Marengo on Union
On Tuesday I just happen to be on the bus headed out to get some ramen at Japantown when I was checking eater and found out that a new slider place was opening down in the marina called Marengo on Union. I checked out the menu and decided to change my eating location to this place. Boy was I happy I did. Located at 1980 Union st. at Buchanan it was an easy walk from the 22. I arrived slightly after the place just opened up so I was the third person inside. As you enter you are greeted by a large bar at the front where they do all the cooking. Nice to see your food being cooked while you wait, it makes me all the more hungry. The restaurant is nice an airy in design, with lots of windows, and skylights to bring in a lot of light, warm woods give it an elegant, but inviting feeling. There are two distinct spaces that are available for seating, the front with the kitchen bar, and the back room with a regular bar.
The menu consists of a selection of appetizers, salads, and the main event sliders. There are 8 savory sliders priced at $3.95 each, and two dessert sliders at $3.00 each. Each slider is about 2oz of meat which gives you about 3-4 bites of food. So a selection of 3-4 would probably satisfy the average eater. I started off by trying three different ones, the all-american, crispy chick, and the coconut shrimp, then followed it up with the porky's and the staring.
The first slider I had was the crispy chick, which is a crispy chicken, corn relish, romaine lettuce, and ranch dressing. The chicken was moist and flavorful, but it seemed like it was lacking the the crispy department. I was expecting more of a crunchiness to the batter, but it was more of a softer texture. The corn relish was slightly bland, and it seemed like it was missing the lettuce and couldn't even taste the ranch dressing. The star of the slider was the chicken, but the other cast of ingredients seemed to have disappeared in background.
Next up was the coconut shrimp. This was a fried shrimp with mango pico de gallo. Again there was a similar issue crispy chicken, in that the batter on the shrimp was not crunchy, resulting in a soggier skin. Despite that the batter was flavorful and the shrimp and mango pico de gallo worked well together. Giving it a tropical vibe.
The all-american is just what it sounds like a beef patty, with lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, special sauce, and caramelized onions. The beef was cooked to a nice medium and was juicy and flavorful. Each bite of this slider was just like eating a great burger, as it should be. All the elements in this burger worked together nothing overpowered it.
The next slider was the starling. This was ground lamb, with grilled halloumi cheese, tomato, cucumber, garbonzo tahini. The lamb had a bunch of herbs and spices added into and was cooked to a medium well. The seasoning reminded of me middle eastern kebabs and the ingredients as a whole reminded me of the region. Each bite of the lamb was packed with flavor, but it didn't overpower the other ingredients, the tahini came in boosting the flavor of the dish, and then the tomato and cucumber worked to cool off the the flavor. The grilled cheese added another mild component to the dish, and I think if it weren't for the cucumber, it might have been lost in the slider.
Finally I had the porky's which is a pulled pork shoulder, with tangy & spicy BBQ sauce, coleslaw and blue cheese & cider vinaigrette. Slathered in BBQ sauce the pulled pork was tender and delicious. The sauce itself had a little kick which complimented to coleslaw. What I was trying to identify was where the blue cheese was coming in, I never got that flavor profile as I ate. It also seemed like a vinaigrette might night be needed since the BBQ sauce is already tangy as is. I think it would be nice to to have blue cheese on it.
Rating
Crispy Chick: 7.5/10 - The chicken is the star, but it overwhelmed all the other components. Wanted a crispier batter.
Coconut Shrimp: 8/10 - Good combination of mango, coconut, and shrimp. Again, batter could have been crispier.
All-American: 9/10 - A perfect example of how a well made burger should taste.
The Starling: 10/10 - Packed full of flavor, but nothing overpowering each other.
Porkys: 9/10 - Excellent pulled pork, nice coleslaw, missing the blue cheese.
Overall: 8.5/10 - This is place is definitely on my radar now, and I will be going back. Sadly I didn't have enough room to try the appetizers or salads which all sound good too. The level of attention they put to each slider is amazing. The only concern I have is will they still be able to maintain that same level of attention when there are packed with orders. I was the only one getting sliders at the time, so I'm interested to see if they can keep it up when they have other tickets up. I will be back to find out though.
Coconut shrimp
Crispy Chick
All American
Porky's
The Starlin
Something new: Paella
Paella is a dish that I have been looking forward to making. It's the quintessential Spanish dish combining saffron with rice, meat and seafood. Finding ingredients for this dish shouldn't be hard to do, but for some strange reason it was for me. I ended up going to 3 supermarkets and a butcher to find some chorizo. Normally it shouldn't be that difficult to find, but I was looking for some fresh made stuff or some Spanish chorizo which is a lot harder to find then I thought. I ended up with some from whole foods, not the greatest in the world, but it worked.
I was a little dissapointed with the taste, I think it was under seasoned. It wasn't really that bad, but I think I could have made it a lot better then I did. The thing with Paella is that it is hard to make a small batch so I ended up with a ton of it. Next time I will have to scale back or wait for a long time to make it again
Chicken teriyaki
I have said it before, and I'll say it again, but a good majority of Japanese cooking can be done with 4 simple seasonings, soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake. When these 4 ingredients are combined in varying ratios you can get many different sauces, teriyaki sauce is a good example. Lots of Americans know this sauce, and you can buy bottles of premade sauce at almost any market. It is the common word that is used when a chain restaurant or fast food place wants to add an exotic twist to their menu, either that or a pineapple slice. These teriyaki sauces have a different consistency and tastes then the basic sauce. usually its additional spices of flavorings. These additions, at least to me, make the sauce less like a teriyaki and more like something else.
Friday’s Dinner: Sou Vide chicken breast
This was my first attempt at anything sou vide. For all of you that don't know this is a cooking technique developed in France in the 1970s. Food is vacuum packed and then cooked in a water bath at a very low temperature, usually around 150F. What this does is prevents the heat from breaking down the meat making it tough. Since I didn't have a vacuum packing machine i used several layers of saran wrap packed tightly around the chicken. So this isn't true sou vide, but more of something cooked in a sou vide style. I was more or less happy with the results, but I do think i kept it in for too long, I was quite worried that I would be under cooked. A reminder cooking items sou vide can be dangerous, since it the meat may not get hot enough to kill all the bacteria in it. However, when its done right the results is meat that is very juicy and soft and perhaps unlike any thing you would have tasted before.
