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15 Ria
By Celestino Zapato
This review is a bit on the special side to me ...... I don’t mean special as in “short bus”, but special as I’ve been a fan since I first dined at 15 ria over four years ago! Long story short, the “Foodie Gods” smiled upon me and I had the very good fortune to meet Janis McLean. Janis is the new executive chef at 15ria and I recently sat down with her to sample some of the new upscale offerings on 15ria’s menu. 15ria is located in the Doubletree Hotel at 1515 Rhode Island Avenue, NW and is in my opinion, an oasis in the middle of the city. For those of you who are not familiar, the Doubletree is centrally located near Logan, Thomas, and Scott Circles! Not only do they have comfortable indoor seating (which, incidently has been recently remodeled), there is also wonderful outdoor seating during the warmer months. Janis started me off with a wonderful Frito Misto. I’m a huge fan of this type of appetizer especially when the mix includes breaded and fried lemon slices! If you’ve never tried one, I strongly urge you to try Janis’ version. A true delight, especially as warmer weather approaches! Next, we moved on to a few salad offerings. First was the Baby Greens Salad made with gorgonzola cheese and roasted baby beets. I don’t know about you, but as a child, I despised beets! However, these beets were perfectly cooked and had a wonderful earthy sweetness that I now love. They say your tastebuds mature all throughout your life and I certainly am glad that mine have! Salad offering number two was an Endive and Watecress Salad made with chevere cheese, candied walnuts, and fresh pear in a balsamic vinagrette. I found this salad to be refreshingly solid in both ingredients and flavor. Perfect with any meal choices on this menu. Shrimp and stoned milled grits came next and can I just say that when it comes to grits, stone milled grits are the cat’s meow. Texture, sweetness, and fresh shrimp marry perfectly in this beautiful southern style offering. I’d like readers to note that Janis picks only the freshest shrimp that are wild and not farm raised. The freshness in the flavor in this dish is immediate. I knew from the first bite, how fresh and wild! Next was one more seafoof offering that I must say was a stand out. The reason I feel this dish stood out was for the simple reason that it was served with Chineese black forbidden rice. If you’ve never had forbidden rice, now you have a wonderfully executed reason to try. Seard scallops top a carrot/chipoltle reduction with black forbidden rice. Sea and earth come together here in a very unexpected and exciting way. Cider Glazed Pork Chop served with braised red cabbage, and spoon bread ended the savory part of my meal at 15ria. I am a Nebraska born boy who loves a good pork chop! Why not? I was raised on them! Well, that and corn, and beef, and soy beans, and many many other fresh items. This particular dish is served with a carmelized pear sauce that, in my opinion brings this away from the now hum drum apple sauce that was at one time “exciting”! I’m not knocking it, I’m just glad to see another point of view. Dessert was B-A-N-A-N-A-S! Yup, banana cream pie made with a chocolate crumb crust. Marscapone cheese made this version sweet, but not too sweet. Pies generally tend to fall towards the overly sweet but this version had a fresh banana flavor and the perfect creaminess for this type of dessert. Very much an upscale version of the classic. I’d like readers to note that Janis is very active in charitable as well as professional groups. Janis is a graduate of the professional program at L'Acadamie de Cuisine and has trained in France as well. Before moving into the kitchen, she was an executive with the Kitchen Bazaar retail chain. She is active in Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, Les Dames d'Escoffier and the American Institute of Wine and Food. Please note that Janis is now a board member of the local chapter. Janis lives in Silver Spring, MD, with her husband Bruce and their dog Ursa. On a personal note, I can’t thank Janis enough for taking time out of a hectic kitchen schedule to sit with me and to give me a little but of her wonderful culinary insight! Thank You Janis!
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