|
|
|
Barbara Helish's Bella Luna
Barbara Helish's Bella Luna in Royal Oak “So out of curiosity, how did you find us,” she asked. The Googling turned up the required map, but also some interesting comments on a food site. “I drive an hour
from Annapolis at least once a month just to eat at this restaurant. The food was exceptional. It was the best I ever had
outside Italy and the Amalfi coast.” “Hidden gem…definitely on my list for a return visit to the area.”
Over the top? Well, let’s just go see.
To get to Bella Luna from Easton, you drive about halfway to St. Michaels and take a left to the turn
for the Oxford Bellevue Ferry and Royal Oak. It was a good turn to take.
We had a gazpacho that’s the best in recent memory. A salad with big gorgeous chunks of blue cheese that made me stop
mid-sentence and say, “I love that dressing!”. A Sicilian panini with salume, provolone and roasted shallots.
That was lunch. The dinner menu: Clams, peas and fava beans over angel
hair pasta. Seared veal chop with wild mushroom risotto. Sauteed soft crabs over roasted corn salad. New York strip with gorgonzola
and onions.
Open now for five years, Barbara came to the Eastern Shore from New Jersey. Her first restaurant job was
at what was then Mezzaluna Restaurant. That’s when she realized how much she loved the business of food. Bella Luna began as a deli, with a couple of tables, Italian specialties, and lunch items, a deli case. She began to get more requests. “Can you make me this or that…” She added more tables, began doing more private dinners. It kept growing. Today, Bella Luna is open seven days a week. Barbara has a daytime sous chef, John Jallade, and a nightime sous chef,
Hunter Frey. She’s giving classes, demonstrations, wine dinners and doing plenty of catering and working, even in this
downturned economy, on opening a Bella Luna in Cambridge this fall.
So what’s the cuisine? “This isn’t the Italian food that people might expect,"
says Barbara. "It's not your pink/beige/gray Italian food. I still have people come in here looking for the standard
eggplant parm. We don’t even have a fryer. But what’s on the menu is food that I like. I call it ‘Happy
Food.’
“The food has a special light touch. Fresh, fresh, fresh. Pasta, salad dressings, desserts from scratch. I go to local farms when I can. And I use great ingredients. I like a little salt, heavy cream — I just use less of it. “The pasta’s fresh, I experiment with cannelloni, ravioli with interesting fillings…veal, soft crab. We make fresh mozzarella every few days.
“People go to restaurants for the experience, so it’s all about taste. It isn’t
about hardship. It’s about goodness.” Wines…cheeses…Bella Luna has an impressive offering. They buy by the vintner, not the vintage. “I choose wines based on the winery, mostly. A good winery will continue to turn out a great product from year to year. But a truly great winery will always create something superb.” Now, about the mozzarella. Barbara started making it as a specialty of her restaurant, to be one more ‘Bella Luna’ difference. She
sells it at the local farmer’s markets on the weekends, not to mention using it for the caprese at the restaurant. Here's how it works: Start with fresh cheese curd. Yeah, yeah, we
know. That's like saying, "If you want to be a millionaire, start with a million dollars." But we're working
on it, and hoping to post sources soon. Meantime... Knead
a lump of fresh cheese curd in a large bowl of hot water, much as you knead bread, folding and turning. What you're essentially
doing is melting the cheese curd to create a stringier, dough-like consistency. This may take a few refills of hot water into
the bowl. When the melted curd reaches a smooth,
uniform consistency, Barbara stretches it like a pizza dough, to make sure it's evenly silky and smooth throughout. Then
she winds it into loaf-shaped piece and begins to twist off ball shapes. The balls are dropped into ice baths, or they can
be dropped in a brine. They can be stored in this water or brine as well. Mozzarella is a neutral flavor,” says Barbara. “It works well as a base to stronger tastes
– a little like tofu. We use a balsamic reduction, fresh basil, local tomatoes. Perfect.”
What will Barbara make at the crab cookoff? We’ll let you know in a few days. But it’s good to note that she looks at last year’s winner, Michael Rork, as a “genius.” Bottom line: Utterly delish. Cool people. Awesome product. Find Bella Luna.
Bella Luna
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
