Alinea: 8-23-12

This was my fifth visit to Alinea, and although the food ranked squarely in the middle of the 5 tours, the overall enjoyment of the meal was probably the best.  That’s not to say the food was average; it was still outstanding.  I think the enjoyment had a lot to do with my mindset going into the meal.  I had no expectations as  I didn’t look at the menu beforehand.  Thanks to the revelatory meal at Schwa, I didn’t take myself too seriously either despite the formal setting.  My main goal was to have great time with the company I was with and I did.  It was the most fun I’ve had at Alinea thus far.

Things started out differently this time.  The entrance carpet was replaced with grass and a fan blew a breeze through the narrow hallway, making wind chimes dance and sing.  At the front of the hallway was a metal tub filled with water.  Floating round and round in the water were glasses filled with the first taste of the night: lemonade.  It had an intense lemon flavor, but it was a bit too sweet for me.  Still, an unexpected and fun start to the night.

 

STEELHEAD ROE – peach, St. Germain, kinome

Four blocks of ice were placed on the table when we arrived.  From my past meals at Alinea, I figured these would be the table centerpieces and eventually be incorporated into a course near the middle of the meal.

To my surprise, the blocks of ice were used for the very first course.  The glass boba straws were handed to us and we were instructed to place it in the ice and slurp away.  Within the ice was a peach distillation, and within the glass boba straw were the roe and garnishes.  This dish reminded me of the Fruit Loops roe course at Schwa.  Both were fruity, briny, and salty.

 

SHELLFISH PROGRESSION

I was familiar with the template of the shellfish progression from my last visit, but the presentation this time was more ambitious.  The shellfish sat on top of a piece of driftwood covered in fresh kelp.  The oyster leaf with mignonette and  razor clam with shiso, soy, and daikon seemed to taste the same as last time.  This wasn’t necessarily a good thing, though, as the razor clam again was tough, chewy, and a little too salty.  However, the king crab with passion fruit, heart of palm, and allspice was stellar, as was the lobster with carrot and chamomile .

 

WOOLLY PIG – fennel, orange, squid

I didn’t get much pork flavor, but the combination of fennel, orange, and squid worked really well.  I’ll be using this combination in my everyday cooking.

 

TOMATO – watermelon, chili, basil

My hatred of raw tomatoes is well known.  The last time I had a tomato dish at Alinea, I had trouble getting it down.  This tomato dish was one of my favorites of the night and went down quickly and easily.  There wasn’t much of that grassy, vegetal finish to the tomatoes that tomatoes can sometimes have.  Raw celery has a similar, but stronger, finish and it’s the main reason I have a tough time with both.  The tomatoes were very sweet, perhaps even sweeter than the watermelon.  The chili and basil heightened the brightness of the dish.

On the bottom of the dish was tomato ice.  One of my dining companions astutely pointed that it was very much like the tomato ice served at Next: elBulli.  This was when I started to think about the potential crosspollination of techniques and ideas between Alinea, Next, and The Aviary.  Another link between this dish and the tomato ice dish served at Next was that they were both paired with sake.  The pairing was really well done as the muskmelon notes from the sake played really well with the tomato and watermelon.  Perhaps they were also testing sakes for Next: Kyoto.

 

CORN – huitlacoche, sour cherry, silk

This was corn in many different forms.  The silk was fried.  The husk was charred, combined with fat, and mixed with tapioca maltodextrin to form a “rock.”  The kernels and kernel fungus, aka huitlacoche, were pureed.  Plating was inspired by the artwork found throughout the restaurant.  Although this was a very tasty dish and one of my favorites of the night (I ended up licking the plate), I wish there were actual corn kernels or something to give the dish that satisfying crunch and pop when you chomp down on an ear of corn.

 

OTORO – thai banana, sea salt, kaffir lime

It took me a minute or 2 to realize they were serving fish in a fish bowl.  The tuna was supposedly some sort of sustainable tuna.  I’m not sure if the provenance of the fish was the main factor, but I’ve had tastier otoro before.  When everything was eaten together, though, it didn’t matter much because it was a really great dish.  I found myself awkwardly tilting the bowl every which way in order to savor every last drop of the kaffir lime sauce.  I don’t know why I didn’t just lift the bowl up and drink the sauce.

 

CHANTERELLE – ramps, asparagus, smoked date

This dish tasted a lot like the autumn scene dish at Next: Childhood as pointed by my astute dinning companion.  Even the presentation of the food on a plank of charred wood was similar to the autumn scene dish.  The earthy darkness of the mushrooms was deepened by the smoked date and perfectly cut by the sourness of pickled ramps and astringency and bitterness of asparagus.  A standout composition of flavors and one of my favorites of the night.

 

HOT POTATO – cold potato, black truffle, butter

A classic.  Knowing how legitimately time sensitive this dish is, I refrained from taking a picture.  It was noteworthy that I spilled a bunch of the cold potato soup while pulling the pin, making myself look like a slob in addition to an uncivilized oaf who licks plates.

 

LAMB – ……..?????……………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sixty different garnishes were presented for the table to pick and chose.  With a recommendation of 3-4 garnishes per cut of lamb (shank, saddle, loin), you had yourself a “choose your own adventure” dish filled with surprise and intrigue.  That being said, I enjoyed the concept of this dish more than the flavor.  Although I had fun trying more than the recommended 3-4 garnishes per cut of lamb and identifying them, the garnishes boiled down to a handful of disparate flavor profiles: sweet with anise, tart and fruity, herbaceous, bitter and astringent, and nutty.  I found the sweet with anise garnishes to be my favorite.  I thought it worked really well and it was something I’d never had before.  It’ll be something I try with lamb at home.

Again I saw a hint of the crosspollination between restaurants.  Another astute dining companion pointed out one of the garnishes was finely diced mirepoix.  This reminded me of the solid aromatic herb sauce at Next: elBulli.

 

BLACK TRUFFLE – explosion, romaine, parmesan

Another classic.  Sadly, one of the explosions didn’t really have much of an explosion.

 

ANJOU PEAR – onion, brie, smoking cinnamon

Like the hot potato / cold potato and black truffle explosion, I’ll never get tired of the tempura on burning stick dish.  I could have eaten about 10 more of these as the flavors were so well balanced.

 

GINGER – five other flavors

From right to left, the flavors progressed from savory to sweet.  The pins were removable.  I wish they actually told us what each of the five bites were composed of, but I guess it’s my own fault for not asking.  I do have a feeling that one of the bites was galangal and not ginger because it packed a lot of heat.  The spiciness carried over into the start of the next dish.

 

BLUEBERRY – buttermilk, sorrel, macadamia

The implement for this course was really cool.  On top was a flat surface, in the middle was a hole, and on the bottom was a bowl filled with liquid nitrogen.  The hole was sealed with a glass stopper, causing the dish to rattle from the liquid nitrogen’s steam.  We lifted the stoppers and the servers poured in a sorrel drink, or what I like to call “adult Ecto Cooler.”  Slimer would’ve given his stamp of approval.  I could’ve chugged that stuff all night.  As the juice mixed with the liquid nitrogen, steam billowed out from the hole in the plate.

I would've been completely happy if the food didn’t live up to the adult Ecto Cooler, but it surpassed the tastiness of the green witches’ brew.  The yellow cake in the middle was actually cheese in some form, and when paired with the different preparations of high quality blueberries reminded me of blueberry cheesecake.  This was my favorite dish of the night.

 

BALLOON – helium, green apple

Building on the theatrics of liquid nitrogen steam, edible balloons were brought to the table.  The string was a very tasty green apple leather.  The flavor of the balloon was like a green apple flavor h-bomb, where in this case the h stands for helium.  It may have surpassed green apple Jolly Ranchers as my favorite green apple sweet.  Making a mess eating the balloon was unavoidable because texture of the balloon was a lot stickier than I imagined.  When I went to bite into the balloon, it popped in my face and got all over my hands, nose, cheeks, and mouth.  Thankfully the server strongly advised me to take off my glasses before going at it.  Sucking in the helium while struggling with sticky apple balloon all over my face and hands was a lot of fun.

 

WHITE CHOCOLATE – strawberry, english pea, lemon

The mat dessert changed a bit since the last time I was at Alinea.  This time, white chocolate spheres filled with goodies sat on the table.  Then, garnishes and sauces are sprinkled and smeared onto the mat.  The finale comes when liquid nitrogen is poured into the spheres, making them very brittle.  The spheres are then picked up and dropped onto the table, shattering into shards and revealing the goodies.  It was like a fine dining pinata.  The spheres were so brittle, that one of them cracked when lifted.  For a moment I was afraid it would crumble in the chef’s hands.

I don’t enjoy ending a meal on chocolate, so I loved the fact that this rendition was all about fruit.  The quality and intensity of the strawberries was the star here.  I also learned another flavor combination to tuck away in my back pocket.  I can foresee a strawberry, pea, and white chocolate cookie on the horizon.  Overall, it was a great time and a great meal.

Gelonch Restaurant: 9-14-11

When a professional cook suggests restaurants to eat at, you obey.  You obey, and you will eat well.  After disappointing fine dinning experiences in the Basque Country, we ate at mostly tapas places recommended by a cook friend while in Barcelona: Bar Pinotxo, El Quim de la Boqueria, Tapac 24, and Cal Pep.  All were amazing delights in their own special way.  We did end up eating at one fine dining restaurant, though.  Again on the recommendation of our cook friend, we ate at Gelonch Restaurant and had the second best meal of the entire trip to Spain. Costing 63 Euros for a 12 course tasting menu, Gelonch was easily the best value of any place we ate at in Barcelona.  Every single course was packed with creativity and flavor, which made the fact that we were only 1 of 2 parties served the entire night bewildering.

There would have been a 3rd party in the cozy little restaurant, but after briefly looking at the menu, 2 ladies dressed in posh dresses got up and left.  I felt sorry for the potential diners because they were missing out on really excellent food.  That pity quickly turned into frustration because they refused to give the restaurant a chance.  There was even an a la carte tapas menu for them to test the waters.  I got even more frustrated when I learned that Gelonch does not lay claim to any Michelin stars.  The food we were served at Gelonch was astronomically better than the 3-star Akelarre and definitely better than the world-renowned 2-star Mugaritz.

Not only was Gelonch better than a 3 and 2-star Michelin, but it was better than every 1-star Michelin I’ve ever been to except for Schwa and Blackbird here in Chicago (not counting DiverXO because shortly after dining there they deservedly were awarded their 2nd star).  Interestingly enough, Gelonch felt like the Catalan version of Blackbird: somewhat global flavors rooted in the regional cuisine with a sprinkling of modern techniques when appropriate.  If you’re ever in Barcelona, take the cook’s advice and get yourself to Gelonch.

Strawberry gazpacho with its air

 

Grilled iberian pancetta, roasted scallop, peanut tabouli, crunchy prawn, and coriander cream

 

Wagyu beef carpaccio, honey breadcrumbs, beech smoke, grilled rocket leaves

 

Tuna toro slice on a cracker with olives, cheery tomatoes, and oil foam

 

Cuttlefish taglierini with deconstructed pesto: parmiggiano whey, basil oil, garlic chips

 

Quail eggs, grilled baby squid, anemones, asparagus, baked  garlic cream, and chorizo breadcrumbs

 

Codfish loin with morels

 

Wagyu beef 40 hour stew, beet lactose, and salsify in watercress

 

Suckling pig 24 hours sous vide, sunchoke cream, cashews, and croissant

 

Assorted fruit cocktails: orange Campari, apple Grey Goose, watermelon gin tonic, pineapple-coconut rum

 

Balearic Islands: sobrasada air cake, ensaimada ice cream, cheese cream, and Soller tangerine coulis

 

Summer truffle ganache, matcha tea cake, chocolate ice cream, and caramelized pistachio

Schwa: 6-21-12

If you don’t know about Schwa, this GQ article is great, and the Wikipedia articles on chef/proprietor Michael Carlson and his restaurant are surprisingly detailed.  One thing that the GQ article nails is Carlson’s generosity and kindness.  From the time we walked through the doors, we were treated like old friends despite having never dined there before.

Before I had time to say a single word or sit down, Carlson said “Hey what’s up, man?  Brian, right?” and gave me a hug (no high fives allowed at Schwa).  Going to Schwa was like going to a dinner party thrown by your best friend who happens to be a world class cook.  We were eating some of the best food I’d ever had (I’d put it at #2 behind DiverXO) in the most unpretentious, casual, and fun setting.

They traded jokes and stories with us.  They donned luchador masks at one point.  They blasted the Notorious B.I.G., Michael Jackson, and other great classics over the sound system.  They brought us back to hang out with them in the kitchen.  They shared some of their wine and beer with us.  They started a strobe light dance party.  It was surreal.  As an entire package, the meal at Schwa was the best meal of my life by a large margin.

Many of the dishes had flavor combinations that sounded odd but worked so beautifully.  Other dishes were fantastic riffs on classics.  In all cases, the creativity, thought, and care that went into each dish was of the highest level.

Chocolate Cherry Manhattan – The amuse.  What looked like a chocolate-covered maraschino cherry was actually cherry-flavored chocolate.  The faux cherry swam in little pool of cocktail.

Orange Coriander Soda – This served as a chaser to the Manhattan.  It was very refreshing and aromatic.

Pig Face Cassoulet Salad – The salad course.  I found it pretty hilarious that Schwa took a rich, heavy casserole and made it into a salad course.  Despite being called a salad, there weren’t that many greens on the plate.  It consisted primarily of beans, so perhaps the “salad” descriptor was meant to convey that it was a bean salad.  Regardless, I didn’t find this dish as heavy as traditional cassoulet and the pig face was very flavorful.

Baked Potato Soup – The soup course.  This was described as an homage to the Wendy’s baked potato bar.  The potato formed the base of the soup and was garnished with a chive puree, bacon, bacon puree, sour cream, truffle, and a long strip of amazing gooey choose from Utah.  It tasted like the greatest baked potato ever and reminded me of the “hot potato, cold potato” dish at Alinea.

Quail Egg Ravioli – An extra course.  Somewhat of a Schwa signature dish.  A perfectly cooked ravioli filled with a runny quail egg yolk.  The ravioli was glazed with butter, herbs, and I believe truffle oil.  Rich, velvety, buttery, earthy.

Celery Root Tortellini with Celery, Green Apple, & Truffle – The pasta course.  This was my favorite dish of the night.  It was also the most interesting dish of the night in terms of flavor combinations.  The celery and green apple went so well together while the truffle added a big savory note.  The tortellini were served atop a green apple reduction.  The green apple reduction was perfect because it was a great substitute for something like tomato sauce: both are acidic and sweet.  The reduction reminded me of Spaghetti-O’s sauce.  I should note that I love Spaghetti-O’s.

Fruit Loops – The roe course.  Blis steelhead roe with passion fruit gelee, pickled papaya, and violet foam.  Yes, it smelled and tasted like fruit loops with roe.  No, it was not gross.  It was amazing.  When I stopped to think about the combination, I wondered why I’d never seen something like this before because it makes complete sense.  The tartness and sweetness from the passion fruit work as a great foil to the saltiness and brininess of the roe.

Oyster with Oatmeal – An extra course.  Carlson invited us back into the tiny kitchen to chat while he prepared this dish.  The oatmeal sort of looked like vomit, but that didn’t matter at all because the single bite of oyster with a bit of oatmeal and some type of fruit was outstanding.  There was a great contrast between the briny and earthy flavors.

Salmon with Pink Lemonade, Grapefruit & Truffle - The fish course.  Sous vide salmon with (if I recall correctly) a pink lemonade gelee, candied grapefruit rind, and truffle.  Nothing wrong with the dish, but nothing too exciting either.  It boiled down to a well cooked piece of fish with some citrus.

Curry-Crusted Foie Gras with Kumquat – The offal course.  Foie gras was shaped into a small ball and coated with an intensely aromatic curry powder.  I can’t remember how the kumquat was prepared, but I’m guessing a jam or puree.  The foie gras and kumquat combination I immediately understood, but the addition of curry is why the guys at Schwa are geniuses and I’m not.  It just worked.  After much pondering, I came to the conclusion that kumquat and curry went well together because coriander and citrus are a natural pairing.  Coriander is in curry powder and kumquat is a citrus.

Pheasant with Popcorn & Bourbon – The meat course.  Confit pheasant leg and roasted pheasant breast served over a popcorn/bourbon sauce topped with popcorn and popcorn foam.  I understood the pheasant and bourbon pairing after having bourbon chicken countless times at mall food courts, and the combination of popcorn and bourbon almost reminded me of caramel popcorn.  This was an interesting dish and no doubt tasty, but I wasn’t wowed like I was with most of the other dishes.

Rice Krispies Treat with Horchata – An extra course.  As far as I could tell, a traditional preparation of a Rice Krispies treat. It may have had spices such as cinnamon to compliment the excellent horchata, but I honestly can’t remember.  Much later, I realized how natural it was to pair a Rice Krispies treat with horchata: both are made from rice.  Much, much later, I learned the Rice Krispies treat was made from dried parsnip flakes and the horchata from parsnip milk.  The fact they were able to get the texture of a Rice Krispies treat from parsnip was very neat.  I typically love desserts that feature root vegetables, and learning that this was parsnip-centric dessert made me love Schwa even more.

French Onion Soup – The cheese course.  Imagine a lollipop where instead of hard candy there’s a pie crust.  Inside the pie crust were caramelized onions and cheese.  It tasted like French onion soup in pie form.

Dr. Pepper – The dessert course.  Dr. Pepper was deconstructed into a dessert consisting of some type of ice cream, vanilla foam, carbonated prune, prune puree, cherry sauce, a short bread cookie, and other things I can’t recall.  When eaten all together it tasted like Dr. Pepper.  How could I tell?  Because they served it with a glass of Dr. Pepper.

Hoosier Mama Chocolate Chess Pie – An extra “course.”  During the middle of service, a delivery from Hoosier Mama Pie Company arrived for the kitchen.  At some point during the meal, Carlson brought one of the pies out and plopped it down on the vacant table next to us and commanded that we eat the pie made by what he described as the best pie makers in the world.  I trusted his expert opinion.  After finishing the Dr. Pepper, we went to work on the pie.  As I said, Michael Carlson is a very generous person.

Akelarre: 9-9-11

When planning the itinerary for Spain, I learned that the Basque Country is regarded as the place to experience the best of Spanish cuisine.  Consulting the Michelin guide, the Basque Country lays claim to three of the seven 3-starred restaurants in Spain.  In addition to fine dining, San Sebastian’s famous pintxos culture is supposed to be the pinnacle of tapas.  Thus, the main goal of visiting San Sebastian in the Basque Country of Spain was to eat and expectations were high.  The first stop in San Sebastian was the Michelin 3-star Akelarre.

Along with Juan Mari Arzak of Retaurante Arzak, Pedro Subijana of Akelarre is one of the fathers of New Basque cuisine.  Much time was spent on deciding whether to go to Arzak versus Akelarre.  Both have 3 Michelin stars, but Arzak is currently the #8 restaurant in the world while Akelarre is #94.  Contrary to the world rankings, it seemed like most people who recently dinned at both restaurants preferred Akelarre.  The deciding factor was a reviewer who seemed to have similar tastes as me that much preferred Akelarre over Arzak.

However, the meal was a huge disappointment.  Only 2 dishes were remotely memorable and I’d have a hard time putting Akelarre even into 1-star territory.  Despite a lack of photos from my meal at DiverXO, I can remember the taste of the majority of dishes.  I can’t say the same thing for Akelarre even though I have photos of each dish.

 

Amuse Bouche: Hotel Amenities

From left to right: crunchy onion sponge with tomato-basil gel, idiazabal cream with powdered prawn, cocktail of grenadine and cava.  Other than the presentation, nothing really interesting going on here.  The tomato-basil gel was decent, though.  The hotel amenities were meant to be the amuse bouche and everyone at the table received the same bites.  After the amuse, though, the offerings diverged as Akelarre offers 2 menus.

 

1A: Gambas con Vainas al Fuego de Orujo

Prawns cooked tableside in a flambe of Orujo.  We had bigger and tastier prawns previously in Madrid, the following day at Etxebarri, and the following week in Barcelona.

One of the heads of my shrimp detached itself while the server was walking the dish over to my seat.  She paused for a second, gave a shocked look at the other server who was also walking the dish over to my mom, and placed the dish in front of me.

 

1B: Txangurro en Esencia sobre Blini de Coral

Spider crab.  A play on the traditional Basque dish called txangurro.  Being completely unfamiliar with Basque cuisine, I missed the connection here.  I also missed all the crab meat in the dish because my dad finished it all before swapping plates with me.

 

2A: Moluscos en la Red del Pescador

Mollusks in “fisherman’s net.”  An array of simply prepared mollusks covered by a crunchy net that had the texture of Chinese shrimp chips.  I don’t recall any flavor to the net.  I do recall having a bite of cockle (berberecho) that was quite good, though.

 

2B: Navaja con Pata de Ternera

Razor clam with veal shank.  The razor clam was decent, but we had ones that were much sweeter and memorable the next week in Barcelona at Cal Pep that were simply cooked a la plancha and drizzled with olive oil.  I don’t remember anything about the veal shank.

 

3A: Carpaccio de Pasta, Piquillos e Iberico

Basically thin pasta “carpaccio” made with jamon iberico.  I don’t' remember tasting much jamon in each bite.  The jamon pasta tasted like normal pasta, and the cheese was the most powerful flavor on the plate.

 

3B: Foie Fresco a la Sarten, Sal y Pimienta

Seared foie gras with sugar and puffed rice crisps.  The sugar was added tableside and described as salt while the rice crisps were described as pepper.  The illusion was completely broken a few seconds after the description when the server assured us it wasn’t really salt and pepper.  I thought it defeated the purpose of the misdirection if they’re going to tell you what it really is before you even eat it.  However, this was the only memorable savory dish.  The foie gras was perfectly prepared and went well with the sugar and wine-based sauce.

 

4A: Caja de Bacalao “Desalao” con Virutas

Fresh cod presented to look like how salt cod (bacalao) arrives boxed in its uncooked form.

 

4B: Caldo de Txipiron, mini Txipiron

Baby squid with baby squid broth and ink.

 

5A: Salmonete Integral con Fusili de Salsa

Red mullet with parsley, soy sauce, and garlic fusilli.  The fusilli were pretty tasteless.  The “skin” on the mullet was the best part as it was made from ground up mullet bones and had a really concentrated caramelized fish flavor.

 

5B: Rodaballo con su “Kokotxa”

Turbot with its jowl (kokotxa) and turbot tail & bone chip.  Kokotxas are a staple in Basque cuisine and we had them many times throughout Spain.  However, the server told us that turbot doesn’t actually have a kokotxa, so the kokotxa on the plate really wasn’t a kokotxa.  I’m guessing it was kudzu because it had a pretty silky smooth texture.  It was pretty flavorless, though.

 

6A: Lomo de Cordero con los Posos del Vino

Lamb loin with green tea cotton candy and wine reduction.  This was my first time having green tea in a savory dish.  Combining all the elements on the plate into one bite provided an interesting flavor profile for that moment in time, but ultimately it wasn’t compelling enough to be one that I’d crave.

6B: Cochinillo Asado con “Bolao” de Tomate

Standard roast suckling pig with tomato.  The high quality of the pork was evident, but that’s all the dish had going for it.

 

7A: Xaxu con Helado Espumoso de Coco

Xaxu is a traditional Basque sweet made from marzipan and filled with egg yolk.  Served with a foamy, intensely flavored coconut ice cream.  This was one of my favorite desserts all trip.

 

7B: Leche y Uva, Queso y Vino en Evolucion

A progression of cheeses.  I like cheese, but this did not hit the spot at all.

 

8A: Otra Tarta de Manzana

Apple tart with fruit leather.  I guess the text on the fruit leather was kind of cool, but the tart itself wasn’t anything special.

 

8B: Flor de Melocoton

Peach with peach blossoms.  I honestly don’t much about this one.  I vaguely remember the peach blossoms not being actual blossoms, but something with a tough and chewy texture.

 

Mignardises

Your standard mignardises.