Just got back from four fun days in Boston. It’s probably been at least seven years since I was last there, and parts of the city looked totally foreign to me. Thankfully my friends and family there are still the same.

I stayed with my sister in Cambridge and it was a blast getting to play with my niece and nephew all weekend. My nephew is a total Wii junkie already and as he tried to explain how to play Lego Star Wars, I came to the sad realization that somehow I’ve grown into a stereotypical adult that cannot grasp how to play a video game. How did that happen?! Meanwhile my niece is just so cute and she uses it to good effect, knowing exactly when and how to charm her parents to keep them from getting angry. And when she doesn’t get her way, she performs an adorably exaggerated move where she slumps her head and shoulders and marches away in a sad/angry pout. Just too cute!

While I wasn’t playing with the kids, I was playing with my friends. Thursday night was a reunion of my ex-Thomson coworkers at the Barking Crab. We had a nice turnout and other than the fact that people had to wait in line to get in because it was so crowded, it was a really great time. Amazing how some of my friends, in particular Bob, Ro, Julie, Lovely Liz, and even Joce’s mom Elaine don’t seem to have aged one bit after all these years! It was fun drinking with everyone just like old times again. By the end of the night, Swede was in fine clownish form, wearing a Barking Crab T-shirt over his long sleeve dress shirt and toting a shiny handbag as the bartenders wondered what was wrong with him. Ladies and gentlemen, Ole Skool Thomson in the house!

In terms of eats during this trip, my sis took me to Elephant Walk so I could have their Amok, a seafood stew in a spicy coconut milk based curry which used to be one of my favorite dishes. They seem to make it differently now though. It used to be made with catfish but now seems to be a mix of many different types of seafood, mainly shrimp and scallops. Still good, but doesn’t quite feel as homey as it used to.

Also had a fine dinner at Petite Robert. French classics at very inexpensive bistro prices. We had seared foie gras, pate and mussels for apps, and I had the skirt steak au poivre for my entree. All nicely executed, delicious non-pretentious food; exactly the sort of stuff I probably wouldn’t be able to resist having every week if I still lived in town.

After Petite Robert we headed over to the North End so I could visit my good friend Casey who was bartending at Lucca. One of the most popular guys I knew back in the day, it was good to see him still holding court behind a bar, entertaining everyone and making kickass drinks. If you are ever in Boston, catch Casey at Lucca or their sister restaurant Sasso and ask him to make you an espresso martini. Absolutely fantastic.

The following morning I was feeling a little queasy after the long night of indulging in a wide array of Casey’s fine cocktails, but still met Ben for brunch at Eastern Standard. We had had pre-dinner drinks there the night before and I was very impressed by their cocktails, especially the Au Provence which is made with Rain Vodka, tarragon syrup and lime juice. Alas I was too hungover to attempt a hair of the dog, so I opted just to get food instead. For some reason when I’m hungover, I really crave raw stuff, so I went for the halibut ceviche and the steak tartare. Both were outstanding. I had never had ceviche with halibut before, but it turns out to be the perfect fish for it- retaining a nice resiliency to its texture even after curing. The steak tartare was seasoned perfectly for my taste- heavier on the capers than the onions so that it has more saltiness than bite. I wish I had more of an appetite so I could try more of their menu, but I was impressed with what I had and will make a point of returning the next time I’m in Boston. Great cocktails, great food, and oh, the most distractingly attractive staff I’ve seen in any establishment in a long time. Maybe they only hire models there or something.

But the main reason I was in Boston was for my friend Chris Yen’s wedding banquet on Sunday. There I got to see even more friends who I hadn’t seen in nearly a decade. It was such an awesome vibe, everybody being able to catch up, share some laughs and celebrate Chris’ wedding. She married a really great guy and they are such a perfect couple. Can you imagine a couple that is so overtly crazy about each other yet they are just such awesomely chill people that their constant glow doesn’t make you want to barf? No, of course you can’t, but I’m telling you, that’s how they are. I love em both and am so happy to have been a part of their celebration. By any measure, this was a truly excellent weekend.

I usually get a dozen eggs every time I visit the Stone Barns farm market because they’re so much better than the supermarket variety. They have beautiful orange hued yolks and just so much more flavor. On my most recent visit they also had bacon so naturally I had to pick some of that up as well. The best thing about their bacon is that it is way less salty than commercial bacon and the result is a product that tastes, yes, like pork! Inspired by the quality of these ingredients, this is what I made:

Simply fried bacon and scrambled eggs with uni. I hate washing dishes so usually I would just fry up the bacon and then use the same pan for the eggs. But to do these ingredients justice I didn’t want to take any shortcuts and the best way I know of making creamy scrambled eggs is to start them in an unheated pan with a couple pats of cold butter. So I fried up the bacon in one pan, then got to work on the scrambled eggs in the other. Constant stirring and taking it on and off the heat to control overcooking is the key. Once the curds have just set but the eggs are still a teeny bit runny I take it off the heat, season with salt, add the uni, and serve. The sweet, creamy ocean flavor of the uni accents the richness of the eggs so well. I’m not usually a big fan of breakfast foods, but boy did I enjoy this!

The annual Greater NY Wine & Food Festival was this past weekend at the DoubleTree Hotel in Tarrytown. There were two different Grand Tasting sessions and I chose to attend the first because of the trio of outstanding chefs that were scheduled to do demos- Andy Nusser of Tarry Lodge, Brian Lewis of The Farmhouse at Bedford Post Inn, and Peter X Kelly of X20.

Andy Nusser prepared a salad with a fantastic array of awesome ingredients including farro, favas, fiddleheads, burrata, and ramps! Yes, he included burrata and even ramps in a dish that they were serving to the entire audience!! Here’s a close-up of this beauty of a dish:

Completely belying the disposable partyware they were served on, the quality of the ingredients were unabashedly extraordinary. I say unabashedly because every element was just so remarkably bright and pure in flavor that it practically screamed at you “this is what fresh, quality ingredients taste like and you are a knucklehead for not eating like this all the time!” And Nusser brought his chef-y magic to the dish by bringing everything into perfect balance. The farro and greens were like the canvas and the foreground had several different highlights depending on where you looked. Those super tender favas and little bits of asparagus added a crisp textural contrast. The ultra creamy burrata with bright young extra virgin olive oil brought a decadent richness to the party. To contrast that richness, there was a touch of acidity from lemon juice and the brilliant addition of a mildly pickled fiddlehead fern. And of course everything was brought way over the top by the mild garlicky undertones of the ramps. Best salad ever? Could be!

Next up (not pictured) was Brian Lewis of Richard Gere’s restaurant, The Farmhouse at Bedford Post Inn. He prepared a beautiful fresh pasta ricotta ravioli featuring…yes, more ramps, woo hoo! I’m not sure if Lewis has done tv or has a history of teaching but I thought his demo was extremely well polished. It’s unusual for someone who is used to being in the back of the house be so relaxed and smooth in a public speaking situation like that. I think back to seeing Todd English back in the 90’s teaching a class of no more than thirty people and how uncomfortable he looked, stammering and murmuring in getting his words out and staring at his pasta dough to avoid having to make eye contact with anyone. Todd has clearly gotten past that and is now a terrificly confident public persona, but it took him over a decade to get to this point. Brian Lewis looks no older than Todd was back in the day, yet he seems like he’s been doing cooking shows for ages. Good stuff. And yes, his ravioli kicked ass too. Simple but rich and delicious. I haven’t made the trip up to his restaurant yet, but it’s now at the top of my must-try list.

And finally for the big finale, Westchester’s most acclaimed chef, Peter Xavier Kelly. The new Zagat’s guide is out and he has made the clean sweep, winning the categories of Most Popular Restaurant, Best Food, and Best Service. The former Iron Chef America winner prepared a corn flan with crabmeat and chorizo.

The flan was awesomely rich and its sweetness came purely from the corn; no additional sugar added. The subtle touches were the addition of Thai chili during the blanching of the corn, and a very interesting use of chorizo as a garnish. He apparently used the same technique David Chang uses with foie gras, namely freezing it solid and then shaving it with a microplane grater. The chorizo he used was so strongly flavored that even the smallest speck of it hit me with a heady shot of pimenton smokiness. The dish was brought completely over the top by the addition of the crabmeat, but in reality it would still have been a stellar dish without it.

Overall I was impressed by the festival. Tons of exhibitors, lots of great food and wine and the space was great. Plenty of room to circulate and having the demos on the outside patio was a great idea. All the staff were friendly and the cleaning and serving crews were on the ball all afternoon. A very well run event from top to bottom and I look forward to returning for many years to come.

First I’d like to apologize for not having written anything here for a while, but I promise it was for a good purpose. The last month and a half I have been working my butt off to launch my new web venture RestaurantMafia. If you or anyone you know works for or services the restaurant industry, please help spread the word and have them sign up on the site. It’s a free way for service providers to market their products and a great way for industry insiders to network. End of pitch.

So at my volunteer day at Stone Barns, I made sure to hit their farm market before I left. In addition to my usual purchase of veggies and eggs (poulet eggs this time!), they had a particularly special treat on offer that I of course just couldn’t resist- an 8lb. pork shoulder. I am a big fan of pork, but I have to admit, I bought that hunk o meat more for the possibility of crispy pork skin than for the meat itself. When I got it home, I knew exactly how I wanted to prepare it. I had recently read about different ways that Filipinos prepare lechon, their version of roasted pig, and I came across a technique that thoroughly intrigued me. Apparently they have a method of preparation whereby they pierce the surface of the skin all over prior to roasting. The result is a better rendering of the fat and ultimately a crispier skin. Sounded sensible to me, so I broke out my pair of sharply pointed Japanese cooking chopsticks which were the perfect tools for the job. The goal is to perforate the skin about every half inch or so, going deep enough to get through the skin, but not pierce the meat below. After about ten minutes of careful preparation, this was how things looked:

You can see the tighter grouping of perforations along the right side of the shoulder, and you can see I got a little tired and lazy towards the end as the lower left corner only has one or two pierce marks. But this would prove to be a good indicator of how effective this lechon technique was. And the verdict? Well, have a look at the finished product after 5 hours in the oven (oh, I added salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme and oregano before cooking too):

As you can see, the perforations did in fact make a noticeable difference in crispiness. The lower left corner that was nearly void of piercings is just smooth and pliable in texture whereas the rest of the skin was all gorgeously blistered and crunchy. Note to all: if you are cooking pork and want to have delicious crunchy cracklings, it is worth it to spend the time perforating the skin before cooking.

Now you will notice that even though this beast cooked for 5 hours, there’s still a good layer of visible fat beneath the crispy exterior. So I ended up removing the shell of skin like a helmet and baking it separately to render the rest of the fat leaving me with the most amazing pork rinds ever. I packed them up in a plastic takeout container so they would keep fresh and I was able to enjoy them over a span of about two weeks. Awesome.

My initial plan for the rest of the meat was to make pulled pork and have sandwiches for a week. However this shoulder did not cook up like other pork butts I have made in the past. Even after 5 hours of cooking, the meat did not appear even close to wanting to fall apart. Most likely it was because of the way the pig was raised and I’m just not used to cooking such a high quality animal. So instead, I ended up enjoying the roast as meaty ham-like slices, and that 8lbs of pork was indeed enough for a week of magnificent lunches. The fat on each slice was so clean and aromatic. It was so marvelous that it almost seemed like maybe it wasn’t bad for you. Oh, ok, who am I kidding, it was sinfully delicious.

After I finished the last of the meat, I was so inspired by how amazing it was that I wanted to honor that animal as far as I could. So I took the remaining bone and boiled it up with some bay leaves, pepper corns and more thyme and the result was a gorgeous little pork broth. I had some as soup the night I made it, and then put the rest in the fridge for the following day.

The next day, what did I do with the rest of the broth? A little low brow cooking- I took a pack of instant ramen, chucked the soup packet in the garbage and boiled up the noodles in my pork broth instead. I sliced up some shitake mushrooms and scallions and added them to the pot and booyah, that was lunch. Not only was it delicious, but I felt extra proud of the fact that I had taken this pork, which came from a happy life and humane slaughtering at Stone Barns, and treated it with all the respect it deserved after I took ownership of it. From pork slices and pork rinds to the last drop of soup in my ramen, I felt good about having used a food product to the fullest extent I could. It felt like the right way to eat.

This past Saturday we had a beautiful 50 degree day and I had the perfect way to spend it- volunteering on the farm at Stone Barns. There were two possible jobs to participate in, one was to help transplant currant trees and the other was to help clear a field of rocks in preparation for planting. Since I hadn’t had a hard workout in over a week, I decided to pick the heartier grunt work.

A group of about 8 of us followed farmer Jack Algiere out to a spot in the fields on the side of a gently sloping hill. You could see all the different rows that had been planted during seasons past, and we were at the highest patch of rows on the hill. Jack explained that this was about as high up the hill any veggies could be planted because of the slope and because of a rock ledge in the hill. This particular bed had been for artichokes last year and would be planted with potatoes this year. Well, after we had cleared the rocks from the area that is.

Clearing rocks is a laborious task but it needs to be done not only to clear the soil for planting but also to prevent any rocks from damaging farm equipment. We were instructed to build piles of rocks outside the plowed area and then we would load them into Kubotas that would haul them away for use in leveling an area of the grounds somewhere else on the farm.

So with that bit of instruction we got to it. We all started energetically and within about 20 minutes it looked like we havd gotten all the major obvious rocks out of there. Easy, right? Haha, silly us. Then Jack would drive the plow through and with each pass it would uncover countless more rocks, some of them gigantic “3-man rocks” meaning it would take 3 people to move them. Anything larger would have to wait for Jack to come thru with the tractor and we’d try to roll the rocks into the loader.

And so it went for several hours. Good hard work but it was kind of calming and fun at the same time. C’mon, when was the last time you got to play in the dirt like a kid? It was like an afternoon of treasure hunting, only the treasures were just rocks. Every time the plow made a pass we’d all descend on the trail in its wake to fetch all the newly exposed big ones. And somehow no matter how many tons of rocks we extracted that afternoon, every new pass of the plow would bring so many more to the surface.

By the end of the day I was completely wiped out. I don’t care how much us city folk may exercise at the gym; doing real honest productive farm work produces a much deeper and more gratifying type of exhaustion. And to think all that work we did was just the prep for the season, it really gave us all a newfound admiration for the four season farmers at Stone Barns. I can’t fathom how much they do in the course of a year! I really enjoyed my day out in the field and I hope to volunteer there again in the future.

In other miscellany, Joan Rivers was in my hood the other day, filming a commercial or something for The Celebrity Apprentice. I’ve never been a fan of Rivers, even before she had all that creepy cosmetic surgery, so I hope The Donald fires her and she can stop jamming up streets in my neighborhood.

Speaking of tv, have you seen the current season of This Old House? They’re working on a brownstone in Brooklyn. I can appreciate the homeowner wanting to retain some of that historic charm, but did you see the colors she chose for her kitchen walls and cabinets? She picked Institutional Green! The kind they used in every public school I’ve ever seen in NY. Gross.

And one last tv note: I have a new recommendation for your DVR- Dhani Tackles The Globe. The premiere was on the Travel Channel tonight and it is worth catching. The concept is that Dhani Jones, linebacker for the Bengals, travels to different countries and learns a bit about each culture by immersing himself in an indigenous sport. Great concept, since a linebacker in the NFL should actually have the raw skills to at least not embarrass himself in most physical activities no matter how foreign. Tonight’s episode- Muay Thai in Thailand. Entertaining, not just for the Muay Thai bits, but even the parts where he visits places outside the gym. In one scene his muay thai trainer gets him to eat fried insects from a street vendor. Like every good travel show host, Dhani is game to try it, but he prefaces it by shaking his head and saying “Man, black people just don’t eat this type of sh!t”. That’s quality American television!

Eager to get away from the sub-freezing weather in NY and lured by the recession pricing of golf packages, 8 of us headed down to Orlando for the long weekend. Despite a delayed outbound flight on a plane full of crying babies (Orlando + long weekend = duh), I landed more or less in good shape and excited for dinner with my dear ol’ college friend Sonia and her husband Rob.

Sonia got us reservations at Norman’s in the Ritz Carlton Orlando. Yes, that’s Norman as in Norman Van Aken, the grandaddy of “New World Cuisine”, mentor to Charlie Trotter, and a self-taught culinary stud whose reputation predates the existence of the Food Network, which is to say, he’s a food celeb that actually has mad skills in the kitchen.

Norman’s dining room has a classic high end Ritz Carlton feel to it. It leans a bit towards the formal side, but the room still had a comfortable warm glow. We settled in at our table and I ordered a bottle of The Prisoner to kick things off.

Our apps started with Norman’s “Down Island” French Toast which consisted of foie gras on griddled brioche. I don’t usually eat breakfast, but if I could have this dish every day, I might change my ways. It tasted like a cross between French toast and a doughnut, accented with foie gras just for kicks. It was delicious even though the flavor of the foie was somewhat lost in the combo.

Next we had the tuna tataki. Yellowfin tuna seared on four sides, sliced thinly, touched with soy and accented with a super-fine dice of cucumber, jicama and jalapeno. That whisper of heat from the jalapeno and the cool refreshing lightness of the cuke and jicama are what really brought the dish to life. Brilliant choice of flavors.

But the star of the apps for me was the Mussels in Thai curry. The broth was flavorful but not overbearing which was significant because the quality of these mussels were the best I’ve ever encountered. They were big, clean, super plump, sweet and buttery; everything you’ve dreamt a mussel should be (ok, maybe you don’t dream about mussels, but I do, alright?). With a product that amazing you really don’t want to do too much so the gentle Thai red curry broth was just a perfect accent for them.

We also had some mini empanadas which I thought were just ok. They were not particularly impressive in comparison to the other apps, but still nothing to complain about.

For our entrees, we had two fish dishes and a veal. The Key West Yellowtail was my favorite. The yellowtail was a nice firm, substantial fillet; think more meat-like than flaky. It was in a subtle but rich citrus butter sauce which also went well with the mound of garlic mashed potato underneath the fish.

The grouper was in a Provencal-style sauce of olives, tomato and caper. The grouper had a slightly tough streak running through it although it didn’t appear to be undercooked. But that didn’t really bother me since the sauce was a stunner with such bold delicious flavors, nothing else really mattered.

My least favorite of the entrees was a veal chop in an Asian-inspired bbq glaze. It may just be my own quirky hang up, but pretty much any time I taste a dish where the “Asian influence” is a sticky sweet sauce redolent of five spice, I don’t think of Asian food, I think of P.F. Chang’s.

For dessert, we had a trio of three small items. Two were great- one featuring key lime and the other blood orange. The one I didn’t like was a cake of some sort, layered with chocolate and what I think was chestnut spread. So overall, it was an excellent meal with some real standouts and just a couple of small misses. Thanks Sonia and Rob for an awesome experience!

The other memorable meal of the weekend was at Seasons 52, a chain owned by Darden Restaurants. Darden is the same group that owns Red Lobster and Olive Garden so I know you’re probably skeptical. In addition, their hook is that they cook healthy and seasonal (the “52″ in their name referring to the weekly changes to their menu) with every menu item supposedly under 475 calories. That made me especially skeptical, but Sonia recommended it so I knew we had to give it a try. We were not disappointed.

For apps we started with two long flatbreads, one with sockeye salmon and the other with sliced plum tomatoes. I liked them both but the tomato one was the clear winner for me. It had good tomato flavor, fresh basil and just the right level of salt from its parmigiano. Simple but good. Our other apps were chipotle prawns, mussels marinara, tuna tartare, and mushrooms stuffed with crab and shrimp. Surprisingly, ALL of them were hits in my opinion.

But the surprises didn’t end there as our entrees were even more impressive. Beautifully seared sea scallops for one, a grilled rack of lamb for another. Or how about boneless quail breasts in a maple whiskey glaze? Man, if this is healthy eating, I am all for it. Nothing in the dishes hinted that the chef was doing anything out of the ordinary to keep the calories down. Even the portions were normal to generous in size. The rack of lamb especially had us wondering if the 475 calorie claim could really be true.

We also sampled every one of their desserts, each served in their own little glass. Highlights for me were the key lime pie, pecan pie, and Rocky Road, but I kid you not, they were all very good. Every last one of them.

As you probably know, I don’t really care about calorie counts. So when I tell you about the healthfulness of the cuisine at Seasons 52, it’s not so much that I care about that in and of itself. It’s more from a sense of marveling that absolutely nothing was sacrificed in terms of flavor to achieve the result. That takes some high quality ingredients and a lot of skill in the kitchen. Nicely done, Seasons 52.

Other random notes and observations from the weekend:
- When our waitress at Seasons 52 told us she’s from Queens, we asked her where exactly. It was a very good sign when she started with “I’m originally from Elmhurst…”
- We had a meal at a place called Kool’s which featured an oak-fired grill. I don’t know if it’s how oak burns or if it’s something about their particular grill, but it did not seem to provide enough heat to get a good char on the steaks. The oak grilling seemed to do a lot more for their shrimp than for their steaks.
- Sonia’s house is incredible. Huge, tastefully decorated, great color choices, and a full-sized, Simonis-covered pool table to boot!
- I hadn’t seen Sonia’s mom in almost 10 years and yet she looks exactly the same except for a different hair style. Aunty does not age!
- Remington Golf Club had two clever notable touches. On one hole there was a guy stationed on the green to repair ball marks and rake the bunkers in order to speed up play. On another hole, a par 3, there was a magician on the tee to entertain everyone when play got backed up. Yes, a magician doing close-up magic. How funny is that?

I just returned from a trip to Arizona and I gotta say that JetBlue, which has long been my favorite airline, has gotten even better especially if you fly out of NY. This was my second time flying out of their new terminal T5 at JFK airport. Bright and modern with bold splashes of color even in the baggage claim area, they did a really nice job designing the entire terminal. And speaking of excellent design, there’s also a Muji in there, the uber-cool Japanese store featuring products designed with an emphasis on simplicity and usability (with manufacturing and packaging emphasizing earth-friendliness to boot).

But of course no rave of mine would be complete without a nod to food of some sort and this is no exception. I eyeballed the menus of all the restaurants in T5 and the variety and quality of choices was so good I really had a tough time deciding. Everything from escargot to yakitori was available there. I finally settled upon the tapas restaurant Piquillo. If you go, be advised that Piquillo has no signage, being anonymously nestled between 5iveSteak and Aeronuova. But it is certainly worth looking for. I only sampled two dishes but both were exceptional. I started with one of my all-time favorite things, Pulpo a la Gallega, the simple octopus dish with olive oil and pimenton. Their version was as good as any I’ve ever had; remarkable for airport fare. Equally impressive was their Rabo de Buey, a braised oxtail dish. The oxtail meat was falling off the bone, rich and deeply flavored by the red wine braise and aromatic veggies. Service was quick too; I was in and out in less than 25 minutes. Not bad for a quick pre-flight bite, eh?

And I should add that the flights themselves were terrific too. My outbound flight landed in Phoenix a full hour ahead of schedule and my return flight arrived 10 minutes early with a smooth landing despite the fact that it was snowing and the runways were icy. That is pretty much unheard of at JFK. Suffice it to say, my love affair with JetBlue continues.

Chef Scott Bryan is back in NY and we should all rejoice. Veritas used to be my favorite restaurant in NY back when he was cooking there. Then he left, did a stint at restaurant 2941 in Virginia, and had his name rumored in association with a couple of other restaurants before finally resurfacing for real at Apiary in the East Village a couple of weeks ago.

Not one to waste time, I went to check it out yesterday. Unfortunately my timing was probably not the best because: 1. it’s Restaurant Week and 2. it’s still a little too early in Bryan’s tenure there for him to be doing his old Veritas-style tasting menus. Apparently he will not be ready to put out tasting menus at Apiary until mid to late February. But the food I did have last night showed that Chef Bryan is still on top of his game and Apiary is fully worth a return visit when he gets the tastings going.

The Apiary dining room has a modern elegance and is dimly lit in a good way. Definitely more froufrou than you’d expect in the East Village, but I like it. Sorry I have no pictures from this meal but I didn’t bring my camera. It’s just as well, since the cozy dining room’s atmosphere was so classy I would not have been comfortable taking flash photos in there anyway.

I had three apps, two of which were unequivocally superb and the other merely excellent. The fresh, sweet diver scallops were beautifully seared, sitting in a shallow pool of sauce with nuances of browned butter, coconut milk, curry and lemongrass. The dish was topped with baby greens, mache I think, delicately spritzed with just enough acidity to gently cut the richness of the sauce beneath. Kind of a quintessential Scott Bryan dish if you look at the elements- perfect execution as evidenced by the char on the scallops, depth of flavor that is not just good but absolutely captivating as evidenced by the sauce, and well-conceived balance as evidenced by the brightness of the gently dressed greens. Really a great dish.

The next killer app was the sweetbreads. Sweetbreads aren’t my favorite choice of offal, but when they are done well, they are great, and these were definitely great. They had a marvelously substantial crispiness to their exterior, another sign of that Scott Bryan perfection in execution. And the sauce, oh man what a sauce. It was a romesco, so it had a nice rich mouthfeel from whatever nuts he pureed, but the real nice touch was the deft addition of pimenton; not overpowering, but just enough to lend some color and intriguing smokiness. Beautiful.

The weakest of the apps was still rather excellent in my opinion- a Thai squid salad. The squid was of course perfectly cooked and tender, and the flavor accents were spot on for a Thai inspired dish- peanuts, lemongrass, mint and a touch of heat from chili. The dish’s flavors were as fresh and clean as can be which is a real virtue, but in comparison to the dazzling flavors in the other two apps, fresh and clean pales somewhat in comparison.

For entrees, I had the hangar steak and the risotto. The hangar steak was just ok, nothing to write home about. It came with a potato puree with a somewhat ambiguous sauce and while everything on the plate was good, it was not mind blowing. Can you tell my expectations are unreasonable for Chef Bryan? The shrimp risotto on the other hand was wonderful. Every grain of rice was perfectly toothsome with an ethereal creamy, tomatoey essence in every bite. The plump and tender shrimp seemed almost superfluous considering how delicious the rice itself was. If you want to know how risotto is supposed to taste, get over to Apiary and try it while it’s still on the menu.

For dessert, I found the vanilla panna cotta to be uninspired, but then again my standards for panna cotta are completely unreasonable since I’ve been so spoiled by the dreamy versions served at Chikalicious and Peasant. What you should not miss at Apiary however, is the cherry financier. Irresistibly moist, buttery almond cake with bright but not puckering tartness from the cherries. Such an awesome dessert, I could probably have eaten five of them, easy. So there you go. Apiary gets a big thumbs up and Scott Bryan is still doin’ it and doin’ it and doin’ it well. I can’t wait for him to start doing full blown tasting menus again!

Apropos of nothing, here are some random thoughts regarding Top Chef this season:

[ mild spoiler alert: you may not want to read on if you didn't watch last night's episode yet ]

- Fabio is Mr. Reliable… in that you can count on him for at least one great sound bite every episode. I loved that he called out Scott Conant on that inane cheese-with-no-acidity comment.
- Adding Toby Young as a judge was a terrible move. He clearly comes to each episode with a few overly-rehearsed snarky comments and is just waiting for contestants to mess up in a way that lets him use his lame material. Watching Padma and Tom have to fake a chuckle after each of his remarks is just uncomfortable to watch. Reminds me of that train wreck of an experiment when ESPN added Rush Limbaugh to their Sunday NFL Countdown show a few years ago. He just doesn’t fit in.
- Jeff had a bad outing in last night’s episode. Good thing he can always go back to playing Dr. Chase on House M.D. (I can’t be the only person who thinks those two guys look identical).
- Stefan’s “get the fock out of here!” reaction to Carla winning was priceless. They tried to make it look like his reaction was in response to the fantastic prize of two Super Bowl tickets, but we all know it was just because he was floored that Carla actually won an elimination challenge. I can’t say I blame him; she is certifiably insane. Hootie-Hoo!