Alison :: Friends blog

Birmingham Alabama restaurant review #2

This weekend my father and step mother visited us in Birmingham, with the request that we find a nice restaurant that utilizes local ingredients.  We had previously been to Highlands Bar and Grill, so I decided to bring them to another great restaurant in Birmingham : Cafe Dupont.

I've eaten at Cafe Dupont 4 times now.  Twice it was outstanding.  Twice it was just fine.  This was one of the times it was just fine.

For more information about Café Dupont click here.

One feature of this restaurant that I enjoy is that it has a flexible tasting menu.  For $85 you can try everything on the menu.  Or you can pay $65 and pick four items with desert included.  This latter option is really fun because you can pick any four items you want (appetizers, entrees).

Unfortunately, this time the tasting menu options were not listed on the menu.  I asked our waiter if it was still an option and he informed me that we could choose 4 for $85.  Unacceptable.

Instead I decided to start with their fried oyster and okra appetizer, followed by a main course of beef tenderloin.

Fried Oysters and Okra
Although it was late in the oyster season, the oysters were excellent and fresh.  This dish was served with two sauces: A mustard butter, and a soy cream.  The sauces didn’t really work together very well which was disappointing.  I thought the fine cornmeal breading could have used a little seasoning.  My step mother ordered this too and was delivered her appetizer in a different plate and only one sauce.  How can you give two people at the same table different versions of the same app???

Beef Tenderloin
This was really the highlight of the meal.  Perfectly cooked to medium rare as ordered, and well seasoned.  The beef was topped with a small amount of blue cheese and was served with navy beans, shrimp, and fried red onions.  The sauce was a red wine reduction with a hint of molasses.  I found this dish to be inventive, unique, and delicious.

Bananas Foster
We ordered to deserts for the table.  Café Dupont bananas foster is great.  You won’t be disappointed here.

Pear Tart
Pretty disappointing really.  Not flavorful, not sweet, and a pretty terrible texture.  Unfortunate end to the meal.

The service left something to be desired.  The dining room was crowded and cramped.  Despite making reservations well in advance, our table seemed to be added at the last second.  If I leaned back in my chair I came in contact with the diner behind me.  Too close for my taste.

The food came FAST.  This was great, but it took a long time for our waiter to take our order.  Once my father asked for water with no ice and had to remind the waiter because he forgot.

All in all, this was a decent meal.  The service was acceptable but not great.  The food was pretty great and my entrée was phenomenal.

Happy Valentines Day!

Just another boring user milestone to report.  50 new users since my last report and now we have a total of 300 active users.  Seems the most growth is in countries outside the United States.  Maybe I should have a metric system converter on here.

N 

In the first of what I hope to be many restaurant reviews, I'll start with the best.

Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham, Alabama is an institution.  Frank Stitt serves a dual role of owner and chef.  His food is unbelievable.

In the first of what I hope to be many restaurant reviews, I'll start with the best.

Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham, Alabama is an institution.  Frank Stitt serves a dual role of owner and chef.  His food is unbelievable.  Wonderful French food using local southern ingredients.

To find more information about the restaurant:  Highlands 

My wife and I visited last night and started with two appetizers:

Grilled quail with scrambled quail eggs, bacon, spinach, vinaigrette.
This might have been the star of the night.  The quail was tender with a great sear but not overcooked as is usually the case with small fowl.  The eggs were barely curdled, and the salad dressing was excellent.

Beef Carpaccio.
I get this every time I go to Highlands and I have yet to be disappointed.  Big wide shavings of Parmesan, fresh arugula, and a rich horseradish sauce.  I like the presentation of the thick sauce on the plate with the other ingredients piled on top.

We then moved on to the main course:

Venison Loin and Shoulder
An interesting dish that included both braised and grilled meat.  The loin was cooked medium rare and was delicious.  The shoulder was also excellent.  Roasted shallots (I have to try that out!) and braised greens rounded out the plate.

Grilled Black Grouper with Lardons, Red Wine Beef Jus
One of the most amazing preparations I’ve ever had.  Imagine a grilled meaty white fish over creamy mashed potatoes.  When served, the waiter poured the sauce around the plate and barely over the fish.  Carrots, bacon, cepellini onions.  Beefy fish.  Unbelievable.

We finished with classic crème brulee.  The desert was very good but I was a little disappointed that the sugar crust was thick.  I did like that the custard was barely warmed through and the flavor was great.

Service at Highlands is always impeccable.  Our server was very knowledgeable about the extensive wine list and provided regular service without being noticed.

Hi everyone!  Just wanted to jot a quick note down that we had a user milestone today.

250 users!  Wow...  I think the most impressive thing is that the majority are people I don't know or didn't know until they joined.

Thanks to everyone for joining and keep posting recipes! 

I'm currently out of the country (Thailand... which deserves some food blogs of it's own) and haven't been able to check the site much recently.

Thanks to everyone for logging in, commenting on recipes, making friends, emailing recipes, posting recipes!  We just passed 100 recipes on the site.  It's hard to believe we have come so far in such a short amount of time.

I know we can turn this into the best recipe source and foodie community on the internet... keep posting recipes and inviting friends to join!

I'm debating as to whether I should post this as a recipe.

Last night we had some good friends over for dinner and Monday Night Football.  Just living the dream.

I cooked bone in pork chops, Mac n Cheese, and a simple salad.  I already posted the baked mac recipe as you can see.

In a mortar and pestle mash up:

• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 Tbsp course salt
• 1 Tsp whole peppercorns
• 1 Tsp fresh rosemary - chopped

Once that's ground up pour in some olive oil.  You are trying to make a paste.  Not too oily and not too dry.

This will be enough for 4 pork chops.  Rub this paste on both sides of each chop and let sit for 10 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350 F.  Get a heavy cast iron skillet as hot as it will go.

Sear the chops over high heat 3 minutes on one side.  Flip them over and continue to cook for another 2 minutes and then throw them in the oven for 8-10 minutes... depending on the thickness.

Turned out pretty well for us last night! 

I got sick of waiting for my butcher last time I went to the market and just picked up whole beef tenderloin.  If you don't mind getting a little messy, this is an easy way to get perfect steaks for about one third the cost.

I trimmed it like crazy, removed the outside membrane, silver skin, and fat.  Cut off the weird fat end and you are left with a perfect cylinder of beef.

I made 2 filet mignon steaks from one end, then cut the remaining piece in half to give me two uniform six inch long tenderloins.  The steaks were great that night with a simple salad.  I marinated the rest in the following marinade overnight:

• 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
• 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
  
• 3 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 Chipotle Chilies in Adobo Sauce with an extra Tbsp of Adobo Sauce - Minced
• 2 Cloves Garlic Minced
• Fresh Cracked Pepper - a lot

Whisk it all up and throw it in a zip top bag.

I roasted these bad boys in a 450F oven (convection) for 20 minutes.  I then let them rest for 10 minutes before slicing into quarter inch pieces.

Really good.  Tender, great flavor but still very beefy. 

Spent the weekend in New Orleans.  I always enjoy New Orleans, but something about this town gives me a hangover.

Met up with my brother and his special lady friend for dinner at NOLA.  Every time I go to New Orleans someone always tells me to avoid Emeril's restaurants there.  I'm glad that I've been and can now make my own judgment.  For the record, I went to Delmonico, Emeril's steakhouse in Las Vegas and loved it.

NOLA was a little disappointing.

The service was punctual, but our server had a little too much of the New Orleans attitude.  I appreciated that he pointed us in the direction of his favorites on the menu, but he was borderline rude.

The wine list was extensive.  Our server was very knowledgeable about the wines.

As an appetizer I had a house cured salmon salad.  This was excellent.  The fish was delicate and tasty and was served with mustard coated shoestring potatoes, arugula, and a horseradish sauce.  Unique.

After the appetizers my expectations were pretty high for the main course.  This is where the meal went a little downhill.

I ordered a ribeye medium rare.  When it was presented I noticed that the steak was pretty thin.  Probably a little less than half an inch thick.  This is a big problem because it is almost impossible to cook a thin steak to medium rare.  I cut into it and this was confirmed.  Medium.  I find this to be unacceptable for a $41 entree.

The rest of the dish was decent, but I found that the whole plate lacked seasoning.

I won't be back to NOLA, as there are too many other great restaurants to try.

My favorites are Lilette and Jacques-Imo's Café.

My step-mother, Rona is an excellent cook and has been experimenting with no-knead bread.  I think this idea of creating wonderful, artisan style bread at home has really been picking up steam.

I found a great blog about it, you all should check it out.  The pictures are great and and I really like that the cook got her young family member involved.

Jaden's Steamy Kitchen 

Reciperate must be a real web 2.0 service because we've had our first bout with spam within the system.  Looks like a few people have made fake profiles to send unwanted messages to other members.

I'm thinking about putting on a 'Report Spam' button when you read messages.  If a user gets more than 5 reports, they won't be able to send messages any more.

Put your comments below if you have a better idea.