In food news last month, a Dallas restaurant critic who previously only presented herself as an avatar, outed herself and may regret it since now restaurants know who to Not serve. The critic is Leslie Brenner; as far as I know we are not related. She writes notoriously negative reviews for the Dallas Morning News, giving the city’s best restaurants three out of five stars.
Today’s Post had an article on how restaurants are betting they’ll fare better with no reviews at all by campaigning against her.[1] Since she has always worked as a critic in L.A. and New York, I tried to find a review where she gave a restaurant five out of five stars, but could only turn up articles that said they deserved five stars but only got three. It would be fun reviewing restaurants but possibly not owning one, particularly in Dallas. Even after she was banned from a restaurant, she went in and did a bad review on Halloween, in costume.
I’ve been to two Lodge-theme restaurants lately that have a local, seasonal focus. One was in Twinsburg, OH, very near our destination of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, called Blue Canyon Kitchen and Tavern. This is our second time at Blue Canyon due to our road trips between Maryland and Michigan, and a lack of sustainable-bent restaurants along the way. The first time we had the brunch buffet. Interesting side note: when my husband asked the waiter about Twinsburg, he said that people go there from all over the world for their annual Twins Days, which is a festival for biological twins that has taken place every summer since 1976.
This time I had pretzel crusted trout, which is Clear Springs trout, warm red skin potatoes sautéed with spinach and pesto, and whole grain mustard caper butter. It turns out, Clear Springs is a trout distributor in Idaho and the world’s largest producer of farmed Rainbow Trout, processing over 20 million pounds a year. Note to self: just because a menu lists farms, doesn’t mean they’re local – look for locations or ask. The entrées run about $25-$35 but you can order half sizes.
We hardly ever get trout in Maryland so I enjoyed it although I thought the coating was too greasy; I’m guessing it would have been better if it sat on some paper towels before going to my plate. When I searched online to find the name of the trout, it pulled the recipe right up in a PDF, so I’m including it below. I wish we could find all restaurant recipes this easily. I’m guessing it would serve at least four.
We tried some nice fruit sorbets for dessert (from San Francisco! I’m just now learning) and a Chocolate Bomb. The Bomb was like a gourmet Ding Dong – is that what you call them? It had a cake bottom, white chocolate mousse over that (I thought it was vanilla ice cream) and a milk chocolate ganache shell served on berry sauce. It wasn’t too big and perfect to share for a little something super chocolaty.
I’d give the restaurant three stars – just kidding – I couldn’t care less about stars. If you can be adventurous and go to new places where you can eat real foods and maybe even try some things you haven’t had before, then it’s a fun way to celebrate life.
Blue Canyon Kitchen and Tavern, Pretzel Crusted Trout
2 Whole Rainbow Trout
1 C Chopped / Crushed Pretzels
10 Redskin Potatoes
2 Small Bags of Spinach (1 C cooked spinach)
½ C Pesto
Sauce
1 Qt. Heavy Whipping Cream
1 C Whole Grain Mustard
½ C Capers
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Cube redskin potatoes and boil or steam until fork tender. Reserve in a sauté pan.
Cook spinach until soft. (This may be done ahead of time.)
Place meat-side of trout in crushed pretzel. Place pretzel-side down in cold, oiled sauté pan. Turn heat up high. Sauté for about five minutes or until pretzel is a nice deep golden brown. Flip trout over to skin side and set aside. (The heat from the pan will carry over the cooking process.)
Place cooked potatoes, spinach and pesto in pan to warm all together.
Heat heavy whipping cream and whole grain mustard in a pot until reduced by half. Add capers. Salt and pepper to taste.
Place potato mixture on plate and place trout on top. Drizzle with sauce.
[1] “From Dallas’s top kitchens, reviewer Leslie Brenner is feeling the heat,” by Tim Carman, The Washington Post, December 2, 2014.
