FoodTrek/UnRecipe: Going Out and Staying In

It can be tricky to balance the Going Out vs Staying In argument when it comes to dining. We all want to be mindful of our pocketbook, but not only is it nice to not have to cook or clean up after a meal, it's important to be supportive of the restaurant industry that continues to inspire us in our own home kitchens. Often times, visiting a restaurant during their non-peak hours is the best way to experience their menu at a lower cost, as well as a lesser hassle of getting a table. Recently we revisited one of our favorite spots in the rare light of day, Bellevue's Barrio, to give their new brunch menu a try. I enjoyed one of their dishes so much that I made a simpler at-home version, so that even when I'm having a meal in, it can still feel like going out.

Morning powered by COFFEE - photo by Wasabi Prime

I have several friends who believe breakfast is truly the perfect meal, and I'm inclined to go with that sentiment. It's the one meal where you have the option to go sweet or savory, and the ingredients are fairly consistent, so it's never a surprise over what you'll get. Plus when it comes to brunch, who doesn't love an excuse to tie one on before noon with a mimosa or a bloody mary? Barrio's take on brunch is a nice change from the typical eggs, toast, and hash, offering Mexican influenced dishes that still work with what El Norte Americano expectations for breakfast would be. Their brunch menu isn't too different from their regular menu, offering things like enchiladas and an egg-topped version of their chilaquiles, but they also offer a Mexican style French toast, and a chorizo bacon and egg torta, a hearty panini-like sandwich. Even their more standard breakfast fare like steak and eggs or biscuits and gravy still have a South of the Border twist, adding chiles and spices.

Brunch at Barrio - the right way to start the day. Photos by Wasabi Prime

The Barrio brunch experience was om-nom-nom-approved, combining savory, slow-cooked, rich flavors, anointed with the crown of fried eggy goodness. I was so pleased with the pork and chiliquiles experience of Barrio, that I knew I needed to capture this edible lightning in a bottle. ZAP!

I took a cue from a night when we made tacos -- let's face it, you always wind up with more tortillas than you need. Chilaquiles is the ideal dish for this situation. Traditionally they are cut into wedges, fried, and then tossed with a red enchilada sauce. They're served with some queso fresco and chopped meat, a great dish to incorporate the odd leftover bits hanging about. The tacos we had were pretty simple -- pork seasoned with adobo powder, seared and sliced thin, layered on a small corn tortilla with some sliced radish, fresh cilantro, and a dash of lime. The remaining ingredients from this meal worked perfectly for the at-home version of Barrio's chilaquiles inspiration dish.

Tacos are the first step towards chilaquiles - Photo by Wasabi Prime

This had UnRecipe written all over it -- extra stuff loitering in the fridge, no clear recipe to start from, and memories of a tasty brunch still lingering in my head. Well, it was either UnRecipe or Big Hot Mess, but I remained optimistic and just threw things together, hoping for the best. I'm not a fan of frying, what with the ozone layer of grease that inevitably gets left in the kitchen, so I chopped a dozen or so small corn tortillas up into little triangles, drizzled with canola oil, and baked them in the oven. Once they were browned and crispy, they were tossed and coated with a store-bought can of enchilada sauce. Certainly nowhere near the roasted richness of Barrio's sauce, I was just stricken with a wicked case of Instant Gratification.

Chopped bits of the adobo pork were mixed in, a sprinkling of sliced fresh radish and crumbled cheese were added, and a hefty showering of fresh cilantro. I made up a parody version of Beyonce's "Single Ladies" and kept mumbling, "If you liked it, then you shoulda put an egg on it," while I fried an egg and placed it atop the towering mountain of saucy tortillas. Is that too much crazy information about how my mind wanders when I cook? Maybe, but I thought it was a pretty funny song. I promise I wasn't dancing around the kitchen with any hot skillets.

Chilaquiles speak the universal language of leftovers - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Chilaquiles the Wasabi Way was a delicious, too-impatient-to-go-out dish that would easily work as a dinner option. The baked tortillas soaked up the sauce nicely, and the mix of fresh raw vegetables and herbs mixed with the cooked ingredients made for a satisfying mix of textures and flavors. This was a pleasant way of finding a balance between going out to eat and staying in, plus another resourceful way of using up everything in the refrigerator, since I'm such a weird freak about not letting anything go to waste.

FoodTrek: Grape Expectations at Barrio

"Don't drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life" - Jack Kerouac. In the same whiff of a Beatnik quote, an equal sentiment could be said for food. In a perfect world devoid of overly-processed meals within more degrees of Kevin Bacon than actual bacon, we could sit atop ivory towers and preach quality over quantity. But the truth is, food fuels us, and we don't always have the luxury of choice -- a slice of cold pizza more often than not becomes the breakfast of champions. When it comes to the topic of alcoholic beverages, because they are not nutritionally crucial, they exist within that rare luxury of choice. And for that, Kerouac's witticism has a relevance worth considering the next time you sidle up to the bar and you're asked, "What's your poison?" The Prime decided to fully enjoy that luxury of choice by letting the bartender call the shots, and that night it happened to be at Bellevue's Barrio, via their mixologist of ceremonies, Mark Sexauer.

Putting the "man" back in Manhattan - Photo courtesy of South Sound Garden

I was lucky to have made the acquaintance of Mark through the Plymouth Gin dinner at Crush, as familiar names and favorite places were bandied about the table. I got a chance to read his blog, and his post about making vegetable powder for drinks waves the awesome freak flag of cocktail nerd-ness, and compliments a notable appreciation for using fresh herbs and other blessings from the garden in drinks. Given Wasabisaurus Rex's interest in craft cocktails, the amazing experiences at Chantanee's Naga, and the Sorrento's Drinking Lessons events, letting Mark create an omakase-like experience with frosty beverages felt like a wise choice.

The theory of cocktail evolution - just keep drinking! Photos by Wasabi Prime

Fellow cocktail-weenie and gardening blogger, Ms. South Sound Garden (aka Ms. Picket Fence) was in attendance, with her own twist on the drink-mixing. Ms. SSG had two whole quarts of pressed Concord grape juice to present as an Iron Chef-like challenge to Mark. This wasn't some factory-made, chemical-laden fruit juice -- the grapes were grown and harvested from SSG's impressive garden, and the juice was hand-pressed to much crime scene-like results. Like all valiant efforts, the reward was a near opaque, gem-hued liquid that truly tasted like the nectar of the gods. While not an ideal grape to make wine out of, the Concord juice speaks of so many flavors familiar to everyone's palate: childhood days of PB and J sandwiches and lingering on those last summer days of fresh grapes plucked right off the vine.

Mark composed a revival of warmer days and less-gloomy nights, pairing several different spirits and fresh herbs with the grape juice to explore the way it would react with flavors. The grape juice was both ally and opponent; in lesser hands it would have been watered down or used as a cloak to hide larger quantities of potent spirits. Instead, much like the way a chef would build a dish, Mark understood the importance of guiding the palate's reaction to such a prominent flavor. The juice's distinct sweetness was balanced by bitter and sharp flavors, and softened with creamier additions like egg whites.

Befitting of an UnRecipe raid in the Wasabi pantry, no printed drink menus or cocktail sourcebooks were used, just a thorough understanding of flavor elements. One of the first drinks incorporated two types of gin -- sloe and dry, with a bit of citrus to enhance the grape's floral quality. This drink evolved into a revised 2.0 version, swapping the gin for pisco, an appropriately grape-based liquor from South America. Topped with a cloud of egg white foam and a decorative swirl of bitters, we suggested that it should be called a Pisco Valentine, not that anyone was really making official names. Because of the pleasant sweetness, a color befitting February 14th, and a sneaky dose of alcoholic whoop-ass, it felt like it would make for a dreamy -- or bleary --eyed Valentine's date.

Aquavit and grape - behold, the Water of Life! Shai' Hulud and stillsuits not required - Photos by Wasabi Prime

The frosty beverages evolved into more summery notes -- there was a bright-flavored drink that used tequila with some amaro and bitters to add some depth and cut the heavier grape flavor, and then there was a twist on the caipirinha, using cachaça, Brazil's answer to rum that uses fermented sugarcane juice instead of molasses, with Mark adding a bit of lemon thyme for freshness.

The cocktail Force continued to be strong with this one, and Mark finished out with what everyone agreed was the best of the bunch, an aquavit-based creation that used the caraway seed flavor of the popular Norwegian spirit to impart almost an herbal, fennel-like undertone with the grape's sweetness. The final drink had a velvet texture from the egg whites, but it wasn't dessert-sweet, which made it easier to savor. A truly enjoyable cocktail is one where you immediately get a sense of its complexity with room for nuance, and makes you want to take the time to really experience it with all the senses. That is to say, don't chug it, you frathouse punk.

Comparing all the cocktails, the grape juice's color is as distinctive as its role in the drink's flavor, so no one's putting this Baby in a corner anytime soon. Mark made a version of Ms. SSG's favorite drink, the Aviation, with a bit of the grape juice, and while tasty, there was no mistaking the difference. The magenta beet-like coloring of the grape juice is as dominating as the taste, and yet, mixed in cocktails, its moments of Valentine pinkness belies its potency. Similar to other libations on Barrio's menu which incorporate fresh fruit and vegetable extracts, pastel-innocent drinks saunter out with a hidden roundhouse kick. The curse of the Cosmo has left too many in a false sense of Girl-Drink-Drunk-security. If there is to be any lesson learned, in capable bartending hands, never judge a drink by its seemingly delicate exterior, as they are all like an icy Hitchcock blonde, a femme fatale lying in wait.

Developing cocktails really is as much of a culinary art as its solid-food counterpart. Too many recent cocktails rely on overly-processed sweeteners, and sugar in general, not allowing the natural flavors and botannical hints of liquors to fully develop in a mixed drink. The green thumb efforts of Ms. South Sound Garden were truly appreciated, as were the creative talents of Mark Sexauer and the team at Barrio. What a treat it was to sit back and let the ingredients guide the way. But since this is a food blog and one should have solids with potent liquids, I'm happy to say a plate of fried hominy is a tasty snack to nibble on while you're taking a spirited tour. If you get the chance to visit Barrio, let the power of Jack Kerouac lesson for life's enjoyment compel you to let someone else choose your poison for the night.

Oh fried hominy... I just can't quit you. Photo by Wasabi Prime