|
Praise
for
the braise
Technique
presents clue for
solving delicious mystery
Dec.
12, 2006
| If
You Go |
Name: The Nucleus Cafe.
Owner and operator: Jeremy Kachmar.
Address: 405 Water St.
Telephone: 834-7777.
Wheelchair accessible: Yes, through the
back
doors.
Reservations: Yes.
Smoking: No.
Restaurant hours: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday
through Sunday.
Parking: On street or in nearby municipal
lots.
Prices: Cuban Beef omelet, $6.25, comes
with
side dish of choice — corned beef hash,
hash
browns or fruit. The Cuban Beef sandwich,
called
The Castro, $5.75, comes with potato chips
or
corn chips. For soup or a fruit cup, add $1.50. |
The
trouble with restaurants today? They
hardly ever braise.
Braising is slowest cooking in a little
flavorful liquid. It can give you meat with
levels of succulence, tenderness and taste that
grilled or deep-fried anything can’t match.
Which brings us to The Nucleus Cafe and its
Cuban Beef.
Winston Churchill famously called Russia “a
riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
The Cuban Beef at The Nucleus is an enigma wrapped
in a mystery inside either an excellent omelet (for
breakfast) or a superb sandwich on lacy-crisp focaccia
(for lunch).
Here’s the enigma: The Cuban Beef is not beef.
As the menu reveals: It’s pork.
And here’s the mystery: No one at The Nucleus
knows quite why. They just know it’s delicious.
Try a bit of the pork, plain. It’s in shreds,
mostly; just tease out a piece. You’ll taste
tenderness first, then salt, then maybe soft
notes of citrus and garlic. Then the concentrated
richness of
braised meat. It’s perfectly lean. Edge shreds
are a little chewy, for
contrast.
Owner Jeremy Kachmar gets the meat, the enigma and
the mystery from a trusted supplier. We have a theory.
Pork marinated and braised or
roasted and sauced with a mixture called a mojo
(pronounced
“moho”) — usually sour orange juice,
garlic, oil, salt and herbs —
is a Cuban classic.
The famous Cuban beef dish Ropa Vieja is beef braised
until tender, then shredded by hand, then braised
some more. In Spanish, “ropa vieja” means
“old clothes,” probably referring to the
frayed look of the shredded meat.
The meat served at The Nucleus is mojomarinated
like Cuban pork but shredded like Ropa Vieja. Case
closed.
One day last week we ate Cuban Beef omelets for
breakfast, then went back for Cuban Beef sandwiches
at lunch. Solving mysteries, after all, requiresdedication.
Main
Course, the Leader-Telegram’s restaurant
review column, runs the fourth Sunday of the
month. Diners’ Notebook, a sampling of favorite
restaurant offerings, runs the second Tuesday of
the
month. |
