tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82273161860332807942024-03-14T06:53:41.783-07:00Wining, Dining, and LyingThe Law School Food DiariesLaw School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.comBlogger107125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-45971493556543677912011-06-11T17:41:00.000-07:002011-06-11T17:41:51.087-07:00It's Been a Long TimeIt sure has been a long time since I put anything on here. I've been very busy with school, getting a new job, and lots of eating. Anyway, we are both semi-sick, so I wanted to make some chicken soup to make us better. I had a chicken carcass laying around the house (don't we all?) from some Tarragon Chicken that I recently made, so I figured I could make it from scratch. I've never made chicken soup before, let alone from scratch, so I kind of winged it...and it turned out awesome. I like my chicken soup extra peppery, so if you don't, then cut back the pepper. Also, tonight we are going to go to the best bar in the world, The Aviary (955 W. Fulton), so I can get the gin Rooibos tea drink to make myself even less sick. Here is the recipe for the soup. For the chicken stock portion, you don't have to worry about peeling any of the veggies or finely dicing them since they all get strained out in the end.<br />
<br />
<u>Ingredients</u><br />
<u>Chicken Stock</u><br />
1 chicken carcass, chopped into 8 pieces<br />
1 onion, halved <br />
3 carrots, larged diced<br />
3 stalks celery, larged diced<br />
5 cloves garlic, smashed, skin on<br />
1 turnip, quartered<br />
1 parsnip, large diced<br />
7 sprigs of thyme<br />
3 bay leaves<br />
1 tspn parsley leaves<br />
1/2 tspn black pepper<br />
olive oil<br />
<br />
1. Film the bottom of a large pot with olive oil and heat it over medium high heat until hot. Put the chicken carcass pieces in the pot and let them brown, then flip them. Skip this step if the carcass came from a roasted, as opposed to raw, chicken.<br />
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2. Toss all the other ingredients into the pot and cover with cold water by about an inch and a half . Bring up to a strong simmer, then lower heat to maintain at a bare simmer.<br />
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3. Let it cook and reduce for 5 hours, skimming the scum that rises to the top.<br />
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4. After 5 hours, it should have reduced by about 1/4 and turned to a deep amber color. Strain the stock into another pot and heat up again to a simmer. If it is cloudy, drop 2 egg whites into it and let them rise to the top, then skim them out. Cover and refrigerate overnight.<br />
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5. There will be a layer of fat on the top. Carefully skim it off and throw it away. In the end you will have about a quart and a half of stock.<br />
<br />
<u>Chicken Soup</u><br />
1.5 quarts of chicken stock<br />
2 chicken breasts, browned on outside, cubed (can still be uncooked in center)<br />
3 carrots, peeled and finely diced<br />
3 stalks celery, finely diced<br />
leaves from 3 sprigs of thyme<br />
5 drops Thai fish sauce<br />
2 cups rigatoni, cooked (or whatever other noodle you want)<br />
1/2 tspn white wine vinegar<br />
kosher salt<br />
pepper, lots of pepper<br />
<br />
1. Bring stock to a simmer. Put the chicken breast in the stock to finish cooking for about 10 minutes.<br />
2. After 4 minutes of the chicken cooking, add in the carrots, celery, and fish sauce.<br />
3. After 10 minutes taste the soup. It will definitely need salt since you have not put in any yet, so salt to taste. There is also very little acidity, so add the white wine vinegar. I also love very peppery soup, so I add lots of pepper, you can add less if you want.<br />
4. Taste again and balance with salt, pepper, and vinegar if necessary.<br />
5. Put half of the noodles in each bowl. Pour the soup over the noodles...Enjoy!Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-79214349654268740732011-01-04T19:25:00.000-08:002011-01-04T19:25:39.537-08:00The First Big Dinner Trial RunI'm back after a long absence that included 3 law school finals, enough caffiene to kill an elephant, a Mad Men party, and a jump into Lake Michigan on New Year's Day. On Saturday, I'm cooking a 6 course dinner for 14 people in Elmhurst, so I needed to begin practicing. The first two courses that I tested were 1. Flavors of Frosty the Snowman and 2. Venison (steak in the trial run), charcoal, beets, pomegranate. Frosty had too much tobacco flavor so next time I will use less of that and probably add in a bit of sugar to round out the harshness of the tobacco. The charcoal was very sand-like and unpleasant to eat texture-wise, so I'll have to come up with a solution for that. I've been thinking about fireplace soot or maybe just scrapping it all together and going with cocao powder. I think I spend an unusual amount of time worrying if I'm going to poison myself with something that I cook. Is that normal for people?<br />
<br />
Here were the recipes for the dishes I practiced:<br />
<br />
<u>Flavors of Frosty</u><br />
<u>Corn Ice Cream</u><br />
1.5 cups corn kernels<br />
1 cup cream<br />
1 cup milk<br />
1 tbsp sugar<br />
4 egg yolks, beaten and in a separate bowl<br />
1 tbsp butter<br />
kosher salt<br />
pepper<br />
<br />
1. In a medium sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Once melted and hot, add corn kernels, a pinch of salt and a little pepper<br />
2. Toss corn around in the butter and saute for 3-4 minutes until corn is hot and cooked through.<br />
3. Pour in the milk and cream, and add the sugar. Stir to dissolve sugar. Lower heat to low.<br />
4. Pour about 1/3 of the cream mixture into the egg yolks and whisk for a minute to temper the eggs<br />
5. Add the egg mixture back to the sauce pan and stir with a wooden spoon until thickened to the point that you can draw a line on the back of the spoon with your finger. About 3-4 minutes.<br />
6. Pour cream into a cooled metal bowl, cover and refrigerate for a few hours until the cream is the texture of custard.<br />
7. Pour custard into an ice cream machine and churn until it looks like ice cream. Scrape the ice cream into a bowl and put the bowl in the freezer for 8 hours to harden and let the flavors come together.<br />
<br />
<u>Tobacco Cream</u><br />
2 grams tobacco from a cigar<br />
1 cup cream<br />
1 cup milk<br />
<br />
1. Put all ingredients together in a sauce pan<br />
2. Bring to a boil over medium heat<br />
3. Remove from heat and cover. Let tobacco steep for about an hour.<br />
4. Strain the tobacco out and keep warm<br />
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To assemble: Spoon some ice cream into the bottom of a bowl. Heat the tobacco cream (I'd use less tobacco next time, but its up to you) until hot. Top the ice cream with shredded carrots (I'm going to attempt to make a carrot top hat out of caramel when I actually serve it). Pour the hot tobacco cream over the top of it so the ice cream begins to melt, just like Frosty the Snowman.<br />
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<u>Steak, Charcoal, Beets, Pomegranate</u><br />
2 steaks, fat trimmed<br />
some bamboo charcoal, ground to powder in a spice grinder (I'd use something else since this was sandy)<br />
3 beets, juiced, 1/2 cup of the juice in 2 separate cups<br />
3 beets, quartered<br />
1 cup pomegranate juice<br />
beef stock<br />
sugar<br />
red wine vinegar<br />
8 tbsp butter<br />
lemon juice<br />
canola oil<br />
salt <br />
pepper<br />
<br />
1. Salt and pepper each steak. Heat canola oil over high heat. Add each steak for 1 minute on each side, just to caramelize, then set them aside.<br />
2. Meanwhile, heat 1/2 cup of beet juice over medium heat and reduce until it is 2-3 tbsp. Add a few drops of red wine vinegar, a few drops of lemon juice, and whisk in 3 tbsp butter. Keep warm and reserve.<br />
3. Put the pomegranate juice in another sauce pan and heat over medium heat. Pour in 1/4 cup of beef stock and about 1/2 tbsp sugar. Bring to a boil and reduce to medium-low. Reduce pomegranate juice mixture by 1/2. Whisk in 5 tbsp butter one piece at a time. Keep warm and reserved.<br />
4. For the beet pudding, put the other 1/2 cup of beet juice in a blender. Turn on low and sprinkle in about a tbsp of sugar. Turn blender up to high and sprinkle in some Ultra Tex 3 until it is the desired consistency.<br />
5. While all of this is going on, preheat oven to 450. Salt and pepper beet quarters, and put them in the oven for 15 minutes until cooked through.<br />
6. Coat all sides of the beef in the charcoal powder (or whatever you are using). Remove the beets from the oven and replace with the charcoal beef for about 5 minutes until medium-rare.<br />
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To assemble: Place beef in center of plate. Place a spoon of beet juice in the front and streak across the plate with a paint brush. Place a dollop of beet pudding in one of the corners. Put the roasted beet quarters on one side of the meat. Spoon a line of pomegranate reduction across the plate.Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-11027564727893061532010-10-26T20:17:00.000-07:002010-10-26T20:17:50.549-07:00Crepe-y Kind of NightAs the weather begins to turn cold and the leaves fall off the trees, something even more insidious kicks into high gear for me. That's right, finals studying for law school begins. Every day essentially ends with me feeling the same way - ike I had been choked at the bottom of a pool.<br />
<br />
However, as a reprieve to the seeminly neverending grind of school, was tonight's dinner, which Michelle prepared. If you have read through previous posts, you would know that I love eating breakfast for dinner, so as a dash of summer and the accompanying happy feelings, she made crepes with strawberries and bananas with a side of bacon.<br />
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She had never made it before, but it turned out gloriously.<br />
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I have discussed the recipe for crepes before here <a href="http://lawschoolfoodguy.blogspot.com/2009/10/breakfast-for-dinner.html">http://lawschoolfoodguy.blogspot.com/2009/10/breakfast-for-dinner.html</a>, and I assume you know how to cook bacon, so I'll focus on the filling.<br />
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For the banana portion, she simply sliced up a few bananas and set them to the side.<br />
<br />
<u>Strawberry Filling</u><br />
1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced<br />
2 tbsp unsalted butter<br />
2 tbsp brown sugar<br />
pinch of kosher salt<br />
<br />
1. Melt butter over medium heat.<br />
2. Once melted, put in brown sugar and stir til bubbly<br />
3. Add strawberries and lower heat to medium low<br />
4. Stir slowly until strawberries render their liquid. Cook for about 10 more minutes to reduce juice a bit<br />
5. Stir in pinch of salt<br />
6. Serve<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiImoRNqwXF6F9qzWi0galxzpNhtARcf6Y1dCSqb4aDftFS-kTSI9_-heyZ46Fjo7o78zKha-OLIgQ2tYIVtAxOi77GkSeDM6nCm7aJDEVu2zYC9H5fddZdZXyqei2eGc_4R_Y1YEtRYF1T/s1600/IMG_5513.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiImoRNqwXF6F9qzWi0galxzpNhtARcf6Y1dCSqb4aDftFS-kTSI9_-heyZ46Fjo7o78zKha-OLIgQ2tYIVtAxOi77GkSeDM6nCm7aJDEVu2zYC9H5fddZdZXyqei2eGc_4R_Y1YEtRYF1T/s320/IMG_5513.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-53693744791261800012010-09-30T11:16:00.000-07:002010-09-30T11:16:41.297-07:00Fish Tuesday 2.0 (a.k.a. Fish Wednesday)One Sunday afternoon, we were wandering around near the train station when we saw a sign for something called "French Market." Our interest piqued, and we ventured inside what I was sure was part of the train station (it was) to figure out what exactly the French Market was. To my never ending delight, what was once a urine-soaked haven for Chicago's denizens of the night, had been transformed into something of a permanent farmer's market. After gleefully walking up and down the aisles, viewing the vendors' wares, I finally came upon the butcher/fishmonger. It was here that the idea of Fish Wednesday was born. If you have been reading this blog for long, you will know that one of my favorite parts, if not my favorite, of being unemployed was Fish Tuesdays at the Fishguy Market, so needless today I was thrilled at the prospect of a weekly fish day returning. Anyway, the French Market is located between Randolph and Washington with entrances on either Clinton or Canal. The website is <a href="http://www.frenchmarketchicago.com/">http://www.frenchmarketchicago.com/</a>. <br />
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Since the glorious discovery of the French Market, I have cooked for two Fish Wednesdays. The first one turned out relatively decent, but as you can see, I tweaked and changed it all a bit to make it even better. <br />
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For the first recipe, I got the recipe for the bbq sauce out of a magazine that arrived at work (sorry, I forgot which one). I thought that it would go perfectly with fish since it was light and fruity, but the recipe without my modifications, was awful. I think there is some promise in it, but I'd definitely cut down on both the tomato juice and tomato paste. Fortunately, the mustard glaze was so good that I kind of forgot about the awful bbq sauce.<br />
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<u>Salmon with Blackberry-Bourbon BBQ Sauce</u> (serves 2)<br />
2 salmon fillets<br />
4 tbsp grain mustard<br />
5 tbsp sugar (I used regular sugar, though next time, I'd use brown)<br />
1 tspn soy sauce<br />
0.5 cups blackberry jam<br />
0.75 cup tomato juice<br />
0.5 cup tomato paste<br />
0.25 cup bourbon (more if you want to drink some, which I'd highly recommend)<br />
2 tbsp molasses<br />
1 tbsp dijon mustard<br />
0.25 tspn cayenne (adjust if you want it more or less spicy)<br />
2 tbsp red wine vinegar<br />
0.5 tbsp chile powder<br />
kosher salt<br />
pepper<br />
<br />
1. Mix grain mustard, soy sauce, and sugar in a bowl to form a thick paste. Salt and pepper salmon, then spread the mustard glaze on the salmon liberally. Let the salmon sit at room temperature for 10-20 minutes so it is no longer chilled.<br />
2. Mix all other ingredients in a medium-sized sauce pan. Set the pan over medium-low heat and cook for about 20-25 minutes.<br />
3. While the sauce is cooking, preheat the oven to 450. When the oven reaches that temperature, put the salmon in the oven on a baking sheet covered with foil. Let the salmon cook for 10-12 minutes.<br />
4. Drizzle some sauce (if you like it) on to the salmon and enjoy. I think I would serve this with green beans or spinach.<br />
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Here is my tweaks and upgrades on that recipes, including the scrapping of the bbq sauce entirely. This very well may be the best fish dish that I've ever cooked. I got this recipe from the recipe finder on bravotv.com, but it was so poorly written and confusing that I pretty much made up my own method of doing it. You have to be vigilant when making this since there is a bunch of stuff going on at once.<br />
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<u>Part 2</u><br />
2 mahi mahi filets (though any light fish fillets will be fine).<br />
2 slices of bacon<br />
6-8 red potatoes, sliced into thin discs<br />
2 shallots, diced<br />
2 cloves of garlic, diced<br />
olive oil<br />
2 beets, peeled and sliced into batons<br />
3 cups baby spinach<br />
0.25 cups white wine<br />
0.5 tspn white wine vinegar<br />
1 tbsp butter<br />
0.5 cups white wine<br />
juice from 0.75 lemon<br />
3 bay leaves<br />
0.25 cups cream<br />
1 tbsp grain mustard<br />
4 tbsp butter, cut into 1 tbsp chunks<br />
<br />
1. Preheat oven to 450.<br />
2. Put potato discs in a single layer on a foil-covered baking sheet. Drizzle potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put in oven and cook for about 15-20 minutes until they turn nicely brown.<br />
3. Wrap each mahi mahi filet with a piece of bacon, being sure that the bacon does not overlap itself. Salt and pepper and set to the side.<br />
4. For the sauce, in a medium sauce pan, melt 1 tbsp of butter over medium heat. When melted add 1 of the diced shallots and cook until just turning brown (about 3 minutes). Add bay leaves and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant. Deglaze with 0.5 cup of white wine. Sprinkle in the lemon juice and let it reduce until it looks syrupy.<br />
5. While sauce is reducing, film a large saute pan with olive oil and heat it over medium-high heat. Add in the remaining diced shallot and the garlic and cook until turning brown (about 1 minute). Add the beets and cook, stirring constantly, until the shallots are nicely browned. Deglaze with the 0.25 cup of white wine and then add in the vinegar. Reduce heat to medium-low and stir while it all cooks together and pan is nearly dry. Add in the spinach and stir it around until the spinach has wilted.<br />
6. Film a frying pan with olive oil and heat over medium-high heat until just smoking. Put the fish, presentation side down, into the pan and cook for 1 minute until bacon is nicely browned. Flip fish over and cook for another 1 minute.<br />
7. While fish is cooking, remove the potatoes from the oven and set aside. Opening the oven should reduce the oven temperature to about 425. Set the oven for 425 and put in the pan with the fish for about 6 minutes. Turn off the oven. While you are completing everything else, put the potatoes in the warm oven to heat up.<br />
8. Now that the sauce is reduced to a syrup, add in the cream and mustard and return to a boil, whisking. Once it is boiling again, whisk in 4 tbsp of butter, 1 tbsp at a time, adding a new one only when the previous one has been incorporated. Strain the sauce through a fine mesh strainer into a cup or bowl.<br />
9. After that whole marathon, here is how I plated it. Put a ring of potatoes down around the plate. Put a large spoonful of spinach and beets in the center. Top that with the fish and then drizzle with the strained sauce.Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-4359574037826532822010-09-23T11:14:00.000-07:002010-09-23T11:14:52.585-07:00Da Bears!I promised Mrs. Urgo that I would put this up, so here we go! Two Sundays ago, the Bears began what we all surely expected to be a middling or even disappointing 2010 season. However, in the spirit of hope, competitiveness, and drinking, we all crowded around the television for at least the first week of football. We had the privilege of watching the game at the fabulous Casa de Urgo in Elmhurst (and using the awesome kitchen).<br />
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Since football pairs best with red meat for some reason, we decided to grill some steaks. Also, since no one would stand for me spending 3 hours cooking in the morning and making a giant mess, I wanted to keep it simple. After much conversing, we settled on steaks with a shallot and port butter with a side of secret potatoes. I'm not sure how she got the secret recipe, but since they were delicious, I imagine it was probably something pretty wild, which I <strike>would love to</strike> do not want to hear about.<br />
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I made the butter the night before just because it was not feasible to do in the morning of the game. I told Jessica that we should get ribeye, filet, or NY Strip. I figured ribeye would be the best option since it is the least expensive, however; apparently the world went crazy when she went to buy the meat and the ribeyes were over $150, so we ended up with some even better porterhouse steaks. Great success!<br />
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Our goal was to eat at halftime, and the way the Bears were barely keeping up with the hapless Lions, we figured a disappointing end could be in store for us. The fact that it was against Detroit made it even more disheartening since you all know, or should know, about my deep animosity for Detroit.<br />
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As for my steak cooking showing that day, I would give myself a B-. Some of the steaks were cooked correctly, while others were kind of overcooked. I purposefully added time from how I usually cook steaks since the last steaks I cooked were woefully undercooked, but that was more likely caused by the steaks being exceptionally thick instead rather than the usual timing being off. Next time it is 4 minutes per side, and no more, E. Coli be damned. <br />
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The one thing that I made that surely shined through was the delicious shallot and port butter, which Mrs. Urgo kept and was apparently spreading on lots of other things in the following week(s). As we all know the Bears ended up winning because God hates Detroit. Here is the recipe for the butter, so you too can revel in the Lions losing the next time.<br />
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<u>Ingredients</u><br />
1 stick plus 1 tbsp unsalted butter<br />
2 cloves of garlic, diced<br />
1 shallot, diced<br />
0.5 cups ruby port<br />
0.5 cups cabernet sauvignon<br />
pinch of cardamom<br />
pepper<br />
2 tbsp red wine vinegar<br />
kosher salt<br />
<br />
1. Take stick of butter out of the fridge or freezer and let it sit out for an hour or two to soften.<br />
2. Melt the other 1 tbsp butter in a saucepan over medium heat.<br />
3. Put the garlic and the shallot in the melted butter and cook until just starting to turn brown about 4-5 minutes.<br />
4. Add in the cardamom and pepper and cook until just fragrant, about 30 seconds.<br />
5. Pour in the port and cabernet. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for about 20 minutes until wine is thick and syrupy and reduced to about 1/4 cup. Remove from heat and let it cool for a while until close to room temperature (you can put it in the fridge if you want).<br />
6. Mash up the softened butter in a bowl with the red wine vinegar and a little salt.<br />
7. Pour the reduced port and shallot mixture into the butter and stir together with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment.<br />
8. Spread out some plastic wrap on the counter. Spread the butter mixture across one end of the plastic and roll it up in the plastic wrap so it looks like a burrito. Twist the ends to make it tight. Refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight. <br />
9. Enjoy!Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-35438689521797998722010-09-08T20:09:00.000-07:002010-09-08T20:09:04.210-07:00InspirationA few weeks ago I went to Gilt Bar, which is probably my current favorite regular restaurant in the city. They do really simple food, but they do it very well. I had a dish there called "The Purist," which was simply pasta, parmesan, and black pepper. For having so few ingredients that we eat all the time, it was mindblowing.<br />
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One night after eating this delightful pasta, I was craving it at home, so I decided to give it a whirl. I had no idea how they actually prepared it, so I went to improvise. I was about halfway through the sauce (and thinking about cheesecake for some reason) when I realized that the sauce was way too thin. I didnt want to put flour in it because I don't like thickening sauces with flour. Looking through my fridge, I pushed aside the milk and eggs, and sitting there, like the hidden grail, was the answer! Cream cheese! I sliced off about an ounce of it and put it in the sauce to add some body, and it turned out just like I hoped. I also started thawing some chicken, but it wasn't thawed in time, so I didn't use it. That was a fortuitous turn of events, since I ended up liking the dish way better than I would have if the chicken ended up in it. I'm pretty sure it was the best pasta I've ever cooked, and I'm glad Gilt Bar inspired me.<br />
<br />
Anyway, here is the recipe.<br />
<br />
<u>Ingredients</u><br />
1 box penne pasta<br />
1/2 cup cream<br />
1/2 cup chicken stock<br />
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated<br />
1 oz. cream cheese<br />
kosher salt<br />
pepper<br />
3 cups loosely packed baby spinach<br />
2 tbsp butter<br />
4 cloves of garlic, diced<br />
black truffle oil (optional)<br />
<br />
1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and add the garlic. Cook for 3-4 minutes until just starting to brown.<br />
2. Add in chicken stock and cream and cook until simmering.<br />
3. Add cream cheese and whisk until it is melted and incorporated.<br />
4. Let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes until reduced slightly.<br />
5. Meanwhile, start a large pot of water boiling, salt it, and add the pasta to begin cooking for about 8 minutes or until pasta is al dente.<br />
6. Put spinach in the bottom of the service bowl.<br />
7. When the sauce has reduced a little, add in a pinch of parmesan and whisk until combined. Continue this process until only about 1/4 of a cup of cheese remains. Reserve the cheese on the side to finish the dish.<br />
8. Add salt and pepper to the sauce to taste.<br />
9. When pasta is done, drain it and put it over the spinach and toss to combine. Pour the sauce over the top and toss again. Cover with foil to hold the heat in and cook the spinach.<br />
10. Remove the foil and lightly drizzle with black truffle oil, if using.Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-90043257014829553662010-07-06T17:55:00.000-07:002010-07-06T20:36:23.071-07:00MeccaI realized that I will never catch up on the two month absence that I took surrounding finals and the ensuing winding down period, so I'm just going to do one (major) highlight and then move on to present day.<br />
<br />
You might be thinking something like, "Brian, you eat a whole bunch of awesome food all the time, what one thing could you have possibly eaten in the last two months that could possibly warrant the only retroactive post?" Ponder not, for the highlight was the fine dining Mecca of America (I say the world), Alinea. As if it needed an introduction, Alinea is located at 1723 N. Halsted and its website is alinea-restaurant.com. Obviously I had us opt for the longer and more opulent of the two menus. Were we up for the challenge of 26 courses over 5.5 hours? Only time would tell.<br />
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We were seated in the upstairs dining room on the far left. The very first thing they brought out were centerpieces that looked like flags. They informed us, cryptically, that they would come into play later.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg4XH2WcMq_puueQ107_Mc1Cya5pPoWGdCgabIc7LdiCRfQX6zzbsn9qqVTy0NvhdZJfVBoagPaPa2UuR0ByZgL3FLX8dKiYMPhPULm8TU36P3MGk5o-GeW05sTc94aIr_RFSXo6JWmMLo/s1600/centerpiece.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg4XH2WcMq_puueQ107_Mc1Cya5pPoWGdCgabIc7LdiCRfQX6zzbsn9qqVTy0NvhdZJfVBoagPaPa2UuR0ByZgL3FLX8dKiYMPhPULm8TU36P3MGk5o-GeW05sTc94aIr_RFSXo6JWmMLo/s320/centerpiece.jpg" /></a></div>The first real course after the mystery centerpiece was described as English Pea, Iberico ham, sherry, and honeydew. It was served in a drinking glass and basically consisted of peas of different textures and temperatures (ranging from deeply frozen (like in liquid nitrogen) to room temperature). The peas were served whole, in a puree, and frozen so they shattered when you took a bite. The ham, honeydew, and basil were made into a gelee and served atop the whole dish, and the sherry was spherified, so it popped in your mouth. I thought this dish was a brilliant opening course. I really enjoy cold things to start meals, so this was already starting pretty highly. The saltiness of the ham gel brought out the natural sweetness of the peas and the honeydew added a different type of sweetness. If I was coming up with the dish, I probably would have stopped there, but the Alinea people threw one extra twist in there with the sherry which added some nuttiness and acid to the dish. Overall, I loved it and was primed for the remaining 25 courses. As always, the opening "wine" was a champagne cocktail consisting of Szigeti "Cuvee Prestige" with elderflower, Peychaud's, and some chili pepper. I thought the sparkling-ness of the cocktail cut through the thickness and sweetness of the pea puree. The next four dishes used this same cocktail. I also don't have pictures of them since I remembered that Chef Achatz isn't a particularly huge fan of people taking pictures in the restaurant, so we tried to do it as quickly and discreetly as possible.<br />
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The next course was described as Lobster, lychee, gruyere cheese, and vanilla fragrance. This dish had butter poached lobster that was rolled in gruyere and lychee and impaled on a vanilla bean. They then dipped the lobster mixture in tempura batter and deep fried it onto the vanilla bean. When served, you pick up the vanilla bean and eat the fried puff off of the end of the bean. I thought there must have been some mistake since it was only the second course and already my mind was blown, but apparently that was the order they meant to serve it in. The sweetness and sea flavor of the lobster was curious (in a good way) with the vanilla. The cheese added some saltiness and creaminess that I never would have thought of and the lychee added just a hit of acidity to round the whole thing out. Mike asked the waiter if he could just bring 24 more of these since he was sure that it couldn't be topped.<br />
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The next two courses were served at the same time. The first one I had enjoyed before the last time I was at Alinea. It was Yuba, shrimp, miso, togarashi. Basically, they roll up some yuba, which is the skin that renders ontop when you boil soy milk and deep fry it so it ends up looking like a cinnamon stick. Then they twist a shrimp around it and cook it onto it so it stays on. They garnish it with seseame seeds and orange and serve it in an inkwell full of miso mayonaisse. You will probably get tired of hearing this, but it is an amazing dish and I am definitely glad they kept this one on the menu.<br />
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The other course was called Chao Tom, sugar cane, shrimp, mint. Apparently Chao Tom is a Thai dish involving sugar cane and shrimp. In typical Alinea fashion, they pushed it to the extreme. Here they took some compressed sugar cane and infused it with a heavily reduced shrimp stock and garnished it with some mint. I described it as shrimp gum since you cannot swallow the sugar can, you merely chew it until it loses the flavor. It wasn't the best course of the night, but it was surely interesting. I never imagined it could be food (maybe because it really isn't), but that is part of the magic of Alinea.<br />
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The fifth course was a shot called Distillation of Thai flavors. I believe it was lemongrass, fish sauce, and tamarind. They evaporated much of the water out of each of the elements so they were left with a powerfully flavored shot. They told us that it was to prepare our palates for the following course. The shot was essentially like drinking pad thai, and I love pad thai. I was curious what we were preparing ourselves for, but I was excited nonetheless.<br />
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Finally on the sixth course, we found out what the centerpieces were for. They brought out a wooden plank that had two metal stands that they assembled at the table. The waiter took the flag portion of the centerpiece and draped it over the metal stand. He then spooned some braised pork belly onto the centerpiece. Another waiter brought each of us a tray with various accoutrements to assemble our own dish. Apparently this was Alinea's take on a Thai spring roll and the accompanying tray was full of things that would go with the pork belly such as limes, garlic, radishes, etc. This was Mike and Michelle's favorite savory course of the evening. I have to admit that it was a bold move to have people eating with their hands at such an amazing place, but I loved it and it was very fun. It was served with a 2008 Abbazia di Novacella Kerner, Valle Isarco, Alto Adige.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Ik9U0Rz63uFy3AyE8uSJa8LPVBInMs-p_2whNkLHKhNKfPS41_Atp8IdKtHTehJ6_ZvrhImmj8P8QSHmpES-Y6sHAIuGzugt9YJhlvrawlY4nd9Xd2gqSN2I3tNAfnEPm6HDULXs89Q5/s1600/pork+belly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Ik9U0Rz63uFy3AyE8uSJa8LPVBInMs-p_2whNkLHKhNKfPS41_Atp8IdKtHTehJ6_ZvrhImmj8P8QSHmpES-Y6sHAIuGzugt9YJhlvrawlY4nd9Xd2gqSN2I3tNAfnEPm6HDULXs89Q5/s320/pork+belly.jpg" /></a></div>The seventh course was described as King Crab, rhubarb, lilac, fennel. It was probably the most surprising course of the night as it was actually three different preparations. It moved from a cold preparation to a hot one and it was served in an "apple bowl" whereby it was a layered bowl and each layer contained a different preparation. I'm just going to copy the description from the Alinea Mosaic forum since it had way too much going on to remember. As the course progresses, we move from cold to hot and increase richness from top to bottom. Each level contains different combinations of crab and rhubarb. In the top section, we mix the crab meat with minced shallots and make a dressing with sour cream and lime juice. We make a rhubarb pudding by pureeing rhubarb cooked in its own juice, red wine vinegar and sugar. While the dressing is rich, acid from the sour cream and lime juice give it a cleansing quality. Chervil juice, lightly set with gelatin adds a clean herbaceous note. Ginger candy adds sharpness. Additional acidity comes from lemon that we aerate with a siphon canister. We top it with a quenelle of buttermilk-jasmine sorbet to add a light spring-floral note. In the middle is the crab salad. We introduce the rich element of avocado coated with crushed fried almonds. It is placed in between two pieces of crab meat dressed in lemon-ginger vinaigrette. We garnish with braised mustard seeds dressed in mustard vinaigrette, compressed rhubarb slices, shaved fennel salad, fennel fronds, slices of green fennel top, a square of red pepper, chervil pluches and mung bean sprouts. The bottom section is the richest, served hot. It is crab, rhubarb and cippolini onion glacage. Inside is glazed fennel, sweet and sour onion, and rhubarb braised in red wine, red wine vinegar and sugar. We make the glacage by slowly cooking fennel, shallot, garlic, and leek in butter and deglaze with vermouth. We add a heavy cream flavored with fennel, star anise and black peppercorns. We reduce the mixture until its thick and add a little whipped cream. We coat the components and brown it lightly under the salamander. Over the top we sprinkle pink peppercorn skin, diced preserved lemon and star anise powder. As you can plainly see, this dish is out of control. My favorite was the bottom course, but it all mixed so well together that it is hard to imagine them out of context. The King Crab was served with my favorite wine of the night, a Josmeyer Pinot Gris "Brand" Grand Cru, Alsace 2005. It was like drinking cantaloupe and candy.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPFOjw-rDJNDKmtTT4xnQhCckz3NY_HBEVkxkG1kmGf5WmPolS5io8ZAR30w2a8ttqGV37m4LVuii3aFwuCAlm9qXrwme-S4q5VzhFDLp575C96drAT5m7y-E22fbsF35ATPR9vhseKhSu/s1600/crab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPFOjw-rDJNDKmtTT4xnQhCckz3NY_HBEVkxkG1kmGf5WmPolS5io8ZAR30w2a8ttqGV37m4LVuii3aFwuCAlm9qXrwme-S4q5VzhFDLp575C96drAT5m7y-E22fbsF35ATPR9vhseKhSu/s320/crab.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH0EEvAwCSsXrncAlnJjpkLAwjm5tp6wy9NYBH18076FLUsCIgm1Jgmw8FeS7X2LpzK2DU16-k53wkZ39wBosRXjytZJobe4Sq5xyDNjUu0k9-WoblJitk5ia3-iTMLppIYjhE6qqeWRo4/s1600/crab+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH0EEvAwCSsXrncAlnJjpkLAwjm5tp6wy9NYBH18076FLUsCIgm1Jgmw8FeS7X2LpzK2DU16-k53wkZ39wBosRXjytZJobe4Sq5xyDNjUu0k9-WoblJitk5ia3-iTMLppIYjhE6qqeWRo4/s320/crab+2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilkSmcrF907Oo5FQ3ymq8xRR-y7WftqhAmwvuHd4c-HpSbLnjo3HnOGwx3_feu8rpmWvRzYe5KEXRY-Psh-SrXJKNzZIg2TutfiMyfp1BITrSoumNPviamZw153TuS7ATHOc0rXU9cNeqB/s1600/crab+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilkSmcrF907Oo5FQ3ymq8xRR-y7WftqhAmwvuHd4c-HpSbLnjo3HnOGwx3_feu8rpmWvRzYe5KEXRY-Psh-SrXJKNzZIg2TutfiMyfp1BITrSoumNPviamZw153TuS7ATHOc0rXU9cNeqB/s320/crab+3.jpg" /></a></div>The eighth course was Octopus, red wine, lavender, fava bean. This was served in the "palm bowl." In this service piece, the solid part of the course is assembled on a spoon which fits into a notch on the bowl, and in the bowl is a soup of some sort. Here, the octopus was marinated in red wine and served with lavender (on the fork), and in the bowl was a fava bean soup. I did not particularly care for how chewy the octopus was, but the grilled flavor on it was nice and the fava bean soup was tasty.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9x1CrTeJEpvg_Yj6fmz_NREWb8ltYVzfRO2didAJs65HUYCFQXmJ08NQcabL8ypS9p30iP_tGIoHiGSmO_j28YGLex1bq6f71_EpTpTgZpmFUWRpjWsmfaTgojSJ-sqslR8BsDVysWy6G/s1600/octopus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9x1CrTeJEpvg_Yj6fmz_NREWb8ltYVzfRO2didAJs65HUYCFQXmJ08NQcabL8ypS9p30iP_tGIoHiGSmO_j28YGLex1bq6f71_EpTpTgZpmFUWRpjWsmfaTgojSJ-sqslR8BsDVysWy6G/s320/octopus.jpg" /></a></div>The ninth course was probably my favorite savory course. It was called Lamb, reflections of Elysian Fields Farm. Alinea gets some of the best lamb in the world from Elysian Fields Farm in Pennsylvania and this was their tribute to the farm. The lamb was cooked to a perfect medium-rare and skewered on a rosemary sprig. It was joined by fried lamb fat, polenta, a meaty lamb flavored puff of some sort. In short, it was simple (as far as Alinea goes), but spectacular. The flavors came together perfectly. If I was a lamb and was going to be eaten, this is how I would want to be served. This was served with a 2005 Araujo Estate "Altagracia" Cabernet Sauvignon. I'm pretty sure this was my favorite red wine of the evening.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeNA7PSb6M_e9CNCoqoiv3-w-6P8E9XSaZRD_Hfrdgy2ptsainmQqNrt_XDctcBE2RoU8C6iD_Kh8NupNO7-qFuP9OlS6iOWAx2X4x0dIvxEERjnMQ4V3L3e8YtEQwffzpW2H5U6U6B86z/s1600/lamb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeNA7PSb6M_e9CNCoqoiv3-w-6P8E9XSaZRD_Hfrdgy2ptsainmQqNrt_XDctcBE2RoU8C6iD_Kh8NupNO7-qFuP9OlS6iOWAx2X4x0dIvxEERjnMQ4V3L3e8YtEQwffzpW2H5U6U6B86z/s320/lamb.jpg" /></a></div>The tenth course (yes, we are only a third of the way done) was my favorite "repeat" course as this is always on the menu. If you go back to my Valentine's Day post, you can see my attempt at this dish. It is a cold potato and black truffle soup in a wax bowl with a hot fried potato hanging above it on a pin draped with a shaved black truffle. To eat, you remove the pin and drink the whole thing down like an oyster. It is difficult to imagine a better single bite on earth.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnGqcYN9TD60I2bejPo7AJACrWx_RhUprv-jWZ0cOf-m-ITHnCsBBmNej3akXUpmGqWeyeXy9uQWg23QMPPx4aw00l97dZbC4p76FHLgcRp61eElc9J2qqc6Bp6YfIdccYAxUBuSyYa20G/s1600/hot+potato.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnGqcYN9TD60I2bejPo7AJACrWx_RhUprv-jWZ0cOf-m-ITHnCsBBmNej3akXUpmGqWeyeXy9uQWg23QMPPx4aw00l97dZbC4p76FHLgcRp61eElc9J2qqc6Bp6YfIdccYAxUBuSyYa20G/s320/hot+potato.jpg" /></a></div>The next three courses were served at the same time, sort of like an intermission (except you were still eating, so I guess it wasn't really an intermission). They were 1. Malt, english toffee, bourbon county stout, blueberry; 2. Bacon, butterscotch, apple, thyme; and 3. Nutella, bread, banana, chocolate. Of these, my favorite was the malt course. It was ice cream, but it had some interesting salty and savory elements to it. I have had the bacon dish before, which is served hanging on what looks like a bow. I had pretty high hopes for the nutella course, which looked like a rock dusted in chocolate; however, when you would bring it to your mouth, you would inhale the chocolate and it would make you cough, which was unpleasant (even though the flavor was nice). These were served with a Vinhos Barbeito/Rare Wine Co. sherry.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqHYtNsnqnrhAhqn4PIUaNOengH5kk-08fLlmqPzcC3Ey-wHDfQ-jsu6X4WrCJYECursuP7v1D9hBsxFRgYQP3w_hqBITPHFkBDQzjQj4xG7fCAD-b7Nux5XboxFcAJNSFesXUaMpxboH2/s1600/intermission.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqHYtNsnqnrhAhqn4PIUaNOengH5kk-08fLlmqPzcC3Ey-wHDfQ-jsu6X4WrCJYECursuP7v1D9hBsxFRgYQP3w_hqBITPHFkBDQzjQj4xG7fCAD-b7Nux5XboxFcAJNSFesXUaMpxboH2/s320/intermission.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The next course was a play on clam chowder entitled Surf Clam, celery, tabasco, oyster, cracker. The chowder portion was turned into a gel and it was topped with a perfect balance of all the other flavors, served inside of a large clam shell. It was pretty much the best clam chowder I've ever had (and that is with all due respect to the now-defunct Seafood Shack in Florida). It was served with a Krug "Grand Cuvee" Brut Champagne. The toasty flavors of the champagne really went quite nicely with the creaminess of the "soup."<br />
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The next two courses were my least favorite of the night. The first of these two was Green Almond, yuzu, wasabi, rice milk. This course was a single green almond partially encased in gelled rice milk with dots of yuzu and wasabi on each corner. I've had many one bite courses at Alinea that blew me away, but this one failed to evoke any particular response. It wasn't like it was bad, but I expect pretty high things from Alinea.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfuqPNSUK3t6eVTVVL2f6vVNloOeOpT4iWanwhogwlOhPW__guE3Y9s4zCIcA-jQnLuD1dFITyatP5q2JvJImBsO2xQTFNTcBviG6UxMwWL7X17EBX0KnueMNquwgLn7W-t8NjHxYMJgZj/s1600/almond.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfuqPNSUK3t6eVTVVL2f6vVNloOeOpT4iWanwhogwlOhPW__guE3Y9s4zCIcA-jQnLuD1dFITyatP5q2JvJImBsO2xQTFNTcBviG6UxMwWL7X17EBX0KnueMNquwgLn7W-t8NjHxYMJgZj/s320/almond.jpg" /></a></div>The next course was definitely my least favorite of the night. Whereas the above Green Almond course was one bite and just not particularly mind-blowing, I openly disliked this one. It was called Salad, ranch dressing, soup, powdered. The waiter told us that the chef gets the vegetables from a lady farmer up in Michigan and she drives them down each night before turning back to her farm. It is a pretty cool story, but I just didn't like anything about the dish. It was a variety of raw vegetables (carrot, radish, etc.) dusted with a powdered ranch dressing that you ate with your fingers (sort of like eating a healthy version of Cool Ranch Doritos, only if the Doritos tasted a little like mud). After you finished eating the salad part, they lifted up the top half of the bowl to reveal a ranch dressing soup. I'm unclear how this was any different from eating pure ranch dressing, but apparently it was. Perhaps it's because I don't like salads generally, but this course was not good. It was served with a Radikon 'Oslavje' Venezia-Giulia 2004. I can't particularly remember this wine, but I think I liked it on its own, but not with the course itself.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifNl1vrio48mLaWmsMCdPcaPmawN2qXTRIM8jIIuKUNfuetBhM_mRFrQv2mjc6hzmNx08PM-6iOUm_H6jX-zkRrfYaMSPMwjv10Bf8DkR9wNfXPqi9kpVojALvnU7NlsZRJ_880xfnhWOm/s1600/salad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifNl1vrio48mLaWmsMCdPcaPmawN2qXTRIM8jIIuKUNfuetBhM_mRFrQv2mjc6hzmNx08PM-6iOUm_H6jX-zkRrfYaMSPMwjv10Bf8DkR9wNfXPqi9kpVojALvnU7NlsZRJ_880xfnhWOm/s320/salad.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYakECHRqHa6J-CMEj6RvUBpbhoWwOAua0nqn-o_nl8J2iVahxJwejv5O6Pus0cJIU-0QbyOor3rGVDr5hQ_449AnIRKBHRSsXiuNh9WNsEISxZud8Dffgzkkfes04txkJZUTOZVwPaS0P/s1600/soup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYakECHRqHa6J-CMEj6RvUBpbhoWwOAua0nqn-o_nl8J2iVahxJwejv5O6Pus0cJIU-0QbyOor3rGVDr5hQ_449AnIRKBHRSsXiuNh9WNsEISxZud8Dffgzkkfes04txkJZUTOZVwPaS0P/s320/soup.jpg" /></a></div>I also wasn't a huge fan of the next course (Sardine, horseradish, arugula flower, tomato), but I can definitely appreciate what was being done with it. As with most Americans, I have rarely, if ever, consumed a sardine, so the flavor is completely foreign to me (pun completely intended). As such, Alinea serves a one bite portion of sardine skewered atop an antenna. While you may not enjoy sardines, it is only one bite, so you do not really have a choice of whether you want to eat it or not. I don't know if this turned me around on sardines, which are a very very strong flavor, but I'm glad I tried it.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxr6PgLnNycXlCiP0VSFuFt6Brd-QqyFdMpgg7e0RRYZ3dhIiBnEKElaWBucHrRfnLRNTJI6KDAAdrCm2WEEKXbT3DDzgX6f4CA71IBSHUVA4phTcW54JW68nCfleNS3AHiekGsK4wESUR/s1600/sardine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxr6PgLnNycXlCiP0VSFuFt6Brd-QqyFdMpgg7e0RRYZ3dhIiBnEKElaWBucHrRfnLRNTJI6KDAAdrCm2WEEKXbT3DDzgX6f4CA71IBSHUVA4phTcW54JW68nCfleNS3AHiekGsK4wESUR/s320/sardine.jpg" /></a></div>The nineteenth course (yes, nineteen) was one that almost forced me to come here by myself about three weeks prior (Squab, charred strawberries, lettuce, birch log), so I'm glad it stayed on the menu for our meal. Apparently the development of this dish came during the winter when they wanted to do something with a burnt log. Along those same lines, they wanted to add a bunch of black elements to blend in with the log. After having this, I was inspired to try to char my own strawberries, and I can tell you that it was certainly not an easy feat. Anyway, the squab was perfectly cooked and slightly gamey, but the charred strawberries added a really interesting taste (I mean, who has had charred strawberries before?) that cut through the gaminess. It was served with a 2004 Domaine Jamet Cote-Rotie fromt he Northern Rhone.<br />
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The next course was one that I have had a couple times before, but it never fails to amaze me, the Black Truffle Explosion. It is a single bite ravioli that is filled with an exploding black truffle ball. As with my adventure to Tru with my brother and sister, you have to be 100% sure your mouth is fully closed when you bite into this or there will be black truffle juice everywhere (and not in your mouth, where you would want it). It's one of the more perfect one bite courses of all time with its beautiful black truffle taste.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0GrWEkOVQOPhCC40DXPCz_HrFxTn5Scr4g30bLLU8C7F45MbjBlcbDpfGKxLFX1ug68ZObmYozYcHtsdegVjFTNflq_nA8VW0DG4PY3wYLT3rxmfS8qicBDzQYCcROUVq0PMI7zaT8vhc/s1600/black+truffle+explosion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0GrWEkOVQOPhCC40DXPCz_HrFxTn5Scr4g30bLLU8C7F45MbjBlcbDpfGKxLFX1ug68ZObmYozYcHtsdegVjFTNflq_nA8VW0DG4PY3wYLT3rxmfS8qicBDzQYCcROUVq0PMI7zaT8vhc/s320/black+truffle+explosion.jpg" /></a></div>The final savory course was a "time travel" course meant to be reminiscent of early 1900s Paris. It was called Tournedo a la persane. It was a piece of wagyu beef that was cooked sous vide to a perfect medium rare, surrounded by tomatoes, peppers stuffed with rice, and bananas. It may not have been my favorite savory course (which likely goes to the lamb), but it had some amazing flavors and I would love to eat it everyday. It was served with a 2005 Anima Negra from Mallorca Spain.<br />
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Onto dessert! The first "dessert" was Lemon Soda, one bite. It was some lemon powder mixed with something to make it fizzy sealed inside of some rice paper. Once it hit your tongue and the paper dissolved, you got an interesting fizzy sensation on your tongue with a nice hit of lemon. It was probably more of a palate cleanser than anything, but it was fun, sort of like eating grown up Pop-Rocks.<br />
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The next palate cleanser was Transparency of raspberry and yogurt. This is like a hardened raspberry fruit roll up (very glass-like) dusted with rose petals and yogurt powder. You have to be extremely careful with this dish because if you pull on it too hard, raspberry powder will explode everywhere (I know from experience). Once you get it in your mouth though, it has a sweet raspberry flavor that is heightened by the florality of the roses and then finally restrained by the slight tanginess of the yogurt.<br />
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The first of the real desserts was Bubble Gum, long pepper, hibiscus, creme fraiche. The waiter brought a long test tube out and would not tell you what was in it (like they did for all the other courses). Rather, they told you to suck it all down at once and try to discern the flavors from there. Being a test tube shot expert thanks to my college days, this was no problem. The first flavor was definitely bubble gum, but after that it was difficult to figure out. However, what I did figure out was that it was a nearly perfect flavor combination. They could have brought me four of those for dessert and I would have been happy.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjykFd1tp4ux4ZCsmwraRDQLe4BkB3Tln-tMvkkzMpXdJEv2Q3MstgIdx6zKEjocO8iPKX3XQwjXcguWyw7MfoLbaRqDvmK5z0B9j0QnEFLf5UoCKBrt2Xr15QRDplQpJmbXs8ac9iHDSUb/s1600/bubblegum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjykFd1tp4ux4ZCsmwraRDQLe4BkB3Tln-tMvkkzMpXdJEv2Q3MstgIdx6zKEjocO8iPKX3XQwjXcguWyw7MfoLbaRqDvmK5z0B9j0QnEFLf5UoCKBrt2Xr15QRDplQpJmbXs8ac9iHDSUb/s320/bubblegum.jpg" /></a></div>The next dessert was a play on a cup of tea (Earl Grey, lemon, pine nut, caramelized white chocolate). I don't particularly remember this dessert (because of what came next), but I remember I did like the caramelized white chocolate with the tea flavor.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqVtI3O45BPA01MNqNUpiQczcba40E69hz-B0f7DwmQUgF5Gnzh5m6pe40OJM_SDro5XPUqV4isQxIVBVpvvtHkLadpHvCmaJG4sNMfnLJzl4Vb9I-I0X2TUVut8cJ9z8_C3TvyReEygcD/s1600/tea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqVtI3O45BPA01MNqNUpiQczcba40E69hz-B0f7DwmQUgF5Gnzh5m6pe40OJM_SDro5XPUqV4isQxIVBVpvvtHkLadpHvCmaJG4sNMfnLJzl4Vb9I-I0X2TUVut8cJ9z8_C3TvyReEygcD/s320/tea.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Finally, at long last, we are at the end! For the final course, they took all of our glasses off the table and spread a large grey mat across the table before reassembling our place settings and glasses. The waiters brought in a dizzying array of bowls, pourers, glasses, and spoons and placed them on one end of the table. Once they had completed this arrangement, they departed (like the calm before the storm). Into the room walks the legendary Chef Grant Achatz. Time stopped (possibly my heart too) as he approached the table to "perform" the final dessert. His hands moved at blurring speed taking liquids and various gels out of their holders on the table he began spreading pools of sauce all over the mat (no plates for this course). When he was nearly done, one of the waiters approached with what looked like a smoking loaf of stale bread and put it in the middle of the table. Chef Achatz smashed it with a hammer and explained to us that it was chocolate mousse frozen in liquid nitrogen. He then placed some menthol crystals in it and departed. I was already pretty happy with this whole experience, but this took it to a whole new level. Once I broke out of my shocked state I began eating the dish (Chocolate, coconut, menthol, hyssop). There was too much going on for me to fully remember. Besides the mousse, there were pools of hot mint chocolate gel, menthol sauce, coconut sauce, chewy coconut, piles of chocolate powder, and all other varieties of menthol and coconut in different temperatures and textures. It was the singular best dessert I've ever eaten even discounting the fact that we were nearly touched by culinary God. It's not an incredibly difficult flavor combination (chocolate, mint, coconut), but the variety of temperatures and textures is what made this dish as amazing as it was. Every bite was something totally different, and it was a perfect way to end this amazing dinner.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Lnaznqoi0HjBsJHk8EE1Tp0t_XTGd4RtHRMotR-1hWmxg2eMlsNnAca1ivVHwa5Yt-zjBrRvOXqwtDp2gc0FWHasl6pKd9kso0TC91K3fA7t5sDgvvQXJeszVRqb36SvUuMN3bZokuXt/s1600/dessert.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Lnaznqoi0HjBsJHk8EE1Tp0t_XTGd4RtHRMotR-1hWmxg2eMlsNnAca1ivVHwa5Yt-zjBrRvOXqwtDp2gc0FWHasl6pKd9kso0TC91K3fA7t5sDgvvQXJeszVRqb36SvUuMN3bZokuXt/s320/dessert.JPG" /></a></div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-20637699327622720802010-06-09T19:11:00.000-07:002010-06-09T19:11:14.663-07:00Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad MealOne day at work a magical card that gives me free dinners for some reason appeared on my desk. Of course, I thought this must be a mistake so I set out to use it before someone figured it out and took it back from me. So we set out for Marche, which I have always wanted to eat at. Marche is located at 833 West Randolph and its website is <a href="http://www.marche-chicago.com/">http://www.marche-chicago.com/</a>. Marche serves what seems to be French bistro food.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">As soon as we walked up I commented that the place looked almost cavernous (and big restaurants are always trouble). Needless to say, I was a bit disturbed even before we went in. I ordered the lobster bisque because lobster bisque has a special place in my heart as the first "nice" thing that I ever ate. In the 20 or so years that I've been eating lobster bisque, I've never had one as flavorless and generally awful as the one at Marche. It was thin, watery, unsalted, and had no lobster or lobster flavor at all. Other than that, it was fine. Curiously, the manager came over to see what was wrong. I said that I was content just to move onto my next course, but he insisted (almost as if he knew something was wrong with the bisque) that I get something else. I ordered the french onion soup, and it was pretty good. It was the salty version, which I prefer to the sweet onion version. The bread was slightly crisped which is the proper way to do it. The cheese was extremely hot since I think they just made it. Anyway, here is a picture of the lobster bisque.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8VtDff50au7TLBvnip8qFlV5ew5i91pQsBJO4yks_jVPTtd6W0mlHOW5UBZfP6gXc46zOtwQB8aDzVOSSrCrT-zv7_x11hunpZSJMagLrNahfKm-lggVezJNv4oSgnaQhA1htqYTP2M7/s1600/IMG_4905.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8VtDff50au7TLBvnip8qFlV5ew5i91pQsBJO4yks_jVPTtd6W0mlHOW5UBZfP6gXc46zOtwQB8aDzVOSSrCrT-zv7_x11hunpZSJMagLrNahfKm-lggVezJNv4oSgnaQhA1htqYTP2M7/s320/IMG_4905.JPG" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">For my main course, I ordered a skirt steak with bernaise sauce. Inexplicably, it came coated in some sort of red wine sauce. Even more improbably, they put the bernaise sauce on the side. I can only assume they would hope I wouldn't notice the wrong thing being on there. The sauce they ended up putting on it wasn't even good. Everything was so bad that we just ended up opting out of dessert. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Just to pile on further...for some reason the chefs just stood around for nearly the entire dinner. I'm not sure who was making the food, but it certainly wasn't the guys who were standing near the stove. Generally the decor looked like something that was designed by a person who just took 11 hits of acid. The whole time I imagined that Gordon Ramsay would pop out at any second and start yelling things like "you donkey!" or "disgusting!" Marche has soured me completely on the other restaurants owned by the same group: Red Light, Opera, and Gioco. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">In a possibly related note, I heard Marche is closing, so you will not accidentally end up there. </div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-35680144104491251032010-06-09T17:24:00.000-07:002010-06-09T17:24:36.834-07:00Fish Picatta<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">One weekend we finally made it back to the Fish Guy Market after a several week absense. It seems that being employed is drastically reducing my fish consumption, which is unfortunate. Sorry that this was so long ago and I don't remember the recipe. I'm sure it involved lemon, white wine, capers, and butter and I probably made it the pan after searing the fish. I served it with angel hair pasta with a little parmesan cheese and butter.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivcUBfHldnbkN4sxL60mhwrq2pv4QAPTtN5Z-ynGWM2e3sqTNfrEJwnyMs3CTb_V90vqaf_Tf5oszpDwKwxQyscCpxdnZvVz-km2vq2VuMn6oMkYXa-8WQpkTJSWZ_G1jU6B4jsK6dIAmu/s1600/IMG_4904.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivcUBfHldnbkN4sxL60mhwrq2pv4QAPTtN5Z-ynGWM2e3sqTNfrEJwnyMs3CTb_V90vqaf_Tf5oszpDwKwxQyscCpxdnZvVz-km2vq2VuMn6oMkYXa-8WQpkTJSWZ_G1jU6B4jsK6dIAmu/s320/IMG_4904.JPG" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-27908735323819177242010-06-06T09:26:00.000-07:002010-06-06T09:26:16.163-07:00One Fish, Two FishShortly after the Alinea meal I prepared, we went out to C-House. C-House is located at 166 East Superior Street (the Affinia Hotel) and its website is <a href="http://www.c-houserestaurant.com/">http://www.c-houserestaurant.com/</a>. As you might be able to tell from the name, C-House focuses on seafood. <div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">To start things off, Michelle had the clam chowder and I had the foie gras apptizer. I felt like the clam chowder was a little thin, but otherwise the flavor was good. The foie gras was seared and spectacular. It was flavored with seasonings that made it taste a bit like pad thai. Flat out amazing</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7rfSYTxOrX-ZKZiNLGGl0-6foXMap8AJcy61_P5_1O3_dzAyFCg6bl_l0xb1_wL2HJ_CyYrWh8pUSYRgdnDOiHen3CiXh27J-iE5ukfunag_rAZpFlEbdVOTcufZGkB4BCK-8DUpIOV7S/s1600/IMG_4895.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7rfSYTxOrX-ZKZiNLGGl0-6foXMap8AJcy61_P5_1O3_dzAyFCg6bl_l0xb1_wL2HJ_CyYrWh8pUSYRgdnDOiHen3CiXh27J-iE5ukfunag_rAZpFlEbdVOTcufZGkB4BCK-8DUpIOV7S/s320/IMG_4895.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5-RIgrk8LYmnWy7x5X3KiMUbdTxerhfc_vKU14E0NweedXym32ggqqpitt7QWhBu17YYEdbuOAOg7kkXLwvCxfblVLDZ_HmXQY7vtaFBmqn6zHI4YtNN2ICrMiuuBQaTxwR6skIQdAxjY/s1600/IMG_4896.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5-RIgrk8LYmnWy7x5X3KiMUbdTxerhfc_vKU14E0NweedXym32ggqqpitt7QWhBu17YYEdbuOAOg7kkXLwvCxfblVLDZ_HmXQY7vtaFBmqn6zHI4YtNN2ICrMiuuBQaTxwR6skIQdAxjY/s320/IMG_4896.JPG" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">For the main course, we had the Fish and Chips with homemade ketchup and tartar sauce and Poached Sturgeon with Jonah Crab, Preserved Lemon, Spring Onion, and Fennel.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The fish in the fish and chips was very tasty, but the sauces that went with it were a bit off the mark. The poached sturgeon was like eating a mouthful of spring, and it was a very nice thing to eat just as the weather was beginning to change for the season.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7-Dy6vEKenb016yxWaVQx0nS05vPDHNLllzaEh3ZtCRz4Y3jn4-eC9hsUAF1JCok1iKf67BkJVJ6R85v17tA9jX6ASvUrcdtHAZgs1F5TVgL683cSEPWMZ8V_rSPN0hvMZi9xj8Fzv5tU/s1600/IMG_4897.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7-Dy6vEKenb016yxWaVQx0nS05vPDHNLllzaEh3ZtCRz4Y3jn4-eC9hsUAF1JCok1iKf67BkJVJ6R85v17tA9jX6ASvUrcdtHAZgs1F5TVgL683cSEPWMZ8V_rSPN0hvMZi9xj8Fzv5tU/s320/IMG_4897.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi2EoImjBPiXaZR9o4oEHlf5vWZLGg4dOoh6jbSUzcK9T_5_tQI0gsBcNSuPDheCpvq703Jr36A-8qEToe9lqvozA_Z5a4ujWdM8z4hGfVEhOqZfyQFpTN9Z4RbO2NB-FzjhHUv8oDq06E/s1600/IMG_4898.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi2EoImjBPiXaZR9o4oEHlf5vWZLGg4dOoh6jbSUzcK9T_5_tQI0gsBcNSuPDheCpvq703Jr36A-8qEToe9lqvozA_Z5a4ujWdM8z4hGfVEhOqZfyQFpTN9Z4RbO2NB-FzjhHUv8oDq06E/s320/IMG_4898.JPG" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">For a side dish we got the phenomenal truffled mac & cheese. Like at Smith & Wollensky's, I probably could have made a whole meal out of just this.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHKqBf1LTd4HUdJ2Z5xUfrCFhHI9hbddgKTJTE7HKDc97ReNc23S1FtMuAalPqBWCmycngXJfKoLFJEYxc178mxTOds-8FVahJr03UmexazJbh2a-hMsEFE7djMSFM4rffsXYbBU9-_Rxg/s1600/IMG_4899.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHKqBf1LTd4HUdJ2Z5xUfrCFhHI9hbddgKTJTE7HKDc97ReNc23S1FtMuAalPqBWCmycngXJfKoLFJEYxc178mxTOds-8FVahJr03UmexazJbh2a-hMsEFE7djMSFM4rffsXYbBU9-_Rxg/s320/IMG_4899.JPG" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">We ended with my favorite part about C-House...the Candy Bar. With the Candy Bar, you order a variety of small desserts for about $2 each and you get to try a whole bunch of different stuff. Some were better than others, but overall this idea was amazing. Starting from the bottom left going counterclockwise: lavender lemons, chocolate truffles, salted fudge brownies, molasses fudge sandwich, and vanilla cupcake.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">My favorite was the molassses fudge sandwich, though the whole concept was fun and creative.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-3Q7KiVBVOogPvXtrwGsahUdS-ogkV9uHlX79uDPHRh6ozuZFMQOfoz2Aa6Bhs3nsbqCkPtxybQhDJJINdZ-HMK7qDNFlloIRAa2jpVjao-JCz2dF7WomELlpYicIDzQ5fjQgplQQOFOc/s1600/IMG_4900.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-3Q7KiVBVOogPvXtrwGsahUdS-ogkV9uHlX79uDPHRh6ozuZFMQOfoz2Aa6Bhs3nsbqCkPtxybQhDJJINdZ-HMK7qDNFlloIRAa2jpVjao-JCz2dF7WomELlpYicIDzQ5fjQgplQQOFOc/s320/IMG_4900.JPG" /></a></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-22712205865122596862010-06-06T08:56:00.000-07:002010-06-06T08:56:31.823-07:00Lucky Number 100Who ever would have thought I would have made it to 100 posts before getting bored or distracted, but here we are. <br />
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A while back, I had Bri and Bill over for dinner. Apparently Bill had been a shadow reader of this blog for a while, so it was nice to have him over. As such, I felt I had to impress him. I had been eyeballing an Alinea recipe for quite some time, so this was the perfect time to give it a whirl.<br />
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The recipe called for the fat cap of a kobe ribeye, but I substituted that for a top roast that I got from the spectacular Whole Foods. I know that is a bit like replacing a Bentley with a 1993 Civic, but the kobe was $50 per pound. Next time I would use a more tender cut of meat. Perhaps not a kobe fat cap, but maybe a regular ribeye or something. Anyway, here is how I did it.<br />
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First, I made some lime rocks by whisking together some sugar, egg whites, kosher salt, citric acid, and lime juice. I made the mixture into disk-like shapes and then put it in the dehydrator for about 12 hours. I also tried putting it in the oven, but those browned and turned out quite poorly. Once the mixture is dry, break it up into pieces and reserve.<br />
<br />
Next, make a soy sauce pudding by mixing soy sauce with agar agar with an immersion blender and refrigerate. Once it is gelled, slice it into cubes and put it in a blender and mix on high speed until smooth. If necessary, add some water or soy sauce to get the mixture to be smooth like pudding. Refrigerate until you need it.<br />
<br />
Cut the steak into long, rectangular strips and seal in a vacuum bag. Put the bag in 138 degree water for 30 minutes to make a perfect medium rare steak. Once the steak is done, transfer the bags to ice water baths and let them cool for 15 minutes. Once the meat is cooled, cut the steak into long, narrow strips.<br />
<br />
Cut very long, thin slices of a cucumber on a mandoline. Reserve.<br />
<br />
Cut several dozen small planks out of a honeydew melon. Reserve.<br />
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To assemble, heat a cast iron pan over high heat. Put the strips of meat into the pan and cook until charred (about 1 minute). Remove and slice the meat crosswise into small planks. Make a long line of overlapping honeydew on the middle of each plate. Cover the honeydew with some beef planks with the charred side facing the diner. Drape the cucumber slice over the top of the beef. Put the soy sauce pudding in a squeeze bottle and draw a line down the middle of the cucumber and pool some at one end of the dish. Stick some lime rocks and pink peppercorns on top of the cucumber. Enjoy!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRH9HVZxZec906fryS1-oF1-O-rbBF8hAIwQaf0SjlJBEFxCCY9jCbzvPtWjRQ3HDGdCSsTRkY2RZGfPsh_KOTOVs2ZkYNSCrhTozv2mIHo5cg-sXeD03k8eU0TIKfVkif5924T1CNzUJB/s1600/IMG_4887.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRH9HVZxZec906fryS1-oF1-O-rbBF8hAIwQaf0SjlJBEFxCCY9jCbzvPtWjRQ3HDGdCSsTRkY2RZGfPsh_KOTOVs2ZkYNSCrhTozv2mIHo5cg-sXeD03k8eU0TIKfVkif5924T1CNzUJB/s320/IMG_4887.JPG" /></a></div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-35612537379176073392010-06-06T08:23:00.000-07:002010-06-06T08:23:38.937-07:00Return of the KingAfter a long, finals induced hiatus, I'm back. I'm going to do a series of short posts to get caught up unless a particular thing requires a longer post. Here we go....Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-58987291384429945092010-04-11T13:38:00.000-07:002010-04-11T13:38:56.213-07:00Baconfest: The VendorsWe arrived at the Stan Mansion (2408 N. Kedzie) shortly after 11:00 for the artery-cloggingest day of the year, Baconfest!!! (at least until they invent Butterfest). As soon as we strolled into the front entrance, we were overtaken by the intense aroma of smoked bacon, it was wonderous. The Head Bacon Man (a title I hope one day to attain) told us that the restaurants were upstairs and the vendors were downstairs, and he recommended starting with the vendors. We heeded his advice and went to the basement. What we saw in that basement may have altered my life forever. In short, it was bacon everything (smoked bacon of all varieties, bacon shirts, bacon candy, bacon cupcakes, bacon lipbalm, bacon dog food, bacon chocolate, etc.). I imagine that basement is what heaven looks like.<br />
<br />
Anyway, we sauntered around the room sampling each vendors wares and deciding what we were going to come back to purchase. The first actual bacon we had was from Nueske's Meat Products. Before we ate it, they told us it was applewood smoked. I bit into my inaugural piece of Baconfest 2010, and we were off. The bacon was delightfully salty and sweet, with lots of smoky flavor too it. It was some spectacular bacon, but I thought it was too heavily smoked for me, which is weird because it was applewood (and not hickory) smoked, and applewood is not a terribly assertive smoke. Either way, I was glad to kick off Bacon Day with some excellent bacon. Apparently the blood flowed out of my brain in a fit of excitement, so I forgot to take a picture of the good people at Nueske's, but in any event, it was awesome, and its website is <a href="http://www.nueskes.com/">http://www.nueskes.com/</a>. If you like really smokey bacon, this is the place to be.<br />
<br />
The next place on our path also doubled as the strangest thing I ate during Baconfest (and possibly in my entire life, which is really saying something). It was Torani Bacon Syrup. Today they were sampling Bacon Pepsi and Bacon chocolate milk. I began with the Pepsi. I took a big sip to start off and it tasted like Pepsi, only with the distinct smack of bacon. I probably should have expected that since it was bacon syrup and all, but I'm pretty sure no one could accurately anticipate what Pepsi and bacon would taste like. No matter how much bacon Pepsi I drank, I could not get my mind around it, so I'm pretty sure I didn't like it. On the other hand, the Bacon chocolate milk was amazing, like nothing you could imagine unless you have been stirring your chocolate milk with a bacon strip for your whole life. The creaminess of the milk and chocolate went oddly well with the fattiness and smokiness of the bacon syrup. I could definitely imagine myself drinking more bacon chocolate milk and also having a heart attack by the time I was 35. Anyway, if you want to get some bacon syrup (or any other of their many syrups), the website is <a href="http://www.torani.com/">http://www.torani.com/</a>. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdy_orzG17-wIf1cFGhnwHp71kO-OgD_ovIYhjTc-w20FIz24RhxgmvE1ppw5Y3vz4Du-D1kuqpD62BEPvWjFsUjPrBnoUwXQCOhQ9E5EKd1E7b92wDJmXGIRpLahjUhdjlIjlaxFediPz/s1600/IMG_1396.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdy_orzG17-wIf1cFGhnwHp71kO-OgD_ovIYhjTc-w20FIz24RhxgmvE1ppw5Y3vz4Du-D1kuqpD62BEPvWjFsUjPrBnoUwXQCOhQ9E5EKd1E7b92wDJmXGIRpLahjUhdjlIjlaxFediPz/s320/IMG_1396.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>Next on our epic journey was my personal favorite regular bacon (as in, not from a restaurant) from Dreymiller and Kray. Like the Nueske's bacon, Dreymiller's was applewood smoked; however, this bacon did not have the same overly assertive smoked taste that I wasn't particularly fond of with Nueske's. Rather this one, the applewood smoke taste blended in the background and really let the delicious (and it is delicious) bacon flavor shine through. For those of you who do like a more asssertive smoke, they also make a hickory smoked bacon (although they didn't have any with them). I also don't think that this one was quite as salty as Nueske's which was kind of nice. The guy working the stand was awesome, and he even invited us out on a tour of their bacon making facilities (out near Elgin) because of Michelle's quest to get as much possible free stuff. Although both bacons that I had from the vendors were great, to my taste, I give the edge to Dreymiller's and Kray (in fact, I bought some of their bacon when I returned). Dreymiller's website is dreymillerandkray.com (but it is currently under construction) and their phone number is 847.683.2271. I may be taking him up on h is offer after finals in May since I've always wanted to know how to make bacon (maybe a special treat for Canoe-a-palooza?).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7NEYMOZg2p3QbXpa3e8QG5NmDy2l0_RCKWsHqtHlBAEPeMU3l0rixVSzP2AqCD8wH4I73-RqKpbq5Fb_vpO7FoemHS6NBMOSbslkP_vfPCsLyEvBQ0Eqkpeq_5VfEt9milmD8R7xKrynv/s1600/IMG_1397.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7NEYMOZg2p3QbXpa3e8QG5NmDy2l0_RCKWsHqtHlBAEPeMU3l0rixVSzP2AqCD8wH4I73-RqKpbq5Fb_vpO7FoemHS6NBMOSbslkP_vfPCsLyEvBQ0Eqkpeq_5VfEt9milmD8R7xKrynv/s320/IMG_1397.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>Next on the Bypass Surgery Express was More Bakery, which was serving three types of cupcakes: bacon-maple, bacon-bacon-bacon, and BLT (which did, in fact, have a tomato on top). I, of course, opted for the bacon-bacon-bacon and Michelle went with the bacon-maple. The bacon-bacon-bacon was a piece of candied bacon, bacon frosting, and bacon batter. It sounds, and is, extremely bacony, and hence delicious. It did have a fair bit of sugar on/in it (as it was a cupcake) which made it a nice break from the saltiness of the other vendors. Michelle ended up buying something called bacon brittle, which we have yet to eat. I want to go back and check out more of More Bakery. More Bakery is located at 1 E. Delaware Place and its website is <a href="http://www.morecupcakes.com/">http://www.morecupcakes.com/</a>. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp8yh9VgbT-DXba2KerYndTM75wR0iR5fwiSi3Fi307SvgwVODxaW0Wx320f5LNv29BmgvaM6NnjmwRqmWBCG31gDBFiyQHY_3S7rvZWHK5hX3vCirp_TRV6qqtMaD_xI3NVW-zz3QVALM/s1600/IMG_1398.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp8yh9VgbT-DXba2KerYndTM75wR0iR5fwiSi3Fi307SvgwVODxaW0Wx320f5LNv29BmgvaM6NnjmwRqmWBCG31gDBFiyQHY_3S7rvZWHK5hX3vCirp_TRV6qqtMaD_xI3NVW-zz3QVALM/s320/IMG_1398.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhox0JTfUtAsO-InK27dXAZwwgyxwC3fr47rZZEuOle3K_GVM_tyiWBvJnhz-eLYH6Un7qoZnoaCi6icoOegsCgt251Ax1e-wIbTEhvvaPSbs6JC6NK_b-EwO0j6JlkMEjhtPg7eAn3ZAJt/s1600/IMG_1399.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhox0JTfUtAsO-InK27dXAZwwgyxwC3fr47rZZEuOle3K_GVM_tyiWBvJnhz-eLYH6Un7qoZnoaCi6icoOegsCgt251Ax1e-wIbTEhvvaPSbs6JC6NK_b-EwO0j6JlkMEjhtPg7eAn3ZAJt/s320/IMG_1399.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>Our next stop brought us to a butcher that I didn't even know existed that is within 5 minutes from our house, Holzkopf Butcher. They were sampling one of their varieties of barbeque sauce, of which they have several. It was sweeter than the sauce that I make, but not so sweet as to be like one of the grocery store brands (KC Masterpiece (if it still exists), Sweet Baby Ray', etc.). I think that this would be very good on ribs, which aren't as sweet as something like pork shoulder. I definitely want to check this place out (I mean, it's 5 minutes from my house!) so that I don't have to drive all the way down into Lincoln Park every time I want good meat. I may have a hard time getting over Geppetto's (really named Gepperth's), but I'm hoping Holzkopf can really wow me. As an added bonus, they sell Dreymiller & Kray bacon. They are located at 6155 N. Broadway and they apparently do not have a website.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZfWWeMqukraXdWtExRuICfNw14UI424XXqeCE5kedWd2qWV2kWTr-fFtW34K8YwjfpfVGuHcqJy2KwBfp5HVhUc4dpYK4GCGGPBG0Sg3kE1zz4V6oYvwkDBiRCZQpRODMtos7dyr_KxnS/s1600/IMG_1400.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZfWWeMqukraXdWtExRuICfNw14UI424XXqeCE5kedWd2qWV2kWTr-fFtW34K8YwjfpfVGuHcqJy2KwBfp5HVhUc4dpYK4GCGGPBG0Sg3kE1zz4V6oYvwkDBiRCZQpRODMtos7dyr_KxnS/s320/IMG_1400.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>The next stand was for Provenance Food & Wine, which is a small, high-end grocery store. They were serving something called bacon cheddar and black truffle salami. The cheddar was very tasty as far as cheddar goes, but it somewhat overwhelmed the bacon flavor, so I didn't really see the point of the bacon being in it. However, the black truffle salami was absolutely splendid. For lack of a better way to describe it, it tasted like very good salami except with a strong hint of black truffles. I absolutely love black truffles, and, in my opinion, you can pretty much improve anything by adding black truffles to it. This salami was no exception. This was another one of the products that I purchased. Provenance has two locations in Chicago, so look them up! Their website is <a href="http://www.provenancefoodandwine.com/">http://www.provenancefoodandwine.com/</a>. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5qqcoRmUqoyMaj0iZYGA89tzbJ79kUSL-C83844wqs0hHTJMhFS6oKfSSU-320_HOPeosX9G1ftQdc3DFrMwfoFFAvaJ4LbeNkRUNM2bPCPPpbwQQePaHgRbBN5d3nnXWwSN5z_i-7LIa/s1600/IMG_1401.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5qqcoRmUqoyMaj0iZYGA89tzbJ79kUSL-C83844wqs0hHTJMhFS6oKfSSU-320_HOPeosX9G1ftQdc3DFrMwfoFFAvaJ4LbeNkRUNM2bPCPPpbwQQePaHgRbBN5d3nnXWwSN5z_i-7LIa/s320/IMG_1401.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>We chugged along to the next stand which was selling Baconnaise. Baconnaise is exactly what you think something called Baconnaise would be: bacon mixed with mayonnaise. The guy, who was also wearing a bacon suit, told us that all the proceeds were going to charity; however, in a strange twist, he was giving away jars of the Baconnaise. Unless he really dislikes charity, I couldn't understand the free products. On the other hand, I didn't really care, I got more free stuff! I tried some of the Baconnaise on some pretzels. It would be difficult to mess up a combination of bacon and mayonnaise, and the good people at Baconnaise surely did not mess it up. I can't wait to put out a big bowl of Baconnaise at my next party. Their website is <a href="http://www.baconnaise.com/">http://www.baconnaise.com/</a>. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhm0RcQN54kXm2unetMUI1uneK3A3WyH3YQldgPuqPD2PG5ZCTmlp0pPXVtGx59n8wZKZOrzn4cPf2AIokqRoLeTIzbh_tw4J1CKMqp6-VGP2t8SYwUM2OWtCw-5jgBZk7evfLD0JJC7Xb/s1600/IMG_1402.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhm0RcQN54kXm2unetMUI1uneK3A3WyH3YQldgPuqPD2PG5ZCTmlp0pPXVtGx59n8wZKZOrzn4cPf2AIokqRoLeTIzbh_tw4J1CKMqp6-VGP2t8SYwUM2OWtCw-5jgBZk7evfLD0JJC7Xb/s320/IMG_1402.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>The following stand was serving chocolate dipped bacon. They had both milk chocolate and dark chocolate, so I, of course, tried both of them. I felt that the bacon dominated the milk chocolate, so beyond a bit of added sweetness, it didn't do much for me. The dark chocolate, contrarily, asserted itself from the beginning, and right when I was going to complain that the chocolate was too strong for the bacon, the bacon made a stunning comeback and exploded with flavor. They were selling some bacon I was pleasantly surprised by the tastiness of the dark chocolate bacon. This may have been Bleeding Heart Bakery, but I'm not totally sure.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgznPB8ikhHQIRtptWyNF5GiGh6UqZU8irOLj902t9OIiPdgetxiHX6SyxA31EKvZCTSRJBKewl1st00jYUzKWRSJMB7QM2LSRrI0gOOuNCnAdyZLM_R0mnasIw0rVMqP1Qqbsf4zHPTSTP/s1600/IMG_1405.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgznPB8ikhHQIRtptWyNF5GiGh6UqZU8irOLj902t9OIiPdgetxiHX6SyxA31EKvZCTSRJBKewl1st00jYUzKWRSJMB7QM2LSRrI0gOOuNCnAdyZLM_R0mnasIw0rVMqP1Qqbsf4zHPTSTP/s320/IMG_1405.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>After the anonymous vendor, we went to something called Bacon Hot Sauce. Hot sauce has a special place in my heart since me and Urgo mapped out Horse Skull Fire based on a sleep-deprived vision I had while on an airplane. Unfortunately, we were both pretty busy, so Horse Skull Fire has yet to get off the ground, look for it at specialty retailers near you in the future (around 2020). Now that I'm done with that tangent, I can get back to an actual hot sauce. Bacon Hot Sauce keeps the name simple and leaves no doubt about what you are going to eat. Bacon. Hot Sauce. That is all. Unlike some of the other products here, the bacon played a secondary role in Bacon Hot Sauce, which was nice if you like the taste of hot sauce. Also, the hot sauce wasn't trying to prove anything and it had just the right amount of heat before I would have written it off as too spicy. Again, Michelle dropped the blog-hammer and we ended up with a free bottle of Bacon Hot Sauce. Like the Baconnaise, this will be served at my next party. Get your own fire-breathing pig bottle at <a href="http://www.baconhotsauce.com/">http://www.baconhotsauce.com/</a>.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAScumPCAY3A6zH8E8MLsc-scgduZZxoRmisHapQoDe7f1mfjcZ2JVM6CrYs90pezpgLEwBiiNeC5IWjKFbuqwyti6GG81wUSUQ8OoutBkEuIyMZCwVouB1fZSW2jHuBuiHydxD8wDz4as/s1600/IMG_1406.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAScumPCAY3A6zH8E8MLsc-scgduZZxoRmisHapQoDe7f1mfjcZ2JVM6CrYs90pezpgLEwBiiNeC5IWjKFbuqwyti6GG81wUSUQ8OoutBkEuIyMZCwVouB1fZSW2jHuBuiHydxD8wDz4as/s320/IMG_1406.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>The last stop on our list was Jake's Country Meats which is located in a town called Cassopolis, Michigan (somewhere near New Buffalo). Bonus points for Jake's for resisting the Michigan-urge to make their hand into a mitten and point out the location of their city on their hand. I would have probably walked away if they did that. Anyway, they were serving three types of meat sticks: honey ham, jalepeno, and barbeque. My favorite of the three was the honey ham. It wasn't quite bacon, but it was salty and sweet and delicious. The jalepeno wasn't quite as spicy as I would have liked out of a jalepeno stick, and I barely remember eating the barbeque one, so it must not have been my favorite. They also get bonus points for letting me pose with a pig statute. If I lived closer to Jake's, I would be there all the time, but I could definitely see myself ordering some of their other meats to give it a shot. I'm always on the lookout for a new smoked meat vendor. Their website is <a href="http://www.jakescountrymeats.com/">http://www.jakescountrymeats.com/</a>.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyPX-LEcqloFo4Q_p8yd8BirFzW7cGveggUR8SWjQjyHQlN_INsO3c2G9QVveDYeBBxUn3gbg0pEDypgxDSA9aLOCYoeIkEWh08M4vN-peCWbLlcR2WBAxAs5D7DbbV1dJszsTE-RR9QcX/s1600/IMG_1412.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyPX-LEcqloFo4Q_p8yd8BirFzW7cGveggUR8SWjQjyHQlN_INsO3c2G9QVveDYeBBxUn3gbg0pEDypgxDSA9aLOCYoeIkEWh08M4vN-peCWbLlcR2WBAxAs5D7DbbV1dJszsTE-RR9QcX/s320/IMG_1412.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>Lastly, we stopped at a stand that wasn't selling any bacon (weird); however, they were advertising for something called "Camp Bacon" which might be the best combination of words of all times. Once I came down off my high of hearing about "Camp Bacon," I realized that I would be unable to attend this year. However, if you want to have, what I can only imagine would be, the experience of a lifetime, look up Camp Bacon on June 19 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The website is <a href="http://www.campbacon.com/">http://www.campbacon.com/</a>, but it is apparently not working just yet.<br />
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All that was before we even went upstairs to any of the twelve restaurants which were all serving bacon related dishes. This was going to be a marathon.Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-62634964036485142672010-04-11T11:47:00.000-07:002010-04-11T11:47:24.582-07:00Tastes Just Like ChickenAs mentioned before, I went to the Fish Guy Market to pick up some fish and ended up with a pork chop for lunch (which was delicious), but I also ended up buying some softshell crabs and some sturgeon. The sturgeon looked very dense and meaty (like a steak), so I was intrigued by it. The fishmonger told me that it was, in fact, like steak, so I could grill it with high heat, roast it, or do anything that I would normally do with steak.<br />
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After looking at it for a while, I chose to do a barbequed sturgeon. I also wanted something that would mimic a normal summer side dish, and my mind immediately turned to mashed potatoes. However, I have made mashed potatoes dozens of times, so I wanted to do something different. I took off to Jewel to figure out what I was going to make. When I got there, I came across some parsnips and remembered the last time that I was at Tru for dinner they served a barbequed salmon with a fried parsnip log. I figured I could make a garlicky parsnip puree (courtesy of Tyler Florence, just changed a bit) that would be an interesting substitute for mashed potatoes. I knew that I was going to do the crabs very simply (floured and fried in oil with some lemon), so that was well settled.<br />
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I made my own barbeque sauce as I always do (using Sprecher root beer as the base) and adding some fennel seeds instead of juniper berries as the seasons are changing and I wanted to get a little away from the winter sauce that I make. I then briefly grilled the sturgeon to brown it on the outside, put it in a pan and basted it with the sauce, and cooked it in a very hot oven (450 degrees) for 8 minutes to finish and bake the sauce on . To my surprise, the sturgeon was nearly the exact same texture as chicken, so it was particularly suited for barbeque sauce. Also surprisingly, the parsnip puree tasted like coconuts which paired nicely with the vinegar-y sauce. The crabs were beautifully crisped and sweet.<br />
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<u>Sturgeon</u> (serves 2)<br />
2 sturgeon filets<br />
kosher salt<br />
pepper<br />
barbeque sauce<br />
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1. Preheat oven to 450 and a grill to high heat.<br />
2. Put the sturgeon filets on the grill 2 minutes per side turning 45 degrees after 1 minute to make grill marks on each side.<br />
3. Put the sturgeon in a frying pan and generously baste with barbeque sauce.<br />
4. Put the pan in the oven for 8 minutes to finish cooking and to bake on the sauce.<br />
5. Remove from oven and baste again with more sauce. If you want, use a blowtorch to singe some of the sauce to give some interesting variation in taste and texture.<br />
<br />
<u>Parsnip Puree</u><br />
1 lb of parsnips, peeled and large diced<br />
1 cup cream<br />
1 sprig of thyme<br />
4 tbsp butter<br />
1 head of garlic, sliced horizontally<br />
kosher salt<br />
<br />
1. Put parsnips in a sauce pan and put in just enough water to cover.<br />
2. Bring the water to a brisk simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes until parsnips are extremely tender. Remove parsnips from the water, but reserve water on the side.<br />
3. While the parsnips are simmering, put the cream in another sauce pan and put the garlic (cut side down) and thyme in it. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes.<br />
4. When the cream is done, put the parsnips in a food processor with the butter and a couple tablespoons of the water they cooked in. Puree on high until it gets smooth.<br />
5. Once smooth, with the food processor running, pour in some of the cream in a thin, steady stream until puree is the consistency you want it (should be like slightly thinner mashed potatoes, but not liquidy).<br />
6. Add kosher salt to taste.<br />
<br />
<u>Sofshell Crabs</u><br />
3 softshell crabs<br />
kosher salt<br />
pepper<br />
flour<br />
lemon<br />
canola oil<br />
<br />
1. Lightly sprinkle both sides of each crab with salt and pepper.<br />
2. Film the bottom of a saute pan with canola oil and heat over medium-high heat for a few minutes until hot.<br />
3. Dredge each crab in flour and shake to get off the excess flour.<br />
4. Put each crab top-side down into the hot oil and cook for 3 minutes. Flip the crabs and fry the other side for 3 more minutes<br />
5. Serve with lemon wedges.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffdhxmGC3w7z1leIPuWOcmTBgZtqSItg-CTVaCOFjq4VxYd6MCWJrlZLkrfvWMw9vmy6NoMd3K3c0-te8mEo7teRVDWAFVzF43IBWSkHxd5K3pOsQNDeFmrr8aazzk4i5DXVFjIs8qz3M/s1600/IMG_4883.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffdhxmGC3w7z1leIPuWOcmTBgZtqSItg-CTVaCOFjq4VxYd6MCWJrlZLkrfvWMw9vmy6NoMd3K3c0-te8mEo7teRVDWAFVzF43IBWSkHxd5K3pOsQNDeFmrr8aazzk4i5DXVFjIs8qz3M/s320/IMG_4883.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-35036055751853529532010-04-10T15:10:00.000-07:002010-04-10T15:10:22.711-07:00Return of the Fish GuyI hadn't cooked fish in a while since I got a job and all (which makes it difficult to get to my fish guy by 6), so I decided that I would do it on Friday. I headed over to the Fish Guy Market (<a href="http://www.fishguy.com/">http://www.fishguy.com/</a>) to pick up something. While I was looking, I was drawn to the sturgeon. I talked to the fishmonger, and he said that sturgeon is very much like chicken, so I should roast it at high heat. I also wanted to eat soft shell crabs, so I got three of those. While I was checking out, I got distracted looking at a kurobuta pork chop, and decided that I wanted it for lunch.<br />
<br />
They told me just to cook it simply to let the pork flavor really come out. I decided on a white wine-cream sauce.<br />
<br />
<u>Ingredients</u><br />
<br />
1 kurobuta pork chop<br />
kosher salt<br />
pepper<br />
1/2 cup white wine<br />
juice from 1/2 lemon<br />
pinch of thyme leaves<br />
1/4 cup heavy cream<br />
<br />
1. Preheat oven to 450<br />
2. Put some oil in a frying pan and heat it over high heat until it is smoking.<br />
3. Using some tongs, hold the fat side down into the oil to render some fat for about 30 seconds.<br />
4. Put the pork fully into the pan for 4 minutes per side to brown. Dump the oil out of the pan.<br />
5. Put the pan in the oven for 8 minutes until chop is done.<br />
6. Take the chop out and wrap it tightly in foil while you make the sauce, but do not discard the fat.<br />
7. Put the pan over medium heat and quickly pour in the wine to deglaze, scraping the bottom to get up all the pork bits stuck to the pan.<br />
8. Squeeze in the lemon juice and add the thyme leaves. Let it reduce for about 3 minutes, then pour in the cream and whisk to incorporate.<br />
9. Put the pork chop on a plate and pour the sauce over it.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg48jkqJR1ogd9MEmuNDw3mgfy6coQFhSc9pLzibSa9ln-i_FphBi23j9SHVGMhjDcp6IsETS4vikGBbBMsxx2FiWws0PtoHgkS5KzRJjxTDUuYwDvu8H2E0Rr9TSb91vHw0HfhGTKClMUV/s1600/IMG_4881.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg48jkqJR1ogd9MEmuNDw3mgfy6coQFhSc9pLzibSa9ln-i_FphBi23j9SHVGMhjDcp6IsETS4vikGBbBMsxx2FiWws0PtoHgkS5KzRJjxTDUuYwDvu8H2E0Rr9TSb91vHw0HfhGTKClMUV/s320/IMG_4881.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYNgkiOJugXV6pHN9edyI1OZSErSZuyid_mdp4BWiHBaGRuYptD3L3DJ2Aha96ZkDgEdG16tahXrJT9mZrh_bTD-CKnWs30Jl_jTNjqzk9vdpajr1B4DCbTSR6vdgNUZw61ZDWdcBgjSFw/s1600/IMG_4882.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYNgkiOJugXV6pHN9edyI1OZSErSZuyid_mdp4BWiHBaGRuYptD3L3DJ2Aha96ZkDgEdG16tahXrJT9mZrh_bTD-CKnWs30Jl_jTNjqzk9vdpajr1B4DCbTSR6vdgNUZw61ZDWdcBgjSFw/s320/IMG_4882.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-70121409834383825992010-04-10T14:54:00.000-07:002010-04-10T14:54:10.742-07:00A Blast from the PastMaybe its my abject horror caused by dealing with some interesting dinners while I was growing up, but I have never wanted to eat skirt steak at all. However, I was aimlessly wandering around Jewel trying to figure out what I wanted to make for dinner when I stumbled upon some skirt steak. I decided that I would give it a shot to try to right the Good Ship, Skirt Steak.<br />
<br />
It turnded out amazingly, made me rethink my whole idea of skirt steak. I think this might get added to the rotation of weekday food since it was so easy and delicious.<br />
<br />
<u>Ingredients</u><br />
2 one pound skirt steaks, excess fat trimmed<br />
1/3 cup olive oil<br />
1/3 cup soy sauce<br />
4 cloves garlic, smashed<br />
juice from 3 limes<br />
1/2 tspn red pepper flakes<br />
1/2 tspn cumin seeds, crushed<br />
2 green onions, leaves cut off, cut in half<br />
4 tbsp brown sugar<br />
<br />
1. Combine all ingredients except for steak in a blender. Blend on high until mixture is smooth.<br />
2. Put the steak in a large zip lock bag. Pour contents of blender into the bag. Toss the steak around in the bag so that each of them is completely coated.<br />
3. Let the steaks sit in the bag in the refrigerator for at least an hour.<br />
4. About 5 minutes before you are ready to begin cooking, take the bag out of the refrigerator.<br />
5. Preheat the grill to high. When it is ready, put the steaks (still coated in marinade) on the grill, 2.5 minutes per side.<br />
6. When it is done, you can finish with a blowtorch briefly to give it some more color and char the tips. Wrap the steaks in a double thick layer of foil and let it sit for 10 minutes.<br />
7. Remove the steak from the foil (but don't throw out the juice). Slice the steak crosswise and pour the juice from the foil over the steak.<br />
8. I served it with some mushroom Rice-a-Roni. It was pretty good, but I could have made a mushroom rice better myself. I also made some caramelized onions (thinly slice an onion and cook in oil over medium-low heat for 20 minutes until caramelized), which went very nicely.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fLkh25cYxweJ0_mdKyHB47nPxL3MUUr5aYqGR8rUnsnWDYqT1egnuV89lr4c395HoMiGMOVRSvFLIudwr08hKZwZe1CUsrIa8lf2qoMuC5v6x6UUh2tSVQ27w0mIArwX9gKIgC5NEegY/s1600/IMG_4880.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fLkh25cYxweJ0_mdKyHB47nPxL3MUUr5aYqGR8rUnsnWDYqT1egnuV89lr4c395HoMiGMOVRSvFLIudwr08hKZwZe1CUsrIa8lf2qoMuC5v6x6UUh2tSVQ27w0mIArwX9gKIgC5NEegY/s320/IMG_4880.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-65924048985574707042010-04-10T14:30:00.000-07:002010-04-10T14:30:00.793-07:00A New Twist on PorkI've made Pork Tenderloin with a Cranberry-Balsamic sauce many times over the last year. I felt that with the turn of the weather, I wanted something lighter and Spring-y. My mind immediately turned to oranges. I wanted to make an orange sauce of some sort, when i stumbled across an orange-rosemary glaze that sounded like I could tweak it a bit for what I wanted.<br />
<br />
I think it turned out pretty well for a first try. Next time, I would try to get a bit more orange flavor in there (possibly reduce the orange sauce separately) to really make it perfect, but this has a bunch of promise.<br />
<br />
<u>Ingredients</u><br />
1 pork tenderloin<br />
1/2 cup orange juice<br />
1/2 cup corn syrup<br />
1 tspn rosemary leaves<br />
kosher salt<br />
pepper<br />
<br />
1. Lightly salt and pepper the pork tenderloin. Preheat oven to 450.<br />
<br />
2. In a small saucepan, combine the orange juice, corn syrup, and rosemary.<br />
<br />
3. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and then reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer for another 10 minutes until smooth.<br />
<br />
4. Heat some oil in a large saute pan over high heat and brown the tenderloin on all sides for 1 minute on each side.<br />
<br />
5. Brush some of the orange sauce all over the tenderloin and put it in the oven for 15 minutes. Reglaze every 5 minutes while it is in the oven.<br />
<br />
6. Remove from the oven and wrap it tightly in foil for 5 minutes before slicing.<br />
<br />
7. I served it with green beans. When I cooked them, I used a little bit of the orange sauce to glaze them with.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM_e6Y8KhMBTeirzB7VhHu08T6VzrkG6VuT3mnB9EklKKgMj-FkdsuCejnSvevLPXKGw2BrRplQWbbrNjKvK2Sq0I0_rlFB4G5LehaJ7Vg2Es3yyamjM8F_jdFVfsSTgUwgmpsxKmPPDKr/s1600/IMG_4877.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM_e6Y8KhMBTeirzB7VhHu08T6VzrkG6VuT3mnB9EklKKgMj-FkdsuCejnSvevLPXKGw2BrRplQWbbrNjKvK2Sq0I0_rlFB4G5LehaJ7Vg2Es3yyamjM8F_jdFVfsSTgUwgmpsxKmPPDKr/s320/IMG_4877.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-42081769653480245362010-04-10T14:14:00.000-07:002010-04-10T14:14:56.339-07:00Yet Some More From Early Easter DayI'm apparently doing a backwards chronology of Easter weekend, Memento-style. While I was out shopping for stuff for Early Easter Dinner, I stopped at Brand BBQ Market for lunch. Brand BBQ Market is located at 2824 West Armitage and its website is <a href="http://www.brandbbqmarket.com/">http://www.brandbbqmarket.com/</a>. Some of you with especially good memories may remember my ill-fated attempt to eat there before. For reasons that still elude me, they are not open for lunch on weekends, but they are open for lunch during the week. To me, Bucktown doesn't seem like an especially business-vibrant community whereby people would be eating lunch all the time during the week, but who knows. In any event, I had off work on that Friday, so I decided to check it out.<br />
<br />
Fortunately, it was open this time, and I got a sweet parking spot right in front. Plus, that day was the first 70+ day of the year, so the city was teeming with life. I'm going to break this down into categories broadly described as "The Good," "The Indifferent," and "The Bad."<br />
<br />
The Good: drinking out of mason jars, pulled duck, the delicious buttery bread, wood paneling, chalkboard menus, the awesome waiter (and possibly owner), and iced tea.<br />
<br />
The Indifferent: All seven types of bbq sauce<br />
<br />
The Bad: The fries<br />
<br />
To elaborate a further, the sandwich itself was really good (but to be honest, if you screwed up something called pulled duck, you probably have a bigger problem). I also appreciate the broad swath of sauces that they tried to cover (from what I remember there was classic, smoky, signature, bourbon cherry, peach, some type of mustard, and one other one), but none of the sauces were particularly noteworthy. The fries were awful. They were soggy, green, and tasted like bug spray. Gross.<br />
<br />
Brand has a few more upscale options than Smoque, but for the same price, Smoque is much better. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKZefLB2RhZoSQWJm429SebsAyKvx3_fQrcotSwyYmM9GeiHO9QazPd1oAOb9Y2lYFwFu7UvjhEjC_bc9x9cownadv4kywIJwKwEQKysSFWNQeAp_ZqQ_U89soAS2SZsHdRfX-8opreb-5/s1600/001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKZefLB2RhZoSQWJm429SebsAyKvx3_fQrcotSwyYmM9GeiHO9QazPd1oAOb9Y2lYFwFu7UvjhEjC_bc9x9cownadv4kywIJwKwEQKysSFWNQeAp_ZqQ_U89soAS2SZsHdRfX-8opreb-5/s320/001.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDomnhkg4GPCLKNYj3gn6uGKpG-EN2YMfRMlUlPTZxuipiC4QIaBuCdGpB1p-1Y6sg4WFDc8Nj7tWxrIHF-2pOUCMzE40_nRu8Ox6eIbnbQJwO-kDyqrXEIjd-2ne49Qp2ROgO1IVWhMLc/s1600/002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDomnhkg4GPCLKNYj3gn6uGKpG-EN2YMfRMlUlPTZxuipiC4QIaBuCdGpB1p-1Y6sg4WFDc8Nj7tWxrIHF-2pOUCMzE40_nRu8Ox6eIbnbQJwO-kDyqrXEIjd-2ne49Qp2ROgO1IVWhMLc/s320/002.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHH2hWHzDlrwduhUPxXkrB_TXGUsjBt6u3IkNIrcZ88Io967yXMzbz0N728IEg1WJLkuK4dGzHek2exDDNbZOjXDGomnuIZ6pPa-8DXlDhbqdbcF7kH2qpLzZfYhPar9JL5uironJAAvfX/s1600/003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHH2hWHzDlrwduhUPxXkrB_TXGUsjBt6u3IkNIrcZ88Io967yXMzbz0N728IEg1WJLkuK4dGzHek2exDDNbZOjXDGomnuIZ6pPa-8DXlDhbqdbcF7kH2qpLzZfYhPar9JL5uironJAAvfX/s320/003.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-49486778214085050482010-04-10T13:56:00.000-07:002010-04-10T13:56:50.554-07:00Early Easter DinnerBefore I got into any of the many issues at August Grocery, I should have mentioned my early Easter Dinner Day. As is tradition of the last three years, I make a rack of lamb with a rosemary plum sauce each easter. This year, I was going to my uncles house to eat ham on actual Easter, so I had to adjust my plans to keep the tradition alive.<br />
<br />
This time, we were going to head out to Cuvee Cellars after, so I invited Vu out to come and eat with us. As per usual, the lamb was amazing. I think I finally got the fat crisping part down because that was better than usual. Vu ended up eating the plum sauce like it was ice cream after he finished his lamb.<br />
<br />
Here is the recipe and a picture.<br />
<br />
<u>Ingredients</u><br />
1 rack of lamb, frenched<br />
2 plums, pitted and cut into halves<br />
2 plums, peeled and diced<br />
1/2 cup of red wine plus 3 tbsp of red wine<br />
3 tbsp sugar<br />
3 tbsp butter<br />
2 sprigs rosemary<br />
1/2 cup veal stock (you could also use chicken)<br />
kosher salt<br />
pepper<br />
<br />
1. Preheat oven to 350.<br />
2. Put the plum halves in an oven poof pan with the sugar, three tbsp of red wine, two tbsp butter, and one sprig of rosemary. Cover the pan with foil and put it in the oven for 30 minutes. When plums are done take them out one at a time, remove the skin (it should come off easily) cut each half in half (so you have quarters) and put them back in the pan and toss with the sauce.<br />
3. While plums are roasting, put 1/2 a cup of red wine, the veal stock, and 1 diced plum into a pan. Simmer over medium heat for about 20 minutes.<br />
4. Put plum halves, and the red wine-plum mixture into a blender, and blend on high until smooth. I like to thicken it with a bit of Ultra-Tex 3, but as that is not a very common kitchen thing, you could probably add a little flour if you want it thickened, or even make a little roux in a pan and pour the plum sauce into the roux.<br />
5. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and put the last tbsp of butter in it. Put the last diced plum, the leaves from the last sprig of rosemary, and a pinch of salt and pepper into the pan. Stir frequently for 3 minutes until plums are cooked through.<br />
6. Increase heat in oven to 450. Lightly sprinkle the lamb with salt and pepper.<br />
7. In a large saute pan, heat some olive oil over high heat until it begins to smoke. Put lam, fat side down into the oil. Brown for 2-3 minutes and then flip to brown the other side. Transfer the lamb to a baking sheet, fat side up.<br />
8. Put the lamb in the oven for 15-18 minutes until it is medium rare. Take out and wrap tightly with foil for 5 minutes before slicing.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2kWbIDbVRMyzqFhnaFDPQLYwL4P5YI-MJldmDnNVGfW8x2HmL4yMLZUN7ohlLAGmWVGtlj4FNZg0hO3uPP_iJF2M7iMtRDCDc_Co7CAg5U3I8Nbq1iJuiaJJPzeGX0ivgsIDfi5Tbrd9f/s1600/IMG_4833.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2kWbIDbVRMyzqFhnaFDPQLYwL4P5YI-MJldmDnNVGfW8x2HmL4yMLZUN7ohlLAGmWVGtlj4FNZg0hO3uPP_iJF2M7iMtRDCDc_Co7CAg5U3I8Nbq1iJuiaJJPzeGX0ivgsIDfi5Tbrd9f/s320/IMG_4833.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-33492620143293641562010-04-10T13:08:00.000-07:002010-04-10T13:08:40.039-07:00Home Alone<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Last Saturday, I skillfully avoided going to something called "Saddle Up." Saddle Up, at least the impression I had, involved a variety of hillbillies, hilljacks, other such hill people, every jackass in a frat from miles around who finally found an excuse to wear both flanel and a cowboy hat without being mercilessly ridiculed, and a mechanical bull. Needless to say, I was not going to go to Saddle Up.</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Instead, I bought myself a New York Strip Steak from August Grocery Store (1500 W. Diversey, <a href="http://www.augustgrocerystore.com/">http://www.augustgrocerystore.com/</a>). I was kind of excited about August Grocery since I read that they are friendly people who teach cooking classes. I could assuredly have gone to a closer meat shop, but I wanted to get the feel for August Grocery since I was interested in taking a cooking class there.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">When I walked in, I saw the fresh produce on the table immediately in front of me, some pre-prepared food on the shelves on both the right and left, and a small meat counter directly ahead of me (the fish counter was a little farther back). However, I didn't notice any customers, so I figured I would have a good chance to talk to the workers to see how this place works (and pick up some steaks). I approached the meat counter to examine the wares. I think I came in too close to closing time to get a good impression of their full product offering, but what they did have looked very fresh with good marbling. I decided what I wanted and looked up at the workers to signal that I was ready to make my choice. Strangely, they did not respond. I stood there, semi-baffled, that I had apparently worn my invisibility cloak that day without realizing it. What? You say invisibility cloaks don't exist? That's right, these people must have just been unhelpful (since they clearly had no other customers). I stood there slack-jawed (maybe I did belong at Saddle Up) at their apparent lack of attention. Eventually after 7-8 minutes of me staring intensely at them, someone approached and got me my steak. As you could probably guess, I didn't bother asking them about cooking classes or anything else since I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to ever come back. I walked my steak over to the cashier and she rung me up for a total of $63. I questioned this absurd price, and she simply repeated that it was $63. I think she sensed from the dumbfounded look on my face that something was amiss (and the fact that I only bought a little steak). Eventually she corrected the price to what it should have been. August Grocery, I will not be returing to you. I'm also not going to tell you about the typo on your website, so take that!</div><br />
I returned home with my steak, and since I was going to be home alone, I could make anything that I wanted. The possibilities were boundless. Since I never get to eat bernaise sauce normally, I decided that I was going to make that. I haven't made bernaise sauce since Christmas 2008, so I was excited t do it again. Bernaise is one of the most satisfying sauces to make since it requires just the right touch (even over a double boiler) to make it perfect. If you do it too long, the eggs scramble and its ruined, if you do it for too short, its too liquidy and not good.<br />
<br />
I made it as well as I ever had, so I was very pleased with myself. I should have used juice from actual lemons though, instead of ReaLemon, but it was late and I was tired so I didn't want to go to Jewel to get a lemon. The consistency was perfect, but it was fake sour, so it wasn't quite where it should have been. Anyway, here's how I did it.<br />
<br />
<u>Ingredients</u><br />
1 tspn fresh tarragon leaves<br />
1 tspn white wine vinegar<br />
1 shallot, finely diced<br />
black pepper<br />
3 egg yolks<br />
1.5 egg shells full of water<br />
4 tbsp butter, melted<br />
lemon juice<br />
kosher salt<br />
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1. Bring the water of a double boiler to a boil and put the top pot on it. You can use a saucepan with sloped sides if you want, but you really need to be careful about scrambling the eggs if you do it without a double boiler.<br />
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2. Put the shallots, tarragon leaves, vinegar, and a few grinds of black pepper in the pot. Gently stir around until the vinegar has mostly evaporated.<br />
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3. Put in the eggs and the water (for each egg you use, you should take half of the egg shell, fill it with water, and pour it in). Whisk constantly until it thickens up to the consistency of mayonnaise about 4-5 minutes)<br />
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4. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter. Season to taste with lemon juice and kosher salt. You should serve this sauce relatively quickly so that it does not "break." <br />
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5. Cook the steak however you prefer and spoon some of the sauce on top. I'm a pretty big fan of bernaise sauce, so I heap it on heavily, but you can do whatever you want.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuldaxc1CwXgc9RlR1fRHS9ltMHlBHxETqkBCDkDRpA7RUp0N8KESWA8pYMlAHPUSgn_O0qUQDK0Y8k9dkZEn1E86XJqzxgGOdMPTU4FYUtCskUfm2Y_ejPHnGD4xdTW3iOCkDtiUtrWE4/s1600/004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuldaxc1CwXgc9RlR1fRHS9ltMHlBHxETqkBCDkDRpA7RUp0N8KESWA8pYMlAHPUSgn_O0qUQDK0Y8k9dkZEn1E86XJqzxgGOdMPTU4FYUtCskUfm2Y_ejPHnGD4xdTW3iOCkDtiUtrWE4/s320/004.JPG" wt="true" /></a></div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-24063788362165901772010-03-28T20:16:00.000-07:002010-03-28T20:16:08.694-07:00Day ThreeOn the final day of my self-proclaimed Dining Out Week, we visited Avenues in the Peninsula Hotel. Avenues is located at 108 East Superior and its website is <a href="http://www.peninsula.com/Chicago/en/Dining/default.aspx#/Chicago/en/Dining/Avenues/">http://www.peninsula.com/Chicago/en/Dining/default.aspx#/Chicago/en/Dining/Avenues/</a>. <br />
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I always suspected something was wrong with Avenues, even though I had no real basis for that suspicion. Maybe it was because Graham Elliot Bowles was the chef there (and I do have a problem with that) or maybe its because it was in a hotel. Whatever the reason, whenever we were deciding what restaurants we want to eat at, Avenues very seldom makes an appearance in that conversation. I even had a vision of getting in an argument with the head waiter tonight about how bad everything was. However, it was Dining Out Week, and I have eaten at every other multi-course style restaurant in Chicago, so this was the final frontier and I had to go.<br />
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We walked in and got semi-lost walking around the Peninsula (so if you are keeping track, that's 3 for 3 on getting lost during Dining Out Week). Eventually one of the hotel people pointed us in the right direction and we arrived a few minutes before our reservation.<br />
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From the outside of the restaurant, Avenues looked kind of interesting. There was a long granite bar on the left that overlooked the kitchen, so you could watch the chefs in action if you had one of those seats. Along the far wall directly in front of us was a windowed wall facing out at the Water Tower. The room probably had about 18 tables total, so it was relatively small.<br />
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We sat down and were nearly instantly ambushed by our waitress Amy (who was very good) with the champagne cart. She explained the three choices of champagne, and we ended up picking a Schramsburg Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine (which I've always wanted to try). I was not particularly a fan of the champagne cart coming at me as I did feel like they were pressuring us into buying it. I would have gotten champagne either way, but I wasn't a fan of having it forced on me (sort of like health insu...ok again, I'll just stop there). The champagne was very good and had a strong taste of green apples. It went very nicely with our first three courses. Next, the sommelier, Aaron, came over and discussed the wine list with us. I was kind of disappointed that they did not have a wine pairing to go with the meal, but he recommended a Gaja Chardonnay and a Chateau Beaucastel Chateaunauf-du-Pape in half bottle format. This actually ended up being less than I expected to spend on wine, which is always a nice surprise.<br />
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So after getting all the wine choices settled, our first course came out. It was, as is common in many of these restaurants, a caviar course. This one; however, was a bit deconstructed and had all of the traditional elements, but in a one bite format served on a spoon. It had caviar, lemon, oyster, and crumbled brioche to mimic the usual toast points. This was one of the better caviar courses I have ever had, perhaps just behind the French Laundry's Oysters and Pearls. The caviar was nice and salty, and the toast and oyster was just a bit sweet. The Schramsburg wine was a nice complement with its sweet green apple taste. A very auspicious start that almost immediately broke down my skepticism of Avenues.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1BxXMpiM-v3d_T7dk7_PnJMQ55HoB0hKQ214QMIg-WiD_lF4ExeClZJSUWuXPRgroW58UY-LO9CVQCDszBGB9VYe3M_Et0n6dp8N8tH_F_-U0PYMPqXggQAAZwfKEWo2Fx3lZPcj4inX-/s1600/001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1BxXMpiM-v3d_T7dk7_PnJMQ55HoB0hKQ214QMIg-WiD_lF4ExeClZJSUWuXPRgroW58UY-LO9CVQCDszBGB9VYe3M_Et0n6dp8N8tH_F_-U0PYMPqXggQAAZwfKEWo2Fx3lZPcj4inX-/s320/001.JPG" /></a></div>After the caviar course, we moved on to the real start of the dinner - what the menu described as King Crag, cucumber, golden wild char roe, and something called kalamansi. This was interesting because it a two-level course. It was served in a cup. On the bottom was a cold cucumber juice with some chilled king crab. On the rim was a sugar tuile (like a piece of glass made from sugar) that had some piles of roe, orange, and some sort of white sauce (maybe that was the kalamansi). The waiter, Colin, who looked like he purchased my friend Mike Warren's body on Ebay then jumped in a time machine and went forward ten years, explained that we should break the tuile with the spoon, let the sugar and flavors mix with the cucumber, and then eat it all with the spoon. All I could think about was how much like Spring this dish tasted since it was so light and colorful. It was like eating a salad only if salad was good. The cucumber absolutely popped with vibrance and flavor, and the sugar enhanced the sweetness of the crab. Finally, the roe added a bit of saltiness to the mix and the few mint leaves added an interesting element of complexity. As much as I liked the caviar course, this was even better. Here is a picture from the top and from the side of the cup, so you can see how it was arranged. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3xZqce1SA_4xYeBs0qLDzFCaTFCB7ppm7tIZk4ZB2MzQXO4U4secqYU999lmu3E-Daw0oGW2XSvAVrdJA2LGpHuAaa7RCUt54zDFl3ljthOWuraQ7rsBfJduxIGRj61fifsVzjOPY1ksK/s1600/002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3xZqce1SA_4xYeBs0qLDzFCaTFCB7ppm7tIZk4ZB2MzQXO4U4secqYU999lmu3E-Daw0oGW2XSvAVrdJA2LGpHuAaa7RCUt54zDFl3ljthOWuraQ7rsBfJduxIGRj61fifsVzjOPY1ksK/s320/002.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicEbAElSybmpS8XJZCCo5s6wvS4DRoPP2VN4_ceC5SuuFRH6okRTbmLg09Qvmjc0ddhRJzkNVD-O5a1WlFYxCeR5vPhhjH6-PdAgsEjWitLfyJSaB1M8kXmaA_UQqZbD6MQrigKORtXTne/s1600/004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicEbAElSybmpS8XJZCCo5s6wvS4DRoPP2VN4_ceC5SuuFRH6okRTbmLg09Qvmjc0ddhRJzkNVD-O5a1WlFYxCeR5vPhhjH6-PdAgsEjWitLfyJSaB1M8kXmaA_UQqZbD6MQrigKORtXTne/s320/004.JPG" /></a></div>The next course was the Faroe Island Salmon Belly with apple milk that Colin poured over it (they really like pouring stuff onto plates) and whipped chloropyll. It also had what I think was snail roe on it. When I asked about that element, they described it as earthy almost "like playing in a playground." I guess that makes sense, so I let it go. This course was positively delicious. The fish was so delightfully fatty and just a touch chilled (after being lightly poached). The apple milk was very interesting if for nothing else than it was apple milk. The champagne with its apple-y goodness was nearly perfect for this dish. The whipped chlorophyll had a strong fennel taste, so I wasn't a huge fan of that, but if you like fennel, then you will probably like it a bit better.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9wnh5YgC29UShiIxcM-0aupFWEyy4l39oBEppaLwB-2KnWBReBFpN0-xX6oWYBjf7sAyzsVKrWEtR0ee-wcEGG2dxfQ4cb1PQ28V1p2gBRB2rAiMtfQ_vXs7xz68bWGLWg9bkN4m4fdiw/s1600/005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9wnh5YgC29UShiIxcM-0aupFWEyy4l39oBEppaLwB-2KnWBReBFpN0-xX6oWYBjf7sAyzsVKrWEtR0ee-wcEGG2dxfQ4cb1PQ28V1p2gBRB2rAiMtfQ_vXs7xz68bWGLWg9bkN4m4fdiw/s320/005.JPG" /></a></div>After having three solid courses, I was waiting for the meal to take a turn for the worse (otherwise I would have eaten here already, right?). I was positive I was not going to like something soon. The next course was described as Japanese Pumpkin, duck confit, finger limes, and miner's lettuce. I'm pretty sure they changed this course after they printed the menu because it ended up being some sort of squash soup that they poured over the duck confit with a strip of dark chocolate. Every single element on its own was absolutely ambrosial (word of the day!), but together they were; somehow, even better. The duck was incredibly flavorful and the soup must have been made with some sort of meat stock that accentuated the duck perfectly. The chocolate added a nice hint of bitter and sweetness to the mix. This was the best course thus far, and I figured that if they hadn't let me down by now, they probably were not going to at all. This was also where they broke out the Gaja Chardonnay. It was big and oaky, and as the sommelier described, "a white wine that wishes it was a red." He was right. It amply stood up to all of the strong flavors contained in this duck dish. I think we could have probably gotten away with a nice pinot noir here too, but I'm glad that we went the white wine route since this was such a Spring-y menu.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqHDUdWGJ2zJ8CEicTkuRTLJiqJeif3JAmIbckpgpetEgJMyjOhZs1eG_WA89B2iMJMOdpboP_iv0_cRqN7xLNkX3I_6sCU9Dt4gtJlDGWWfAR-MntvGcbrmZv01_-p6g1S4fBcuuU07ay/s1600/007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqHDUdWGJ2zJ8CEicTkuRTLJiqJeif3JAmIbckpgpetEgJMyjOhZs1eG_WA89B2iMJMOdpboP_iv0_cRqN7xLNkX3I_6sCU9Dt4gtJlDGWWfAR-MntvGcbrmZv01_-p6g1S4fBcuuU07ay/s320/007.JPG" /></a></div>The next course can only be described as Alice in Wonderland on a plate. It was beets with strawberries, black garlic, and red sorrel. On this plate, there were 4 different types of beets: red, golden, candy stripe, and one other that I don't remember. There were random smudges of fermented black garlic puree all over the plate and different preparations of beets strewn throughout. On the front right, there was a golden beet ice cream atop the candy stripe beets. There was a roasted golden beet and a roasted red beet on the plate along with some fresh strawberries, dried strawberries, some fruit jellies, and some extruded beets. There was an unbelievable amount going on with this course. I don't often eat beets, but I greatly enjoyed this course and all of its craziness. I feel like if I liked beets more, this would have been even more tremendous.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn2bsNkgsvNjk9f4chleUE0mZtc-1_QOqPteSjk78q-CDlG8bs8tp433GxhTj9Q5i_vuLk09DYD1QiN3kDfPJUbUBnl6mT4t5cJGxiaGSBaiQFqTW5MZwSjOfg5hkRjJ2yhwfMB3aNpREP/s1600/008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn2bsNkgsvNjk9f4chleUE0mZtc-1_QOqPteSjk78q-CDlG8bs8tp433GxhTj9Q5i_vuLk09DYD1QiN3kDfPJUbUBnl6mT4t5cJGxiaGSBaiQFqTW5MZwSjOfg5hkRjJ2yhwfMB3aNpREP/s320/008.JPG" /></a></div>The next course on the menu was the one I was most worried about since I've never had a gnocchi that I have enjoyed. Every version I have had has been a soggy mess that felt like eating a sponge, so I have given up totally on the whole idea of gnocchi. There were 5 seared gnocchi in a bowl with some herbs that they poured proscuitto broth over. While the gnocchi was seared and had a decent crust on it, I thought it still tasted a bit spongy even though the proscuitto broth was excellent tasting. This is also where we switched to red wine.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO6Xe1NSGwYDuVzcXYx_T7GCACbBhqTSaMIOOHDQ89eV-1gf2gnOzjvX_An0FBt5UGLfUBs0dZhfHSTAGK1dWQ_OJIfKOBRG9EkoTqp0gSn_tv_I63CRgvbUC0q9WL9fbwQABMu6q8BW2M/s1600/009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO6Xe1NSGwYDuVzcXYx_T7GCACbBhqTSaMIOOHDQ89eV-1gf2gnOzjvX_An0FBt5UGLfUBs0dZhfHSTAGK1dWQ_OJIfKOBRG9EkoTqp0gSn_tv_I63CRgvbUC0q9WL9fbwQABMu6q8BW2M/s320/009.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Following the first course that I really didn't care for came in unquestionably the best course of the night, the Ohmi Gyu (a waygu beef from Japan) with black truffles, pistachios, roasted potatoes, and white truffle. The meat was cooked sous vide to a perfect medium-rare and then seared to give it a crunchy crust. The white truffle was cooked into a creme caramel and the black truffle was shaved and placed around the plate. The combination of the meat and the white truffle creme caramel was one of the best things that I have ever eaten (and I've eaten many many great things). The red wine was not overly assertive, so this dish could have probably used something a bit stronger like a cabernet, but it was smooth and juicy and played nicely off of the extremely savory elements on the plate. I could have eaten just this and gone home, and I would have been happy. I would go back to Avenues just to eat this. They also served us a waffle instead of bread, which was interesting.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrAfXo3WkP5Y-SSfRBbW7KyS8PyqDskjHvhJRoikVY6L6MlPpTnDC5lecTr1MGtaAoVf_wSctNvJnVK4nX2EWYgtlBmm8TmJrTnVd2jctTdLf-3k3ht23FWfgoDwapCgwdttZPoFSLg1HW/s1600/011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrAfXo3WkP5Y-SSfRBbW7KyS8PyqDskjHvhJRoikVY6L6MlPpTnDC5lecTr1MGtaAoVf_wSctNvJnVK4nX2EWYgtlBmm8TmJrTnVd2jctTdLf-3k3ht23FWfgoDwapCgwdttZPoFSLg1HW/s320/011.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2EJzn8dB1TpHHiWwMVoGToOpqq2LNW8Lf8HRTkOu8X_vxyAcWVhKwRQAI_ZtECsmFtc7bXwaG0UXfZjivCjEA1ahXzv0llv88o1PmYPNpf-NHYugBEXT9Mnm2WsbiirQr4ZgW6pZ1wAnj/s1600/010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2EJzn8dB1TpHHiWwMVoGToOpqq2LNW8Lf8HRTkOu8X_vxyAcWVhKwRQAI_ZtECsmFtc7bXwaG0UXfZjivCjEA1ahXzv0llv88o1PmYPNpf-NHYugBEXT9Mnm2WsbiirQr4ZgW6pZ1wAnj/s320/010.JPG" /></a></div>They brought us out a palate cleanser to transition to dessert, and it was gross. It was like eating carrot baby food (even served in a jar). I'm just going to move on from here since it was pretty bad and everything else was so good.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEn6m-MPJ0pXtQm5VyxXwMElNXLCtqu3VdPbS5ZcgUmh-p7xrQ46jvzTphM7fB5XAjfo1xxvwNNAfQ4-BymTKD_vGeWCLhFSbnQ-CW0H6r4tsssGKfDbsnIohF_rcmXiHt3Y9thQT0vIUd/s1600/012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEn6m-MPJ0pXtQm5VyxXwMElNXLCtqu3VdPbS5ZcgUmh-p7xrQ46jvzTphM7fB5XAjfo1xxvwNNAfQ4-BymTKD_vGeWCLhFSbnQ-CW0H6r4tsssGKfDbsnIohF_rcmXiHt3Y9thQT0vIUd/s320/012.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">With that excellent course behind us, we moved into the two dessert courses. The first was Rasberry, thai black pepper, marscarpone, and African blue basil. The raspberry was a puree that was frozen into a log with some frozen framboise. Again, this dish exploded with Spring flavor, and I always like the idea of basil with berries. I probably should have ordered a dessert wine for dessert, but at this point I had already formulated a wild plan about drinking wine at Charlie Trotter's after Avenues (luckily that didn't come about).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2M5N2tZLLcE1Cisw3_h1_3_EB7UPankYWDBTr5T9bLTY8MUkF1glFrwrGCg1jUzOjMFxzS7oCwI4cOuBuKzJTRhsqgZb7DOIJ5wJIMuO-4EAEY1Qi3L1jKNL_ip-X6IermqTscRD_HTq0/s1600/013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2M5N2tZLLcE1Cisw3_h1_3_EB7UPankYWDBTr5T9bLTY8MUkF1glFrwrGCg1jUzOjMFxzS7oCwI4cOuBuKzJTRhsqgZb7DOIJ5wJIMuO-4EAEY1Qi3L1jKNL_ip-X6IermqTscRD_HTq0/s320/013.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Finally, we ended with a dark chocolate mousse with saffron, honey, and bergamot tea. The chocolate was extremely dense and rich. I love chocolate and it was too rich for me to eat. The saffron and honey added some interesting floral notes to it, and the tea seemed to be imperceptible. Overall, I think I liked the raspberry dessert better, but this was excellent too. We finished off, as usual with some chocolate truffles of different varieties.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8-yNCFgcx2jnvn9FHnkhhqG2M1lYr7vE5G4TYeFmd4C6JAU0Rpfft5DOtt16ZUFMejfn1WK2If-FGWmox4MB5S1dExr6Lo0rkKHpHCghhgU8NlsO7t4hanMKP4o_06PpwkTBbCL0WrzV/s1600/015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8-yNCFgcx2jnvn9FHnkhhqG2M1lYr7vE5G4TYeFmd4C6JAU0Rpfft5DOtt16ZUFMejfn1WK2If-FGWmox4MB5S1dExr6Lo0rkKHpHCghhgU8NlsO7t4hanMKP4o_06PpwkTBbCL0WrzV/s320/015.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLXK71npUuKGTpnJqmAlblsXTUegjvwtfUvNlj8ZqkRuNVOKTngndnWH8gj9rHxn-5O153tZ7tybO0_P6-4jgF4KOvbv9YOhlAO7TG4tUm6nwryQoXKf4YAefQ-aT6NWhyphenhyphen7kgBMTjX-W-f/s1600/016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLXK71npUuKGTpnJqmAlblsXTUegjvwtfUvNlj8ZqkRuNVOKTngndnWH8gj9rHxn-5O153tZ7tybO0_P6-4jgF4KOvbv9YOhlAO7TG4tUm6nwryQoXKf4YAefQ-aT6NWhyphenhyphen7kgBMTjX-W-f/s320/016.JPG" /></a></div>Overall, Avenues was amazing. I'm kind of disappointed with myself that I didn't go as soon as Chef Bowles went to his new and not good restaurant. The chef even came over to talk to us at the end of the meal, and he couldn't have been nicer. The service was awesome and we even ended up talking to Time Machine Mike Warren and Amy about Das Boot. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who wants a great meal.Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-57145347455906526732010-03-27T13:03:00.000-07:002010-03-27T13:03:56.799-07:00Day TwoOn Day Two of Dining Out Week, we went to the wonderful, incomparable Charlie Trotter's. Charlie Trotter's is located at 816 West Armitage and its website is <a href="http://www.charlietrotters.com/">http://www.charlietrotters.com/</a>.<br />
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As I mentioned before, Charlie Trotter's holds a special place in my heart since it was the first place that I ever experienced a multi-course tasting menu. I went there for my 22nd birthday, but, due to a long period of unforeseen joblessness and wanting to try other places, I haven't been back since. However, once again, Chef Trotter blazes a new path in my life. I am pleased and honored to write about Charlie Trotter's as my first post about a multi-course tasting menu. As at Vie, I used my phone to take picutres as not to interrupt the other customers, so I apologize for the picture quality. Just note that everything had extremely vibrant colors and you will be on the right path.<br />
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After getting distracted while driving to Charlie Trotter's, I got a little lost on the mean streets of Lincoln Park. Apparently Armitage switches directions at some point, which made locating it a bit difficult. After almost getting T-boned by a bus, we made it to the restaurant unscathed. We walked into the beautiful townhouse on Armitage and began preparing for what was assuredly going to be an amazing meal.<br />
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I had checked the menu online earlier in the day, so I had prepared myself for that progression. However, apparently, at some point, they had completely changed the menu. Though I knew it was going to be good no matter what, I needed to get my bearings straight again with this new menu. As per usual, we opted for the Grand Menu with the accompanying wine pairings.<br />
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Without messing around with too much of an intro (since this will probably be a long post), I'll just dive right in. Our waiter/sommelier, Ryan, brought us the first course which was served in a bento box presentation. I liked Ryan right away even though he was wearing a bow tie, so I decided to regale him with tons of crazy stories. This ended up paying off for us in the end, which I will get to later. In the box at the top of the picture was a fluke sashimi with an orange and onion marmalade (no, Pipes, not Swordfish Meatloaf), on the right of the picture was a Firefly Squid with Sisho, and to the left was an Effingham Oyster with watermelon granite and smoked fish roe. Of these three elements, I thought the fluke was the best. Raw fish with a simple fruit based sauce is always a nice way to start off these meals since it is nice and light and would probably get lost if it was served later in the meal. My second favorite was the oyster. It was ever so creamy and briney and the watermelon granite and roe added a sweet and smoky taste, respectively. Lastly, and perhaps most interestingly, was the firefly squid. I think if I had been prepared for the taste, I would have liked them more (not that I didn't like them), but they did that thing where it pops when you bite into it, which was more than a little disconcerting. All said, this was a solid first course even if I wasn't totally sold on the squid. It was served, of course, with a champagne. Not just any champagne though, it was a Chartogne-Taileet "Sainte-Anne" Brut. While it says "Brut," it certainly was not as dry as most brut champagnes that I have had. I love starting meals with champagne, even if it is not quite the quality of champagne that we had here. This one paired particularly well with the oyster element since 1) oysters and champagne is a classic combination and 2) the sweetness of the champagne went nearly perfectly with the roe and watermelon. I asked Ryan if there was a better way to pour champagne whereby it didn't foam up so much, he told me that the foam depended on the temperature and glass, but in essence, there was no way to stop it from foaming way up.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2lw4KtYvL3xVxKzZ_VPUnDWGGO1xhl4BCVcTJrZAK3hYOimcjEXcwjbO2VPqRpt8osBh69WgyOhtcZhSAmQMPMD2XCuWIJQcTrFtX4X7soQdmQWFo305H945mYcnz7DPwuldqfZP37nhU/s1600/009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2lw4KtYvL3xVxKzZ_VPUnDWGGO1xhl4BCVcTJrZAK3hYOimcjEXcwjbO2VPqRpt8osBh69WgyOhtcZhSAmQMPMD2XCuWIJQcTrFtX4X7soQdmQWFo305H945mYcnz7DPwuldqfZP37nhU/s320/009.JPG" /></a></div>The next course was a grilled blue prawn with Manila clams, lemon, and salsify. While the prawn was grilled to absolute perfection and the manila clam was good, I didn't particularly like the sauce that went with it. Michelle, on the other hand, really liked this dish, even commenting at one point, "I really like this even though it has eyes!" I concur. This was served with a 2002 Riesling "Cuvee Fredrick Emile" Trimabach. I expected, as I always do with rieslings, for it to be extremely sweet. However, this riesling had very little sweetness to it, to the point that, if I hadn't seen the bottle, I would have sworn he poured us a chardonnay. In any event, I'm glad it was not so cloyingly sweet because that wouldn't have gone well with the course. As it stood, the gentle sweetness was amazing with the grilled prawn (which apparently had fallen over on the plate). Ryan, you have done it again. Good work!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm0yVJ7iLTmL7HuXNB0OvV4cXZv02rX9R-Ct_NrgwYMmgRRj4KtFCkBkOSS2SvZizBJB6II1H_tRTbL3yhDxa5FjiK7MA-bVua0pJH1aF7w84hK3Jat4_nbSqUZ0jPsKKb37Fo0pZ24fkT/s1600/010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm0yVJ7iLTmL7HuXNB0OvV4cXZv02rX9R-Ct_NrgwYMmgRRj4KtFCkBkOSS2SvZizBJB6II1H_tRTbL3yhDxa5FjiK7MA-bVua0pJH1aF7w84hK3Jat4_nbSqUZ0jPsKKb37Fo0pZ24fkT/s320/010.JPG" /></a></div>The grilled prawn was followed up by a Diver Sea Scallop with Preserved Shallots, Fingerling Potatoes, and Parsley foam. I have wanted to try a Charlie Trotter scallop ever since I read his chapter on scallops in the first cookbook I ever purchased. This definitely didn't disappoint. The scallop was huge, nearly the size of a small beef filet. It had the best crust on a scallop that I have ever seen. The scallop was so sweet and perfectly salty. I love scallops to begin with and this only raised my idea of what a scallop could be. This was served with a Godello, which is a grape from northern Spain. I had never heard of it before even though I was in northern Spain last summer. I also found out that Mugaritz, the restaurant I ate at in Spain, had burned down. I think this is where I really hooked Ryan on talking to us. I also told Ryan about Cuvee Cellars, and he seemed interested. He even gave me his direct e-mail, so I'll have to send him some more information about it. He also is going to teach a wine class, which I hope to attend. Anyway, the Godello, I think, was served too cold to begin with and I didn't know what to think. When it warmed up a bit, it ws probably my favorite white wine of the night. It had some interesting tropical notes and was just a little bit sweet. This was my favorite of the seafood courses.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLT7IutSK-whuyXfa80QDwRduGWOoZTffF-tNQ29ox-1pKHppxlCqzZrKLrR6epBXLCZH7UHrkmtHgQLz1hCtrbl3MyX1q76jJb5fZX1Udnb8_HY7lFQkOYsfEn-s6RH55xGt5Nf06g14l/s1600/011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLT7IutSK-whuyXfa80QDwRduGWOoZTffF-tNQ29ox-1pKHppxlCqzZrKLrR6epBXLCZH7UHrkmtHgQLz1hCtrbl3MyX1q76jJb5fZX1Udnb8_HY7lFQkOYsfEn-s6RH55xGt5Nf06g14l/s320/011.JPG" /></a></div>On to the meat courses! The course that I was most excited about at the outset was the Honey Glazed Duck with Spring Garlic, Lavender, and Thyme. That dish was now upon us, and it ended up being undoubtedly the most complex course of the evening. I expected it to be more of a whole piece of duck breast, but it ended up being sliced into thin strips, but that is really no big deal and probably made me not wolf it down so quickly. Anyway, it was served in a bowl with something like a honey stock and also glazed with honey. the garlic was whipped into a thyme cream, and the lavender was made into jellies. It all went together so perfectly even though the ingredients are quite disparate sounding. Again, I wish I could cook duck as good as some of these restaurants do it, but in any event, I'll thoroughly enjoy such perfectly cooked duck. It was served with a Nemea from Greece from vines that Homer (not Simpson) wrote about, so they are pretty old. It had an oddly strong alcohol smell too it, but either it dissapated with time or it somehow melted back into the wine because it was incredibly smooth with almost no alcohol taste to it. If it were super-alcohol-y, it would have been terrible with the duck, but the smoothness ended up making it light enough to go with the duck. Also, I've never had a Grecian wine before. Ryan informed me that many Grecian wines are absolutely terrible, so you need to be pretty careful to find a good one. This was a good one.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8viXNcUcehX8kXx0fHiPNgyTdwpi44UpVfeu5ZgY7ggm9t6Jz23aVWmvMCcjeHZwoj6uecuBM4mD6YME0nHf4P3EzoWJGa9VuLBFWElwA3FVlxAkWA2eqEePM4hjm-uKehj6RVjUwskFe/s1600/013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8viXNcUcehX8kXx0fHiPNgyTdwpi44UpVfeu5ZgY7ggm9t6Jz23aVWmvMCcjeHZwoj6uecuBM4mD6YME0nHf4P3EzoWJGa9VuLBFWElwA3FVlxAkWA2eqEePM4hjm-uKehj6RVjUwskFe/s320/013.JPG" /></a></div>At some point around now, Michelle put on an acting performance for the ages. She was rubbing her shoulders, shivering, she tried building a small fire using the candle, and she huddled around it for warmth. The attentive staff noticed her not-so-subtle clues and brought her out a pashmina (pretty much a shawl). I was pretty sure that Michelle was going to try to sneak off with it.<br />
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Anyway, the next course was the course that Michelle was most looking forward to, Salt-Crusted Veal Loin with Toasted Brioche, Burnt Oak, Creme Fraiche, and Veal Sweetbreads. The veal, like the duck, was cut into thin slices. I'm not really sure where the burnt oak was, but the creme fraiche was gelled into a cake-like thing and topped with brioche. Again, the veal was nicely salted and savory. Creme fraiche is generally pretty sour, but whatever they did to it (baking or gelling) took away much of the sharpness and transformed it into something almost savory. The veal was served with a 2008 Jaffurs "Thompson Vineyard" Petite Syrah from Santa Barbara. I was a bit concerned because syrahs are generally pretty wound up in general, and the fact that this was a 2008 made me figure that this would be even more tannic. In 2009 went to a Pax Syrah tasting, and the 2004s were still so tannic that they were nearly undrinkable, so I figured this would be like that. However, apparently this one did not start with such strong tannins, so it was beautifully smooth to go along with the delicate veal. It had a bit of smokiness as many syrahs do that went nicely with the grilled meat. This was probably my favorite wine of the night.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5xoX97a-XpOgBE5ZCQsDbkjvAfoBHgFZfCGgPsrffYFMMKCedDRLi7-oIQHxpvR5x9lddg_THALMYzo0ximp0ubIk0Xhx2GNQxPycMt_c0dh23Y8DH7cSbIXU-peJtTkDfO3eUo6xvCxD/s1600/014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5xoX97a-XpOgBE5ZCQsDbkjvAfoBHgFZfCGgPsrffYFMMKCedDRLi7-oIQHxpvR5x9lddg_THALMYzo0ximp0ubIk0Xhx2GNQxPycMt_c0dh23Y8DH7cSbIXU-peJtTkDfO3eUo6xvCxD/s320/014.JPG" /></a></div>I thought we were moving on to the desserts now since that is what the menu instructed, but instead, Ryan brought out another meat course. I asked him if this one was on the menu (knowing it wasn't) and Ryan told me "the Chef likes your style." Well, that certainly is a feather in my cap. You know what, Chef Trotter, I like your style too. Maybe we can hang out some time.... Sorry, and back from fantasy land. <br />
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The surprise meat course was a Cypress Wood Roasted Bison Tenderloin with Boudin Noir sauce and Huckleberries and Miatake Mushrooms. The plate in itself was absolutely stunning with streaks of the sauce across the plate, swirled around the meat. The meat itself was cooked on a skewer with petrified cypress wood (which burns at something like 2000 degrees). The wood made it taste like it was cooked around a campfire, which was awesome. The sauce was creamy and delicious, and the huckleberries added some explosions of tartness to round it out. Had this surprise course not come out, the duck would have been my favorite, but as it stood, the bison took the top spot for the evening. It was served with a 1999 Rioja "Reserva II" Roda made from Tempranillo. This wine was awesome too, though I still think I enjoyed the syrah more. Since it was 11 years old now, it was awesomely smooth and fruity. It had a little pepper flavor that many Spanish wines have. Overall, I loved this dish and its accompanying wine. The picture makes it look like its a little bit of a mess, but I assure you that it made sense in person.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgagfFWBp7f6nhQIcmBWUaVIhp21IEPwvVlPzyk-88kR2lECtDUQKof56O8CQ4dH1ti8YE0d8FL_uISiv9DWmFoNPf-HMMLoONqf8q6E1E9hmoK6h40UafQ9qKidS3JcLGkyQda4wrtfh6n/s1600/015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgagfFWBp7f6nhQIcmBWUaVIhp21IEPwvVlPzyk-88kR2lECtDUQKof56O8CQ4dH1ti8YE0d8FL_uISiv9DWmFoNPf-HMMLoONqf8q6E1E9hmoK6h40UafQ9qKidS3JcLGkyQda4wrtfh6n/s320/015.JPG" /></a></div>Ok, finally, we were on dessert...or so we thought. Ryan came up and asked us if he could interest us in some cheese (another perk of talking to him). I said that I would eat pretty much anything, but as a cheese hater, Michelle said she would only eat cheddar. I thought he was going to laugh and bring her a bag of shredded Kraft cheese, but he retreated to the kitchen assuring us that he would come up with something. Minutes later, he emerged from the kitchen with a plate and a bowl in hand. The bowl was full of a 15 year aged Cabot Cheddar from Vermont for Michelle and on the plate was an unpasturized cow's milk cheese served with Goji berry. Her cheddar was amazing. Apparently when cheddar ages it loses its color and gets more sharp and forms crystals on the inside. Hers was extremely sharp and nutty and a bit salty. If everyone had cheddar that good, we would never think about eating shredded Kraft cheese. Mine was similarly delightful. The cheese was more creamy than sharp, in contrast to Michelle's. The goji berry sauce was kind of meaty and strange, but good. I'll definitely have to keep my eye open for these to see what I can do with it (Ryan told me Whole Foods has it sometimes). Michelle's was served with an apple-pear brandy, but it was way too strong for her to drink. Of course, I ended up drinking it because I don't care. I ended up getting a lightly botrytised Chenin Blanc which was positively delicious and tasted almost riesling-like in its sweetness.<br />
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</div>Ok, so seriously, now it's time for dessert. For my first dessert, they brought me a Grapefruit Sorbet with Compressed Celery and Creamed Olive Oil. This ended up being mostly a palate cleanser for the actual desserts. I love grapefruit, so this was right up my alley. I don't really know where the compressed celery was, but overall it was tasty for a palate cleanser. Michelle ended up with a lemon sorbet with a black sesame sauce, which was also nice.<br />
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For the next course, I got a Warm Date Pudding with Yogurt and Pecans. This, simply, may have been the best dessert I've ever had. The date pudding was almost more like shredded dates than a pudding, but they were flavored with something, and it was amazing. The yogurt added a hint of tartness to cut through the sweet, caramel-y dates. It was simple but pretty much perfect. Michelle on the other hand got some sort of honey cream dessert with a tuile and clementine oranges. She said it tasted too licorice-y even though it didn't have any licorice in it. Being so nice, I traded her since I still thought hers was pretty good and she, of course, really enjoyed mine. These were served with a 2000 Felsina "Borardenga" Vin Santo Chianti. I don't particularly recall this wine which leads me to believe it wasn't terribly special. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYz8Oj6IVDpi144kUSucda_G_acRidiaIGGdhpevtlnZovGPpIgo5DdHDrh1FVxwZb167oHjnwcGOV8xW5Akz1qBRyqFH6vGEjMqm8P6JJm9O0cihlu_zZdidslZs_Cs8Mz6Pv-JOXy0sd/s1600/019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYz8Oj6IVDpi144kUSucda_G_acRidiaIGGdhpevtlnZovGPpIgo5DdHDrh1FVxwZb167oHjnwcGOV8xW5Akz1qBRyqFH6vGEjMqm8P6JJm9O0cihlu_zZdidslZs_Cs8Mz6Pv-JOXy0sd/s320/019.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSx9EitYPPrRvvHtPbR8F0TnO0la3US-puNNHSmBj9DnoykYRGrWpSMD6-OJhLVjYUJOsZy0vhhmTEs6Q0IgETpLPrTcSTstGoOytOsOLQVU_RLLlwjRjAZVjxyZhT7jqIq75xI1SVImau/s1600/020.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSx9EitYPPrRvvHtPbR8F0TnO0la3US-puNNHSmBj9DnoykYRGrWpSMD6-OJhLVjYUJOsZy0vhhmTEs6Q0IgETpLPrTcSTstGoOytOsOLQVU_RLLlwjRjAZVjxyZhT7jqIq75xI1SVImau/s320/020.JPG" /></a></div>Our final course was a dessert version utilizing Indian flavors. I had a gingersnap ice cream with a chocolate coffee sauce and a coffee tuile. I was a little skeptical about the flavors of India in dessert form, but the ginger, coffee, and chocolate all went together in an oddly satisfying way. Michelle had a Milk Chocolate-Praline Semifreddo with Pistachios and Mint. The milk chocolate was almost like a mousse and pistachios are always delicious. Hers was definitely better even though I really enjoyed mine. Both were served with a Bodegas Dios Bacos "Cream" Sherry Jerez. Michelle hates sherry, so like all things she doesn't like, I ended up drinking it. This was probably the best sherry I have had. It was nutty as is classic of sherry, but it wasn't terribly alcohol-y like some sherries can tend to be. It was also a bit sweeter than some of the dry sherries that I have had. I thought it went better with the Indian dessert than the chocolate one. Yet another perk of talking to Ryan so much was that he brought the pastry chef, Chris Gomez, out to talk to us about the desserts. He was a pretty cool guy, even though he was kind of coy about how to make the date pudding. Apparently we can get it at Trotters To Go, so perhaps I will pick some up and try to reverse engineer it out.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdCTCxx44mVDFPIUwFVBKp23YzaaONpsOnOM4mq5MgSCx1LWof5j3njpoe9LuDreOSdapdiZKbMu0nfnKSlMEMW6QG1DXHqLRnvOscfrW7Ip-IC92QApXlyo0HKRkxIdJmzHD7w5IvCZZ0/s1600/021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdCTCxx44mVDFPIUwFVBKp23YzaaONpsOnOM4mq5MgSCx1LWof5j3njpoe9LuDreOSdapdiZKbMu0nfnKSlMEMW6QG1DXHqLRnvOscfrW7Ip-IC92QApXlyo0HKRkxIdJmzHD7w5IvCZZ0/s320/021.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilLUetSNi2yRs6w0zA6E9sKnHH5maSHFZY-sATWG2EVr-baIGel0ULKJZ1Xd4LQhDR9xmnCkt_iJ4P0FpPJfTHrmoyzFXJnX9ztTVpzvI7CIiqPzi1a6KhjtADrFw_lYkS1Q7aoBqa9aen/s1600/022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilLUetSNi2yRs6w0zA6E9sKnHH5maSHFZY-sATWG2EVr-baIGel0ULKJZ1Xd4LQhDR9xmnCkt_iJ4P0FpPJfTHrmoyzFXJnX9ztTVpzvI7CIiqPzi1a6KhjtADrFw_lYkS1Q7aoBqa9aen/s320/022.JPG" /></a></div>So, that was the end of our dinner, but certainly not the end of our adventure for I had requested a tour of their wine cellar. I was simply stunned by their cellar, and I would have slept in it if they let me. I got to touch a bottle of 1870 Lafite-Rothschild that cost $35,000. I promised Ryan that one day I would return to buy it, he seemed pleased. I also saw that they had Scarecrow wine, which I am semi-obsessed with and my have ordered if I had known it as there. I'll have to look into it next time! <br />
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Once again, Charlie Trotter, you are a trailblazer in my culinary life, so I'm glad to have you on-board as undoubtedly the longest post I've put up on here.Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-4839237986342988702010-03-27T10:03:00.000-07:002010-03-27T10:03:53.095-07:00Day OneOn the first night of Dining Out Week, we drove out to Vie in Western Springs to eat their Chef's Week Menu. Vie is located at 4471 Lawn Avenue in Western Springs, and its website is <a href="http://www.vierestaurant.com/">http://www.vierestaurant.com/</a>.<br />
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After a slight mishap in finding the place and a detour to two pet stores looking for a new wheel for Chipotle the chinchilla, we finally got there. Upon walking in, I noticed the long, black granite bar to the right, which looked pretty sweet. As we proceeded past that, there was an elevated dining section to our left that had about 3-4 tables in it. We snaked through the restaurant to get to our table. It was at this point I noticed that I thought something was a little bit off about the design. Some of the tables were on wheels and looked like they should have been in some corporate board room, and others were normal restaurant tables with tablecloths. Further, some of the tables had "spotlight" lights hanging over them. Normally I would have paid this no mind, but no more than 4 feet away from these lights were other old-fashioned crystal lights hanging on the walls. The whole thing seemed very odd to me. Then again, I wasn't going to an interior decorating convention, so none of this really matters at all.<br />
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They brought us our menus, and to my delight, they had added an option for each course (except dessert) to choose from. I looked at the menu online earlier in the day, and it only showed one option for each of the three courses, so I was a little concerned about being locked into one path of choices, which to me feels a bit like communism (and despite what your presid.... ok, I'll stop there). Anyway, for completeness and to satiate one of my many quirks (I hate ordering the same thing as anyone else), we each ordered different dishes. We also opted for the wine pairing to go along with it.<br />
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Before we got to our first courses; however, they brought us out a little amuse that I of course forgot to take a picture of. It was a grilled shrimp with avocado and some sort of lemon sauce on it. The shrimp was beautifully grilled but not overdone, and it had a lovely smoky taste to it. The avocado rounded it out with its vegetal creaminess, and the lemon sauce cut through it all to make it a delightful single bite.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">For my actual first course, I ordered the proscuitto with caramel apple jam and spanish olive oil. The dish came out with two thinly sliced strips of proscuitto in a pool of olive oil covered (and I do mean covered) in a mache salad. As I pushed some of the salad to the side and began eating one of the strips, I became curious as to where the caramel apple jam was located. I figured they must have forgotten it, but the proscuitto was very tasty and delightfully salty that I paid it no mind. When I unveiled the second strip of proscuitto from its salad jungle, I found the jam, and lots of it. I couldn't figure out whether they did that on purpose or not. I finished eating the jammed up strip and then realized that I would have liked it if there wasn't such a thick slathering of jam on the proscuitto. That leads me to believe it was a mistake to only put jam on one slice, but who knows. They served this with a Vino Espumosa from Spain, which I very much enjoyed. It was not as dry as many champagnes and could even be described as a little bit juicy. The bubbles served as a nice contrast to the fattiness of the meat and olive oil. Also, I apologize for the quality of these pictures. I felt it would be rude and kind of weird to take big flash pictures with a real camera in a nice place like Vie, so I used my phone instead.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0uJ5j7PYx_h6j1Y2oVRl0cBGKQQz5jirLyJYqA3UAOLqubttX_ImXj6hsm4zss3HGgAnCbPn2_Imied5wwfhETEV1FLyqoCRwc-xzIkX7pZKJXfPg4R83hlL8huSbV0lGtszGAGXITR3k/s1600/005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0uJ5j7PYx_h6j1Y2oVRl0cBGKQQz5jirLyJYqA3UAOLqubttX_ImXj6hsm4zss3HGgAnCbPn2_Imied5wwfhETEV1FLyqoCRwc-xzIkX7pZKJXfPg4R83hlL8huSbV0lGtszGAGXITR3k/s320/005.JPG" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Michelle ordered the burrata, tomato jam, and basil pesto crostini as her first course. It was like a glorified version of bruschetta except with much more cheese and, again, a mountain of greens on top. For most people, the cheese would be fine, but Michelle hates most cheese for reasons that elude me (that's why we can never be European), so, needless to say, she was not thrilled with this dish. I tried a bite of this just to see what a normal, cheese-loving person would think about it, and I too was not thrilled. I guess it wasn't just the cheese that throws people off. While the bread was very good, everything else was kind of mushy. I don't really like bruschetta for this very reason, so it does not terribly surprise me that I didn't care for this dish. They served this with a 2007 Domaine Hippolyte Reverdy which is a rose from Sancerre. I did not like this wine when I tried it, but I also tried it out of context with the dish it was intended to be served with, so perhaps it was decent with the food. Michelle did have it with the food, and she says it was only "mediocre." I laughed when they refilled her glass.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZNgMzYbrP6Jsgl-47AskAS2DhagzUV3kl9Nc84tIKuit_UrjrqMvbcjh7gqWsU2DduUQSKZlfKZvdlFLKnJp88xYIHio0G58BrdWbbq3hokvTfhvhpoKp1Fe5ochz1YP2KNE8kV6z3ukP/s1600/michelle+1st.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZNgMzYbrP6Jsgl-47AskAS2DhagzUV3kl9Nc84tIKuit_UrjrqMvbcjh7gqWsU2DduUQSKZlfKZvdlFLKnJp88xYIHio0G58BrdWbbq3hokvTfhvhpoKp1Fe5ochz1YP2KNE8kV6z3ukP/s320/michelle+1st.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">For my main course, I ordered the pan-fried whitefish with braised potatoes and a meyer lemon vinaigrette. I thought I had pulled a fast one on Michelle since she just ordered a plain old Chicken Milanese, so I was grinning like a Cheshire Cat. This dish came out, and again, it had a dump-truck full of salad on top. I don't understand the need to put a giant pile of salad on every dish, but since I can just push it to the side, I don't really care that much. I'm generally not a big fan of fish skin, but the skin on this white fish was fantastically crisped and not slimy at all (like when I make it). The fish was nice and moist and the sauce added a nice smoky lemony taste to it. The potatoes may have been my favorite part of the dish. They had some strange (but good) vanilla taste going on which married nicely with the lemon sauce. I really liked this fish, and I wished that I had just a few more bites. I guess that is the hallmark of a successful course. They served a 2007 Hoopla Chardonnay with this. I believe it was lightly oaked, and the creaminess of the wine really rounded off the sharpness of the lemon sauce. Vie, you found another winner here.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KdvWZ9N7XMvSAHLIRomY1FshotCxnSsKUty2uVSOsvh73BfOjDO0ty_y88Uv6JJubU3c-UTwoZY4G9KoR35G6a6kz5U_l_fac5aoW9YFxmXmVBXDHrMeHimco5dgKDlR9AxPC4lYZ9fG/s1600/006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KdvWZ9N7XMvSAHLIRomY1FshotCxnSsKUty2uVSOsvh73BfOjDO0ty_y88Uv6JJubU3c-UTwoZY4G9KoR35G6a6kz5U_l_fac5aoW9YFxmXmVBXDHrMeHimco5dgKDlR9AxPC4lYZ9fG/s320/006.JPG" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">With my glorious fish dish came Michelle's plain old Chicken Milanese (with polenta, garlic, and, of course, a whirlwind of salad). They had brought out the wines before the course was served, and I did not like her 2008 Quattro Mani Montepulciano very much at all (continuing my string of disliking Italian wine). I was watching her as she took her first bite, and her mouth absolutely dropped when she bit into it. She started pointing at it and wildly gesticulating toward the plate. Was it possible that her dish was better than mine? Note that I have a scary ability to nearly always pick the best thing on the menu. I had to find out for myself. As I reached over the table to snag a bite sized portion of it, her eyes narrowed, and I think she tried to stab me with her fork. This alone confirmed to me that this was going to be really good. I took the chicken and bit in, and it was like a garlic explosion with amazingly crisp, flavorful breading and some sort of tart sauce (possibly a vinaigrette) to round the whole thing off. It was positively amazing. I tried her wine again to see whether it went with the food, and, reminiscent of Sixteen, the wine, while not that good standing alone, was truly spectacular with the food. This is probably the hardest part of pairing wines, I would imagine. Risking my life, I even managed to steal another piece off of her plate. She got me this time, even though my dish was really good too.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-kydMaYu_0cOSVkZLampZMcO1ehrUuVqLujaz94-wdDEhv6xgMQsbBwZCFf1pEZnLaQ39tKCc55l2vRNF3mzwgs6ZtUvsQ4TSov_jGGWcslYMi4xtT2O-qEZ5NadUWzky0SFbvSZEWnj7/s1600/michelle+2nd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-kydMaYu_0cOSVkZLampZMcO1ehrUuVqLujaz94-wdDEhv6xgMQsbBwZCFf1pEZnLaQ39tKCc55l2vRNF3mzwgs6ZtUvsQ4TSov_jGGWcslYMi4xtT2O-qEZ5NadUWzky0SFbvSZEWnj7/s320/michelle+2nd.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">After the stunningly good main dishes we had, we ended, as per usual, with dessert. Dessert today was warm gooey butter cake, tahitian vanilla ice cream, brittled peanuts, and chocolate sauce. Gooey and butter and cake all in the same sentence? I was totally sold just from the description. The actual course did not disappoint my justifiably high expectations. The best way to describe it would be "The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie in the World." The cake was so gooey (I mean that in the best way possible) that it was like eating a cookie fresh out of the oven. The butter flavor was amazing, and you all know how much I love butter. Michelle was convinced that the vanilla ice cream was like the milk in "milk and cookies." I get hungry just thinking about this, and it may have ruined other cookies for me forever.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg_rp1SKtTKxTT4PzEsc6mFGOt26ccc6myEARBPWxfmFEHDF66RESU-e2QkSOk76PK8sdDbHix14-Y_27e4fb0_90eOEUkydaxC1QS4eduaImgyGwDclWuqsncWxRujFn-fDM6JHiC5ksP/s1600/007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg_rp1SKtTKxTT4PzEsc6mFGOt26ccc6myEARBPWxfmFEHDF66RESU-e2QkSOk76PK8sdDbHix14-Y_27e4fb0_90eOEUkydaxC1QS4eduaImgyGwDclWuqsncWxRujFn-fDM6JHiC5ksP/s320/007.JPG" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Overall, I would definitely recommend Vie to anyone who wants to eat somewhere amazing, particularly in the western suburbs where there is a dearth of good an innovative places to eat. Even though I really didn't understand the salad pile thing, I figure that is a minor blemish on an otherwise stellar dinner. I was going to try to talk them into giving me the recipe for the Chicken Milanese, but I figured I would try my hand at it a few times before throwing in the towel and calling them. I also may have to ask them about the warm gooey butter cake.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-12581777025883192832010-03-25T09:29:00.001-07:002010-03-25T10:27:12.709-07:00Redemption!I desperately wanted to go somewhere for spring break this year to get away from this awful semester. What did I want to do on my break? If you answered "go somewhere crazy to eat," you are correct, of course. <br /><br />The only question left was where to go. Being a big dreamer, I decided I wanted to try to tackle the current king of the mountain, Per Se in New York. The biggest impediment (or so I thought) in my plan was the 2 month requirement for reservations. Undaunted, I called Per Se and ended up on a waiting list. Surprisingly, they called back about 3 days later with a dinner reservation for me. Sure it wasn't until 10pm, but I'm very European like that, so I took it. <br /><br />I began checking flights and hotels, but for some reason everything was so absurdly expensive, even by New York standards, that the trip was beginning to look unrealistic. Yes, even more unrealistic than flying across the country to eat at a restaurant. <br /><br />The flights were $350 each, the hotel would have been about $400, and then dinner would have been $800. Add in meals and other stuff, and we are rolling in at like $2500 when the only thing I care about was Per Se. To twist a Justice Antonin Scalia quote around a bit, "I love to eat, but I'm not a nut." However, if I was quoting Justice Clarence Thomas, I would be going on this trip, but I'm no Justice Clarence Thomas. As such, I sadly cancelled the reservation. <br /><br />Not one to stay down in the dumps too long, I quickly formulated a new plan. I still wanted to eat out somewhere crazy, and Charlie Trotter's immediately came to mind. Trotter's holds a special place in my heart since it was the first multi-course dinner I ever had, but I haven't been back in nearly four years. I also have been hearing good things about Avenues in the Peninsula Hotel, so that was on my list as well. <br /><br />I was having a very hard time deciding which to choose when I temporarily lost my mind and said to myself, "hey Brian, you were about 4 seconds away from dropping $2500 for one dinner, why don't you go to both restaurants for less than half of that on back to back days?" great idea, Brian, let's do that! What's that you say? It's Chef's Week too and you can go to Vie in Western Springs? Sure, pile it on. <br /><br />That little thought process is what spawned what can only be described as Dining Out Week. I'm going to Vie tonight, Trotter's on tomorrow, and Avenues on Saturday. I look forward to writing these blog posts, and hopefully I can avoid buying some 1857 Chateau D'Yquem at Trotter's, though I often lose control of myself in situations like that. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8227316186033280794.post-48362935314243504442010-03-24T23:00:00.000-07:002010-03-24T23:00:02.773-07:00A Standing ReservationI have to say, I really enjoy having Bri over for dinner. It's like having a dinner party, only every night. I realized that I always cook too much food, so I decided that from now on, I was just going to send her the menu and a time. After that, it's up to her if she shows up.<br />
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I went to Jewel with absolutely no idea what I was going to cook. As I was walking around, I noticed that they had "Buy 1, Get 1 Free" whole chickens. I decided to jump all over that offer and picked up 2 chickens. Having an idea of what I wanted to eat, I sent Bri the following text "Whole roast chicken, lemon-thyme sauce, 9:15." Nearly instantly, she responded, "I'm there."<br />
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The recipe for roast chicken could not possibly be more simple, and thus, it's outstanding for a weeknight meal.<br />
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I began getting the chicken ready for the dinner when Bri texted to tell me she would be over in 5 minutes. I quickly prepared for her arrival. Also, I finally successfully trussed a chicken (Thomas Keller would be so proud).<br />
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Bri got here just as I was putting the chicken in the oven. She, as per usual, told me several disgusting stories about being a nurse. After avoiding puking, she mentioned we should get hammered. I thought about it, and it was Wednesday, so I readily agreed.<br />
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We headed out to In Fine Spirits on Clark Street to pick up some wine (more on this later) while the chicken was in the oven. When we got there; however, they were closing even though it was only 8:58. Disheartened but not deterred, we went down the block to the liquor/wine store on Foster and Clark. We ended up getting a Ridge Zinfandel, a Rombauer Chardonnay, and a Cider. While at the store, Bri repeatedly insisted that the chicken would not be cooked, but I thought it would be.<br />
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We got home right as the oven went off (ostensibly perfect timing!). I began making the sauce and slicing the chicken when I realized that Bri was right...the chicken was not fully cooked. I popped it back in the oven for another 10 minutes to finish.<br />
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Meanwhile, Michelle opened up the bottle of Ridge Zinfandel. To my utter shock, Bri started drinking it. While she was a bit off-put by the room temperature of the wine, she was actually enjoying red wine for what I think was the first time ever. So for those of you keeping track, she's flown from the grossest sweet Rieslings to some pretty decent Chardonnay to liking some Zinfandel. By next week she is going to be telling me things like "I detect a faint wafting of asparagus in this wine." It's like she jumped into the food/wine world in fast forward. I love it.<br />
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Anyway, back to the food. This was definitely the best roast chicken I've ever made. The skin was perfectly crisped, and after the additional cooking, the meat was perfectly moist and delicious. Michelle agreed with me that it was the best one that I have made, and Bri even went so far as to say it was her favorite chicken ever. I also made a spinach with butter which Bri also ate (she's quite the adventurous eater now). I thought it was pretty good, but definitely not the best spinach I've ever made. I think the only thing I would change would be to put the chicken in a cast iron pan instead of a stainless steel one. The problem there was that my cast iron pan was too small to fit the chicken. Anyway, here is the recipe.<br />
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<u>Roast Chicken with Lemon-Thyme Sauce</u> (serves 3)<br />
1 6 lb whole chicken<br />
kosher salt<br />
pepper<br />
1 tbsp butter<br />
1/2 tspn thyme<br />
1/4 lemon, juiced<br />
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1. Preheat the oven to 450<br />
2. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, including in the cavity.<br />
3. Truss the chicken (look it up, this can be important).<br />
4. Liberally sprinkle the chicken with the salt and pepper.<br />
5. Put it in the oven for about 45 minutes (or until the meat thermometer reaches 155).<br />
6. Take the chicken out of the oven and baste it for about a minute with the pan drippings. Reserve the pan drippings.<br />
7. Remove the chicken from the pan and put it on a cutting board. Cover tightly with foil while you make the sauce.<br />
8. Put the butter, thyme, and lemon juice in the pan and stir until melted together. If you need to, put the pan over medium-low heat.<br />
9. Slice the chicken and serve with the pan sauce.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhciVv7vZ9tsFovj7pN1X5etpwn9l3XtyRKnbnTjZlu8vYsaYfe64AAkQegw_bPSz3she4_tE8JUSviVLy6YvKh3WVGbiNEnKJzux8dZ8nYqZQLajVB_rB7Zc6zfFASp2ZPCVxd8CipJ4KK/s1600/IMG_4816.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhciVv7vZ9tsFovj7pN1X5etpwn9l3XtyRKnbnTjZlu8vYsaYfe64AAkQegw_bPSz3she4_tE8JUSviVLy6YvKh3WVGbiNEnKJzux8dZ8nYqZQLajVB_rB7Zc6zfFASp2ZPCVxd8CipJ4KK/s320/IMG_4816.JPG" /></a></div>Law School Food Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01230919728284367376noreply@blogger.com0