Sensibly Seasoned Southwest

Do you remember Richardson’s, probably the best known Southwestern restaurant in Phoenix? It closed a while ago without our ever having been there - the wait was always too long, and I was leery because I had heard that the food, while good, was very, very spicy hot. So I was pleased when Ken informed me that Secreto, a new restaurant in Ahwatukee Foothills, had been opened by Barbara Brown, co-owner of Richardson’s. 

I’m going to start by telling you how outstanding the food is, because you really should give it a try. Then I’ll move on to what I didn’t like.

We met foodie friends Leon, Sena and their granddaughter Julie for Sunday lunch. The breakfast menu was also being served. I ordered a stuffed poblano pepper from the appetizer menu (prices ranging from $4-$12). This had been roasted, unlike chile rellenos which are deep fried. It was filled with oozy Mexican cheeses and chorizo, and topped with creme fraiche. The heat level was perfect for me, my lips tingled, but only for a moment. For an appetizer, the serving was good sized. Sena also ordered from the appetizer menu. Her crab cakes,  two atop some salad greens, drizzled with chipotle aioli, were on the hot side for her, but she seemed to enjoy them anyway. When I tasted them, I again felt the seasoning and heat level were perfect, but I thought they had an odd texture. Although they were quite crabby, no pieces of crab were detectable, perhaps they had been too thoroughly mixed with the filler. At any rate, they were delicious.

Ken had intended to order from the breakfast menu because he wanted the carne adovada to come with a fried egg and potatoes, rather than eggless, with rice and beans from the lunch menu. When his food arrived on a dangerously hot metal plate, it was cross-dressed. The egg was there, but served with rice and beans rather than potatoes. We both loved the meat, it had a deep smokey taste with slightly charred edges and was served with just the right amount of red chile sauce. The portion was quite generous - Ken kept passing chunks of meat over to me. There was no liquid on the beans, and they didn’t stick together at all. I’ve never seen them served with rice this way and I didn’t care for it, but Ken did. Leon ordered a chicken sandwich. It was huge and looked really good, but was a little hot for him. I really have to remember to stay away from places where the heat level can’t be requested for each dish when we’re dining together. The mound of curly fries that came with his sandwich were perfectly crispy.

We had flan for dessert. It was delightful in its simplicity, light yet rich and creamy. Thank goodness no one felt compelled to spray phony whipped cream on top or add spices to it. This seemed to be the only dessert offered, but when Julie, Leon and Sena’s granddaughter, didn’t like it, she was offered Haagen Daaz with chocolate sauce. 

Now for the negatives. You can see that a lot of money was spent on the interior, with its attractive copper bar, raised banquettes, and shades made of saguaro spines, but to me it felt dark, heavy and depressing. Because my scooter couldn’t be accommodated in the main dining room, we were put in an unpleasant room used for business meetings and large parties. It’s a long narrow room and feels like an after thought, only half decorated. Second, there’s a charge for chips and salsa. But our real complaint was with the service. It was very slow yet chaotic. Ice teas went unfilled, dishes were given to the wrong people - and this was in an almost empty restaurant. The owner came over a few times, and although she’s a lovely lady her presence didn’t make the service any more smooth. Since Secreto has been open only since June, perhaps this is a glitch that will disappear over time.

I know we’ll go back to try it again. The dinner menu has some interesting items on it that demand our attention.

Secreto

4232 E. Chandler Blvd.  Ahwatukee Foothills

(480) 706-2200

11AM - midnite daily (food served til 10PM).  Brunch starts at 9AM Sunday.

no website that I could find

Road Food: Dambar Steakhouse and the Himalayan Grill

     Recently we made our second “escape-the-heat” trip out of town, this time to the Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, Utah. The weather was great, in the low 90’s during the day and the 70’s at night. We saw an excellent production of Macbeth, an entertaining Pride and Prejudice, and an abysmal musical production of Great Expectations. The big disappointment was Cedar City itself. While the festival theaters were positively lush, and the Southern Utah University campus very pretty, there was nothing to do in town - no interesting places to shop, no art galleries, and horror-of-horrors, no good places to eat. Needless to say, we left a day early.

      But we did have two very interesting dining experiences.

      On our way to Utah we stopped in Kingman for a late lunch. Ken remembered a place we had discovered on our last trip through the area called The Dambar Steakhouse. It’s decorated in a rustic cowboy theme, with sawdust on the floor, corrugated tin dividers, and red checkered tablecloths. The menu holds no surprises - there’s lots of fried appetizers, a few Southwestern dishes, and much meat. Ken decided on pork chops ($13.99), and I ordered chopped steak ($9.99). Meals come with soup or salad, biscuits, cowboy beans and choice of potato. The biscuits are fabulous, light and flakey, with herbs mixed into the dough, served with herb butter. But even better than the biscuits is the meat. My chopped steak seemed to be freshly ground, and handled with the lightest touch imaginable. Recipes always tell you not to be rough when mixing and shaping hamburger, that kneading it to mix in seasoning or other ingredients will make it tough. I never appreciated that bit of information until I ate this ground steak. It felt like there were little air pillows between the bits of meat so that when I chewed a mouthful, I could appreciate the beefy taste, rather than just chomping my way through seasoned rubber. A light bulb moment! I promised then and there to never manhandle the beef again. And Ken’s pork chops - they actually tasted like meat, almost like a cross between pork and beef, with a nice chew. If you closed your eyes you could see the actual pig, not a styrofoam, plastic-wrapped tray of pallid pork. As Ken said, it was “REAL” food. Our shared piece of mixed fruit pie lived up to the standard, too. The filling was almost tart, not overly sugared and cooked to death, and each piece of fruit could be identified. Even the pieces of rhubarb still had texture. Debbie, our server, was friendly yet professional, and seemed genuinely pleased that we had enjoyed our meal.

     We had lunch in Flagstaff on the way home. I wasn’t looking forward to it, having never had an interesting meal there, but we had a Restaurant.com coupon for the Himalayan Grill: Cuisine and Bar of India, Nepal and Tibet and thought we’d give it a try. The outside of the restaurant is off-putting, it reminded me of a cheap Chinese restaurant, but on entering you’re in an attractive room painted in yellows and orange, with maroon hangings. There are stemmed glasses and cloth napkins, and my favorite: twinkly little lights. Although the $8.99 lunch buffet looked and smelled good, we decided to order from the menu. Nine of the almost 100 dishes are labeled “Cuisine of the Himalayas” but they sounded more bland than the spicy Indian dishes. We shared Kofta Curry ($13.95) minced lamb meatballs in a creamy curry sauce; Saag Lamb ($13.95) gingered lamb cooked with spinach; Bengan Barta ($9.95) roasted and

pureed eggplant in a special blend of spices; Himalayan Naan ($3.95) bread stuffed with raisins and cashew nuts; a side of mango chutney ($2.00); and a chai tea ($2.50). The prices seemed comparable to our favorite Indian restaurant in Phoenix, The Dhaba, but when our meal arrived we found the portions to be somewhat larger and the food more substantial. The sauces were thicker, and there was considerably more meat in each dish: in fact, we ended up taking home an additional meal’s worth. Everything was truly delicious, perfectly seasoned, and spiced to our requested “mild”. Ken even “oohed” over his cup of chai, and declared that this meal was the best Indian food he’d had outside of India. Excuse me for being crude, but even my post-lunch burps were enjoyable. The restaurant has been open for 3 1/2 years and, justifiably, has won many awards. We asked the proprietor if he’d consider moving to Phoenix, but he said he couldn’t take the heat. Our loss.

Dambar Steakhouse

1960 E. Andy Devine Ave.    Kingman    AZ     928-753-3523

open daily at 11AM

Himalayan Grill

801 Milton Ave.    Flagstaff    AZ     928-213-5444

open daily  Lunch: 11-3,  Dinner: 5-10

www.himalayangrill.com

This Improv Isn't Funny

     The concept at Posh restaurant is “improvisational cuisine”. I think of something improvised as being made up on the spot, done without preparation. What an exciting dining experience that would be, albeit fraught with danger for both the chef and the patrons. But don’t go to Posh expecting that. The days menu is set long before you arrive and all you get to do is check off on a printed list what proteins you dislike so they won’t be served to you. It’s disconcerting to be asked to think about food you don’t like at the beginning of a meal. Your other decision is how many courses you desire and if you want wine pairings: from $45 per person for 4 courses ($77 with wine) to $110/$165 for a full tasting, which is more than 7 courses.

     Our meal started off promisingly. We shared a nice cocktail called a Cosmonade ($9) made with Hangar 1 Citron, Chambord, and lemon. An amuse bouche of papaya sorbet with mint “caviar” was delicious (this tiny spoonful doesn’t count as a course).  My first course was an heirloom tomato salad with haricot vert and a few shavings of cheese. With something this simple  the ingredients need to shine, and these did not - the tomato, while ripe, had little flavor, and there was so little cheese it’s impact on the dish was negligible. Ken’s vichyssoise with chive oil was pleasant enough. For me, the fish course was sea bream with bok choy. The fish skin had been blasted with a propane torch which rendered it beautifully crispy. The Asian-y sauce on the vegetable was pretty salty, a harbinger of things to come. Ken received shrimp (they were called some fancy name) served with gnocchi, baby garlic, and a blastingly peppery aioli. The shrimp had been way overcooked, rendering them rubbery and tasteless. 

     On to the meat course. Mine was venison served on farro (which is an Italian whole grain), with a rhubarb gastrique. First I took a bite of meat - it was flavorful but tough. Then the farro. I gasped and almost choked. It was that salty. The insipid gastrique was totally overpowered by the other elements of the dish. Ken was kind enough to swap plates with me, and his braised short rib (hardly a seasonal dish) was at least edible, though also oversalted. Interestingly enough it was served with fingerling potatoes, making this the third dish in a row served to Ken that contained potatoes (assuming that the gnocchi had been made with them). When our waitress, cooly professional throughout, asked if we enjoyed this course, we mentioned the salt issue and she said she would inform the kitchen.

     Finally, dessert. We were both given chocolate cake, cut into unattractive chunks. Mine topped with cubes of apricot, and Ken’s with plum. Neither of these fruits complemented the cake, which contained a distractingly large amount of pepper. The drizzle of chocolate ganache was tasty. At this point we were seriously considering going to Crudo to have dessert since we needed a satisfying conclusion to the evening.

Just then our server brought us a complimentary cheese plate, an apology for the salty food. That turned out to be the high point of our experience (along with the amuse bouche). The cheese selection was excellent, and the buttery grilled bread outstanding.

But for $130 you’d expect more, wouldn’t you?

     I strongly suggest that if you want a an exceptional “tasting” experience you should visit Crudo Cafe. You even get to choose the foods you like to eat, not those you don’t.

Posh Improvisational Cuisine

7167 E. Rancho Vista Dr.   Scottsdale    480-663-7674

poshscottsdale.com