La Cofradia Ceviche Bar Menu Preview

La Cofradia opened in Coral Gables in late 2005. Its Nuevo-Peruvian food was often pretty good, but the clubby-looking restaurant with an odd long narrow layout - and the high prices - seemed to keep it from ever getting much traction. About a month ago, La Cofradia closed its doors and filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Almost immediately after doing so, though, it asked to dismiss the bankruptcy case, and signs appeared in the window announcing the impending opening of "La Cofradia Ceviche Bar" in early May. A new menu has now been posted outside, of which I have a couple terrible photos. (Silly me - I now see that they've updated the website with the new menu as well).

The quick recap: the food has gotten much simpler, with a fairly straight-ahead listing of about a half-dozen ceviches, tiraditos, and various combinations thereof (all priced around $13-15); several salads and cooked apps, including some traditional Peruvian causas, and a great pork and grapes dish which is a carry-over from the original menu; saltados (stir-fry?) with your choice of protein; and a number of other entrees all priced under $25. Plus daily lunch specials for $13.50. I often complain about "dumbing down," but if it helps a restaurant survive, in these times I suppose that's the name of the game. It'll be interesting to see if it works for this new incaranation of La Cofradia.

La Cofradia
160 Andalusia Avenue
Coral Gables, FL 33134
305.914.1300

Cinco de MiMo on BiBo

On May 2, the Biscayne Boulevard Historic District is playing host for the "Cinco de MiMo" festival. Several local restaurants and shops will be participating, with street performers, live music in the afternoon from the Almost Blues Band and Somebody's Mama, and restaurants offering "tastes" for $2 - $5. A "Pink Pooch Parade & Contest" is also in the works.

Participating restaurants (working north to south) include:

Anise Waterfront Taverna - 620 NE 78th St.
Red Light - 7700 Biscayne Boulevard
Ver Daddy's Taco Shop - 7501 Biscyane Boulevard
Le Cafe Bistro - 7295 Biscayne Boulevard
Che Sopranos - 7251 Biscayne Boulevard
Moshi Moshi - 7232 Biscayne Boulevard
Moonchine Asian Bistro - 7100 Biscayne Boulevard
Casa Toscana - 7001 Biscayne Boulevard
Michy's - 6927 Biscayne Boulevard
Wine 69 - 6909 Biscayne Boulevard
UVA 69 - 6900 Biscayne Boulevard
Kingdom - 6708 Biscayne Boulevard

What's That Growing in the Fridge Pt. II

It was never my intent for this to be a "home cooking" blog - and it won't be, but bear with me, this ties in to an earlier post. Mrs. F was off on her own at Sra. Martinez [as to which more detailed thoughts will be forthcoming] tonight, while I was left to rifle through the fridge and construct a meal from what I could find. OK, let's see - an Italian dry sausage ... some Cypress Grove Midnight Moon cheese ... some local grown baby bok choy and spring onion from Norman Brothers ... the rest of the Carlisle RRV Syrah we opened last night ... I can work with this. While I enjoy cooking, I don't relish spending a ton of time making a meal when I'm only getting started at 9pm, so this will be quick. Onion chopped and into a hot pan with some oil, when it starts going golden the bok choy goes in. A splash of soy, a splash of black vinegar ... this lapsang souchong vinegar still looks OK, some of that too ... and a spoonful of toban jan sauce. Toss, lid down for a couple minutes, done.

The sausage was chewy and rich with a little spice and tang. The cheese, a Gouda-like aged goat cheese apparently produced specially for Cypress Grove in Holland, was firm but not hard, with nutty, salty, caramel notes, and little grainy crystals like a good Parmigiano-Reggiano. The wine was even better on the second day - blackberry, graphite, smoke, some nice acidity. And my quickly cooked baby bok choy didn't suck.

So what did all of these have in common? Fermentation. The sausage relies on fermentation both for preservation and flavor development. The cheese likewise is the product of fermentation. The vinegar (doubly so the lapsang souchong vinegar, which was flavored with fermented black tea) and toban jan (made with chiles and fermented broad beans) too. Wine - well, yeah. Completely unintentional and coincidental. And actually quite delicious - as noted in a comment to that prior post, all loaded with umami.

I still would have rather been at Sra. M's.

Whisky Tango Foxtrot?

First, the "2 Dudes" from LA make possibly the single most unappetizing reference one could ever pick for a cookbook title ("Two Dudes, One Pan"); now Food Network is taking a South Park joke and making a show out of it (What Would Brian Boitano Make?)? I think my head may explode.

You Must Remember This

Interesting news from the Far East, as Pierre Gagnaire and Hervé This are reported to have created the world's first "entirely synthetic gourmet dish". Described as jelly balls with apple and lemon flavors, creamy on the inside and crispy outside, they are fabricated from ascorbic acid, citric acid, glucose and maltitol (also known, more menacingly, as 4-O-α-glucopyranosyl-D-sorbitol).

Haven't these guys heard of a Twinkie? In any event, my question, as always, is: but how does it taste?

On a related note, Ian Kleinman of Food102 and O's Restaurant in the Westin in Westminster, Colorado, reports that Hervé This has a few words to say on the whole "molecular gastronomy" nomenclature kerfuffle (or, I should say, a few more words). This (for whom "cooking" is cooking, and "gastronomy" is the study of same) foresees the decline of "molecular cooking" as a descriptive term, as more chefs turn away from it, letting "molecular gastronomy" return to its original meaning as referring to the scientific study of cooking (though this seems to ignore the increasing traction "MG" seems to have in the mainstream press).

It's possible we're all reaching the "call it what you will" stage. Per Kleinman, "Our menu still says molecular tasting menu but I cannot wait for the day where we all are looking for the best technique, not the best label." And per This, "And to finish, let’s drop the question of science, technology, etc. The main question is « how best say « I love you » through food ? "

[My deepest apologies for the absolutely horrible pun in the title of this post; couldn't help myself.]