January 30, 2012: Guest Post Restaurant Review The Christmas Tree

Here’s another review from my secret restaurant reviewer, Sherry. This time she’s reviewing The Christmas Tree restaurant in Pinetop, Arizona.

Review of The Christmas Tree Restaurant, January 28, 2011

The Christmas Tree restaurant is a venerable old favorite of White Mountains diners. It’s been in Pinetop for many years and after closing for a couple of them, it’s open again and being operated by the daughter of the original owner (or so I’ve heard). After learning this, I expected nothing less than the restaurant living up to my fond memories of visiting this restaurant several times over the past decade. Unfortunately, that’s not how my dining experience went.

For the uninitiated, The Christmas Tree is known for its unique starter of pickled beets as well as serving warm, homemade cinnamon rolls instead of dinner rolls with each entrée. The beets are slightly sweet, slightly sour, slightly spicy and a perfect way to get your palate ready for a delicious meal. Nothing has changed here; this starter is still as good as ever. The cinnamon rolls, however, aren’t quite as good as what I remember. Instead of being light, flaky and buttery sweet, they’re dense, heavy and not particularly flavorful. They smelled better than they tasted.

Along with an entrée, diners are offered a choice of salad or soup du jour. I opted for the salad, which was quite puny; the only distinguishing ingredient was the addition of kidney beans (I believe I found 3 on my plate). My husband opted for the clam chowder, which was god but not outstanding.

Now onto the main course. My husband chose “House Favorite” beef stroganoff which, according to the menu, is made with beef filet. He received a plate full of egg noodles and the server ladled sour cream sauce with beef and mushrooms over the top (there were no vegetables with this entrée). My husband didn’t finish his plate but didn’t bring home the leftovers, either, because he said it really wasn’t all that good. In particular, the beef was tough. Made us wonder if the menu is really correct in stating they use filet and not a cheaper, tougher cut.

I ordered another House Favorite, duck with honey and almonds. It’s not often I get the opportunity to eat duck so my mouth was watering in anticipation. When it arrived, however, my anticipation quickly turned to disappointment. The plate of whole duck, sliced into thirds (I’ve never seen it arranged on a plate like a chicken…) and served with rice pilaf and sautéed apple slices, had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The duck was cooked so long it had not an ounce of moisture left. The honey glaze and accompanying cup of sauce was so sweet it was like eating a spoonful of straight honey (which I suspect it was). The rice was a tasteless brown blob on my plate and the apples, which looked like Granny Smiths, weren’t peeled which made it difficult to eat them. The flavor profiles were all wrong, the method of preparation all wrong and the presentation all wrong; the sliced almonds on top were merely an afterthought and not part of its preparation. An entire plate of brown food certainly isn't appetizing, either.

As far as the service goes, it was good with one exception: the busboy who poured our water was asked a question about the menu and his reply was, “I don’t know; I guess so.” I asked him how long he’d worked at the restaurant and he replied, “Not long enough, apparently.” There’s no excuse for either his ignorance or his glib responses.

The only reason a diner might choose The Christmas Tree restaurant is for its ambience. Although the building is comprised of various rooms pieced together in a strange manner, the rooms are all cozy and each has a Christmas tree in the corner, along with homey Christmas decorations.

Unfortunately, this White Mountains landmark has a long way to go if it is ever to return to its former glory as one of the best restaurants in the area. For the money (entrees average about $20 each), I expected far more than just a nice room and good service. Without great food, this venture is destined to fail.

The scores for The Christmas Tree are as follows (on a scale from * to *****):

Food: *

Service: ***1/2

Ambience: ****

October 29, 2011: Guest Post Restaurant Review Torreon

I recently had someone contact me, we’ll call her Sherry, who offered to provide occasional restaurant reviews. Because there hasn’t been such a person up until now, I agreed. Sure, this isn’t a recipe, but the reviews might help you come up with your own at home dinner menus.

Review of Torreon Clubhouse Restaurant, October 28, 2011

For years, my husband and I have been going to the Friday Fish Fry at Torreon because it was such an exceptional value. Diners are given a choice between a single plate or all you can eat baked or fried fish, along with a choice of potato, coleslaw and a basket of warm rolls (soup or salad is extra).

The last time we went for the fish fry (October 28), nothing was the same. We ordered a cup of clam chowder, which is normally quite creamy and full of clams and vegetables. This time around it seemed to be watered down a bit. Still good flavor but not quite the same texture.

When the fish arrived, we wondered if it had fallen off a food truck somewhere along the way to the restaurant. Instead of the thick, large, tender pieces of cod we’re used to, these were thin little slivers of fish that were overcooked and tough. The portion size had changed, as well. Usually we're served enough on the single meal plate to share, or have enough to bring home in a doggy bag, but not this time. There were only four little, measly strips of that tough fish on the plate.

We thought that surely there must be a new head chef in the kitchen but were assured by staff members that this wasn’t the case. To the restaurant’s credit, they didn’t charge us for the fish meal but that wasn’t our reason for pointing out the declining quality of the food. Hopefully the restaurant’s management will take our comments to heart and bring back the delicious fish they used to serve, which we considered the best fried fish we’d ever tasted. If not, we won’t be back.

The service was quite attentive. Even though it’s no longer high season and many of the summer residents have returned home to warmer climes until next year, the restaurant was hopping and thankfully they had enough servers working to handle the extra load. A couple snafus, such as two different wine lists which caused one server to go back and forth from our table several times before serving my wine and too long of a wait without something to drink, weren’t enough to make our dining experience bad but did highlight the difference between Torreon and upscale restaurants in the Valley. 

Bottom Line: Overall, you can't beat the ambience, service and quality of food at Torreon anywhere else in the Show Low area so I'd still highly recommend this restaurant - just not the Friday Fish Fry! I will return and order a different entree next time.

The scores for the Torreon Clubhouse are as follows (on a scale from * to *****):

Food: ** (based solely on the fish fry) - updated score as of January, 2012: *****

Service: ****

Ambience: *****

I want to thank Sherry for letting those of us on the Mountain know what’s up with area restaurants. Unfortunately, she didn’t get a picture of the food but she promises me next time she’ll do better!

UPDATE:
Sherry returned to Torreon in January and her husband once again tried the fish fry while Sherry had the Ahi Tuna Salad. Both were excellent! 

Torreon's beautiful and delicious Ahi Tuna Salad

March 5, 2011: Chicken, Broccoli, and Black Bean Soup Recipe

Several years ago I visited a friend in San Diego with a group of women for a little weekend getaway. We were there to watch our friend, Connie, perform in a play, go shopping, eat great food, and have fun. It was a beautiful late February weekend and we spent Saturday in and around La Jolla.

At lunchtime, Connie suggested we sit on the ocean view terrace at George’s at the Cove restaurant and enjoy the sun and breeze. And so we did, drinking glasses of wine and dining on one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, Smoked Chicken, Broccoli and Black Bean Soup. We were dutifully impressed by this rich, flavorful soup and our waiter presented us each with a printed copy of the recipe (I visited their website and found that the restaurant is still in business and still providing this soup recipe to patrons).

I’ve held on to that recipe for years, never making it because I was daunted by the long list of ingredients.

I finally decided to roll up my sleeves and give this recipe a try recently and found it was not really as hard as I thought it would be to reproduce the wonderful flavors in this soup. It’s the perfect entrée for a blustery March night, served with hot, buttered biscuits or cheese wafers – and a great way to use an entire (small) head of broccoli. Here is the recipe at was written; my tips for substitutions are included afterward.

George’s at the Cove Smoked Chicken, Broccoli and Black Bean Soup

½ c. unsalted butter
½ c. diced carrots
½ c. diced onions
½ c. diced celery
1 c. broccoli stems, peeled and diced
2 t. dried thyme
2 t. dried oregano
1 t. dried sweet basil
¼ c. dry white wine
4 c. chicken stock, hot
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
½ t. Tabasco sauce
1 c. diced smoked chicken
1 c. cooked black beans
1 c. broccoli florets
2 c. heavy cream
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 T. cornstarch mixed with a small amount of warm water (optional)

In ¼ cup of the butter, sauté carrots, onion, celery, and broccoli stems for 5 minutes. Add the thyme, oregano and basil; sauté 5 minutes more. Add wine and deglaze pan. Add hot chicken stock and reduce by one-third (Note: this takes a good hour or so). Add Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, smoked chicken, beans and broccoli florets; simmer 5 minutes. Add cream, simmer 5 minutes more and season to taste. Thicken with cornstarch if desired. Drop in remaining butter, one tablespoon at a time, stirring until melted. Serve immediately.

Smoked Chicken:
On a covered charcoal grill or smoker, slightly smoke boneless chicken pieces, cooking to medium rare (about 30 minutes). Do not allow the grill to become too hot. Use wood chips to add flavor.

Tips and Changes: For one thing, my barbecue grill is still covered to protect it from snow so I wasn’t able to smoke my chicken. What I did was use an indoor, plug-in grill and plop two boneless, skinless thighs on it. They turned out really nice, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside – but didn’t have the signature smoky flavor this soup is supposed to have.


For the pan, I would suggest a heavy dutch oven. I used a regular stainless saucepan but it wasn’t good for deglazing.


Although the recipe calls for unsalted butter, there’s no reason you can’t use regular butter; just taste before seasoning so the soup isn’t too salty.


I’m not a big fan of thyme, so I used one teaspoon of thyme and doubled the amount of basil.


I omitted the white wine, because I didn’t have an open bottle. I just used the chicken stock.


I added the broccoli florets midway through the reduction process (keeping the broth at a low boil) so they would be softer, as my husband prefers. Black beans, drained and rinsed from a can, work perfectly fine if you don’t want to cook the dried beans ahead of time.


I did use cornstarch to thicken the soup. Even though it reduced, the broth was awfully thin. If you have the time, I would suggest reducing it further than a third – to at least by half.