Now boarding: Catalan Express

What happened to May?  Birthdays, Mother's Day, weddings, graduations, Memorial Day cookouts, and lots of post-lawn-mowing Kenzinger...  

And now it's June.  Your Broggers will try to be more attentive this month.

On a recent day off from work, I spent the afternoon in Center City.  I decided to have lunch at Amada, where the "Catalan Express" is one of the best deals around -- a soup and salad or sandwich for $12.50.  Not to mention that Amada has a good draft list.  Their rotating seasonal beer was the Duck-Rabbit Brewery's Brown Ale: yes please.  After a few sips I ordered the Salmorejo soup (Cordoban gazpacho with Serrano ham, olive & egg) and the Skirt Steak Pepito sandwich.  I noticed chef/owner José Garces at the other end of the bar, eating lunch and holding court with the afternoon staff.

Duck-Rabbit Brown Ale, framed by  Amada's artful plate storage

The beer was light-bodied for a brown ale, but just heavy and malty enough for the chilly weather outside.  Very nice.  Duck-Rabbit, from North Carolina, is relatively new to the Philadelphia area and I'll be on the lookout for more of their offerings.

Salmarejo: Cordoban gazpacho, Serrano ham, olive & egg

The day was really too cold for gazpacho, but as I came in near the end of lunch service, they were out of the heartier white bean stew.  Despite the chill, the gazpacho was really delicious, and the shmear of fruit (strawberry purée?) added a nice sweet contrast.   

Skirt Steak Pepito: Caramelized onions, Cabrales, sliced tomato & olive oil

Where the soup was better suited for warmer weather, the sandwich totally hit the spot: hearty and full of big, bold flavors.  The classic combination of beef, caramelized onions and blue cheese (queso de Cabrales), served piping hot on a crusty baguette, was the very definition of upscale comfort food.  The fries were great too, dusted with paprika and drizzled with a tangy aioli.  

The Catalan Express runs weekdays from 11:30am to 2:30pm.  

Amada

In Spanish, amada means "beloved," so it was fitting that HM and I celebrated Valentine's Day with dinner at Amada, chef José Garces' Spanish tapas restaurant in Old City Philadelphia.

Having been to Amada twice before, we were really looking forward to the meal, but this post on Foobooz added a new layer of interest for me: a chance to try Inedit, a beer from Spanish brewery Estrella Damm produced in collaboration with famed El Bulli chef Ferran Adrià.  It's described in the Garces press release as "a lager and Belgian wheat beer blend with hints of orange and spice."

At $30 for a 750mL bottle, or $7 for a 5 oz. glass, Inedit is priced lower than similar volumes of wine, but higher than Amada's other beers.  Naturally, I ordered a whole bottle.  The presentation was beautiful: the bottle is uniquely shaped, with a single gold star (estrella) on the front and a booklet hanging from a red string around the bottle's neck.  The beer, pale yellow and cloudy with a pillowy white head, is served in a white wine glass.

The taste - at first, anyway - was less impressive.  The beer was served very cold, as you would expect for a light lager.  But a Belgian-inspired brew?  That should be served at cellar temperature (55°F), which brings forward the aromatic spice aromas and fruity flavors associated with many Belgian beers.  As the meal progressed, the beer warmed up and so did the aromas and flavors.  

We embarked upon their special Valentine's tasting menu, which offered a few plates absent from the regular menu, including jamón ibérico de bellota, wagyu beef flatbread, olive oil poached halibut and a positively luxurious combination of sea urchin, bomba rice and scallop.  Dishes from the menu included a cheese plate, stuffed peppers, a lamb chop, and our favorite dish of the evening - pulpo a la gallego, Spanish octopus grilled with smoked paprika and lemon.  They served us so much food that we left with a bag full of leftovers.  Service was excellent and a reminder of why Amada is one of the city's best restaurants.

  

Back to the beer: it did go with all of the dishes, but not in the complementary way that a good beverage brings out subtle and new flavors, where the combination can be revelatory.  Even when it warmed up, Inedit always took a back seat to the food.  On its own, it's a perfectly acceptable beer.  But compared to a funky Belgian beer or a serious pilsner, it was really underwhelming given the internet hype and the breathless prose in the booklet ("Inedit is the first beer specifically created to accompany food...").  It's very cool that chef Garces has brought this rare beer to Pennsylvania, and I'm glad I tried it.  But I think next time I'll opt for some good Spanish wine.