July 22-28, 2004

food

Azure Like It

MAIN DESTINATION: Pan-seared filet tips, with a corn risotto cake, salad and flour tortillas, at Azure. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Whether an island retreat or an Asian oasis, Azure offers ample ways to escape its Northern Liberties locale.

by Lori Hill

Azure, a year-or-so-old venture in Northern Liberties, bills itself as "a vacation-style restaurant — no passport required."

And from the moment diners walk in the door, they surely feel like they're on an island getaway. The walls are a Caribbean-cool mix of corals, melons and turquoises, accented by sections of exposed brick and brushed-silver ceiling fans. Helen observes, "The blond hardwood floors are quite a nice change to the dark pub feel that dominates the NoLib neighborhood bar scene." The light-wood motif continues with the wide, comfortable bentwood benches that populate the dining room's smoking and nonsmoking areas. Juliet "loved the series of canvases depicting shoals of golden carp by Frank Hyder (for sale, but not cheap enough that they'll be off the walls soon)."

Now, on to the food. Here's where the vacation requires some connecting flights.

Juliet chose vegetable sukiyaki ($8), one of a few Asian dishes Azure offers (along with vegetarian potstickers and a shrimp and vegetable satay). The sukiyaki, Juliet says, is "an extremely good value Japanese hot pot, as deep as a well and packed with crisp vegetables, simmering in miso: carrots as crunchy as if they were raw; daikon radish in thick half-moons and broccoli, onion and mushroom." She adds that the tofu cubes "could have been similarly firm (as it was, they remained silky and slippery, hard to eat)." I thought the miso broth was light and savory, perhaps the one soup tolerable on a hot summer afternoon. Juliet complemented her meal "as tropically as I know how" with fresh pineapple juice.

Pat decided to remain on the islands, opting for the jerk chicken salad ($8), which was a hit with everyone. "The jerk chicken wasn't the spicy, dehydrated dish I was expecting," Pat says. "The meat was moist, tender and savory." Helen agreed, saying, "The jerk chicken had a light marinade which certainly didn't remind me of the real fiery jerk you find at "jerk centers' in Jamaica, where the chicken is pressed under rippled sheet metal and grilled for a very long time." Pat notes, with a hint of resentment, "The dish was served with sweet, grilled chunks of pineapple that were much in demand around the table." His spirits soared once again, though, when remembering the diet cream soda he ordered, made by Wilkes-Barre's Lion Brewery, which he found "a delicious and welcome alternative to standard diet cola."

For my part, whenever good old red meat is offered in new and interesting ways, I'm game, no matter what culture inspired it. Pan-seared filet tips ($10) were brushed with a pungent marinade of soy oil, brown sugar, cumin, cayenne and black pepper, then cooked quickly in a skillet. The cubes were a little too charred for my taste, and perhaps for my order (medium), but after the first couple of chewy bites, the meat was succulent enough; besides, the dish is served with a chipotle mayo dipping sauce that took the edge off any chargrilled aftertaste. A lovely roasted corn risotto cake sat in the middle of the dish, and its rich, creamy (and filling) interior was a pleasant complement to the spicy main course. Lettuce, tomatoes and flour tortillas also accompany the meal, presumably to make mini fajitas — but who needs bread when you've got risotto? (The restaurant offers the same dish in seitan form for vegetarians.)

Helen went out to sea for her entree, the crab cake sandwich ($10), and she might well have left it there, deeming it "fairly tasty but nothing to write home about." She found the lump crabmeat "standard, not overly fried, not too big nor too small." And while she thought the sourdough bread was "fresh," she says the accompanying "coleslaw was too tart, disappointing since slaw seems almost natural with crab cakes."

And then there were the "upgrades" (what Azure calls their starchy side dishes); they were a day trip in themselves. Helen declared the sweet-potato fries with horseradish cream ($3) "heavenly" and "addictive": "I predict it will become my new favorite comfort food in Northern Liberties. The skin of each thinly cut fry was perfectly crisp and the inside was moist and sweet. The horseradish cream was a refreshing complement, but not essential for each fry."

The polenta fries ($3) were also a hit, and though they slightly resembled those French toast sticks from McDonald's, were thankfully much better. Juliet calls them "six timbers of load-bearing size." These cornmeal cakes were fried and served with mango catsup. Juliet says this dish exhibits "an unusual choice, pairing the Northern Italian polenta with tropical fruit, but the sweet, fruity flavors play well when the sun is out."

All of the dishes are extremely reasonably priced, and the presentation of the food on large, brightly colored dishes was beautiful. There were, of course, many dishes we didn't try, including some appetizers (black bean soup with red onion and orange gremolada, a Greek sampler) and desserts (fried banana spring roll, real Key lime pie) — all of which sounded so very tempting. But if the food we did try is any indication, they're all sure to be worth a return trip.

AZURE 931 N. Second St., 215-629-0500 Mon.-Thu. and Sun., 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-1 a.m. Appetizers, $4-$8; entrees, $5.50-$13 Wheelchair accessible. Smoking is permitted in the bar. All major credit cards.