Holiday eating
It was/is the holidays, which means the annual winter visit from my brother, who dwells in the City of Brotherly Love. This, coincidentally, coincides with our family of four hitting the town, and generally eating in style.
Our first stop was the (relatively) freshly minted D’Amico Kitchen at the swank Chambers Hotel. The look of the new space is more welcoming than the old one, with warm, white leather chairs and (slightly) more light. I had grabbed drinks at the old spot, and have the image of darkness with a glowing orange bar. This might be entirely made up.
After a refreshing gin gimlet to start the meal, we dove in with an order of arincini (or saffron risotto balls as they’re called on the menu), a roasted beet salad and the daily cracker-crust pizza offering.
My mom had been raving about some homemade arincini she had eaten recently, and D’Amico’s made me a believer in these delicious little diet-killing bombs. Braised veal, roasted tomato and gremolata (an herb condiment usually of garlic, parsley and lemon zest) were pocketed in saffron-kissed arborio rice, then deep-fried to golden deliciousness. Despite the seeming heft and packaging of these ingredients, the arincini were light and fluffy once the outer shell was breached.
The beet salad, served with orange slices, gorgonzola and pistachios, was finished with a pumpkin seed vinaigrette. The earthiness of the beets, the tanginess of the cheese, with the crunch of the pistachios and sweetness of the oranges all worked together so well. I must admit I’m becoming quite the beet believer after spending so many years in the hater camp. So many wasted years.
The pizza, with a simple tomato sauce, three cheeses and some olives, was predictable, and by virtue of the more complex flavors of the other two appetizers, was the last eaten.
I chose the butternut squash cappalletti for dinner, in part because I’ve been on a squash kick as of late, but also because it had the same pistacho-pumpkin seed combo as the beet salad. I was not disappointed.
The cappalletti, which resemble little pasta envelopes, were perfectly cooked, and tasted very fresh. The squash filling was like getting kicked on the taste buds with a pile of fallen leaves. It was so genuine an autumnal explosion that it almost made me forget the feet of snow mere feet away. I was so engrossed with it, in fact, that I failed to taste my brother’s suckling pig, or either of my parent’s sea scallops and short ribs. Our hushed conversation, however, spoke to the quality of the entrees.
A post-gorging trip around the Chambers to gaze at some art was a nice way to start the digestion process, and only adds to the appeal of D’Amico Kitchen.
2 years ago
