green dog cafe

the rumors that this place is overpriced are true but it is also delicious, at least from what i tasted.   some yelp reviews claim otherwise but i didn't eat what those people ate so i can't say.  i had one of their daily specials which was carbonara type pasta with grilled shrimp and it was very delicious but at $16.50 when you are ordering at a counter, it just seems pricey.  however they do have a really good deal with the wine where you can get their bottle of the day (they have a red and a white) for $14.  last night the red was a 2008 red diamond shiraz which was surprisingly good for the price and also from washington and i am obsessed with washington wines.

the decor is a bit strange because you are sort of in this color blocky cafeteria-ish feeling place (in particular, the lighting was horrible and uneven and not intimate) but if you can get over that, i think the food is worth it and you can definitely order something cheaper than what i did.  and you will feel fine wandering in here in sweats or pajamas or whatever you want which is always a plus for me since i have a hard time remembering to brush my teeth some days.

other perks: they have a full alcohol selection including mixed drinks, they do brunch, they serve jeni's ice cream, they are very vegetarian friendly, their bread is amazing.

huevos rancheros

to thank brian for being such an awesome roommate i decided to make him breakfast today. i told him he had his choice of omelettes, scrambled eggs with chicken mango sausage, or huevos rancheros. he chose huevos rancheros so that is what he got.

i had never made huevos rancheros before so i used a combination of the mark bittman and smitten kitchen recipes. mainly i used mark bittman's method but i embellished them a la smitten kitchen by using black beans instead of refried and adding in some fresh salsa and some guacamole.

i won't make you wait to ogle the deliciousness

for the salsa i used herdez salsa taquera which is one of my absolute favorite jarred salsas. i can make my own salsa but i am lazy and herdez is good and cheap. you can find it at pretty much any of the stores around here. if you feel like a more tomatoey salsa, go for the herdez salsa casera. i am a big fan of herdez in general.

as for the beans i got a can of black beans and threw them into some onions and garlic and thyme which i had been cooking until the onions got soft. then i softened them up a bit and added a bay leaf and some lime juice and salt and pepper. they simmered for a while.

then i just put it all together the way mark bittman says and they came out delicious and we put the fresh salsa and guacamole on top. i don't have a specific recipe for fresh salsa but it is really easy, you just chop up some tomatoes (i had some delicious ones from my uncle's garden and the farmer's market) and a hot pepper (from my garden this time) and some onion and garlic and cilantro and then mix it all together with some lime juice, a little white vinegar, and plenty of salt.

this is approximately what your fresh salsa should look like

you may as well make these huevos rancheros yourself because the only place you are going to find any that are even close to this good around here are at tucker's and they are only going to give you a tiny little speck of their fresh salsa. actually i am maybe lying, i bet take the cake does huevos rancheros that are even better than this. i don't know that for sure but it just seems likely.

newport pizza company

it seems that everyone likes newport pizza company. i don't. to be fair, i have only been there once (today), but i was totally unimpressed. my list of complaints is as follows.

1. it is overpriced. a thin, 12 inch pizza ranges from about $10-13. are you serious?

2. the crust is bland and cracker-ish.

it's not delivery, it's not digiorno... it's disappointing

3. the toppings are meager. pictured above (sorry for the crappy cell phone pic) is the pizza i ordered, the "lotsa mozza and roma." please note that there is lotsa nothing. i actually took this picture to illustrate how little cheese and toppings i got. most of the slices were lucky if they had cheese on 2/3 of the slice. that might be ok if the crust was delicious but see #2. alternately, that might be ok if the pizza was cheap but see #1.

4. service is mediocre at best. the waitress did not check on us after bringing our food so i went up to the counter to ask for pizza sauce (because my pizza was so bland) and waited there staring at her for several minutes before i caught her attention. dude, one of your customers has hunted you down at the bar... you might want to see what i want. i asked her for sauce because the pizza was bland. she acted unsurprised (so umm... you already knew the pizza was bland?) but did not offer to bring me something else. she did promptly bring me a tiny cup of sauce... and it was ice cold. gee, thanks for the dollop of prego (i mean, if it was fresh, wouldn't it be warm?). sorry, i know i am being super bitchy, but there were like 4 tables and i was paying a lot (i thought) for a small, tasteless, disappointing pizza and it felt like a kick in the pants to not even get warm sauce. then, when we paid, she came back and took the tips off the table while we were still sitting there. isn't that waitressing 101? ok, i will stop being an asshole.

5. there was no flavor. my pizza was mozzarella, tomatoes, and a few tiny shreds of dried out basil. that's it. no garlic. no sauce. no nothing. for that i paid $11.25 plus tax and tip. i was with barry and bri and they got pizzas with more toppings that looked better, the meatball lasagna ($13.25) and the garden of eden ($12.25), and i tasted the lasagna one and it was better than mine anyway, but they were definitely not worth the price.

6. i ate at 5 pm and it's 10 pm and i'm hungry.

i know everyone loves this place but i don't get it. i suppose i should give it another chance but with all the other really good pizza options around (ahem dewey's ahem) i don't really see the point.

forkheartknife

it has been a long time since i have been this excited about a place and a post. i am so excited i don't even know where to start. we have a lot of things coming together here. i will break it down.

forkheartknife

forkheartknife is a new catering kitchen and occasionally a casual restaurant on main street just south of liberty. i first heard about it from this soapbox article via wine me, dine me.

the kitchen

the minute i finished reading the article i was totally excited. fresh, interesting, cheap food in over the rhine = awesome. the story of how co-owners sierra and leah decided to start their kitchen = emotional. the innovative, dynamic style of the kitchen = intriguing. i had to know more.

sierra's blog

my next stop from the article was the forkheartknife blog. i read the entire blog in a couple of hours. i was so fascinated that i started in on the clean plate club blog, sierra's former blog. yes, i am a stalker. i was just totally into the awesome photographs and even more so, sierra's writing style. here, i will give you some examples:

i flipped through my recipes and found this tart recipe (bon appetit?). they are beautiful and when leah and i did our taste testing i was jumping around yelling YUM with my mouth full and the chills on my arms. a sure sign that we had struck gold. this one is vegetarian with asparagus, piquillo peppers and goat cheese baked in an egg custard with a sprinkle of spanish paprika.

i make a lazy pickle, or “quickle” (because i like making combo words, too). i don’t have a granny to teach me the fine nuances of canning, and so i get stuff in a jar with a tight lid and keep everything in the fridge for safety. for veggies like cukes, peppers, okra, onions, green beans, softer veggies: pack a jar with the vegetable, heat the pickling brine on the stove and pour it over the jar after it comes to a boil, making sure that the seasonings are equally distributed in each jar. the lids go on while things are still really hot and that usually leaves me hearing the POP of the jars sealing. things cool down and they go in the fridge for up to a month. i love them in the first week, usually still nice and crunchy and fresh tasting. not that they get less crunchy, but its fun to taste how things change while they are hanging around longer…

little known fact: long ago, before i even started culinary school, i lived in providence, rhode island for 6 months. while i was there, i worked at a bakery, as a barista and counter person. i would have to go in at 4 in the morn and dust all the flour off the glass display shelves, arrange the bread, scones, muffins, cookies, etc. and i fell in love with food then. that is when it happened. walking in there on a cold morning when it was almost impossible to get out of bed, and having it be hot and steamy from the ovens.. the glass fogged up… the smell… romantic as hell. i gained about 20 pounds in those 6 months, eating that bread and marveling at its perfection.

i swear i got the chills when i put this bite in my mouth. i wanted to do something bacon wrapped for this party (how is it ever wrong?). and i remembered jenna raving about this bacon wrapped date thing she’d had at a wine dinner at dunham cellars.. stuffed with manchego made for the perfect combo! manchego cheese is my favorite, its spanish and its got a great, smooth, nutty flavor. with the sweet date, the nuttiness grounds the bite, the crispness and saltiness and fat of the bacon adding everything else you would ever want! EATING FOOD IS SO AMAZING!!

the combination of straightforward, to the point descriptions plus the uncontainable excitement for food itself and feeding other people that comes through in every sentence just got me. that plus she makes pickles!

pizza night

a quick segue into pizza night. one final reason i became fully obsessed with forkheartknife. pizza night is a thing that used to happen last summer. a group of guys who are all amazing cooks would get together and make this amazing pizza (homemade everything... dough, pizza sauce, sausage, you name it they made it) on thursday nights in the take the cake space.

the pizzas were an absolute revelation. i could not get enough of them. they would make seven kinds of pizza, plus two appetizers (usually some variations on bruschetta... my favorite was the tuna paste mashed up with fresh garlic... yum). occasionally there was a sorbet which i never seemed to be able to get my hands on.

you would show up at like 7, pay $10, bring all the wine and beer of your own you wanted, and just hang out and chat and eat. the appetizers came out first and then one by one, the pizzas. it was just one pizza at a time so you would kind of snack all evening while you drank and met new friends. the food was amazing, straight up skilled kitchen creativity, and it was also just such an experience going there and eating awesome food and talking to people who loved food and relaxing and having fun, all while knowing it could not last forever or probably even much longer.

pizza night was so good that i vowed to myself i would never breathe a word about it on this blog. i only told maybe five or six of my friends about it. i never even took pictures of it (and i always take pictures). it was so awesome and felt so tenuous and fleeting that i was scared it might get overrun with people and disappear forever. and then at the end of the summer it was over. now it is just a memory for the people who were able to experience it. however, rumor has it that the pizza night guys are hard at work developing their new idea of opening a full on restaurant. i am very excited about this but i know it will not be the same.

here is the point of me talking about pizza night: on one of sierra's blogs, i found this post. she had been to pizza night! and then i found this post. and this post. and this post. and this post. she had made the sorbet at pizza night!!!

after that i was officially obsessed. i had to meet this girl and eat her food.

sunday brunch

a bit more internet stalking and i learned that forkheartknife was open last week for thursday dinner and sunday brunch. they are just getting started and don't know until that week when they will be open. so they post it on facebook and twitter. if that is too hard for you then fine, more food for me.

anyway i had to go asap so i rounded up erin and we went for brunch. we sipped coffee outside while waiting a few short minutes for a table and then we decided we had to try one of everything on the menu. it was wonderful and everything i hoped it could be. we ate some delicious things:

fruit gazpacho and lemon bread pudding with raspberry sauce

bacon and collard green frittata and spiced roasted potatoes with chimichurri and red pepper romesco

if those photos don't sell you then there is nothing i can say that will. the food was awesome. fresh, simple, to the point, and very flavorful. the bread pudding especially impressed me. i am not a big sweet breakfast person and it was perfect. the lemon custard (was it custard?) was tart and rich without being too sweet. the raspberry sauce was deeply flavored and balanced the lemon perfectly. the bread itself was thick and chewy and totally able to handle the strong flavors of the lemon and raspberry. so. damn. good.

on top of all that we got to meet sierra and leah who are just as awesome in person as they seem on the internet. sierra even gave us a couple of muffins which we munched on later that afternoon. they were moist, tasty carrot muffins with big fat juicy raisins and pineapple chunks inside. delicious.

thank you forkheartknife for living up to all my wildest internet stalker dreams! i am excited to see how this place develops. you should get there as soon as humanly possible, but don't forget to make sure they are open first.

...crickets chirping...

sorry for the blog silence, oh dedicated readers. i am in the process of moving right now, and work is insane, and i am training for a half marathon. all of that leaves me with little to no time to blog. however, i am of course still eating. here are a few mini reports of foods i have eaten lately:

senor roy's taco patrol: disappointing. i got really excited about this one but found the tacos to be really bland and the service to be slow and inconsistent (they messed up my order twice, the first time by giving it to someone else who walked away with it, while i was standing there waiting). the tacos are filled with mostly rice (which is supposed to be cilantro-lime rice but tastes like just overcooked plain rice) and the meats are bland (i tried all three). the salsas are used too sparingly and there was not a corn tortilla in sight. i had asked for corn but got flour tortillas and since i had waited so long for my order i was too hungry to ask them to fix it. i will give them another shot since i only went once but they need to get it together, especially with other promising taco options looming on the horizon downtown (including taco truck azul and taqueria mercado, which is setting up shop in the old javier's space).

lunch on main: interesting sandwich combinations, but it's overpriced for what it is. it's like $6-7 for a sandwich, drink and chips not included. and the meats are just boring boar's head. i feel like they need to step it up a little in order to make it downtown.

taco casa: ok, the furthest thing ever from authentic mexican but damn that taco salad is addictive. you guys are going to laugh at me for even liking this but i love it. it is just shredded iceberg covered with ground beef seasoned with taco seasoning from a packet, pinto beans, tomatoes, shredded cheese, and a shit ton of ranch dressing. all of this is served with old el paso style taco sauce and cheap tortilla chips from a bag. i don't know what it is about this (well yes i do... it is the insane amount of ranch sauce) but i could not stop eating it. plus the guys who work there are really nice. absolutely in no way even remotely real mexican food, but i am craving it even as i type this.

bouchard's on main: surprisingly good. the menu does not look particularly inspired but they really use good ingredients and prepare the food well. i got a mediterranean wrap that had delicious, zesty greek dressing and fresh, ripe vegetables. i have also tasted the cuban and it is really good (although not particularly authentic) and comes with a really addictive cumin-lime dipping sauce. yum.

balboa's: totally disappointing. this place has the atmosphere of a chain hotel lobby and the waitstaff expresses their annoyance at having to stop gossiping in order to serve you in a very obvious way. on top of that, the food is a total waste of time. i have never had a more poorly prepared nathan's hot dog (on a stale bun) and the fries were cold and chewy. my friend ordered ravioli which was a small portion of gummy, overcooked squares drowning in bland sauce and it was $12. i heard the pizzas were better but there is absolutely no reason to eat here since you can get much better everything for cheaper pretty much anywhere else, and without the attitude.

cafe de wheels: readers, it lives up to the hype. thus far i have tried their burger (big, flavorful, cooked to a perfect medium as requested, and interesting with a caramelized onion marmalade and melty cheese) and their cuban (about as close to authentic as you can get around here), as well as the sweet potato fries and i have loved everything. the price is right and they seem to love what they do. eat there as soon as you can.

habits cafe: i have eaten there before but last night i just tried the ostrich burger for the first time. it was... ok. not amazing. it was just whatever. i would eat it again but would rather go somewhere else. i don't know why people love this so much, except maybe people who don't eat beef i guess. also their appetizers are insanely overpriced. we ordered bruschetta, which was four small pieces of french bread with tomatoes on top for $4.95, and chicken fingers, which was five medium sized fingers with celery (and no ranch dip) for $7.25. it was good in terms of flavor and ingredient quality but come on, $1.25 for a little slice of bread with some tomatoes and garlic on top?

el toro mexican restaurant: i was told by the girl who cuts my hair that this is the best mexican food in cincinnati. she usually has pretty good food taste so i gave it a shot despite hearing bad things from other people. it was disappointing. now to be fair, she is a vegetarian and i can see how vegetarians would like this place. they have lots of menu options, the portions are big, and you can request the smoky and spicy house salsa to give your food some flavor. i ordered the chicken fajitas which were the special that night and found them to be pretty bland and dry as hell. also, it's not particularly cheap. i guess it is better than don pablo's or something like that but i would not go back.

all right, that is all i have time for right now. soon enough i will write about my fish fry experiences so please remain at the edge of your seats.

blue elephant

cousin brian* and i went paint color shopping for our new apartment and we decided that we needed sustenance after exhausting all our energy on trying to choose between wheatgrass, kiwi splash, and little sprout. but we did not know where we wanted to eat.

cousin brian: what about that new place in hyde park?

liz: what new place?

cousin brian: elephant.

liz: what?

cousin brian: i have no idea. i think it's thai and italian.

liz: what???

pad khee mao

i was skeptical but i am always up for trying a new place so we went. it turns out it is actually called blue elephant and it is located in a new building next to r.p. mcmurphy's on wasson. i have no idea when the place opened but it couldn't have been that long ago and it was jam packed.

the ambience is pretty nice, lots of reds and wheatgrasses which gave us inspiration for decorating our new place. service was average. we had to wait forever to get our order taken, but the food came quickly once we did. our waitress kind of harassed us about how little we ordered (we both got $10.95 noodle dishes so she might have been trying to boost her tip) but when we kept saying no she was friendly about it.

pad thai

the food was good but nothing outstanding. i had the pad khee mao with beef and brian got the pad thai with chicken. we both ordered a 3 (the spiciest you could get) and it was hot but not too hot. i could have done a little hotter but i was satisfied.

i did think the portions were a little small, but the vegetables were fresh, the meats were tender and juicy, and the noodles were chewy and properly cooked. mine had lots of yummy thai basil and cousin brian's was sweet and smoky. the food was flavorful and i had no complaints, it just wasn't memorable at all.

the color scheme

we did not try the italian food. when i was in thailand i ate at italian restaurants a couple of times and it was the worst italian food of my life. to be fair, i will add that the thai restaurant i ate at in italy was the worst thai food of my life.

blue elephant is a solid if unremarkable addition to the ever expanding selection of hyde park/oakley thai restaurants. i'm not complaining but it would be nice to mix it up with maybe some vietnamese or malaysian or something like that. or else, you know... some thaitalian.

*note: cousin brian is not actually my cousin

suzie wong's on madison

yum, suzie wong's is so good! i have to admit, i was skeptical about a "pan asian" restaurant run by the former owner of shanghai mama's (yes, i still hate that place and i have eaten there several more times since the last time i bitched about it so please no admonitions to give it another try. everything is bland and tastes like soy sauce and makes me sad. ok shanghai mama's rant over).

anyway, suzie wong's is excellent. i went with erin last week and since it is currently byob and prices are good ($2-12 for appetizers, $8-16 for entrees) we felt that we could splurge and get a feast. we had the following items:

• cambodian beef carpaccio: beef filet with fresh herb marinade, lime, extra virgin olive oil, and garnished with fresh basil and chili peppers. amazing! my favorite thing we had all night.
• thai green lip mussels: sauteed mussels in a tangy thai seafood broth. sooo good. the broth tasted like tom yum soup. we were eating it with spoons.
• malaysian chicken in a clay pot: chicken breast, sweet onion, green and red pepper, seasonal vegetables sauteed in a malaysian yellow curry and served in a country clay pot. awesome. so delicious. the curry was complex and savory and rich. erin said it reminded her of japanese curry, and she just got back from a trip to japan so i believe her.
• korean jap chae noodles: glass noodles sauteed with sesame oil, korean chili paste, and kimchi. eh. the only one i was not crazy about. not bad, just kind of bland. our waiter had to bring me some chili sauce to spice it up and it still wasn't that great. i've had much better at riverside and korea house. however, not bad. just not exciting.
• chinese broccoli in oyster sauce. wonderful. of course, i am a chinese broccoli freak so maybe not everyone would love this as much as i did. it was perfectly prepared, crunchy and delicate at the same time. yum.

the service on the whole was very good. there was one waitress we weren't really crazy about (she kind of got off on the wrong foot with us when we asked for recommendations from the fascinating menu and she told us to get egg rolls and calamari... boring... and she seemed to keep having conflicts with other staff). but everyone else definitely made up for it. they checked in with us regularly and really seemed to care whether we liked the food, and always made sure we had a fresh beer open.

the space is pretty similar to what it looked like when seny was in there... very red with christmas lights around, and a few asian touches now. it looks nice, and parking is easy. sorry i don't have any photos but it's pretty dark in there and i didn't want to use the flash.

i would definitely try to get there soon, not because it's going to close (i don't think it is) but because the current byob situation makes it such a good deal. we heard that they have applied for a liquor license so i am sure it is coming soon.

overall this place is awesome and an excellent addition to the neighborhood. they also deliver to a pretty wide area so if you are not in the mood to leave your house, you can maybe still enjoy their delicious food.

raya's lebanese restaurant

great news, downtown eaters... there is finally some good falafel available! the space on court street that has seen a parade of mediocre middle eastern restaurants is now owned by a family who knows their shit. we went for lunch today and it was awesome. eric and i had the vegetarian combo platter, with hot tasty falafel (perfectly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside), smoky delicious baba ghannouj, crunchy garlicky tabbouli, and soft flavorful bread. there was also hummus that i found to be average but i was so happy that it did not bother me.

beth had a falafel sandwich which she enjoyed and she got the baklava, which in true lebanese style was not drowning in honey (that is how greeks do it). she liked it a lot. they also offer other lebanese dishes like shawarma, beef kufta, kabobs, etc., and they have a gyro spit. don't forget to ask for some of their tasty hot sauce.

eric's iphone to the rescue

service is awesome, they are super nice. and the prices are good. the combo platter was $7.50 and the sandwiches are $3.50-5, or $1.25 more if you want to add fries. all the food is really fresh and flavorful and it comes out fast and hot.

i love this place and i am so excited to welcome it to downtown! hopefully it sticks around. and if you live downtown, guess what... they are open until 8 pm so it's not just for the lunch crowd.

shaan indian cuisine

although i hardly ever blog about them (like i blog about anything anymore), i eat at cincinnati's various indian restaurants pretty regularly. in my opinion, baba is best for lamb saag, dusmesh is best for tikka masala and for overall spicing, amol is best for eggplant (bharta? i forget what it is called) and apna is best for other vegetarian dishes (but only if you order off the menu... the buffet is just blah). i like ambar for the atmosphere but the food generally is just average in my opinion. and akash has a good lunch buffet (and by "good" i mean "located within walking distance of my insipid downtown job") but nothing really stands out there for me.

i was suspicious of shaan when it first showed up in hyde park plaza because india hyde park used to be there and that place was gross. but i was out with some friends in the area one night and we decided to stop by. they are indian (and would prefer to remain anonymous) so i figured they could tell me if it was really authentic or not.

here is a picture of my leftovers

well readers we were very pleasantly surprised. shaan offers a great deal on their dinner menu which is that you can get a sampler platter of 3-4 dishes, either vegetarian or meat, along with garlic naan, rice, and dessert for only about $14. this was a ridiculous amount of food and between the three of us we had a ton of food with enough for each of us to have another whole meal. everything was delicious. one problem i have with some indian places is that the dishes can be so rich and/or creamy that it gives me a horrible stomach ache. i did get a stomach ache at shaan but that was because i ate too much, not because the dishes were too rich.

the spices were really good and even the shrimp curry, which i usually find to be kind of boring, was awesome. the garlic naan was super garlicky and soft. i actually liked the vegetarian dishes better than the meats, which is surprising because a lot of times i think that they can be kind of boring and bland. but not at shaan.

service was excellent, they were very attentive and even brought us extra rice to take home with our food. and the prices were good. on average the menu items were $9-12, and to get the sampler platters with way more food and selection it was only a few dollars more. the atmosphere is very much strip mall indian, but who the hell cares. they were pretty empty when we went so get your ass over there and give them some business. if they close i am going to be crabby.

publican chicken and roasted brussels sprouts

i haven't had much to blog about lately. i have been either eating out at places i have already blogged about, or else devouring all the delicious heirloom tomatoes i can get my hands on. my basil plant is going crazy so i'm going to need to make pesto soon. and i got the craving for caesar salad the other day so i whipped up a batch of my caesar dressing and some homemade garlic croutons and ate yummy salads for days.

i literally cannot get enough heirloom tomatoes

today i was on my way home from work and i was in the mood to cook. all of a sudden i was hit with a craving... the sweet and salty, crunchy, juicy chicken that i ate at the publican with lavine while i was in chicago over labor day. but i didn't have a recipe. what to do... i decided to hit the store and see what i could figure out.

i ate caesar salad for five days in a row and did not get sick of it

lavine and i had discussed the issue of ingredients in depth while i was visiting her and we had decided that we thought it was a brined chicken. we were pretty sure there was brown sugar and thyme involved. and it was crispy as hell on the outside and perfectly tender and juicy on the inside, so there had to be some sort of high heat/low heat thing going on.

once i got to the store it was time to do some improvising. no way in hell was i going to have time to cook a chicken whole so i got some mix of parts called "pick of the chick" which turned out to be two legs, two thighs, and two breasts (all bone in). of course, there would be no time to brine so i thought maybe i could marinate it for a bit in lemon to get the same effect (tender + juicy). light brown or dark brown sugar? i guessed and chose light brown. i also wanted some garlic although i couldn't really remember that flavor in the chicken at the restaurant.

here is a picture of how it looked at the restaurant...

at home i knew i had some dried thyme and fresh rosemary that i wanted to use. i knew there was no rosemary in the publican's chicken, but when i was eating it i remembered wishing it was there. i also have a big fat awesome rosemary plant that i do not use enough so i was looking for an excuse.

i got home and decided to google the recipe, just a shot in the dark. and guess what... it's on the ny times! clearly this was a sign. one of the keys to this recipe is the espelette pepper. i do not have that on hand (i had never even heard of it before) but i did happen to have some spanish paprika and i found that plus a pinch of cayenne to be a perfectly acceptable substitute. here is the recipe with my modifications in italics:

publican chicken a la liz

Time: 40 minutes, plus at least 1 hour’s marinating

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (i probably used 4 T. because i wanted it to tenderize quickly)

1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon Espelette pepper or Spanish smoked hot paprika (i used the paprika plus maybe 1/4 t. of cayenne)

1 tablespoon dried oregano (i don't care what this recipe says, it was thyme at the restaurant. i don't really like oregano so i used approximately 1 t. dried thyme and 1 T. chopped fresh rosemary)

2 cloves garlic, sliced (i used 5 cloves, smashed and roughly chopped)

1/2 teaspoon salt (i substituted with about 1/4 t. salt and 1/2 t. lawry's)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 3-pound chicken, backbone removed. (like i said i used "pick of the chick," aka 2 legs, 2 thighs, and 2 breasts, all bone in)

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine oil, lemon juice, brown sugar, Espelette pepper or hot paprika, oregano, garlic and salt and pepper. Mix well.

2. Flatten chicken and add to marinade, turning it until coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight. (i marinated one hour and it was soooo flavorful. overnight would be amazing i'm guessing.)

3. Prepare a grill, arranging coals or gas flame so it is hot on only one side. Place chicken skin-side down on unheated side of grill (so it will cook by indirect heat). Grill, basting every 5 minutes and turning chicken once about halfway through, until juices run clear when chicken is pierced near joint of thigh, about 30 minutes. (ok so what i had to do was actually turn on the unheated side of my grill to low for about 5 minutes total, about 10 min in, because i was scared it was not going to cook fully for hours. this worked fine. the skin was a little charred but i like it that way. you will need to mess with cooking times and temperatures based on your grill.)

4. Remove chicken from grill and allow to rest 5 minutes. Carve as desired, and serve.

Yield: 2 servings. (uh, more like 4 i would say)

this. came. out. awesome. oh my god. dare i say it? i think it was better than at the publican (i am waiting to get struck down as we speak). it was just even more flavorful and delicious than theirs. i know i sound full of myself but this chicken was crazy good. i think i am going to go pick on some out of the fridge right now.

ok i'm back. oh my GOD that was good. damn.

...and here is how it looked in my kitchen

to go with my chicken, i made some trader joe's garlic fries. yum. i also decided i had to have some roasted brussels sprouts. i have been messing around with recipes on this one for a while... it's really hard because i have an ornery old oven that refuses to stay at one temperature which is kind of necessary to the caramelization process of those thin little leaves that love to burn.

after lots of tries, i think i have perfected it. or as much as my oven will allow me to anyway. here you go. good luck.

liz's it's not crack it's brussels sprouts yo

1 lb. brussels sprouts
4 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 T. peanut oil
6 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 T. sherry vinegar
grated parmesan cheese to taste
salt and pepper to taste

rinse the brussels sprouts and chop off the little brown bit on the stem. soak them in cold, salty water for about 20 min. dry them off. slice them in half lengthwise.

heat up your oven to 400 degrees. meanwhile, heat up the oil in a cast iron skillet. when it is hot throw in the brussels sprouts and then the garlic. you will probably get splashed with little flecks of hot oil. sorry about that. cook the sprouts until they start to get brown, then mix them up and keep cooking. this will take about 7 minutes i'm guessing.

once they are browned on both sides, add some salt and pepper. then put the whole pan in the oven for about 10-15 minutes until they are really soft and caramelized. you will need to stir them a few times while they are in there. take the pan out and leave it on the stove for a few minutes until the sprouts cool off a bit, then add the sherry vinegar and mix and then grate the parmesan on top. you can also add more salt and pepper if you want. try not to eat all of the sprouts out of the pan immediately. serve.

dojo gelato

anyone who has read the profile sidebar over on your right knows that i am not a big fan of graeter's. it's ok, but it's definitely not the best ice cream out there. readers, you will be most happy to know, the best ice cream out there (well other than jeni's maybe) has landed in our fair city. yes, that's right... dojo gelato at findlay market is amazing.

this place will change your life and your belt size

i had been hearing tons of good things about this place and finally got the chance to stop by over the weekend. fortunately, maggie actually knows michael and kimberly, the owners, so she introduced me and holly to them. actual conversation:

maggie: hey guys, these are my friends liz and holly.
liz: hi! this gelato is awesome. i'm going to write about you guys on my blog.
michael: wait, what is your blog?
liz: get in mah belly.
michael: what!!! we have heard of you! kimberly, this is get in mah belly!
liz: what!!! really??? awesome!!! i love you guys. this is the best gelato ever!!!
(edited: ensuing 20 minute gelato love fest)

it's painful to have to choose just one (or two) (or three) (or four)

michael is awesome and totally knows his gelato. i feel like i have some gelato street cred because i spent a summer in college studying abroad in florence. and by "studying abroad" i mean drinking coffee, partying, and eating gelato. i ate a shit ton of gelato. and this is the real thing.

michael spent years studying gelato (rumor has it he even went to ice cream school) in new york and italy and met stefano from milano, who is from what i understand a gelato miracle worker who taught michael everything he knows. sorry if i am messing up some details here... while i was trying to listen to the story i was also eating the gelato so my senses and powers of observation were totally out of whack.

your tour guides on your journey through awesome gelato land

back to the gelato. it is perfect. soft, creamy, almost unbelievably rich. the flavors are amazing. i chose vietnamese coffee and coconut, and both flavors were wonderful. i also tried a few others (blackberry sorbetto, sweet cream with brownies, french caramel, hazelnut...) and each one was a revelation. it's like they took something delicious, and then made something even better out of it.

stop licking your computer screen, that's creepy

true story from kimberly: a guy came in last week and saw that they had vietnamese coffee. "whatever," he scoffed. "i am a connoisseur of vietnamese coffee. it can't be that good." then he tasted it. he ordered two pints immediately to take to dinner at a vietnamese friend's house that night.

do not, however, get too attached to the mind blowingly awesome flavors i am describing to you here, because the flavors are constantly changing. word on the street is that there was bacon gelato ("porkopolis") last week. michael is constantly experimenting and perfecting new flavors.

short stature is no obstacle to enjoying dojo gelato

as if all that were not enough, dojo has a blog. who can argue with a gelato blog? not this blogging gelato freak.

since i have written this super gushy love fest post about dojo, i am going to make a public request to michael: what about panna con amarene? it is my most absolute favorite gelato flavor in the whole world. if you guys could create it for me in cincinnati, i think i would shit myself and die of happiness. in that order. but even if you don't make it i will still love your gelato, i promise.

update: i just read the dojo blog and learned that dojo is actually already doing panna con amarene. i think i have died and gone to gelato heaven. i have literally been fantasizing about eating this gelato flavor again for over nine years now. thank you michael and kimberly!

we ran into steve and the other maggie after we had our gelato. "are you guys getting gelato?" i asked. "i don't think so, not really planning on it, blah blah blah," they said. i practically dragged them to dojo and left them in the capable hands of michael and kimberly. they were in gelato heaven. (note: i told maggie to "look excited" for this picture, but it is also very possible that she could have been having a gelato induced seizure of joy.)

readers, i know i have been raving about places a lot lately but i am serious, dojo gelato is amazing. get your ass to dojo and eat this ice cream as soon as you possibly can. and then send your friends. and then go back. and then write about it on your respective blogs, or facebook pages, or prison cell walls, or whatever. this place is a treasure and we have support it. it's one of my absolute favorite new places in cincinnati in a very long time.

sichuan bistro

when liberal foodie tells me that somewhere food related is good, i know it is good. she is one of the most knowledgeable cooks (and eaters) i know, and she has really good taste in food. she knows the best places in cincinnati to buy fresh goat meat, obscure spices, various types of greens, organic foods, whatever. she has never led me astray.

the decor... kind of boring, but that's ok. that way you don't get distracted from the food.

well LF has been telling me to go to sichuan bistro for probably six months now ("liz, it is the best chinese food in cincinnati") and i just had never made it up there. any time i suggested it, people were like "drive to MASON for CHINESE FOOD??? are you insane?" but when alex and lina came into town, i knew i had some willing diners to go with me. and by "willing," i mean "people who have no idea where mason is and therefore would not bitch about the drive, and anyway live in new york and are totally used to the idea of taking an hour long subway ride for good food."

fook yu! fook mi!

last weekend we went up there. like many restaurants in cincinnati, sichuan bistro closes early (9:30) so you have to hurry to get up there in time, at least if you are like me and always forget to eat on time and also have late-eating guests visiting you.

fish filets with sichuan sauce

do not be alarmed by the fact that this place is in a strip mall. i am a huge fan of strip mall eating... i think anywhere that can hack it in a totally nondescript location and is not a chain probably has some damn good food. also, mason is pretty much overrun with really tasty little places to eat, thanks to all the internationals living in the area for their jobs at p&g.

scallion pancake

if... i mean, when you go, make sure you ask for the chinese menu. they have an american menu too and if you don't have your token chinese friends with you, they might mistake you for a typical fried rice and almond boneless chicken loving american. and then you will miss out on the truly amazing dishes available at this very authentic and delicious restaurant. and then you will come on my blog and leave bitchy comments about how it wasn't worth the half hour drive up there. you have been warned.

baby bok choy with minced garlic

sichuan bistro did not disappoint. we ordered a variety of items off the menu to share and we loved everything. the vegetables were so fresh and delicious. the fish was crunchy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside. lots of garlic and hot peppers and peppercorns. the silken tofu melted in your mouth. it was excellent.

beef with soft tofu

the prices? good. it's average chinese food prices. for three of us and five items, we paid $55. we also took home a shitload of food... seriously it was enough for all of us to get a second meal out of it. so you could totally spend less.

the spread... the fifth dish we ordered was dumplings with chili oil

if you love chinese food, do yourself a favor and make the trek up to mason for sichuan bistro. i'm with LF... this is seriously the best chinese i have ever had in cincinnati.

take the cake

bitch bitch bitch. that is all you readers do. "you don't post enough." "post more." "where are you?" blah blah blah. can't i get a break? ok, just kidding. wait, stop! i love you! i need you! don't leave me! come back!

a couple weeks ago i stopped at take the cake for lunch on my way to chicago. i was all worked up because @geekjames had posted the daily menu items and banh mi was on it. i am a banh mi freak and have been eagerly waiting for it to come back around on the specials list, and how perfect that i also was taking the day off and actually had time to go to northside for lunch.

oh they take the cake all right

i called ahead. "i really want the banh mi but i won't be there for at least an hour. will you guys still have it by then?" i asked. the woman on the phone assured me that they were putting more tofu in the oven and it would be fine. yay!

well i got there (probably an hour and a half later, i was packing and stuff) and they were out! i was crushed. "there's no way you can make it?" i pleaded. the chef gave me the eyebrow and told me she could do something with chicken and sriracha, but they were out of like half the ingredients and it would not really be anything like their banh mi. finally i gave up. i really think nobody there could understand why i was so depressed, but seriously i had been waiting for this banh mi for at least a month.

working hard in the kitchen, or pretending to anyway in order to avoid eye contact with the scary banh mi lunatic at the counter

i perused the menu and after talking things over with the cashier i decided on the patty melt, which was a burger with cheddar cheese, bbq sauce, tomato, onion, and roasted red pepper sauce. it sounded good (two sauces!), or would have had i not been all worked up over the banh mi. my expectations were low, honestly. i was depressed. i listlessly look some photos and stared at the baked goods which were doing absolutely nothing for me. i picked out a few to take to my friend lavine in chicago. i lamented my bad banh mi luck.

my food came pretty quickly. i looked at my plate. damn, that looked good. the burger was big. the tomato was red and juicy. the cheese was all melty. there were some very interesting looking salads on the plate. well ok, maybe this would be all right.

the patty melt and some damn tasty salads

i bit into the burger. tomato, sauce, cheese, and juices started dripping everywhere. this burger was delicious. it was cooked medium well to well done, which is normally overcooked for me, but it was still super juicy so i liked it. time for the salads. the greens were tasty and crisp. yum, watercress! the dressing was sweet and salty and tangy and delicious. there were big yummy strips of parmesan.

then the cucumber and jalapeno salad. the first taste i got was lime, rice wine vinegar, and... star anise? oh my god. yum. i devoured it. one of my last bites was a big hot chunk of fresh jalapeno. spicy and crunchy and tasty! i cleaned my plate. then i was like "oh my god. that lunch was good!"

the interior

i was absolutely and completely satisfied, and totally forgot about the banh mi. it was one of the best lunches i have had in a long time. everything was fresh and very delicious. the flavors were complex and interesting and somehow they all went together.

the space is great too. i went kind of late (about 1:30ish) and it was mostly empty. you could sit there and hang out on the couch as long as you want. it is modern, clean, bright, and open. you can spy on the whole kitchen (which obviously i did). everyone is friendly (although i do think they thought i was kind of crazy with my banh mi obsession). don't act obsessive and keep the crazy eyes under control and i am sure they will not act like they have to keep a 10 foot distance between you and them. haha.

the treats... sorry to recycle images but i only took one photo

prices are great. for my lunch i paid $6.95. the treats were maybe around $11 for four things: a peanut butter brownie, a peaches and cream tart, a carrot cake cupcake, and a chocolate cheesecake cupcake. that seems like a really good deal to me. i tried to resist eating the treats but could not so i tasted a bit of each of them and they were amazing. rich, luscious, and not too sweet (which is key for me in desserts).

lavine devoured the treats immediately and demanded more. i told her to get her ass to cincinnati. she has not visited me in two years, but take the cake just might be the thing that gets her here.