What I Ate: August 8, 2010 (Zoot)

Dinner: We went to Zoot (11715 Bee Caves Road, Bee Cave, TX‎ - (512) 477-6535‎) where we had our first so-so meal. We started with seared quail livers on toast with caramelized onion jam, sweet corn and fresh thyme which I loved. The livers were mild and smooth which matched very well with the sweet caramelized onions and crunchy (and still hot) crostini. The addition of crispy pickled red onions was the part that made this dish go from good to great.

We then had two soups. The first was the chilled smoked corn soup with basil and peanuts which wasn't as strongly flavored as we had hoped. The soup was mild and sweet but the peanuts were a little overwhelming. After a couple peanuts, the soup was almost flavorless. In the middle of the soup was a nice piece of sweet cornbread.

Potato and fennel soup with bacon and walnuts. This soup was warm and hearty - basically a heavy potato chowder, but, like the peanuts from the first soup, the walnuts overpowered the soup.

Tina had the saffron risotto with shell peas, poached egg, and a fennel salad which I felt was technically well prepared (good texture, enough salt, good consistency) but something was lacking. I think it was the general flavor which I felt should have been stronger (not saltier, but just more flavorful). The poached egg was a little surprising - we generally like eggs of any type, but this one had a dry and almost rubbery white (but still had a perfectly runny yolk).

I tried the braised beef "Shepherd's Pie" with sweet corn succotash, potato foam and demi glace. The beef was prepared in a phyllo dough crust and topped with a dense foam that tasted vaguely of potato. The beef itself was a bit dry and chewy, but very rich and overly salty to my taste. I just couldn't eat more than a couple bites.

We ended up taking almost all of the risotto and the beef home. My lack of desire to eat the beef could have been partially because of the amount of beef we've had this last week (which I probably should have taken into account when I ordered, but the waiter said the "Shepherd's Pie" was really good). Another factor that may have played into our less than stellar meal could have been finding out our "regular" (if I can call it regular, since we've only been to Zoot three times before) server, Patricia, who we liked a lot, is no longer at Zoot (our server told us she left to pursue another career). We felt like the whole atmosphere changed a little for us (but that might just be psychological).

Later, at home, we got hungry and we split a few garlic chive boxes (jui cai he).