yummy.

Wanting something different than the usual cheese enchiladas, the idea was suggested to go to a Brazilian restaurant.  I was definitely not up for the typical churrasco experience of a Fogo de Chao type of restaurant.  Sampaio’s was suggested as the alternative.  Having never heard of it and always up for trying new places, I was totally game.

 Sampaio’s is located off far west Burnet road, in a nondescript area of little shops and strip malls.  There is a cute patio off to the side, although the view of the traffic leaves much to be desired.  Inside, however, the ambience is greatly refined from the exterior.  Warm colors, comfortable booths, and low noise level indicated that we were in for a relaxing time.

 We started off with drinks.  I ended up getting a Brazilian mojito made with Brazilian sugar liquer [cachaca] and rum, after tasting my dining partner’s.  It was very smooth, had just the right amount of mint, and had a sharpness that finished off the sweet tones.  Unfortunately, as I am a lightweight, I stopped after my one mojito and was unable to try the Brazilian drink–Caipirinha–which was recommended by our server and is a mixture of lime, sugar, and cachaca.

 After getting the scoop on portions from our server, it was decided that we would share an appetizer and a salad.  We kicked things off with Bolinhos de Arroz.  These were rice puffs stuffed with potatoes, herbs, and mixed cheeses.  While the taste was complex and inviting, the texture was a little too dense for my liking.  The texture seemed to render the puffs too chewy to be really pleasant.  The romsemary and tomato dipping sauce was okay, but nothing spectacular.

Next, was the Salada de Maca.  This was a salad of romaine hearts and baby greens, topped with a Burgundy basted apple stuffed with goat cheese, raisins, and pecans.  I admit to skepticism when I read the description, but I was pleasantly surprised when the salad came to the  table, both in presentation and in flavor.   The apple was a beautiful ruby color, which contrasted nicely against the bed of goat cheese and greens.  The flavors blended well, with the exception of the rustic mustard vinegarette, which overpowered some bites.

I had a dish called camarao ao molho de cachaca.  The dish was made of jumbo shrimp in a Brazilian liquor and garlic butter sauce with tomatoes, onions, and peppers.  It was presented with a side of sauteed veggies and a mandioca griddle.  The mandioca griddle was similar to a piece of polenta and was a nice change from the typical starch.

The sauce itself was stellar.  There was a good combination of sweet and savory within each mouthful, with textural interest being provided by the tomatoes, onions, and peppers.  The shrimp melded with the sauce nicely, although they were nearly overdone.  While not being a heavy dish, or, one of gargantuan proportions, this entree was extremely satisfying.

The other dish tried was the pork tenderloin [porco tenderloin].  Presented with a coffee crust and glazed with a sour cherry sauce, this dish was the highlight of the meal.  The pork was tender enough to fall apart, with a pleasant bite and smokiness from the coffee crust.  The cherry glaze made a nice finish of the morsel of food.  The garlic mashed yucca accompanying the pork had great flavor, but the texture was a little too stringy.  All in all, the tenderloin was the star of the show.

I give Sampaio’s 4 out of 5.  There can definitely be improvement on the side dishes and the restaurant is rather pricey for the portions you receive to eat here on a consistent basis.  The main portions of the entrees are excellent and the drinks are made well.  The experience is capped by a helpful, but unobtrusive, staff.  With this level of service, one can hope that the overall consistency of the food improves and they become a 5 star establishment.

 The restaurant’s website can be found at:  http://www.sampaiosrestaurant.com.

To start off, my grandma lives down in southern France, just in the mountains in between Aix en Provence and Avignon, in the very heart of Provence. When she makes her Ratatouille it changes a little bit every time, depending on which vegetables are available, but I will give you the rough basics and you can change it if you prefer other flavors or like some better than others. The basic ingredients are, however, these (and in my opinion, they should never be left out for it to be called a ratatouille). The quantity may vary though, so use your head. If you want to make it for a dinner, I suggest you make it one day in advance, that way you can get all the flavors out really well, plus you can taste it and try your own way:

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1-3 courgettes/zucchinis (all depending on size, there should be about 4 cups of chopped courgette) in quite big, half moon shaped pieces.
• 1 big yellow onion, in thin boats
• 3-4 cloves of garlic (rather a bit too much than too little, it will cook and be sweet and delightful)
• 1 bell pepper of each color (if you have to skip one, skip the green one)
• 1 aubergine (slice it in rather thin slices, mix with plenty of salt, put to press under something heavy to get rid of the excess water)
• 2 small cans tomatoes (these can be either fresh or canned, if you use canned, you use a bit less, if you use fresh you have to remove the peel and calculate the excess water into the equation, my advice, use canned)

Free use of following:

• Bay leaf
• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Oregano
• Sage
• Pepper
• Sugar or honey
• Olive oil
• Vegetable bouillon (cubes)

Instructions:

Do the aubergine at first. It’s a good idea to do them an hour or so in advance, since the more time they have, the less excess water they contain.

Start with chopping everything, then pour about a 1/4 cup of olive oil in a quite big pan (rather have too much space than too little). Add the garlic and the onions and let them sauté without getting brown, just golden. Add the aubergines (which have had most of the excess water squeezed out of them) and let them get golden. Add the bell peppers and finally the courgettes. Let it all sauté, still try to avoid getting them more than golden.

Add the herbs.

Pour tomatoes over it all, stir.

Cook until the veggies are soft, but not too squishy. Taste often. Try not to add water - the taste is better if it’s a bit more concentrated. Add bouillon cubes if it needs more salt rather than actually using salt (as it gives you more flavor and a rounder taste). Remember that the aubergines will give off a lot of salt so be careful.

A pinch of sugar or honey (or other sweetener that you might prefer) might be needed as the tomatoes can be quite sour, add it little by little and try.

Make sure to stir often as tomatoes easily stick to the pan.

Serve as it is with some bread (preferably French sourdough) and maybe some cheese (may I suggest goat cheese?). It’s also good to eat with grilled meat as a side dish.

Ingredients

7 Tbs. unsalted butter
2 Tbs. minced fresh sage
6 cups vegetable stock
2 cups butternut squash puree
2 Tbs. olive oil
2/3 cup caramelized onions
2 cups Arborio rice
1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions
In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 4 Tbs. of the butter. Add 1 Tbs. of the sage and heat until the butter browns. Strain the butter into a small bowl and discard the sage. Cover the bowl to keep the butter warm.

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, whisk together the stock and squash puree. Bring just to a simmer, 8 to 10 minutes; maintain over low heat.

In a large saucepan or risotto pan over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the caramelized onions and rice and stir until the grains are well coated with the oil and are nearly translucent with a white dot in the center, about 3 minutes. Stir in the remaining 1 Tbs. sage and the rosemary. Add the wine and stir until it is absorbed.

Add the simmering stock mixture a ladleful at a time, stirring frequently after each addition. Wait until the stock is almost completely absorbed before adding more.

When the rice is tender to the bite but slightly firm in the center and looks creamy, after about 30 minutes, stir in the remaining 3 Tbs. butter, the cheese, salt and pepper. Add more stock if needed so the rice is thick and creamy. Let stand for 2 minutes. Drizzle with the reserved sage butter and serve immediately. Serves 6.

Ingredients:
2 boneless beef sirloin, cut into 1 inch cubes
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
All-purpose flour for dredging
4 tbsp unsalted Kerrygold Irish butter
1/4 cup canola oil
4 medium onions, chopped
2 cups beef stock
2 cups Guinness
5 carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
4 parsnips, peeled and thickly sliced
1 medium turnip, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup pearl barley

Directions
Season the meat with salt and pepper and dredge in flour. In a stockpot or large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter with the oil. Cook the meat on all sides for 5 to 7 minutes or until evenly browned. Remove from the pot. Stir in the onions and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until soft.

Return all the meat to the pot and add enough of the beef stock and Guinness to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer for about an hour or until meat is nearly tender. Add the carrots, parsnips, turnip, and barley and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the vegetables and meat are tender and stew is thickened.

We decided to go for burgers and Barney’s supposed to be the place for that when you’re in San Rafael.

My first impression of the place wasn’t too bad. I really liked the big paintings of vegetables in the back ground and the seating was fine. There wasn’t too much of a crowd and we got a table to ourselves. It’s really a quite typical burger joint with a fresh decor to it. The lighting settings seemed to be a problem though, as the staff didn’t seem to be able to make up their minds on whether they wanted the lights to be dim or not.

We decided to get Guacamole burgers, beef for him and chicken for me, along with curly fries. This was my first time ever that I had curly fries so I wont review those.

When we got our burgers it was basically up to ourselves to put them together, we had the bread, the meat and the sauces there and lettuce, tomatoes and pickles on the side. I prefer this to getting a pre-made, usually, soggy burger.

It was served with guacamole, sour cream and Monterey Jack cheese, with the cheese melted to the chicken.

My first impression wasn’t great, it was good food, but it was fairly bland, I like my guacamole with a bit of a kick in it, preferably with a bit of lime, cumin and garlic, this seemed to consist mostly of avocado, salt and pepper.

The problem came when I was halfway through the chicken, if the chef had a black out or if it was a simple mistake is still unknown, but all of a sudden I sat there with a medium rare chicken. Since I’ve been working with food in different ways for over 10 years I appreciate not getting a dry and boring chicken, but this was too much.

Being half-way through our dinner the restaurant changes from being a pretty quiet place to playing electronica, I guess this was to give it a “lounge” feeling, it probably would’ve been great if they hadn’t served food. Fairly upbeat electronica doesn’t exactly mash with trying to eat a dinner in a relaxed tempo. Unfortunately it was also so loud that any talking was pretty much out of the question.

What really ticked us off in the end was the extremely bad service we got, we had to wait for 25 minutes to actually get our bill. We tried everything to get their attention short of actually walking over to them.

The bar staff seemed more interested in sampling the drink they were making in the blender than actually getting paid for what they had served. We were on the verge of just leaving without paying when they finally gave us some attention and handed us the bill.

On the plus side, the food has potential, I think they have the right idea and despite it being a bit bland and boring I could see it picking up, it wasn’t bad, just not good. For the food they get a 3.5, which doesn’t include the chicken as that is a -1. The place in itself is nice, I liked sitting there and for the most of the time they were quite nice, that’s another 3, big minus for the music though, the service was fine until we had gotten our food, then it went drastically downhill and stayed there.

I will make an effort to come back on a weekday as I suspect that will be a bit better.

All in all they get a 2.5/5.

Instead of going to the Japanese restaurant that we always frequent we decided to try something new. K & L Bistro’s menu sounded attractive with its typical classical French courses, such as Moules Marinière, onion soup, andouille and smashing desserts as Crème Brûlée (which, if done right, is superior to most desserts in my book). They were definitely on the pricy side for us (main courses ranging from $17.50 for the mussels to a $27 for a Halibut with potato purée), so we decided to go with a lighter entrée, in this case that meant an onion soup for my mother and a caramelized onion tarte for me.

Now, the place is pretty, it’s small, cozy and with the back wall being a brick wall it all added up to a nice atmosphere. It’s got an open kitchen, and except for seeing one of the chefs guzzling down a glass of white wine, it added up to the altogether nice interior.

They seemed to have a fairly trained staff, polite, not too much in the way, would refill beverages and bread almost invisibly. They were smartly dressed in black and white, which can be quite boring, but it looks nice and clean.

When the food arrived it was tiny portions, even with European standards. Ok, we could work around that.

What we couldn’t work around was the fact that the sourdough flutes with butter that we got to snack on before the food came was the most exciting part of the dinner.

The onion soup was soggy and at best bland in taste, completely flavorless and boring. The cheese was stringy in an annoying way and what should’ve been a fairly crispy crouton (with a soft underside) and golden cheesy top was now just soggyness through and through.

The onion tarte was served with a tiny ball of frisé lettuce with a very sharp vinaigrette that would’ve been fine if the balsamic reduction, which was squirted onto the plate, hadn’t been sour and burnt. The onions in themselves were also sour, not as sweet and soft as they should be.

The apples on top were bland at best, instead of taking care to really use a pair of aromatic, good apples they had taken a few slices of a Red Gala, which can be fine if one is lucky, but usually tends to be a bit watery and bland in taste.

The only thing which stood for itself were the crumbs of blue cheese on top of the tarte, and the probably pre-bought pie shell.

Now, the size of the portion would’ve been fine if every morsel had been exploding with rich flavors, but it certainly didn’t.

I was thoroughly disappointed, not only was it pricey, it wasn’t even worth half the price we paid.

I had planned to try their Crème Brûlée, but after the fiasco with the entrée I figured I’d rather go home and make my own.

I give them 2 out of 5, the service was at least impeccable (except that they overcharged us by $3.25, but that misunderstanding was easily and quickly taken care of).