New Year's With Good Friends - And Good Food

Yes. We spend New Years in Cleveland of late. Every year I hear the refrain: Cleveland - why Cleveland? OK, Cleveland is not what you think. And living in Buffalo, we have an inferiority complex too, even with Cleveland. It's as simple as the fact that they are "The Mistake on the Lake" and we are only "The Mistake on the Lake - North Campus".

First:

Consider -

We have a great Chef named Mike (Andrzejewski) who has cooked at the Beard House, but they have an Iron Chef named Mike (Symon)

We have a great food writer in Andrew Galarneau, but they have the nationally famous food writer Michael Ruhlman.

We have the decaying Broadway Market, which was never what I had hoped for, they have the vibrant West Side Market - the kind I want.

We lost four straight Super Bowls, and they have never lost one. (OK, that's a gag. They have never been in one!)

The bottom line is that just as there is more to Buffalo than its rep, there is more to Cleveland's than its rep. And much to enjoy in both.

Second:

The Third Circle of Hell would be filled with laughter if these friends were with us.

Third:

I don't live in Buffalo (East Amherst) and they live in Hudson, an exurb of both Cleveland and Akron. It has a downtown area filled with restaurants like Vue and Downtown 140, and shops like Heather's Heat.

Now I'd love to show you photos of our first night dinner, Susan's cover of the Petto Di Pollo Alla Domiziano from Stino da Napoli in Rocky River, but I forgot my camera.

Lunch New Year's Day was in Hudson at the Tomato Grill, good food, casual atmsphere, and kid friendly. Absolute proof that you can travel without eating at chains! You can see how much the girls hated it!

I went for the Pizza Margarita.
Brian and Susan went for for The Chicken Saltimbocca, Trish for Chicken D'Agnese. I wish I had a photo of Ellie's Ravioli, but she was done before I could aim the camera.

Even our server got into the food photos. Caption suggestions are welcome!

Along with a variety of sparkling wines, dinner began with some aps including a Galantine like I made last year before Trish got sick (more on that soon!). Dinner was Strip Steaks, Mashers and Salad - and lots of wine!

No better way to launch a New Year!

Out to Sea

Well, Thursday night was a simple Buffalo style hot dog dinner - quite nice. The weather screwed up my after birthday "Tapas" party on Friday - the power was out most of the day. But we did uncork the Galantine I made for New Year's and froze. I'm sure there were aspects that deteriorated in its stay in the freezer, but it tasted quite good.

But my real treat was a meal I had long looked forward to - a dinner alone with my wife at the recently opened Sea Bar. Don't worry - I promised not to do restaurant reviews and I am not about to start now, but nothing stops me from mentioning a venue that did something special.

Many might consider Buffalo a culinary wasteland. They would be wrong. Western New York and Southern Ontario have plenty of good food and great cooks. But, in my humble opinion the best of the best is Mike Andrzejewski. Mike has been part of the restaurant scene in Buffalo for over 30 years, starting as a busboy, and working his way to be chef at some of the area's finest eateries: including Rue Franklin, Warren's and Oliver's. He's done several events at the Beard House in NYC.

It would be presumptuous of me to claim to be Mike's friend, but the camaraderie of the culinary world at least allows me to be more than just a mere acquaintance. I first met Mike at a "Taste of the Nation" event for SOS at the Adam's Mark in 2000. Mike was happily going from station to station with jello shots - treating even a line cook with respect.

The second time was also a fund raiser. Mike was about to open his own restaurant, Tsunami, but took the time with his partner to assist at a fund raiser for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, featuring Buffalo's own Alfred Portale. It was this event that shaped my culinary future in a couple of ways, not the least of which was Mike insisting to one of my owners that he was "Just a Cook". That has been my Mantra since.

In the fall of 2002, shortly before Fredi opened with me as chief cook and bottle washer, Trish and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary at Tsunami. Fred arranged for the champagne, Mike dazzled me with his cooking.

In August 2oo5, Mike was riding his cycle home from Tsunami when he wiped out. He spent some time in ECMC (a place I know well from my 1994 fire), and lost his leg. A lot of local cooks helped out to keep the restaurant afloat, though he ultimately let it go.
But, in the interim, with medical bills rising, some of those same cooks arranged a benefit dinner at Kleinhans Music Hall. My part was minimal, I got some local restaurants to cough up gift certificates, but I did attend as a paying customer, with Trish, Fred and Maggie. I saw many old friends, and had great eats. I didn't get a chance to talk to Mike much (his mouth was full when I got to him) but he seemed overwhelmed by the turnout - more than twice what was expected.

Last spring we found out Mike was teaching at the culinary arts program at ECC. He and his students put on a luncheon for the public which Trish and I attended with Fred. It was a lovely time, and also when I found out about the potential of working on Vine Dining - the magazine which is to come. Through work on the proto-mag, I heard that Mike was opening Sea Bar, but I didn't have a chance to get there until this past weekend.

The dining experience? Wonderful. Mike even comped us our first taste of Sparkling Sake - a delight. Sure, there can be a wait - no reservations - but it's the kind of food worth waiting for (and if you bring a cell phone, you can wait at the bar of the Trattoria Aroma next door).

My only regret: if there were ever a cook who should have an omikase offering on the menu it is Mike! I would love to just let him "do us" in the culinary sense. The place was packed, so he probably doesn't need this, but Good Luck Mike!

Why-a no chicken?

Leave it to Chico Marx to come up with the right quote.

Our annual New Year's in Hudson, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland), is a couple of days of great food, great drink and really great friends. It is also one of the two times a year I have the need to show off. I usually do something special from the field of charcuterie - a pate, a mousse, gravlax - things of that sort.

Since I have been making my way through Charcuterie, I decided it was time to revisit the galantine - something I hadn't made since my original foray through Jacques Pepin's La Technique 25 years ago. Except for the boning (in the case of Ruhlman and Polcyn skinning then boning), it is not difficult, just time consuming. That's the main reason I don't ha

I definitely wanted something better than a battery chicken, but I knew that getting something free range was unlikely with the kids home, so I headed to Dash's, a local smaller market. They advertise an all natural "Amish Chicken". I am pretty certain it's just a marketing ploy, but I thought I'd check it out. I didn't get very far on finding out what it was - I could see the damned pop-up thermometer from 5 feet away. Next to it was a "free farmed" all vegetable fed bird, so I decided to give it a try.

Imagine my surprise, when I unwrapped the bird, to find another of those damned pop-ups! They should be illegal! In fact, that caused, the only tear while removing the skin (luckily, Pepin's advice to use a piece of skin from elsewhere to patch the tear works quite well!). In brief, the process here is to remove the skin in one piece to use as a casing, the breasts as a garnish, the dark meat and some of the other trim to make a forcemeat, and the carcass and the rest of the trim to make a stock for poaching and in my case to make an aspic after poaching.

All went pretty well. I realized when sauteeing the breasts that there was too much meat, so I continued to cook one breast for lunch and split the other one. I also had way too much forcemeat (I measured precisely in grams, including the mushrooms and pistachios I added as extra garnish), but I think the extra might make an interesting filling for ravioli.

Since I haven't done this often, my skills at getting the casing smooth weren't perfect, but it was made with love. It was slowly poached on the stove top, though I think next time I'd use the oven for better temperature control. The last two photo show the galantine removed from the stock after being in the fridge overnight: the first still in the cheesecloth, and the second mostly unwrapped.

My game plan was to reduce the poaching liquid and clarify it for an aspic glaze. But, my wife came home and and asked what it looked like when I had shingles in '79. It was and the trip was postponed. So I had a choice, and decided to freeze it. I froze it right in the pan I poached it in, submerged in the poaching liquid. Bob delGrosso doesn't think I'll be happy with the result. I agree, but I had to try!

I'll let you know!

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