Category Archives: Wine & Food

January 2, 2013 · 5:35 am

Hayashi Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar


Today we continue with our experiences at the Hayashi Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar — a regional chain with locations in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

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As you’ll recall from Monday’s blog, Hayashi had already struck out well before even the grill station burners were turned on for the main course.  To recap, Hayashi:

  1. Failed to seat our numbers as promised, resulting in two of our group departing the restaurant.
  2. Took nearly two hours before delivering to our table so much as a nibble of food.
  3. Despite taking the better part of two hours, still managed to screw up the appetizer order.

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So, how many more unpardonable sins can one restaurant make?  You’re about to find out.

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When our shrimp and vegetable tempura appetizer finally arrived, the vegetable portion of the dish was cold.  The shrimp was passable (and at least hot), but the non-traditional panko breading is a poor substitute for true tempura batter.  And, let’s face it, tempura batter isn’t that hard to get right . . . at least not hard enough to warrant going the easier-to-make panko route.  The sushi was good, but knowing this was a shared dish should have prompted our waiter to bring two dipping bowls for wasabi and soy sauce.  After all, not everyone enjoys mixing wasabi in their soy, as is the case with Ursula.  So, out of deference to her, I skipped the wasabi altogether.

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On to the teppan-style grill.  Never before at a Japanese Steakhouse have I been charged an extra two dollars for choosing the fried rice over steamed.  After all, a delectable Japanese-style fried rice is part of the dining experience in such establishments.  Yet, here I was charged for something that should have been included in the already hefty price.  On top of that, the portion I received was far from adequate considering I was charged for the privilege.  Ursula’s filet Mignon was passable, even tasty, but the steak portion of my steak and shrimp combination was unforgivably chewy.

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Don’t stop here thinking it got any better.  As Ron Popeil used to say, “But wait, there’s more!”

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So, here we are, well into our third hour at Hayashi, finally getting served our main course, and . . . where the heck are the two de rigueur teppan-style dipping sauces — one of soy and ginger, the other mustard based?  And when asked, our waiter had the effrontery to ask, “Which would you like?”  No, I’m not kidding.

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The answer that night was the mustard.  In the future, the answer will be neither.  Instead, we’ll be going to the vastly superior West Side restaurant Koze Teppan Grill, which I will review Friday.

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December 19, 2012 · 5:35 am

Spätzle is Spätzli is Spaetzle is Knöpfle


It’s spätzle in Germany.  In Switzerland it’s spätzli.  Here in the U.S., where we lazy Americans despise umlauts and other funny puncuations, it’s spelled spaetzle.  And in Hungary, which seems to always be a contrarian troublemaker, it’s knöpfle.

So, what is spaetzle?  It’s a pasta that cooks like a dumpling and tastes like a little bit of heaven.  It’s a side dish accented with cheese.  It’s the tidy little bed for a hearty main course.  It’s a breakfast with eggs.  It is, in short, a wonderfully tasty, amazingly versatile, incredibly easy dish that you’ll want to pair in culinary experiments with many of your favorite dishes.

What you’ll need:

  • 2 ½ cups flour
  • 1 tsp. salt (and more for salted water in which to boil the spaetzle)
  • 1 ½ cups water
  • 2 eggs
  • Butter for toasting the spaetzle
Flour, salt, water, eggs, butter, and spaetzle maker

Flour, salt, water, eggs, butter, and spaetzle maker

Step 1:

Mix or sift together the flour and salt.  Whisk together the eggs and water.  Blend the egg/water mixture into the flour and salt.  The result should be the consistency of pancake batter (see photograph below).  If too thick, thin with water.  If too thin, thicken with additional flour.  Let your batter sit for thirty minutes.

Mix together flour and salt; whisk together egg and water

Mix together flour and salt; whisk together egg and water

Blend egg and water into flour and salt

Blend egg and water into flour and salt

Step 2:

While resting the batter for that thirty minutes, bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil.  Place your spaetzle maker over the pot (you may want to wear mitts; steam can burn!).  Working in batches, pour batter into the spaetzle maker’s bin.  Slide the spaetzle bin back and forth across grate, causing thick drops of batter to fall into the boiling water.  The spaetzle will rise after two or three minutes.  With a slotted spoon or other draining device, scoop out the spaetzle as it floats to the top.  Drain well and set aside in a large bowl as you continue with subsequent batches.

Place spaetzle maker over salted, rapidly boiling water

Place spaetzle maker over salted, rapidly boiling water

Pour batter into spaetzle maker bin

Pour batter into spaetzle maker bin

Slide bin to and fro to drop spaetzle batter into water

Slide bin to and fro to drop spaetzle batter into water

Spaetzle will float to the top when done — about two to three minutes

Spaetzle will float to the top when done — about two to three minutes

Scoop out and drain well the spaetzle

Scoop out the spaetzle and drain well

Step 3:

Heat a large cast iron skillet to medium hot.  Toss in some butter and some of the spaetzle.  Don’t crowd the pan — once again you’ll be working in batches.  Breaking apart any clumps, toss the spaetzle in the butter until nicely browned and slightly toasted.  Remove the batch and continue with the remaining spaetzle until all of it is toasted.

Toast batches of spaetzle with butter

Toast batches of spaetzle with butter

Toast until lightly browned

Toast until lightly browned

Before and after difference between toasted and untoasted spaetzle

Before and after difference between toasted and untoasted spaetzle

Step 4:

If this spaetzle is to be used as a side dish, consider tossing it with freshly grated Parmesan or a flavorful Swiss Emmentaler or Gruyère cheese.  If this is part of your main course, use the spaetzle in place of rice, pasta, or even potatoes.  This is especially effective with hearty, thick-sauced dishes such as Hungarian goulash, German sauerbraten, or dark gravy-based dishes.

What else can you do with it, especially the leftovers?  Try serving it the next day for breakfast by topping it with a sunny side up or over easy eggs in place of grits or hash browns.

So, just how versatile is spaetzle?  Take a look at the dish below.  Looks like Hungarian goulash, doesn’t it?  It isn’t.  It’s actually my not-yet-world-famous New Mexico-style chili colorado con puerco (translation: pork in red chili).  Remind me sometime and I might give you that recipe as well.

Spaetzle with chili colorado con puerco

Spaetzle with chili colorado con puerco

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December 3, 2012 · 5:35 am

Of Road Trips, Restaurants, and Recreation — Part 1


Saturday, the first day of December, El Paso hit a high of 75° (24° Celsius).  The skies were sunny, with nary a cloud to be seen.  Fall colors were nearly gone, but still lingering.  This can mean only one thing in the Wicker household — ROAD TRIP!

Out came the roadster, in went the wife, and off went the two of us.

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The Roadster — BMW Z3 in Sienna Red

Last week it was roadstering through El Paso’s fall colors.  Before that it was roadstering along El Paso’s Mission Trail, and before that a road trip to the Las Cruces Renaissance ArtsFaire.  Where would we go on this, the first day of meteorological winter, with the temperatures so nice?  We’d been to Mesilla, New Mexico, several times this year, and Ursula was growing bored with the same old route through the pecan orchards and farmlands, so this trip I opted for a slightly less scenic, slightly quicker route that would still avoid I-10.  I also wanted to find something different to do once we got there so, after a little research I quickly came upon Mesilla Valley Bosque Start Park via Texas State Highway 20/New Mexico State HWY 478, followed by a turn west on HWY 373 at Mesilla Park for Old Mesilla and lunch.

There are several really great restaurants in Old Mesilla, but none is as picturesque nor has the ambiance of La Posta de Mesilla established in 1939 and residing in an adobe building dating back to the 1840s.  La Posta was one of our favorites when we moved to the El Paso area over thirty years ago, but it had a bad run fifteen to twenty years ago when the food quality slipped, so we quit going for several years.  Then, a few years ago, the owners redid the kitchen and, just this year, finished with a complete remodel of the interior of the building and its many charmingly intimate dining areas.  Well, I’m here to tell you that La Posta is back and better than ever.  Everything from the food to the dining environment are just wonderful.

When you first walk into the building you are greeted with a long corridor lined with various shops.  At the end of the corridor is a large, open room with various bird cages containing many colorful and exotic species; a couple of aquariums, one of which contains a piranha; a beautiful tiled wall fountain; and the hostess station.  Click on any of the images below to see a larger version:

The remodel of the many dining rooms has been a great success, with each having its own distinguishing charm.  Click on any of the images below to see a larger version:

At the table we were greeted with the traditional tortilla chips and salsa that are expected in Mexican-style restaurants in this area.  The salsa was very garlicky with just the right amount of spicy heat.  The chips were exceptional — tasting of corn, yet with almost the crunchy texture of a flour-based tortilla chip.  They were light and not greasy in the least.

Tortilla Chips and Tea

Tortilla Chips and Tea

For our respective main courses we diverged in tastes.  Ursula selected the Combination #2 — a rather traditional New Mexican-style platter containing a rolled red enchilada, red chile con carne, two rolled tacos, frijoles, rice and some very tasty charro-style beans.  I, on the other hand, went with the decidedly pedestrian pick of ground beef tacos accompanied by Mexican rice and refried beans (frijoles), but there was nothing pedestrian about the taste.  The beef was perfectly seasoned with just a hint of cumin.  The shell was fried to perfection.  The cheese, lettuce, and tomato were in near-perfect proportions, nicely complementing the beef without overpowering it.  For dessert we opted for a couple of sopapillas and warm honey.  A sopapilla, for the uninitiated, is a piece of flattened dough that is flash-fried in very hot oil so that it puffs, forming a large pocket in which to hold the honey after you poke a hole into it.  The honey container, by the way, had been kept in a hot water bath so as to make it easier to pour — something I’ve never seen done at other restaurants, but a technique that is very effective and diner friendly.

Tacos lower left; Combination #2 upper right

Tacos lower left; Combination #2 upper right

Sopapillas and Warm Honey

Sopapillas and Warm Honey

 

On Wednesday I will share with you pictures of our road trip to Mesilla, including some very colorful photographs of chili ristras, fall foliage, the Basilica of San Albino, and the charming buildings of Old Mesilla itself.  Friday we’ll take a look at the Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park.  Until then, let’s hope this weather holds for yet another exciting roadster trip.

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