Dine Downtown Week: Dinner at Mulvaney's

I'm slowly working my way towards all of the Sacramento restaurants that have received the Slow Food "Snail of Approval". Last week, I noticed that one of the restaurants I've wanted to try for years, Mulvaney's B&L, had a great-sounding prix fixe menu posted for Dine Downtown week. Three courses for $30 sounded like an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

Chef Patrick Mulvaney is heavily involved in the Slow Food scene and is famous for turning whatever comes through the door from local farms that day into dinner that night. Because of the nature of his farm-to-table practices, diners normally don't find out what they will be eating that night until they are handed a dinner menu (although for this week, the same prix fixe menu was offered every night).

The restaurant is housed in a historic firehouse downtown, and the signage is so subtle I could have walked right by it if I wasn't paying attention.

Sometimes the little things make a big difference as far as dining ambiance go. You know it's a nice restaurant when the water and salt/pepper look like this:

The bread and butter sure were pretty to look at. I believe this is pink Himalayan salt sprinkled over butter with a crusty bread on the side.

The amuse bouche was a lamb and pork sausage topped with a spicy sofrito. These flavors were so good, I rather wished to take a whole sausage and the sofrito topping on a nice roll and call it lunch one day.

My salad was an ever-so-slightly bitter frisee salad dressed in a nice vinaigrette, served along side a Wood Ear Mushroom Scaccia. This is a warm Italian tomato and cheese pie, although here it seemed more like a roll with the mushroom in the center. The sauce had a surprising kick to it and I loved the combination of slightly bitter greens with spicy and savory scaccia.

This was NOT my dish - it was my husband's. He opted for a 28-day aged ribeye steak topped with bacon butter (yes, bacon and butter, together) and served with broccoli raabe and carrots. He said it topped the steak at Ruth's Chris and that this will be his new standard for steaks. Clearly, he was a big fan.

Here was my entree - fettuccine with arugula rapini,  fennel sausage, roasted Hatch chile, and Pecorino Romano. The homemade noodles, silky and cooked perfectly, were dressed in a light cream sauce, and all of the flavors of this dish came together beautifully. It was one gorgeous winter pasta dish.

My meal included dessert, a Mexican chocolate bread pudding topped with salted caramel sauce. I can honestly say that I came close to licking every plate clean this evening, this one included.

As we finished our meal, the bill came in a vintage book that we were invited to sign. The comments left by other diners were charming remnants of pleasant dinner conversation, good company, and excellent meals. Ours: "Thanks for a memorable meal, Mulvaney's! Can't wait to come back."

My First Slow Food Book Club Meeting

How do you feel about the idea of doing something that scares you in order to promote personal growth? I kind of hate that concept... But sometimes I'm glad I did the scary thing afterwards. This week, I did something that was scary to me, or at least intimidating. Pushing aside memories of being painfully shy and introverted and inarticulate, I went to a Slow Food Book Club meeting.

This was my first time ever going to a Slow Food event, or participating in a book club. The meeting was held in a 101-year-old home in downtown Sacramento, where our host for the evening lives. She owns 3000+ cookbooks and was incredibly gracious and knowledgeable about all things culinary.

This meeting was a potluck, and the food was something to behold. With all the foodies in attendance, perhaps this was to be expected, but it surpassed my expectations. Quinoa and Caprese salads, pizza with homegrown tomatoes, a fantastic cheese platter with chutney and crackers, and a Smitten Kitchen recipe for blondies were some of the dreamy offerings.



The book we discussed (which is being held up in the picture above) was written by local Davis dweller Spring Warren, who pledges to grow her own food for a year and make her diet 75% homegrown. The title is Quarter Acre Farm: How I Kept the Patio, Lost the Lawn, and Fed My Family For a Year, and it was a highly enjoyable read: funny, entertaining, informative, and never condescending to the rest of us humble folk who only dabble in gardening. There are also plenty of tasty sounding recipes.

Before going to the book club, I was afraid that others might show up with home-cured wild boar sausage and scoff at me for buying my orzo pasta at a grocery store instead of making it from scratch. In truth, all of the Slow Food friends I met were very down to earth, incredibly generous, and delightfully passionate about good food and restoring our connection to the food chain. And that's something I can absolutely get behind.

Here's the recipe for the dish I made, pictured in the bottom left corner of the photo above. It's a unique, easy-to-make alternative to a pasta salad, and perfect for bringing to a potluck or picnic. I used green onions from the garden, cut out the capers (it's plenty salty already with the kalamata olives), and used sun-dried tomato feta. Here's to doing something scary and being pleasantly surprised.

Orzo Salad with Feta, Olives and Bell Peppers
From Epicurious

12 ounces orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
2 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups crumbled seasoned feta cheese (such as basil and tomato; about 6 ounces)
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 cup chopped yellow bell pepper
3/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives
4 green onions, chopped

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted

Cook orzo in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Rinse with cold water; drain well. Transfer to large bowl. Toss with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add crumbled feta cheese, chopped bell peppers, Kalamata olives, green onions and capers.

Combine lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, oregano, mustard and cumin in small bowl. Gradually whisk in remaining 1/2 cup olive oil. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.

Add dressing to orzo mixture and toss to blend. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 6 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Garnish salad with pine nuts; serve.

Slow Food in Sac

The Slow Food Movement began in Italy in the 80's as a backlash to a McDonald's popping up near the Spanish Steps in Rome. Propelled in the US by supporters such as Alice Waters, the movement has spread worldwide with a mission to preserve traditional and regional cuisine, as well as relying upon local ecosystems to obtain food.

Sacramento does have a Slow Food chapter, but their activities usually sound like elitist fundraisers that are quite beyond my meager budget. I was excited to hear that the organization recently award "Snail" awards to a number of local restaurants for their efforts to promote local, sustainable food.

The awards were given to (drum roll, please): Grange, Ella, Hot Italian, the Kitchen, Magpie Caterers Market and Cafe, Mulvaney's, OneSpeed, the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op Deli/Cafe, Selland's, Taylor's, Tuli Bistro and the Waterboy. I have been to several of these already,Magpie being one of my all-time favorite local spots. Hot Italian wasn't my style but I appreciate that they compost their leftovers! I do hope to support these institutions with my patronage. A few may be reserved for special occasions due to the higher cost, but the quality promises to make for a memorable experience. After all, why eat at chains when there are brave and innovative restaurants who are changing the way we eat, the way we live?