Crackers’ summer 2008 menu first taste
Last night after the gym I decided to forgo cooking dinner and instead rode past my house and up the street a few blocks to Crackers to check out their summer menu. For those of you that don't know, Crackers is a tapas bar and updates their menu with the changing of the seasons while also splitting their menu into "hot" and "cold" sections. The "cold" section looked to be mostly unchanged, with the usual assortment of salads, hummus and pita, edamame, and the like.
One thing that did catch my eye was their gazpacho offering. Rather than a creamy consistency, the chefs went for a chunkier style with bits of cooked cornmeal and leaves of fresh basil that gave the soup a nice three-part contrast in mouthfeel. The temperature was perfect for a post-workout starter - chilled, but not so cold as to make my teeth hurt or the bowl sweat.
On the hot side of things there were numerous changes and additions, but I was in the mood for something a bit more on the "comfort food" side of things and so ordered the "fondue" and bread. Crackers rotates a few of their concoctions daily, to include butter, "fondue" and, new for summer, catsup nee ketchup. The fondue - actually just hot/warm cheese that you dip your sliced and toasted bread it - was a goat cheese, chardonnay and blackberry mix that was tart with a hint of a sweet finish.
The beer that accompanied both of these dishes was Nectar Brews' Red Nectar offering. This beer replaced Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA in Crackers' draught lineup and is a worthy successor to the Delaware brewery's flagship beer, giving a bit less intense flavor but still maintaining the refreshing qualities that make the 60 Minute a favorite.
Crackers: Wasabi Ahoy!
I ordered the Shrimp, Oyster and Mushroom Salad with Toasted Peanuts and Bacon with a Wasabi Mustard Sauce, but I really couldn't taste much other than the wasabi. After scraping off most of the sauce, I was rewarded with more of a salad taste, but not much else. It seemed that the components of the salad were more to showcase the wasabi mustard sauce, who in turn had little to do other than showcase the wasabi. Also, where were the oysters? I found the shrimp, which tasted fresh and had been grilled pretty nicely - the fresh mushrooms were laid out in a nice pattern on the plate - but after poking around the salad for a couple minutes, I could not find any oysters. Maybe the kitchen was just busy. I think that the oysters would have been the ingredient that would balance or at least absorb the sharp notes of the wasabi mustard sauce, but who knows.
Crackers does tapas pretty well and I admire their willingness to experiment with new dishes, but this one just didn't seem to have much going for it other than an interesting combination of ingredients. Perhaps it would have been a bit more interesting had my palate not been overwhelmed, but in general the different parts of the salad never seemed to make a cohesive whole and ended up being a nicely arranged assortment of ingredients. Be it planning or execution, chalk it up to a lesson learned.
What I'm Doing...
- Headed home with a mess of lumber in the car. The entire car. 2 days ago
- Got a fish tank and some chairs too. Not inclusive of the $100. 3 days ago
- $100 hot tub - score! Now to move it the 400 feet to the house... 3 days ago
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