Urban Solace, Part Trois

D.'s parents were in town for the weekend and kicked off their arrival on Friday with The Original Pancake House. That night, we went to Urban Solace. I really love this place. The whole Americana bistro concept is great and I usually enjoy the ambiance.

They have a new menu, which I encountered on a previous visit with K. and B. That time, I had the cornmeal-crusted Arctic char with apple-fennel salad and roasted sweet potato. That was excellent. D.'s dad, S., ordered that this time. Looked great this time, too.

I decided to try one of their new dishes, the Duckaroni.

The lighting was yellow, resulting in a yellow tinge to my photos. Even tinkering with the white balance didn't help.

Anyway, the Duckaroni was very rich. Maybe a tad too rich. The duck confit was excellent, as were the baby arugula leaves. The garlic was under-roasted. That led to soft, but not caramelized, cloves. The flavors were very good, although they were all strong, adding to the heaviness of the dish. I'd definitely order it again, but I'd like to see it served with something else to lighten it.

D. had the Monte Diego, which he had last time.

It's a play on the Monte Cristo sandwich, which is a bit of a French toast sandwich. The bread is battered and ham, fontina, pears, and strawberry-currant jam make the filling. D. likes it. I think he wasn't too pleased with his last burger, so he switched to this.

D.'s mom, E., ordered two apps as her entree. The warmed spinach salad along with an appetizer order of the sweet potato fries. They looked excellent.

This leads to my commentary about service. The staff is very warm and friendly, but there are definitely logistical quirks that they should iron out. Service at each of our visits has been inconsistent and slightly off logistically. E. was asked when she wanted her dishes, since we also ordered the cheese biscuits as an appetizer. Very clearly, she replied that she wanted her dishes with the entrees. Our server, who was very nice but seemingly inexperienced, didn't understand the answer to her own question. I counted her asking three more times, "You know, I could bring that salad out first. Would you like that?" E. acquiesced in the end. What else was she supposed to say after being pestered about it? The server should have let it go after the first "double-check".

The other service quirk was that they literally cleared our dishes less than a minute after each person finished. When one of us was done, someone showed up in a few seconds to whisk it away. While it's efficient, we felt rushed. Certainly, we don't want to linger and hold up their ability to turn tables, but don't throw us out, either.

Still, those are just quirks. The food was great, the wine (a syrah from Ancient Peaks in Paso Robles) was very good, and the service was friendly. We'll be back, naturally.

Buga Korean BBQ

Last Thursday, we were in the mood for Korean. We debated a return to Noodle Town, but word on the interweb had Buga winning in the panchan wars. Noodle Town's panchan was pretty weak, so we decided to give Buga a try.

Our server had some pretty strong opinions about an item we wanted to order: spicy pork bulgogi. So strong, in fact, that she kept insisting that we can't handle the spiciness. After a few minutes of back-and-forth (she was adamant that we couldn't eat it, we kept protesting that we were fine with it), she put it on our tab. Then, she tells us we can't grill it at our table because of the smoke generated by the chili sauce. Fine. In order to grill the regular bulgogi (beef) at the table, we had to order a second "grill-able" dish. She recommended marinaded ribeye. It's basically more bulgogi, just a different cut of beef.

Our panchan arrived:

To the far left is chopped lettuce with a drizzle of sesame oil and a sprinkling of chili powder. Around the grill, counter-clockwise, the smallest plates were: seaweed, bean sprouts, spicy fish jerky, potato/apple salad (behind teacup), kimchee, spinach, slices of cucumber, and what looked like cubes of spicy daikon.

Each of us received plates of dduk, or rice noodle wrappers (right next to chopsticks), and thin slivers of daikon (not in photo). Our two beef dishes arrived first. The entire plate classic bulgogi was immediately placed on the grill. I wasn't a fan, because I usually like to divide the grill in half and have a different meat on each half.

Thin slices of beef that were slightly fatty. Good quality beef and it grilled up nicely. There wasn't much room for the other dish and this one cooked very quickly.

Our marinated ribeye was cut into ridiculously small chunks. Uncooked, the largest were about 2 inches by 1 inch and the smaller ones a little bigger than 1 x 1 inch.

Maybe it was for wrapping purposes, but once grilled, many of the pieces were the size of a Starburst. They were also a little tough because they cooked so quickly.

Our spicy pork bulgogi arrived. Despite the server's many protests, it wasn't spicy. At all.

We're not sure what happened, but we suspect the server took it upon herself to request a watered-down version from the kitchen. That kind of BS makes me mad. Serve it to us as it's supposed to be. If we couldn't handle it, that's our problem. She'd warned us and that should be enough.

We felt like a non-meat dish, so we went with a very simple noodle. Out of the 6 noodle dishes on their menu, this was the only one that was hot. D. wasn't in the mood for cold buckwheat noodles. It was called "banquet noodle" and was a soft rice noodle served in a basic broth with some vegetables and sliced egg. Not bad. As a stand-alone dish, this would have been a satisfying and simple lunch.

Not the worst visit, but not the best.

Red Beet Risotto

I'm not a fan of beets. However, they've been in three CSA boxes in a row. Sigh. What to do with beets? More accurately, what to do with beets that D. will eat? Nicole from Pinch My Salt suggested making dark chocolate muffins with them. J. will be making those and I went with a savory recipe. Chowhounds talked about how much they loved pickled beets. Oy. D. would pass out if I pickled the beets. One 'Hound, however, linked to this recipe on Epicurious.

Hmmm... that might do. D. and I were still leery.

Here are the ingredients minus cheese and garlic. The recipe doesn't call for garlic, but it really adds a lot to the dish. I used 4 cloves.

One thing I hate about preparing beets? They turn everything red. It usually washes off, though.

The beginning:

After all of the ingredients have softened and the rice has been added:

The recipe called for goat cheese, but we had a variety of cheeses that needed to be consumed. I wasn't about to run out for more. Based on the reviews, Parmesan seemed to be a good substitute.

The knife is a 14cm Wusthof Classic tomato/sausage knife (depends on who you're asking). The smaller size and serrated blade made it a good cheese knife. I easily sliced the bits of leftover rind that couldn't be grated. Our latest CSA box had chard, so I used that instead of mustard greens. Chard holds its texture and color even after the bejeezus has been boiled out of it. Great contrast to the bright red of the beets.

D. grilled up sausages and they went well with the risotto.

Closeup shot. The texture of the risotto was perfect and didn't require the diligent add-warmed-broth-and-stir.

It was fantastic. Made me dislike beets a little less. I'd totally make this again if the beet streak continues. I'm not sure if I'd seek out beets to make it, though.