Pork Is Not White Meat

March 25, 2013 by modernotrio

Sandwich Jambon beurre

Until the summer of 2012, I wasn’t a big fan of pork.

I mean, I like bacon. I also love sandwich jambon beurre, a simple delicious sandwich made with flavorful baguette, local ham and full-fat butter, when traveling through France. However, ”the other white meat” as seen in those TV commercials, no! To me, this meat was always flavorless and colorless. Call it, “the other chicken.”

I grew up in the Hudson Valley. My middle and high schools were about 2 miles away from a pig farm which consisted of one long building on a small lot. You never saw the pigs, but when summer arrived, you could smell them. It’s because of this farm, I thought, “I don’t like pork. I don’t like pigs. Pigs are filthy beasts.”

Pam of 8 Mile Creek Farm

Fast forward to June 2012 when I met Pam McSweeney at the 8 Mile Creek Farm. I was looking for USDA Certified Organic free range beef, and I heard that her farm was very close to my house. When I got there, Pam offered to give me a tour. She asked if I would like to see the pigs.

I gave her an emphatic, “No!”

It didn’t matter. Pam is passionate about her work, and she was going to show it off whether I wanted to see it or not. It turns out I was just a few steps away from the shelter where the pigs slept at night. I didn’t know. It didn’t smell at all. Pam detailed how she marked about 200 acres of trails for the pigs to roam. In fact, when pigs have their freedom, they are like most other beings. They like to live and eat and play in other places than where they defecate. They keep their dwelling clean. These animals are more like the wild pigs brought to the Americas in the 1500s. They naturally choose to eat roots, bark and acorns as opposed to scraps and garbage. Because of their diet and exercise, their meat is really lean and red.

We were thrilled feature Pam’s wonderful meat at FLOW From The Garden in our Cuban and Thai menus. We plan to feature her free range chicken come early April.

FLOW From The Garden is located at 227 Lark Street, Lower Level, Albany, NY. FLOW From The Garden features fresh food and ingredients from area farms. We are open for dinner Wednesday – Saturday from 5 PM and Sunday for “Wine and Dine“ from noon to 5 PM. Please visit http://www.FLOWFromTheGarden.com for the current menu and reservations. Thank you for joining us.

Tropical Foods While Waiting for Spring

March 21, 2013 by modernotrio

The Northeast in late Winter 2013

If you had a chance to stop by our restaurant, FLOW From The Garden over the last few weeks, you may have noticed we featured a Thai and a Cuban menu.

Why? You ask…

Root veggies day in and day out

Because we are located in the north east. Aside from the beautiful local meats, what else can we feature in late winter? You guessed it! Root Vegetables! After four months of eating potatoes, hard squash, beets, turnips and more potatoes, sometimes one craves something else. Spring is here and its fertile warmth is almost within reach. However it’s not here yet.

Mangoes - a staple of my formative years

Mangoes – a staple of my youth

Thankfully, we live in the modern age where mangoes, plantains and other flavorful ingredients are available at local stores like the Honest Weight Food Co-Op. My poor palate and body sometimes craves these beautiful, vitamin rich foods.

Sue me for wanting to bring these delightful flavors to our table, for introducing ingredients with which one may not be familiar and for making them available to our local customers to taste.

Rose´ For Spring

March 19, 2013 by modernotrio

Spring may start tomorrow, but winter bids us a snowy good bye.

Winter’s current storm has given us six inches so far. As much as I like winter, I am eagerly awaiting warmer weather when my music room will be warmer than 50• and when we will have more than root vegetables from local farms.

My favorite rose right now is Pasquale Pelissero Crose´a rose´ wine made from 100% Nebbiolo grapes from the Piedmont region of Italy. This beautiful wine is rose in color with a hint of salmon. The wine is clear. On the nose, there are aromas of strawberry, roses, fresh air and citrus. On the palate it has bright acidity. The wine tastes of strawberries, unripe raspberries, fresh air, and citrus rind. I love this wine with cheeses, roasted veggies, roast chicken and highly flavored pork dishes.

Champagne…

March 11, 2013 by modernotrio

Is there a more glorious way to start your day?

Enjoying now, a 10 year old vintage from Dom Perignon and writing new music.

Only 60 bottles in the NY market, we drank 3.

Restaurant Start Up: Central Restaurant Equipment

February 20, 2013 by modernotrio

The FLOW Garden and our amazing chairs!

FLOW From The Garden officially opened on Valentine’s Day, 2013. As soft opening, we did not publicize the opening too heavily. Besides, we had so many other things to do (like build tables) instead of bother with social marketing.

The FLOW Garden is my first restaurant start up and I was nervous! The best I can do to describe the depth of this feeling is the following: opening night of the performance of the first play you have ever written, combined with the start of our store, For Love Of Wine, on top of the weekend before Christmas at the shopping mall.

During this nerve wracking time, we met some wonderful people and companies. One wonderful place we found was Central Restaurant Equipment on Warehouse Ave.

Two days before our opening day, we got word that Central Restaurant Equipment just received a shipment of 80 bar height chairs. SWEET! We had been waiting for an opportunity like this. At 3:45 PM fortified by only our breakfasts and our adrenaline, my friend and FLOW Garden host, Mercy came with me to inspect the chairs.

We pulled out, lifted and sat in 70 chairs in order to find the 14 we liked best.

“Chairs” you scoff? Well, our chairs are heavy duty – they are built to handle the weight of adult men and women for roughly 5 hours / day 250 days a year.

These are heavy chairs.

We worked for an hour and a half with Jimmy to select the equipment we needed at a good price.

Central Restaurant Equipment was big, clean and bright. We were thrilled by the family atmosphere and shocked that they had hard to find equipment in stock. Thank you Central Restaurant Equipment!

Events: She’s A Boss – Career Therapy Reloaded

February 19, 2013 by modernotrio

Kristen Williams, Moderno Trio concert pianist, and FLOW From The Garden founder and sommelier will participate as a mentor at the She’s a Boss Career Therapy event at the Albany Public Library.

This networking event is today from 6:30 – 8:30 PM at the Albany Public Library, Pine Hills Branch 517 Western Ave, Albany, NY.

The Career Therapy [Reloaded] speed mentoring event that gives participants a quick way to receive feedback, build your professional network, and scout for mentors.

Other benefits are…

·Gain insight that will help you in building and managing your career
·Meet other career conscious, young professional women
·Get introduced to new ideas, new challenges, and new opportunities

You should come if you are a young professional woman under 35 seeking career advice, guidance, or just a safe environment to vent your career struggles. The mentors are not trained in mentorship, but they have raw real-world experience and a willingness to share their knowledge and help you succeed.

She’s a Boss was founded by Albany native and Siena College graduate, Liska Wilson.

Opening Weekend – Bison + Shiraz

February 18, 2013 by modernotrio

FLOW From The Garden opened on Valentine’s Day, 2013 at 227 Lark Street. We were so happy to share this event with friends, old and new.

My favorite pairing from the weekend:

Braised Short Ribs

Our delectable braised bison short ribs with a sides of butternut squash salad, lemony quinoa, and roasted Brussels sprouts served atop a cream beet sauce topped with crisp bacon and raw almonds.

We paired this wonderful, tender meat with a spicy, full-bodied Shiraz, “Faith” by Saint Hallett from Barossa, Australia. This wine had bright, rich plum, cherry and raspberry aromas. The mouth feel was rich with firm tannins and notes of chocolate, pepper and leather.

FLOW From The Garden’s creative, Chef Andrea created other wonderful treats including, lavender shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate, warm roasted tomato salad with goat cheese and pine nuts, and Marsala Portobello mushrooms with heart polenta.

FLOW From The Garden is open Wednesday – Saturday 5 PM – 10 PM and Sunday from 11 AM – 3 PM. Reservations are strongly suggested.

Thank you Andy Kainz Photography for the delicious images.

Portobello Mushroom w/ Heart Shaped Polenta

User Test 1: We need more stuff!

February 12, 2013 by modernotrio

For months we worked hard to pass the necessary inspections so we could open From The Garden.

Finally, last week: WOOHOO!! Three sets of inspectors came and gave us the green light.

We brought our creative chef Andrea with us to restaurant mecca, Jetro (Restaurant Depot here in NY) to provision the space and to get the kitchen equipment needed so we could user test the kitchen. After buying what seemed like the entire place, we told Chef, go to town.

Immediately, we found we needed so many more things – oven mitts, napkins – sigh. Nevertheless, the results were delicious.

1st course: cucumber radish salad with a lemon dill dressing and a candied lemon accompanied by a kale chip with a stuffing made from ricotta cheese, sun-dried tomato and garlic.

I am a huge fan of salad, so the salad got lots of points from me. I was surprised by the stuffed kale chip. It was like a savory macaron. When I put the a bite in my mouth, the outside was crisp and the inside just melted in my mouth.

2nd course: balsamic marinade chicken layered with ricotta, sun-dried tomato, garlic and an olive tapenade. A warm kale and lemon salad with Parmesan and prosciutto and lemon.

I was a bit wary of the olive tapenade because I when I buy it in the stores, it is almost always too salty. Chef Andrea’s tapenade was not, so you could taste the olive itself. Its sharp taste was the perfect foil to the creamy ricotta stuffing and aromatic chicken. I thought her pairing of the prosciutto and lemon was ingenious. On my palate, prosciutto is too chewy and almost slimy. The lemon cut through that sensation and I could taste the meat itself.

Pairing: Cannonau from Sardegna, Italy – this unoaked red wine from The island of Sardegna is medium full in body. The aromas has notes of black cherry, plum, mushroom, leather, and a hint of mineral. The good acidity and expressive fruit made it pair well with both courses.

From The Garden is a restaurant coming to Lark Street in Albany, NY on Valentine’s Day with a focus on farm to table ingredients and flavor pairing.

Things That Make Me Happy: Lark St Neighborhood

February 8, 2013 by modernotrio

As we work on opening From The Garden, every day there are little things that make me happy.

Everyday we come to Lark Street to paint, clean, scrub, and construction changing the space so that we can meet the standards of the city and state.

Everyday, a good friend of ours visits around lunch time. He works right around the corner from Lark Street and has gotten into the habit of bringing me a chocolate chip cookie from Crisan at 197 Lark Street – delish!

We love the Daily Grind. In addition to the discarded chalk that they give us so we can mark our wooden shelving, they have breakfast – fresh, hot and made to order. The people who work there are really sweet.

Our Upstairs Neighbors @ 227 Lark

Toward closing time we usually see our neighbors from Red Poppies, a Polish Deli. Joanna the owner, is usually ending her day when we are starting ours. She has a lovely potato salad made with finely chopped, roasted veggies. Joanna makes perogies and gulabki (Allan never remember’s gulabki, he calls it the cabbage wrapped thingy) fresh every day. For lunch, I love going there for the yummy burger and a small bowl of soup. It’s always a great treat when she and/or her husband comes down and share a glass of wine toward the end of their day.

Of course Allan is deliriously happy with every time I get a delightful bottle of rose from Capital Wine and Spirits the wine shop across the street. I bring in Dolce and they give her treats. I think she likes the shop too.

Will I have time to enjoy these things once From The Garden is open? I’m happy to experience them now!

From The Garden is a restaurant coming soon to Lark Street in Albany, NY with a focus on farm to table ingredients and flavor pairing.

Things That Make Me Happy: Pleasant Surprises

February 7, 2013 by modernotrio

Old, sanded table top

We planned to redo all the tables at From The Garden.

We wanted to stain them then add artwork from the 1920′s with a decoupage process.

First we sanded the tables so that they could take the stain.

Swirling and swirling

Next we stained the table. To our surprise the beautiful wood grain appeared. The zebra like swirls were so pretty. Too pretty, in fact to cover up with more artwork.

We will leave the tables as they are and allow the food to be the artwork.