Salt of the Earth - Part Deux

It's rare, if ever, that I have posted about a restaurant a second time. But DB~ and I had a gift certificate to use up by the end of the year at Salt of the Earth. We asked our closest friends to join us for dinner last night (Friday). The first time we were there was in June.

My friend and his wife are casual readers of the blog (meaning that they read it once) and he had one request during dinner -- he wanted a nickname, too. He even provided his own suggestion -- Mickey Mantle's Liver.

So last night, the four of us (DBS, DB~, MML, and MML*) got to Salt of the Earth at 6:30 pm. It was packed and we were told it might be a 1 hour wait. So we had a cocktail. None of us anticipated it would be that long and it wasn't. After about 20 to 30 minutes, we were asked if we would like the kitchen-side seats. I practically blurted out "absolutely!", even as MML sort of made a face, not realizing what a great opportunity this would be to watch the artful masterpieces be created in front of us.

We strategically laid out the seating order to maximize conversation potential. It went MML*, DB~, DBS, and MML from left to right (I guess if you've been married for 9 years, you don't need to talk with each other all the time!).

As soon as we sat down, I noticed the grill master had a sleeve of tattoos on each arm, a buzz crop of blond hair, and a placid look on his face. He sure looked like Kevin Sousa, but he was not wearing his thick framed black glasses that I was familiar with. But sure enough, DB~ confirmed via her iPhone that he did not always wear his glasses.

It was fascinating to watch the kitchen staff of Salt of the Earth work together in harmony during the night. It is said, and I believe it to be true, that the demeanor of any operation starts at the top. This was true last night...Salt was very busy, yet Sousa calmly and coolly tended to the great quantities of duck and hangar steak on the grill in front of him. Each cut of meat was salted and seasoned in the same exact manner -- his hand was held at mid-chest height, with his wrist cocked, and the salt was released and gently sprinkled. Coming off the grill, each cut was plated and sliced with calm and detached efficiency.

We started our dining experience off with two appetizers. The first were Vegetable Lettuce Wraps for the girls. The chicken was a spicy Korean type of chicken with excellent flavors. Check out the great camera work by Squiggle to get Kevin Sousa in the background of the wraps picture.



The second appetizer was for the carnivores of the group. We got Gnocchi, but it was primarily a meat appetizer. The dish was tiny cubes of beef cheek, with spots of persimmon puree, small bites of sweet potato gnocchi, all served on cow tongue. Our server called it Tongue and Cheek when he presented it to us.



It goes without saying that both were excellent. Even the girls tried the paper thin tongue and liked it well enough. The beef cheek was perhaps the most tender piece of red meat we have ever had. It disintegrated in my mouth upon touching my tongue. The tongue itself was pretty neutral. It absorbed the flavors of the cooking liquids that it was braised in, plus it blowtorched for a few seconds upon plating.

For dinner, all four of us ordered something different.

MML* ordered the Mushroom. I didn't really get a good luck at it, but it had farro for the starch, some pear, and "root". Not sure what type of root that entailed.

DB~ ordered the Trout. The skin was well seasoned and slightly crispy, but tender on the inside. It was sitting in a broth known as Birch Dhani, that DB~ asked me to reverse-engineer. I'm not sure I can. There were also udon noodles, turnips, and in the words of DB~ "a nice little touch with some peeled grapes".



MML had the Duck. It was served on a puree of parsnip and served with apple butter, pomegranate, and brussel sprouts. The duck was a shade less than medium rare, but MML liked it that way. MML stated that the Duck was easily one of the top 5 dishes he has ever had in his life. Judging by the amount of duck dishes we saw being prepared at our kitchen-side seats, there were a lot of people that might be saying that today.



I had the Hangar Steak. It was served on a bed of rice porridge, a kimchi and broccoli mix, with toasted ginger on top of the steak. Kevin Sousa fermented his own kimchi for this dish. It was a new kimchi...only fermented for 4 days, instead of 3 months. My steak was done medium and it was perfectly tender. The toasted garlic was fantastic, the kimchi spicy, and the porridge gave a different texture that otherwise may have been missing.



Kevin Sousa leaned over to talk to us after our meal. I asked him how his new place, Union Pig and Chicken, was coming along in the construction. He said he hoped to be open by the end of February. I asked him when he was going to go on Iron Chef and show them how it was done. He responded by saying he hadn't been invited yet (things to do -- submit Kevin Sousa to Food Network), but if he did he wanted to take on Morimoto before he was shuffled out of the Iron Chef show. Morimoto is basically a machine that never loses, so it's commendable that Sousa would want to challenge himself like that.

It was yet another fantastic meal at the best restaurant in Pittsburgh. It was only heightened by the fact that we got to interact with the chef, see the process in action, and spend the night with our great friends.

Salt of the Earth

Our present-day times have fostered an era of selfishness unseen since perhaps the 1980's "Me Generation" when everyone was all coked up and greedily trying to emulate Gordon Gekko. Everyone today thinks they are a special and unique snowflake. This mindset lends us to having everything our way, especially our food. Any food dislike can be taken off a prepared dish. Anything can be changed because the customer is always right.

Enter Salt of the Earth. This is Kevin Sousa's vision. It's his restaurant. He's not Executive Chef at Alchemy...wowing us with Molecular Gastronomy in the Bigelow. He's not Executive Chef at Red Room. He's not biding his time re-visioning Yo Rita's menu. This is his vision, we are along for the ride, and there is no room for your personal epicurean quirks.

I mentioned in the last post that 2011 may be the height of Pittsburgh's dining scene. Part of the reason for this crescendo may be Kevin Sousa. He's the closest thing to Pittsburgh's version of an Iron Chef. He was recently named Pittsburgh magazine's Chef of the Year.

Salt of the Earth was a long time coming. Sousa decided to locate Salt of the Earth in a section of town that is more often avoided, because of perceived crime problems, than explored -- Garfield. It's not named after the fuzzy orange cat. His restaurant of Penn Avenue, whether by design or not, expands the Interest Zone from neighboring East Liberty, which has started to revitalize itself through new restaurants (Spoon, Dinette, Plum, BRGR, Paris 66, Abay).

When you walk into Salt, you're staring directly into the all stainless steel open-style kitchen. When you're greeted by the hostess you are staring directly into and up at the 20 foot high chalkboard that serves as the menu for Salt. There are no paper menus. If you are seated right adjacent to the chalkboard, you feel as if you are in the front row of a movie theater looking up at the screen.

The walls are a soothing sage/celery green. There are three long communal wooden tables with square, backless chairs. There is also a mezzanine above you with standard tables, which is where the reservations are seated.

The menu is like what I imagine goes on inside the mind of noted mash-up artist Girl Talk -- a bunch of random things jammed together that ends up coming out great. Have you ever wondered what scallops, cauliflower, banana, lobster roe, and sesame would taste like together? Well, that's one of the apps.

DB~ and I went with her aunt and her's aunt's friend to Salt on Tuesday. This was their 4th time to "Salt" as they only call it. We got there at 7:45 p.m. on a Tuesday and it was comfortably busy. A very underrated part of Salt is their drink menu. Much like Embury, Salt does Prohibition era cocktails (in addition to a massive beer and wine list). DB~ had "Vodka" -- Boyd and Blair potato vodka, Creme Yvette, rose, elderflower. I'll admit I only know what Boyd and Blair is. Her aunt had "Gin" (a cucumber mint drink) and I had "Punch" -- kind of a Planter's punch-esque drink. Her aunt's friend had a beer.

As for dinner, both DB~ and her aunt's friend had the Halibut dish. They both said it was flavorful and perfectly executed. It was served with avacado and tamarind on a bed of buckwheat.



DB~'s aunt had the softshell crab (of course we talked about DB~'s SSC experience!) which had a deep-fried crust on a bed of seaweed with a delicate dollop of tartar.



I had the flank steak, served on a puree of black-eyed pea with a zone of chimichurri that I couldn't get enough. I wanted to rub it on like a skin moisturizer and let it soak into my pores. There were just the tips of asparagus, which is even better than a bakery that just does muffin tops (who eats just the stumps?). I usually order steak as medium-well, but of course at Salt you get what the chef makes. That meant a medium-rare for max chef-ing flavor. I was OK with that because you have to accept that you are placing your dining hands into the hands of the chef.



Sousa wasn't there...not sure how much he actively cooks, especially on a Tuesday night. Salt of the Earth, and Kevin Sousa in particular, should be commended for being a worthy addition to the Pittsburgh dining scene.