On Cloud Nine

Pittsburgh has never been a city known for it's fine cuisine. Pittsburgh is known for French fries and cole slaw on sandwiches and ranch dressing on everything. Fortunately Chef Rick DeShantz at Nine on Nine thinks a little differently about food. Every dish on the menu, from apps to desserts is imaginative, mouth watering, plated with a painters eye and ultimately delicious with every bite. The art that comes out of this kitchen could be on the walls of any respectable gallery if it wasn't so damned good to eat. I want to list a few of the whole line of amazing plates that come out of this kitchen; Heirloom tomato salad with grilled watermelon, cilantro, yuzu (an asian citrus fruit) aji amarillo ( a yellow pepper sauce) and queso fresco, and that's just the first dish on my list! Hungry for more? Ever have skate wing? The skate at Nine on Nine is plated with potatoes and Kalamata olives, pine nuts, French beans, lemon and a caper coulis that looks like an abstract expressionist pop art fusion plate when it's all said and done. How about dessert? Nine on Nine takes it the whole nine yards to put you on cloud nine and they definitely don't stop short on dessert. Pastry chef Theresa Corbett dresses all of her sweet deliciousness to the nines for the final dish to come to the table. For example, she does a Ricotta cheese fritters desert with lemon curd, blackberry sauce and coffee custard and as if that weren't enough, throws in a Sambuca lemon sorbet! You will get laid after bringing your date here. HaHa, but all jokes aside, Nine on Nine is one of the best fine dining restaurants in the city and the same thing could be said about it if it were relocated to any city in the world. Top recommendations from this eater.

Poblano Time

Chile Rellenos are one of my all time favorite Mexican dishes. I love the melted queso blanco or mozzarella cheeses melting out of the mildly spicy poblano pepper, sometimes filled with ground beef or chicken. It takes a little patience and time to prepare the stuffed peppers at home, but it's fun and worth every minute of it. After roasting the poblanos and peeling them, they are really tender and can rip apart easily so you have to be delicate when you cut them open to remove the seeds and stuff them. Cut about halfway down and remove the innards, then stuff with the cheese and in my dish this afternoon, I used ground lamb meat that I seasoned and pre-cooked. After the peppers are stuffed and pinned together with toothpicks or wooden skewers, I dipped them in a batter of whipped egg whites and then roll them in a thin layer of all-purpose flour. I seasoned them with a little salt and pepper, cumin and cilantro. Finally just drop them in hot oil and turn once to cook evenly. These rellenos today gave a little trouble and didn't coat evenly because they were really delicate at the dipping point. But even without a full batter coat, they were still really delicious.