On Wednesday evening we tootled over to Six Burner. It was nice to see them busy. We took advantage of their $10 carafe of red special. On this night we enjoyed a Powers Cabernet Sauvignon. A yummy bargain, indeed. My husband ordered the fried oyster appetizer and the heirloom tomato and mozzarella salad to arrive at the same time. Six Burner served up a generous portion of the seafood. The salad was good, too with shaved (possibly aged?) mozzarella. I had the pork shank which was oh-so-tender and moist. It was served with sautéed Swiss chard and applewood smoked bacon lardons and an apple cider vinegar sauce. I usually detest Swiss chard, but the bacon and sauce did not let any bitter green taste touch my tongue. I was pleased until I encountered the lima beans. These beans looked fantastic – pale, plump, enticing. Alas, every single one of those suckers was crunchy. What I would consider raw with no opportunity to soak up any of the mouth-watering sauce. I have to give our waiter high praise. When he stopped by to inquire about our dinner, I had to confess that I simply could not eat the beans. He sympathized and said that was how the chef intended to serve them. But he also offered a side of garlic mashed potatoes or polenta as a substitute. I asked for the potatoes and was quite comforted. We finished our meal with illy coffee which we love to drink, but haven’t made the monetary commitment to serve at home.
So, now on to my rant. Maybe it’s because I grew up in the South, but, in my opinion, any bean – lima bean, butter bean, navy bean, pinto bean, October bean, black bean, cannellini bean, great northern bean, kidney bean, cranberry bean, or for that matter black-eyed peas needs to be COOKED! Crunch has no place in the above line up (please note, I did not include green beans in this bean roll call). The beans can be firm, but the tooth jarring simply hardness must disappear. I’ve been to a couple of places where the waiter insisted that this was the intention of the chef. To my mind it just seems like the kitchen was slacking. Where is the joy in a crunchy bean?
2 comments:
I'm right there with you! Crunch limas are an abomination. I can't believe that a chef would intentionally serve them that way since they are pretty gross in that form. Glad to hear that the rest was yummy.
There are some idiots who refuse to soak dried beans and cook by time only. Even with a pressure cooker it's nearly impossible to make unsoaked beans edible.
T. (were these fresh or dried limas?)
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