How this classic New Orleans dish has evaded my blog for so long is a mystery, but yesterday my friend Ann took me to an oyster bar and asked if I would share a plate of oysters rockefeller with her, and I was delighted to say yes. These are oysters that have been baked on the half shell in creamy mornay sauce with a green topping, in my case spinach and parmesan cheese. The spinach still had texture, which I appreciated, and a squeeze of lemon for acid was perfect. When it came to taste, I found these shells to be more about the topping than the oyster itself, but who can argue with perfectly cooked spinach and real parmesan cheese? These oysters were savory and cheesy. I enjoyed the oysters with an Estrella Damm, a beer I became familiar with in Barcelona, Spain, where it's made. This was the first time I saw it on a menu in the United States.
Location: Ruben & Ozzy's, 241 E Taquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs, California. Date: June 2, 2023.
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This was a refreshing sour barrel aged beer, with a beautiful color, made with one of our desert ingredients: wild prickly pear fruit, know in Spanish as tuna (but it's fruity, not fishy). When I make prickly pear juice, it's thick and sweet, and I often use it as a cocktail mix. The beer, though, was called water of tuna, so there was nothing resembling prickly pear juice other than the color and just a hint of the fruity flavor. It was a noteworthy beer, though, for sure.
Location: Coachella Valley Brewing, 30640 Gunther Street, Thousand Palms, California. Date: March 11, 2023. There were fourteen shrimp and it was February 14. Coincidence? The creamy cocktail sauce definitely had whisky in it, a first for me, but it was delicious. It didn't taste like the alcohol had been cooked out, but it really worked here. The sauce was a little sweet, tangy, salty, and alcoholic. The shrimp were perfectly cooked, and the dish came with a celery leaf garnish. This was my Valentine's dinner, and I fell in love with it! The restaurant itself was beautiful. I sat on the patio with lots of potted green plants and a small fountain. The smokiness and maltiness of Lado Oscuro, a Nicaraguan artisinal dark beer by Moropotante, went well with the whisky flavored cocktail sauce. The beer's label claimed notes of coffee and chocolate, which there were, but I also detected a slight fruitiness. So far, this is my favorite Nicaraguan beer. I love it!
Location: Carnivorio, Avenida Central (2 blocks from the central plaza), Leon, Nicaragua. Date: February 14, 2023. This is an adult version of the root beer float consisting of vanilla custard ice cream in a pint of Guinness, that dark creamy beer from Ireland. The float arrived with the ice cream in the bottom of the glass, but as I was photographing it, the spoon started to wiggle and the ice cream floated to the top. The ice cream to Guinness ratio was perfect, and the contrast of the sweet ice cream with the bitter beer was amazing. These could become addictive.
Location: O'Caine's Irish Pub, 36101 Bob Hope Drive, Bldg F, Rancho Mirage, California. Date: October 5, 2022. This is Thai street food consisting of a crispy mussel or oyster pancake served with bean sprouts and garnished with green onion. I found the recipe in Vatch's Thai Street Food (Laurel Glen, San Diego, California, 2002). According to Vatch, this is a very popular Thai street food because in Thailand mussels or oysters are cheap. I had the mussel version at Uncle Chai Thailand Street Food, and the mussels were plump and chewy with good seafood flavor. The savory pancake was crispy on both sides and placed on a portion of bean sprouts which added freshness and some crunch. There was some sweet and spicy sauce on the side. I enjoyed this dish with a Leo Lager beer from Thailand. It's light and dry but has more flavor that other Thai beers I've had. It's made with only water, malt, and hops, though I suppose yeast must have been involved in the process.
Location: Uncle Chai Thailand Street Food, 69930 Highway 111, Suite 122, Rancho Mirage, California. Date: June 25, 2022. My sister and I arrived at Haus of Pizza only to find it closed. We had come for the Russian menu which is served the first week of each month, but as we turned away in disappointment, the Ukranian owner suddenly opened the door and said she would open early just for us. When we were seated at an outdoor table, she declared that she had just finished making borscht, which was amazing as that is exactly what I'd had in mind to order. When we asked if we should have it hot or cold, she said we should have it hot because it was so fresh. The soup was shredded cabbage and beets with a few pieces of well-cooked potato per bowl. Each bowl was garnished with chopped green onion and dill, and sour cream was served on the side. The soup was mildly sour with a hint of sweet, and there was still a little crunch from the cabbage. This was one of those dishes that was more delicious than I can describe. Both my sister and I agreed that this was the best borscht either of us had ever had.
When I ordered a beer, the owner excitedly told us that she now had Ukranian beer. We ordered a bottle each of Avtorske, an amber lager beer. It was on the stronger side, at 7% alcohol, and it was rich as well as a touch sweet and a touch bitter. It was very good. For dessert I had Syrniki. This dish consisted of two farmer's cheese pancakes along with sour cherry compote and sour cream. The pancakes were actually just firm but creamy thick fresh cheese patties that had been pan fried to form a crust on the outside. The dish was not at all sweet except for the sour cherry compote. You could actually have this as a main dish. Since I'm not much into sweet, and definitely not into over sweet, this was my kind of dessert. I will definitely have it again. Location: Haus of Pizza, 72-795 Highway 111, Palm Desert, California. Date: February 5, 2022. This is a Black Bean Burger with sweet potato fries as my side. It came with mushrooms and melted Swiss cheese as well as a side of lettuce, tomato, red onion, and pickles, all of which I put on my burger. The black bean patty was very moist and there was lots of umami. There was also sweetness from the fries, not to mention nutrition. Even though this was my breakfast, I enjoyed it with a local Tucson beer, the 7.3% Dragoon IPA. On the bottle it said, “Bright, Hoppy, Dank.” It was certainly bright and hoppy.
Location: Bisbee Breakfast Club, 13864 Sandario Road, Marana, Arizona. Date: January 13, 2022. This bar food dish consisted of crisp deep fried egg rolls stuffed with mac and cheese and a little smoky pulled pork. The mango habanero sauce that accompanied the egg rolls was sweet and spicy, and the dish was garnished with chopped green onion. I paired this dish with a fairly local beer from Temecula: the Island Mango Twist from Garage Brewing Co. It's a mango, pineapple, and coconut flavored Heferweisen, which is a light and refreshing wheat beer with mild tropical fruit flavors. While neither the egg rolls nor the beer would have likely made it onto my blog by themselves, together they were one of those excellent marriages of flavor that I live for.
Location: Bubbas Bones & Brews, 68525 Ramon Road, Cathedral City, California. Date: October 16, 2021. This is a completely different experience to other cider tastings. These flavored ciders are all apple based, from Pacific Northwest apples, but there isn't a whole lot of apple flavor. All the ciders here are dry, mostly still (unless they add nitro), and the interesting flavors are understated. These ciders are easy to drink, but at 6.5% to 8.5% alcohol by volume, you might want to take it easy. I ordered a tasting that included Chai, Hopped, Juniper, Hibiscus, Tomato Basil, and Sarsaparilla. The Chai had a great nose and a spicy finish, but it wasn't hot. The Hopped was lemony and hoppy with amarillo, falcon's flight, and lemon drop hops. The Juniper had a hint of pine, and I'd call this one the gin of cider. The Hibiscus was slightly sour with great color. The Tomato Basil definitely had a hint of Caprese sandwich, bread and all. The Sarsaparilla was earthy and vegetal with a hint of ginger, and it was nitro (so a little lively). These are all sulfite free and low carb. Whether you like these ciders or not, a tasting here is a noteworthy experience.
Location: Bawker Bawker Cider House, 400 N 4th Avenue, Tucson, Arizona. Date: August 27, 2021. This is an Imperial sour beer with strawberry and cucumber. I could definitely taste the strawberry; I had to search a bit for the cucumber, but it's there. This beer is sour and refreshing but strong in alcohol (8.2%). The Imperial refers to the way they make the beer strong, like Imperial Stout, for example, but this is not a dark beer. This brewery makes interesting stuff. They collaborated with NASA to make a special beer for each stage of the mission to the asteroid Bennu. Their last one, called Bye Bye Bennu, was an Imperial Stout brewed with cacao nibs and cherries.
Location: Dillinger Brewing Company, 402 E 9th Street, Tucson, Arizona. Date: August 25, 2021. |
AuthorChef Roland has been a legal resident of seven countries and has travelled in over thirty, documenting food along the way. He currently resides in the desert in Southern California. Categories
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