For various reasons, Valerie Safran and Marcie Turney decided to close Bindi, their indian restaurant. I’d never had a chance to go, so we stopped by on their last day in business. I’m happy to say that it was full and hopping. It was a beautiful space! And all of the food was delicious. It’s a shame to see it go!
E’s mango lassi. Who doesn’t like mango lassi?
Papadum with chutney for dipping. You know, it’s like the chips and salsa of indian food. I love this stuff.
We both ended up getting their prix-fixe, which has a limited menu, but pretty much covers most things from their regular menu. It’s not necessarily a better deal or anything, but I’ve just been into prix fixes lately. Here’s E’s spring pea and potato samosas, served with mango-date chutney and raita. These are adorably hot, flaky, and not greasy.
I got the salt roasted beet and mixed radish chaat. It’s a salad of local beets, watermelon, jicama, chutneys, sprouted moong, and yogurt. This thing was awesome. There are so many different flavors in this, it’s hard to describe.
E’s indian bbq braised shortrib with masala roasted potatos, grilled corn-cabbage slaw, and watermelon rind chutney. Bindi’s food is interesting because it doesn’t always look typically indian, and then you taste the intense indian flavors.
I got the seafood goozoo which comes with shrimp, scallops, and mussels in a spicy tomato-tamarind curry, with ginger, garlic, green mango, and lime rice. When I first tasted this, I wondered why this dish was being served at an indian restaurant. Then I moved onto the bottom of the bowl and then all the indian flavors hit me. This had tons of fresh seafood. I really enjoyed this.
The bread we got was a potato paratha. It was a slightly spicy potato griddle bread with ghee, sea salt, and a house raita. I love me some indian breads. They should be part of my daily life.
E gushed about the cardamom cake, so that’s what we both went with. It’s an individual sized warm cardamom cake topped with indian spiced chocolate pot de creme, salted caramel, cacao nib crumble, whipped cream, and a giant shard of sugar glass. Man alive, was this thing amazing! If the salted caramel budino is the must-have at barbuzzo, then this is the must-have at bindi. I hope that they end up still serving this at one of their other restaurants. This entire meal was lovely, and so was the service. I’m just happy that I got a chance to check it out! Bindi, we’ll miss you!

E and I started back our weekly dinners in an epic way. We ventured to south street to dine at Pumpkin for their sunday night five course tasting menu. It was everything we thought it would be, and more! The dining area is small and intimate. There was a big table there, so it was probably a bit noisier than normal. They were russian, had lots of booze, and were having lots and lots of toasts! Since Pumpkin uses as many locally sourced ingredients as possible, their menu does not come out until the day of the meal. I was really excited about what was in store.
The complimentary bread with garlic infused oil. Yep, even their bread is good! It was crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, and the oil was dreamy. I could have drank it.
The first course was a chilled tomato soup with buttermilk and eggplant. There was a lot more to it, but I can’t even be sure of the rest of the ingredients. The bowl came out with some veggies (radishes?) and some dark crumbly bits and a white foam. The white foam is probably the buttermilk, maybe? The dark crumbly bits tasted like toast. The server poured the soup into your bowl at the table. I wasn’t even sure how to eat this! Do I mix it together? Do I eat things separately? Do I just make my own combinations? I never quite figured it out but enjoyed it thoroughly. The soup was beyond fresh, I could taste the green! What does that even mean? I don’t know, but that’s how I describe it. It was just damn tasty.
The second course for E was the new jersey sweet corn risotto with brandade, leek, and clam. It doesn’t look like a typical risotto. This thing was delicious! The corn was fresh and sweet, the seafood was a nice complement, and there was foam, again!
My second course was a free range coddled egg with sunchoke, morcilla blood sauage, and potato. There were two other thick liquids on this dish that I couldn’t really identify. And again, I was at a bit of a loss as to how to eat this thing. So I just took little bits of each area and just made it up as I went. This was incredibly rich and savory. But I liked it all!
The third course was this beautiful salad of heirloom tomatoes, pistachio, watermelon, and buttered popcorn ice cream. What did I just say? Yes, I just said buttered popcorn ice cream. On. My. Salad. There were several different types of tomatoes, all which were great. There were these tiny little cucumbers that looked like micro watermelons. They were adorable and tasted slightly cucumber-like. The ice cream was a crazy touch, and by crazy, I mean crazy good. It pretty much tasted like straight up butter, but with a slight popcorn taste. The more I ate it, the more the popcorn flavor came out. I’ve never eaten salad with ice cream before. It was an unexpected surprise.
E’s fourth course was the rhode island skate with cauliflower, black olive puree, and a caper sauce. The fish was simply pan fried and was simply delicious. It did not need any adulteration. She particularly enjoyed the cauliflower.
My fourth course was the duroc pork loin with quail egg, turnips, chocolate dusted mushroom, black garlic paste, and horseradish cream. Ok, this is a pretty strong statement, but I’m going to make it. This is the best pork I’ve ever tasted. Ever. I’m being completely serious. Plain and simple. In all honesty, I did not even know that pork could taste like this. It was just perfect. The garlic paste was super savory with a slight asian hint to it, and I loved it with the pork. The turnips were great. The quail egg was a bit of a letdown. It didn’t really have any kind of flavor. It wasn’t even particularly egg-like!
E’s fifth course was the flourless chocolate cake with cardamom, passion fruit concentrate, and coconut sorbet. This thing was rich and creamy and strong! The passion fruit dollop was the most concentrated flavor of passion fruit I’ve ever experienced.
My fifth course was the caramelized white chocolate goat cheesecake with apricot sorbet, fig, and brown butter. The powdery stuff? It’s butter! This cheesecake was awesome, with just the tiniest hint of goat cheeseness (yes, sometimes I make up words). I’m not the biggest fan of goat cheese, but trust me, it’s great. The apricot sorbet was perfect, the figs were mildly sweet. This was truly a meal to remember. Every single dish knocked our little socks off. And I don’t think E and I will ever stop talking about the buttered popcorn ice cream! Service was friendly and excellent. And you know that getting five courses of food of this type of quality and inventiveness is nuts at a price like this. We can’t wait to come back!

On one of our many recent rainy weekend days, we stopped by the Twisted Tail for a late brunch. They just opened in Headhouse Square and in addition to food and drink, offer live blues music and open blues jams, for those of you inclined. They’re also a bourbon house so they’ve got quite the array of liquors! They also feature a charcoal grill in their kitchen and cook most of their food over open heat, whenever possible.
Of course, they also have beer. The restaurant is really quite big, especially the downstairs. I did not get to check out the upstairs, where the music happens. It’s decorately quite tastefully, even with all of the curly tail motif everywhere. It’s warm and masculine, with a slightly rustic touch.
Here’s some complimentary bread, one which was a corn bread, and one which was a bourbon based bread, I think. See the curly q of butter? Yes, very cute. The corn bread wasn’t particularly corn tasting at all. I like the bourbon bread, it had a little sweetness.
This is the watermelon gazpacho. Delicious and refreshing! It’s made with watermalon, pear tomatoes, jicama, and opal basil. It was a lovely mix of sweet and savory, with nice hunks of the fruit and veggies. It was so surprising and great.
This is the grilled Jersey Blue Fish, with confetti rice, and grilled loco corn. The fish was cooked on the grill, skin on, and was moist and delicious. It had a great flavor, all on its own. The corn had some kind of bbq type of sauce on it, and while already super sweet already, had the added sweetness from the sauce. It was amazing!
I had my eye on the bison meatloaf, and after our server told us it was one of his favorites, I had to go with it. It’s made out of bison! And it comes with a portobello mushroom gravy and green pea whipped mash potatoes. It was all delicious! The meatloaf has a bit of a kick from the glaze that’s on the outside. I’m in love with this green pea whipped mash potato stuff. It’s chunky and has tons of potato skin in it and pea bits. I just loved it.
For dessert, our server recommended the Chocolate Symphony. Why the hell not? It’s a layer of white chocolate pound cake, layers of chocolate mascarpone, a layer of German chocolate cake, and topped with Godiva sauce. They put the sauce on at the table, so you can get as much as you want. So go all out people, go crazy! This thing is nuts! It’s incredibly dense, sweet, chocolatey, and way too much for a weakling like me. I was done after a few bites. But it’s everything you’d think it would be. This was a great meal. Neither of us had any kind of idea what this place would be like. It’s brand spankin’ new and in a location that seems to be fraught with closings. Well, we hope this place stays around for a long time. The food was great and so was the service. Especially the service!