Immunologist Frank Lobo opened City Point Kitchen to help increase microbial diversity in New Haveners’ stomachs.
The local kale and swiss chard chef Derek Armodio (pictured) threw into a rice and scallop dish should help with that.
Lobo, a doctor-turned-restauranteur, said modern produce and meat is too “sterile” and not “microbially rich” — lacking good bacteria that actually help people stay healthy and avoid disease. His goal: to get at least half the veggies from local sources.
A New Haven Farms board member, Lobo (pictured) has been pushing his chef to use fruits and vegetables from the organization’s local gardens. The kitchen’s honey comes from Swords and Plowshares in East Rock. The eggs come from Branford’s Soffer Egg Farm. The herbs come from a garden planted at the back of the restaurant.
“Thank God we don’t have listeria,” Lobo said. “But we still need to eat microbially rich dirt. Instead we get something washed, refrigerated and shipped from Chile.”
Lobo, who teaches at the Yale School of Medicine, has no experience in the restaurant business. He came to City Point in 1989 as a Yale medical student, eventually buying and restoring a house in the neighborhood. The restaurant’s manager, Lomi Romero, an old friend, also is new to restaurants.
“I like to cook at home,” Romero said. Though he has never been to South Carolina, he said he “loves” South Carolina dishes. The theme of the menu is “delicious American classics” that signal “comfort,” mainly foods he personally enjoys eating.
City Point Kitchen’s menu is an interesting mix of Southern-style recipes (oysters with grits), American classics (buttermilk pancakes) and health-conscious blends (quinoa-charged oats). Breakfast is served all day.
When my colleague Markeshia Ricks and I went to eat there last week, we sat at the patio behind the restaurant, overlooking the harbor at 98 S. Water St.
I was in the mood for a healthful breakfast, while the sight of the water had Markeshia craving seafood. I ordered the quinoa and rolled oats with fresh cranberries and blueberries. She ordered the pan-seared scallops over rice with sauteed kale and collard greens.
We headed back to the kitchen to watch Chef Armodio cook and plate the scallop dish.
As he prepared the dish, Armodio said he had originally applied to a Craigslist post advertising the City Point Kitchen job. At the time he felt burned out from working in the restaurant industry since he was 15.
“I worked in so many places, I was actually starting to lose my passion for cooking. Those restaurants were just about frozen pre-made foods and just throwing things into the deep fryer. It just wasn’t what I was about,” he said. At this job, he said, “they really let me be creative. They let me use all fresh ingredients.”
To make the scallops, he first put olive oil and a “little bit” of unsalted butter in two frying pans, one for the greens and the other for the scallops.
He coated five scallops with a seasoning mix of garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper, and then placed them lightly in the sizzling pan.
Then, Armodio put a handful of chopped white onions and a sprinkle of minced garlic in the other pan, intended for the greens.
He pulled out a plate and dolloped onto it a spoonful of jasmine rice with celery, carrot, onion and garlic that had been simmering on the stove. A slice of lemon bent in the middle added flavor and garnish to the plate.
Armodio turned each of the scallops over to make sure they seared on both sides without burning. When the onions in the other pan began to brown, he poured a small amount of white wine, prompting orange flames to jump out.
The pan of scallops went into the oven for one minute. Armodio then did a “rough chop” of a few leaves of collard greens and fresh chard — both fresh from New Haven Farms. He threw the pieces into the once-flaming pan. He sprinkled salt and pepper over the greens and shook them up in the pan.
“You want them sauteed just enough to start wilting,” he said.
Taking the scallops out of the oven, he placed them around the rice in the plate. And he used tongs to place the greens on top of the rice mound.
The recipe is an Armodio original, he said. His style of cooking? “Kind of all over” — part Italian heritage, part Cooking Channel mash-up, part Asian and Latin flare.
