Another Priceless Experience: Publican Quality Meats

A Spacious table and we would get to watch all the food
cooked behind us.

I’ve been to the Publican about 2 years ago for Chicago’s Chef week, so I knew there was good food to be had there.  The fresh made pork rinds made themselves onto Food Network’s Best Thing I Ever Ate.  Yeah I knew it would be a little tough to stay up for a dinner the night after coming back from Europe, but I couldn’t miss out on the experience.  It was something that I couldn’t think of missing unless I had some type of life threatening illness.   I somehow wasn’t even tired at all when it rolled around, I attribute that to a combination of excitement and the relaxing flight that I had in Premium Economy on Virgin Atlantic  (BTW, my Premium Economy Upgrade for $300 was only sort of worth it).

Butchers hard at work after a beef delivery

It was my first time at Publican Quality Meats which does all of the butchering for The Publican as well as bakes all of the bread.  A talk with Chef Kahn and you find that they can not keep up with the meat demand for all of the amazing cuts of sausage and cured meats that they sell at Publican Quality Meats.  The evening started with a few welcome hors d'oeuvres.   Among them were many of those awesome cured meats and those famed pork rinds.  You also had a seafood tower there. 

Dinner was served downstairs in the kitchen and after a quick tour through the meat locker, we were ready to eat.  It is crazy how hungry seeing a bunch of hanging cured meats makes you.  We all sat down at a large communal table and introduced ourselves one by one as Chef Khan prepared his first dish.  Though as we started eating you would have thought that we were all lifelong friends judging based on the loud and s  Every dish had a wine paring.  I am a beer person as well and they also had a beer paring for every dish, but I figured it unwise to try seven beers and seven glasses of wine when I had to make it all the way back to Romeoville somehow that night.

Let the curing begin

First up to the plate was the Hamachi Crudo.  This dish won based on pure simplicity.  You get the freshness of the Hamachi in a winning combination with the lemon oil providing a slight touch of acid.  The fresno chilies give a little bit of spice as well.  Lemon, seafood and fresno chillies is a combination that I love.  I use it to make a quick supper with only the addition of some mussels, garlic, white wine and pasta.  I think I might have stolen that dish from Gordon Ramsey though, don’t quote me.  The dishes were served family style and I was seated next to two people that took very dainty portions so it gave me the opportunity to finish off every plate.  There wouldn’t be a dish that disappointed me. 

Sides of Beef  Delivered Earlier in the Day

Next up was the asparagus panzenella salad.  When I usually think of panzenella I think of combining Italian bread with olive oil Basil, tomatoes and Parmaggino Reggiano. This took a bit of a different approach to that.    You had their country bread there with the salty elements coming from the olives that were strewn throughout the salad.  The English Peas added a freshness to the salad and you had the radish sprouts and arugula for a bit of spiciness   All of those tasty ingredients were bound together in a lemon caper vinaigrette that was very light and slightly acidic.  The brightness it added was like a little flashlight awakening all your entire palate to taste the individual nuances of each vegetable that worked so well together in this dish.

Steaks Aging away

I love Mussels Frites, so I was so excited to see it on the menu.  My favorite part of the dish is the broth.  When it comes to making mussels, your dish lives or dies based on how good the broth is.  When those guys open themselves up and release that fresh briny juices into the pan it creates this broth that can be a culinary miracle if used correctly.  Realistically, when making mussels, the broth should be so good that if given the choice between having a little broth and some mussels or a lot of broth and some crusty bread, you would easily take the broth and bread to soak up the liquid gold that lines your bowl.  Now take those perfectly tender mussels and that luscious broth and combine them with some awesome French fries, and a garlic aioli to dip them in and you have a winning (though very fattening) dish.  Mussels Frites is one of those anomalies of a dish where it completely socially acceptable to dip French fries into mayonnaise.

Mussels

Next up was the star of the show.  More than anything Publican is known for pork.  I mean look at the Yelp reviews, after scrolling through pages describing how awesome some of their pork dishes are, you may be able to find one thing that is kosher if you look hard enough.  Here you had a dish that was just simply mind-blowing.  It was comforting as it reminded me of breakfast of grits and bacon when I was growing up.  This was so much better though, the grits were so rich and creamy.  They had a really buttery flavor to them and were accented by the light onion taste from the leeks.  The pork belly was cooked perfectly, playing on that edge of sweet and saltiness that everyone loves together.    As if things couldn’t get better you had a side of a spring vegetable ragout with a poached egg.  Slicing into a perfectly poached  egg is one of the things I love most in food.  When you have that egg yolk run out and coat the entire plate it is blissful.  That egg yolk with the parmesan came together to create the perfect sauce for the perfect side for a perfect plate of food.

Hamachi Crudo

By this time I was completely full, that wouldn’t stop me from tasting a bit of the next two dishes though.  All of their steaks are aged in house.  I couldn’t pass up on an opportunity to taste a couple bites of my favorite cut of meat.  Ribeye.   Nothing beats a well marbled bone in ribeye steak when it comes to grilling.  It is the juiciest cut of steak and it just screams out at you with the flavor of beefy goodness.  The steak was cooked to a perfect mid rare, and though I did enjoy both pieces quite a bit, the sear was a little much and gave off a bit of a smoky quality that didn’t bring it to the unrealistically high standard I had set for it in my mind.

Then as if further reading my mind, was my favorite dessert.  I only took a single bite of the cheesecake but the star of that dish was the

Pork Belly

amazing honey that was on the plate.  It goes to show that a great honey can make a lot of difference and bring the taste of a dish to a new level.  They do sell that honey in the store, I just was too caught up in good conversation to remember to ask if I could buy some.  Next time I make it to Chicago I will check it out though.

All in all I’ve been to two of Mastercard’s Priceless experiences, and they have been an amazing value and each one has really felt priceless.  I wouldn’t trade this night for just about anything… Except a trip to Barcelona in the summertime but who can really compete with the beaches of Barcelona?