This week I am heading up to Maine for the grand opening of my sister and brother in law’s art gallery [shameless plug]. Seeing as my family eats really well, I brought my camera with the expectation of talking lots of beautiful shots. On the way up to Maine from Philadelphia, we had a planned stop at Pacifico restaurant in New Haven Connecticut. My parents wandered in off the street randomly during their last trip up to Maine, ended up having a fantastic meal and a conversation with the chef Rafael Palomino. Unfortunately he was not there when I made it into the restaurant, but I still had a delicious meal. We made it in for lunch and they have a three course pre fix menu that includes an appetizer, entrée and desert.

First up was a tasting of Empanadas, Braised Long Island duck ropa vieja. They were a little on the heavy side, deep friend duck with a mayonnaise based sauce (ginger and cilantro aioli) but it was heavy in a decadent, delicious sort of way.

For the main course we had the Churrasco a la Parrilla, which was a grilled skirt steak with a stir fried rice and also the Pan seared tilapia with yucca crust. The skirt steak was prepared beautifully, very tender and excellently paired with the rice. I liked the presentation of it as well.

The desert was a cabernet sauvignon sorbet. It was smooth and delicious, and had a very intense grape flavor. I was hoping for a lip puckering tartness of red wine, which it did not deliver on, but no regrets, it was still a fine finish to the meal.

 

May 24th, 2007 by John (Cho-Tabetai)