Ida Claire

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My husband came home several months ago totally jazzed about a restaurant he had discovered during a work lunch that he couldn't wait to take me to. We went together shortly before I launched this blog and I vowed to go back soon to review it.

Ida Claire is gourmet southern cooking at its finest. The ambiance and decor are upcycled hipster paradise, with the most notable feature being the open trailer seating option on the patio.

Ida Claire offers a deluxe variety of craft beers and beverages to pair with its rich, comforting fare.

For an appetizer, we ordered the biscuits and bacon gravy:

The biscuits were fresh, crumbly and layered, and came not only with a meaty bacon gravy, but also an in-house-made huckleberry & something else jam, and a black pepper & sorghum butter spread. The butter changed my life. I have worked maybe once with sorghum before, but showcased as the star in a simple butter spread, I was entranced with the floral, citrus-zest flavor that's derived from a grass!

The first time I ate at Ida Claire, my husband urged me to try the Chicken and Waffles dish. Upon returning, it took all my willpower to order something else so that I could do a varied review, but I was able to get a photo of our friend's order of the chicken and waffles. When I tried it, I was there with my family, and my mom also ordered it at my husband's recommendation. We were both hesitant to trust that the eggs in the dish would be properly cooked, because so often sunny side up eggs come out with more than the yolks raw. Still, we decided to trust the chef and didn't change the eggs to over-medium. As AMAZING as this dish was, both of our eggs were too raw, with clear, gooey whites surrounding the yolks beneath the top layer of cooked white. All in all, however, don't let this deter you from trying this exceptional dish- I just recommend you ask for your eggs to be cooked to medium.

The waffle is actually made from a batter into which bacon bits have been folded, then it is drizzled with a coffee syrup, the runny eggs, perfectly fried pieces of white meat chicken, and finished off with a generous serving of the signature Ida Claire gravy.

All in all, Ida Claire's chef did an amazing job of mingling and blending the textural and flavoring elements of this dish, giving you that hit of crunch, bread, soft eggs, fatty yolks, rich gravy, sweet syrup, and chewy bacon bits.

My husband ordered the Braised Beef Short Rib, which I stole a few bites of. The sauce in this dish was so well developed and complex, it married the bitter broccolini, acidic tomatoes, the sweet carrots, and the savory, tender meat perfectly together to make this heavy red meat & gravy dish easy to polish off.

I went out on a limb (for you my readers) and ordered the Fish n' Chips Biscuit with a side of the cheesy grits, even though my heart was still calling out for the chicken & waffles. Had I been feeling more flush that evening, I would have loved to have tried the shrimp and grits dish; I have many strong opinions too wordy to include in this blog about the price of a decent plate of shrimp & grits in this town, but I may have to make some sometime and post a recipe blog if anyone is interested.

Anyway, the biscuit arrived in a glorious tower of shredded, raw Brussels sprouts, rich house-made tartar sauce, 2 large, thick pieces of perfectly breaded and fried fish, and I suspect some kind of peppered butter on the biscuit itself. My memory fails me at the moment, but I believe there was also some of the same black pepper gravy on the dish that is on the chicken and waffles. The meal was enormous and excellent, though it did require some deconstruction. The "sandwich" was probably over 6 inches tall fully assembled. The creamy, tangy tartar sauce and hot fish were a perfect marriage with the cold, bitter Brussels sprouts, but the entire dish begged for some kind of acid to provide relief from the weight and richness of fried/tartar sauce/biscuit/maybe-gravy intensity. I'm aware I didn't help myself in ordering the richest, heaviest side dish Ida Claire offers, but it still would have benefited immensely from some fresh lemon juice.

The grits were PERFECT. They balanced the cheese and a bit of garlic well, not losing the flavor or texture of the grits themselves, and I actually didn't even mind the chives, even though I often find them to be an obnoxious, overused garnish that people seem to add too often without considering the intense flavor they add to a dish.

My conclusions about Ida Claire are as follows: They're charming, and a very special place to go for brunch. Expect a wait, however, as their excellence is no secret. Try the Chicken and Waffles, it's still my favorite dish, but if you're picky about your eggs, don't be afraid to change the way they're cooked- it's not one of those times when you're dramatically changing the intention of the dish by making a change like that. The braised meat dishes are also outtasite, and overall it's a great place for a hearty brunch. Just make sure you go good and hungry. I'll also point out that this place has a reasonable price point that's about double most of the places I review, so consider this a bit of a nicer option.

FrankenFood Friday: Sushi Burrito at Sushi Shack

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I've been waiting until a Friday to review Sushi Shack because they feature a FrankenFood that I have been excited to try ever since I saw a video of one from New York on Facebook ages ago: The Sushi Burrito.

I'll do a brief review of the restaurant and its other fare before diving into the insanity that is the Sushi Burrito to give you a fair opinion of Sushi Shack itself.

They are perhaps best known for their excellent all you can eat fresh sushi deals, which is only $10.99 at lunchtime. The catch, of course, is that you have to eat everything on your plate before eating more, and you reach about your fullness level after 2 whole rolls, which you may have been able to purchase individually for about $11 anyway. Still, it's a really great deal and allows for a lot of variety if you go with several people and all share several different rolls.

The all-you-can-eat meal also comes with salad from their modest buffet, and miso soup.

What you need to keep in mind at Sushi Shack is the price and value. I have a good friend who is a Japanese teacher, and has had some of the best sushi Japan has to offer, and needless to say she has extremely high standards for the quality of the fish that is served in her sushi. I am not sure that I would take her to Sushi Shack, because at the prices they offer, obviously they are not going to serve the breath-of-Poseidon quality of fish that a significantly more expensive sushi restaurant offers.

Still, for about $25 a couple can enjoy a varied, filling, delicious meal of sushi that far exceeds the quality of anything you would ever expect in that price range. For my husband and I, it has been a really fun treat to have a place we can go for affordable sushi on our budget that is good and fresh! 

Some people understandably assume that the quality of the fish must be affected when a restaurant's prices are so low. In some ways, that is a fair assumption- often, though I do not know in the case of Sushi Shack, especially in the middle of Texas, hundreds of miles from the ocean, sushi-grade fish has been frozen for transportation and thawed to serve. This process often takes some of the flavor out of the fish, making it milder. Still, such a process is a completely legitimate practice in maintaining the safety and serve-ability of meat products such as raw fish, and are one of the only ways to make such products available at a price point below $15-$20/roll. 

I am in no way asserting for certain that Sushi Shack uses fish that has been shipped frozen- I do not know! But my point is this: a slightly lower priced piece of sushi does not need to be regarded as "sketchy" purely based on price. Thawed-from-frozen fish is as safe to eat as fresh fish on the coast, sometimes even safer because it doesn't need to be thawed long before it is served, and is in that way at times much fresher than fish that was caught the day before and left aging in a fridge until it was served. I have known chefs who prefer thawed-from-frozen fish any time they can't smell the ocean from the front door of the restaurant because they can trust its safety more.

This blog is meant to inform and educate, and I digress on this point because I want people to be fair to establishments in this price bracket, and not assume that because it was a great price, that the quality and safety of the food must have suffered. I think that can really be unfair to establishments that may take a lower profit to provide competitive prices. I for one have eaten at Sushi Shack 4 times, at all different times of year including the dead heat of summer, and have never tasted anything less than fresh or felt anything less than full and satisfied after I had eaten, and I am always amazed at how easy it was to stay in budget.

Now for what you've all been waiting for! The Sushi Burrito.

This "burrito" is wrapped in pink rice paper, and stuffed with sushi rice, shredded crab (real, not artificial), tuna, salmon, and avocado. It really is, as one would expect, basically a gigantic roll of sushi. Still, the FrankenFood gimmick, while perhaps somewhat unnecessary, is a fun one. 

It is also an excellent bite of food, combining three of my favorite sushi meats into one bite. I did find myself missing a crunch or a chew after I got about halfway through, and would have enjoyed a bit of seaweed or cucumber to break up the soft upon soft upon soft texture of the meal.

Still, overall it was a great deal for the price, very filling and fresh, and a lot of fun to eat. I think it is definitely worth trying for the sake of saying you have, one of those culinary bucket list items. It is also significantly more successful than most FrankenFoods at combining the defining elements of both inspiring dishes to create a new distinct hybrid of both, and in so doing accomplishing something that is not only edible, but actually fun, delicious, and something you actually want to finish.

Finally, let me just say- the staff are darling and provide such friendly and excellent service. I was delighted at the end of my last dinner there when the waitress brought out this with our check:

So go check it out! Remember the price point, and enjoy a good plate of sushi with a friend. 

Chocolate Pancakes & Homemade Syrup

I'm in the middle of packing for a move, so my home-cooked meals have been a bit on the makeshift side lately. The other night I was making dinner for my husband, myself, and one of our friends, and I decided to make breakfast. My friend is allergic to corn, which is in almost everything store bought, so I decided to just make the pancakes from scratch, and make a syrup for her since the bottled one I had contained corn syrup. 

I gave my husband a choice between normal pancakes and chocolate pancakes, and he opted for the chocolate ones. 

The batter smelled exactly like melted chocolate ice cream, though since it's a pancake recipe and not a cake batter, it's not very sweet at all- definitely best served with syrup.

Here is the recipe:

Chocolate Pancakes

1 cup AP flour

1/2 cup cocoa (sifted)

1.5 tsp bkng soda

1 tsp OJ or vinegar (to activate the soda)

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1.25 cup milk

1 egg

3 tbsp melted butter

- Combine dry ingredients

- Add liquid ingredients and whisk together

- Use an ice cream scoop for consistent size

You may notice how very little sugar is actually in the recipe- it isn't a terribly sweet recipe, even though it's decadent chocolate. These pancakes would also be excellent served with whipped cream. If you want to make them chocolate-orange, just substitute half of the milk for orange juice- but add them to the batter separately.

Between batches of pancakes, I threw together the syrup. I wanted to make it thicker than the classic 1:1 ratio of a simple syrup, so here is what I did:

Vanilla Cinnamon Simple Syrup

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp vanilla extract

2 dashes cinnamon

- Combine all ingredients into a small pot, bring to a rolling boil, stirring occasionally

- Boil until sugar is completely dissolved

In another skillet, I cooked turkey sausage, which requires draining to get a good sear on the meat. After the sausage was cooked, I used the same skillet to cook the scrambled eggs. This allowed all that awesome sausage residue to flavor the eggs.

I'd already packed the syrup pitcher, so I just served the homemade syrup in a mug with a spoon.

Main St. Bakery & Bistro

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I have been having a weekly lunch with my grandma for over 8 years. Last week, we were shopping in Grapevine and decided to patronize Main St. Bakery & Bistro.

The first thing you see when you walk in the door at Main St. Bakery is the gorgeous display case of French confections.

You are forced to stare at these delicious pastries as you wait in line to place your lunch order, eroding away at your will power like licks on a Tootsie Pop.

After placing your order, you can either eat at a table on the bakery side, or make your way over to the beautiful dining room.

My grandma ordered a Croque-Monsieur, which is a ham and cheese sandwich as only the French can do it. This broiled, gooey sandwich is stuffed with sliced ham and cheese, topped with Gruyere cheese over a thin layer of a garlicky creme sauce, similar to an aioli. Ordinarily one sees this sandwich with a darker, crispier top crust of cheese, but the chef instructors at my culinary school would just call this an "American" version of properly cooked, because Americans tend to prefer things on the paler side as compared to European sensibilities. 

I ordered the Beef Tenderloin sandwich when I saw that it would be served on a home-made black pepper brioche bread. If you follow me for long, you may come to learn that not only am I always going to select the homemade bread, but cracked black pepper is one of my weaknesses.

The sandwich featured hearty, tender slices of beef tenderloin, Gruyere cheese, tomatoes, caramelized onions, and a balsamic reduction. This balance of herbacious meat, sweet, savory onions, unctuous cheese, and bright vinegar and tomatoes was only enhanced by the slightly sweet, peppery bread. 

My grandma and I opted to leave after lunch and walk around Main St. for a bit before coming back to get a bite of dessert. My grandmother had a children's book she wrote published a few years ago, and the little shop down the street has decided to sell it, so we did a little business, too. (One grandmother a published author and the other a wedding cake baker- you can see where I get it!)

I ogled the iced cookies but settled for a little sample, and selected an eclair and a "creme brulee mousse bomb" for us to split. I like to get eclairs at specialty bakeries, because an in-house made eclair is a rare thing, and a really good one is nearly extinct.

I found that while the pate a choux (eclair dough) was perfect and the filling was delicious, the frosting on top reminded me a little too much of doughnut icing. Upon tasting the mousse dessert, I concluded that I think the eclair would be an even greater success if they glazed it with the ganache that enrobed the bomb.

I was wary of anything called a "creme brulee" that did not have any hard, caramelized sugar on top, because- and I know this is super snobby, but French Patisserie is my specialty as a chef- the use of popular, fancy sounding french culinary terms that every day consumers are familiar with enough to recognize but not enough to know if it's accurate is appallingly common. Creme brulee is a cream-based custard dessert that is trademark for the "burnt sugar" hard crack caramel layer on top. People can do all kinds of variations on this dish, but if you'll pardon the term it's a bastardization to stick custard, even custard and caramel, into a dish and call it creme brulee if there isn't any crunchy burned sugar on top. If the caramel is a sauce or just a flavoring element, it's closer to flan, or in french creme caramel.

Anyway, that rant over, Main St. Bakery delivered a delicious dessert with a layer of custard between the chocolate mousse and the soft crust below. I will even give them a nod for including a layer of some kind of wafer that reminded me of the crunch on a creme brulee, which redeemed this dish enough to not technically classify as having been mis-labeled, though just barely. Still, in all fairness it was a delicious dessert and a brilliant fresh spin on two classic desserts.

So go check it out for yourself! Save room for dessert! And let me know in the comments what your favorite thing from Main St. Bakery & Bistro is.

FrankenFood Friday: Lays Potato Chips

IT'S FRANKENFOOD FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!

That's right, it's that time at the end of each week when I subject myself to some strange melding of two independent food items into one delicious or disgusting new dish.

For this week's Frankenfood Friday, I decided to explore the Lays "Do Us A Flavor" winner from some year previous and two of the new "Passport to Flavor" chip varieties this year. The ones available at my local store included the Chinese Szechuan Chicken, the Brazilian Picanha, and the Southern Biscuits & Gravy.

First up was the Szechuan Chicken, which I was pretty excited about because I *LOVE* "Asian" food (even when it is some American "fusion" that no longer resembles actual Asian food in the slightest- I don't discriminate!)

I found that right off the bat it definitely tasted like Chinese food, so they hit that one on the head. But it was so salty, and so strongly flavored, I kept feeling like I was eating seasoned dry ramen, and after about 4 chips in a row my mouth felt like I'd just taken the seasoning packet from a $0.44 ramen package and dumped it into my mouth. 

Ultimately, they're not bad, but I probably won't finish them and I definitely won't buy them again.

The next flavor I tried was the Brazilian Picanha. It was supposed to taste like steak & chimichurri sauce, which are staples of Brazilian restaurant menus.

These were pretty darn good. The first taste that hit my tongue was that of green vegetables. No specific ones came to mind, just kind of a salsa of very healthy vegetables. It was towards the end of chewing and after swallowing that I got a sort of savory, beefy steak flavor, which was extremely subtle but pleasant. I had actually expected these to be overly steak- flavored and not unlike chips made from bouillon cubes or something, but it was a really good balance. Most telling, though, was that later in the night I had all three of the tasting plates out for my husband and I to snack from, and I finished off this plate before touching the other two. The Steak & Chimichurri combination has that morishness that's expected from a good potato chip, and the flavor is strong, distinct, but not an assault on the senses. 

Finally I tasted the Biscuits & Gravy. I was most nervous about this one, because while I LOVE biscuits and gravy as a dish, I felt like even if Lays managed to successfully translate the flavor to the chip, I wasn't sure that somehow the flavor of gravy in a dry form wouldn't ruin the flavor of biscuits & gravy for me forever. I actually hesitated to spend my money on them because I didn't think I'd like them, so my generous and not at all sadistic friend Diana bought them for me to ensure I wouldn't miss out on this unique frankenfood opportunity.

The first taste proved to taste... exactly like gravy. It was very strange to taste something that should be thick and wet as a seasoned, crunchy chip. As I chewed, there came the biscuit. I somehow expected it to basically taste like potato chips and gravy, but those mad scientists at Frito Lay actually made the dadgum thing taste like a BISCUIT, too! It mostly tasted of butter, but it definitely tasted like the canned biscuit dough biscuits that I happen to love. I didn't think I would go back for more, even though the flavor wasn't bad, because it was just so weird, but I realized later on that while it's almost off-puttingly accurate in flavor when you're paying attention to what you're tasting, they're totally munchable while you're watching X-Files or painting your toenails. When I went back for a taste after the official tasting was over and I was focused on cooking dinner, I didn't mind them at all, & we eventually polished the tasting plate off. Still, they're best for distracted snacking, and in that case, so is a plain potato chip. To me it's not really worth buying again when there are flavors out there that I actually crave.

The only flavor we weren't inclined to go back for was the Chinese Szechuan Chicken, which was really only unsuccessful in the intensity of the flavor and the impossible to ignore mental picture of dumping Ramen seasoning packets into my mouth. I know for a fact we'll be finishing off the Brazillian Picanha chips, and I highly recommend them if you're looking for a little adventure. The Biscuits and Gravy were pretty good, and we might even finish them off before they go stale, but I personally probably won't buy them again because I think it's just... well, it's like taking biscuits and gravy and adding potatoes. If Biscuits and gravy needed anything added to them it's not another heavy starch. Somehow that translates to the flavors, too- not bad, but a little too rich and bland at the same time. I think it might have been a total hit if it had been "Sausage Biscuit", and had a stronger sausage flavor with that odd undercurrent of biscuit, but gravy is too subtle. Just not craveable, though still worth tasting.

The best success of the Lay's Frankenfoods remains the Bacon Mac & Cheese from a few years ago, which I have actually spontaneously craved, and gone to purchase again several times. And that's really the best measure of a great chip, isn't it?

What do you think of these flavors? Are you brave enough to try them? If you already have, what did you think? Do you agree with me? Let me know in the comments! And let me know if there's anything you'd like to see me try for the next FrankenFood Friday- I need ideas!