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Tue, 21 Feb 2006

And we're back

Berch on Food has been away longer than usual this winter. The main reason was, annoyingly, health-related -- when I was out in Nebraska visiting Maggie for Christmas, I managed to come down with a distressing bit of digestive problems that landed me in the hospital for a few days. I'll skip the details, including accounts of a two day stint of nil-by-mouth, but let's just say it left me in a less than ideal state for festive holiday eating. I'm happy to say that in the nearly two months since, on a new set of medications, increased exercise, and a healthier diet, things are pretty much back to normal.

In fact, my first meal out after leaving the hospital was a visit to an old favorite, The Oven. I confess I was a little tentative, but I had to "get back on the horse", as they say, so I ordered one of their signature dishes, the herb-crusted lamb shank in vindaloo cream with sauteed vegetables, preceded by the coconut papadum shrimp. We shared a bottle of Stag's Leap 2001 petite sirah, which always brings out the best in Indian food. We had a nice talk with our waiter, Aalok, who is from Nepal, and is a reader of Berch on Food. That night at The Oven really helped me feel like I was back in the real world. (Lest your eyebrows remain raised at the thought of ordering a vindaloo the day after one is released from the hospital with digestive woes, be assured it was by no means against medical -- or common-sense -- advice.)

Once back in the Bay Area, I managed to take it easy for the next month, but was very happy to have been able to make it back out to Nebraska for Maggie's birthday and some good eating.

Our first outing was to The Parthenon, an innovative Greek and Greek-fusion restaurant in Lincoln. After starting with their fried calamari (from which I piously removed most of the breading) with lemon-garlic butter, and a Greek salad, I had the salmon filet topped with crab meat and seasonings and finished under the broiler. It was accompanied by a standout side dish -- mushrooms stewed with fresh herbs and spices, including cloves. We drank Tsantali retsina which cut right through the richness of the calamari and the complexity of the mushrooms with its pleasant but relatively subtle (as retsinas go) pine resin essence.

Maggie and her sister both have their birthdays on February 14 -- Valentine's Day -- so we planned a double-birthday and holiday dinner at The Black Crow, previously featured here, in Beatrice. The Black Crow was in full swing, and we dined well into the night. After sharing the steamed New Zealand mussels as a starter, I had a very interesting slow-roasted pork shank with Asian soy glaze and jasmine-curry rice cakes. The pork had a good affinity with the dark, sweet, salty glaze, and the rice cakes were a good counterpoint with a subtle curry flavor. Our wine was the Mark West 2003 pinot noir, which is from the California central coast region and was a good companion for the pork.

On Maggie's birthday we'd agreed to avoid the Valentine's Day dinner crowd and cook up some steaks at home, but made it to The Oven for lunch. I wanted to contrast the regular menu's lamb vindaloo with the fusion style. Perhaps it's the milder vindaloo cream in the latter, or the amazing succulence of the lamb shank, but while the lunch course was very tasty, the fusion menu version is miles ahead. I also got a chance to taste Maggie's chicken tikka Madras -- a southern Indian take on tikka masala, with a spicy but fruity and aromatic sauce.

We toasted the two birthday sisters with Taittinger brut Champagne, which is rapidly becoming my favorite. Until a few years ago it was a little difficult to find on the West Coast and in the Midwest, but I'm pleased to see it in more places. It's easily the best of the mid-range Champagnes and I think it's second only to Dom Perignon among widely available Champagnes.

The next day we headed out on a backroads trip, but it turned bitter cold and made heading for Omaha a more attractive plan. For dinner we ended up at one of Maggie's old favorites in the Old Market district -- M's Pub, a restored brick warehouse with a large, friendly bar and a dining room which serves everything from pub standards like burgers and sandwiches to adventurous Continental and New American cooking -- sort of a Midwestern take on a European cafe.

We started with traditional-style escargot, baked in garlic, shallots, and butter and topped with cheese, and they were the equal of any I've had at home or abroad. Maggie kept up the Asian-fusion shank bone theme by ordering the veal shank, which was served with a coconut milk-based thai red curry with asparagus and white carrots. I went for a bacon-wrapped swordfish steak, which was served on a bed of sauteed spinach with runner beans and caramelized shallots. The bacon infused the whole dish with an attractive smokiness. The featured wine was by Arbanta, an "agricultura ecológica" (organic) rioja, which was a bit young and flinty but it stood up to both the curry and the smokiness of the fish.

One last stop I didn't want to miss was Venue, a relatively new restaurant in Lincoln. It's in a new building with a very attractive, rotunda-style dining room and purpose-built tall wine storage units with glass doors. (And yes, the bottles of Opus One were prominently displayed.) We stopped in for lunch, and Venue serves a straightforward lunch menu with sandwiches, burgers, and salads and a few special compositions. We started with tasty crab cakes, the "fiesta" soup made with beef tenderloin, and I had a salad with blackened shrimp, jicama, almonds, and mandarin oranges.

One last high point of the trip was a wine Maggie discovered some months ago, and that we had with some takeout Indian food -- it's Novella Vineyards "Synergy", which is a blend of sangiovese, zinfandel, and petite sirah from Paso Robles (Central Coast), California. It's a little like a Chianti, but with a spicy twist. Great with curry, and I'd wager it would go well with tomato-based dishes and meats with full-bodied sauces.

I had nice flight home (on which I had a nice "Chinois chicken salad" from the Wolfgang Puck Express in Denver International Airport) and am settling in, but I miss Nebraska already.

Posted at 17:54 | permanent link

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