memoirs of a palate

APPLEWOOD IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD








Applewood isn’t exactly in our neighborhood ... but it is in Dan and Steveo’s. And it just feels so much like a wonderful neighborhood out there that I had to throw that in the title.

Anyway, last night Meena and I went out to 7th Avenue in Brooklyn to check out this restaurant we’d heard so many good things about. They’re unique in that they have an unusually rabid devotion to local farmers and only use hormone- and antibiotic-free meats and poultry. They even have on-site butchering of whole animals, so I suppose that means you really know what you’re getting. AND all their fish is wild – never farmed. I obviously want the highest quality ingredients whenever I’m eating something, so if THEY feel what's being used is just that, then I’m very pleased. And being from Indiana, I’m all for the support of local farms.

At any rate, I really, honestly just love food. I’m pretty open to everything from the gyro stand down the street to the medium rare lamb loin on the menu. So I’m not typically the most critical restaurant reviewer. I’m pretty sure I know what’s good and what’s not at this point, but understanding how difficult turning out an uncommonly great dish can be, I feel like I’m very forgiving. But when you’re throwing down twenty-five dollars a plate, I also think my investment entitles me to a little more freedom to critique.

So after starting with a delicious cabernet and three of the best spreads I’ve ever slathered on my whole wheat bread (garlic cream cheese, french butter and a butternut squash paste infused with pancetta) we were both presented with our starter small plates:

Meena went with the recommended:
- crispy vermont pork belly (with sweet onion marmalade, applewood smoked bacon and brown butter)

Alec went with the special:
- a tiny rack of rabbit (with roasted garlic, wilted green chard and a vegetable puree)

Meena’s recommended pork belly was perfect. It was decadent as hell, but the crisp and buttery pork went so well with the onion marmalade. It was simply perfect and I’d honestly go back just for it. My rabbit, while good, wasn’t great. I’m not a big portion guy (in fact, I’m always FOR using less), but my rabbit was more or less a couple bones with some tiny bits of meat at the ends. Everything that was served with the meat was great, but the rabbit itself was not as special as promised.

After the starters, we worked into the main event:

Meena had the (again, recommended):
- grilled free range vermont veal (with mushroom-braised beef ragout and celery root puree)

Alec had another off-menu special:
- lamb loin (with kosher salt and what I think I remember to be a roasted rapini cream type sauce?)

Again, Meena’s was really great. Her celery root puree could have been halved and probably done the same duty. I'm no chef, but there was just a bit too much. Other than that small error, every bite was amazing and that mushroom-braised beef ragout was tremendous.

I have to say I was a bit disappointed in mine. The sad thing is, I don’t think I would have been if they’d actually cooked it to the temperature I’d requested. They made a big deal of my option to control the loin’s temperature, so I was a little unhappy when it came out medium rather than medium rare. What I think happened was someone got our two orders a little reversed. Meena wanted medium, I wanted medium rare. Her dish benefited, mine suffered. But it was fine. It was still a great cut of meat and the sauce it was served with was very good.

Because we like to go all out when we try a new restaurant, we went ahead with the desert menu when it was presented. They really did keep the portion size down, so a little desert wasn’t such a belt busting option. We split the:
- poached pear tart with homemade toasted almond ice cream

The ice cream really made this one. The poached pear was a little heavy on an almond extract or something. But that ice cream was perfect. Wonderful finish to a great meal in a really charming little neighborhood.