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Also this issue: Welcome to the Pub:
Mary Ellen and Chris Mullins Girlfriends:
Valerie Ferguson and Melonease Shaw Homeware for the Holidays:
Ken Foster Its Your Party Carm, All Ye Faithful Maxis minis World Party |
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December 12-18, 2002
cover story
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A round of restaurant parties ushers in the holidays with panache.
The week before Thanksgiving was a busy one in the food world. First, there was the opening of The Bamboo Club, the latest chain restaurant to enhance King of Prussia’s land o’ malls. This Pacific Rim dining experience is large in scope and at present has locations in Arizona and Florida. Exotic design and exotic fare are the buzzwords here, with a warm, almost foreign atmosphere and foods representative of Seoul, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore. Amid the lush plants and rattan furniture, guests milled around sipping drinks with names like Hong Kong Hangover. This promises to be another busy bar scene, and a fun place for families as well. More later.
The following night, Fritz Blank did what very few chefs are wont to do -- cooked someone else's recipes in honor of that someone. In this case, it was Julie Dannenbaum, the doyenne of the cooking world, who first brought cooking classes to the Philadelphia area. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Les Dames d'Escoffier, an international organization of women in cooking. The fireplaces were lit at Blank's Deux Cheminées and the chandeliers glittered on the antique furnishings as Julie's friends, students and confreres feasted on old-fashioned beef Wellington and hazelnut roulade and toasted her with many kind words and flutes of champagne.
In dinners held the next two nights, Le Mas Perrier and Maggiano's Little Italy each celebrated a guest of honor, too -- but this time the honorees were edible.
In this carnivorous world, where a steakhouse seems to open every other minute, Le Mas Perrier held a series of "mushroom dinners" heralding the autumnal profusion of these wonderful fungi. Chef Laurent Pillard crafted a dinner using a variety of mushrooms in a variety of ways. First was a frothy cappuccino of mushrooms -- a light, creamy but delicate elixir so infused with mushroom flavor and the earthy drizzle of truffle oil that you couldn't seem to get enough. This was followed by round, fat little ravioli, stuffed with a duxelles of varied mushrooms in a light foie gras broth with more chopped sautéed mushrooms for garnish. A dorade was pan-seared first and then floated in a mushroom broth touched with soy, beneath a blanket of leeks and shiitake mushrooms.
In my world, as apparently in Pillard's, there is nothing that isn't enhanced by mushrooms.
The delicate white meat of a guinea hen goes perfectly with ebon slivers of trompettes de mortes, those black mushrooms with a flavor to die for (but not literally). Crispy bacon, potatoes and another sprinkle of barnyard-y truffle oil completed an elegant dish. Even at dessert, Pillard continued the theme, with a dish that seemed out of Alice in Wonderland. We were presented with two large mushrooms made of a chocolate mousse, capped with chocolate cookies and a few meringue mushrooms sprinkled as if on the forest floor. The meal, $40 per person in the warm confines of Le Mas, truly elevated the homely little delicacies.
Gilroy, Calif., claims to be the artichoke capital of the world, but the other evening, Maggiano's Little Italy assumed this title. They chose to honor this versatile, delicious vegetable in a series of dinners held at their Center City location and at their latest, in the King of Prussia mall. The suburban restaurant, a duplicate of the 12th and Filbert space, looks just like an old-fashioned spaghetti house, its paneled walls covered with pictures of Sinatra and other famed Italians and lit by old-style lamps. It is a big, bustling place, filled with families who come for the huge portions of dependable, well-priced food, and maybe too for the Sinatra music always in the background. At the next table, a woman was methodically dividing a gargantuan pile of fried calamari into five aluminum dishes, obviously to take home, and there was still plenty left over. Incidentally, we had to have some of the calamari, too (half-order, $7.95), for it is hard to resist.
After that, with drinks, we started with an artichoke soup ($3.90) that was more like a thick vegetable soup with pieces of artichoke hearts added. The flavor was elusive, but not so in the stuffed artichoke ($8.95). I have never seen a larger artichoke, and it was done perfectly, stuffed with well-seasoned crabmeat and spinach, set afloat on a sea of white wine and lemon. A most delectable dish, big enough for two, but impossible to pair with wine, for artichokes make everything taste a little sweeter. A chenin blanc, sweet to begin with, might do the trick. Then, a gigantic platter of tender, sautéed filets of rainbow trout appeared, gilded with breadcrumbs and with a bedding of chopped tomatoes, artichokes and olives (small order, $17.95). Fish and artichokes go very well together; actually, artichokes go with mostly anything, the same way that the mushroom does. Dessert did not carry out the artichoke theme, but cappuccino chocolate chip gelato will satisfy me every time.
Le Mas Perrier and Maggiano's will retain certain of these dishes on their menus: the heavenly cappuccino of mushrooms, for example, and Maggiano's monumental stuffed artichoke, though not always with crabmeat.
And to think: This was just the beginning of the holiday eating season ...
The Pavilion at King of Prussia Mall, 610-265-0660
1221 Locust St., 215-790-0200
503 W. Lancaster Ave., Wayne, 610-964-2588
1201 Filbert St., 215-567-2020
205 Mall Blvd., King of Prussia, 610-992-3333
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