Finding the Right Size

I've actually been to the Silk Elephant twice now. It is one of the only restaurants in my neighborhood of Squirrel Hill that I've been to more than once because I'm trying to really explore my neighborhood's cuisine, but the food at Silk Elephant is just too good and it called me back for seconds.

Silk Elephant is a Thai tapas restaurant, and I must say that I love the idea of Thai tapas. Something that Americans don’t really understand is that most Asian food you order in restaurants is designed to be served family style. You and your table (food is intended to help create community and a sense of togetherness) order a few dishes and then you share everything. In America, though, it seems as though we all order our own gigantic entree to eat ourselves, end up taking home over half our food. Small plates, however, are a perfect way of enjoying a food, a flavor, or a regional specialty. It doesn’t require you to commit to once taste for the entire evening and you can also be adventurous. Ultimately, if you don’t like it, you give it to someone else or just stop eating it, because each dish only cost $3-$6.

The Silk Elephant is warmly elegant, light tapestries are draped from the ceilings and ornate sculptures of white and gold are scattered around the room. If you look really closely you can also spot a rather uncomfortable photo of Thai dignitaries waving to a crowd. Obviously they’ve never had the food at Silk Elephant or they would be much happier. There are two halves to the restaurant, a bar side and a dining side. I’ve sat in both and loved both experiences.

The service is good, though a bit sporadic. They tend to be super crowded on the weekends, so be prepared. Our server was really sweet, but a little out of it. After we ordered our beers she asked us if we wanted anything else to drink. We were confused if she was trying to get us to double fist our drinks, or if she just wasn’t paying attention. Her friendly attitude made up for any lack of attention span and she was always there when we wanted to order more food.

Now, as much as I hate day-long menus, this is an exception. They have a few proteins and then variations in spices and simple sauces. The menu is divided up into rolls, dumplings, vegetarian tapas, simple meat tapas, fish and seafood tapas then a bunch of entrees that I didn’t even look at. As a mostly veg-head I had tons of choices, and I think vegans can find options as well, though I know a few of their sauces have honey in them.

Last time I was there I went with my dear friend Josh and we ordered five plates and it was perfect. We started with the Fresh Rolls, containing fried tofu, rice noodles, carrots, lettuce, mint leaves, and basil leaves wrapped with rice paper served with a sweet brown sauce with ground peanuts. These were light and delicious, the perfect way to ease into a meal.

Next it was onto the Silk Elephant Rice Wrapper Rolls. These are delicious little nuggets of cucumber, carrot, lettuce, cream cheese, and crabmeat in rice paper wrap with a sweet chili sauce. I know adding cream cheese to a Thai dish makes it unauthentic, but my love for cream cheese is so great that I will give any restaurant a free pass to use it in my dishes.

The corn fritters were the highlight of our meal. Small, silver dollar-sized fritters were lightly coated in a thin crispy batter and served with the most delicious sweet chili paste you have ever tasted. I think I could eat these with every meal. We tried to bribe the waitress to give us the recipe for the sauce, but we were out of luck. She told us “pineapple, honey, chili paste and some secret ingredients.” I look forward to trying to recreate this at home.

For our final course we ordered the Taro Crunch and the Chili-paste Crowned Scallops. The first was so interesting you must try it. It is fresh taro (a root vegetable that, incidentally, is toxic until cooked but then has tons of vitamins and minerals in it) coated in a really thick batter of black sesame seeds that is then deep fried and served with a delicious sweet and sour sauce and crushed peanuts. Super yummy and really different than anything I’d had before. Get them. Please.

The Chili-paste Crowned Scallops were probably the lease interesting of the dishes we had. It consisted of three large scallops with a chunky chili paste that was supposedly accented with kymer lime leaf, but the spicy chili paste overpowered any flavor the scallops or lime leaves had. The smooth butter texture of the perfectly cooked scallops really cut the spice of the paste, but I wish I could have detected even a hint of the kymer lime leaves.

On another visit I had the Salmon Roll with Sriracha and bean sprouts, which tasted exactly as it was described and isn’t interesting at all. The Vegetable Spring Rolls stuffed with cabbage and carrot light deep fried and served with a sweet and sour sauce were fantastic, but again not unlike anything you could get at any Asian restaurant. The Fish Cakes were interesting, if not a bit too fishy. They are small, lightly deep friend patties of king fish meat mixed with a mild curry paste shredded green bean and Thai seasonings, served with cucumber sauce.

This is the second best restaurant I’ve been to in Pittsburgh, right behind Legume. It is the perfect restaurant for both the comfort eater and the more adventurous foodie. But if you want my two cents, get something you’ve never even heard of. Chances are it will be the best dish of the night.

Happy eating!

Your Downtown Dining Solution

D and I celebrated Valentine’s Day a little early this year with dinner and a concert. Ben Folds was playing at Heinz Hall, a BEAUTIFUL theater ornately decorated and quite large compared to the small theaters in Minneapolis. He played with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, made up of world-famous musicians. When I heard the ad on the radio, I just couldn’t resist, mentally justifying the ticket purchase as an early birthday present for D. (his birthday isn’t until March 6^th, but oh well!) So with the tickets secured I scouted for a restaurant that was nearby. As you know, I’m really picky about food, not picky about ingredients; I just hate paying for crappy food. Looking for good food downtown proved to actually be sort of difficult, with most restaurants being really overpriced, and their menus lackluster. I stumbled upon Braddock's American Brasserie, which is in the Renaissance Hotel, and the menu was short and simple. While it wasn’t seasonal, it had simple dishes, creatively prepared, and the price wasn’t too high. They have many dishes that can be ordered as half orders which sounded perfect for D and I and our tiny bellies.

First let me say that the Renaissance hotel is beautiful. It is elegant and spacious with a lounge in the courtyard full of plush couches and tables. You walk through the lounge to get to the dining room, making it feel like you are outdoors, which was lovely, especially in this weather! We were shown to our booth, a little C shaped leather booth, perfect for cuddling up to those you love. The manager was overzealous and kept stopping by, calling us “folks” and thanking us over and over again for eating there. Seriously. He did this before we even ordered!

Our server was polite and explained the menu along with the prix-fixe menu which you could order off of. Usually you can get three courses for $25, but because tomorrow was Valentine’s Day they had a special menu that was pricier. We ordered some prohibition cocktails (I usually steer clear of trends, but I’ve loving this one. Bartenders are getting more and more creative with savory ingredients. Plus the world doesn’t need more apple-tinis, as much as I love them.) I order the Lady Martha, a combination of vodka, bitters, fresh sour, soda and mashed white grapes. It was lovely, simple, and yet complex as the tartness of the grapes, sour and bitters all fought for my taste buds attention. D ordered a Sazerac, which was Wild Turkey Rye, Absinth, and bitters. This sparked a long conversation about the fact that D doesn’t actually like whiskey, but he loves the way it makes him feel. At first I was appalled, and then I thought back to the last time that I ordered vodka straight (it was an ill-fated afternoon in which a friend and I drank an entire bottle of Ukrainian vodka) and realized that that isn’t such a bad thing. So if anyone has any great recipes for whiskey cocktails, send them my way!

The menu consists of many small plates ($5-12), salads ($5-15), two soups ($5-6), pastas ($9-12 for a half order and $12-16 for a full), meat and poultry ($18-29), seafood ($17-23), and sandwiches ($9-14). They also have five different kinds of mussels and frites. So while the menu wasn’t gigantic, it was difficult to decide which path to walk down. I opted to order an entree, while D decided to order two smaller plates.

We opted to start with their Frites, served with roasted garlic aioli. They were fried to perfection, each bite was deliciously crispy. The aioli was slightly too strong. I prefer a garlic aioli that hints at garlic, whereas this one left me feeling as though I shouldn’t get too close to anyone for the rest of the night. The frites were seasoned with something green, I’m assuming parsley, and salt, but strangely when I ate them by themselves they were very bland. I really wished they were smaller as well, they were the normal French fry width, whereas I would have expected a smaller, more European fry because they called them frites, but alas...

D ordered the half order of Trenne Cinghale (trenne is triangular penne), a wild boar Bolognese served with fresh, locally made pasta. He enjoyed it a lot, though the half order would have been sufficient for his entire entrée as the serving was so large. The pasta was delicious and cooked to perfection. He also ordered the Braised Short Rib Pierogies, which were as flavorful or tasty as the Boar. The creamy leeks were interesting, though strangely devoid of the wonderful leek flavor that they should possess. I ordered the Seared Scallops with Fork-mashed potatoes and Pea Puree, which I was told by my server, were a house specialty. The scallops were cooked well, slightly underdone for my taste. You also received 5 gigantic scallops with your entrée, which was way too many. The pea puree was flavorless as far as I could tell. I kept going back to it in hopes that something would happen, but I didn’t get anything. It worked well with the scallops, though, and it was fun to combine the two, even if I couldn’t taste the puree. The mashed potatoes were lovely, with just the right amount of butter and spices. Overall, there wasn’t anything amazing about this dish. If you need to eat scallops, order the appetizer version and get some of the mashed potatoes as a side.

For dessert we ordered the Profiteroles with cream cheese filling, hot chocolate and chocolate sauce. The pastry was rock hard and dry, but the cream cheese filling was delicious. The hot chocolate, served as a shot on the side of the plate, wasn’t hot at all, but it was nicely flavored (almost like Mexican hot chocolate) so we poured it over our 5 profiteroles. They had other interesting desserts that I’d be interested to try, so I won’t really recommend the profiteroles.

Overall, the atmosphere was lovely. I’d gladly come back for that. The service was ok, though our server seemed to get bored with us at the end and it took us 10 minutes to order dessert (as we sat at our table with our dinner plates cleared) and 15 minutes to get our check. Luckily we gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the theater on time.

I’m very interested in going back and sitting in the Street Side section of the lobby. It is like sitting at the bar in most restaurants. They serve the same small plates, mussels, salad and sandwich menu, as well as all the same drinks. They even have an amazing happy hour from 5-7pm Monday through Friday in which all small bites are half off, $2.5 select draft beers, $4 cocktails, and $3 house wine. I think this would be the perfect way to get to try al the interesting dishes that Braddock’s has to offer, but without breaking the bank.

Cold Hands, Cold Bellies

D had two choices for food for date night last week, Mexican or Ethiopian. (I’ve been wanting to try Mad Mex and Abay ever since I got to Pittsburgh.) He chose Ethiopian, so we were off to Abay. (Abay means “Blue Nile” in Ethiopian.)

It was quaint, not too big, but with about 20 tables, including little bucket seats you could sit at, the place didn’t feel too cramped either. It is BYOB, a fact I wish we’d known before we went. Without the booze option, D ordered the Ethiopian coffee and I ordered the Yekemem Shai. My tea was similar to chai tea, but not quite as spicy. The sweet flavors of cinnamon and nutmeg lingered on my tongue and I lapped it down. D’s coffee was very very strong, and brewed with cloves, which added a lovely flavor without being gimmicky (I tend to shy away from hazelnut or vanilla coffees), and I’m thinking about trying it at home with dessert coffee.

For $26 for two people you can get Abay’s combination platter consisting of any combination of four meat or veggie entrees. We ordered one of the specials, tilapia in a stewed sauce over spinach, as well as Misir Wat, red split lentils simmer in spicy berbere sauce, Ayib Be Gomen, collared greens and Abay’s homemade cheese, and Doro Tibs, strips of boneless chicken breast sautéed with homemade awaze, peppers, onions and herbs. Everything had amazingly complex favors, though my overall critique is their apparent inability to control the temperature of the food. Most dishes were pretty cold, as though their heat lamps didn’t work, or as though they didn’t account for different foods taken longer to cook than others. Even my tea wasn’t piping hot, like I expected it to be.

The best part of the evening was the table of three sitting directly to my left. It consisted of a teenage girl, her mom, and the girl’s boyfriend. Both the girl and her mom were quite straight-laced and very pretty and the boy had dreadlocks, a hideous Hawaiian shirt (appearing to be the only “collared shirt” he owns) and unfortunate acne. Whenever the mother would get up to use the bathroom the boy and girl would start making out (as much as you can in a crowded restaurant) and quickly stop when the mother got back. When they were all together the barely spoke, the mother tried a few times to engage the boy in conversation, but learned quickly that it was too much work. It was a wonderful study, but I felt bad for all parties involved.

So...people watching aside, I would say go once to try the food, BYOB, but don’t spend too much money on it. I’ve got my eyes peeled for a better Ethiopian restaurant somewhere and I’m going to find it.

I use the term "Mexican" loosely

One of the joys of traveling to different regions of the country is learning the subtle differences in the ways locals cook and view their food. Having recently moved to Pittsburgh, D and I have been doing our best to discover the very best (or at least the best we can afford) that this city has to offer. On a recent Saturday date night, D taking a break from his endless hours of homework, we ventured over the Mexican restaurant, Cuzamil, for dinner. The place was surprisingly small, with just 10 tables on the restaurant and 10 on the bar side. The restaurant was full so we opted to eat at the high tables on the bar side. The servers couldn’t be more friendly. It seems that when you dine at Cuzamil every server is your server. This sounds a little bothersome, but we found it charming that every server wanted to know if we were enjoying our food or if we needed something else to drink. It was just a lovely indication that the restaurant wanted to you enjoy yourself and have a fantastic experience.

They have just three beers on tap, Dos Equis, Bud Light and Corona, but a much longer list of bottles. It wasn’t anything fancy, but you should be able to find something that you like. Carta Blanca was on special for $3, sol we opted for a few of those. With our beers was delivered the standard chips and salsa. The chips were a little greasy, but not overly salty. The salsa, however, was amazing. It is obviously house made, mild, but with a smoky bite to it. It was a refreshing change from the bland tomato sauce with Tabasco salsas I’ve had before. You could tell that they were catering to the sensitive taste buds of the locals, but not compromising flavor for lack of spice. I also liked the fact that you only receive once free basket of chips and salsa with your meal, any more costs extra. This proves their commitment to using quality ingredients, something that doesn’t cost 5¢ to make.

I ordered one of the vegetarian platters, getting a cheese enchilada in a rancho sauce, a bean burrito in a sort of bastardized mole sauce (it was similar to the enchilada sauce you can get in a can at the supermarket), and a tostada.

What is it with Mexican restaurants slapping everything together on a plate and not quite distinguishing between flavors? This restaurant did a great job of adding subtle spice and flavors, but everything was a bit runny. The tostada consisted of refried beans on a once-crispy corn tortilla that was completely impenetrable. I think the liquid in the beans made the tortilla soggy and sort of gluing it to the plate. On top of the beans was a mound of shredded iceberg lettuce, Pico de Gallo, sour cream, and two tiny pieces of avocado. As unappetizing as it sounds, it added a nice lightness to the otherwise heavy plate of food.

The bean burrito was actually just refried beans wrapped in a flour tortilla. The favor wasn’t bad (I have a soft spot for refried beans) but having expected some whole beans in my burrito, I was a little disappointed. What is usually my most favorite dish at a Mexican restaurant, maybe because it is so difficult to screw up, the enchilada proved inedible. I have a zero-tolerance policy for heavily processed cheeses (I can handle Kraft cheese, but not Velveeta), and the enchilada was completely filled with it. After the first bite I could feel the cheese coating the back of my throat in a thick waxiness of “cheese” flavor. Needless to say I didn’t touch it after that bite.

For dessert we ordered the fried ice cream, a throwback to when my family used to go to Chi Chi’s when I was a child. Unfortunately, the ice cream wasn’t actually fried. As far as I could tell, a ball of ice cream was rolled in corn flakes and then put back in the freezer to be taken out when a customer orders it. Out of the freezer the cornflakes are soggy and strangely cold. This rock hard ice ball is then placed on a delicate bowl of fried dough. This shining star of the dish is what made me not send it back. I hate being the person who sends back food, but isn’t the point of fried ice cream to FRY the ICE CREAM? The dough was thin and crispy and almost melted in your mouth.

Overall, I’d say go for the service and not for the food. It would be a really fun place to go for apps and drinks.

The bit of trivia that I learned was that it you order a Chile Relleno in Pittsburgh, you will get a strip of green bell pepper battered and then deep fried. You’ll have to order a Chile Poblano to get the real deal. I asked the server about this strange phenomena and she said that when Mexican restaurants first opened in Pittsburgh you couldn’t buy Poblano peppers in the area so they made so with that they had, green bell peppers. I’m looking forward to learning more about these local culinary specifics.

Salutations

Greetings!

My name is KR and I recently moved to Pittsburgh. I am an avid lover of all things food, so I have decided to document the trials and tribulations of moving and discovering a new city, all from the perspective of the food. I'm living on a student's budget so as much as I'd like to go out to eat once a week it just won't happen, so you'll probably find more information about my home cook experiences than things I've eaten out. Please stay tuned for my food adventures.

Wheeeeeee!!!!