Aura (in the Seaport Hotel)

I posted awhile back about my excitement in scoring a restaurant week reservation for Mistral. However, I did the unthinkable-I cancelled it (a big you're welcome to the lucky soul who snatched it up after I let it go...) The reason? They finally posted the menu, and I was definitely not excited about the options. Salmon, chicken, or steak for entrees? Yawn. Caesar salad as a featured appetizer? Double yawn. It's not that I doubted that it would be good, it's just that for restaurant week I like to "live a little dangerously"-try something slightly off the beaten path, and go to a restaurant where the chef seemed to put some care and thought into the menu.

So we ended up at Aura, located in the Seaport Hotel. Usually hotel food is the epitome of yawn-inducing cuisine, but Aura was taken over by former OM chef Rachel Klein, and I was excited to finally try the famed chef, as I never got a chance to try OM under her helm.

Z and I got two completely different menus; let's compare and see who "won"!

Dish Gal:
Appetizer: watermelon gazpacho with goat cheese croquettes
Entrée: grilled kajiki with corn custard, snap peas, and wasabi
Dessert: coffee parfait

Z:
Appetizer: steak & peaches
Entrée: lamb with miso eggplant, apricot ginger vinaigrette
Dessert: cherry tart

The appetizer was not what I expected at all, but in a good way. Instead of the usual thick and chunky gazpacho, this was more broth-like, a chilled, delicate soup with tiny pieces of watermelon floating in a tangy and sweet "broth". (Re-reading this, that was a terrible description. The soup was indescribable, in a good way-very unusual flavors). The goat cheese croquettes-warm and delicious-were served on the side. Still not sure if they were supposed to be mixed with the soup, but I did anyway =)

Z's steak and peaches was filet mignon carpaccio, sliced so thin it was nearly see-through, with tiny diced peaches and a delicate ginger lime vinaigrette. It was a very nice start to the meal, but mine was definitely the winner ;)

My entrée was kajiki, a fish that tastes very much like swordfish. On its own it was very plain, but with the wasabi sauce it was tasty. I really enjoyed the very crunchy and "al dente" sugar snap peas. The best part though was the corn custard it came with-like polenta but silky smooth and very sweet. Z's lamb was cooked perfectly, and the apricot ginger vinaigrette and miso eggplant added an intense Asian flair to the dish, with a potent hoisin flavor that was really really yummy. I would say Z won this round, though I am still thinking about how I can replicate that corn custard...

The coffee parfait was nice because it wasn't too rich; it was like coffee ice cream but light and fluffy. Z's cherry tart was a more substantial end, a rich flaky crust with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. I'd probably say mine won, but I also don't really like cherries. So, to be fair, I guess we'll call it a tie =)

All in all, Aura is a great choice for special occasion dining--excellent service, fancy setting, and imaginative and yummy food. However, I don't think it will become a usual haunt anytime soon.

Sushi Teq Saturdays

This is a cool deal-- I had never heard about it until I was just checking out their website:

http://www.intercontinentalboston.com/images/pdf/Sushi_Saturdays_Promo.pdf

It's a 2-for-1 deal on sushi. Mmm delicious.

Sel de la Terre-ific

When my friend invited me to dinner at Sel de la Terre with her family, I was ecstatic-- I had wanted to try this restaurant for awhile now. It's not new by any sense of the word, but it had elusively slipped from my brain's "to try" list.

However, it was not until RIGHT NOW that I realized that I have been to Sel de la Terre before! How embarassing that a confessed foodie like me could forget such a detail. To give myself a small break, I had visited the Sel de la Terre in the Natick Mall - oh, excuse me, Natick COLLECTION-- over Christmas with my sister in law, not the Boston location. We had shopped at a furious pace for hours and needed a pick me up, which happened to come in the form of a pressed sandwich and frites.

In any case, walking into Sel de la Terre last night, I felt the excitement of a first-timer. Right off the bat I was struck by the fact that there was no wait, and it was 7 pm on a Friday (red flag alert, or a welcome break from un-earned, long waits at places like Clink in the Liberty Hotel?) We were seated at a large round table in the middle of the dining room. There were other large parties around us, so at some points it was kind of hard to hear. . . (For all you Office fans out there, I compared this to the episode "A Benihana Christmas" when Dwight is seated at the wrong end of a hibachi table. Great episode.)

But I digress. We ordered a bottle of white wine, and one Petit GoÛter of balsamic roasted shallots ($5) and one of eggplant & goat cheese puree in a pool of olive oil ($5). The puree was so creamy yet light and the olive oil was so delicious I could have taken a shot of it on its own.

I ordered for my entree the boneless beef shortribs ($26). Usually I opt for lighter fare and eat off my shortrib-loving-boyfriend's plate, but in his abscence, I had to "man up" and order them for myself. . . They came on top of olive oil whipped potatoes and some cubed winter vegetables. As I've already written, I have a penchant for mashed potatoes, so when the dish was dropped off in front of me, my fork instantly was drawn straight to that glorious starch.

And whipped they were, into light as air, smoothy and silky perfection. I am a person who likes to take a bite with all elements on my fork, but I actually would have appreciated some differentiation between my starch and my vegatable in this case, as it was hard to get a purely potato bite without a sneaky carrot butting its way in.

The short ribs were nice, but maybe I'm used to a less tough version? I like the kind where you barely even need a knife...These were a bit hard to handle. And without even cleaning my plate, I was so full I couldn't even manage one bite of the cranberry-almond crisp that my friends got. So tragic...

In terms of decor, I was a bit disappointed-- it reminded me of a subdued Cheesecake Factory with lower ceilings. It's no surprise it fit so well into its mall location at the Natick Collection.

After Gaslight, Eastern Standard, and Sel de la Terre, I think I have officially OD-ed on French food for right now. But it certainly was a delicious meal, perfect for a dinner with parents from the 'burbs and old and new friends. And if someone were to ask for a solid, delicious meal in this town without all the fuss and pomp of other desperately-trying-to-be-hip establishments, I'd definitely recommend Sel de la Terre.

And who knows-- maybe in a few months I'll forget I've eaten here and try it "for the first time" again.

Love,

Dish Gal