Krik's Picks

When I first started Krik’s Picks, I thought I’d be writing a lot more frequently about restaurants in Washington , DC . After all, as I explained in a post on August 31, I travel to Washington regularly for my work at Land O'Lakes . In fact, the name of the blog comes from DC restaurant recommendations that I’ve made for friends, co-workers, and colleagues. So I’m a little surprised myself that I haven’t actually written about too many DC restaurants. As of today, out of 39 restaurant reviews, I’ve written about 12 California restaurants and 18 Minneapolis /St. Paul restaurants. With today’s post, I’ll have five reviews of DC restaurants. I think that part of the problem is that often in DC, my dinners are working dinners. We don’t necessarily pick a restaurant for its innovative food, and since we spend the meal talking business, I don’t always do a good job of noting my reactions to the food. Well, not this time. Today I’m writing about Poste Brassiere , located in the Hotel ...

A business trip to Sacramento provided me with an opportunity to see my cousin and her husband and my aunt who live in nearby Dixon . Since I didn’t have a car, they drove in to see me. I got to pick the restaurant for dinner. I love Google. After my business meeting, I typed in the address for my hotel and got a map of my neighborhood. I clicked on ‘search nearby’ for restaurants, and got a list of possibilities with their locations indicated in concentric circles on the map. Then I clicked on different results to see which ones seemed most promising. One was Michelangelo’s . I went there last September when I stayed in the same neighborhood. I really liked it, and I considered taking my relatives there. But I also like to try new places, so I kept on searching. What I came up with was Lucca . It has its own attractive web site with its menus posted. I also found an intriguing entry in the Sacramento Bee’s food blog that noted that Lucca had become one of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s fav...

I flew home from Sacramento on Friday morning. Traveling east, I lost two hours, so I arrived home mid-afternoon. Our son and his family were coming for dinner. I decided to make the risotto recipe below for dinner. The recipe is from the July Bon Appetit magazine. They suggest serving it with grilled shrimp. We did grilled chicken instead, and it made a great meal. I only made one change. The recipe suggests making the herb paste with butter. To me, it looked like a pesto, so I used a good, Spanish olive oil instead. The basil and parsley were fresh from my garden. GREEN HERB RISOTTO 1½ cups (loosely packed) fresh baby spinach leaves ½ cup (loosely packed) fresh basil leaves ½ cup (loosely packed) fresh Italian parsley leaves 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature 1 garlic clove, sliced 2 cups low-salt chicken broth 2½ cups water 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided 1 medium leek (white and pale green parts only), thinly sliced 1½ cups short-grain rice...

I’ve added a new link in the left-hand panel of Krik’s Picks, below the archive. It’s the New York Times Dining & Wine section. It is probably my favorite on-line newspaper food section. I always make a point of reading it every Wednesday. I don’t spend a lot of time with the restaurant reviews because I seldom travel to New York City . On the other hand, I get a lot of recipes from the site, and I have found the recipes that I try to be consistently good and deliver tasty results. They also have articles by and about major chefs and cookbook authors. I’ve got a couple of columnists that I read regularly. One of the other links on Krik’s Picks is The Pour by the Times’ wine columnist, Eric Asimov. Another columnist is The Minimalist by Mark Bittman. So far, I haven’t read an explanation as to why Bittman calls his column The Minimalist. It may be because his recipes generally are simple and quick to prepare. The other thing I love about Bittman’s column is that he usua...

I was saddened to read in the news that Don Herbert, AKA Mr. Wizard, died on June 12. When I was a kid, I was a loyal fan of his television science show, Watch Mr. Wizard . For a long time, I wanted to be a scientist. I suppose Mr. Wizard was part of the reason why. Somewhere along the way to growing up, I quit wanting to be a scientist. I think it had something to do with learning about ‘cookbook’ science. I remember a teacher using the term. It means following the directions on how to mix together chemicals and heat them or otherwise create a reaction that demonstrates a scientific principle. He very firmly explained that is not a scientific experiment. An experiment is when a scientist uses his or her knowledge of chemicals or compounds to develop a theory about how they will react when combined in a certain way to produce a desired result. I was crushed. I thought a scientific experiment meant throwing a bunch of stuff together and seeing what happened. That sounded like f...

Mangoes are used two ways in this Indian dish — grilled with the chicken and tossed into rice. 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley 4 garlic cloves 1 tablespoon ground cumin 1 tablespoon sweet paprika 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/2 cup olive oil 1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice 2 (2 1/2-pound) chickens, quartered 2 large ripe mangoes, peeled; 1 cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices, 1 cut into 1/2-inch cubes 2 cups jasmine rice 3 cups water 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted 6 fresh cilantro sprigs Purée first 7 ingredients in processor. With machine running, gradually add oil through feed tube and process until blended. Transfer 1/4 cup herb mixture to small bowl; reserve. Add yogurt and lemon juice to remaining mixture in processor and blend. Place chicken in 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Pour yogurt mixture over chicken; turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour. Prepare barbecue (medium heat). Place chicken, skin si...

There’s an interesting comparison between making music and making good food. I played trumpet in the band all the way through school and college. I practiced hard, learned the techniques, and could read music. But I never could improvise. My wife, for example, can sit down at the piano, hear a tune, and play it, with chords and shading, and it sounds great. I can’t do that. I can memorize, but otherwise, I need a printed score to read. Same way with cooking. Benjamin knows how flavors, textures, colors, and smells will work together in the same way that Linda knows which chords will harmonize with a melody. Here’s my little variation on the Betty Crocker Cookbook recipe for Apple Crisp. I have fresh rhubarb in the garden. I substitute an equal amount of rhubarb for about half of the apple and add a little additional sugar to counter the extra tartness of the rhubarb. Apple crisp and apple pie are my favorite desserts. I haven’t mastered pie crust yet (but I keep tryin...

We went to a picnic on Memorial Day weekend. A friend of ours said he and his wife were leaving soon for a trip to Prague . They knew we’d been there and asked us for some ideas about where to eat. It was easy to decide which were the memorable meals. But we needed to refresh our memories about the details – where, why, and how much. So at home, we pulled out our albums and found the memorabilia that we needed to reply. It was so much fun that I decided to adapt it for my blog. We have been to Prague twice. The first time was 1999 and the second was 2005. It’s a beautiful city with a lot of historic things to see. There are three restaurants that we ate at and consider to be memorable. My caveat is that it’s been a few years since we were there. I don’t know to what extent things have changed since then. First is U Tri Zlatych Hvezd , which translated means “The Three Golden Stars” and also is called Vinny Restaurant. We ate there on our first trip. The weather...