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Archive for the ‘decadence’ Category
Monday, May 20th, 2013
This is my favorite OITF location. You can’t beat the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean and the sandstone cliffs forming the cove. The wind is a bit much but, being from the area, I knew and came prepared. Those who didn’t could borrow blankets which is an excellent plan. I brought many layers that I slowly added and used all of before I ventured to the bonfire.
No surprise, the food was amazing under the direction of Central Kitchen and Flour and Water’s Thomas McNaughton. The fish came from my longtime fishmongers, H&H Fresh Fish. We actually ended up sitting with them so it was nice to visit all evening and talk about life beyond what fish I was buying.
My favorite dish of the night was the grilled squid. I could have eaten all 8 portions put in front of us family style. I’m always interested in squid done in new ways. It’s a seafood that I’ve made and it’s been amazing and other times just not right or slimy and blechy. This was amazing.
Sadly, we aren’t able to attend another Outstanding in the Field dinner until December. I’ll just have to savor the pictures and memories of this one until then.
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Thomas McNaughton and his pet pig
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Thomas’s pig
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The first view of the table
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The table
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Jim and Leah
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The crowd is released to the table
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The menu
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Finding seats
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Finding seats at the table
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Smoked salmon with asparagus, dill, roe
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Grilled squid with potato, fennel and squid ink aioli
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Halibut boudin blank, pork belly, ramps, farro
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Meyer lemon curd, strawberries, yum
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Meyer lemon curd, strawberries, yum
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Trying to stay warm
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Post-dinner bonfire
Posted in decadence, dinner, flavor, food, organic, review, santa cruz, seasonal menu, squid, table dance, wine | No Comments »
Thursday, March 21st, 2013
We had a full weekend of food, wine and no kid. He went skiing with a friend in Tahoe for the weekend. I don’t think there was a time, aside from when I first woke up, that I wasn’t full and/or a teeny bit tipsy. We didn’t need to drive anywhere, we just needed to eat and drink. Friday night we had dinner at Central Kitchen. Saturday morning we slept in then walked down to the Ferry Building and had brunch at Marketbar. We wandered around Chinatown, walked back to our hotel, had a couple of gin and tonics in the bar, took a nap, then headed out for the next round!
I have a tremendous admiration for Chris Cosentino. He makes edible things which most people would go nowhere near. He’s getting people excited about nose to tail cooking. He’s elevating to gourmet levels things that most people cast away or at best use for stock. I just have one problem…I don’t like offal or pieces-parts. At least none I’ve ever tried. Still, I wanted to eat Chris’s cooking, I would just order everything from the middle edges of the pig rather than either end or the center ;-)
We had no trouble finding non-pieces-parts dishes. The arugula-feathercress salad was lovely. Our waitress was fun and knowledgable and just made the evening fun. She recommended wines that we may not have picked but went with each dish wonderfully.
One problem I kept having, I’d forget to take pictures! So, most of my shots are after I’d eaten some and messed up the presentation. *SIGH* But when the food is so good, you don’t want to grab a camera, you want to grab a fork!
The PORK BELLY (Spicy pork belly, asparagus, scallions, pistachios, mint)! Oh good lord. Sooooo creamy and delicious. It looked like it would be fatty and greasy but it was pure pork heaven. Spicy from the pepper topping and … just damn good!
Handkerchief pasta and rustic pork ragu was comfort food. I wanted to take the plate to a fireplace with a blankie and my glass of Brunello. It was baby-it’s-cold-outside kind of food. Comfort food like this is where the law of diminishing return goes out the window. More more more!
The cod was perfectly cooked with artichokes, potato and lemon. I had to talk my husband into this one since wine and artichokes don’t mix but the Brachetto was nice with the dish actually.
The table next to us got the In-CAN-to dish which was tripe and trotters served tableside in a soup can. Really fun presentation and the woman said it was great. At one point I saw Chris expediting but also with his phone out. I slipped my phone out of my purse and checked and, yup, he was tweeting pics of the dishes as they went out. Our’s didn’t make the photo shoot!
Dessert was the first lemon meringue pie that rivals my mom’s. She set the bar high. Her lemon pie is amazing. They called this one a lemon curd torta but it was a lemon meringue pie with a shortbread crust. It’s my perfect dessert. I love it. I didn’t leave a crumb on that plate.
After we were done I asked our server if Chris was still around and available for me to play fangirl. Luckily he was. He came out, said hi and we chatted for probably longer than we should have kept him out of the kitchen but he was a gracious host. I felt like I was talking to an old friend and he seemed pretty convinced that I’d be eating offal sometime in the future. I’m not ruling anything out.
Posted in decadence, dinner, flavor, food, pasta, pork, restaurant, review, San Francisco, table dance | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 19th, 2013
Many moons ago I won a fundraising auction for a table for four at the as-yet-unopened Central Kitchen. We could be one of the first to dine there. I was very excited. I informed our friends of the wonderful news and we aligned calendars. That proved more challenging that we though but we eventually had a table booked for November. My husband was in an accident at the end of September and was still not mobile by reservation time so we had to put it off. Finally, he was up, walking, off the crazy meds and we could enjoy a weekend in San Francisco. I booked the table for a Friday night.
We got up to the city with just enough time to check into our hotel, change clothes, hop in a cab and get over to the Mission. We were a little confused about where to enter the restaurant. We ended up going through the salumeria but cut through the back door when we saw our table mates were already seated.
The tasting menu had a few things that neither I nor one tablemate could eat but the kitchen was amazingly accommodating. The first course was fine for all though: A taste of pork. The pork rinds, as I called them as I ate them by the bag as a kid, or cracklins, were fine, crispy but not much to them aside from crunch and they were slightly oily inside. This was seriously the only minor disappointment all night. The pickles alongside the cracklins were crisp-sour-salty-tangy-wonderful and the pork consomme….THE PORK JUICE! Cup-o-heaven. Wayyyy too small of a glass of this broth. It is the basis for every good soup you could think of. It was gone far too quickly.
The pork fat was sadly left behind but we didn’t miss it long as a light, refreshing, and beautiful plate of Hamachi, kumquat and insanely thinly sliced hazelnut was delivered. Clean flavors, cool and crisp.
When I read there was geoduck coming up next I was taken back to Sooke Harbour House on Vancouver Island. We were brought a plate that looked caprese-like. Tomatoes, cucumber…not cucumber, geoduck. Raw geoduck very much resembles cucumber in appearance and not at all in taste. This was not the case at Central Kitchen. It was served in a bowl with quail egg, and amazing lemongrass broth. Between this and the pork broth, I just wanted a vat of each to soak in. Whoever is in charge of making the broths deserves a medal.
I assumed the mussel, smoked sturgeon, black cioppino dish was going to be a seafood stew but not at all! The sturgeon which, at first bite, was overwhelmingly smoked seemed to be tamed by the…well, black cioppino sauce??…it was jet black. It was thick. It was rich and so good.
A couple of months ago we went to a restaurant in San Francisco that will remain unnamed. It was a very large dining room…huge in fact. We had lovely oysters and good wine and then I ordered the duck and the waiter said, “The chef suggests it be cooked medium.” I very much disagreed. That is far overcooked for duck. I said, “Really?! Odd. I want it medium rare.” The waiter said, “I’ll see if he can do that, you know, duck is very hard to cook.” Ummmm…right. Note that there was no discussion of how to cook the duck at Central Kitchen, it just came out perfect with thin slices of kumquat and celery root puree.
The palate cleanser was the perfect pregnant lady’s drink (my friend is expecting) and when I was pregnant with my son I couldn’t get enough lemons. This was Meyer lemon ice with whey and topped with celery salt. I actually ordered her a second one :) Even not pregnant, I would have loved a few of those!
Last but surely not least we were destroyed with a wooden bowl of chocolate death: Dark chocolate, caramel, sesame. I was stuffed but not so much that I couldn’t move. Perfectly stuffed. We had the wine pairings which all matched beautifully and were all over the map and not at all familiar which was a rare treat.
Posted in chocolate, decadence, dinner, flavor, food, photos, restaurant, salt, seasonal menu, table dance, tasting menu | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
Sleeping in on Sunday morning was a welcome treat. We were on vacation, I didn’t want an alarm but on Saturday we had to catch the catamaran at 9am so we had to drag our butts out of bed (very worth it!!). Brunch on Sunday didn’t start until noon though so no alarm was necessary and we had a leisurely morning. We dropped our son off with every other kid affiliated with the cookout at the Kids’ Brunch where they’d make their own food and be maniacs. We headed to drink champagne and eat oysters. Sure, there was a lot of other food there….I did exactly what I did last year and hit the oyster bar at least 5 times (the plates are small!!).
   
I grazed at a few other tables too of course: sushi, charcuterie, oysters…oh, I said that already.
While all this is going on there’s real cooking happening on stage. Emceed by Spike Mendehlson and the same blonde who didn’t do a good job last year, the contestants cook with local ingredients and the curveball of pomegranate thrown in at the last minute. The judges sit in front heckling Spike and putting up with fangirls like me asking for photos.
  
They’re all so incredibly nice. Even Anthony Bourdain but don’t tell anyone.
Mo, who competed last year but got 2nd, won it this year. Her son is her sous chef. It was a feel-good moment.
Sunday is the laziest of the cookout days building up to the most stressful event which is the Gala Dinner. My husband attended, I bowed out this year. I can’t deal with the pressure and I’m not even cooking! He owes me a report, the menu looked amazing and it was printed on WOOD! Not even paper but WOOD! Crazy.
While he was Gala-ing, my son and I went to Periwinkle and ate in beach chairs while watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Much more relaxing.
Posted in celebrities, decadence, eric ripert, flavor, food | No Comments »
Monday, January 28th, 2013
Friday began just as it did last year. With the highly anticipated arrival of Jose Andres to his cooking demonstration at 10am. We just had a few bites of fruit for breakfast knowing we would be eating for hours. This may have been a slight mistake since the first thing Jose served was a drink. I’m getting ahead of myself again though.
Everyone gathered around the demonstration tent speculating on how Jose would arrive. Last year he emerged from the ocean in scuba gear holding two live lobsters. He had to outdo himself this year. He did! He came in on a water jetpack….a toy seemingly straight out of Hammacher Schlemmer magazine. Completely useless and ridiculous but futuristically awesome.
  
He shed the helmet and gear and put on a chef’s coat over his wet clothes and got to work! There was a freak storm that came through Grand Cayman on Friday that brought higher than usual tides so the surf was coming right up to the tents. They set the paella pans up on fires under the tents rather than out in the sun further down the beach. That worked out, I was sweltering last year and I thought the sous chefs were going to collapse from the heat!
  
He got the paella started with a lot of olive oil and chicken, browned all that up nicely, added squid, green beans, mushrooms (chanterelles!), chicken stock, saffron and most importantly SPANISH rice.
  
While he’s got his sous chefs manning the fires along with help from an audience volunteer, Jose gets to work on a cocktail. This one has wine and whiskey….it’s 10am!! To be more precise it has lemon juice, simple syrup, brown sugar, whisky and ice in a shaker. That goes into a glass and then you pour red wine in over a spoon so that it layers. It was quite tasty! And made for a bit of a blurry morning.
  
He keeps running around like a maniac barking orders for MORE OIL! MORE LIQUID! LESS FIRE! MOVE THIS! DO THAT! It was hectic and fun but I would not want to be his sous chef!
  
The end result was fantastic though. The key? Put the rice in, even it out in a completely level pan and then Don’t Touch! Sixteen minutes of staring at the bubbling pan. It had a roasty-toasty flavor that was so rich. The chanterelles were incredibly flavorful.
  
We grabbed our paella and ran off to catch our shuttle to eat with David Kinch of our local Manresa fame. Yes, we traveled half way around the world to eat food from a chef that lives in our hometown. Don’t judge!
  
We hopped in the shuttle bus and drove the 20 minutes to The Brasserie where David was taking over the kitchen for the afternoon. We chatted with David a bit when we got there but of course he had a few things to do! So we went out into the garden and sipped some lovely Justin Vineyards Sauv Blanc and began enjoying the appetizers.
First to waltz by us was the Garden Callaloo and Cucumber soup with Grated Coconut. A little shooter of refreshing yum. The next was a rich bite of Braised Oxtail with Java Apple and Marcona Almond on a Blue Corn Pancake. Not light, not refreshing, just rich, lick-your-fingers goodness.
  
We had a simple bite of a local tomato with basil and sea salt. A wonderful treat to get in January! I had to skip the Tuna Crudo with Pepper Escabeche and Garden Ackee. The peppers were right out for me but hubby said it was great! The dish we had to guiltily confess to eating to our son was the Cayman Turtle Stew on a Garden Breadfruit Chip. I’ve never eaten turtle. They have turtle farms in the Caymans just like we have trout or oyster farms. They are raised for food. And DAMN they’re good! It tasted like slow braised pork. I got over the guilt pretty quickly!
  
We were instructed to mosey inside and find a seat for the next round of food. David came out and told everyone about his experience with the local fare and also about Manresa and what it’s like with its partnership with Love Apple Farms. He stepped up and gave a great representation of his food and talent, that’s for sure. I think he’ll be getting people from this lunch coming out to Las Gatos. We sat at the same table as Joe, the owner of the wineries being featured at lunch, Justin and Landmark Vineyards. He got up and described their style and location (Paso Robles and Sonoma) and we continue on to the first sit-down course: Island Gungo Peas with Snapper and an emulsion of Seville orange, pimento and lime leaf. I didn’t leave a speck of anything on my plate. It was wonderful. The gungo peas aren’t like sweet peas, they’re, well, not sweet. They’re more bean-like in flavor but they’re round. It was really interesting to try all these new island flavors.
  
The Wahoo and Conch marinated with fennel and tangerine was another plate licked clean. I can’t get enough of the caribbean wahoo. I know it’s technically the same fish as Ono but it’s not even close in texture and flavor. Wahoo is worlds better! I was worried about the dessert because it was a coconut cate with passionfruit and guava sorbet. Surprisingly, the coconut cake was not coconut-y. I loved it! The guava sorbet on the other hand I couldn’t eat. On our honeymoon in 1999 we went hiking in Hawaii just after guava season which meant there were rotting guavas everywhere. It’s been over 13 years and I still can’t stand guava. Scarred for life. The rest of the dessert was spot on though.
I’m really glad David was asked to the Cookout. He really showed off his talent beautifully and I hope people fly out to Manresa to try it out. I know he worked like mad down there to make sure everything came out the way he wanted it and it showed.
We shuttled back to the hotel to pick our son up from the afternoon camp and spent the rest of the day in the ocean! Rough life.
Read about Thursday and Saturday!
Posted in chanterelles, decadence, eric ripert, flavor, food, gardening, photos, restaurant, seasonal menu, snapper, table dance, tasting menu, tomatoes, wine | No Comments »
Saturday, January 26th, 2013
Last year’s epic Cayman Cookout adventure was supposed to be a once in a lifetime, blowout, crazy-idea event. That quickly changed after the 2012 event to trying to figure out how we could do this every year. Not only is the food fantastic, we have a blast as a family doing all sorts of wonderful warm-water activities: snorkeling, swimming, petting stingrays! But I’m getting ahead of myself.
We arrived on Wednesday and after 17 hours of travel (it is *not* easy to get here from the west coast!!) we just rolled into the hotel, checked in, showered and headed to a sushi dinner at Taikun. Just like last year, the wahoo sashimi was the hands down winner.
That’s really Day 0. Day 1 was Thursday. We didn’t attend the wine auction dinner that was the kickoff of the Cookout but we did eat out at Blue. There were two tasting menus to choose from, the Blue menu and Eric Ripert’s. Given how much of a fangirl I am, you can guess what I picked. My husband and I had Eric’s menu and added his signature Tuna and Foie Gras dish. Our eight year old son had oysters, raw wahoo and slow-roasted pork belly. I raised him right.
The dinner was flawless. It just added to the awe I already had for Eric. We started with the amuse bouche which was a seared yellowfin with basil oil and ginger. The first course was Yellowtail with wasabi jam and shiso with a crunchy rice. The crunch was a wonderful addition and I couldn’t find anything wrong with the dish. It was paired with a 2010 Vouvrey Sec Champelou that I am pretty sure we have in our cellar. Beautiful combination.
Next up was the King Crab Salad with avocado and green apple. The first time we had the crab-apple combo was at the French Laundry in 2003. I promptly went home and made a dish with that combination. It works so well. This was sour and really well balanced with the sweet, sour and creamy. It doesn’t come close to growing together but it sure does go together.
The Langoustine with truffle, hon shimeji (mushrooms) and aged balsamic was really creamy so paired with a beautiful white burgundy. The halibut (poached wtih black trffle and pot au feu), which I never ever order because no one can cook halibut right aside from Eric Ripert, was perfect. If I blind tasted it I would never have said it was halibut. It was moist and, even though it was covered in truffle, was not over-truffled. I am not a fan of truffle oil in dishes because that is all you taste but that wasn’t the case with these shaved truffles.
The evening involved a lot of wine so things start getting fuzzy. The dover sole with almond pistashio brown butter was fantastic. The bread crusted striped bass with parsnip puree was crispy and awesome with a really strong rum hibiscus (the hibiscus was the strong flavor!). The desert was a praline with gianduja mousse with torta caprese and praline sorbet. The 2009 Chateau Roumieu sauternes was full of pear and stonefruit with a hint of caramel.
  
I was absolutely obliterated with flavor and perfection. I couldn’t find a flaw in the meal just adding to my fangirl awe.
Read about Friday and Saturday!
Posted in ahi, celebrities, decadence, dinner, eric ripert, food, Le Bernardin, restaurant, tasting menu | 2 Comments »
Sunday, April 15th, 2012
You really can’t knock starting a foggy spring Sunday morning with a glass of 2003 Dom Perignon. I don’t typically drink DP, unless it’s given to me. I don’t think it’s bad champagne by any means but it’s not what I tend to buy. 2003, if you recall, was the year that hundreds of people died in France from the crazy heat wave. The summer was scorching but the spring had unprecedented freezing temperatures. This did not treat grapes well. DP lost 70% of their Chardonnay. This is why I was so interested in attending this tasting. That and the description of the wine made me chuckle: “The intensity of this wine is unique and paradoxical, hovering between austerity and generosity.” I really wanted to try what hovering between austerity and generosity tasted like. Turns out it tastes like lovely champagne. Minerality, slight sweetness, quite enjoyable. I had a pleasant chat with the winemaker as well, lamenting my horrible experience in Paris and praising the French countryside.
After finishing my glass of champagne and turning down a second, I made my way over to the Equestrian Center for the Lexus Grand Tasting. It was a huge, crowded tent full of who knows how many people, 200 wineries and 25 chefs. Along with some random Lexuses…Lexi…shiny cars…because, you know, when you’re drinking lots of wine, you should make decisions about car buying. There were also Fiji girls walking around handing out water, like old-school cigarette girls or umbrella girls at MotoGP. There were many face lifts and fashionable yet impossible to walk in heels. A lot of the Pebble Beach Food and Wine festival is too much Pebble Beach and not enough Food and Wine but that doesn’t mean that the food and wine that’s there isn’t great!
My first bite was from Michael Cimarusti from Providence in LA. Beautiful crispy-skinned fish with a plethora of pickled veggies. It was hard to get things together in one bite but all together the tart and tangy pickles with the mustard sauce and the perfectly cooked fish was a great plate of food. It was one of my favorite plates of the afternoon.
I then went next door to Gabriele Ask from Montage Beverly Hills. He had a bison ribeye tartare that absolutely loaded with truffles. I commented on that and he said, “Yes, we spent a lot of money!” I surely didn’t mind…oddly…since usually truffles are overwhelming for me but I very much enjoyed the tartare. He was also serving a duck confit with foie gras but I passed since foie is not for me. Everyone raved about it though.
My favorite plate of the day was the Pig’s Tail with herbs and fish sauce in gem lettuce served by Bryant Ng of The Spiced Table in LA. I didn’t even know you could eat the tail of a pig! I don’t picture there being much there. This was braised in slightly spicy, beautifully balanced sauce and had a generous amount of fish sauce but it wasn’t so much that it was offensive. It was a wonderfully composed dish. If you look at the picture, the things in the lower right corner…those are pig tails…mmmm…tail.
I saw Fabio Viviani by his table and I stopped by to say hello. I admit that I really love watching Top Chef and have since Season 2 when I discovered it. I saw Fabio at MotoGP at Laguna Seca a couple of years ago and could not figure out why I knew him for the longest time. I thought I actually personally knew the guy. I was convinced he worked with my husband or something and that I’d had a conversation with him because I could picture him laughing. No, I just watched him on TV so much I thought I knew him! I told him that; he was really nice.
I saw a table for Restaurant 1833 in Monterey and I’ve really been wanting to go there. It looks like such an interesting space and now I really want to try it. The dish Levi Mezick was presenting was a crispy pork with “BBQ” sauce which was more like a spicy mustard sauce. It was crispy, hot, spicy, tangy. My first bite from 1833 definitely moved the priority of getting a reservation there up.
I tried a few other dishes that were fine but not as good as the four I described so we’ll just move on to the few wines I dropped in on. The first was Almaviva. The lost grape. I was surprised to see them because I never see the bottles anywhere but my husband orders them from somewhere and I really love that wine. I had a taste of their ’09 and, although young, was drinking well and obviously could be put down for a few years.
I had to stop by Ridge. We’re members of their wine club and love almost everything they produce. I found it quite telling of the crowd there that they kept running out of Chardonnay. To be completely blunt, I don’t like Ridge for their white wine. To me they are all about Zin and their Petite Sirah is heavenly. Their big wine is the Monte Bello Cab blend. We have many bottles of that we won’t open for years. I wanted to get a peek at what I have waiting for me so I had the ’06 Monte Bello. Damn. That’s good. Can’t wait to open it! But I will. It will be even better later.
My last stop was for a glass of ’07 Alexander Valley Silver Oak Cab. I always love Silver Oak. They are consistently good and consistently not cheap. They were also pouring an ’07 Napa Valley Cab but from doing tastings at the winery I’ve found I prefer the Alexander. The other reason I picked it was because the Napa was in a fancier bottle and I went for the more austere…Oh, blending austerity and generosity! HA!
As I was leaving, there was a woman passing out free lettuce. She asked the gentleman in front of me, “Would you like some artisan lettuce to take with you?” He said, “What kind of lettuce?” She said, “Artisan lettuce.” He said, “You mean lettuce.” She said, “Artisan lettuce.” He said, “Does it grow in the dirt?” She said, “Yes.” He said, “Then it’s LETTUCE!” It was really funny and summed up the Pebble Beach portion of the event!
I had a nice time at this event and would love to attend on a press pass again but truly the Cayman Cookout spoiled me for any future food event. The intimacy of that gathering can’t be beat. Please send any donations to get me back to the Cayman Cookout next year to chantrelle@foodporn.com ;-)
Posted in celebrities, decadence, food, photos, restaurants, table dance | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 12th, 2012
If…I mean when…you go to Manresa, because you should, you’ll get two menus. One is a normal menu with dishes listed with ingredients. The other is an alphabetical list of ingredients for the “seasonal and spontaneous” chef’s tasting menu. You won’t know what will be together, in what dish, in what order, but you will know the general items that will be appearing on your plate over the course of the evening.
My husband’s evening started with a roasted red bell pepper pate de fruit with an olive madeleine. That was not for me given that bell peppers and olives are two things I detest but they knew that…I gave them my card! :)
The first thing I got was a mint sorbet in a lavender gelato. It was pretty, it was flavorful but those two flavors for me are gum and soap. It was beautifully executed and I ate/drank the whole thing…all the while saying, “Hmm…gum and soap.” This was not a miss in my book, just my weirdness.
The highlight of the whole dinner, the dish that still has us talking about it, was the Abalone with local milk panna cotta, abalone gelee and radish. I am not a fan of the texture of a huge blob of panna cotta but this was a thin, amazing layer, with a thin amazing layer of gelee (another thing I’m not typically wowed by) and crunchy, thin radishes and delicious thin slices of abalone. It was beautiful, creamy, salty, I wanted to order it for dessert.
The black radishes with savory granola were served on this gorgeous, wavy plate that had me chasing the dish around these little grooves but I’m not ashamed to used my fingers to mop up the last of the luscious saucy goodness. The granola in this had us longing for it the next morning. I hate sweet granola but I’m thinking maybe I should try my hand at making some savory instead!
A few years ago, every time I would eat a scallop, all I could taste was a metallic flavor. Like chomping into a piece of tin foil. Logically, that got me to stop ordering or cooking scallops and they used to be a favorite of mine. The only scallops I’ve had that I’ve enjoyed since then were raw at fancy sushi bars. That is until Saturday night. This one had that buttery flavor and caramelly sear that I so remembered and didn’t think I’d enjoy again. Along with the scallop were gorgeous pieces of asparagus (it must be Spring!!) and a scallop chip that I wanted a whole dish of.
Another dish that completely surprised me that I truly enjoyed was the slow-poached egg with toasted brioche and sweet onion soup. Runny eggs aren’t my thing but when added to a soup with the same or similar texture, the yolk just added a … not a depth of flavor, something else that means that!…to it…a richness…destination: another level. Now I understand why people like runny yolks! They’re quite sumptuous.
Black cod, aka Sablefish or Butterfish, is one of my favorite local delicacies. David layered every local “black” ingredient: Black cod, black truffle, black trumpet. Earthy and beautiful.
For the next course, the item on the menu was pork belly with blood sausage. I couldn’t do it…I might be able to do a blind tasting of blood sausage but I haven’t gotten to a point that I can knowingly dive into that yet…give me time, I’ll get there. My husband had it and said it was great. Instead I had duck with farro and was not at all disappointed in my substitution! The flavors were amazing. I do however like more fat rendered out and a crispier skin on my duck. Still, I enjoyed the course.
I’ve always liked the “What grows together, goes together” saying but that goes right out the window when you get Lamb with seaweed. Who knew?! Well, this surfer chef did. Maybe inspired by a beach barbecue? I don’t know. But the combination of lamb, seaweed, roasted garlic and charred green onions was great.
The cheese course came around which I obviously skipped but my husband picked out four and was struck dumb by the combination of Pim‘s marmalade and the roquefort cheese. He just kept pointing and saying, “That…..that…”
You may know that I am a huge fan of candy cap mushrooms. They’re maple goodness makes for the best cookies and ice cream. What I did not know what that you could pair candy cap ice cream with sunchokes (which are in my opinion bitterly vile things) and have it be such a magical combination. The sunchoke chips were bitter, salty and crunchy. The ice cream was rich and creamy, the doughnut hole (sure it had a fancy name, but it was a doughnut hole) was sweet and yeasty. A bite with all three components hit every sensory part of the tongue. Each component made stronger by the presence of the others.
Our waitress, Amanda I believe, was fun and accomodating and would have been as formal as we wanted her to be but of course we don’t go for that. The sommelier got the premier pairings spot on. He even helped me decipher a flavor I was getting in one of the wines that was driving me absolutely crazy because I couldn’t pinpoint it. We finally decided it was chervil and I’m sticking with that so I don’t go insane trying to figure it out. The general manager, Bobi, came and chatted with us for a while. We’ll be taking the same class from Pim in a couple of months. He was an excellent host. And Pim tipped David off that we were coming so he graciously came out to our table and talked with us a bit. We got to rave about the abalone and prod him about going to the Cayman Cookout next year. I hope it happens! We need some Bay Area representation there.
We’re looking at our calendars to plan our next dinner there. We need to hit another season, we did Spring last trip there too…oops! Summer next!
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Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
The morning started with sleep! We didn’t have a 10am event, our son didn’t have a 9:30 camp. We got to wake when we woke, slowly get going then walk our son down to the Les Chefs Petits brunch. This was supposed to be the kids making their own brunch in the Seven kitchen. This was bad planning on someone’s part since the Seven kitchen has their regular Sunday brunch happening and they couldn’t pile 30 kids into the kitchen! So they set them up out at one of the event tents on the beach instead. I’m sure this was better for the kids anyway, they got to have great food and still be maniacs.
Meanwhile we headed in to the ballroom for an incredible Champagne brunch. I never have high expectations for brunches. Even the one at the Waldorf in New York City failed to impress me. This one however…WOW. The champagne never stopped flowing, I wouldn’t be surprised if I consumed an entire bottle over the course of the morning. The level in my glass never dropped even though I was sipping the whole time. I piled my plate high with every seafood bit I could find. I don’t think I’d recovered from the meat-heavy Friday night BBQ so sushi, oysters, caviar, they all sounded wonderful and rejuvenating and they were. I basically just kept hitting the oyster bar until the brunch was over!
  
As we are all joyfully noshing away, there is an intense competition happening on stage, Top Chef style. The two finalists from the Cayman Cookoff, Maureen Cubbon and Eric St. Cyr, are frantically putting together a dish and a drink (the twist added to the competition by Richard Blais) for an intense table of judges: Eric Ripert, Anthony Bourdain, Jose Andres, Dana Cowin and the Governor of Cayman. I think I’d pass out from the stress! They are better prepared than me however and they completed their dishes and drinks and thoroughly impressed the judges.  Eric St. Cyr came out on top and after the winner was announced, the crazy judge crew got on stage with bottles of Moet and a huge saber! Luckily, no blood was drawn, champagne just sprayed anyone in the vicinity. All we needed were some umbrella girls…the MotoGP of food celebrations.
We hung out on the beach with our son for some of the afternoon, perused the artisan market, picked up some cookbooks and got them signed by Eric and Tony, then had some time to relax before the Gala Dinner. Unfortunately, the evening didn’t go as planned. I gave my “Food Aversions” card to the restaurant manager. I knew this was going to be an intense, stressful evening for the kitchen and the waitstaff. I thought the card would make things easier for all involved, I mean, that’s why I have them. What it did was make them fuss over every course of mine and over me which I don’t deal with well at all. I did get to enjoy a little before I went into panic mode though.
The first course was Wahoo Sashimi, Ume, Garlic and Shiso by Laurent Gras. Wahoo is just the best fish around. I could have eaten nothing but this. The fish paired with Laurent’s grace was a perfect dish. This is actually where the stress began. They didn’t bring me this, they brought me some sort of veggie salad instead. I didn’t want to be a problem but I wanted the wahoo! I saw them take the dish back to the kitchen…the kitchen activity is being broadcast to the whole dining room…I saw Eric talk to my waiter, look at the card, eventually the wahoo came out. I was humiliated. It was exactly what I was trying to avoid. I was truly bummed that my chef-idol was being inconvenienced by me.
I ran into Eric’s wife Sandra in the restroom after this. She is so incredibly awesome, I love that woman (hell, she babysat my kid!!). Anyway, I told her what happened and she joked with me about it and I felt much better. Then the next course came out and I had a substitute where I should have. The dish was Foie Gras Mulligatawny and I don’t like Foie. I got a gazpacho-like dish just bursting with flavor. We were temporarily back on track.
Then the waiter kept coming up and checking on me, making sure everything was fine, over and over. The service was so incredible, I had an anxiety attack. I took my fabulous glass of wine and sat outside for the next two courses. I couldn’t deal. I was completely blowing an amazing dinner. Then I found out my son was having a meltdown upstairs with his babysitter. I guess it was in the air. This gave me an out. I switched from foodie-mode to mother-lion mode and went to my kid. I said goodbye to Sandra grabbed my wine and headed up to the room.
My husband stayed and said Eric’s Venison was the highlight of the evening and he doesn’t even like venison. I’m sorry I missed it but something wasn’t meant to be. It was too fancy and uptight and stressful for me. I loved that we could be sitting around the table with people we’d never normally associate with. They were from different generations, different occupations and very different political worlds than us but we found common ground in the food. Food can bring us all together. It is a leveling ground.
I wish I could have experienced the full Gala Dinner but I truly enjoyed the courses I had. If we make it back to the Cookout next year, I know the Gala isn’t for me. It was icing on an already sweet weekend, truly not needed to complete the adventure. It was a non-stop bacchanalian escapade. I really hope we can do this again!
Read about Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3!
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