There's
a European joke that uses stereotypes to deride British cooking, one of
the most maligned cuisines in the world culinary stage.
As the joke goes, in the European
conception of heaven, the French are the chefs, the British are
the police and the Germans are the engineers while in the European
conception of hell, the Germans are the police, the French are
the engineers and the British are the chefs.
When it comes to the culinary arts,
England is the Rodney Dangerfield of Europe; its cuisine receives
absolutely no respect. English food is regarded as bland and
unimaginative, especially when compared with the haute (and haughty)
cuisine of France.
Having spent three years in England
and having partaken of wonderful food throughout the Isles, I rise to
the defense of this nation's
maligned food. We found
English food to be inventive and delicious.
We left England about four years
before the term "gastropub" was coined, but the concept had actually
already started to be practiced and proliferated.
A gastropub is a British term for a
public house (pub) which specializes in high-end, high-quality food.
The term gastropub, a combination of pub and gastronomy, is intended to
define food which is a step above the more basic "pub grub," but in
actuality, it can be several degrees of magnitude better.
Gastropubs not only emphasize the
quality of food served, they provide a relaxed milieu in which dining
patrons can obtain cuisine (as opposed to grub) comparable to what they
might receive at the very best restaurants--and ostensibly, at
reasonable prices.
The menu, of course, has to complement
an assortment of wines and beers, the latter being a staple of pub life
in England.
Cambridge, England born Rebecca Carter
and her husband purchased the venerable Casa Vieja restaurant in 2005,
but only three years later did they change the restaurant's name and
concept. The name "Casa Vieja" has actually been retained, but it
has been subordinated under its English translation.
Visitors are quickly discovering that
the gastropub concept really fits the Corrales pace and lifestyle.
So why the change?
Just like English food, stereotypes
were attached to the name "Casa Vieja." Both tourists and locals assumed
that, because of the restaurant's Spanish name, everything on the menu
would include chile. As a result, tourists avoided the restaurant
while locals expecting New Mexican food may have left disappointed.
The "Old House" dates back to the
early 1700s and is one of the oldest buildings in Corrales,
contemporaneous with the founding
of Albuquerque. The original walls are constructed not of adobes,
but of of thick slabs of
earth called terrones. Some walls are 30-inches thick.
At its largest, the building has
been described as a 20-room, E-shaped hacienda. A chapel was said to be
located at the west end of the 55-foot long room of the house.
Although original vigas still support the roof, many of the latillas in
the ceiling have been replaced.
During its early years,
the Casa reportedly served at various times as a stop on a stagecoach
route, a military headquarters for the Spanish, a courthouse, the
headquarters for a cavalry unit, a tuberculosis clinic and even a nudist
colony.
Until several years ago, it still had gun turrets high on one
wall of the chapel, the edifice's oldest room. When the Casa
served as a courthouse, defendants would be tried then marched down
Corrales Road with bystanders throwing food and rocks at them. When they
reached what is now the Rancho de Corrales restaurant, justice would be
meted out on the famous hanging tree.
From 1999 until July,
2005, the Casa Vieja was home to chef
Jim White who became somewhat of a
local celebrity by hosting short cooking segments on two Duke City
television news programs.
The departure of chef
White began a new era for Casa Vieja. In place of the peripatetic and effervescent chef
were new owners from England of all places.
Rebecca Carter is the
heart and soul of the Old House Gastropub. An indefatigable
whirling dervish, she has crafted an imaginative and very ambitious menu
unlike that of any restaurant in the Duke City area. It is, in
fact, one of the best menus in the state!
That wide-ranging menu includes sandwiches
and salads as well as steaks and burgers with an assortment of desserts
and pastries. The menu is seasonal,
reflecting the "fantastic diversity that the full culinary year has to
offer" and it is affordable.
Perhaps not since Noah's menagerie of
beast and fowl has there been such an eclectic range of
meats as what is offered at the Old House Gastropub. In terms of
variety, these meats may be unsurpassed in the Land of Enchantment.
They include
yak, wild boar, buffalo, kangaroo, ostrich, quail, pork and Kobe beef.
The Old House Gastropub is open
continuously for lunch and dinner seven days a week. Brunch is
served on weekends starting at 10AM. There are few milieus as
inviting and relaxing as the patio where centuries old trees provide
cooling shade from the heat of the day (not to mention the ubiquitous
winds).
The restaurant's philosophy is simple--"to
delight you with exceptionally delicious and well-prepared meals that
are also created with conscience." After two meals in two days,
I'm ready to proclaim "mission accomplished."
Our inaugural visit to the Old House
Gastropub elicited the type of epiphany-like response we rarely have any
more. Not only were we thrilled to find an exceptional menu, but
its execution was flawless. If anything, there is such tremendous
variety in the menu that it was a challenge to pare down to a select
few. There's no doubt frequent visits are in order.
The "Casa Favorites" section of the menu
includes thirteen items, some of which can be classified as appetizers
and others as entrees. They include traditional English fish and
chips offered, unfortunately, with American type fries. Rebecca
jokes that English fries can be tossed against a wall where they would
stick. Despite their flaccidity and "stick-to-itiveness" we love
English chips and the way malt vinegar complements them. American
chips just don't cut it with malt vinegar.
The Casa Favorites section also includes a
blue crab claw meat queso served with tortilla chips that puts to
shame most con queso in the Duke City area.
The queso is flecked
with genuine New Mexico green chile, courtesy of Rebecca's chef from
Socorro. The green chile has a nice roasted-on-a-comal flavor and
just a hint of piquancy. The queso is creamy and rich.
The blue crab claw meat
is sweet and delicious though parsimoniously meted out. Any more
might have altered the flavors of this excellent con queso.
The tortilla chips are
made from flour tortillas cut into triangles then deep-fried. They
are reminiscent of the tortillas served at
El Bruno, one of the state's best New
Mexican restaurants.
The standard queso,
by the way is terrific as we found out during our second visit.
It's not gloppy or gooey as we've found in several New Mexican
restaurants which serve queso with chips.
The salsa is
chunky and made with great ingredients--white onion, jalapeno and rich,
red tomatoes. It's the type of salsa locals will appreciate for
its high quality and tourists will appreciate because it won't excoriate
their taste buds with piquancy.
Appetizers include
garlic shrimp and chorizo served with focaccia bread. This
appetizer packs a real punch with more piquancy than the queso or salsa.
A broth flecked with
smoky and spicy chorizo is seasoned with the refreshing herb combination
of rosemary and oregano. A relative of the mint family, rosemary
imbues foods with a "woodsy" fragrance, but in quantity, can overwhelm
the food it is meant to complement.
The optimum amount of
rosemary and seasonings are used in this memorable broth into which
several plump garlic shrimp are added. You'll dispense of those
shrimp quickly then will dredge up every bit of the savory broth with
the focaccia.
If soup is more to your
liking, the menu includes three standard offerings plus a soup of the
day. One of the daily standards is green chile, the official soup
of the state of New Mexico.
Try the garlic soup
for something refreshingly different. This is tempered garlic
which won't be emitted through your pores. It is smoky and just a
tad sweet. The soup is somewhere between a thin broth and a thick
soup. It is comfort food embodied.
The entrees section of
the menu is where many of the exotic meat offerings can be found.
Heading this section is a wet-aged, grain-fed Kansas bone-in prime
rib-eye steak served with a Jim Beam reduction which can be had for $50.
It is the most expensive item on the menu though other prime cuts of
beef are upwards of $30.
If the tenderloin of
wild boar served with a pear and golden sultana chutney is any
indication, the Old House Gastropub's preparation of meats is top-tier.
Three medallions of
wild boar served at medium are as tender a cut of meat as you'll find
anywhere. Boar is a lean meat with only a very slightly
discernable gaminess. It is also surprisingly light, not dense and
fatty like some game meats tend to be.
The pear and golden
sultana chutney reminded me that one of the things we've missed most
about English cuisine is all the wonderful chutneys. France can
have all their sauces. I'll take chutneys any time.
The tenderloin is
served with the chef's vegetables of the day which will hopefully be the
garden-fresh medley pictured above. A choice of starch is also
available, including mashed Yukon gold and red potatoes with chives sans
gravy.
An impressive array of
sandwiches is available for budget-conscious diners who like to venture
into the realm of the creative sandwich world. Sandwiches are
served with your choice of a small dinner salad, cup of soup, French
fries or potato salad.
The sliced sirloin
steak sandwich with baby spinach, red onion and Stilton blue cheese on a
toasted hoagie roll is a winner thanks to premium quality
ingredients. The sirloin steak is tender and of prime steak
quality with a surfeit of flavor and juiciness at about medium done.
Stilton is an
intensely-flavored blue cheese with veins of pure pleasure. It can
overwhelm or greatly improve anything to which it is added.
Coupled with the light, sweet flavor of red onion and the slightly
acerbic flavor of the baby spinach, this sandwich couples items which go together very well
to form composite greatness.
Ascribe greatness to
the sandwich crafted from thick rashers of applewood smoked bacon,
sliced hard-boiled egg, tomato and mayo on a toasted Telera bun.
Telera, a Mexican flat bread is flat and crusty, a perfect canvass for a
sandwich. This sandwich, in particular, is fashioned from moist
ingredients (tomato and mayo) complementing dry ingredients (bacon and
hard-boiled egg) to form a marriage made in sandwich heaven. It is
an early favorite.
Burger aficionados will
fawn all over the gourmet burger offerings. Each burger is crafted
on a toasted Telera bun with lettuce, tomato, pickle and onion on the
side along with your choice of a small dinner salad, soup, French fries
or potato salad.
Your biggest challenge will be in
deciding whether to have ostrich, Kobe beef, Colorado yak, wild Alaskan
sockeye, buffalo, wild boar or a Portobello mushroom burger stuffed with
mozzarella and sage.
You can get around that delicious
dilemma by ordering the mini gourmet burger assortment which
includes one of each yak, buffalo, Kobe and ostrich mini burgers served
with cheeses on mini-rolls.
The yak burger is grilled rare to
medium-rare and is topped with Gjetost cheese, a uniquely flavored
cheese that is both strong and sweet with notes of caramel and goat's
milk. At rare to medium-rare, the yak is richly flavored and
delicate with a flavor reminiscent of beef, but with one-sixth the fat
and 40 percent more protein than beef.
The ostrich burger is also grilled
rare to medium-rare and is topped with a French brie cheese. Like
the yak, ostrich meat tastes similar to lean beef and it is low in fat
and cholesterol as well as high in protein, iron and calcium.
Uncooked, it is a darker than beef, so at rare to medium-rare, that
color is readily apparent.
It's been my experience that it's not
the flavor of rare to medium-rare beef that will turn off proponents of
charred meats. It's usually the texture that will get to them.
At rare, the beef is seared on the outside and red and cool on the
inside and loose to the touch.
The
Kobe burger is also grilled rare to medium-rare and is topped with
Gruyere cheese. I've long contended that to put Kobe beef on a
burger is to desecrate one of the most unctuous, delicious and rich
meats there is. The Old House Gastropub's rendition did little to
change my mind.
The most enjoyable burger among the
quadrumvirate may well be the buffalo burger grilled at about medium and
topped with a mature Cheddar cheese. Buffalo
meat is very high in essential fatty acids that can aid in the reduction
of cholesterol levels. It is also rich and delicious.
Desserts include
English sticky pudding, a lush muffin-like mound of bread pudding topped
with a rich caramel. It's a high-calorie indulgence rich in flavor
and deliciousness, one of our favorite desserts from the old country.
Rebecca's version is as good as we remembered ever having in the
Cotswolds.
For a few hours each
visit, the Old House Gastropub takes us back to the England we knew and
loved--the England in which outstanding food can be enjoyed. Best
of all, you can enjoy the best of England under a canopy of New Mexico's
blue skies.
