It’s a silly question, but I love asking silly questions. “If Purslane were a flavor, what would that flavor be?” This is posed to Mary Kastman, the chef/owner of the new restaurant, named after this tart, crunchy herb, that took over the former Ardent on Farwell. “A spice blend,” she answers, not um-ing for too long – Arabic 7 Spice, or Baharat, which includes cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg, coriander and so on.
Between kick-starting her cooking training in Madison in 2009 and running the kitchen of Viroqua’s celebrated Driftless Café a decade later, Kastman worked a stint living in Boston and took to it with gusto. She got an internship at the Eastern Mediterranean restaurant Oleana in Cambridge. There, she lived in a haze of za’atar and sumac and gloried in the slow, social experience of dining meze style. Later, using the Driftless Area’s bountiful farm and artisan food connections, she brought some of those traditions to life on the cafe’s menu, and later in a pop-up concept she named Purslane.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Why move to Milwaukee? Simple – the siren song of a brick-and-mortar. Her old friend Justin Carlisle was coming to the end of Ardent’s run. Kastman is now using that space as the main Purslane dining room and also the former Red Light Ramen next door as a lounge, overflow dining area and retail shop for wine and grab-and-go meze.
It could just be me, but there isn’t anything about Turkish- and Moroccan-inspired food that does not inspire gustatory wanderlust. And Kastman is offering it in an approachable, compact menu – 10 meze plates (including snacks and salads), three large plates, two desserts. I think these three meze should never leave the menu: tuna naya ($23), the meze trio ($25) and the walleye falafel ($21).
The first, a tuna tartare timbale, is a crisp-creamy revelation, the raw fish tossed in tart yuzu chermoula (herb relish) and topped with this dynamite crispy togarashi rice. In the meze trio, all three dips (carrot, hummus and roasted red pepper-walnut) pop with their bright flavors and thick, smooth textures – perfect with warm, chewy pita. And whoever heard of walleye falafel? The sheer weirdness of it is a selling point. Here you get three little lavash bread sandwiches that don’t taste like fish, but rather, like a lighter, milder, fresh take on the fried chickpea fritter, laced with tangy tahini remoulade.
Other small plates I would endorse with a caveat or two. In the fattoush salad ($17), I love the anise-y fennel, cubes of buttery fried cheese and pungent sumac, but I’d cut the amount of red onion by half. The preserved lemon aioli on the harissa chicken wings ($19) adds a needed creamy counter to the sauce’s heat. The filling of the deviled eggs ($13) is a taramasalata, a rich Greek fish roe dip that’s good but not remarkable.
My issue with Purslane’s larger-format plates is I don’t want that much of them. In one case, three sea scallops ($39) are arranged like beggar’s purses wrapped in jackets of crisp katayifi (shredded phyllo dough). The flavors of the accompanying muhammara (roasted red pepper-walnut paste) and tart cherry sauce meld well with the scallop. I just don’t need $39 worth of them. Same story with the kebab ($37) – portion-wise, it’s more beef and smoky eggplant yogurt than I want, though I appreciate the earthiness the Aleppo pepper gives to the meat. (I also, come to think of it, have not yet run into purslane in or on any dish, but Kastman says she uses it – in salads or garnishing – when she can get it.)
However the menu evolves, though, I’m here for it. Sometimes I wonder if small plates are getting tired. Maybe, maybe not. I would happily debate that over, yes, some meze.
Purslane
1751 N. Farwell Ave., 414-212-8692
Tues-Thurs 5-9 p.m.; Fri-Sat 5-10 p.m.
Small plates $3-$25; larger plates $33-$39; desserts $9-$11
