterlands a 3.5 star rating. I think I'd give it a 3.

To those of us living in Waukesha County, it’s hardly what we’d call Hinterlands. How “hinter” can it be considered when it’s on Erie Street, east of The river?

Some of the reviews I’ve read of this restaurant agreed that the food was superb, but the prices were high. We agreed that the food was very good, but we were not blown away by the prices. Until we got our bill. Okay, so we spent $140 per couple (includes tip). The entrees are $35 - $45. That includes only one slice of bread per person (it was freshly baked and still warm) and water. Salads and starters are ala carte and cost $8 - $16. But they are special. Think about it: if someone brought you some winter radish greens, a few turnips, trout, elk ribs, and some fennel, could you create a new menu using these items? And do it every day? That is an amazing feat. The items created by the chef at Hinterlands are not only creative, but tasty.

The bisque of sweet potatoes and chanterelle mushrooms on Tuesday night was just a bit sweet, yet savory enough and served in a simple oval bowl with shiso greens and flax seeds on top. The tower of fried green tomatoes with lumps of crab between the layers was also beautiful.

Which dish won the best entree contest, you're asking? It would be difficult to choose. The seared scallops with polenta and more chanterelle mushrooms was a bit sweet, but cooked to perfection -- No easy task, as anyone who has tried cooking sea scallops can tell you. Doc’s pork tenderloin was just done, a bit pink in the center, as pork should be these days. I remember how it was in my mother’s kitchen. Pork had to be done to its dryest level to assure the health of the guests. Not today. And Hinterland’s kitchen has this down pat. Apparently another delicious entree was the orange-glazed duck. But it was so good that I wasn’t even allowed a sample. I can only tell you that Mr. Picky Eater just about licked his plate.

My entree of ginger dusted trout was good, but not magnificent. The roasted eggplant puree and adzuki beans didn’t add as much interest as I’d hoped to the rather boring trout.

I hesitate to order wine in a restaurant that specializes in their own beer, brewed on site. But our waitress, Sarah, knew her wines. She recommended an Italian wine that they had by the glass. Thankfully, she allowed me to taste a small sip before pouring my glass. The tannins were WAY out there, beyond my taste preference. After restudying the menu, I found a cabernet franc by the glass. I have enjoyed this varietal in Virginia, where it is the grape most atuned to the climate of Thomas Jefferson’s winery at Monticello. It was very nice – tasty, but not too overpoweringly fruity.

So far, of restaurants in the Third Ward, our foursome votes for Swig for all around good food, prices, and service (after our first experience of trying to eat a too-complex meal there before theater). Personally, I’d give Swig a tie with the Third Ward Caffe for overall dining experience. Hinterlands is up there too for its very creative menu and good service. Of course it was -5 degrees the night we were there. We should have good service when we’re the only customers.

Many reviewers have spoken highly of Hinterland’s desserts, but I didn’t even finish my entree. My mom’s voice still tells me, “No dessert if you don’t eat your liver”. Though Hinterlands doesn’t serve liver, I can’t take the guilt if I eat dessert without cleaning my plate.

Stirring the Pot