March 19, 2021 Lunch - Standard Diner, Range Downtown. Dinner - Cedar Board Grilled Teriyaki Salmon with Rice and Fresh salad.

March 19, 2021 Lunch - Standard Diner, Range Downtown. Dinner - Cedar Board Grilled Teriyaki Salmon with Rice and Fresh salad. 

Today I awakened at 8:00 and dressed and ate fruit salad with yogurt and then at 9:00 drove with Suzette to Lira’s Upholstery shop to deliver the two swivel chairs and fabric to cover them.  On our way back I chuckled at a car title loan company named Don Dinero.  

  

When I returned home I checked the mail and then drafted several documents for a probate.  

At 12:40 I drove to Standard Diner one block east of Broadway that has recently changed its name to Range Downtown.  

I could go on for a while on the Range, but let me quote the restaurant : “The original Range Café was started in 1992 by Tom Fenton and Matt DiGregory in Bernalillo, New Mexico in a funky, 56 seat former gas station. In 1995 the original building was destroyed by a devastating fire. In 1996 the Range Café opened in its current location and has been serving up “ordinary food done extraordinarily well” ever since.”

Around 1992 I was Dining Out editor for Albuquerque Monthly Magazine so active in the local Food and wine community. I became friends with Ed Louden, Jr. who was an owner of Bacchus Wholesale Distributing that distributed fine wines to restaurants.  I really liked Ed and he liked me, perhaps because we were both transplanted Texans and we each had a bit of that Texas swagger or perhaps we each were obsessed with food and wine.. Ed was from Houston and I was from Fort Worth. Anyway we developed a friendship based upon our respective interest in discovering good new restaurants. Ed would invite me out to lunch at each new fine dining restaurant he took on as a customer and I would recommend to him new restaurants I learned about through my discovering new restaurants to write about for the magazine.  Our lunches were like none you ever went to.

I will simply describe my first lunch at the Original Range in the converted gas station location on Camino Del Pueblo In Bernalillo. We sat at a table for four and as I perused the menu Ed and I discussed a number of dishes that looked interesting, such as the home baked Hot Turkey Plate, Tom’s Meatloaf, and a grilled scallop dish.  Ed ordered all three dishes.  We tried each but could not finished any.  Then Ed reminded me about the real reason Ed had suggested The Range, which was that Matt DeGregory, who was an owner with Tom Fenton, was one of the best dessert chefs in New Mexico.  So we ordered three or four of Matt’s signature desserts, such as Death by Chocolate, Death by Lemon and a couple of others. They were all delicious but again could not be finished.  So my introduction to the Range was definitely a memorable meal and the vision of a table filled with half eaten dishes of food.

When I arrived at the Standard today, the hostess accompanied me to the outside table Etienne had reserved for us I noticed lots of construction going on, apparently to create an additional patio area for outside dining.

 I was the first to arrive, then Etienne and finally Peter.  I had perused the menus and had asked about the desserts, so I was ready to order when we were all together. I explained that at Standard one must order backwards, because Matt is one of the best pastry chefs in New Mexico. So, you decide on your dessert and then try to order so you will leave room for dessert(s).   I had already talked to one of the head waiters, who told me his favorite dessert was the Roadhouse Chocolate cake. I requested the dessert menu and when Peter perused it he said he wanted to order key lime pie for dessert.  So I suggested we order slices of the Roadhouse Chocolate Cake and Key Lime Pie and, in deference to my Texas heritage, that Peter and I split an order of Country Fried Steak, which he graciously agreed to do.  Etienne ordered the blackened salmon that came with a dumpling and haricot vert.  The order of country fried steak came with smashed potatoes and steamed haricot vert. We ordered a bowl of white sauce with sausage and brown sauce on the side and added those to the potatoes and steak.

Forget the entrees, here are the desserts with special attention paid to the amazing crumbly cake between thick layers of dark chocolate ganache.

Peter and I loved the chicken fried steak and Etienne loved his salmon.  I thought the steamed haricot vert were a particularly good choice of vegetable.

We each ordered pints of beer to help wash down the food. 

After lunch Etienne came by to check out a picture I has gotten from Jill, an Oriental painting Peter describes as a hierarchy piece and Etienne thought looked more like a tribunal.

Etienne brought me a lovely bottle of Chateauneuf de Pape.

As Etienne was leaving at 4:00 Suzette arrived and reminded me I had not marinated the salmon yet for our Teriyaki salmon dinner dish.  I hurried to heat 1/3 cup each of soy, Aji Mirin, and sake in a sauce pan with 1 T. of sugar until the sugar went into solution and then turned off the heat to let the teriyaki sauce cool.  I then cut a chunk of salmon off the 2 lb. fillet I bought yesterday at Smith’s for sushi tomorrow and placed the rest in a gallon freezer bag and poured the teriyaki sauce into the bag and placed the bag in the fridge to marinate.  I had had a slight reaction to all the food at lunch so I lay down and napped until 6:00 when Suzette awakened me to prep dinner.  

Suzette had uncovered the raised bed we had planted with lettuces and it was full of beautiful baby lettuce and a few other things like radishes planted in prior years.  We quickly decided to fix rice with chopped radish and radish leaves and serve the grilled salmon with a salad.  We looked for a cedar  board on which to grill the salmon and could not find one, so Suzette improvised and grabbed a cedar shake that was the right width from among the bundle of cedar shakes in the shed we keep to repair the roof and cut it and soaked it in the tub, while I made a cup of rice with a tsp. of dehydrated dashi heated in 2 cups of water. Suzette picked a basket full of lettuce and arugula.  Because it was so tender she put it in a large bowl filled with water and ice to revive it and freshen and rinse it.

Suzette then chopped a handful of radish leaves and the radish she had picked and put the chopped radish into the 2 cups of water I was heating for rice as I was measuring a cup of jasmine rice.  When the rice water started to boil Suzette added the rice and chopped radish leaves and covered the pot and simmered the rice for 30 minutes.

I fetched the container of pickled daikon and carrots I had bought at the 999 Supermarket on Gibson from the fridge and Suzette put the salmon on the board and put the board on the grill.

We then discussed drinks.  We decided to drink our usual with teriyaki salmon, small cups of heated sake, so Suzette filled a pitcher with sake and placed the pitcher in a sauce pan half filled with water to heat on the stove.  I heated water for green tea and picked a few sprigs of mint sprouting in the garden and made mint green tea.

Willy arrived at 6:30 while the sun was just starting to angle toward the horizon. The garden was lovely as the sun cast long shafts of light across it.

I watched Brooks and Capheart  on PBS while Suzette brought in the grilled salmon and cut it into three pieces and filled pasta bowls with salad, rice, and salmon, and filled small cups with sake.  Willy grabbed chop sticks and we each took our bowls and cup to the table under the gazebo.  I went back for my tea and the pickled vegetables. 

This meal impressed me as being very Japanese, Teriyaki grilled salmon, Jasmine rice with chopped radish, fresh salad picked from our garden and pickled daikon and carrots.  Suzette made a simple salad dressing with rice wine and olive oil.  

I did not think Japanese as I ate and sipped sake and drank green tea because each element of the meal was so fresh and delicious, but on reflection as I write this blog, the meal seems to have included many elements I associate with Japanese cuisine.

We finished dinner as the sun set and committed to working this weekend to clean the garden.  Willy left a bit after 8:00 and Suzette and I went to bed at 8:30. I awakened at 10:40 to take my pills and went back to sleep until 2:30 when I blogged until 5:00.

Dinner tomorrow evening probably will be steak and spaghetti with tomato sauce and salad or grilled asparagus.  Lunch will be sushi.

Bon Appetit