Kitchens

My brother-in-law just renovated his kitchen and the former chef and caterer seemed as pleased as punch about it. They installed some sleek and handsome dark wood cabinets and apple-martini green counter tops, new range and fridge, new flooring, a new picture window waiting for the new table. It is now a sunny and efficient place to do some serious cooking.

We have given some thought to kitchen renovation, though it has mostly been, if you'll pardon the pun, on the back burner, behind other more pressing expenditures like painting the exterior. We are mostly happy with our current kitchen, which is not beautiful but very serviceable. It passed the litmus test that kitchens in other houses we looked at mostly did not of having enough storage space for the considerable batterie de cuisine resulting from the pooling of a former professional chef and a longtime hobby cook. It has a gas cook top, granite counters, adequate counter space and enough other accouterments to work comfortably. We can keep equipment like the Cuisinart, Kitchen-Aid and Vitamix ready to go. There is room for a table where we can eat meals together.

Kitchens do not a cook make. Henry whipped up fabulous meals in his old kitchen. A friend of mine in Paris used to host dinner parties for eight cooking in a kitchen where she barely had room to turn around and which Martha Stewart would not have deigned to enter.

Beyond the necessary rudiments, the pleasure in a kitchen that's shiny new is largely aesthetic. That's important, but it has less to do with food and more with overall quality of life.

That said, we would not mind improving the quality of our life by someday having a kitchen that is more aesthetically pleasing. Henry's wife, Laura, suggested starting to keep a folder of things we like because kitchen renovations famously entail a lot of choices. A quick look online resulted in a new folder for bookmarks and some appealing links.

When I was renovating the loft in Paris, I spent years planning my dream kitchen (we sold the loft before installing a permanent kitchen). It is already fun, from an aesthetic point of view, to make these plans. Our initial thought is something more rustic, or least somewhat less sleek, for cabinets and furnishings. Farmhouse style of the Provencal or Italian persuasion is a starting point. For instance, we both like the idea of a big farmhouse style sink. One of the houses we looked at when we were in the market had a very pretty Provencal style kitchen that kind of stuck with us, though the house itself had other flaws that kept us from bidding.

Perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing kitchen I've had is the one in the barn I lived in for a year in Princeton. The kitchen, like the rest of the living space, had been renovated using much of the barn's original wood. It was essentially an expanded galley kitchen, but it had a window with a nice view, lots of light, and a decidedly rustic touch.

So this will be a long-term project, but it might be nice to start thinking about it now.

Spring

It's nice when thing things start to come together, as with a spring menu we prepared for guests over the weekend. Even though it turned out to be unseasonably cold, it was fun to anticipate the warmer weather with the food we associate with spring.

At the last visit from the New Morning farmer's market earlier this month, I got a leg of lamb from the Blue Rooster Farm, a family-owned Pennsylvania farm that raises its own sheep, beef and pork. The website describes how their Border Collie, Mac, herds the sheep. Like all meat sold at farmer's markets, it was frozen, so I was able to keep it in the freezer for this dinner. We had already used some lamb shoulder from Blue Rooster in another recipe and knew the lamb would be tasty. While it's almost impossible to improve on a leg of lamb roasted with garlic slivers, I wanted to try a recipe from Paula Wolfert's The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen for a slow-roasted leg of lamb with pomegranate glaze and do the roasting in the Big Green Egg.

Our half-leg was smaller than what the recipe called for but it was plenty for four people. The pomegranate glaze was a simple whisking together of pomegranate molasses with water, onion, and garlic. You coat the lamb in the glaze and then let it sit at room temperature for a couple of hours. You heat the oven, or in this case the Egg, to 450 degrees, put the lamb on the rack and reduce the temperature to 250 degrees. I'm still learning the ropes on temperature control with the Egg, so I had trouble getting the temperature down quickly, and only got it to 300. So I checked the internal temperature early and when it reached the 130 degrees called for, pulled it off and let it rest in a warm oven. The other concession to outdoor cooking was to baste it with the glaze instead of the pan drippings as Wolfert calls for, since pan drippings didn't survive even with the foil pan underneath the lamb.

Once the lamb was off the grill, I switched to direct heat and grilled the asparagus. Ideally, we would have shopped for vegetables at a farmer's market, but it was probably too early for local asparagus anyway and we got this Victoria Island product at Whole Foods. Ditto for the baby spinach that we prepared with bacon and goat cheese in an Epicurious recipe that used some of the bacon grease to dress and wilt the spinach.

I cooked the luscious runner cannellini beans from Rancho Gordo with garlic, olive oil and chopped fresh sage, then dressed them still warm in more olive oil. For dessert, we had Andrea's delicious cornmeal pound cake with strawberries macerated in lavender sugar. A young but classy Bordeaux was an excellent accompaniment to everything.

Everything came out well. The lamb was still nice and pink, not dried out, and had a wonderful flavor. Everything else tasted fresh and Mediterranean. Now all we need is warm weather!

Bethesda Lane

Looking for birthday treats, I ventured into a couple of the shops in the Bethesda Lane development for the first time and was pleasantly surprised.

The handmade chocolates by Jacques Poulain at Cacao are truly French quality, and even with the limited choices available the day I was there, delightfully varied. The macarons, which seem to be the big draw, are also quite nice.

Cork and Fork had a small-production champagne that the proprietor claimed is superior to Veuve Clicquot. Having tasted the Alfred Basely brut, a sophisticated pinot noir-chardonnay champagne, I can't argue with her. She has some other, higher-priced champagnes that are probably worth a closer look. Even though I tend to avoid shopping for wine in Maryland because of the state tax, I'll also explore her wine selection another time.

Marcel's

We've been wanting to go to Washington's top Zagat-rated restaurant for some time and finally made it to celebrate a birthday. We like Chef Robert Wiedmaier's Brasserie Beck very much and were eager to see what his top-of-the-line restaurant had to offer.

We weren't disappointed. Marcel's offers a classy, classic fine-dining experience with exquisite food. The tasting menu format meant we could indulge in four courses and not leave stuffed; portions are designed to give you a satisfying eating experience but not to constitute a classic entree course.

I started with a lobster papardelle where everything was tender and buttery. Andrea had Carolina shrimp in a beurre blanc sauce -- in fact, the classic beurre blanc was a feature of many of Wiedmaier's dishes here. Since beurre blanc is one of her favorite things in the world, it went over well.

I followed with the restaurant's signature dish, a boudin blanc made of chicken and pheasant breast with foie gras, served with a truffle and chanterelle sauce. It was truly exquisite. Andrea had Norwegian salmon poached in olive oil -- a method that marvelously preserve the fresh salmon flavor.

From the fifth course selection (where portions are "slightly larger," we were told), I chose the duck breast with duck confit and turned honey crisp apples. The duck had a crispy, salty skin and melt-in-your-mouth tender medium-rare interior. Andrea had pork tenderloin, which also was incredibly tender and tasty.

The bread, by the way, was truly fresh baked and served with garlic butter. For once, given the modest size of the portions, there were no worries about overeating on the bread.

For dessert, I had the flourless chocolate cake, which was a very good version of that dish, and Andrea had the special chocolate souffle, which has a rich, warm chocolatey taste, though perhaps too much cocoa powder on top. What sent it over the top was the warm dark chocolate dipping sauce served with it.

A nice feature of the restaurant is that you can bring your own wine to have with the meal for the relatively modest corkage fee of $25. We brought a bottle of 2000 Chateau Figeac St. Emilion 1ere grand cru that was a gift and it was a superb accompaniment to the entire menu.

Overall, it was a lovely experience. Marcel's is tied with Komi at 29 for food (it gets the edge to be top-rated because of a higher decor rating). Our conclusion, based on our two not-so-recent dinners at Komi, was that it has the more original dishes, though the quality is the same at both. Service at Marcel's, while clearly miles ahead of most restaurants, was not the flawless performance you expect from a 28 rating. The total cost, given that we avoided both aperitif and wine charges, was absolutely in line with the value.

Unlike Komi, Marcel's is not that hard to get into, so we will definitely go back. There are selections outside the tasting menu, or individual courses can be ordered as full entrees, so there are different ways to enjoy the exceptionally high-quality cuisine it offers. There is also a three-course option in the tasting menu or a pre-theater option.

Guajillo

We first discovered Guajillo several years ago when we went to Ray's the Steaks at its old location (now the site of Ray's Hell Burgers) in Arlington and saw it next door. We went once, loved it, and, almost certainly because it is across the wide and forbidding Potomac, never went back.

Until last night, because we wanted Mexican food and Oyamel is hopelessly booked on Friday nights. Not only did Guajillo take reservations, but they had a table for two free at 7:30.

So we had the top shelf margarita (made with Patron for only $2 extra) and munched on the feather light corn chips with a warm salsa and a really nice mayonnaise type dip. We split the marvelous shrimp cerviche as an appetizer. It comes super-chilled in a large goblet swimming in the citrusy marinade that is very peppery and just delicious.

Then I had the mole poblano, a boned chicken breast smothered in chocolate-chili sauce, served with rice, refried beans, sliced onion and warm, fresh corn tortillas. Nothing outside of Oaxaca will probably ever equal the mole prepared for us by our cleaning lady in San Miguel, but this was very good and took me back to those idyllic days in Mexico.

Andrea had a special -- grilled pork chunks marinated in orange and nicely spiced up with chilis that was delicious, served with black beans and rice. It was such a generous portion that we were able to bring some home (with a couple of tortillas!).

It was a real pleasure to get some good Mexican food. The neighborhood places in DC -- Guapo, Cactus Cantina and that ilk -- are drearily mediocre. Rosa Mexicana and Lauriol Plaza are not that great either and hopelessly mobbed. Oyamel is the best, but not for a Friday night.

The place was great. They held our reservations for 10 minutes due to our late start down across the river, seated us immediately when we arrived, served us efficiently without rushing us. The restaurant is small and crowded, but warm with bright Mexican colors and art. The bar, crowded with those waiting for a table, is in the back and out of the way. It is just 25 min. from our house even on a Friday night, so it's a good bet we won't wait another five years or so to return.

Along with everything else, it inspired once again to plan a Mexican fiesta sometime this summer. It is one of the great world cuisines.

Green Papaya

This is a Vietnamese restaurant that goes beyond the standard fare. I had a roasted quail special starter, with a dipping sauce, that was very nice, given that there's not a lot of meat on a quail. Andrea had a shrimp paste on baguette that was toasted in the oven, served with its own dipping sauce, that was different and tasty.

My main course was the caramelized sea bass served in a pepper sauce (two chiles, as hot as it gets), which satisfied my craving for exotic Asian fish (I had to pass on the whole flounder special -- too big and too expensive). Our other main course was the grilled pork with vermicelli, very ample and nicely done.

The cocktails -- variations on a pina colada and a margarita with an Asian flair -- were cold and delicious. I had glass of Pinot Grigio with the sea bass that cut through the pepper sauce perfectly.

It was a rainy Sunday night, so not very crowded in any of the Bethesda restaurants. Green Papaya has a serene decor and high ceilings, tables far apart and a nice separation from the bar -- it all makes for a restful and relaxing interlude. Welcome on a cold, blustery night was the heavy curtain they had shielding the dining room from the open door. Maybe because of the weather, the wait staff seemed to be in zombie mode, curt to the point of being rude, but they got the job done.

I had a lot of Vietnamese food of the simpler variety in Paris. I'm still more comfortable with it than, say, Thai or garden variety Chinese. This restaurant is a cut above in any case, but still with the recognizable Vietnamese nuance.

Pulses

The past weekend was a healthy one for eating with two homemade pulse dishes. Pulses are largely synonymous with beans, though referring to dry beans that are cooked as such.

In any case, we had a flageolet and lamb stew from Steve Sando's Heirloom Beans. You soak a pound of beans overnight, then brown lamb shoulder steaks (I used a scant 3 lbs bone-in, though the recipe says 2 lbs), sautee a mirepoix, add the beans and the soaking water, add back the steaks and cook for a couple of hours, until the beans are tender and the meat is falling off the bone. Remove the lamb from the stew and cut meat into bite-sized pieces (discard bones and excess fat) and put the meat back in the pot. To thicken the stew, you can take a cup of beans and broth and puree them and add back to the stew. Serve with a cilantro gremolata of chopped cilantro, garlic and lemon zest. It's a lovely way to transition from winter to spring.

On Sunday, we had a simple dish from Sara Jenkins' Olives and Oranges. You soak chickpeas overnight with a couple cloves unpeeled garlic and a sprig of rosemary, then cook for a couple of hours until tender. Separately you sautee two cloves of minced garlic in olive oil for 1 min., then add 1/4 c. water and simmer for 4 min. (Jenkins says this takes some of the bite out of the garlic), then add a 2 lb. cabbage cut into narrow strips, with 1 c. of water and cook until tender. Then add in cooked chickpeas and blend flavors. This truly does bring out the nice vegetable flavor of the cabbage and chickpeas cooked from scratch are always good. But the broth is thin and this may be too bland for some people. Jenkins does say to doctor it up at will, with harissa or Parmesan, whatever.

Bean dishes always leave me with a nice balanced feeling, never too full. Always ready to try a new recipe for beans.