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TASTE OF TAOS: EAT AT JOE'S
by Leslie Pedlar
Tempo Magazine/The Taos News
Taos, NM
April 1-7, 2004
Page 12
Elegant fine dining and superb service featured at Joseph's Table
My evening at Joseph's Table was one of those delightful but generally rare restaurant moments. I walked in feeling tired and stressed from a very long week, but after two and a half hours being nurtured both through wonderful food and service in a very gracious atmosphere, I left feeling that all was again right with the world.
Chef and owner Joseph Wrede created a beautiful setting in which to serve fresh, innovative food. From the moment I entered the restaurant, set inside the historic La Fonda Hotel on Taos Plaza, I noticed the warm, elegant decor. Old wood ceilings and floors combined with hand painted walls and generous use of rich fabrics created a visually appealing and comfortable dining room. Wrede's mother, Cookie Venn, designed the restaurant. Wife Kristin Bortles hand-painted all of the walls with images of approximately 2,500 butterflies and sprays of French tulips.
We were seated in a "love shack," which is one of several small raised private areas set into one wall of the restaurant. Ours had a glass ceiling, allowing a bit of moonlight to shine upon us, upholstered walls, and hand-blown light fixtures in colors of gold and red. The enclosure included sheer curtains which can be pulled closed for more intimacy. This is certainly the place for lovers to dine.
As much as I loved the décor of the restaurant, the food was the "five star" attraction.
We started our meal with appetizers. The first, a half-dozen fresh shucked Kumanoto oysters on the half shell was served with a Mignonette sauce (a classic sauce made with vinegar, shallots and white wine). Kumanoto oysters originating in Kyushu, Japan are small and have attractive, delicate, black frilly shells. The oysters themselves were especially fresh with a subtle, buttery undertone, each tasting like they had just come from the sea, although the piquancy of the sauce may have somewhat masked the subtle taste of these delicacies.
Our next appetizer was a risotto cake with Parma prosciutto and parmigiano reggiano in portabella mushroom syrup. This was an outstanding dish. Upon a shallow white bowl was presented a large, square risotto cake set on top of the mushroom syrup, then topped with thinly sliced Italian prosciutto ham and one-half of a grilled portabella mushroom cap and surrounded with shavings of fresh parmesan cheese. The risotto cake was crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside and contrasted nicely with the richness of the prosciutto and earthiness of the tender portabella mushroom. The mushroom syrup was wonderful and tied the entire dish together beautifully.
Our salad, charred kale, shallots and leeks in a tomato vinaigrette, was a very pleasant, innovative dish ‹ a mixture of shallots and leeks sautéed with olive oil and lightly blanched green kale with tomato vinaigrette prepared from roasted roma tomatoes with a very mild vinegar taste. I adore kale and loved the original, yet understated why it was presented as a warm salad.
Next was a marlin sashimi on fried kale in orange soy vinaigrette. From the very first bite of this salad I was impressed by its freshness, flavor and creativity. A plate with a mound of fried green kale and draped with paper thin slices of marlin sashimi was surrounded by colorful grapefruit segments. The kale was crispy and light, literally dissolving in your mouth, providing a wonderful contrast to the buttery richness of the sashimi, which was fresh enough to have just been caught. The orange soy vinaigrette and grapefruit segments added just the right touch of acidity to balance out the earthiness of the kale and the opulence of the sashimi.
For our first entrée we chose the Dijon crusted pork tenderloin with East Indian spiced pear sauce. A generous serving of sliced pork tenderloin was set upon a bed of roasted baby carrots and topped with small cubes of tender pears and a subtly spiced pear sauce. In addition, there was a serving of sautéed kale, which was as fresh and wonderful as the other kale dishes presented that evening. There was a very moist and tender, generous serving of pork tenderloin infused with a gentle Dijon flavor. The pears were perfectly prepared, tender but not overcooked, and combined with a very creative sauce spiced with fenugreek, clove, coriander and star anise. Small strips of candied orange zest sparingly scattered over the top of the dish added a pleasant burst of citrus sweetness and a lovely surprise. This was a nuanced dish with each ingredient flowing into the next for a wonderfully balanced entrée.
Our final entrée was Alaskan halibut with tarragon compound butter and fresh strawberries. A large piece of perfectly cooked halibut topped with simple tarragon butter and slightly cooked strawberry slices was served with a side of baby carrots and kale ‹ a very unique, colorful and tasty dish, indeed! The fish was moist and tender, cooked to perfection, enhanced beautifully with the tarragon butter and the simple sweetness of the strawberries. A bite of the halibut with the tarragon butter and a slice of strawberry were heavenly, with every component perfectly enhancing the other. This is definitely among the most creative, elegant and delicious dishes that I can remember having the pleasure of eating.
Dessert left us with the difficult task of choosing from pastry chef Theresa O'Connor's creations including, among others, Joe's Mescal chocolate bar with lime sorbet cookies and flourless New Mexican chocolate cake with caramel chile sauce. We decided to save these delights for another time, since following my culinary instinct to order one of each might have been a little excessive. So, instead, we ordered the angel meringue cake with grapefruit and tarragon, which was served as a large wedge of baked meringue placed upon two wonderful sauces. The first was a mild caramel sauce and upon that was drizzled an unusual sweet tarragon sauce. All of this was surrounded with fresh grapefruit segments ‹ all was as colorful as it was delicious! The meringue was sweet without being cloying. It was baked until firm on the outside yet moist on the inside. The tarragon sauce was an inspired pairing, which balanced beautifully with the delicacy of the angel meringue and the acidic sweetness of the grapefruit.
Our last dessert was a sublime crème Brule. A large ramekin filled with very light custard with the traditional hard shell of caramelized sugar was topped with small butterfly shaped vanilla shortbread cookies. I adore crème Brule and found this to be one of the best I have tried. It was very rich, yet light and not overly sweet. Hence, the sugary crust was perfect and added that wonderfully rich caramel intensity to each bite.
Our meal before tip, including two appetizers, two salads, two entrees and two desserts with coffee, was approximately $135.
Joseph's Table, located in the lobby of the La Fonda Hotel at 108-A South Taos Plaza, is open for dinner nightly from 5:30-10 p.m. and for lunch Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. The restaurant has a comprehensive wine and beer selection. Smoking is prohibited. Parking is available on the plaza or in the parking lot located behind the La Fonda. Reservations are strongly recommended. Call 505-751-4512 or visit www.josephstable.com.
What a Deal
I have discovered a great way to reduce the cost of dining out in Taos (and in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, as well) by going to www.999dine.com. You can save up to 30 percent on your meal. Local participating restaurants include Joseph's Table, Villa Fontana, Trading Post Café, Sheva Café, Tim's Stray Dog Cantina, Lambert's, Doc Martin's and The Apple Tree, as well as several other popular Taos dining favorites. At the Web site, all you have to do is choose the restaurant and then the offer which best fits your needs. For example, pay $34 online for a certificate that is worth $50 at your restaurant of choice. Some restaurants offer lunch specials, dinner specials and discounts for certain nights of the weeks. Make sure to read the restrictions, as certain holidays are blacked out. Call 866-999-3463 if you don't have Internet access.
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Phone 505-751-4512, or e-mail info@josephstable.com for more information.
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