Tuesday, October 21 at 11 AM

Where can you get a three-star experience at one-star prices? Which hot new restaurant merits the scorching hype?

The answer to all these questions and more can be found Tuesdays at 11 a.m. on Kliman Online. From scoping out scruffy holes in the wall to weighing the merits of four-star wanna-bes, from scouring the 'burbs and exurbs to hitting the city's streets, Todd Kliman covers a lot of territory.

To read the chat transcript from October 14, click here.

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W o r d   o f  M o u t h  . . .

   … The smoked beef ribs at Redwood (7121 Bethesda Lane, Bethesda; 301-656-5515) are thick and big-boned, and come drenched in a homemade barbecue sauce that's so good and sweet and tangy, you can't help but smack your lips. It's he-man eating, the kind you do at a picnic table in the middle of summer, or at a backwoods joint, with flies buzzing and the sun blazing.
   Not, in other words, at a place as stylized as Redwood, which anchors the massive new Bethesda Lane development, an exclusive thoroughfare lined with fashionable boutiques that, at its best, recreates the feel of a European esplanade, complete with strolling, hand-in-hand couples (at its worst, it reminds you of an open-air mall, complete with skateboarders.)
   The towering, nearly floor-to-ceiling windows that front Redwood make the consumption even more conspicuous, bringing the world of the boutiques into the world of the restaurant. Even when the handsome slatted doors have not been flung open, diners are confronted with a broad view of the shops they are expected to browse and drop money in. At lunch, I saw as many tiny, colorful bags filled with something expensive as I did bottles of wine. I began to wonder about the possibility of product placement when I ordered one of the sides, which come in tiny red Le Creuset daubes. Why, wouldn't you know it? Le Creuset is just across the street!
   Such a tony setting calls for composed plates and artful curls of sauce, not smoked beef ribs, but then along came a waiter with a few pinch bowls for the three of us at the table. Floating in the water were tiny, half-moon slices of lemon, so that we would not be forced to suffer the indignity of sticky fingers. The waiter also brought by a trio of black linen napkins. The flourishing of black napkins is, typically, a maneuver executed by hip and trendy restaurants who want to show their customers they are responsive to the problem of white lint on black clothes. In this case, I'm not sure Redwood was thinking of our needs so much as the needs of our fellow diners. After a leisurely afternoon of shopping and escaping the messiness of reality, who wants to be exposed to the sight of sauce-stained white napkins?
   Redwood wants to have it both ways, to showcase big, rusticky flavors, while at the same time making an argument against getting your hands dirty. In industry terms, the phrase is: "rustic chic." The effect is a little like watching a bunch of tough-looking dudes thunder by on their motorcycles, only to realize they stash them in their two-car garage and go on about their white-collar lives when they return home.
   The chef, Andrew Kitko, whose resume includes stints at some of San Francisco's top restaurants (Stars, Gary Danko, Aqua), has composed a menu of French bistro classics and American country comfort fare that sound wonderfully hearty, but which are rendered, for the most part, with a caution that curtails the possibilities for lushness and sensuality. There's potted rabbit and chicken liver mousse, both too-mildly spiced (what's the point of ingesting all those innards and animal fat if they're not going to register with intensity?), blandly seasoned skillets of mussels, and the dullest plate of roasted marrow bones I've ever eaten (there are no toasts to spoon the soft, melted bison marrow onto — instead, the kitchen tops them with seasoned bread crumbs; it eats like gooey Clams Casino.) The yellow grits are the equal of the top kitchens in the South, and the collards are a good try, but there's something incongruous about eating collards off white china.
   There's also something stinting about having to order all your sides extra, which is the case with most of the entrees. The kitchen turns out a terrific roast chicken, a free-range bird full of juicy meat — even the breast — and bearing a cap of crispy brown skin. But it's served alone, with no accompaniments. So much for homeyness.
   Oddly, the fried chicken — actually, a poussin, a Cornish hen — comes with a homemade slaw and gravy. It's a good deal, one of the better ones on the menu — especially at lunch, when it sells for $14. There's no incongruity, here: the coating of spices summons up a good roadside diner, while the savvy of a skilled, fine-dining kitchen ensures that the bird is never dry, never tough. Likewise, the roasted pork loin with grits, which looks sloppier than a plate this expensive should, but which also has the directness and simplicity that many of the other plates miss.
   The owners, Eli Hengst and Jared Rager, were at the forefront of the farm-to-table movement at Mendocino Grille and Wine Bar (which they recently sold), and, later, at Sonoma. So it's no surprise that they have procured so many quality ingredients from nearby sources. The bison bones come from Virginia. Two local farms, Vande Rose and Roseda, supply the beef. The chicken hails from Amish country, in Pennsylvania.
   One of the enduring tenets of California cuisine is to equate having the goods with delivering the goods — to assume, in other words, that if you buy quality ingredients from the farm, it's simply a matter of not screwing them up in the kitchen. But what this does is, it puts a premium on precision, since, with a minimum of sauce and accompaniment, there is little room for error.
   And yet error is what I kept finding in my three meals. The dry-aged, farm-raised beef would have made for a terrific burger, if it hadn't been overcooked. The branzino, roasted with lemon, served whole and given only a drizzle of olive oil, was dry. The sauteed soft shell was thin and watery.
   The cheeses, on the other hand, were excellent. The practice of offering a selection of cheeses — which Rager and Hengst championed — has now become de rigeur, and although many restaurants offer a wider, more interesting selection of cheeses, they deserve credit for sticking to local farms. …

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   … You've been asking for recipes from some of the city's top restaurants these last couple of weeks, and we've been working hard to hunt them down (hats off to our persistent intern, Claudia Behar). Next week, we'll have several more, including the mini-pot roast recipe from Firefly. Enjoy. …

   Oyamel's Ceviche de Cayo de Hacha con Citricos (serves four)

   For the citrus dressing:

   2/3 cup fresh orange juice
   1 ½ teaspoons fresh lime juice
   ¼ teaspoon sherry vinegar
   ¼ teaspoon salt
   1 tablespoon olive oil

   For the scallops:

   2 quarts water

   1 small orange, halved
   2 jalapenos, halved
   2 tablespoons salt
   2 ounces cilantro
  12 Bay or other small scallops

   For the garnish:

   4 segments of orange
   4 segments of grapefruit
   4 segments lime
   1 ounce citrus dressing
   cilantro leaves
   sea salt

   To make the citrus dressing, combine the orange juice, lime juice, vinegar and salt in a mixing bowl. Drizzle the olive oil into the juice mixture while whisking vigorously. Set aside. In a small pot, combine the water, jalapenos, salt and cilantro. Juice the orange halves into the pot then add them to the pot. Bring the water to a boil over high heat, then simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes to flavor the water. Using a slotted spoon, remove the orange halves, cilantro and jalapenos from the water. Gently add the scallops to the simmering water and cook over medium heat for about 30 seconds. You want the outside of the scallop to be cooked, but the inside of the scallop to still be raw. It helps to have an extra scallop or two to use for checking their readiness. Quickly remove the scallops from the simmering water with a slotted spoon and transfer them to a bowl of ice water. Let them rest in the ice bath for 1 minute. Speed is of the essence when cooling the scallops down. The scallops will continue to cook even when they are removed from the cooking water. Pat the scallops dry and lay them in a single layer in a shallow bowl. Drizzle some of the citrus vinaigrette over the scallops and allow them to marinate in the refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap, for 30 minutes.
   To serve, place 3 scallops on each plate. Cut each segment of orange, lime and grapefruit into 3 pieces. Garnish each plate with 3 pieces of each citrus (3 orange, 3 lime, 3 grapefruit). Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over each plate. Sprinkle a small amount of sea salt on each scallop and garnish the plate with a couple leaves of cilantro.

   Raku's Thai Red Curry Coconut Soup (serves four or five)
  

   2 qt         Chicken Broth
   ½ pc      beef bouillon
   2 cup      heavy cream (40%)
   2 can      coconut milk (Chef’s Choice brand)
   1 oz        Thai red curry paste
   3 tbs       fish sauce
   3 tbs       molasses
   6 tbs       palm sugar (or granulated)
   3 oz        tomato paste
   6 tbs       paprika
   2 tbs       chile oil (Optional)

   1 bunch    Thai basil
   1 stalk     lemongrass (sliced)
   2 pcs       lime leaf
   3 slices    galangal or ginger (thumb-sized pieces)

   2 tbs       potato starch with 3 tbs of cold water

   Combine all ingredients except chile oil and potato starch in large pot. Bring to boil with high heat then reduce to simmer for 20~30 min. to infuse aroma to soup. Strain soup and discard all ingredients that cook with. Put soup back to pot and heat it up to boil. Stir in potato starch & water mix to soup. It will thicken up. Add chile oil before you serve.

   Serving Suggestion: over Udon Noodles or Egg Noodles. Top with vegetables (Napa cabbage, red cabbage, broccoli, snow peas, bean sprouts), thin strips of chicken or shrimp, cilantro and scallion, Sriracha chili sauce, and a squeeze of lime. …

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   … Finally, a bit of news this morning: Ardeo/Bardeo has a new chef, Alex McWilliams. McWilliams was most recently at Spuntino Three 60 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he earned a four-star review from the Newark-based Star-Ledger. He has also cooked at the Dressing Room-Newman's Own, in Connecticut, at Max Ultimate Food in Boston, and several restaurants in Seattle. …

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For those looking for Thanksgiving advice, you may want to check out our 2007 Thanksgiving Guide. Check back in a couple of weeks for the updated one!

Todd Kliman