Restaurant Project: H

And once again, I realize several weeks after the fact that I forgot to write up my latest episode of the Restaurant Project. Thank goodness I take notes - though I do need to realize that I'd probably get through this a lot faster if I remembered to write things in a more timely fashion....

After the last project, jadasc had strongly recommended Hungry Mother to me as my next restaurant - and since I both trust him and don't get enough chances to spend time with him, I promised him that the next letter would be his. As it turns out, a couple of weeks later umbran and I had the opportunity to spend an evening with him and gyzki, due to the last-minute cancellation of our semi-weekly tabletop game, and we decided to take advantage of the chance and make it a Restaurant Project night. Luckily, both friends seemed to enjoy the heck out of the chance to play along.

Hungry Mother is, in a word, awesome. It may well be my favorite of the restaurants so far - while the food may not have been better than Campagna, it is enough closer to our price range that it'll be much easier to get back there on something other than a once-a-decade basis.

The first thing I noticed when we got there was how warm it was - this was during the first cold snap of the season, and walking in was almost like being hugged - and how good it smelled. We were seated almost immediately after we arrived, too... and we promptly proceeded to order just about every dish on the menu, between the four of us. Luckily, the waiter was wonderful, prompt, courteous, and polite, asking about any food allergies before we could bring them up, answering all of our odd questions, and being extraordinarily tolerant of our eclectic behavior.

jadasc had mentioned that the boiled peanuts were a house specialty, so we started with an order of them for the table, and they were surprisingly delicious. I wasn't sure of what to expect, but what we got were a bit unusual, softer and squishier than I had expected, and very similar to edamame - just a touch saltier, and much more savory than I would have expected for peanuts. I could easily eat an entire bowl of them myself. The bread and butter they brought out to the table was merely good - cold, and nothing extraordinary - but that was the only let-down of the evening.

From there on out, we all shared our meals, more or less. For the first course umbran ordered the chicory salad, with radishes, nuts, goat cheese, and apple. It was delicious; the bitterness of the greens was cut by the sweetness of the apples and the richness of the cheese, and it wasn't too heavily dressed. jadasc ordered the curried squash soup with crab, which was sweet and a little spicy and not too salty, and managed to be a luscious blend of a lot of disparate components. I wisely decided that there would be heap plenty food about, and mooched off everyone else's plate.

The entrees were equally spectacular. I ordered the Catfish Pecan Meuniere with lemon browned butter and rice pilaf, and it was stellar. The rice was perfect, buttery and rich and well-made, and the fish was flaky and tasty and cooked just right, and surprisingly, the flavor came through in spite of all the toppings - they blended, instead of overwhelming the fish itself. umbran ordered the Barbecued Pork and Beans with mustard greens, which may have been the best dish of the night - the pork (both pork belly and pulled pork) was tangy and sweet but not cloying, and the beans were... I've heard properly cooked beans described as being creamy before, but never truly understood it until I tasted these. jadasc ordered the Steak Kentukiyaki with parsnips, and it was, unsurprisingly, good, with a sweet glaze; the meat was tender and done perfectly, and the parsnips were, in his words, acrid but good. gyzki ordered the Cast Iron Chicken, which was surprisingly excellent - it's amazing how much flavor simple chicken can have when it's properly cooked, and juicy and tender. The skin wasn't as crispy as I might have expected, but it was still delicious.

We also shared an order of grits with ham and cheddar, which I adored - I'm a fan of grits in general, in spite of being a New Englander born and bred, and these were rich and thick and the cheddar was strong and the ham was smoky and it was all so good; and cornbread with sorghum butter. I'm usually not that fond of southern-style cornbread, so this was a harder sell for me, but it was still tasty - dense, a little crusty, but not dry, and more savory than I'm used to, but the flavor was balanced by the sweetness of the butter.

And somehow, after all this, we still found room for dessert. (For research purposes, of course). My sweetie and I split the Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte, which was, as advertised, full of chocolate and peanut butter and deliciousness. The textures were great - no one layer squished out as we cut into it - and the flavors were strong, but well-balanced. jadasc ordered my other favorite, the Maple Pecan Upside Down Cake with Candied Bacon. This was the first and only time I've seen bacon work successfully in a baked dessert, mostly because it wound up acting as just little highlights of salty awesomeness in an otherwise-very-sweet dessert; this may have been the best thing I tasted all night. He also ordered the coffee with irish cream, which I didn't taste, but which he stated was "sparkly and strong." gyzki, being the bravest of us all, decided to try the pie of the day, which was some strange coffee-pear-chocolate thing. I didn't taste this either, being a fan of neither coffee nor pears, but everyone else described it as being surprisingly good.

So. Win, on every dish and every course and every metric I can think of. After a handful of ups and downs, it was very, very nice to have such a clear victory. The only problem is going to be finding a restaurant for I that can match it.

So - recommendations? Or, barring that, strangest pie you've ever eaten?