The Wine Harvest

Posted on December 29, 2016 by melsmosaic

There is a fun local restaurant in Park Potomac, MD (just outside of DC) called The Wine Harvest. If you know the area, it’s off of Exit 4/Montrose Rd from 270, or if you’re ever just going up 270, it’s where that Harris Teeter, Founding Farmers and the ever-growing townhouses/developments are (though that last part doesn’t totally narrow it down). They also have a location in The Kentlands.

It’s a small, family-owned place that offers a casual, tasty menu and also sells wine by the bottle/is a wine shop. Oh, beer, too. They have a bar where you grab or drink and tables to sit back and relax.

Last time I was there I just went for some sort of finger food and opted for the Smoked Salmon Plate — smoked salmon served with chopped red onions, capers, sour cream and baguette slices. Instead of sour cream they were great and put manchego on there for me!

My friend went for the Greek Salad — romaine lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, Greek olives, pepperoncini, feta cheese, served with Greek dressing and pita and added a bowl of the Soup of the Day, which was a Cream of Broccoli.

We enjoyed a bottled of Italian wine with dinner. You can order wine by the glass from the menu or buy a bottle from their nice selection, but are then charged a corkage fee. But, you can take it home if not finished.

Everything, from food to service was very good. The prices are also excellent. Not your typical DC prices, which is great!

Sausage & Potato Pan Roast 

Posted on December 25, 2016 by melsmosaic

Had Supper Club at my place awhile back and it was right before Halloween (yes, catching up on writing many posts). The theme I chose was Orange & Black, meaning that anything people cooked had to contain something of/with those colors. I came across a recipe in Food & Wine, Sausage-and-Potato Pan Roast, that with some slight alterations to the ingredients would fit the theme.

Active: 20 minutes Total Time: 50 minutes Servings: 4-6

Ingredients

2 large red potatoes, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
2 Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch wedges
1 large baking potato, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
**for the potatoes overall, I used fingerlings, several medium reds and a sweet (for my orange color)
10 medium unpeeled shallots, halved
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
Kosher salt and pepper
1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian sausage, cut into 3-inch lengths **I grabbed chicken sausage from Trader Joe’s
One 8-ounce bunch of arugula, stemmed and chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Prep

Preheat the oven to 425°. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss all of the potatoes with the shallots and the 1/3 cup of olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper. Roast for about 15 minutes, until the potatoes are lightly browned. Brush the sausage with olive oil and add to the baking sheet. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes longer, until the potatoes are tender and the sausage is cooked through.

Transfer everything on the baking sheet to a platter. Fold in the arugula and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper and serve.

This stuff was delicious! So easy to make, too. Definitely added this to my default list for recipes to make.

Flor de Luna

Posted on December 24, 2016 by melsmosaic

I don’t love trying out new restaurants right after they open all that often. But when it’s a family-owned restaurant that serves Latin-American cuisine, I’m there. It’s also great when it’s very close to where I live.

So, my friend and I checked out Flor de Luna in North Bethesda/Rockville, MD recently. If you know that area, it’s 1/2 block from Whole Foods. So, we called to make a reservation and we could only get in at 6:30pm (I think vs 6:00). Basically I say that because they made it sound like they were packed and it was empty in there (and it wasn’t getting busier). I think there were 2 other tables filled.

The menu said that Happy Hour went until 7 so we ordered some margaritas and mentioned that it was great that HH was on Sundays. He said, well, oh no, it’s not on weekends. We mentioned that nowhere did it mention that, either on the menu, signs, or website. He just sort of shook his head. Not good advertising and way to mention things. The waiter also said with all this they don’t serve margaritas on Sundays because as of right now the bartender isn’t there (just opened) so they can’t make the drink. He said he could try, we mentioned we would really appreciate that, happy hour price didn’t matter.

Note, when it did eventually come, service was slow, it was an awesome margarita! Nice work non-bartender!

We started looking over the menu, this was while enjoying a very unique opaque dip (no picture). It looked like a cheese dip but I was guaranteed there was no cheese/dairy in it. It was just so emulsified, but it was all good.

While skimming the menu we noticed several mistakes for the new venue…lots of typos, such as a staple for this type of restaurant, you could get ‘guacamole deep.’

Moving on, it was a cold night and I decided to get the Seafood Soup — Fish, mussels, squid, shrimp, and scallops in fish broth. I was about $16 or so, and was sure hoping it was going to have a good amount of seafood in it. That was an understatement when I got the bowl. This picture does it no justice at all. So much good stuff in here. Absolutely amazing.

My friend opted for the Carne Asada — New York stake (*another typo, I copied and pasted) served with rice, beans, guacamole, and pico de gallo. My friend quite enjoyed it, all tasted very good.

During the meal, the owner of the restaurant came out to meet us, very nice. I unfortunately can’t remember where she is originally from but it was great to see who cooked our delicious food. We eventually finished everything and asked for our check. Our waiter delivered it and did make the margaritas the happy hour price as he mentioned they should be based on what was advertised/mentioned. Thanks and nice work for ‘saving’ yourself.

Very nice dinner and will definitely go back and try several other choices from the menu. I also hope their business starts to pick up. I think I went in the first week or two from when they opened so it’s very likely this will be the case.

Le Chat Noir

Posted on October 28, 2016 by melsmosaic

Have been in DC for many years and finally made it to Le Chat Noir. I used to even live only about mile from it. It’s a French restaurant located between Friendship Heights and Tenleytown in NW.

Went on a Saturday night. Had reservations but it wasn’t too busy, the service was pretty slow, though. The menu has a good amount of selection, but of course I had to do some good picking because of being lactose intolerant.

Opted for a bottle of rose, for kicks, Le P’tit Rose. It was good, a bit sweet, a fun wine to try.

While deciding on dinner, with the wine we enjoyed addictive bread.

Then, for the first course of dinner, I opted for a salad and my friend went for the Crèpe fourrée. Crèpe stuffed with crabmeat, bay scallops, mushrooms, Chablis cream sauce. Apparently that was pretty darn good.

Main course was a Bijoux de boeuf au poivre. Grilled beef tenderloin, grilled asparagus, gratin dauphinois, green peppercorn sauce (the asparagus is on the side). It was perfectly cooked and melted in the mouth.

I opted for the Saint Jacques à la Bretonne. Sea scallops, truffle risotto, cremini mushrooms, white wine béchamel & gruyere cheese gratin. They made some nice substitutions on the dairy and grilled the scallops, put it on a bed of lentil ‘crust’ with a side of pickled veggies. All very nice.

Very happy I finally checked this place out!

Domestic (Ostrich) Disappointment

Posted on September 25, 2016 by melsmosaic

A few years ago I traveled to South Africa. In addition to having some of the best wine in the world, I enjoyed some of the best meat I’ve ever had. One of my two favorites was Ostrich. It was so lean and had a very unique flavor. So when I got home I searched and searched. You can occasionally… find it, but for a price.

I was recently able to get some. Cheaper than before. Ok, it was $40/lb. They sell it in 8 oz. packages for $19.99. Yes, GULP! And it was ground, so we were making burgers. My rationale on buying this stuff. You go to a restaurant and spend $10-$15 for a (beef) burger. You buy the Ostrich, it’s $10 a burger and it’s good, healthy unique meat. Then you serve your own good wine with it. That’s cheaper, or can be so, than wine per glass in a restaurant (which you wouldn’t likely order with a burger anyway in a restaurant) and get healthy sides vs. fries. Perfect rationale, right? You also don’t have to include tax and tip.

So it was purchased, we grilled. Served it with kale chips and one of the great Trader Joe’s grain blends…oh and an amazing red! Took a bite of the Ostrich meat. Really, that’s not what I had in South Africa. I know it’s farm raised here and I was beyond disappointed. But, you learn by trying and it was worth the experience. To the next taste test.

Los Tios Grill, Del Ray

Posted on August 19, 2016 by melsmosaic

Hot weather equals cool food. Checked out Los Tios Grill in Del Ray/Alexandria, VA (just outside of DC) recently.

The first thought of cool when walking into a Mexican restaurant is a margarita. There were a few of us at dinner so we figured why not get a pitcher. This is probably the first place I’ve been to that doesn’t have pitchers of margaritas. Ok. Decided to get the large one, and large it was. The picture doesn’t quite do the size justice.

Of course had to order some guac. It was very nicely presented as it is served in the avocado. Good taste, too.

Now, when looking over the menu I was pretty disappointed. It was hot out, so I wanted something cool. And a staple of mine at Mexican restaurants is ceviche. It’s not on their menu. I was trying to figure out what else to get. Very fortunately the waiter came over and told us the specials. One of them was ceviche. The night was saved! It was a combo of shrimp and whitefish. It tasted a bit like the shrimp had been cooked a bit, which some restaurants tend to do for safety reasons. Still nice to get the ceviche.

All the others at the table ordered Tacos los Tios, which are beef or chicken tacos, served with rice, beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, guac and sour cream.

Overall, good meal. The restaurant is pretty big, so easy enough to get a table. Will check it out again, too, when it’s less sweltering hot and can sit outside.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Posted on August 18, 2016 by melsmosaic

Over a month ago I was strolling through Trader Joe’s and saw this frozen riced cauliflower and just had to grab it, why not? Then last week I was going to a friend’s place for a potluck dinner and (1) wanted to try something new and (2) she is gluten intolerant. I remembered I had the riced cauliflower so had to see what I could use it for. Started looking stuff up and came across some recipes for Cauliflower Crust Pizza. That sounded great! Especially since my cauliflower was already riced. The recipe I ended up using was from the Lucky Penny Blog. It’s both gluten and dairy free.

Ingredients

1 medium sized head of cauliflower – should yield close to 3 cups once processed (this is where I used the riced cauliflower from Trader Joe’s)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil (crush it even more between your fingers)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (crust it even more between you fingers)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
optional a few shakes of crushed red pepper
2 tablespoons almond meal (my friend has a Vitamix — this took 2 seconds to make)
1 tablespoon (or more if desired) nutritional yeast (you could also omit this entirely if you like) — didn’t use it
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 egg

Directions

-Place a pizza stone in the oven, or baking sheet if you don’t have a pizza stone. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. On a cutting board, place a large piece of parchment paper and spray it with nonstick cooking oil or brush the parchment with olive oil.

*I skipped these next 2 steps with the riced cauliflower.

[Wash and throughly dry a small head of cauliflower. Don’t get one the size of your head unless you are planning on making 2 pizzas. Cut off the florets, you don’t need much stem. Just stick with the florets. Pulse in your food processor for about 30 seconds, until you get powdery snow like cauliflower. See above photo. You should end up with about 3 cups cauliflower “snow”. Place the cauliflower in a microwave safe bowl and cover. Microwave for 4 minutes. Dump cooked cauliflower onto a clean tea towel and allow to cool for a bit before attempting the next step.

Once cauliflower is cool enough to handle, wrap it up in the dish towel and wring the water out of it. You want to squeeze out as much water as possible. This will ensure you get a chewy pizza like crust instead of a crumbly mess.]

-Dump cauliflower into a bowl. Now add all your spices, your almond meal, your nutritional yeast (if using), and your olive oil. Mix the mixture to incorporate all the ingredients. Now add your egg and mix away again. Hands tend to work best.

-Once mixed together, use your hands to form the dough into a crust on your oiled parchment paper. Pat it down thoroughly, you want it nice and tightly formed together. Don’t make it too thick or thin either.

-Using a cutting board slide the parchment paper onto your hot pizza stone or baking sheet in the oven. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until it starts to turn golden brown and the edges crisp up. Remove from oven. *It took a bit more time to cook that it called for. This is likely because I forgot to heat the baking sheet before I put the pizza in the oven. So I cooked it a bit longer, probably about 10 more minutes.

-Add your toppings and slide parchment with topped pizza back in the hot oven and cook for another 5 minutes until the toppings are warm. If using cheese for a topping, you can pop the pizza under the broiler to get the cheese melted fast without burning the crust.

I put manchego, olives and tomatoes on the pizza, then topped it with arugula when it came out of the oven. It was a bit moist, but nice and crisp on the edges. Very tasty and I’ll have to try it again.

The Morrison, Sydney, AUS

Posted on June 10, 2016 by melsmosaic

First night in Sydney, wanted to have something easy and close to the hotel. The concierge recommended The Morrison, which was about a block away. That worked.

They had a interesting spread on the menu. We opted to actually try one of those funky guacamoles that was on the special — pea guac. Not bad, though I like it ‘straight.’

For the main course we went with a whole baked fish, believe it was flounder. Absolutely delicious! They just use chilli, olive oil and parsley.

We paired all this with a nice white, Under & Over Pinot Gris. Nice and refreshing and a perfect match for the meal. The service at the restaurant was not tremendous but the food made up for it.

Fetta’s Greek Tavern, Cairns, AUS

Posted on May 22, 2016 by melsmosaic

When in Australia, one must eat Greek! Was on a tour bus on somebody mentioned this great Greek place in Cairns. Sounded good so decided to check it out. The name — Fetta’s Greek Taverna.

Got there, got a table and right away we knew this was authentic Greek. Was tough to understand the staff because of accents, we could not figure who our waiter was vs who the (apparent) drink order taker was. We asked a lot of questions and the waiter sort of gave answers but we couldn’t totally understand him.

Most important thing for me to get at a Greek place is an appetizer and we and opted for the Melitzana, an eggplant, onion & garlic dip.

After that we decided to split several small dishes. We went for dolmas, a village salad (with true feta) and octapapodi (octapus marinated in olive oil, vinegar, garlic & oregano).

For wine, the waiter wasn’t overly helpful but this guy sitting next to us piped in and gave us amazing help and suggested a wine I would not have jumped on, but so glad I took his advice. We opted for the Bay of Stones Merlot. Not what I would expect from a Merlot. This was another amazing dinner in Great Barrier Reef world. This place is just great!

Dundee’s, Cairns, Australia

Posted on May 22, 2016 by melsmosaic

April, Cairns, Australia. It’s the place you go to visit the Great Barrier Reef. You get off the plane and it’s upper 70s to low 80s. Heaven! Can we bring some of that to the DC-area…PLEASE?

The first night there we walked around and checked out menus for dinner and finally decided on Dundee’s, which is one of the many restaurants right on the water.

While going through the menu of course some wine was needed. We opted for some (get Austin Powers in your head) Mojo. Very nice Shiraz from Barossa Valley.

After much going through the menu we decided on one of their very popular dishes to get a true local flair, the Australian Sampler Plate — A taste of Australia’s most popular cuisine – chargrilled eye fillet, pan seared wild barramundi, kangaroo striploin satays, crocodile tail satays, emu chipolatas and a tiger prawn satay served with honey roast sweet potato, teriyaki, spicy peanut and plum sauces with lemon beurre blanc.

We also decided to get some salad to have a bit of veggie, so went for Rocket & Apple Salad and Mixed Leaf Salads.

That mix of meat was so unique. I’d had the ‘roo, but the croc was pretty cool. Similar to gator. The emu was nice. Praws, just like shrimp. The barramundi was great. All this, the salads and that wine…glad the hotel was about a 2 minute walk away.