Still Not Just Meat and Potatoes!

My love for Providence New American Kitchen has made me do something very rare, unprecedented in fact. Outside of my food truck family, I have never written twice about the same place. That is all about to change, and you have a revised menu (and new lead bartender) at PNAK to thank for it. If you want to know more about PNAK, click on the link above, this post is going to get straight into the food and drink.

The new food (at least what we tried of it):

For starters, the P&P Tots and Clam Chowder Dumplings are both great!

Porcini & Pecorino Tots

The P&P Tots are not your run of the mill tots that Napoleon Dynamite would stick in his pocket. They are porcini crusted and crunchy on the outside, soft and creamy (from the pecorino cheese) on the inside. The tots are garnished with pumpkin ketchup (which isn't as pumpkin-y or as ketchup-y as you might expect, but nicely compliments the delicate fried starch nuggets) and laid atop pumpernickel crumble (which I could honestly eat by itself, and did after the tots were gone).

Clam Chowder Dumplings

The CC Dumplings are exactly what they sound like: creamy chowder in a crunchy fried shell, topped with crispy bacon and served on a vinegar slaw (with chunks of clam in it). It is not often that I talk about garnishes, but both of these starters have garnishes that I would eat by themselves. How do they get liquid soup in that crunchy shell, you ask? I imagine that they freeze the chowder, bread it, then fry it (which melts the chowder and crisps the shell, all at once).

Kobe Burger

You can find the Kobe Burger on the lunch and dinner menus, probably because it is hard to think of a time of day when Kobe beef, Beemster cheese, pickled mustard seed, pickled onions, and shallot jam is not out of this world good!

Beer Braised Short Rib

A Boulevard beer braised short rib that is so tender that you can shred it with a spoon, served on top of house-made cavatelli pasta, smoked mushrooms, roasted cherry tomatoes, a jam made with more Boulevard beer, and topped with sprouts. You can really tell the difference that the house-made cavatelli pasta makes in this incredibly savory dish!

Spiced Doughnuts

These spiced doughnuts have replaced the ricotta doughnuts that I wrote about in my last post about PNAK and are just as amazing as they sound. These doughnuts taste like fall incarnated (or whatever the word would be for fall to take object form, but not necessarily human form). These doughnuts kick the highly coveted apple cider doughnuts (from Louisburg Cider Mill) in the crotch, hard. Add on to that the pumpkin glaze and pepita caramel brittle that come with the donuts and you have everything that you could hope for, from fall, on a plate.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

I can honestly not say enough about this dessert! This is probably the best dessert (and best ice cream) that I have ever had in my life (even better than the S'More's Flavors dessert from PNAK that I got put into the Ink Summer Dining Guide)! The hot date cake, covered in campfire whiskey glaze, and paired with Boulevard 6th Glass ice cream is unlike anything that you have ever tasted in your life; sweet, but not overly rich. This dessert is beyond words, do not plan to eat anything else for a few hours after this for risk of it tasting like hot feet comparatively. 

The Cocktails: 

Not only is PNAK shaking things up on the food menu, but also the cocktail menu. Some of the new cocktails that have been added are The Quiet Man, Bootlegger's Punch, and TIPple de Jalisco. We gave The Quiet Man and Bootlegger's Punch a try. 

Bootlegger's Punch (left) & The Quiet Man (right)

The Quiet Man is a whiskey cocktail, featuring Jameson, that is named after the 1952 John Wayne film about an American Boxer who retires to Ireland (so awesome, on so many levels). This cocktail runnith over with fall flavours: spiced apple cider, cinnamon & cardamom syrup, topped with ginger ale, and garnished with a piece of house-made candied ginger. Bootlegger's Punch is an equally awesome citrus-y rum cocktail: Goslings' Rum, Cherry Heering Liquer, Falernum, Fresh Lemon, and Orange Bitters.

Finally, the TIPple de Jalisco, that I did not get a chance to try, but supports a cause that is close to my heart. We all know that I love Mexico! The "TIP" in "TIPple" stands for Tequila Interchange Project, a non-profit that supports the preservation of regional tequila (aka the anti-Cuervo). This cocktail contains: Tequila Ocho "Plata", Mexican Coca Cola syrup (real sugar, not HFCS), and Regan's Orange Bitters.

Some of the new cocktails were formulated by the famous Brock Schulte (Drum Room Bar Manager). Some were created by the new lead bartender, who was brought over when Hickok's closed (sad face, I loved that place), Travis. After you have a couple cocktails with dinner, at PNAK, walk up the stairs to the Drum Room for a nightcap. If the Drum Room is not that busy, do the following: ask Travis about the time he got kicked out of the Robert Mondavi Vineyard in Napa (it is such an amazing story!), show him the below photo, tell him that you heard that it was the best New York themed cocktail out there, and ask him very nicely to make it for you.

Happy 1st Anniversary to PNAK, the new Drum Room, Rick Brook, Chef Eric Carter, Brock Schulte, Travis (who I am a jerk and forgot his last name), and crew! Cheers!

7one5 in the 7eight5

We all know how much I love Lawrence, KS. The last time I had the pleasure of staying the night in town, the night before my last triathlon of the season, I had to check out 715. The place has been open a little over a year and has been receiving all kinds of praise, and as I found out, it is for good reason.

Since we didn't have reservations, we had the option of waiting or sitting in the kitchen window. Kitchen window? Yes, please! Whenever you have the option to sit in the kitchen window, or the chef's table, at a restaurant, you take it (unless I am on my way, then you save it for me)! After putting in our drink orders (for one house red wine & one house white wine) a Rosemary Flatbread came over the counter at us, compliments of the chef (BTW, they have no idea who I am. This was not because I was a blogger, just because they are nice people.). The buttered flatbread was delicious and the fresh rosemary was joyfully fragrant. Since I am a strong believer in taking care of those that take care of me, I bought the kitchen a 6-pack. Buying the kitchen a 6-pack is a $12 menu item (it is $12 because you are not buying them Bud Light, since they did not buy you a Pizza Hut personal pan pizza), this ensures that this tip amount goes to the hard workers in the kitchen.

The house wines are served in tumbler style glasses, which I loved the un-pretentiousness of this, and the house varieties are very good. However, if you are a big wine snob (you know who you are), and want a wine glass that allows you to swirl and sniff your wine, they non-house varieties come in stemmed wine glasses.

After we polished off the rosemary flatbreat, we had to try the smoked trout crustini because of the combination of smoked trout and arugula & lemon caper aioli. They did not disappoint! One thing about the smoked trout that did catch us a bit off guard, was that it was cold, I guess I had expected it to be freshly smoked and still warm. Nonetheless, the flavour was amazing and it actually reminded me of the smoked fish and crackers that I had while ocean kayaking off of the Prince William Sound in Alaska.

I badly wanted to try one of the nightly specials that all looked so good, but since I was in town for a triathlon, I decided to be safe and stick with a pasta dish. My smoking hot date concurred. We got the spaghetti with lamb meat balls and tuna spaghetti, respectively (and switched half way, as usual). The house-made fresh spaghetti was out of this world! The lamb meat balls were tender, juicy, and everything that I had hoped that they would be. Top that off with a very nice marinara sauce and you have a recipe for a good night!

The tuna spaghetti was just as good, if not even better! The absence of the marinara in the picture shows just how hearty those house-made spaghetti noodles are. The oil (presumably of the olive variety) is the perfect lubricant for the noodles, while the saltiness of the capers and creaminess of the fresh mozzarella chunks are the perfect compliments to the flaky Italian Tuna in the pasta. Also worth noting is that we both got the "half" size of pasta and we both had some left over for a midnight snack. Granted, we had a couple appetizers and split the dessert that you are about to see, but these were still very generous portions.

715 has daily, nightly, and seasonal specials. When we were in, one of the seasonal desserts was something that I believe they called a Peach Pie(or a Fried Peach Pie, or something to that effect), what it was was essentially a peach empanada that had been covered in blend of cinnamon, sugar, and other spices. It came with two delicious scoops of what was either house-made ice cream or ice cream that was made somewhere close. The peaches were fresh local peaches (as we visited right at the end of peach season), and they were caramelized and glazed then stuffed in that empanada dough and deep fried.

The motto at 715 is "Local Handmade Food, Reasonable Wine" and they delivered on that, hard! We sat around for a while after our meal, talking, sipping our wine out of tumbler glasses, and watching the kitchen work as if they were our own personal live version of a Food Network show. This place is very impressive, the kitchen runs like a well oiled machine, and I saw some of the most gigantic cuts off meat that I have ever seen (in my life) come across that counter. They have a 2+lb rib-eye and what looked to be the worlds largest lamb chop, these both match the super-sized swine that is pictured on the folded receipt discretion deal (for lack of a better term, someone please comment below if you know what this is called). The kitchen staff are also very friendly and happy to answer any questions that you have (provided that they are not in the heat of battle at the particular moment you decide to be inquisitive).

You have not seen the last of me 715! Cheers!

Atole Ice Cream

Every month or so, a group of current and former co-workers of mine go to lunch to catch up on life, work, and college athletics. We always try to pick somewhere local and new to at least half of the group. Our most recent lunch landed us in the dining room of Frida's Contemporary Mexican Cuisine.

Frida's Contemporary Mexican Cuisine is aptly named. Both the ambiance of the dining room and the food presentation are unmistakably contemporary, which I did enjoy. My personal favorite touch was the Agave plant painting that you can see in the picture below, on the right side of the photo. The presentation is nice, but most important to me is the flavour of the food. 

Frida's tacos came highly recommended by an attendee's wife. She claims that they are the best tacos ever. I have to respectfully disagree. However, I have stated many times that my frame of reference is much different than most Gringos, I have had some great tacos in my day! The tacos at Frida's were street style and were not bad, just not the best I have had. If I go back again, I will probably get the Tamal that is stuffed with goat cheese and poblano pepper. This is what my gut told me to order in the first place, but I mistakenly went against it.

Right now, you are probably asking yourself "Where is the awesomeness that he always writes about?", hold on baby birds, I'll feed you. The awesomeness at Frida's comes in the form of a happy accident. As it was told to me, this dessert was created completely by accident. Frida's used to (and may still upon special request) serve Atole, which is a masa based drink that is a sort of Mexican cinnamony-hot chocolate. One night they accidentally froze the Atole mixture and the result was a wonderful ice cream-like substance. Everyone that tried the masa based ice cream loved it, so Frida's began serving it as its own menu item. The frozen Atole comes sprinkled with cinnamon & nuts and drizzled with house-made goat's milk caramel. This dessert is out of this world! I highly recommend a trip to Frida's, even if you are a taco snob like myself, solely for the frozen Atole! You will not regret it!

Extra Virgin and Glace

Extra Virgin (or Michael Smith lite, as I like to call it) is the brain child of local chef Michael Smith. You may know Michael Smith from his restaurant namesake, that is located adjacent to EV, or as the savior of The American Restaurant. Or you may not know him at all, but if you did not know him before dining at EV, you will surely not forget him after you leave. He nailed the upmarket tapas restaurant concept and gave the space an industrial semblance, the place has a big city tapas spot feel with a gritty Kansas City twist.

The menu items range from traditional Spanish tapas to items that are so daring that the inspiration could be nothing short of an ingredient basket from Chopped. From the traditional sliced meat plates, sliced cheese plates, almonds and variations of Spanish chorizo to the more adventurous duck tongue tacos, crispy pig ear salad, and fried duck gizzards, there is something for every appetite.

We started off with a couple of house cocktails from the bar, the red sangria and the Bicycling Bohemian. Let me just say that EV doesn't just employ a couple bar tenders that will pour you a glass of wine or the occasional gin and tonic, EV employs some of the most creative mixologists in KC. They make their own bitters, infuse liquors, and age their own house cocktails in charred oak barrels in the basement (see the Aged Manhattan). Mallory chose the sangria and it was amazing, not too sweet (as is the problem with some sangrias), but was still light enough to enjoy on such a hot summer day. I went with the Bicycling Bohemian, mainly because Bohemia is the name given to the neighborhood of my favorite Broadway musical Rent, but secondly because I saw Absinthe on the drink's ingredient list. The drink was very strong (but delicious) and came with an infused cherry (seed-in, don't chip your tooth thinking that it is a maraschino) in the bottom of the flute. Despite what Manet, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Oscar Wilde would have you believe, I did not hallucinate at all after drinking the Absinthe containing cocktail, much to no one's surprise. Granted: do not know how much Absinthe was actually in the cocktail (probably not much), the recipe for Absinthe has changed over the years, and I am unaware if it was poured with the appropriate Absinthiana, but the fact remains still sane (or at least it appears to me that I am still sane, I could be typing gibberish and have no idea).

Round one of tapas: The tacos. For our first plate of tacos, we ordered the Tuna Ceviche Tacos. These tacos were served with cold contents and came in small fried taco shells. The flavours that came bursting through immediately were the tuna and the smashed avocado. They come in a rack of 4, so these are great for a group of 2 or 4 (or an odd group of 5 that has a member that does not enjoy tacos, or group of three that has one taco lover, but I digress...).

Our second plate of tacos, we ordered the duck tongue tacos. Right in my wheelhouse, I know, anything with some meat that isn't your standard chicken, steak, or pork in a taco has my name written all over it. These were delicious, the highlights were the: spicy duck tongue, spicy red onions, and queso fresco. These (like the tuna tacos) are served in fried taco shells. IMHO they would be better if they came in soft corn tortillas, but are still incredible as is.

Round two of tapas: The Protein. First we ordered the Smoked Paprika Shrimp and Peaches. Let it be known that I don't really care for shrimp. I always draw scoffs when I reveal this to people, but to me, shrimp just taste like nothing (really expensive nothing). This dish proves that shrimp can have flavour, people just choose not to put the flavour in the shrimp. The smokiness of the shrimp mixed with the big bold flavour of the grilled Missouri peaches, was nearly the perfect combination! This dish was Mallory's favorite.

Our second plate of protein, we ordered the fried duck gizzards with "crossroads hot sauce". The duck gizzards are again, right up my adventurous alley. The gizzards and sauce were both delicious. If you have never had gizzards before, it is the bit of meat that is roughly located on the bird where the neck meets the breastbone. Gizzards are popular street food fair in much of the world. When fried, a gizzard is slightly chewy on the outside and very meaty and tender on the inside (the meat is much like chicken meat).

While all of the dessert that we saw floating by to other tables looked incredible, and the churros were calling my name, I had already promised to take Mallory to Glace after dinner.

Glace is this awesome little artisan ice cream joint. This was our first time, so we tried a good number of samples, only to find out how unbelievably awesome all of the flavours are (which only made the decision that much more difficult). Far and away, the Roasterie Organic Coffee was both of our favorite flavour. After Mallory stole my combination of Roasterie Organic Coffee and Christopher Elbow Dark Chocolate (two KC legends), I was forced to rethink my selection (since we have this unwritten rule that we always have to order different options, so we can try more items). I ended up going with the ROC and Bananas Foster, per the recommendation of the girl behind the counter, boy was it incredible. Mallory even liked the Bananas Foster a lot, and she usually doesn't like banana flavours outside of real bananas. Would recommend this place to anyone that is looking for a great scoop (or two) of artisan ice cream. I honestly think that it is impossible to try a bad flavour here! Perhaps next time I will give Farmer Bob's Sweet Corn a shot.

New York Street Food and HIMYM

Awesome food, epic trip, truly the most magnificent city in the world!

An aerial view of Time's Square on New Year's Eve is that iconic image that everyone thinks of when someone mentions New Year's Eve. Most people sit at home and watch the ant-like dots huddle together from the comfort of their own living rooms. Being the adventurers that we are (and having met on New Year's Eve), my wife an I decided that going to Time's Square, braving the cold, and standing in what is essentially cattle fencing just to be part of the loudest countdown since right before God said "let there be light" was appealing to us. This is a story of our long NYE weekend.

Truth being told, we got really lucky and it was not really all that cold (for the actual ball drop). The part that no one tells you (you have to read it on the Internet) is that to get up close to the stage (or within ear shot of the stage) you have to have tickets. Everyone else gets herded into cattle fencing about 8-9 hours before midnight. Luckily our hotel was just around the corner from the square or else we would have been back at 57th Street (which means nothing to you if you have not been to NYC, but you get it if you have). If you leave your area before midnight, you may not get back in, so I rationed my wife's water consumption that day. We were also lucky enough to get in the Southwest corner of our quarantined area, in which we were able to obtain an unobstructed view of a sliver of the ball. This also meant that we were the lucky recipients of 8 hours of pushing and shoving from everyone else trying to work their way to our corner of the fenced in area where everyone was already standing shoulder to shoulder. We passed time by making friends and talking about how slow time was going. No one we talked to said that they had been there before, and everyone agreed it was one of those once in a lifetime deals. The countdown came, as did midnight and the confetti drop, and it was all over. It was an amazing experience, one that can only really be truly understood by others that have experienced the same thing. We were part of a record setting crowd of over 2M people! But after the new year hit, it was time for the real fun to begin.

After being on our feat for over 8 hours, we were quite hungry. Since it was our first time in New York and neither of us had ever had falafel before, we made a falafel cart our first stop. We waited in a line that was probably 15 minutes long, full of other crazies that had waited in Time's Square just to shout "Happy New Year!". We get to the front, grab two drinks out of the cooler, and order two falafel sandwiches (served on pita). They plop a few pre-cooked falafel balls on the griddle and start smashing them as they reheat them. When it is all on the sandwich, the man asked if we wanted "sauce", to which I thought "sure, why not?". As he drizzled the awesomeness of what I would later find out was a spicy tahini sauce over the falafel, I knew I was in for a treat. I have had many falafel since this one, and none will measure up, this had not been frozen and thawed and frozen and thawed. The tahini sauce was amazing, it was the perfect mix of creamy and spicy and added just the kick that the falafel and pita needed.

Upon returning to our hotel room, being the food truck junkie that I am, I got on twitter (@eatingawesome) to search out food trucks for the week. On New Year's Day, we had a mundane brunch at Sarabeth's in Tribeca, saw the World Trade Center memorial, had some more falafel, pizza, and cheesecake from a deli, saw M&M world, and got some subway riding in. The next freezing cold day (yes, it had gotten cold by now), we walked to get some H&H bagels (that were money by the way), followed by an epic food truck tour.

Coolhaus NY food truck, yes I know, we had ice cream (gelato) on a freezing cold day. Food truck junkies will do anything for their fix. There was a scoop sale going on, you got a free scoop of gelato with the purchase of a hot chocolate. Man are we glad that this special was going on! Here we were, about to just eat gelato in the freezing cold and then we are met by quite possibly the most timely hot chocolate either of us had ever encountered. It was the best hot chocolate that either of us had ever had, there was caramel drizzle and shaved pieces of chocolate on top of the already delightfully rich hot chocolate. At this point, any added deliciousness of the gelato was just a bonus. I got a scoop of the gingerbread gelato to feed my Christmas hangover, and because I love all things holiday flavored, it was just as delicious as I had hoped. Mallory got a scoop of the Nutella Almond gelato, because she is a Nutella fiend, the gelato did not disappoint. It vanished in a New York minute (pun obviously intended), even in the bone chilling cold. Upon finishing our gelato we ran toward the subway, as the wind was unbearable (even though we were just going a few streets up), with our hot chocolates.

 

Next stop was the Red Hook Lobster food truck where I was able to warm up with a delicious Connecticut style lobster roll. I am usually not a huge fan of lobster, as it is very easy to overcook, but this lobster off of a food truck was full of buttery goodness. The Connecticut style is warm lobster meat, dipped in butter sauce, on a buttered and grilled grocery store hot dog bun. This was honestly the second best lobster I had ever had in my life, second only to the green lobster in the seafood paella in Mexico, it was incredible! Mallory was scared of eating lobster off of a truck, so she got the shrimp roll. The shrimp roll was equally awesome, but was served cold, she was not rewarded with warmth for her fear, haha. The lobster roll meal came with thick kettle style chips and a bottled orange soda from Maine.

Since we doubled up on food trucks for lunch, we decided that we would hit up McGee's Pub for dinner. I had read on the Internet that this was the bar that MacLaren's Pub from How I Met Your Mother was based on. I know that this is a giant tourist trap, but as big of fans of HIMYM as we are, and being in NY for NYE (the "ammiversary" of when I met my future children's mother), we had to go see what it was about. To our pleasant surprise, we saw that Monday evenings at 8pm, they show HIMYM. By a complete and total happy accident, we arrived on Monday at 8pm. Unlike most sports bars that show games with no sound, McGees cranks up the volume and everyone quiets down during the weekly HIMYM viewings. They even have their own HIMYM menu (see picture). I had the Best Burger in New York, named after the classic HIMYM episode, which was not the best burger in New York, but was most definitely the best burger experience in New York. The burger was good (not great), but eating off of a HIMYM menu, while watching HIMYM, in the bar that MacLaren's was based on. Mallory had the Ted Mosby is a Jerk Sandwich, which is named after another classic episode, and was actually much better than the burger. If I were to go back and make this a twice in a lifetime experience, I would definitely get the Ted Mosby is a Jerk Sandwich. We would also get to McGee's much earlier, as they pack them in there for this weekly HIMYM pilgrimage, that I am sure is filled with mostly out-of-towners. Do beware that McGees does not look like MacLaren's, but has the same feel, at least when everyone is gathered around the TVs watching HIMYM.

Before leaving New York: we grabbed a couple slices of pizza at the Original Ray's on Broadway (which is not the best slice in New York, but sure beats the crap out of a Sbarro's), had some more falafel sandwiches, and stopped in to see Rupert at the Hello Deli. We had to go get our pictures taken with Rupert before sitting front row at the Letterman show (no joke). Rupert was one of the most friendly individuals you will ever meet (although his face may not show it), he just loves being a celebrity!