My Saturday started off with me driving up to Snaidero in Chicago for a signing of Marcus Samuelsson’s book Yes Chef. He is touring for the release of the book in
paperback form. The venue was basically
a showroom for all of these amazing Italian kitchen setups that I will probably
never be able to afford in my lifetime, though they were pretty good and
interesting to see. The little marketplace that they were displayed in could be
a cool little place to window shop. It’s
kind of how I feel whenever I browse through some outrageously priced
store. I make a pretty decent amount of
money but there’s nothing like walking through a place like that to make you
feel absolutely poor.
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| Chef and I |
I’ve been a big fan of Marcus Samuelsson ever since his
somewhat underdog victory on Top Chef Masters.
Being a big fan of Top Chef in general, it was pretty good season to
watch him compete and I honestly didn’t he would win at all until a few
episodes before the end of season two.
He was born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden. His dishes take on that eclectic global
fusion cuisine. I did get a chance to
eat at C-House, his restaurant in Chicago and I thought that it was okay, but it
was a deviation from his typical cuisine which introduces bold and vibrant
African flavors. In all honesty, I don’t
think that Chicago needed another contemporary American restaurant. Though the food there was good, I think that
the citizens of Chicago and I were in agreement on this sentiment as the
C-House went to restaurant heaven.
Someday I will make it to Harlem to try Red Rooster.
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| Signing My Book |
Marcus is an easy going person. My friend Tiffany referred to him as that
jerk on Chopped, but I don’t think you can judge the character of a person
based on them doing their job, to be critical of the food which is served to
them in a competition. He’s actually a
pretty nice guy and I actually got a chance to show a couple of pictures of
some of the food that I made. He seemed
a little impressed by my presentation, and I felt a little validated as a home
cook. In hindsight I wish I could have
overcame my overwhelming starstruckness in order to be able to ask him a few
questions about technique cooking wise.
I would enjoy the casual
mingling among the crowd and tasting the various hors d’ouvers at the
singing. For $50 I felt as though it was
an awesome bargain to have the chance to meet a celeb chef, have a couple of
glasses of wine and have some tasty little bites. There was smoked salmon accompanied by a thin
dressing of lemon and dill served on thin slices of bread. My favorite was the cured beef with a little
bit of a mango jam and orange zest. It
was slightly salty from the cure and the meaty strong earthy flavors of the
beef were balanced by the sweetness of the jam.
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| Tiffany's Pie |
For dinner I picked up my
fiend Tiffany and we went to dinner at Pleasant House. I wanted to get something relatively cheap
and quick and that’s what we eventually decided on though we talked about going
to Red Door and also tried to go to another place that was not yet open. The only downside to Pleasant House is if you
aren’t really looking for it you can drive by it several times. If it was a snake it would have bit me, after
circling the block twice we ended up dining at the place. There was a little bit of a line but we ended
up making an order. I would have the
steak and ale pie and she would have the chicken pie. The crust on the pie is very tender flaky and
buttery. Once you got through that
amazing golden brown crust you had this amazing combination of very tender and
delicate steak surrounded by a rich sauce that bought me back to my
childhood. I remember growing up
enjoying many of those frozen pot pies.
This was so far elevated from that standard though. On the side I had mashed potatoes that were
very smooth and buttery and the gravy was one of the tastiest I’ve had in a
long time. I’m still wondering what gave
that gravy such character.
Tiffany’s pie had chicken
and was accompanied by a subtle acidity but more sweetness than anything based
on the quality of tomatoes cooked into her pie.
It also came with this chutney that really reminded me of a chimichurri.
They did not sell alcohol but
they did have a great artisanal drink selection. I ended up having the house made ginger
soda. I could have had a little more
spice for my taste but my threshold of spice is much higher than the average
person so I can understand the choice to rein it in and create a slightly sweet
drink that was palatable for the masses.
She ended up having the house made hibiscus soda, which was good as
well, but we ended up making the right selections because she enjoyed her drink
better and I enjoyed my drink better.
After checking into the
place on Foursquare I found out that the mushroom and kale pie was one of Time
Out Chicago’s best dishes. I had to try so
I ended up ordering it to go. They asked
me if would be okay to pack a cold one and I that was just perfect for me since
I didn’t plan on eating it until much later.
They gave heating instructions that I would follow. It reminded me why I no longer eat those pot
pies, 45 minutes is quite a bit of a wait.
My patience was rewarded by the great combo of those earthy mushrooms
and kale. For me I can’t really decide
if it was better than the steak and ale pie since I am judging a fresh pie
against a reheated one. That aside it
was honestly almost as good as the steak and ale pie which was a bit of a
surprise.
Fast Forward to Tuesday
night. I went out to dinner at Heaven on Seven. They were having a bacon and beer
dinner. Eight course of food containing bacon
alongside a beer by Ommegang with each course.
I got there much too early because I guess anticipation built up so much
that I thought that the dinner was a 6:30 instead of 7. Anyway the dinner got
off to a great start. The first course
was popcorn. I am not really a fan of popcorn
but this popcorn was particularly good because where butter would have been
used bacon fat took it’s place. If they
did this at movie theatres I would probably weigh 300 pounds easily. There is something magical about surrounding
light and airy kernels of popcorn with rich and salty bacon fat. That subtle smokiness can turn popcorn haters
like me into a huge fan. With that first
course they served the Gnomegang, a light beer that I liked quite a bit.
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| "BLT" |
Next up was the BLT. Applewood smoked bacon jam, on a crostini
with arugula. I have my complaints
about this dish. The size of the tomato
made it a little difficult and unwieldy to eat, even though the jam was quite
tasty. I liked the idea of playing on
the sweet and salty parts of the palate and then balancing off with a bit of
acidity from the tomato. I also thought
that the one single leaf of arugula kind of left me there thinking what is the
point really. You couldn’t taste the
arugula at all alongside the overpoweringly strong flavors of bacon jam. It went well with the biere D’ Hougoumont.
The next dish was the one
that I was the most interested in and also the low point of the evening. An avocado soup with double hickory smoked
bacon. In my mind I expected the soup to
be cold because who in their right mind would heat avocado. Excuse my writing, I don’t think that point
had quite enough emphasis… WHO IN
THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD HEAT AVACADO?!?!
It just ended up being very weird, a creamy taste of nothing that was
trying to be redeemed by some wonderful tasty smoked bacon. Avocado on it’s own doesn’t have the greatest
or most memorable flavor in the world and they robbed that avocado of what I
think was it’s best quality. It’s creamy
texture. It was accompanied by white,
which was ironically the lightest and most tasteless beer of the night.
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| Chicken Creole |
Things picked right back
up after those couple of stumbles into a blissful combination of pecan smoked
bacon and chicken. The chicken creole
had rich gravy whose amazing taste and complex flavors could only be achieved
by a long cooked dark roux. Piling that
on top of perfectly creamy cheesy grits and you’ve got something special. This dish had everything the subtle acid of a
bit of tomato, built upon a strong combination developed by the trinity. I wish I had more of it. It was also topped with raw scallions to
provide another light touch of onion flavor.
It went well with the Iron Throne.
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| Scallops |
Wild boar wrapped scallops
with a habanero red bean puree. Someone
else at the table commented that they liked the red beans and they liked the
scallops but didn’t like them together.
I am not personally a fan of bacon wrapped around scallops because it
ropes you into one particular preparation.
Baking. Scallops are one thing
that is an exception to the rule of everything being better with bacon. One thing I love about getting scallops is
getting a good sear and enjoying the wonderful taste that golden brown
carmelization produces. Baking does not
give you that. Searing off scallops for
a dining room of that many people could have proved to be a challenge for the
kitchen though. The dish was nice though, and the habanero in the red beans did
not prove to be overwhelmingly hot so they were used with just the right hand.
The firth course and I
weren’t spectacular friends. It was
tasty don’t get me wrong, but when you break down the play by play it was
really just a bacon burger. There were
good points to the slider the caramelized onions, but the barbecue sauce was
borderline too sweet for me. The
shoestring potatoes were good to me but most people passed on tasting
them.
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| Pork Belly |
The main event, the star
of the show was the pork belly. I will
always have a soft spot in my heart (and a warm place in my stomach) for pork
belly. Pork belly is what bacon is made
from. This particular version was glazed
with root beer and served over johnnycakes.
I’m surprised there wasn’t much uproar about it because looking at the
plates come out of the kitchen, they definitely lacked consistency in the
cutting of the pork belly. I had no
reason to complain because I had the biggest piece of pork belly at my table
and it was almost twice as large as another one. It was just a major failure as far as consistency
goes. That aside there is something
great about a well-cooked piece of pork belly.
There was a little bit of sweetness from the root beer and I wish they
would have had a little more of the glaze, because the johnnycake was a little
dry. Otherwise it was often.
I took one bite of the
pecan pie topped with bacon before I decided that if I took just one more bite
my stomach would probably explode. It
had great texture, good sweetness and I love how the saltiness of the bacon
went with it. It would make a great
snack later on.
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