Our Trip to Tinto
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 | posted by Mike
You may remember that I went on (and on) about my post-Valentine's Day trip to the nifty Philly tapas restaurant Tinto. I then completely bailed on my responsibility to you, dear reader, to let you know how it all went.Well, since this is a food TV blog and not a food blog, I will spare you my overwrought prose and pedestrian viewpoint and leave that kind of thing to the pros. I will, however say that the food was fantastic and the table we got was a blast, since we were right next to the Plexiglas-enclosed kitchen. Trust me...any real foodie who gets to watch top-notch professionals in the kitchen IMMEDIATELY want to run out and join a culinary school.
Our menu for the evening:
- Sliced Serrano from the Charcuterie
- Duck confit, black cherry, bleu de basque spread...a sort of open faced-sandwich
- House-made potato chips & smoked paprika cream
- Baby squid in squid ink with crab bomba rice (like risotto)
- Lamb loin kebabs, eggplant, bacon, sherry jus
- Shrimp and rabbit paella
My my count, that's 7 separate animals: pig, duck, squid, crab, lamb, shrimp and rabbit. Not a bad showing for a night's work.
How many of those types of protein would you have tried? To tell you the truth, not that long ago, I probably would have limited myself to just three: pork, crab and shrimp. The rest were too "exotic" or "unknown" for me and I probably would have gone for the familiar chicken or beef. But this openness (and I know that eating lamb doesn't really qualify me as brave) has really been brought about by watching food shows, becoming more familiar with ingredients and actually seeing someone enjoy them.
During a time when we're seeing more and more focus on easy-to-prepare dishes on food shows, it's good to remember that programs that introduce you to unfamiliar ingredients and that probe deep into authentic ethnic cuisines can be supremely rewarding.
