Jim's birthday dinner - Gallileo III

UPDATE: Galileo III closed September 2011

For Jim's birthday, we chose Galileo III. We had been given a very generous gift certificate to Galileo as a thank you for taking the wedding picture for our friends Ted and Bruce's wedding and decided to use it for Jim's birthday dinner. And not just any dinner but the 12+ course Chef's Choice Tasting Menu. You heard me right boys and girls, 12 courses. Plus dessert. *
*actual number of courses we were served was 10 - see my follow up at the end of this post.

We got to the restaurant about 30 minutes before our reservation and paid a visit to the bar and pestered Chris the bar manager. We each ordered a cocktail and a short time later, were treated to a small plate of the thinnest sliced Mortadella ever and some warm bread. It was heavenly. With drinks and our pre-dinner treat behind us, we were seated at our table to begin our dining extravaganza.

With help from Chris and our server, we selected a nice bottle each of white and red wine to go with the meal.

Reflection from the wine glasses on a shelf behind our table

An assortment of breads were brought to the table with a side of ricotta, parsley and garlic butter.
Then the courses began.
First Course:
Burrata: Imported Burrata cheese over roasted peppers marinated with capers, garlic, Sicilian olive oil.Second Course:
Tonno delle Isolelle Isole: Salad of Fregola, chopped tuna, smoked, bottarga of tuna, curly endive, blood orange dressing.Third Course:
Bagna Cauda: Flan Duo of warm red peppers and Jerusalem artichokes in a Bagna Cauda (anchovy garlic) sauceFourth Course:
Budino di Parmigiano: Parmigiano Reggiano cheese pudding top with a layer of Burrata cheese, cream of porcini mushrooms, sliced black truffle. (Ours were missing the black truffle) Fifth Course:
Raviolini del Plin: Small “pinched” ravioli filled with beef, veal and chicken. Served in a sauce of veal jus, butter and sage.Sixth Course:
Tortelloni: Tortelloni filled with red beets in a chive cream sauce with poppy seeds.Seventh Course:
Butternut Squash Ravioli: Ravioli stuffed with butternut squash. Topped with crushed ameretti cookies and a butter sage sauce.Eighth Course:
AnatraFettuccine all”Anatra: Spinach fettuccine with duck meat stewed in tomato and vegetables.Ninth Course:
Capesante: Sauteed sea scallops atop yellow & black polenta, sautéed lobster mushrooms, cream sauce.Tenth Course:
Coniglio: Roasted loin of rabbit served over braised legs with pancetta in a sauce “alla Ligure” of stewed celery, onions, olives and walnuts.

Dessert:
Barbara had Crostata di Mele. Apple crostata, honey-roasted pecans, caramel gelato, apple jelly.Jim had Torta All’ Olio D’Oliva. Olive oil cake blood orange sauce, mascarpone sorbetto, crispy pine nuts, vanilla poached fennel.And some lovely coffee
The food was in a word, fabulous! Jim's favorites was the artichoke flan. The delicate texture and flavors were wonderful. My favorite was the budino. I called it sex in a spoon (Jim said I'm not that limber). We would easily order any of the 10 dishes again. In fact, some we had already eaten on two previous visits.

And Chris, Bar Manager extraordinaire, was terrific as always. Thank you Chris!

As good as the food was, we felt the dining experience could have been better. The tab for this meal was $360 meal (before tax and tip). This was the Chef's Choice Tasting Menu which we said we would be ordering when we made our reservations. It's not like they weren't aware what we would be ordering.

Issue 1: You'd think they would have seated us closer to the open kitchen but no, we were in the farthest corner behind a wall from the kitchen between two service stations.

Issue 2: The online menu says the Chef's Choice is 12 plus courses plus desert. Trust me, we were very full after 10 courses but I can imagine there are folks out there that would argue this with the server and either say to bring two more courses or lower the price of the meal. There needs to be consistency with what you advertise and what you actually offer.

Issue 3: Where was the chef? Even if it wasn't Chef Donna in the kitchen, you'd think the who ever was in charge of the kitchen would have made at least one appearance just to ask if we had any questions or to see how things were going. Just sayin'

We'd still say that the food is worth a visit. But to get a better bang for you buck, each person at the table should order the 3 or 4 course meal + dessert and have everyone get different items. You'll be able to get to choose what you want and have slightly larger portions which lends itself to sharing and swapping bites.

Bebo Trattoria - Revisited

I wanted to get some pictures of the food at Bebo and we had the opportunity to do so tonight. I arrived around 6:30, found a seat at the bar and ordered a glass of wine while I waited for Jim. It was a Merlot but I found it to be thin and not as tasty as ones I've had in the past. I much prefer the Barbera Camanati (?) featured on the wine list.

When Jim arrived, we ordered two items off the bar menu (little plates) and one appetizer from the dinner menu.
First was the Fried Saffron Risotto Balls. Four to an order, these were crunchy on the outside and golden brown. Cut one in half and you find the deep saffron risotto, tender, creamy and rich. Yum. Using the Biscuit Scale (1 to 4 biscuits) this dish was a solid 3 biscuits.

The next little dish was a frittata that I forgot to write down, but I remember it has sweet onions and cheese. It was eggy as a frittata should be with the sweet onions being the second most dominant flavor. It was ok but not a favortite. Biscuit rating: 2.5

The appetizer from the dinner menu was the raw veal dish we thoroughly enjoyed a few nights ago. It's called Carne Cruda all'Albese. And it was a spectacular as it was on Friday night. Paper thin veal covered with mushrooms, parmesan cheese and celery tops. The it has an olive oil and lemon dressing drizzled over it. Delish! Biscuit rating: 4 biscuits

Since the place wasn't so crowded, we decided to stick around and try an entree each.

I got the risotto of the day which was a four cheese risotto. I should have stirred it up before I took a picture of it as the top began to crust over. And when I did stir it up, the flavor wafted up and was outrageous. I dug in right away and loved it. Rich, smooth and just a touch al dente (unlike the crunchy undercooked risotto I got at Restaurant Eve a couple of months ago). Jim kept sneaking forkfuls of it which I was fine with since I knew I couldn't finish it all by myself. In fact, even with his help, I still took about a quarter of it home.......lunch tomorrow! Biscuit rating: 3.5 biscuits.

Jim ordered Linguine con Vongole- a flat spaghetti with a sauce of clams and garlic. What a light refreshing dish! Simple yet tasty. I even ate a clam (which is probably only the second one I've ever eaten). We managed to finish this dish. Biscuit rating: 3.5 biscuits.
To add a little veg to our meal, we ordered the Broccoli Rabe as a side dish.

With no room for dessert, even though they tempted us as we saw many leaving the kitchen, we decided to call it a night.

One word on the service, it's still got a few kinks to work out. First off our bartender was great. He was professional and friendly and when our dinner order took longer than expected he was gracious and apologetic. We didn't mind as we were enjoying our wine and a nice quiet evening. There still seems to be some disconnect between the servers and the kitchen but it was far better than it was on Friday. They're working so hard at getting things right. And the food is just too damn good not to go back.
Before we left, I was able to snap a quick shot into the kitchen and got Roberto Donna in action.

Bebo Trattoria - review

Went to Bebo last night on it's second night open and the crowds were huge! I don't think they expected quite as many folks. And since it was just there second night, I won't say anything about the service except that even when things started to 'get in the weeds' the servers kept a very professional attitude towards the customers even when you knew they were completely stressed out.

Jim and I were seated at the bar and and our bartender, Stephanie, was wonderful. Our seats also provided us a nice view into the kitchen which was kind of cool. You could see Chef Donna and kitchen staff in action.

Now to the food. It was great. The bar menu offers little plates of tasty morsels like fried calamari with an incredible tomato sauce for dipping. We could have just eaten the sauce on it's own and the calamari was so tender it just melted in your mouth.

We also had the fried zucchini. They were cut into little matchstick pieces and very lightly coated then fried just until they became tender. They were nice but could have used a little salt.

Also from the bar menu was a stewed eggplant with a sweet and sour tomato sauce. This dish is served cold and had a wonderful balance of tangy acidity from the tomato with a bite of the sweet and sour. Very nice. Next time I'm going to get some bread to eat with this.

Last from the bar menu was the housemade sausage with green sauce. A little coil of sausage topped with a deep bright green sauce and a taste that left us wanting more.

We got one appetizer from the dinner menu and all I can say is ......oh my god....... Thinly sliced (and I mean thin) of raw veal topped with an olive oil sauce with sliced mushrooms, fresh Parmesan shavings and celery tops. As they say in the south, it was smack your mama good. This was our absolute favorite dish of the night and will ordered again and again and again.

We contemplated whether or not to try another small dish but decided to call it a night. We were pleasantly full. We will defiantly be back to Bebo. Even with the hectic frenzy of the evening, you could tell the place was a keeper and that once things calm down, we just might become regulars if nothing else than for that veal. And we'll bring the camera.

Mom's Pasta Sauce

My German-Irish mother makes a killer pasta sauce. She learned how to make it from an Italian neighbor when I was a wee tot and for as long as I can remember, there's always been a pot of sauce in the fridge at home.

When I moved away from home (Knoxville, TN) to work in Nashville, making my own sauce was not an issue. If I wanted it, I went home on the weekend. Ditto when I moved back to East Tennessee. I lived in a small town about 1-1/2 hours from home. It wasn't until I moved to the DC suburbs that I finally had to make my own.

The recipe is quite easy to make and it freezes well, so I usually make a big pot with lots of meatballs and freeze it in 32 ounce jars. And when you want pasta for dinner, just pop a frozen jar of sauce in the fridge in the morning and let it thaw while you're at work. Easy, peasy.

Here's the recipe with pictures.
Mom's Pasta Sauce:
Olive oil
3 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
1 (12 ounce) can tomato paste
4-6 cloves garlic, slightly smashed
1/2 cup each: rough chopped fresh parsley, fresh basil and fresh oregano
1/2 cup grate Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp sugar
Pinch of salt and pepper

Meatballs:
2-1/2 lbs lean ground beef
2 tbsp each: finely chopped fresh basil, oregano and parsley
1 egg
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
Parmesan cheese
Pinch of salt and pepper

1. Pour 3-4 tbsp olive oil and garlic in a large pot. If only making meat sauce, add 2 lb ground beef. If making meatballs, add about 3 ounces of beef. Using a wooden spoon, saute until beef is browned.

2. Add crushed tomatoes and tomato paste*, stir.

3. Add fresh herbs, cheese and sugar; stir again. Once sauce begins to bubble, turn it down to medium-low. (Sugar cuts down the acidity of the tomatoes)

To make the meatballs:
1. Place the rest of the ground beef, 2 tbsp each of finely chopped basil, oregano and parsley, 1 beaten egg, bread crumbs, cheese and salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl. (I forgot to finely chop which makes it a pain to mix together)2. Mix gently until everything is just combined. 3. Roll into golf ball sized meatballs. 4. Gently slide them into the sauce. Use the wooden spoon to gently push the meatballs into the sauce if needed.Place a lid over the pot, leaving room for steam to vent and turn the burner to low. Cook for 90 minutes, stirring every 30 minutes.*A trick I learned from my mom: Cut open both ends of the tomato paste can. Take off the bottom lid and let the paste slide out of the can. Take off the top lid once it'’s all out of the can. The can is clean as a whistle and you haven'’t wasted any of the paste.

And the winner is.....................

Lasagna.

After intense negotiations with Biscuit Boy, we have decided to make Lasagna for Christmas dinner. Among the contenders were the infamous Barbacoa, Lasagna, Osso Buco, or Peking Duck from Mark's Duck House. All were worthy of being our dinner choice but in the end, lasagna seemed to be the easiest one to make (or in the case of the Peking duck, to pick up).

The dinner menu is now complete. Salad, Lasagna, Meatballs and garlic bread and Creme Brulee for dessert. I only have to decide which kind of creme brulee to make. Will it be regular, chocolate, pumpkin or cappuccino? You'll just have to check back after Christmas to find out.

For now, I still have too much else to do before deciding which flavor to make. We have a Christmas tree but haven't decorated it yet, I still have to make cookies, Biscuit Boy still needs to make him famous Bourbon Balls and we have to get this house cleaned up!

My nephew, a.k.a. "Eel Boy" or "Unagi Man" is here for a few days to visit. We're going to finish his gift shopping today then go out for sushi for dinner. That's where his nicknames come from. When he was 11 or 12, we fed him sushi for the first time. He absolutely loved the eel. Thus he was called Eel boy. Now that he's nearly 20, I told him it was time he became Unagi Man.

Thankfully we know of a great sushi place that has $1.00 to $1.75 a piece sushi because this kid...I mean, young man, can pack the stuff away. We kid him about setting him in front of the sushi chef and having sushi tossed to him until he pops (or our money runs out). I think I'll feed him a nice big lunch today...hehe