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Archive for the ‘flavor’ Category
Monday, April 9th, 2012
If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been on a bit of a braising kick. Maybe it’s because my Le Creuset French Oven doesn’t fit in my cabinet so it’s always staring at me from the stove top, beckoning to be filled with something yummy.
I didn’t have hours to let something braise so I cut up a chicken. I dug through the fridge and found enough to make a meal.
Cut the chicken into 8 pieces. I left the bones in the breast pieces. Brown chicken in a large, heavy, (oven-ready and lidded pot, like a dutch or french oven). Remove and set aside.
Add 1/2 c. mirin and and onion sliced into 1/2 moons, scrape up brown bits from the chicken to get all the flavor.
Let onion soften.
Add:
2 c. chicken stock
1/4 c. mirin
1 c peanut butter
3 chopped garlic cloves
2T honey
Bring to boil.
Add chicken back to pot.
Cover and bake at 325 for 45 min.
Remove chicken and reduce the sauce by about half. Stir in arugula off the heat, the sauce is plenty hot to wilt the greens. Stir in juice of 2 limes.
Serve over rice.
I was in a huge hurry plating and eating this though so no pictures this time! I’ll have to photograph it next time I make it which I’ll have to do pretty soon since my son LOVED the peanut sauce.
Posted in amateur, arugula, chicken, dinner, flavor, food, recipe, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
I made this soup a couple of month ago for a Soup Night gathering at my house. I had vegetarian friends coming so I simmered veggies in water all morning to make really flavorful stock for the soup. I had some dried cranberry beans from the farmers market in the pantry just screaming to be used. I had also seen a cranberry bean soup recipe in Eric Ripert’s A Return to Cooking that ultimately inspired this one.
Today I’m taking soup to friends who just had a baby last week and they’re vegan. I thought this would be good to take them since it’s packed with protein and it’s freezable. But when I came onto the site to find my recipe, I hadn’t ever posted it! Hopefully I got all the ingredients right and this will be just as tasty as last time.
—–
Soak 3 cups dried cranberry beans for at least 4 hours.
Sweat until soft:
1 onion, diced
1 fennel bulb, diced
2 medium leeks, chopped
Add:
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Cook on medium-low with the lid on for about 15 minutes (don’t let it brown, just soften)
Add 3 cups cranberry beans and 6 cups stock. I have used homemade veggie stock both times I’ve made this since it’s been for vegetarian or vegan friends but chicken stock would work just as well.
Bring it to a simmer and let it simmer for at least 2 hours or until the beans are soft.
Puree it all up into a lovely, creamy (without cream) soup.
Finish with a dollop of parsley-lemon puree and a drizzle of lemon oil and some crusty french bread.
Posted in amateur, flavor, food, leeks, organic, recipe, recipes, self pleasuring | No Comments »
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!
Posted in decadence, dinner, flavor, food, Michelin star, photos, restaurant, review, seasonal menu, table dance, tasting menu, wine | No Comments »
Saturday, March 10th, 2012
My CSA farm this year is Fogline Farm. We went there last year for an Outstanding in the Field dinner, had the honor of sitting with the farmers at dinner and decided we’d join their CSA next. I’ve been hopping from farm to farm each year, trying out all the variety in our county. One of the beautiful things about Fogline is they also raise Berkshire pigs. The CSA hasn’t started up yet but they are at the farmers’ market with beautiful cuts of pork. This week I picked up a nice 2lb-ish pork shoulder and tried cooking that for the first time. Man, did it work out. It was so amazingly good….and easy.
The only thing you need is time. This cooked for about 3 1/2 hours.
First, generously salt and brown the pork, on both sides over high heat, in a heavy bottomed pan that has a cover and can go in the oven.
Remove the pork and add a sliced onion, a good amount of herbs…I, of course, used marjoram and thyme…6 roughly chopped cloves of garlic. Stir that around a bit but it doesn’t need to soften or anything.
Put the pork back in atop the onion mixture.
Add 2 cups red wine (something good enough to drink, this will be your sauce too) and 2 cups chicken stock.
Cover and put in a 350° oven for 3 hours or more. I checked the meat at 2 1/2 hours, added a touch more wine and stock and turned the meat over. Then let it roast another hour.
After the pork is to a fall-apart tender stage, take it out of the pan and cover it with foil.
Carefully strain the liquid out of the pan into a saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce it to almost half. Stir in fresh parsley.
I put this over israeli couscous…I wanted orzo but didn’t have any…and I do think it’s disturbing to serve pork over israeli couscous–so sorry. It’s what I had!
Anyway, choose your grain or starch you prefer. Spoon some of the wine reduction over it. Shred the pork and put that on top.
Serve with either the wine you braised the pork in or another good, hearty, rustic wine.
- 2 – 2 1/2 lb pork shoulder
- 1 onion, sliced
- 6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- handful of herbs
- 2 cups red wine
- 2 cups chicken stock
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 3 hour(s) 30 minute(s)
Tags: pork
Posted in amateur, dinner, farmers market, flavor, food, recipe, self pleasuring, wine | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012
Japan met Italy in my kitchen tonight. I got black cod from my CSS (Community Supported Seafood), my weekly seafood CSA. I was in the mood for something japanese-y.
I found this recipe for miso-glazed cod. I used the marinade (1/4 c mirin, 1/4 c sake, 3t sugar, 4T miso) and let my cod marinate in that for about an hour.
In the meantime I dug around my kitchen to see what I should serve with the fish. I decided to make some sushi rice and make arancini out of that. Once the rice was cooked, I added seasoned rice vinegar, a little soy sauce, some minced green onion and some parsley…mostly because I have a cubic yard of parsley from my dad’s garden right now. I shaped the rice into balls and fried them in 300° grapeseed oil until they were brown.
I also have a 1/2 cubic yard of arugula from my dad so I wilted that in a pan with some garlic and olive oil.
I grilled the cod on the barbecue for about 5 minutes on one side then about 2 minutes on the other.
To serve I put the arugula, then three of the rice balls, balanced the cod on top and put some grated daikon on top of the fish.
For a complete experiment, I’d say this was a huge win.
Tags: arancini, cod, daikon, fish
Posted in amateur, arugula, dinner, flavor, food, italian, recipe, recipes, rice | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
When we were at the Cayman Cookout we had a really yummy Green Curry Ceviche made by Laurent Gras. It was light and refreshing, a little spicy, tangy and just perfect.
Today I got Ono (aka Wahoo) from my Seafood CSA and immediately wanted to make something that would take me back to the Caymans. This dish was the first to my mind. I didn’t really remember what went into it though so, as usual, I improvised and it really worked!
- 1 cup coconut water
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 small shallot
- 1 stalk lemongrass, chopped
- juice of 2 limes
- 1 jalapeno or similar chile
- 2 t cumin
- 1 t coriander
- handful of cilantro
- salt
- 1 lb wahoo/ono
- 1 avocado
- 1 japanese cucumber
- Blend everything (except fish, avocado and cucumber) in a blender until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer.
- Dice fish. Dice avocado. Dice cucumber.
- Put the diced everything in a bowl and pour the coconut green curry liquid over the fish mixture. Finish with a good salt. Since I was being nostalgic, I used the Cayman Island salt we brought home!
- Enjoy!
Preparation time: 10 minutes
I served this with some thinly sliced, toasted pugliese and sake. It wasn’t Laurent Gras’ but I will sure make this again!
Posted in amateur, avocado, cumin, dinner, flavor, food, recipe, recipes, sake, salt, self pleasuring | No Comments »
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Posted in chanterelles, cumin, dinner, flavor, food, hardcore, mushrooms, organic, photos, seasonal menu, table dance, wine | No Comments »
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!
Posted in ahi, celebrities, decadence, eric ripert, flavor, food, photos, sushi, table dance | No Comments »
Friday, January 20th, 2012
The first event of Saturday morning was one I was really looking forward to. Good vs. Evil – Ripert and Bourdain in conversation. I didn’t realize they had a schtick. They interrogate each other in quite the hilarious way. Tony started on Eric, trying to find his weaknesses…trying to embarrass him. Eric seems to blush quite easily but he’s prepared, it’s all in good fun. Then Eric went at Tony but was still the good cop of the two.
The interesting point in the conversation was when they ended their performance and took questions from the audience. There was a lot of talk about the Food Network chefs. About how Paula Deen is the evilest of them all, I’m sure you’ve heard in the press, because she promotes ridiculously unhealthy food, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes three years ago but kept showcasing crap food and is going to be endorsing diabetes pharmeceuticals now. Evil and wrong. This got Tony going more than anything. Until someone brought up Gordon Ramsey. I’ve never seen Eric get upset. He’s usually completely diplomatic about everything. He hates the way Gordon abuses his chefs and not only that, how the show is preloaded with people set up to fail. It is wrong, immoral and damaging to the cooking world.
They also were asked how to get Americans to change their view on food. I completely agree with what Tony said. We have to take the low road. We have to brainwash the kids. Eric’s son thinks that Ronald McDonald kidnaps kids and sometimes they end up in the burgers. That is brilliant. Our son thinks McDonalds is just a bathroom on road trips. You need to make the kids think they’ll be weird or shunned if they eat fast food. If the majority of kids thinks that, it will spread like wildfire. I’ve seen it myself with my kid and his friends. I’ve heard him lecture a friend for going to Burger King. About how awful it is and how it’s not really food. I just hung back and listened, I had nothing to add. To change the world, we have to change the next generation’s thought process.
I briefly gushed at Eric afterward…I cannot talk to that man without praising him endlessly. It’s embarrassing. I have to stop! This time it was about McDonald’s. I love that idea.
  
We made our way to the other side of the resort to Periwinkle for lunch by Laurent Gras. I was really looking forward to this one. After the ceviche on Friday, I knew I’d like what he was doing. I have to admit, I had no idea who he was before he was booked for the Cookout. For being such an avid foodie, I don’t follow the restaurant scene and news all that much unless I’m going somewhere and need somewhere to eat. I missed all the Laurent drama. I was kind of glad for that actually, I came in with a clean slate. He is a genius with freshness and lightness. I left his lunch full but not exhausted and weighed down. We had Conch ceviche with caviar, parsley and lime; Caribbean Lobster with dark rum and lettuce; Wahoo with tomato, ginger and cilantro; and Melon consomme with lemon ginger sorbet.
Our tablemates were marvelous. A woman named Rosemary who makes it a point of getting cookbooks signed everywhere she goes. She has over 500 signed books now in just a few years. A couple from Calgary who are food critics for that area, they were lovely. And Richard Morais, a writer for Barrons and a published author. I just bought his book, The Hundred-Foot Journey and will start reading it soon. It looks fantastic.
For the whole weekend, my husband and I were in the same demos and events except for one. He wanted to drink wine with Aldo Sohm (Le Bernardin’s AMAZING sommelier), I wanted to go see Richard Blais. We both made the right choice and both wished we could be in two places at once. He had wines that were rare and to die for. He snuck me a white burgundy that I savored for as long as I could. Blais was hilarious! He was entertaining, knowledgeable, enthusiastic and so much fun. He made “Oysters and Pearls,” his homage to Thomas Keller but a completely different dish. He took oysters, topped them with a mignonette that had minced cilantro stem in it along with dill, shallots and, of course, vinegar. Then he  topped them with the pearls which were horseradish-creme fraiche frozen in liquid nitgrogen. This session made me want to head to the welding shop and buy myself a container of liquid nitrogen. He also made frozen margaritas by putting the tequila and lime in the mixer and whisking in liquid nitrogen until it became like a sorbet. Genius.
The last demo before dinner was from Eric Ripert himself. Cocktails and Ceviche on the beach. He demonstrated a ceviche and a tartare. Both delicious of course. All the while the sun is turning golden behind him. Our son was playing in the waves with Eric’s son (they had a blast together and Sandra is an utterly sweet and wonderful woman). And we were sipping Moet Chandon and eating Eric’s fish. Life was perfect right then.
Dinner was off-site at Michaels Genuine Food and Drink. We were bussed to the event, given champagne and hors d’euvres and then led to our tables. We had Wahoo crudo, slow roasted pork shoulder, rabbit crepes and lamb scottacdito. None of which I got pictures of because it was too dark but from what we heard the next day, Michael’s was the best dinner of the evening. It was really fantastic.
 After the meal we quickly rushed through the dessert tables, grabbed some absolutely wonderful treats and then had to rush back to get our son from camp again. The disadvantage of having our son with us was having to dart out of things early, the advantage was…well, everything else. He had such an amazing time and when we picked him up that just meant we weren’t hanging around events too late, getting too tired and too drunk. I think it worked out well for all of us.
Only one more day to go. Everything flew by so fast.
Read about Day 1 and Day 2!
Posted in celebrities, celebrity, decadence, dinner, eric ripert, flavor, food, Le Bernardin, table dance, tasting menu, tuna tartare, wine | No Comments »
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
The first real day of the Cookout began at 10am. As Jose Andres put it, “Who puts a cooking class at 10am?! You start a cooking class at 3pm so you have the day sleep and then do your things…then cook!” But he didn’t seem to be slowed by the early start. As Dana Cowin was introducing him for demonstration, she was wondering where he was. As she was saying, “He has got to be here somewhere…” he came bounding on the stage straight out of the ocean in his scuba gear with his ten year old daughter. He is a character to say the least. We were all seated in a tent with the people who payed extra with their American Express Platinum Cards having the preferred seats in the front rows. He undid all that (hilariously) by getting everyone up and out into the blazing sun on the beach, around ENORMOUS paella pans over fires built in the sand. He immediately started hollering for volunteers: 2 people for each pan to stir and add ingredients, 4 people to help make the cocktails, 3 people to grill oysters…go go go!!!
 
The fires were hot. The sun was hot. His sous chefs were in jeans. I thought they were going to pass out but they have to be strong to work for this guy. The dish he was making was called Fideo. It’s like paella but made with pasta instead of rice. Much easier to control the outcome of when cooking for 100 people over open flames on a beach! Pork ribs, tomatoes, pasta (short angel hair), lobster, broth. Everyone was sweating like mad in the heat of the day and the fires but the cocktails started flowing. Fruit, mint, champagne…a beautiful, refreshing way to begin drinking at 10am!!
 
I stood next to Dana Cowin and shamelessly plugged my web site. All the while Jose is running around like a madman and then puts a song on the PA, passes around lyrics and has us all sing along. He is amazing and the food was phenomenal. He’s completely insane and a blast to see cook.
Our next ticket was for a Behind the Scenes tour of Blue by Eric Ripert. They don’t ever just call it “Blue”, it is always “Blue by Eric Ripert”. That was making me laugh.
 
Anyway, we arrived and grabbed a front row seat. Luis Lujan is the Executive Chef at Blue (by Eric Ripert) and walked us through the preparation of the dishes we’d be having for lunch. The first was wahoo. If you ever have a chance to eat wahoo, DO IT! This is an incredible fish. It looks like hamachi but it melts in your mouth. He cut it perfectly, seared in perfectly and dressed it perfectly. I would expect no less. Eric popped in to say hello and then we all got a brief tour of the kitchen. It’s not a huge kitchen and in 2 days time would be filled with the world’s best chefs making 164 plates each for the Gala Dinner. Incredible.
  
We then sat on the patio for our lovely lunch. The wine flows continuously at these events. I’m amazed I could walk but something happens on these sorts of adventures and what would result in me being horizontal at home is just par for the course as the weekend goes on. Probably not healthy but this is not an every day occurence.
 
The afternoon treated us to a demo by April Bloomfield of which I only got to catch the end. Then a beautiful green curry ceviche by Laurent Gras. I was so ridiculously full by this point, I was scared of what Laurent was going to present but it was so light and refreshing that it was more like a cocktail with some fish in it than a meal. It was almost a palate cleanser. He took the ingredients of a green curry but instead of making it a heavy dish full of coconut milk, he used coconut water and created a light ceviche. Something I will definitely try at home.
The first of the epic evening events was the Barefoot BBQ at Tiki Beach. They had a shuttle running from the hotel to the event but it was a whopping 2km away, on the beach, we decided to walk. Really for two reasons: one, we were already so full, we needed to work up an appetite and two, we had to pick up our son from his amazing camp at the hotel before the shuttles were going to be running at the end of the event and we needed to time the walk. What a beautiful way to get to the BBQ. I’m so glad we did that. We didn’t have to wait in line with anxious rich folks who complain if things aren’t exactly as they think they should be, we were walking along the white sandy beach of Grand Cayman at dusk. You can’t beat that.
We arrived at Tiki Beach and it was crazy-busy. Our first stop was Tony Bourdain’s station and some sumptuous pork. He’s still got it man. He may be more known for traveling and writing now but 28 years in the kitchen doesn’t just vanish. He makes a mean pig. We worked our way to the complete opposite end of the venue and found Jose Andres being loud and hilarious as usual as his chefs carved thin slices of Jamon Iberico. I will never be able to eat prosciutto again now that I’ve experienced Iberico. Dryer, saltier, damn it was good. It was atop some sliced beef. So now I’ve had pork, I’ve had beef with pork on top and we waltz over to Eric Ripert’s station where he’s serving beef tenderloin. Why not?! Pork, beef and pork, beef….so full. I thought I made a damn fine tenderloin but, as usual, Eric takes it beyond.
We found a table in the back near Jose Andres and relaxed with our plates for a bit. We got to visit with some fabulous people. I wasn’t sure how the attendees would be at this. There is a lot of money here obviously. And there are some people that have more money than I could ever imagine having and are real snots about it. They have their Gucci and Valentino clothes shipped to them to try on because they live an hour from the Galleria and that’s just too damn inconvenient for shopping. Just one example. But the people we visited with at the BBQ were all wonderful. One woman was a coordinator for the event. One couple had been before but brough his mom this year from Michigan. There were a lot of Canadians representing. Maybe because of Paul Rogalski being there or maybe becuase it’s usually 25 below this time of year and it’s a great escape.
After a few nibbles of dessert we headed back to the beach and walked back to the hotel under the stars….many more stars than we get to see in our neck of the woods. Mars was so bright it was reflecting off the ocean. Amazing.
Read about Day 1 and Day 3!
Posted in celebrity, decadence, eric ripert, flavor, food, Le Bernardin, photos, seasonal menu, table dance | No Comments »
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