Gastronomie

Menu For Hope III: In the Company of Greatness

I'm positively HUMBLED by the extraordinary response we've seen on this year's Menu For Hope Campaign.

As of this evening, over thirty thousand dollars has been raised for the United Nations World Food Programme.

So, what am I coveting?

Well, I'm definitely enamored of UW48, Hangar One's donation. Alas, it would be unfair of me to put in for that prize since it's one of my own. (But, you know, as long as you're asking? Cardamom & Rosewater. Yea, baby.)

EU32 would be a killer way for my friend L and I to make the most of our time in Paris this spring; a custom itinerary and reservation service? Bring it on.

'Course I'm also seriously loving the UC10 -- a stage at Alinea? Are you kidding? Grant Achatz is my own personal molecular gastronomy God. I'd be honored to play the role of gopher for a day.

But then, in the wine category I would be thrilled to win dinner with Eric Asimov (WB01) or Lenn's Long Island Wine Lovers Getaway (WB19). And I can tell you from first-hand experience that anyone winning WB02 (Alder's Sommelier for a Night Service) will be very pleased indeed -- he's patient, expressive and fun to drink with.

So many amazing prizes to choose from! And while I wish you guys all the best luck, I still hope I win one of my covets!

Tags: Food, Food & Drink, Hangar One, Vodka, Menu For Hope, Charity, Donation, Holidays, First Giving, United Nations, World Food, San Francisco, Alameda, Oakland

Alinea - the Final Countdown... 5 Kinds of Dessert

So, it's come to this. Dessert. Five desserts, in fact. And I have to do all of them at once, lest I lose myself as I replay them for five days straight.

Shall we begin?

Applewood (muscovado, fenugreek)

That looks like a marshmallow, doesn't it? Well, of course it ISN'T.

It's actually a dense little cylinder of applewood ice cream, rolled in muscovado sugar with a bit of caramelized fenugreek. Another triumph of texture, temperature and flavor.

Bacon. Candy

Yup, you read that right. Bacon candy. Or, as close as you're likely to get to it, anyway.

Take a dehydrated slice of bacon and dip it in butterscoth. Then, roll it in paper-thin ribbons of dried apple and fresh thyme. Suspend the bacon from a contraption at once clinical and elegant.

To borrow inspiration from Joy for a moment, I would have stabbed anyone at the table with my fork if I had one, and if I thought it would garner me another slice of bacon candy.

 

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Bison

Blessed, blessed red meat. Bison, in fact. With potatoes, pistachio and sweet spices, to be specific.

At this point we knew we were headed into the home stretch, and while we were tired and approaching our limit of savory dishes, we were all a little sad to see them go.

This dish was a really nice segway, what with its faintly Moroccan spicing (I remember thinking I tasted cardamom and allspice) and soft pistachios. Lovely and pretty and oddly comforting.

 

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Foie Gras

The oft-described "Anti-Plate" finally arrives. It's basically a porcelain spoon rest, though it has no bottom. Instead, the edge of the spoon tucks neatly between two rims of the "plate". Neato.

More neato was the perfect bite of torchon with a liquid rhubarb center, rhubarb emulsion, sweet onion, and crushed walnuts. Do I even need to explain how well rhubarb offsets the richness of the foie?

As a side note, by this time, it was TOMORROW. We were seated at 8:30, and two-thirds of the way into the meal, we hit midnight. From this point forward, the pace of things picked up slightly.

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Squab

Squab is one of my favorite gamebirds. It's rich and meaty flavor holds up well to strong flavors, and the texture is like velvet.

So you can imagine how excited I was to find TWO preparations of this tasty little bird on my plate:  a tender, meaty bit of confit with foie gras, and two rare slices of breast meat. These were paired with foie gras foam, a fine dice of the most perfectly sweet watermelon, and a dab of licorice reduction. On top of all that we received a fine grating of black licorice.

Now, I don't much care for licorice, but the whole dish came together so beautifully (this is clearly a recurring theme, as you can tell), it was hard not to love it as a whole.

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Turbot

This is the kind of dish that Chef G is known for -- using fragrance to "flavor" a dish, to round out the whole experience.

In the smaller bowl is a silken custard, another briny but creamy concoction, loaded with bits of shellfish, water chestnuts, and a deliciously tender piece of turbot.

Hot water was poured over the hyacinth blossoms in the larger bowl, and the perfume envelops the you while you eat. At first, we all though it would be overpowering, but in fact, there was something incredibly complementay about the pairing.

 

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Pear

That up there is my FAVORITE course of the night. It's really more of an intermezzo than a course, but let me just tell you how incredibly cool and sensual and, well, eye-popping it was.

An orb of curry-infused cocoa butter is filled with the purest, sweetest pear juice you can imagine. It's hanging out in a specially-designed glass, along with a small pool of celery "nectar". The instructions are to "do it as a shot -- and keep your mouth closed, otherwise the juice with squirt out."

The orb explodes in your mouth, with this incredible play of flavors - the fresh greenness of the celery, the nearly tropical fragrance of the pear, the exotic spiciness of the curry. It's a moment, nothing more. But the flavors linger, and three weeks later, you're still thinking about it.

On another note:
Happy Anniversary to my love, best friend, and partner in crime.

I have come to appreciate the analogy of marriage as roller coaster: After three years, the view from the top has never been more breathtaking. And those scary drops? They aren't nearly so scary when you're holding my hand. 

 

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Kobe Beef

Little cubes of very rare Kobe beef lie sandwiched between paper thin slices of cucumber and honeydew. Pink peppercorns, baby celery leaves and "lime rocks" adorn the top.

The lime rocks seemed to be made by crystalizing a simple syrup solution infused with lime. So much fun, and such a startlingly sweet counterpoint to everything else on the plate, most of which were mellow and harmonious.

As the plates were whisked away, we realized we were at the halfway point. Our meal was halfway over. I could help but want to rewind, and start all over again. I really didn't want this meal to end.

 

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Litchi

Oh my. Thomas Keller indeed. Oysters & Pears go avant-garde.

A pool of chervil juice, a dollop of oyster cream, a plump juicy litchi fruit, and pungent horseradish. But wait, let's top that with a serious serving (an ounce, per diner, perhaps?) of American sturgeon caviar.

OK, so the caviar has a slightly muddy taste to the palate of this Iranian-born girl. But it's briny, and slick, and the eggs pop just so. And who ever knew that litchi and caviar are not SUCH strange bedfellows after all?

 

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