Dinner In The Dark - Noodlecat!

Holy moly! I just realized that I haven't written a blog entry about a Dinner In The Dark charity event since April earlier this year. That means that five of these fantastic dinners have come and gone (one month was canceled and another month was skipped due to low attendance) since I have mentioned this wonderful Cleveland-based organization seeking to not only bring together some of northeast Ohio's best chefs, but also help a local charitable cause in the process. While one of the founding members, Ellis Cooley (who was the chef at AMP 150), has left the Cleveland area to return to his home in Florida, he remains a part of the group along with co-founders Brian Okin and Jeff Jarrett (who interestingly enough now presides as chef at AMP 150). The trio has also recently given their website a face lift to feature events, news, bios on the participating chefs, and the pictures that yours truly has taken at prior dinners.

Tonight's dinner was held at Noodlecat, Jonathon Sawyer's recently opened Japanese and American noodle house mashup. This time around, the dinner was being held to benefit Michael Cantu, a Brecksville young man who earlier this year was involved in a gymnastics accident that left him in a wheelchair with many months of hospital stays.

Since the dinner was on Monday night, parking was a breeze. Since there were no downtown events happening that night, the valet next to Lola Bistro on East 4th was only $8 and the walk from the valet to the front of Noodlecat took all of five minutes. For those unfamiliar with the location of Noodlecat, it is just west of the House of Blues on Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland.

Once inside the restaurant, my friend Tami and I were quickly shown to our empty table, having arrived prior to the others in our dining party. I quickly got out the necessary camera gear for tonight's shindig and started to get set up. Here was a shot of the front of the menu:


While I know you haven't seen that menu in some time, gentle reader, a lot of the same players involved now are those that have been with the group since the beginning. Probably the one major addition to those sponsoring the event is Fat Casual BBQ, who graciously provided the staff meal for those involved in pulling off this event.

Flipping the menu over, the back contained the usual list of chefs and symbols cryptically suggesting what each course would be:


All were pretty straightforward except for the guy in the lederhosen for the dessert course. Knowing that Cory Barrett used to be the pastry chef for Lola Bistro, we knew that whatever it turned out to be, it would certainly be very creative and tasty.

Having finished examining the menu, Tami and I turned out attention to the platter of sliced bread sitting in the middle of the table:


While most DITD events have started with an amuse bouche, we couldn't figure out if this was a pre-amuse or this was the main event. It turned out that the bread with herbed olive oil was either the amuse or perhaps just a pre-dinner nibble and there was no official amuse. Either way, mix tasty bread with tasty oil and my mouth was definitely ready for what was to come next.

To go along with our pre-dinner nibble, Joe Deluca and Tobin Northrup sent out a cocktail called Winter Eve Warmer:


Served hot, this mulled wine had all of the warming spices from the Thanksgiving and Christmas season infused into it. There was just enough in the glass to give you a warm feeling inside while the first course made its way into the dining room.

Speaking of which, the first course was Chris Hodgson's (from Dim and Den Sum, Hodge Podge, and the soon-to-be opened Hodge's) and was a play on a "Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich":


The patty consisted of a combination of sous vide and ground chicken thighs mixed with foie gras, seared on the flat top. It was served on a toasted bun with a waterlily leaf, roasted jalapeno and orange blossom aioli and a sliced grape tomato. When assembled, this was quite the mouthful, but a tasty mouthful at that. The foie gras had done its job of adding lots of moisture to the patty and when taking bite after bite, it was imperative to keep the slider over the plate, lest you wear the juice. The sandwich also had a very subtle spice, which was enjoyed by everyone sitting at my table.

The second course came to us from Ben Hsu (from Sushi 86):


The sushi "sandwich," as Chef Hsu put it, was actually seared Albacore tuna sushi done in an Osaka style presentation (where the sushi is made by pressing it into a box), Ghost Chile aioli, shredded daikon radish, wakame jelly, celery leaf, and scallions to garnish. I had never tried Ghost Chiles before, but I do know they are the hottest chile peppers on the planet. I was intrigued to see how well the chef had controlled the heat.

I took a bite with a little bit of each component in the dish and my mouth was rewarded with culinary bliss. Chef Hsu completely knocked this out of the ballpark. The fish was tender, perfectly seared on just the exterior. The Ghost Chile aioli was creamy with just a hint of spice, the wakame jelly added a bit of seaweed flavor and the gelatin helped to cool off the spiciness from the sauce. This was absolutely delicious. I would have been a very happy man with four more courses of the exact same dish.

Fortunately, for me, more delectable goodness was on its way. Specifically, the third course from Brian Goodman (of Greenhouse Tavern fame):


Jonathon Sawyer has been prepping himself to serve a meal at the James Beard house in the near future. He and Brian turned to Richard Olney's Souffle a la Swissesse to accomplish their task. The cheese souffle was cooked well on the outside and managed to stay tender, moist, and steaming on the inside. The souffle was nestled in a bowl of pureed mushrooms and chestnuts and was garnished with fresh thyme. This was truly an umami "bomb," if you will, with the flavors of mushroom, thyme, and cheese predominating. It was also incredibly good and more than one of us at the table wished it wasn't so verboten to lick the bowl in a public restaurant.

Normally at this point in the meal, an intermezzo is served to clear the palate from the previous courses and to prepare the palate to receive the final dishes in the meal. While an intermezzo is usually something slightly sweet and acidic (like sorbet), in sticking with the theme of Noodlecat, a plate of pickled vegetables appeared at our table for us to share:


Starting at twelve o'clock on the plate, you have pickled beets, pickled turnips, pickled pumpkin rind, pickled radishes and the small ramekin in the middle held kimchee, that wonderful pungent and spicy fermented cabbage that Koreans contributed to the global culinary scene. Each was good, but I particularly liked the pickled turnips because they had a nice balance between the acidity of the vinegar and a natural sweetness.

The fourth course was presented to us by Scott Kuhn (from Washington Place Bistro & Inn):


The scallop had been encrusted with dried porcini powder before being seared to a beautiful medium-rare. The scallop was soft and tender and a delight to eat, although mine was a touch on the aggressively seasoned side. That being said, the Israeli couscous that was served with the scallop was a bit underseasoned, so perhaps they were meant to be eaten together. Having only one type of mushroom on this plate was definitely not enough, so in addition to the porcini, sauteed Chanterelle mushrooms made an appearance as well as impossibly-thin shaved black truffles.

For our final savory course, Brian Reilly (from Noodlecat) gave us a soul-satisfying Japanese noodle dish with a twist:


This was the more traditional Japanese component of tonight's fifth course -- fresh Ohio City Pasta udon in a kombu broth with Enoki mushrooms, softened kombu, and scallions.

The American twist came to us in a Chinese take-out box:


Inside was a battered and fried halibut with nori on a stick -- Americans love anything fried on a stick after all -- sitting on top of micro-greens. After combining the two components, I ended up with this:


By the time we were served this course, many at my table were ready to cry "Uncle!" because we were so full. Some ate a little, some ate it all, I ate about half. I ate all of the crispy and juicy halibut, which was cooked to perfection. The pasta served tonight was a little bit flatter than regular udon and after much debate amongst my tablemates, a table-hopping Jonathon Sawyer finally put it to rest by asserting that it was indeed a form of udon. The noodles were tender while still retaining a bit of toothsomeness. The broth was characteristically Japanese, light with great depth of flavor. Overall, this was a lovely dish, even if I didn't finish it.

Our final taste of the evening came from Cory Barrett, former pastry chef at Lola Bistro and now executive chef:


It turned out that the gentleman in lederhosen on the menu actually referred to a citrus Bavarian cream on top of an almond spongecake all topped with a white chocolate plaquette. Also on the plate was a lime curd, Mardarin orange and ginger beer sherbet, and a cardamom crumble. Garnishing the sorbet was a single red sorrel leaf. This was the PERFECT way to end the meal. The dessert was both sweet and tart and easily cleansed the palate after so much other food had preceded it. The cardamom crumble almost had a peppery spice to it that was a wonderful foil for the sweetness. Cory may no longer be practicing the pastry arts on a daily basis, but he has lost none of his skills at balancing competing and complimentary flavors.

Our three hour culinary journey at an end, we packed up our bags and headed out into the chilly Cleveland air. Before we left, it was announced that next month's Dinner In The Dark event would be held at Rocco Whalen's Fahrenheit in Tremont on Monday, January 16th at 6:30 PM. While tickets for this dinner are the same $65 base price as all the other dinners, with tip, taxes, and fees, it comes out closer to $86. One big difference is that the Fahrenheit dinner only has fifty seats instead of the usual seventy, so if you're interested in going, I'd suggest you get your ticket sooner rather than later.

Lola Bistro For The Win

When I found out that my very good college friend Chris would be coming into town for the weekend of the Cleveland Indian's home opener, I began to think about places to eat that might be of interest to him. I asked him if he had any requests and the only one he made was that we should eat at least a meal at one of Michael Symon's restaurants. Clearly the lure of the Iron Chef America's celebrity had reached all over the country, including Scranton, Pennsylvania where Chris currently resides. On a previous visit to town, Chris had the opportunity to eat with us at Lolita, but sadly, he wasn't feeling well that evening and decided to hang out at his hotel.

This time around, however, there were more Michael Symon choices than the last time he visited. Wanting to give him a sort of well-rounded viewpoint of the Iron Chef's cooking, I decided to set up a dinner at his flagship restaurant Lola Bistro and a casual lunch at his newest venture, B Spot. Since I knew that I wouldn't be covering any new culinary ground on the B Spot side of things (having written about them three times already), I determined that Lola would be the focus of this review.

Lola was located on the East 4th area of downtown Cleveland between Prospect and Euclid Avenue. Most of the road was inaccessible to car traffic, but luckily there was a valet service just as one turns onto East 4th from Prospect. Sadly, as there was a major sporting event today, parking was a pretty stiff $15. Less sadly, $15 wasn't the most expensive rate I had seen and given the amount of traffic downtown, I simply sucked it up and paid the fee. Lola was located at 2058 East 4th Street, Cleveland, OH 44115 and can be reached at 216-621-5652.

The sign for Lola was visible as soon as I rounded the corner from the valet parking service:


Once inside, I remembered how dimly lit the interior of the restaurant made picture taking an almost improbability without the use of some type of flash. Fortunately one of the other party members tonight, Edsel, had brought along his digital camera and even though it had a flash, he and I used a combination method of using the light emitted from the "Flashlight" application on my Android phone to light the food and his camera to actually take the pictures. Edsel posted his pictures on his Flickr page and has graciously allowed me to use his photographs in this post. Check out all of the originals (and more) that he posted about tonight's dinner and post-dinner drinks at the Velvet Tango Room.

Once seated, we began with a round of pre-dinner drinks. I had a Stolichnaya martini up with blue cheese stuffed olives:


As has become the trend nowadays to bring everyone's drink pre-mixed in individual cocktail shakers, our server returned to the table and proceeded to pour all three of our drinks on the spot. My first sip was exactly as expected: smooth, cold, and just a bit of a bite from the vodka. The blue cheese olives added a lovely briny and sharp bite that contrasted well to the nearly flavorless vodka. It was both refreshing and a wonderful way to stimulate my appetite for what was to come.

Unfortunately, because of the very dim light, I didn't even bother to try taking any pictures of the menu; they simply wouldn't have come out well. That being said, most of the menu that we enjoyed tonight at Lola is also available on-line. I started out with an appetizer of crispy veal sweetbreads served with bacon, scallions and a wonderful veal demi-glace reduction:


For those that don't know, sweetbreads are not a sweet dessert bread, but are instead the thymus gland of a young animal, in this case a calf. If not prepared correctly, they can have a very spongy texture to them that is most unappealing. In tonight's preparation, however, they were perfectly cooked. The meat itself was firm and a last minute sear has given the exterior a wonderful taste and texture. Of course, Symon doesn't stop there and pairs one of his favorite ingredients, bacon, to great effect with the sweetbreads. The scallions added a nice bit of sharpness and the underlying sauce was heady and rich. The portion size was perfect for one person for an appetizer.

My dining companion Edsel got a more recent addition to the menu, the fried bone marrow with toasted bread and various accoutrement:


I've included his dish as well because we traded bites of our appetizers for the other's. The accoutrement were pickled shallots, parsley, lemon wedges, sea salt, salsa verde and still warmed caramelized onions. The bone marrow had been lightly dusted in flour before being quickly fried. To eat, you placed on of the marrow strips (on the right side of the board above) on a toast point and topped with whichever condiment struck your fancy. I choose some of the pickled shallot and course sea salt and was rewarded with a mouthful of crispy, fatty, smoky, salt, and just a touch of brightness from the pickled shallots. While clearly this isn't something your cardiologist would recommend you eating on even a sparse basis, I can see why people are drawn towards the fatty unctuousness of bone marrow; it's quite addictive.

Having finished our appetizers, the entrées appeared next. I had chosen the lamb chops for my next course:


Topped with a Meyer lemon and chopped garlic "gremolata," these beautifully seared lamb chops rested above a combination of cannelini beans, rapini and florina peppers. My server suggested that I order the lamb medium rare, and while I normally order my beef cuts this way, medium rare lamb to me has too much of a "chewy" quality to it, so I ordered it medium instead. As I cut into my first chop, I was happy to see that the meat was cooked exactly to my specification. The one aspect of Michael Symon's cooking that never fails to surprise me was how he could combine such bold flavors on one plate and yet still retain softer, more subtle flavors that complement and enhance the more primal ones. Clearly this was a lamb dish; however, the aromatic lemon and garlic on top really brought the "lamb-i-ness" to the forefront of my mouth. The cannelini beans were completely cooked, yet still retained just a bit of toothiness so as to provide a nice textural contrast. The rapini and florina peppers added a bit of sharpness that contrasted well with the umami flavor from the lamb. If there was one item to criticize, it was that this dish was on the edge of being oversalted. To my taste it wasn't oversalted, but fairly aggressively seasoned.

By the time the dessert menus arrived at the table, I was feeling fairly full, but decided that if I was in for a penny, I might as well be in for a pound. While the current dessert menu listed on-line was reflected on our menus tonight, Edsel decided to take a photograph of the striking front of the dessert menu:


Inside the front cover lay six different desserts and a multi-cheese tasting plate that appealed to my friend Chris. Having never had pastry chef Cory Barrett's mind-blowing "6 A.M. Special," I decided that this was the dessert for me tonight. According to our server, the current version being offered was slightly revised from the original. Originally using brioche as the basis for the French toast portion of the dessert, Cory had decided to use pound cake that had been coated in panko bread crumbs before being fried.

After a few minutes, our desserts arrived:


My dessert was comprised of two triangular pieces of pound cake that had been coated in panko before being fried, topped with maple-bacon ice cream, served over caramelized apples and a maple syrup sauce drizzled around the plate. First, let me start off by just saying, "Wow!" This was an amazingly complex and delicious dessert. While I think $9 might be a bit steep for what you receive, the complex combination of salty and sweet were definitely worth the price tag. The pound cake definitely benefited from the panko coating and gave each cake a nice crispy exterior. Honestly, the flavor was almost like a fried piece of cornmeal mush. The maple-bacon ice cream was actually subtle and when I finally managed to get a bit of each of the elements on one fork, the layers of flavors and textures was quite nice.

Edsel decided to order the sour cream and apple panna cotta with green apple sorbet, caramelized pie dough, raisin, fennel, and celery:


He encouraged me to try a bite of his dessert and I have to admit, I think I may have liked it even more than my "6 A.M. Special." This dessert was all about subtlety. The sour cream in the panna cotta was perfectly balanced with the tartness from the apple. Combined with the crunchy pie dough and slices of apple and fennel, this was a delicious and refreshing dessert. While my dessert was good, had I already sampled it in a prior visit, I certainly would've gotten the panna cotta instead.

Our desserts (and cheese plate) out of the way, we requested our check and our server not only brought the item requested, but also a plate of mignardises, in this case, small cookies that to me tasted like snickerdoodles that had raisins and nuts in them:


These were a wonderful way to end the meal and at least one of us came up with the pithy Monty Python line, "Just a wafer thin mint, sir."

Lola was definitely not cheap. My portion of the check for one martini, an appetizer, entrée, and dessert with tip and tax came close to $77. Clearly Lola is not the kind of place where I know that I can go on even a fairly regular basis. However, for a once in a while treat (and in this case I was celebrating my friend Chris being in town and me getting a new job), I definitely think it is worth a trip.