FlavBlog

One of our favorite things about being back in the Midwest is our close proximity to one of America’s greatest cities.  Arguably, it’s the second most urban, vibrant, and food centric-although I’m sure some West Coasters would disagree and I’d probably just simply say it is in the top 5.  In any case, we have been to Chicago twice in 2011, once in the frigid temperatures of January, and just recently over the long labor day weekend.  This post will by no means cover all the places we visited, nor all the discoveries we’ve made on these two visits.  To set our Chicago agenda, we compiled huge lists from friends and websites like Eater and Serious Eats that report recent happenings in the food world. 

I’ll begin with two places which are probably on the top of the list for any serious, adventurous, intellectual “foodie” traveling to the windy city.  Grant Achatz’s highly acclaimed Alinea and his new cocktail lounge, The Aviary.  (We didn’t get into NEXT, so if you were hoping to read about that, you can stop here.)  We were actually lucky to get into Alinea (getting called on the drive up after being on the wait list) on our January trip. After learning about his new cocktail lounge, it was a major priority on our recent visit.

Alinea

Walking into the restaurant, for someone who appreciates style, is in itself rewarding: subtle, crisp lighting, steely colors, and crisp accents.  Contemporary, and in every sense-beautiful.  We didn’t have our Canon EOS Rebel T3i camera at the time, so I’ll apologize for the somewhat uninteresting photos.  There is really too much to say, and write about in such a large post.  It almost deserves its own complete blog post, although in some ways reading too much about this experience would in my view partially spoil the fun for someone planning to go…so, I will be brief.  It is probably one of my top 3 meals of all time.  The combination of artistic presentation and complex flavors is essentially unmatched to anything we’ve had in a US restaurant to date.  I think one of our favorite things about Alinea was the interactive nature of the service and the playfulness of each dish.  They challenge you, yet, your mouth is always happy at the end.

A few of the highlights below:  On the left the second level of an “Orb” that contained Rabbit parfait, rillette (in picture), and consomme.  On the right, the final dish, when Grant himself came to a table prepped with cups and bowls, and painted this wonderful mixture of liquid nitrogen frozen chocolate, nougats, and chewy morsels of caramel and malted balls.

Wine pairings are a challenge for a Sommelier at a restaurant like this.  In some cases too many complex flavors and unique textures can make pairings difficult.  We had some really outstanding glasses of wine with our meal.  The highlight being the Sherry we had with the dessert: Toto Albala Don PX Convento, Montilla-Morilles-Spain-1959.  It is always humbling to drink something made well before your birth.  This glass of sherry was fascinating in itself, surprisingly smoky and tart, and really needed no accompaniment.  We are both excited about Grant Achatz’s new restaurant called NEXT, where one needs tickets and each meal is themed on a different time period or culture.

Alinea

1723 North Halsted

Chicago, Illinois 60614

312-867-0110

The Aviary

The Aviary is one of the most remarkable cocktail lounges we’ve ever been in, and probably now is considered Chicago’s and perhaps even America’s best.  [Although we also loved Violet Hour which we attended on our first trip, and I’ll mention more about that below].  The way Aviary works is that you either need a reservation, which you obtain by emailing prior to the day and randomly get selected into time slots, or you show up at opening and hope you get in, on a first come first serve basis.  We showed up at 5:45 pm on a Sat night, eager and ready, and we were in by 6:30.  Again, Grant knows design, and it is no different at The Aviary.  Excellent lighting, minimalist lines, and no distractions.  The Aviary has no bar, so to speak, just a caged in kitchen that you can peer into and watch the drinks parade by as they are each carefully constructed.

Robin ordered the Prix Fix menu which comes with 3 drinks from a large selection of choices, I ordered al a carte.  I started with a Hurricane:  which came non-traditionally in a carafe beautiful layered into 7 distinct colors.  Robin began with the Margarita:  agave, fesno chili, tequila.  The chili was frozen into the ice cubes.

Top:  Aviary’s kitchen.  Bottom Left: Small bites available as trios. 

Bottom Right:  Peach: maple syrup, angostura, white port, wheat whiskey

Our next cocktails were the Peach (above) and the In the Rocks.  The “In the Rocks” includes demerara, angostura, and bourbon, but trapped into an ice sphere that you break- tableside in the glass to release the cocktail.  While this was certainly fun, the cocktail itself wasn’t much more interesting on the palette than a many other whiskey drinks I’ve had in other places.  The final round consisted of myself having a ”Truffle”: compari, sweet vermouth, gin, infused w/ truffle, (Below right) and Robin drinking a Cold Chocolate: ecuadorian chocolate, fernet, and wheat bourbon. The Cold Chocolate was kept chilled with solid, yet creamy ice cream cubes. We spent a total of 3.5 hours in The Aviary,  enjoying each sip, people watching, chatting with our servers.  We didn’t even touch the menu…there are vast selections of cocktails to chose from, and part of the fun was watching to see what your neighbor is opening or interacting with. The small bites are just as delectable and carefully planned as the food at Alinea.  Any trips to Chicago in our near future will certainly include The Aviary.

The Aviary

953-955 W Fulton St
Chicago, IL 60607

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Portland, OR is a gem of the United States.  Located 2 hrs from the Oregon coast line and about an hour or more from mountains, the city is a young and vibrant place…especially for food, wine, and beer lovers like ourselves.  Earlier this summer, we took a trip down to Portland knowing that our typical “bi-annual” trip from Seattle is likely to cease once we move to St. Louis this fall (more on that in a future post).  Our trips to Portland would be overwhelming to some [see our last “PDX Food Rampage”, at our friend’s Dawn and Eric’s blog: WrightAngle], but they are simply fantastic adventures for the palette.  We drink and eat so much variety, experience such creativity, that we can’t stop going back.  And what’s more, PDX is much cheaper than its West Coast counterpart heavy weights like Seattle, San Fran, and LA.  Here we will attempt to summarize the highlights from our 3 day trip this past July, but it by no means will include all of our adventures.

Olympic Provisions | Our first stop in PDX was Olympic Provisions, which came recommended by our friends Eric and Kye.  Located in an industrial part of southeast PDX, Olympic Provisions is housed in a restored cereal mill.   The spot was created with intent to highlight European and North African styled charcuterie and to showcase local ingredients from farms and producers in the area.  We went for lunch and selected 2 dishes.

The first was the “tea sandwich”, made with a well seasoned paste of summer English peas, sprouts, red onions, and ricotta salata on fluffy white bread with no crust.  This was the perfect summer sandwich.  It reminded me of the deliciously light cucumber tea sandwiches my mother and our neighbors would often make for me when I lived in England.  We also ordered the charcuterie plate, which really highlights the masterful qualities of Olympic Provisions.  It came with a house made chorizo that was very true to the art of this sausage variety….robust spices, chewy texture, and beautiful color.  The charcuterie plate also came with house made sopresetta and pork pâté which were also well made and authentic.  We each had a Double Mountain Brewery, Kolsch alongside our lunch.  Olympic Provisions has a large selection, and one could really fill up on lunch or dinner here, but even for an afternoon snack, it is worth a short visit. Olympic Provision’s charcuturie is now becoming more widely available throughout PDX and can be purchased at select stores.

Olympic Provisions

107 Southeast Washington Street
Portland, OR 97214-2103
(503) 954-3663

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On September 2nd  (we’re a bit behind on our blog posts) we went to Art of the Table for another “supper club” dinner.   We had been to a previous beer dinner with our friends Kye and Eric, and I was blown away by the beer pairings, and more importantly both Robin and Kye who don’t usually drink some of these more rich types of beers, became fascinated at the potential of beer and food pairing.  As soon as we heard another beer dinner was planned we locked in reservations.  Dustin Ronspies (the chef) and Laurie O’Donnell hosted us, alongside the passionate beer aficionado Matt Younts for what amounted to another fascinating exploration of beer and food pairing.

We started by opening up with Cider Aspall which was served with a crostini containing peach, Estrella Family Creamery’s Wynochee River Blue. The crisp yet rounded dry cider was like having a glass of sparkling to open a meal, with the peach and blue cheese on the crostini the pairing was perfect.

Next, we had a salad with frisee, arugula, chanterelles, sweet corn, tomme, pancetta and a basil puree.  This was paired nicely with a Boulevard Saison.   I’ve mentioned before that Boulevard is making some great speciality beer these days, and the Saison Matt brought was a Batch #1, and contains the famous Brettanomyces yeast.  This yeast is sometimes considered a terrible consequence of contamination, except in traditional belgian styles or Lambic variations.  This slightly spicy, bready, funky Saison from Kansas City paired quite well with the salad, the fatty saltiness of the pancetta, and earthy chanterelles in the salad.

Trout with bitter greens and smoked tomato puree

The third course was trout served with hazelnut basil, smoked tomato jam (one of the highlights of the meal to me), and bitter greens.  The crispy trout and smoked tomato jam had the great sweet, salty, smokey combo, that was a joy in each bite.  The pairing was Hair of the Dog (Portland, OR) Ruth Pale Ale.  A pale malty ale with honey, with grassy vegetal notes.  The beer did a nice job of letting the complexity of the dish shine.

What might have been the best, or near best beer of the evening was Pliney the Elder (RussianRiver),which is one of the most highly coveted beers in the US (A+ on BeerAdvocate, and nearly every other source gives it top marks).  Dustin made us both smile with this dish, which didn’t contain fancy ingredients but was creative, and has inspired Robin and I to look at Chicken wings in a way different way than finger licking andwatching football.  Dustin served the wings confit, with curry powder, cilantro cream, on top of a polenta cake with chipotle chile, and topped with frisee.  The dish had some heat, but the cream added a nice balance, and the beer really unified the flavors.  Pliney the Elder is simply an outstanding beer in every regard.  Any serious beer drinker who hasn’t tasted this beer, should seek it out ASAP!  It contains a beautifully floral hopped aroma, with a bit of citrus coming through.  Initially it tastes much like an IPA but it is balanced so effectively with maltiness, so perfectly, that even those who pucker with a bitter IPA will smile after a gulp.  (We took some home with us, because, I wanted a whole bottle for Robin and I, to try again).  GO BUY SOME, if you can find it! Read more…

This is a summation of our Taco week with Mark Miller’s “Taco” book. A few basic things to get out of the way first: 1) We needed many ingredients that were not at a standard grocery store, but a specialty Hispanic food store.  2) The tacos require several steps prior to sauteing, sometimes roasting the pepper to peel, multiple items to chop, dice, or julienne, smoking spices,  or squeezing limes or lemons. 3) The actually cooking time is short and so is the eating, since they are small and you basically just pound them down one after another. It was hard not to prevent yourself from popping them into your mouth with only a two large bites. Typically, we take 30-40 minutes to eat each night, but during the taco week we consumed them quickly.  We tried to hit all areas of taco filing, including, egg, vegetable, poultry, fish, and red meat. However, we had to drop one of the chicken tacos because we couldn’t locate nopales. Overall, Miller’s “Taco” book is fantastic and offers a wide variety of options to the traditional American taco!

1st Taco: “Bacon and Egg with Red Chile and Honey”  with the “Tomatillo-Avocado Sauce” for Sunday breakfast. The bacon caramelizes with the honey and red chile powder and sit on a bed of fluffy puffed eggs. It is topped with julienne strips of roast red pepper, chopped cilantro and the chilled tomatillo-avocado sauce. A critique on myself, I could have cooked the bacon a little longer, because it did not provide the crunchy texture contrast that was expected. The key to this taco is the accompaniment, otherwise it would have been similar to something I have previously created. With fresh tomatillos and a perfectly ripe avocado it steps up the average breakfast taco. On a Scale of 1-10, it gets a 6.5.

2nd Taco: “Squash Blossoms with Green Chiles and Cheese” with Tomatillo-Avocado Sauce.” The chilies in the recipe included poblano, jalepeno, serrano, and green. Two of them required the seeds left in which gives the dish a bit of heat. This filling is not for the spice sensitive. A couple of years ago, I discovered the squash blossoms at the farmer’s market and would stuff them with various cheese and herb mixtures. But, this recipe intrigued me because they become part of the taco filling. Epazote was an ingredient, I had never used or heard. According to the source it decreases flatulence after a rough meal. Perhaps this ingredient should be used more in bean dishes!  Unfortunately, I could only locate it dehydrated, but it has an interesting scent. The fresh herbs added to the dish were marjoram, basil, and cilantro. Marjoram created perfume fragrance that dominated the smell and taste of the filling. I found it a bit harsh, so I would reduce the amount of marjoram next time. The filling had beautiful hues of yellow and green with speckles of white from the chile seeds and graded queso Oaxaca. The tomatillo-avocado sauce dripped out onto our fingers as we gobbled up the delicious vegetarian tacos. The yellow squash provided enough substance to a non-meat meal. Scale of 1-10, it gets a 9.

3rd Taco: “Seared Tuna Taco with Roast Pineapple and Habanera Pepper Sauce.” For this we used the fresh albacore tuna, we previously mentioned (plug in previous post). The tuna was sliced into 1/2 inch sections and then rubbed with a dry mixture of red chile powder. It is quickly seared on both sides. The pineapple rings were caramelized on a low stove temperature and then mixed with the lime juice, roasted habanera and fresh coriander. Since this taco contained the hottest known pepper to man-the Habanera, we fully expected it give a kick in them mouth. But, the caramelized pineapple  toned down the heat from the  pepper. While this taco was good because of fresh ingredients, it scored the lowest because of our execution-we overcooked the tuna and could have carmelized the pineapple more. Scale of 1-10, it gets a 6.

4th Taco: “Classic Ground Beef with Guajillo Chile with Salsa Fresca.” What I love about this classic taco is no use of a taco seasoning package. What the hell is in that, anyway? This is what a standard taco should taste like. We used our Kitchen Aid mixer to grind the beef shoulder and cooked until brown. Then, you added the re-hydrated Guajillo chiles, tomatoes, and white onion and create a stew-like texture. There were a couple other red chiles used and some of the mexican oregano. The freshest ingredients of the Salsa Fresca are necessary-heirloom tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, lime juice- to make the best topper. Combining all the ingredients makes for the best beef taco. Scale of 1-10, it gets a 8.

5th Taco: ” Chicken with Chorizo”. This taco turned out to be one of the easier tacos to prepare using only a blender and one pan, and also one the most delicious from the book. These tacos contain a green marinade which balances the red chile in the chorizo. We served them with the queso fresco, and you can also garnish them with quail eggs sunny side up. We have included the recipe (adapted) below. Scale of 1-10, it gets a 9:

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 poblano chile

1 jalapeno

1 bunch fresh cilantro

2 gloves garlic

1 teaspoon green chile powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin seed, toasted and ground

1/2 teaspoon coriander seed, toasted and grounf

1/4 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, toasted and ground

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup flat leaf parsley

1 nuch green onions, root ends trimmed and cut into large pieces

1 1/4 lbs of chicken breast (we used de-boned thighs as we feel like they have more flavor), cut into 1/2 strips

6oz Mexican pork chorizo bulk or links

1 tablespoon veg oil

1/2 white onion

8 crispy yellow corn tortilla shells (we used Don Pancho corn tortillas)

In a blender, place the water, lime juice, chiles, garlic, cilantro, green chile powder, cumin, coriander, oregano, salt, parsley, and green onions and puree until smooth. In a bowl pour the marinade over the chicken strips. Let set for 1-3 hrs. If in links remove the skin from the chorizo and break it up, and in a large skillet over med. heat saute the onion until carmelized about 4-6 minutes.

Add the chorizo to the onion and cook, stirring until the sausage is cooked through, around 8 minutes. Remove the sausage pan from the pan and set aside, leave the fat in the pan. Remove the marinated chicken strips and drain off the excess liquid. In the same pan as the chorizo was cooked, saute the chicken, turning once or twice, until the chicken is a light golden color and cooked, around 9 minutes. Remove from the heat or keep warm until ready to serve and stir back in the chorizo/onion mixture.

To serve, divide the filling between the warmed tortillas, top with queso fresco, and Salsa Fresca, then serve. We ate these tacos Hair of the Dog, Blue Dot, Imperial IPA. A hoppy, piney, citrus-like beer which balances the spicy attack on the palette.

In a quiet area just off Denny and the corner of 5th, sits Tilikum Place Cafe. With a shortage of restaurants near the Seattle Center, it is a worth a visit, especially if you are in the area for a performance. We look forward to visiting during the regular Seattle Opera season, but we stopped by for an early dinner during the 2nd week of the Seattle’s Wagner Ring Cycle. It is one of the few places we know you can actually sit down to eat at 4 pm (Operas during the Ring start at 6).

With a group of 6 we tried a wide variety of dishes and specials. To start off with cocktails, Michael had the Maritime IPA and I had a cocktail of vodka, peach bitters, and sage. Both drinks provided a refreshing start for the hot evening. The starter dish we ordered was a grilled quail, blueberries, greens, almond corn cake with a little chili oil. The grilled quail was cooked perfectly, moist inside-crispy outside, coupled with the sharpness of the tart blueberries and the bitterness of the greens it made for an immediate delight. The dish was actually served as an entree the evening before, but we grabbed it to split since there was only one order left. Our next course  consisted of the Spanish white anchovies with beet caviar, pickled shallots and a little frisee and a side of baked beans. I know, why the baked beans, well we feel that these “standard” beans can make or break a restaurant. Tilikum’s baked beans definitively made the cut. A great portion of beans, maple sugar sweet, and chunks of salty pork. I could  have licked the bowl, but I held out. The Spanish anchovies were fresh and salty with beet and picked shallots. The beets could have been prepared a little different, because they didn’t provide enough contrast to the shallots and anchovies.

Our main dishes consisted of the Moroccan chicken with white bean and mint soup and the housemade pork terrine with cherry moustarda and cincinnati radishes. Even on a warm summer evening the soup was an amazing blend of rich chicken broth, chicken pieces, vegetables, and spicy flavors-probably cayenne. It makes me look forward to the fall. The pork terrine had solid pieces of shredded pork that easily spread onto baguette slices. The radishes created the crunchy texture contrast with the silkiness of the terrine. Other members of our party had the savory tart with goat cheese and summer squash and the pan seared chicken with toasted dumpling and vegetables. There were mixed reviews of the savory tart because there was too much pastry and little of the filling. While some dishes were a huge hit, others were still pretty good, regardless we hope that Tilikum Place Cafe is here to stay, as we are in dire need of solid restaurant choices for Opera or theatre nights in the Seattle Center area.

TILIKUM PLACE CAFE

407 Cedar Street

Seattle, WA 98121

(206) 282-4830