October 24, 2019 Lunch – Amtrak Dining Car. Dinner – Kin Restaurant, Hotel Castaneda, Las Vegas, NM
This was an adventurous day of food and activity.
I started with a bowl of granola, milk, yogurt, and tropical fruit salad.
I made a couple of bacon, lettuce, avocado crema, slices of Jarlsberg cheese, and fried egg sandwiches. The avocado crema was made with one large soft avocado, two heaping T. of mayo and two T. of crema.
We put together a food bag. In addition to the sandwiches, I bagged some dill pickles, cookies, a couple of apples and oranges, and poured a bottle of Emma Riechart rose and a bottle of water into two separate thermoses.
We ubered to the train station with Charlie and Susan at 10:45 and boarded the train at 11:45.
We were assigned a couple of coach seats in a lovely coach with vista big windows. We left a bit after noon and the adventure of wreathes began immediately. We could see the heavy clouds over La Bajada as the train started north out of Albuquerque. Charlie and Susan had decided to take train instead f driving du to a
winter storm weather report. The day was
sunny as we went through the Pueblo’s along the river, but as we started to climb up la Bajada the skies darkened and a light snow began. There was a light dusting of snow at Lamy, but soon after we left the snow became a real blizzard. Luckily, we had taken a 1:00 reservation in the dining car. It was as I had remembered, white linen table clothes, good service and good menu choices. We dined with Charlie and Susan, who split a hamburger. Suzette and I ordered the same meal. A small salad and steamed mussels. Interesting, the mussels were served in a large soup bowl covered with a tight fitting snap on light disposable plastic lid that prevented the poaching medium from sloshing out, kept the steam and heat contained, and served as a throw away container for the shells. Brilliant. Good old Fred Harvey. As we ate the storm intensified to a blowing blizzard with almost whiteout
conditions and we were happy to be on the train. After lunch Suzette wanted a rum and hot chocolate
from the snack bar, so we grabbed our cookies and went to the observation car with its waist to ceiling windows and sat and nibbled cookies and sipped hot chocolate from the insulated plastic cup while the blizzard blew and we were side tracked to wait for the south bound Super Chief to pass inches away from our window promontory. After it passed we resumed our trip north as the snow subsided and the skies cleared. We arrived at Las Vegas around 4:00.
We walked the 100 yards from the train station to the Hotel Castaneda, which was the first train depot hotel built by the Santa Fe railway in 1889, where Mike was waiting for us. He guided us to the hotel lobby where we checked in, just like we would have done 125 years ago. It was hard to blank out of my mind the highways with cars and trucks and telephone towered that surround the hotel and how this hotel and train were the major connection to the outside world and eastern culture.
After we took our suitcase to our room, we walked across the street to the Antique store which had a collection of coins and a knowledgeable proprietor. I enjoyed looking and talking about his coins and paper money.
A bit after 5:00 we returned to the hotel and joined the book club group in the bar for a cocktail and discussion.
We split an apple cider. At 6:00 Katey, Chef Sean’s wife, ushered us into the large restaurant where a long table was set with seats for the entire group of about twenty. There is food service in the bar
where we had been seated, since the restaurant does not open until Sunday, October 27, so we were
the only guests seated in the large restaurant banquet hall style in a single long table.
There was a special menu prepared for us.
There was also an extensive wine list. Mike introduced us all to Chef Sean Sinclair’s wife, Katey, who took our orders. There were four or five salads and two soups. We decided to order the soups.
Suzette ordered the White bean Bean with Virginia ham soup and I ordered the sweet potato and
apple soup. Both soups were delicious puréed concoctions of the basic ingredients. Suzette’s soup was a thick purée of white beans with thin rolled slices of Virginia ham and chopped fried sage leaves floating on the surface. My Sweet Potato and apple soup was even more interesting. It was a purée of sweet potatoes and fresh local apples with thin threads of apple stirred into the soup. The soup was garnished with toasted pumpkin
seeds and powdered chipolte chili and herbs. I loved the sweet fresh fruit flavor of the puréed apple and the crunch of the toasted pumpkin seeds. We ordered both our appetizer and our entrée at the beginning. Suzette
ordered an original recipe,
Fried Chicken Castaneda and I ordered the Lamb Shepherd’s pie.
There were two other vegetarian entrees, a Mexican style chili Relleno stuffed with quinoa and cheese surrounded by refried beans cooked in a Romesco sauce and a meatless vegan Mushroom Bourguignon. We tried a bit of the Bourguignon after the meal and it was a lovely light rendition of the dish. Suzette and I shared entrees. I loved both the heavy flavorful lamb stew filled with peas
and carrots and ground lamb in a thick almost Demi-glaze sauce covered by a thin layer of Garlic mashed potatoes served in a lovely dark ceramic ramekin on a small dinner plate. The Shepherd’s Pie had a heavy, yet surprisingly clean and satisfying flavor. Chef Sean told us after the meal that they order local lamb and butcher the meat and cook the bones into a broth to enrich the dish. The lamb stew was served with two toasted slices of house made pumpernickel bread garnished with dabs of lamb marrow. Another satisfying light and heavy combination. Suzette’s fried chicken was delicious also. I especially enjoyed the sautéed cubed parsnips served with the chicken.
There is a back story about dessert. When my family travelled to Europe in 1960 we ate a lovely lunch at Restaurant Jules Verne located on the first stage of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. At the end of that lunch when our waiter asked us what we would like for dessert, my father in his best Texas accent said, “we would like something special” After a few minutes the waiter joined by several other waiters returned with a large baked Alaska that filled an oblong platter decorated with pipings of the Eiffel Tower. We were amazed and to this day I count it among the greatest desserts I have ever eaten.
So when Mike was planning this weekend and said to me, “You are a gourmet, do you have a suggestion for a dessert for our celebratory dinner at this famous restaurant?”, I responded
unhesitatingly, “Baked Alaska”.
Chef Sean did not know the back story, but in the tradition of great celebratory meals, when it was time to serve the dessert, the entire kitchen staff came out with trays filled with plates holding individual baked Alaskas and served everyone in unison. I broke into clapping and everyone followed and then Mike, who was our leader, thanked the staff for the lovely meal.
The baked Alaska was spot on, a caramelized bottom on which sat a layer of rum soaked sponge cake
on which were 1 inch layers of fresh house made strawberry and then chocolate chip ice cream encased in white puffy meringue that was light seared with an acetylene torch to a golden brown. Pretty wonderful, especially with a pot of a red bush blend of herbal tea to wash it down.
After we finished our lovely desserts, Executive Chef Sean Sinclair gave our entire group a tour of the new remodeled kitchen and, more interestingly, the old 1910 of the hotel’s original kitchen with its unique heavy cooking and food service equipment, like huge real ice refrigerated ice boxes, a 60 gallon bread dough mixer, and a combination plating table with steam drawers to keep plates of food warm awaiting a trainload of guests, who were typically served a meal in thirty minutes while the steam engines were reloaded with coal and water during their then three day journey across America. At the time the Santa Fe’s Super Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles was the height of modernity and technical advancement. Remember, it took Kit Carson three weeks to cover the same distance in 1846 to inform Washington of the conquest of California and discovery of gold. The railways truly united the US.
The tour ended back in the bar where we talked to Chef Sean and compared food notes and stories. We also reviewed his wine selections and I bought a bottle of a L’Ecole Chenin Blanc produced in the Yakima Valley, he recommended.
Here is an Edible Santa Fe interview with Chef Sean http://www.localflavormagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Coming-Home.jpg
The back story on the restaurant’s name is that it derived from Sean’s tenure at The Inn at Little Washington in Virginia before returning to New Mexico to assume Executive chef responsibilities at Restaurant Luminaria at the inn and spa at the Inn of Loretta in Santa Fe. He told us after living in Virginia for a period of time that he and his wife were considered “kin” instead of outsiders and that is the way he wants to think of his guests at the restaurant and he wants his guests to think about this restaurant.
Here is a link to the Inn on Little Washington, which is one of the greatest Inns and restaurants in the world.
https://theinnatlittlewashington.com/about-us/awards-accolades/
Finally at 9:00 we retired to our room in the historic hotel for the night with the distinct impression that the Sinclair’s intention was to create something akin to the Inn on Little Washington here in this famous old hotel in Las Vegas. In other words, to re-create and redefine in Sean’s own style the glory days of great American cuisine that Fred Harvey created within these walls 130 years ago.
Bon Appetit
