Memento Meal - Old School

Tonight's Memento Meal brought us back to the original premise - no theme, no gimmicks, just a great meal planned backwards. Okay, I suppose that's a gimmick... but it's the ORIGINAL gimmick.



Our hosts, Carolyn & David, kicked things off with a subtle and elegant Potato Leek Soup, topped with Creme Fraiche, Bacon and Parsley. It was flavorful and had a wonderful creamy mouthfeel, despite having a chicken stock (not cream) base.



The trio of toppings payed homage to our next dish...



Created by this month's guests, Lizzie and Jay, it was a sophisticated appetizer titled "Proscuitto filled with Happiness" - with happiness in this case being provided by pine nuts, goat cheese and arugula. The goat cheese and proscuitto were the stars, with pine nuts providing a little crunch and arugula lending a little spice.



Both the goat cheese and arugula mirrored the next dish...



Marcy & James followed with the salad course, inspired by a salad they enjoyed while in NYC. Mixing arugula, endive and other greens, tossed with shallots and a delicious vinegar dressing, the salad provided a beautiful base for amazing fritters of panko breaded goat cheese that Marcy and James fried a la minute. As my fork broke into the little pillows of cheese, it's melted goodness became a second dressing for the salad, balancing the bite of the vinegar and spice of the greens.



And that fritter was a hint at what was to come next...



Beginning a second act of sorts (as noted by Memento founder, Jason), the first entree was created by Dan & I. Titled "Bombay Bar Crawl", the plates featured a generous heap of homemade curry mustard, with a homemade Indian duck sausage corn dog nestled into it. This was our first time making sausage from scratch, and although we had a few minor struggles, they turned out great. We seasoned the meat with garlic, ginger, salt and fresh garam masala (made by toasting cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom pods, cumin seed, corainder, grated nutmeg, and black peppercorns). Unfortunately, the mustard flavor in the mustard masked all the curry powder I included - something I worried about and then forgot to check - but that didn't stop the corn dogs from being a hit. I made sure to save an extra jar of the mustard for our group's resident condiment expert - Marcy (aka Condiment Girl).



The spices used in our dish, the protein, as well as the bar food nature of it, were all inspired by the next dish...



Our inspiration came from the second entree, concocted by Anna & Jason: Middle Eastern Lamb Sliders with mini gerkins and homemade fingerling potato chips (in purple and yellow). The sliders featured a delicious aioli, lettuce and tomato, and sat atop homemade brioche buns. My favorite dish of the night, it was also clearly the main dish - providing the most bulk (in a very good way). Their dish also featured a unique technique for making potato chips that I'm eager to try out. The fingerling potatoes were sliced paper thin, brushed with olive oil, placed on a plate and microwaved. They turned out perfectly crispy, perfectly browned, and perfectly flat (which gives this technique a leg up over deep frying in terms of presentation possibilities, in my mind).



The simple, classic nature of their burger and chips transitioned perfectly to the final dish...



As a tribute to his father (who passed away on this date), Gerald & Diana's dessert course finished the meal with beautifully executed comfort, and plenty of booze. Our plate featured two homemade cookies of chocolate chips, cocao nibs and hazelnuts, perched next to homemade vanilla bean ice cream, and a dish of homemade chocolate syrup. But before we dug in, we raised our pint glasses of Guinness, dropped in a shot of Bailey's and Jameson, and chugged our Irish Immigrant Car Bombs in honor of the late Mr. Sexton.



Bringing Memento back to it's roots was a great experience, and something I expect others will repeat in the future. It reminded us all of how well the premise - planning a meal backwards - can create a unique story with food, with each course introducing the next in it's own way. Sometimes we aim to create balance with the next dish (as in the subtle soup setting the stage for the bold proscuitto & goat cheese). Sometimes it's the repetition of a technique (such as the fritters and the corn dogs). Sometimes it's flavors (like the Indian and Middle Eastern spices). And sometimes it's echoing a concept, like elevated comfort foods. Tonight's unique story took us from a simple and elegant soup to a bold, down-home dessert - with twists and turns along the way, and around the globe.

And around the globe will be taking center stage in the next round of Memento. Marcy & James gave us a preview of what they have in store - a night honoring the ancestry of their daughter Penelope. With bloodlines from Germany, Ireland, Italy, French Canada, Luxumburg and Spain, they will be assigning each of us a different country to represent in our course. Taking one for the team, they'll be doing Luxumburg themselves. Dan & I have the salad course, and have our fingers crossed for Italy or Spain... and not Ireland, where I recall salad wasn't exactly exciting.

Homemade Mustard
3 Tbspn yellow mustard seeds
2 1/2 Tbspn brown mustard seeds
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
1 shallot, minced (about 2 Tbspn)
3/4 tspn salt
Additional spices to taste

In a non-reactive bowl, combine all ingredients and refrigerate overnight, covered. Transfer the mixture to a blender and process until mustard has obtained the desired texture and thickness. It will be very thin at first, then thicken as the mustard seeds become ground and the mustard begins to emulsify.

(Based on Emerille Lagasse's recipe on FoodNetwork.com)



Homemade Indian Duck Sausage
2 lbs duck meat, boned and trimmed of skin
1 lb pork shoulder
1 lb pork backfat
2 cloves garlic
2 inches fresh ginger, peeled & roughly chopped
2 Tbpsn kosher salt
4 Tbspn Garam Masala (recipe follows)



Cut the duck, pork and backfat into pieces your grinder will be able to handle. Add garlic, ginger, salt and Garam Masala to meat and cover. Refrigerate overnight. Grind meat/fat mixture together on course setting. Hand mix the ground meat to ensure consistency. Take a small sample and pan fry to taste for seasoning, adjusting accordingly. Stuff meat into casings, tie and store.

(Adapted from this recipe, courtesy Beerotter)



Garam Masala
1 large cinnamon stick, coursely chopped
1 Tbspn whole cumin seeds
2 Tbspn coriander seeds
1 tspn cardamom pods
1/2 tspn whole cloves
1 tspn fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 Tbspn black peppercorn

Roast each spice individually in a cast iron or heavy metal pan on the stop top, until you smell the aroma of the spice. They should each take about a minute each in a hot pan, but the nutmeg will roast very briefly and the peppercorn should be roasted last and quickly. Cool the spices and gride coursely (for use in sausage) or finely for use in traditional recipes.

(From Blue Ribbon Cooking School's Introduction to Indian Cooking)

Microwave Potato Chips
(From Jason) Slice potatoes very thin. Coat them lightly in olive oil. Since I was doing so many, I poured plenty of oil in a wide flat serving dish and got a bunch of them coated all at once. Place them on a plate but don't let them touch unless you want them to bond together in crunchy goodness. I microwaved them on high for 3 minutes, turning them over half way through. You may have to experiment with the time and turning and plate. One plate fried them much faster than another.

I tossed them in a little bit of salt and pepper, but you could do anything you wanted. Did someone mention truffle oil?

Happy chipping!

Mastering Page 570 of 0375413405

For tonight's Memento supper club, we're going to be making duck sausage. I bought a full duck from Uwajimaya (along with some pork back fat and hog casings), and needed to break it down before I grind it up & make the sausage using our fancy new Kitchenaid food grinder and sausage stuffer attachments. So I did what any self-respecting foodie would do when they have a full duck in front of them and some time to kill: I pulled out Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1, turned to page 570, and followed the steps to bone a duck - a process that removes the main carcass from the bird without damaging the meat or the skin, allowing you to stuff the bird with pate, roast it whole, and cut it into perfect slices. It was made famous in the book and film "Julie & Julia", as it was the last recipe in the book that Julie prepared.

I'm happy to say I did it fairly quickly, and without a single puncture to the skin. The process is simpler than it would seem, and just requires careful attention. My zoology degree may have also come in handy, given my experience with dissections and knowledge of anatomy.

How to Bone a Duck, Turkey, or Chicken

To begin with, cut a deep slit down the back of the bird from the neck to the tail, to expose the backbone.



With a small, sharp knife, its edge always cutting against the bone, scrape and cut the flesh away from the carcass bones down one side of the bird, pulling the flesh away from the carcass with your fingers as you cut.



When you come to the ball joints connecting the wings and the second joints to the carcass, sever them, and continue down the carcass until you reach just the ridge of the breast where the skin and bone meet. Then stop.



Repeat the same operation on the other side of the bird.



By the time you have completed half of this, the carcass frame, dangling legs, wings and skin will appear to be an unrecognizable mass of confusion and you will wonder how in the world any sense can be made of it all. But just continue cutting against the bone, and not slitting any skin, and all will come out as it should.

When you finally arrive at the ridge of the breastbone on the opposite side, stop again.



Then lift the carcass frame and cut very closely against the ridge of the breastbone to free the carcass, but not to slit the thin skin covering the breastbone. Chop off the wings at the elbows, to leave just the upper wing bones attached.



After that, I actually removed the skin and broke the bird down into parts, chopped up for the sausage making to come. But I'm excited to have this skill in my culinary tool box, so to speak, and think it would be a wonderful way to prepare a thanksgiving turkey some year.

Chowder & a Movie

Dan & I headed down to Southcenter Mall (I refuse to call it Westfield) to catch another Oscar contender - The King's Speech. But beforehand, we grabbed a bite at the Duke's ChowderHouse at the mall.


The lunch menu items were all surprisingly bulky, but I found an appetizer that sounded like good, light fare - Tuna Wasabi Quesadilla. It combined marinated yellowfin tuna with cucumber pico de gallo inside a flour tortilla, and was paired with a "wasabi" mayo and a black bean & corn salad (served in a little fried tortilla bowl). I appreciated the mayo being on the side, but found the quesadilla lacked anything to really hold it all together. Though the wasabi wasn't really discernible - lacking the kick I expected - it was still a tasty lunch.

Dan went for the lunch special - a half a cod sandwich and a bowl of chowder, which we were surprised to find came with a big pile of fries. Even when you try to eat lighter, restaurants sneak fries onto your plate. And who can resist a crispy, crunchy french fry? I had to eat one. but only one.



After lunch, we still had a little to kill before the movie started, so Dan showed me Seafood City - a new Filipino supermarket inside the Southcenter mall, with TONS of fresh seafood and some pretty exotic produce. And they have a variety of tea eggs, including duck! If you ever need beef bile, a variety of bittermelon options, or quail eggs, Seafood City is the place to go.

The Aptly (re)Named, Grand Jumbo

Philip was in town from LA this weekend, so we got together with him, Ruth and Paul at our place for a drink in the tiki bar to catch up before heading out to dinner. Dan and I decided to make dinner a surprise for everyone. I'd heard great things about a local spot from a coworker, and on the bus ride home this week realized they're having a grand re-opening, so it seemed like the perfect place:

Grand Jumbo Chinese Restaurant!



The restaurant was called Jumbo, but as part of the reopening, they've changed to Grand Jumbo. Having not been before, I'm not sure what else was involved in the reopening, but there definitely seemed to be some fresh stenciling on the walls.



The space lives up to the name - a HUGE banquet hall filled with dozens of round tables of various sizes - including large tables with lazy Susans in the centers - a stage, and a full lighting grid including disco ball. The ceilings are lofty and the walls between the restaurant and bar (BOSS Cocktail Lounge) appear to open up. It's obvious why they're advertising that they rent the space - it would be perfect for a large wedding reception, birthday or bar mitzvah.



The menu is also worthy of the Grand Jumbo name, with pages and pages filled with dishes ranging from the familiar (Kung Pao Chicken) to the exotic (Crispy Duck Feet).



We opted for mostly standard fare - BBQ Pork, Honey Walnut Prawns, and General Tso's Chicken - plus a recommendation from our waiter (Beef Short Ribs), one exotic dish that our waiter thought he was teasing me by suggesting, but I went for (Salt & Pepper Duck Tongue) and a pretty exotic hot pot featuring coconut, taro and duck.



Our waiter was enthusiastic and engaged, telling us some very interesting (though not always appetizing) stories of his childhood in Southern China. Everything was delicious. I even enjoyed the duck tongue, though I think I was the only one who did. It tasted like little bits of fried chicken (mostly crispy skin), though it was a little tricky to eat due to a small bone running through the center.

One might think the name Grand Jumbo is a little redundant, but given the size of the place, the depth of the menu, and the tall tales from the staff, it seems perfect to me. And we'll definitely be back for a dim sum adventure.

Thoa's for Restaurant Week

After falling in love with Hawai'i, Dan & I discovered a Seattle restaurant called the Islander that served great Hawaiian & Pan-asian food and delicious drinks in a Polynesian inspired setting - and had a beautiful patio overlooking Puget Sound. We spent Valentine's Day there; we had them cater our engagement party; we brought friends there; and before all that - before it was even the Islander - Dan was in a short film in the space (it was an Italian joint at the time).

Then the owner decided to close the Islander and open a Vietnamese restaurant called Thoa's.

Dan & I were heartbroken - and this was just the first of three Hawaiian restaurants in the area to close (it was followed by Trader Vic's and Luau). Despite our connection to the space, we couldn't bring ourselves to go back after the changeover... until tonight.



Driving through downtown the other day, we saw the sign for Thoa's and agreed maybe it was time to check it out. Then we discovered it was part of Seattle Restaurant Week, and that sealed the deal. So tonight we bit the bullet, put aside our grudge, and returned to the space for a 3-course meal with a $25 price tag.

Dan arrived first and was happy to find that the drink menu still included many of our favorites, including the Mango-Ginger Margarita ($9), which he ordered. I decided to try a new addition to the menu - the Thai Bom ($9), a delicious Thai Iced tea based cocktail very similar to the one I had at Spice Room recently (and again they accommodated my lactose intolerance by swapping cream out for coconut cream). Thoa's version is more true to the original Thai Iced tea recipe, with the additions of Amaretto and vanilla infused vodka.



We both opted to enjoy the $25 fixed menu, starting with Jicama Summer Rolls (normally $7), which were incredibly fresh and served with a slightly sweet tamarind dipping sauce.



There was a little delay with our entrees, so our friendly and attentive server brought over a bowl of steamed & salted edamame to keep us satiated while we waited - which wasn't that long of a wait.





Of the three entree options available for the special menu, I went for the Vietnamese Steak Frites (normally $20) - a stir fry of sorts featuring beef tenderloin cubes and thin potato fries, tossed with red & green bell peppers and onions and tomatoes. The beef was tender and flavorful, and the potatoes were surprisingly not heavy - though it was served with a bowl of steamed rice that seemed like starch overkill.






Dan couldn't resist the Five Spice Duck Breast (normally $19), which he graciously let me sample. It was well worth the wait, cooked perfectly and seasoned wonderfully - the five spice giving it a rich, peppery flavor that balanced the duck. As a side was a coconut kombucha squash, which was equally rich in flavor.



Rounding out our three courses was a Fried Banana with Ice Cream (normally $7). Unlike the fried bananas at Aloha plates that have a thick batter of coconut and panko, these had just a thin tempura style batter, and were served warm topped the ice cream.



We were both very happy with our dinners and drinks, and pleased to see that the menu and decor hadn't changed that much - with old favorites like Loco Moco, Ahi Poke, and Sweet Potato Fries still available. And getting to sample the menu at a reduced price was a great excuse to finally return, getting $67 worth of food for $50 - not counting the complimentary edamame (normally $3).

Thoa's may not be the Islander, but it still has plenty of aloha.



Seattle Restaurant Week continues until April 29th.