Downtown Dining Week Review No. 3: Coquette Cafe

Tonight, I had dinner at Coquette Cafe with my friends Leah and Lisa. We've been talking about going for ages, and we figured it would be a good place to head to for downtown dining. I'm so glad we went--the food was fantastic and a great value. Lisa and I ordered from the $20 downtown dining menu. Leah opted for soup and salad off the regular menu.

I started with the field greens with a Dijon vinaigrette (actually, I really started with a glass of Beaujolais and some of their great French bread and fresh butter. YUM.). It was very simple, but the dressing was fantastic and everything was fresh.

For my main course, I ordered something I've always wanted to try but never had: coq au vin. I don't know why I've never had it before (like when I spent an entire summer in France ...). It was so delicious, with lots of great flavors. The chicken was served on top of some mashed potatoes. I dipped a few pieces of bread in the wine sauce. Delicious! It was a huge portion, too. I had enough leftover to bring an entire chicken breast plus some potato home with.

For dessert, I opted for the meringue snow eggs, mostly because I had had the chocolate mousse during my lunch at Molly Cool's. I expected the meringue to have a bit of a hard outside and a soft inside. These "eggs," however, were very soft--the texture was like a marshmallow. They were light and pretty tasty, although I'm not sure I would seek them out.

For her courses, Lisa ordered the watermelon gazpacho (which I was kind of weirded out by, but it was really good, especially on a super hot day), the coq au vin and the chocolate mousse (which was also really good, and better than the stuff at Molly Cool's).

Leah ordered a cup of the French onion soup (I had a bite of it--and made lots of groaning/yummy sounds afterwards. I would definitely go back for more of that!) and a salad with spinach, bleu cheese, grapes, pears and pecans.

All in all, we had a great experience--great wine, food and service. The only complaint we had, which had nothing to do with the meal, was that the restaurant was really, really warm--the air was definitely not on, nor were there any fans or anything going. But, still, the food outweighs everything!

Downtown Dining Week Review No. 2: Water Buffalo

On Monday, a small group of ladies from work went to Water Buffalo to celebrate Sandy's birthday. We scored a table on the Riverwalk on a very warm, sunny day. We all ordered from the Downtown Dining menu, which, somewhat surprisingly, didn't include a dessert course.

For the first course, I ordered something I usually get at Water Buffalo--their tortilla soup. It's always tasty, with huge chunks of chicken and a cream base.

For the second course, I ordered the green salad, which had fresh mozzarella in it--a definite plus in my book!

For the third course, I wavered between the two options--the black bean burger (which I've had a few times and always enjoy) and the barbecue pulled pork sandwich. Because I've had the black bean burger before (and because I had one at Cafe Hollander Saturday night), I opted for the pulled pork (I ordered it without bacon, though. I know, I know--who does that sort of thing?!). The sandwich was huge! It included a slice of Swiss cheese and the sauce was on the side. The pork was good--tasty and moist--but not really outstanding or anything spectacular.

The service was good and incredibly quick--we were barely through our soup and salad when the sandwiches came out. Normally, that's a bit annoying, but during a weekday lunch, I'd rather have it that way than waiting a long time.

Overall, it was a good experience. My only complaint, if you could call it that, was that I'd like to see one or two more unique or innovative items on the menu. It'd be nice to be able to try something that maybe isn't on the menu a lot of a spin on an old standby.

Downtown Dining Week Review No. 1: Molly Cool's

Milwaukee's Downtown Dining Week is one of my favorite times of the year. It's the time to visit places you've never been and to experience great food for a reasonable price. I love checking out new places--and even ones I've been--during this week. While some of the menus can be limited, there always seems to be something for everyone. Lucky for me, too, I work downtown so I can check out a few restaurants for lunches throughout that week.

My first 2011 Downtown Dining experience was last Friday, when my work department went out for a coworker's birthday. The birthday girl picked Molly Cool's on Old World Third Street. Our group had been once before--for a happy hour, with two-for-one drinks and half-priced appetizers--and our experience and food had been good.

Unfortunately, that wasn't quite the same experience we had last Friday. There were some ups and downs to the meal, but the downs are the ones that tend to stick out.

Five out of the six of us in our group opted for the Downtown Dining menu. We all had slightly different combinations, but among the five of us, we sampled everything. Here, in a nutshell, is how my food was:

For the appetizer, I ordered the crab cake, which was really good--not a lot of filler and a great, fresh crab taste with a reddish remoulade sauce. It also came with a small cup of coleslaw which was just OK--nothing special.

For the main course, I ordered the 1/2 a crab wrap with the seafood chowder and sweet Maui-onion potato chips. The wrap was just OK--it wasn't as flavorful as I had hoped and thought it would be. The chowder, however, was good, although I'm not sure what was all in it.

For the dessert course, I ordered the key lime pie, which I was really excited about. Just before bringing dessert, the server informed us that they had run out of key lime pie, which three of us ordered. This kind of surprised me, as we put in our order at about noon (or a bit before) on the second day of Downtown Dining. I can kind of understand if it's near the end of the week, but the second day? So instead I ordered chocolate mousse, which came in a wonton cup on top of whipped cream. The cream was good, the mousse was OK and I didn't care for the wonton cup (too greasy and not much flavor).

Service was fine until we got to the end of the meal and received our bill. Two people in our group ordered entree salads (one ordered the Caesar and the other the mixed greens). Both asked if anything with it (a type of protein) and the server said you can add shrimp, salad or chicken--so one ordered chicken and another salmon. Turns out, there was quite an extra charge for the protein: $5 for chicken and $9 for the salmon, which the server never specified.

I think we all understand extra charges and both the people in my group who had the salads said they understood, but when you order off a fixed price menu, it seems like it should be a given that add-ons like that are included--or at the very least the server should say something, especially if the add-on is almost the same price as the entire meal. Long story short, the manager came out and explained the situation (in a rather terse way) and took a few bucks off the bill. Eh. Personally, I just can't understand how a Caesar salad (no meat) or mixed green salad (no meat) can be offered alongside of a crab wrap and seafood soup or walleye fingers--it just doesn't add up.

All in all, it wasn't the greatest experience, and I can't say I'll rush back any time soon. I'm by no means an expert, but I think restaurants that participate in Downtown Dining Week really need to get these meals right and provide a good experience for guests so that they come back and order off regular menus throughout the rest of the year.

Homemade Pita Bread

I've been wanting to try making my own pita bread for some time. I find that the options available at the store (no matter a big grocery store, Outpost or our favorite Greek grocery store) are always a little too dry for me and don't taste as good as the fresh stuff you get at local Middle Eastern and Greek restaurants. Plus, I've been seeing lots of blog posts about it (including on my friend Debbie's blog, Le Food Snob), so I knew it was time.

Nate found a pita pocket dough recipe in the Corner Bakery Bread & Dessert Maker Cookbook that came with our Breadman bread machine, which made it easy enough to get started. The recipe was simple enough (and I liked that it included whole wheat flour--I'm not sure all pita pocket recipes do):

Pita Pocket Dough

• 1 1/3 cups 80* water


• 8 tsp. olive oil


• 4 tsp. sugar


• 1 1/4 tsp salt


• 2 cups bread flour


• 1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour


• 2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

Place all ingredients in that order in the bread machine. Set on "dough" cycle (it took my machine about 1 hour and 30 minutes to make the dough).

To bake:
When dough is ready, place on a lightly floured surface. Divide into 10 pieces (we weighed the entire thing and then divided by 10). Shape each piece into a smooth ball.

Place 5 balls on a large baking sheet. Place the remaining 5 balls on another sheet. Let rise about 20 minutes (we were away from the house when the dough was done, so we considered the extra time the dough spent in the bread machine the rising time). With fingertips, flatten each ball into a 6-inch circle.

Bake at 500* for 5 minutes, or until puffed and tops begin to brown (it took us about 8 minutes).

Cut each in half to form 2 pockets (depending on what you're using the pita for, this might not be necessary).

Nate formed five of the pita rounds and I did the other five. For some reason, his were much puffier than mine were00but mine got a little more brown. I'm not sure what that means, but in any event, both version of the pita tasted really, really good. Some of them weren't too easy to spit into pockets (one side always tended to be thinner than the other), but it might take some practice to get it right.

I think it's safe to say that like the corn tortillas we made, I'll never be buying pita again. The pita was great with the baba ghanoush I made as well as as sandwich bread. It was lighter, fresher and a bit chewier (which I like) than the store-bought stuff.

Baba Ghanoush (or Mashed Eggplant Dip)

I needed some kind of appetizer to take to my parents' house for a Memorial Day/Grandma's birthday cookout. I wanted something light and healthy (and--not going to lie--maybe something that would have enough leftover that I could bring home and eat during the week!), and I found this recipe for baba ghanoush in the June 2010 issue of Cooking Light. I've always wanted to try making baba ghanoush, too, so this worked out perfectly.

Baba ghanoush is an Arab dish made of grilled or roasted eggplant that is mashed and mixed with seasonings. It's often served as a dip with pita bread--which is exactly how I wanted to serve it.

This recipe was super easy (seriously, the hardest part was trying to find the right-sized eggplant!) and straightforward. The only thing I would do differently next time is either omit the mayo (kind of weird, if you ask me) or use plain Greek yogurt instead. The one thing I did differently was that instead of buying cumin seeds, I just used ground cumin. Also, lucky for me, it made a ton, so I was able to bring some home to use on sandwiches and use as a veggie dip.

I served it at my parents' house with homemade pita bread I had made earlier in the day. Yum! I could snack on this stuff every day.

Roasted Cherry Tomato Spaghetti

I decided to dive into an old Cooking Light to find some dinner recipes. I found this recipe for quick-roasted cherry tomato sauce with spaghetti in the June 2010 issue. It looked tasty, easy and included goat cheese--perfect!

The recipe was really quite easy and tasty. The only thing than threw it off a bit was that we didn't have regular (and whole wheat, which we usually use) spaghetti, but only angel-hair spaghetti. The dish was good, but it was a little noodle heavy, and I think it would have been much better with a thicker, wider noodle. But all in all it was tasty and very fresh. I'd definitely make it again.

Chicken Sliders with Apricot Chutney

I had high hopes for these chicken sliders and apricot chutney spread from the June 2011 Cooking Light. The recipe sounded great--pulled chicken, sweet but tangy apricot chutney ... but alas, something went wrong and they weren't as good as I had hoped they would be.

I would do a few things different next time than what the recipe calls for, but we also made what I think might have been a few mistakes:

• I don't think the apricots we had were ripe enough. The ones we got from Outpost were really pretty small, so I got 5 rather than 3. I thought that might help, but they were pretty tart--so that, along with the cider vinegar and Dijon mustard, made it too pucker-y.


• Instead of grilled the chicken as the recipe suggests, we cooked the chicken the way we normally cook chicken when we're going to shred it--in a bit of water to keep it moist. Well, the chicken was moist all right, but it didn't have much flavor (I think the red and black pepper and salt probably washed away).


• I didn't make the guacamole with it as the recipe suggests, only because the avocado I had wasn't quite ripe enough. I think this would have really helped the flavor.

If I were to make them again (and I'd try it, but with apricots I know are ripe and sweet), I'd cut down on the vinegar and mustard and definitely not cook them in water. We made ours into just regular sized sandwiches because we already had buns in the freezer.

We had some leftover chicken a few days later, and instead of using the chutney (and by then it had gone bad anyway), we reheated the chicken with barbecue sauce and cheese. Now THAT was good!