minibar, washington dc, oct. 14

Some blog somewhere recently listed the 11 U.S. restaurants where reservations were hardest to get. It was a little humorous, because I had been to almost half of them. Minibar, Jose Andres' six-seat restaurant within a restaurant was on the list. The process of getting this nearly impossible reservation went much like the others I have gotten. 

I dialed the phone at the appointed hour. It rang. Person picked up.

But instead of just giving me a reservation, she said: 


"Sorry, all the seats for that night are taken already, but we can put you on the waiting list. You're second on the waiting list!"


The nice person made it sound like that was great and likely to be a success. I considered the math, and figured that insomuch as I wanted one-third of the covers they'd be doing that night (six seats, two seatings; so they serve 12 people a night), it was highly unlikely. But I felt confident that if we didn't get in, we'd have fun somewhere else that night. So I shrugged and hoped for the best. 


Three weeks later -- one week before the reservation date -- I got a call that we were in. It was sort of a rush. 

 
So, with Melanie, Becky and Jeremy, above, all of whom you might recognize from photos of various dinners at my house, we walked downtown, through the National Portrait Museum, up three flights of stairs, to Minibar. 


We were told we could take as many photos as we wanted, which is cool, because not everyone is so accommodating. I've kind of gotten out of the habit of taking photos at restaurants, but since the chefs we're cool with it, and the only other two people at the bar with us also had a camera, I decided to let fire. I didn't take a photo of anything that was time sensitive: i.e., for the most part, melty. But really, the chefs presented each plate on a glass shelf above the bar, and while they explained what it was and how to eat it, there was plenty of time to snap before we needed to eat. 


There were 26 courses. I got photos of most. I will keep descriptions brief.


The first three things came in rapid succession, and I did not get photos. The first was a "cocktail" called the Oaxacan snowball. Irony alert: no snow in Oaxaca. It was a two-bite white ball that tasted like a margarita. 


Next came a "gift" from the chef. It was called the golden nugget, and it was in a jewel box, which we opened and it looked like a chocolate truffle, but was filled with lychee and black garlic. I thought it tasted earthy, like porcini or truffle, but apparently, black garlic. 


Then the Ferro Rocher, which was a chocolateless version of the candy. So, very hazelnutty. 


Then I had my bearings, and started taking photos.


Sea bean tempura. Literally two sea beans, fried. There was an sharp sauce. 


Almond tart with blue cheese. The almond is the half-sphere shell. The blue cheese is the mousse inside. We didn't eat the rocks. Well, I didn't. Jeremy? 


Did not photograph the mint leaf mojito, because it was ice. But I wish I had. It was served on a silver flip flop and a bed of mint. It tasted like a mojito in ice form, and had a syrup on top that tasted like rum concentrate. Very strong. Everyone liked it, but we thought it might have been better if the leaf-shaped ice had been 2-3 smaller leaves, so we could have put a whole leaf in our mouths and let it melt. It was large, there was biting. Minor point.



Steamed pita with avgotaraho. As I google that last word, I learn that it is the Greek version of bottarga, which is cured, pressed roe of tuna or mullet. I felt that the bread was very steam bun-y, but now that I know that, it makes sense that they call it a steamed pita. Nice, aggressive flavor, and a soft bun. Or pita. Whatever. Liked it a lot. Below is a photo of our chefs Charisse and Aitor filling them.





Coco steam bun. Almost didn't take a photo, because it was melty. We were supposed to lick it off the paper. More foam-y than bun-y, a word I thought I made up in the last paragraph, but here it is again already.


Below is a photo I took between courses of some of the stuff that was ready for a subsequent course. I actually have no idea what that is on the plate, but I suspect it might be sea cucumber. But that's later.





Oyster sequence I: An oyster served classically on the half shell with mignonette and a garnish. Well, almost. The oyster was from a chicken, and the garnish was an oyster leaf, a plant that tastes like oyster, apparently. They grow it in Ohio, we were told. Kinda cool. This dish reminded me of the big Top Chef dust-up between Richard Blais and Mike Isabella ... who, coincidentally, used to work for Jose Andres. Hmmmmmmm.






Oyster sequence II: This was an actual oyster, served under a dome that was filled with smoke. I want a smoking gun, though I know I'll never use it. So don't get me one. But I do, because it's cool. And there were little chanterelles. I forget the sauce. I'm not big on raw oysters, but I liked this. 



Zucchini in textures: This was the dish, surprisingly enough, that we were talking about the rest of the night. It was three layers of zucchini. The top was a gel, then a layer of seeds, then a layer of puree. Each tasted distinctly of zucchini, but in a different texture. So, very well named. It was very interesting. Again, I'm not a fan of zucchini, but this was good.



Thai peanut soup: There were two textures of ginger, neither of which I cared for. The frozen peanut puree in the shape of a peanut was really good. I wasn't a fan of the topographical bowl. Made it hard to combine the flavors. Meh.



Sea urchin ceviche with hibiscus: This one was a talker. I've never had sea urchin, because I have never heard a description of it that left me thinking I wanted to. But here it was. It was fine. I had been told the texture was akin to snot. Shrug. Maybe? I liked the hibiscus foam, though. That's the purple cloud. Would be happy with more of that.




Chicken "shawarma": Probably the simplest thing of the night, and maybe my favorite. The chicken is a piece of crispy skin wrapped in the lettuce leaf. The lettuce leaf is secured with what appeared for all the world to be a clear piece of rice paper, but was probably something else. It was structural, not a flavor. You dipped the lettuce into the sauce, which was a yogurt with a super-intense garlic flavor. I'd order this from the minibar food truck, if there was such a thing. 



Fabes con almejas: Beans and clams, or, a study in spherification. The clams were suspended within clam juice and the beans were actually puree, spherified to look like, well, beans. Discuss.



Shrimp & grits: The grits were like large creamy corn gnocchi. Perfect shrimp (I suspect rock, but didn't confirm). I think the broth was chorizo flavored, though I don't remember for sure. It would make sense.

Espardenyes with bone marrow: Espardenyes = sea cucumber. Sea cucumber ≠ vegetable. It's like a sea slug or something. Surprisingly fine, though I am not rushing out for the recipe. And I didn't care for the bas relief plate of the Rockies more the second time.

 

Charcoal salmon toro with black garlic: Straight forward.

Parmesan egg with migas: From my seat, I could see an immersion circulator behind the barm and see that it was set at 63 degrees (Celsius). So from the time we sat down, I was pretty sure there was a poached egg coming. It was like custard. Always a fan of the egg.

Adam & Eve: I'm not sure what the "bread" of this sandwich was. It was sort of like a meringue, but not sweet. Regardless, it was all about the filling, which was foie gras and apple. So, so rich; so good. Although, on the way home, we were scratching our heads about the name. The apple, we guessed, referred to Eve. Which would make Adam ... a fattened fowl liver? Curious. But when I make my ribs with apple glaze, I'm stealing the name.


This is just a photo of Jeremy staring adoringly at chef Jorge at some point in the meal. If you zoom in, you can see the impure thoughts.

And then it was time for dessert. It is possible the apple and foie was a dessert, actually. But for the purposes of this post, this was the first dessert ...


Vermont snow: There was a metal canister. Charisse and Jorge were looking into it. There was liquid nitrogen, and the associated steam. Then there was scraping. It looked like snow. We were told to wait a minute. Then they poured a maple syrupy thing over the snow. There were maple candies sticking out of the snow, and there were fruity bits -- lychee, I think -- underneath. Light, a lot of fun, a ton of flavor. Liked it a lot.


"Mango" coconut rice: The two things that look like perfectly wedged bits of mango? those are sorbet. Even the skin was painted on to the wedge. Clever. The one in the middle was actual mango, and the funny thing is, that was the confusing part. The rice component was crunchy puffed rice, which was good, but I loooooove me some sticky rice, so that was a bit of a letdown. But the sorbet was great.


Terra(misu): "Eat this in one bite. There's liquid in the center." Cool, but it was pretty big. I managed. Chocolate shell, quick frozen with liquid nitrogen. I presume the flavors of the inner goo were those of tiramisu, but the shell was the whole game. Big chocolatey cool.

Profiterole: A dehydrated meringue that tasted like a passion fruit pina colada. Nice. 

Bacon and chocolate: The bacon was super thin and crispy, and is on the bottom here, so you just see chocolate. Happy.

Fizzy paper: Just a piece of paper, that you are supposed to tear apart and eat. But when it hits the tongue, it gets all effervescenty. Lemon-limey. Very refreshing.

Overall, it was fun, required a lot of thought, a little concentration, and some leaps of faith. I think the best part about it was watching it all happen in front of us. Sometimes when I have people over, I get upset when the plates don't look gorgeous, or when things have cooled by the time I get them out. That's when I'm plating by myself for 8-15 people. Here, there were three people standing over six plates every course. And they all had tweezers. I'm giving myself a break after seeing that.

super sunday, part 2

previously, on gastroblog: i had just had what was easily my best two hours of the past decade, if not ever. and was just dropped off at the suite to watch the nascar race. we join the day, already in progress ...

so darcie, left, drops us off at the elevator to our suite and tells us to come back to the tailgate site after the race for dinner.

we go up to the suite and sit down. it was then that i realize that i had totally forgotten about reo speedwagon. oh well. they're in clearwater in april. i got over this very quickly. just as the race is about to start, i send out a text to a bunch of people -- i don't remember who all, and it is extremely possible that i picked recipients randomly, plus i have never sent out a mass text before, so don't be mad if you did get it. i don't remember what it said, but it was something innocuous, like, "i think mario liked me." that set forth an avalanche of texting that took like two hours and caused me to need to delete my inbox and my outbox because they both got full. to put that minor fact in perspective, i have had this phone for about nine months and only cleaned out the inbox once (like, a week earlier), and don't think i had ever cleaned out the outbox.

pam started texting people too, and we were just sitting there laughing and reading texts to each other. i suspect that the nascar fans sharing the suite with us found all the just fascinating. but we later had to hear that one of the women in the suite had won her tickets in a wet t-shirt contest, so she killed us on tmi points and made me not care anymore. and, i mean, umm, not sure if i can say this, but that would not have been the most interesting wet t-shirt contest ever. just sayin.

it was while we were in the suite that ellen texts pam and tell her about the ap photo, to which i will gratuitously link. again. CLICK HERE.

it was a little harder for us to get into sunday's race than it had been saturday's, mainly because it was much longer, and as good a sports as we were trying to be on developing an interest in nascar, there is a certain statute of limitations on left turns. but i was glad carl edwards won, because it was fun to watch the backflip and all. plus we had seen him at asphalt chef the night before.

so after the race, we made our way back to the tailgate site, and it was darcie, leo (our limo driver, left) and billy harris, who was the emcee at the asphalt chef. wine was open, bread and cheese were on the table. so we sat there and watched gridlock and talked about the day.

eventually, i asked about dinner, suspecting that we were just going to break out leftovers from the tailgate party. which, if there were arancini, i was set.

no leftovers, darcie says. "you're cooking."

ok, cool. what am i cooking?

"whatever we can find."

here's what that meant: there were four rental luxury RVs on the site. each had a fridge. except for darcie, the occupants of the RVs were all gone. so any food in the RVs was probably going to get tossed when the rental company picked them up. in two of the RVs, all we found was wine and beer. not telling whose RVs those were.

in the other two, here's what we found: a bag of romaine. pepitas. a bag of arugula. two lemons. a green bottle of something that had a label that was all in italian (i assumed nice olive oil, but was wrong), a half-full gallon jug of olive oil, a bag of spinach ... and three steaks that had not been cooked at the tailgate party.

now, to call these "steaks," kind of does a disservice to them, in lumping them in with earthly cow parts. these things were insane. they were from allen brothers. they were 3-inches thick, and 48 oz each. that's three pounds. each. there were five of us.

the number floating around the tailgate party that afternoon was that the steaks were worth $100 each. i just looked on the allen brothers website, and it appears they retail for $130 each.

i asked darcie if she REALLY wanted me to cook all three steaks, since there were only five of us. the consensus was that it was now or never for these steaks. then we talked to the people who were tailgating behind us, and they were interested in one, so we wrapped it up and gave it to them.

now to the grill.

there were five. they were all upscale vikings. i decided to camp out at the biggest one on the lot. u know, not for any particular reason. well, ok, because it was the biggest. first of all, there is no flame. its all infrared burners. there are two burners and a broiler. the burners get to normal grill temperatures, but the broiler element can burn your eyelashes off from 15 feet. plus, it had two side burners.

so i get everything preheating, and unwrap the two steaks i have left to cook, and pam keeps asking me, "do you know how to cook a three-inch steak?" "yes," i said. meaning, theoretically, i knew that heat should be involved. but i had never even seen a three-inch steak before that afternoon. so there was a practical issue involved.

i knew one thing: i needed salt. pepper would be good, too, but i needed salt. and i didn't see it anywhere. "i don't know if we have salt," darcie says. these steaks are amazing. i can't cook them without salt. we need salt. it's a moral imperative. "okay, i'll look again." she goes through two of the RVs. nothing. "you sure we need salt?" i told her not only do we need salt, but she has to tell mario that i refused to cook these steaks without it. so she goes into another RV, and she comes out with official mario batali-brand salt and pepper grinders. they are huge, and they are still wrapped. amazingly, they came pre-loaded with salt and pepper. "will this work?" actually, yes, it's perfect.

i felt like i had been tested, and that i had passed.

so i salted and peppered the steaks, and i put them over the broiler element to give us some grill marks. i have never heard such a sound as when these steaks hit that iron. it was instant branding. it made me feel like i knew what i was doing. it was amazing. so i got the marks on both sides, then i turned off the middle burner, moved the steaks there and closed the grill.

my plan was to saute the spinach and serve the steak on top of the spinach. and i was going to dress the spinach with olive oil and lemon juice. so then i looked at the salad greens, and decided i could make a salad while the steaks cooked. but for dressing, the only acid i had was the two lemons i wanted to put in the spinach.

enter that mystery green bottle that i thought was olive oil.

it was dark, so i could barely see the label, but i know a few italian food words, and i didn't see the word "aceto" or "olio," so i couldn't determine whether is was vinegar or oil. so i poured a little out on my finger to see what it was, and when a thick, syrupy black glaze came out, chills ran down my spine. from the looks of it, i suspected it was very, very expensive balsamic vinegar. then i tasted it, and i was pretty sure that was what it was. i had always heard that with really good balsamic, you could pour it over vanilla ice cream. i had never had balsamic that i could imagine doing that with. but this stuff, i could totally see doing that.

i have considered buying high-end balsamic in the past, and i have found it to be more than $150 for a 3.5 oz bottle. this bottle was probably 8-10 oz. as i did math in my head, i asked darcie if she really wanted me touching this bottle. she laughed. "sure!" so then i had another issue to contend with: was i really going to use remarkably expensive balsamic for ... salad dressing? if this vinegar was what i thought it was, i was about to make the most expensive salad dressing i had ever heard of. "do it!" darcie said. i have seen mario make simple things with extravagant ingredients before, so i hemmed, and hawed, and made salad dressing. it was really, really good salad dressing. the vinegar was so viscous, it took very little effort to emulsify it with the oil with a fork. which was good since there was no whisk in sight.

i made a salad with the romaine, arugula and pepitas. i later i wished i had thought about it more, because there was cheese on the table, and there were pears and apples in one of the RVs, and there was bread that i could have grilled to make croutons. but instead, everyone got a plate with lettuce, pumpkin seeds, and about $50 worth of salad dressing.

i told darcie that as adamant as i was that she tell mario that i refused to cook the steaks without salt, i was totally ok with it if she never told him i made salad dressing out of that balsamic.

after i found the pears, i cut one up and drizzled some of the balsamic over it and served that by itself.

afraid for its potential fate, i really wanted to take the vinegar home with me, but i couldn't find the cap. and i tried to figure out ways to get it home without the cap. but i eventually gave up.

after i guessed that the steaks might be about done, i took them off the grill and covered them with some aluminum to let them rest, and wilted the spinach in a mario batali saute pan over one of the burners. (there was also a mario batali lasagna pan on the table, and i was eyeing that hard. i was afraid to say how much i wanted one of those, because i had already gotten so much stuff that weekend and i was afraid she might give it to me. plus, it probably weighed 10 lbs, and i didn't want to try to get it on the plane.) i added the lemon juice to the spinach, then sliced the steak, and at first i was afraid it was overcooked. but when i got better light on it, i decided it was about perfect medium-rare. i carved it up, and plated it on top of the spinach and went to the table.

it all tasted good to me.

darcie said that usually if she sits around long enough, someone brings her incredible food to eat. so, basically, i need to sit around her more often. but while i was cooking, she declared me a member of the mario batali family, which wasn't listed in the official list of prizes, but is really, really cool.

super sunday, part 1

there is no way to recap what happened on sunday in one post, so i am going to space it out over three posts. my tentative outline is to start off with what happened before the race, then what happened after the race, then catch up on everything i meant to say in the first two but forgot. also, ask me questions about stuff, and i will address them in the third post. some of this will be straight out of my post on laura's blog.

people keep asking me if i had fun in texas.

rachael ray bowed to me. three times. and mario batali kept describing my dish with variants of the same two-word sentence structure: "(expletive) (exclamation)!" the expletive was the same each time. the exclamation varied between "awesome" to "amazing." i think there were others.

yeah. it was a good weekend.

we got picked up at the hotel at about 7 a.m. and ended up at the tailgate party site in the middle of the speedway infield about 8. there is a little activity, and darcie asks us if we've had breakfast. we had not. so she asks krista, mario's food stylist, to make extra for us. she also told us that mario had asked what we had done all day saturday and to make sure we got to hang together on sunday. i figured that the tailgate party would be my best access of the weekend, but it was nice to hear.

breakfast was green eggs and ham, and chilaquiles. the eggs were cheesy and covered in green chile. the chilaquiles -- tortilla casserole -- was full of really good chorizo. as we're eating, mario asks me when my pace car ride is. i say, right after breakfast. he laughs and suggests that having breakfast might not have been the best idea. "leave the window open," he suggests. "the car is always going to turn left, so you want to barf to the right." as we left for the golf cart on the way to the pace car, mario reminded us, "aim to the right."

we had to wait awhile for the pace car, and when it was finally our turn, we learned that pam could go, too. the car was an impala, and we hit 105 mph, which was fun, but i've been in cars that were going faster than that (not naming names. just a coincidence that i'm looking at you, ronnie.) still, going that fast was fun, and going around the banked turns was cool. when we hit the turns, gravity would seem like it should force your body to lean to the left. but the force of the turn drives your body to the right, straight into the door. it doesn't make any sense in your head, but you can't ignore the rest of your body. (later, mario would come back to the tailgate area and tell us that he had just taken laps with jimmie johnson at 190.)

soon after we got back, rachael showed up, and within a couple of minutes, she was walking emphatically toward me making extreme hand gestures and shouting, "pig in pig in pig! where is it?" i wasn't in charge of cooking anything, so i honestly had no idea. but that was when she started bowing. i have to say, i really, really wish there had been video of this. we sat with mario and talked for awhile, about what, i really have no recollection. but pam got pictures, and i seem to be talking, and mario and rachael -- cuz that's what i call them now -- are looking like they are listening, and maybe even interested. i remember i told rachael how much i liked the deviled eggs at the asphalt chef party the night before. because they were awesome. pam told her she like the buffalo chicken meatballs. "i try to give the people what they want," she said.

i was impressed i was with how real and sincere she was. my phony detector has a hair-trigger, and i thought she was great. the woman is insanely famous. people were falling all over themselves just to get a glimpse. and there we were chatting, and the fact that she seemed legitimately interested in my dish is still hard for me to comprehend.

so mario and rachael had to go to an interview and were gone for about an hour. i spent the time talking to people from uncle ben's and from the food bank, and basically walking around, trying to burn off nervous energy. then darcie came back from the interview and yelled at me to not move, because rachael was about to come back and they wanted to record for her show. at that point, i kind of freaked, because i had no idea what i was supposed to do or talk about, or how much i would stammer. so just before they got back, one of the speedway's chefs put the meat on the grill, and krista handed mario a pair of tongs, and all of a sudden, mario was at the grill, rachael was standing next to me, and from somewhere, there were like 20 cameras, still and video, crowding around us. looking back, this would seem to have been the most totally surreal moment of the weekend, and i don't understand how i wasn't overwhelmed to the point of collapse. but the truth of the matter is -- and i know this sounds stupid -- it felt totally natural. because the scene was set as if we were three pals grilling ... and that was exactly what it felt like. i would be interested in seeing the video, to see if i was incomprehendibly stupid, because i suspect that is totally possible. but it didn't feel that way. and when i see the photo that moved on the wire (click here), i'm amazed at how natural it actually looks. mario is using his own camera (and i would like to get a copy of that photo, actually). rachael was leaning back into me, and was lifting the tongs up over my head to pose for mario. see? it sounds weird, right? there's no way to say it that it doesn't. but it was AWESOME.

so mario turned all the pork packs, and it was going to take those things more than a half-hour to cook, so we broke, and suddenly, there was a line of reporters who wanted to talk to me. they all wanted to talk to me separately, so i really wished i had prepared a story so that i could be consistent. because i knew if i started rambling, i would come up with a different aspect of the story each time, and it would sound like i was telling them all completely different stories. but that didn't seem to happen. i think. we'll see.

after that, tim, left, the track chef who was cooking the dish, came up to me and seemed nervous to be talking to me. he called me "chef" more than once. i giggled. tim said that he was afraid that the pork would burn if he left it on the grill, and he wanted to know if it was ok if he finished them in the brick pizza oven. yes, it was ok with me. he also asked me to try the glaze. when i made the glaze, i just heated up some oj and melted the marmalade into that, and kept adding marmalade until it was the consistency i wanted. they clearly had more than that going on in theirs, and whatever was in there, it was really good. tim asked for my approval on the glaze. i gave it. i'm not sure what would've happened if i had not.

unfortunately, sometime between the photo shoot and the pork coming out of the oven, rachael had to leave, and i am legitimately disappointed she didn't get to try it. tho i am devising a plan to get it to her. i'll let you know if/when that happens.

getting the pork out of the brick oven turned out to be another media event, as a photographer wanted me to slowly take the pan out of the oven. which would've been ok, except that the oven was like 800 degrees. slow isn't how you reach into an 800 degree oven. we got it out, and i started directing tim to grab one of the pork packs out of the tray so he could start carving it while i finished my media obligations with the photographers. it was at this point that i realized that it was probably now technically ok to be called "chef." but i still wasn't comfortable with it. tho i want to be.

when the pork was carved, mario came over, tim anointed the pork with the glaze, and the cameras started popping as mario reached in for a piece and told me to, also. we both tried, with cameras still popping. it was really good, i thought. "(expletive) (exclamation)!" mario proclaimed. it was really, really good. they used the sauce more liberally than i had, and i really liked it. so did mario. (that's krista in the photo with me and mario).

it was at that point i realized that rachael was gone, and mario told me that he had already taken a picture of the pork and e-mailed it to her, mocking her for leaving. it's sort of ridiculous for me to talk about anything regarding this weekend as "disappointing," but i would've loved to see rachael's reaction to tasting it. because it was awesome. maybe even (expletive) awesome.

i told mario that i was willing to come to new york to make it for her. he motioned me over to a table and said, "let's talk about that ..."

we sat for some time and talked for quite awhile about restaurants and cooking and ... a lot of stuff i don't remember. every once in awhile, it would just hit me where i was and what i was doing, and i think my memory just turned off. but it was a lot of fun. i have talked to a few celebrities here and there, and it is often extremely awkward, insomuch as you really have nothing to actually talk about. it was never like that, with either mario or rachael. i immediately felt like i had known them forever.

darcie got us two extra passes to the tailgate party, which gave me the chance to see barry harrell and his wife carrie, who moved to texas last year. i was really happy to get to hang out with them, even for only a short time, and i was really happy that they got to try my dish, and everything else on the menu. they got to meet mario, and got some pictures and autographs. then pam and i got a picture with barry and carrie ... taken by mario.

at that point, it was time to go to the suite to watch the race. we were in a different suite than mario, and he was going to be leaving for ny before the race ended, so we said our goodbyes, got on the golf carts and headed out.

that's where i'll pick up the next post. may take a day or two.


here is sunday's menu, and my take on each dish:

Passed Appetizers

Pizza - Marinara with Marjoram, Thinly Sliced Garlic and Serrano Peppers (unbelievably spicy. the brick oven was really cool. i want one.)

Asparagus Wrapped in Pancetta with Citronette (these were amazing. the pancetta seized up around the asparagus like skin.)

Grilled Peppers with Anchovies, Capers and Bread Crumbs (i don't know what the deal was with these anchovies, but they were really good. unlike any anchovy i've had. much less aggressive. the dish was like a panzanella on steroids.)

Arancine with Salami and Pecorino (deep fried rice balls. like that's even fair.)


Buffet

T-Bone Fiorentina with Sautéed Spinach (these were the 3-inch thick allen bros. steaks. unreal. more on them in the next post. they play a pivotal role.)

Sweet Potatoes in Cartocci (didn't see this.)

Spicy Black-Pepper Coated Drumsticks (these were wing drumettes, and the sauce on them was an alabama white bbq sauce. i have heard of this, but am mostly unfamiliar with it. these were awesome. they were served on a platter with shaved fennel.)
Grilled Artichokes with Mint and Chiles (i always struggle with artichokes unless they are part of a spinach dip. good, tho.)

Portobellos with Arugula and Parmigiano (the mushrooms were awesome and the shards of parm were great.)

Pig-Wrapped Pig-Stuffed Pig ((expletive) (exclamation), dude!)

a day at the races

my first day at the track, and ... wow. we didn't get a lot of time with mario, but it was amazing. we got to the texas motor speedway at about 9 a.m. and headed to the infield, where they were setting up the area where the tailgate party will be on sunday. we hung out there for a bit when darcie, mario's brand manager and my contest contact, got a call from mario saying he was here early, and can they send the helicopter now? I had been pretty excited that we got a driver to bring us in. I didn't know a helicopter was an option.

when he landed, we met him for about 15 seconds, then our handlers -- i have handlers this weekend -- took pam and i on a vip tour of the track. i have rarely felt so important. These guys, doug and bruce, were amazing, driving us around to the garages, the pits, the infield, the midway, and eventually to our seats in the suite and the winner's circle. we got another few minutes with mario, and by then rachael was there, too, at the sprint trailer on the midway, where they were doing a q&a session. pam and i got to stand on the stage during the event, then they were whisked off again.

after the race, we went over to the speedway's country club, where mario, rachael and dallas chef tim love competed in an iron chef-styled event called the asphalt chef. it was a big party, with each chef contributing some appetizers, and i have to say, rachael's bacon & deviled eggs, pictured at left, were the best thing i had there. the picture doesn't look great, but they were actually very attractive in addition to be excellent. there were party favors: everyone there got a pair of orange crocs. oh, and the secret ingredient in the asphalt chef challenge was chili peppers, and mario, who was paired with driver juan pablo montoya, won. he made a shrimp summer roll and grilled flank steak with two pepper sauces. sounded good to me.

tomorrow is the pace car ride, then the tailgate party. i am really looking forward to the tailgate party.

we're in texas!

we made it to fort worth today without much to report. There was nothing scheduled today. I met briefly with darcie, mario's brand manager who has been my contest contact for the past month or so. she and i have exchanged about 300 e-mails and a handful of phone calls since I made it to the quarterfinals. so it was nice to meet her. she gave us some of our race tickets and updates the itinerary. oh, and gave me the menu for sunday's tailgate party.

i am trying to keep it a big secret that i am not a big nascar fan, so don't tell anyone. but i also suspect that i am going to have a lot of fun. saturday's schedule has us getting to the track at some hour at which i am usually not awake, and we are getting a vip tour of the track, get to check out the pits and watch the race from a suite. my experience with suites and sports events suggests i will enjoy that. after the race, i am going to an event where rachael ray, mario batali and dallas chef tim love are competing in something called asphalt chef. they'll each be paired with a nascar driver and compete in some iron chef-like thing. my understanding is that this is being recorded for the pre-race show on abc on sunday, so check your local listings. after that, pam and i get to go to the swanky speedway club for dinner.

(i actually met tim love once before, and it's kind of a funny story. it was my 40th birthday, and my friend and i were having lunch at cafe ponte. I saw michelle bernstein, a fairly famous miami chef, walk in, and i was left a little speechless. as we were walking out, i stopped by her table to talk to her. she was with two guys, one of whom seemed mockingly annoyed that everyone always knew who michelle bernstein was. he called himself and the other guy her "backup singers." It was tim love.)

sunday, we get to the track early again, and i get to go for a ride in a pace car, then go over to the tailgate party. sounds like i'm not actually cooking, but sitting around getting credit for inventing one of the dishes. the party is supposed to be for sponsors and media. should be interesting. i have seen the menu, and i'll post it on sunday night. i'm not sure if i'm supposed to before the party. i think I can safely tell you that pig-wrapped, pig-stuffed pig is on there. and i'm pretty humbled by that fact, when looking at the rest.

after the tailgate party, we watch the big race from the suites. and we come home monday. a lot of the itinerary is loose, and i'm happy about that. I'm hoping that it give us a chance to do whatever seems fun at the time.

oh, the limo ride here was a little bit of an adventure, but it was in a hummer, so that was pretty cool. driver said it costs $250 to fill the tank. gulp. and when we got here, the hotel sent up a cheese plate. that is the picture above.

i walked over the central market, which is about a half-mile away. central market is a texas grocery chain with a big reputation, and i was looking forward to seeing it. the one here is kind of new, and it was nice, but nothing mind-altering. i might need to go see one of the original ones. dan will have to tell me where those are. i know he likes the one he has in san antonio. oh and we had lunch at a place called taco diner. it claims to be a mexico city taqueria. very good stuff. we had the steak tacos and some pork sopes. and mango agua fresca. yum.

i plan to twitter more from the track tomorrow, and i will post with photos tomorrow night.

whew, what a day

i rarely have a problem with speechlessness, but i really have no idea where to start in discussing today. it was an amazing day. i will eventually think about it, and post something, but i wanted to get the video up for anyone who missed. so take a look.

and thanks.

winner announced friday!

so, for reasons i will not expound on, i have managed to convince myself that there is no way i lost this thing. and those feelings are only quelled by the absolute positiveness i have that there is no way i won this thing.

the winner will be announced on the rachael ray show on friday. here in the tampa bay area, it is on ch. 8 at 2 p.m. i know in orlando and washington dc it is on at 10 a.m., and luckily i know people in both of those markets who will keep me appraised, so one way or another, we'll eventually know.

i was really keeping it together until about yesterday, when my psyche began to crumble. i'm having trouble know that my fate as it relates to this has already been decided, and i don't know what it is.

anyway, if you are interested in watching, friday is the day. wish me luck.

i'm in!

the semifinalists have been announced now, and i am one of them! and in my lifetime, i haven't used as many exclamation points as i have in the past month! this is crazy.

so, i am in the final three, and the other two are the pigeon guy and the father-son bbq team. there is no voting in this round (!!!!!); a team that includes mario will pick a winner from among us. my only goal was to get to the round where we would be judged on merits. i wasn't excited about the voting round, but thanks to everyone who helped get me through it.

the winner will be announced on the rachael ray show on monday, oct. 20. i am sure you guys all have your DVRs set to permanently record her show, so none of you will miss it.

thanks again to everyone who helped me campaign. sean, laura, janet, anne and kelly all got me great play on the times web site. ellen and dan got me great play in tbt. kristin s. and phil included me in personal blogs (i know of those. if i didn't know of yours, thanks!), 90-some people joined my facebook group and i know that many of you mass e-mailed your address books. pam went crazy in internet chats to drum up support. and all the gmail and facebook status update calls to vote made me feel really good. with all the issues that surrounded the voting, i really appreciate all the help.

i will try to post the video soon, if you missed it earlier.

wish me luck!

waiting ...

we are now in the waiting phase of mario batali's ultimate grilling challenge. i should know by thursday whether i have advanced to the semifinals.

i am very happy with my campaign, and the results that i am aware of so far. i have no idea what happened over the weekend when they went to the e-mail voting. i felt that that change may have helped me a lot, but it also seemed like a recipe for evil manipulation. and i am fairly appalled by a tactic i witnessed from one of my competitors. i just hope it didn't work for them. but, realistically, i realize that they were probably not the only one using sleazy, unsportsmanlike tactics. they were just the one i found.

if i lost because i didn't sink to that level, technically, i guess, i have to be ok with that.

i don't like to talk smack, but on a culinary level, i think my dish was the best of the seven. on a creativity level, ditto. i was a little rough in the video, but thanks to some awesome editing by pam, it was better than i might've imagined that i was capable of. and it was almost fun enough that i am planning my next video. more details on that as they come available. don't worry. no attack sites, no voting.

and, come one, i definitely had the best dish title. like it was close.

when the voting shifted to e-mail, i seemed to be in fifth, but was close to third, which is where i needed to get. i have no idea how the e-mail voting may have changed that, but i know that i ended up third in video views after a strong weekend push. my rating seemed to indicate that i was getting more bad ratings than good, which means one of two things: either america hates me, which i choose to not believe, or that the other contestants were instructing their voters to vote me down at a higher rate. which, i think, says something. (actually, it says two things. first that they thought my dish was the biggest competition, and second that they are small, small people afraid of a challenge. ha!)

thanks to everyone who voted. i will try to not put either of us through anything like that again anytime soon.

last chance to vote for pig-wrapped pig stuffed pig

As many of you know by now, there have been technical problems with the voting in mario batali's grilling challenge. but for the final few days, there is an alternate method that should get you through.

here's what you do now:

1. Click here and click on "vote here" in the upper right corner.

2. Go through the registration process. they only require an e-mail address, zip code, birth date and some advertising opt-outs.

3. You will then get instructions to e-mail your vote to info@mariobatali.com. your subject line should say VOTE, and in the body of your message, put Jim Webster, five stars (if I may be so bold as to suggest your vote!)

That should be all I need. The site has had many problems so far, so this is a fall back for them. And there is a problem if you try to access through Firefox 3. If the site blocks you, or you encounter any other problems, please follow step 3 and add what problem you encountered to the message, in addition to the vote.

I'm not currently in position to advance, but I think it is totally within reach, if i can get a good push from last-minute voters between now and monday night.

And if you have voted already, thanks!

if you are just tuning in, i among seven quarterfinalists in the contest for my recipe, which includes orange-fennel sausage stuffed inside a butterflied pork tenderloin, which is wrapped in pancetta. if i am in the top three in voting, i move to the semifinals, and if i win there, i will win a trip to texas to cook with mario at a tailgate party.

voting problems

so, the voting seems to be down. i have no idea why, and don't know what to do about it. the site is up, you can watch the video, but if you try to register to vote, you get an error message. so, for now, don't. i feel terrible that i have drawn so many people into this fiasco.

thanks for your efforts. the voting was supposed to be open until monday, so i'll let you know if it reopens, but this is at least the fourth problem i have noticed, so i would understand if you've had it with me and my requests.

regardless, i'll let you know what i know when i know something.

thanks for the support so far.

ybor and mj's, saturday, sept 20

so, i took the pig-wrapped, pig-stuffed pig campaign to the people today. i printed up some cards with information about the dish and voting, then went out to the ybor saturday market where the national tour of top chef. i figured that is as good a demographic as i would find.

they had a big tractor trailer truck with slide outs. inside, there was a tiny kitchen and 38 chairs. the chefs presenting were carlos fernandez from season 2 and richard blais, who was a finalist in the most recent season. richard is one of my favorite contestants from any season, so i was looking forward to seeing his demo.

anyway, i got there at about 945 a.m., which was 45 minutes before the first show. i wasn't looking forward to walking around and talking to strangers, but i figured my vote total needed a boost, so i needed to do it. and it was actually sort of fun. everyone -- well, almost everyone -- seemed happy to hear about the contest and what i could win. and most said they would go right home and vote. i gave out about 400 cards. so far, i've had a bounce of about 50. hoping that i get more tomorrow, but i was hoping for a 20 percent return, and that seems highly possible. i mean, of course, i don't know that all of them were people from ybor today, but i'm sure it didn't hurt.

i gave a card to blais and talked to him briefly. he seemed genuinely nice, which he seemed on the show. he said he was going to vote for me. i was rooting for him on top chef, so nice that he's returning the favor here.

he made sweet tea ice cream in the demo. he made it with dry ice, which i have seen happen on tv before, but never tried. it was pretty awesome. he made the ice cream base, and while it was still hot, put it in the bowl of his kitchen aid stand mixer. with the mixer running, he started adding the dry ice, and fog started billowing out of the bowl. it looked like a movie prop. we got to taste, and it was really good. it tasted like carbonated ice cream. i want to do this. oh, and i'm looking forward to my next trip to atlanta. richard is opening an upscale burger joint there. i'll go. oh II: while i was in ybor, i had lunch at mema's alaska tacos. i guess what makes a taco an alaskan taco is that they fry the tortilla. i had a gator taco, which was kind of cool. they were good, but kind of small and kind of expensive. shrug.

so i secured some votes. hopefully enough, and got to meet someone i respected on tv and learned that he deserved it. good day. and it wasn't even over yet. ...

so after a day of talking at ybor, i came home and crashed in front of the tv and watched the rays. then, all of a sudden, it was 730 and i was hungry. so we took a suggestion from laura reiley and headed over the mj's martini jazz and tapas bar. they asked us if we had ever been there before. we said, yes, but the last time we had been there, is was about seven years ago, and it was a steak & ale.

i want to go back and try everything on the menu. we started with the mussels a la tara, a nice bowl of mussels in a wine-butter sauce. sweet. portabello mushroom stuffed with goat cheese and spinach. sweet. we also had the slow-braised burgundy short rib. the description on this dish was just "with gratitude and respect for chef boulud." so i asked the waitress if the chef worked for daniel boulud, and she said yes. that was pretty cool. daniel is someplace i'd like to go someday. the short rib was good, though not quite as tender as i might've hoped. the sauce was really good. and the potatoes were good.

pam got the pan-seared salmon which had a lavender honey. i got the pan-seared duck breast, which came with a sour cherry sauce. this was awesome.

for dessert, i didn't have to choose, they had a sampler. a little taste of four different desserts. new york cheesecake, and the open cannoli were my favorites, but the carrot cake and the chocolate almond torte were good too.

they have something called bananas sorta foster. i need to go back and find out what that means.

all the plates were small, which is always fun. you could go create your own tasting menu. tapas is a great plan.

so, pam brought some of the cards that i took to ybor saturday morning, and we gave some to the waitress, told her the story and asked her to get all the employees to vote for me. she said sure. as we were getting ready to leave, i saw the waitress in the kitchen showing my card to the chef, domenica macchia. they seemed to be animated. then i saw her coming out to the dining room. so i waited. she seemed really impressed with the idea and the opportunity, and said she would vote for me. it was fun talking to her, too. i'm definitely going back. so should you.

pig voting

hey, to anyone here because i met you in ybor this morning, thanks! and if you came here because you had a problem voting, i didn't mention to everyone, but there are problems with the mariobatali.com site on firefox. i mentioned to a bunch of people, but know it didn't come up with everyone. explorer and safari don't have a problem with it, so if you have access to another browser, please try again.

i have been assured by the contest people that there is nothing wrong with the site. in fact, if you can click to ignore the warning on firefox, but that gets really annoying.

ronnie the greek handicaps the field

ronnie perkins has been one of my best friends for almost three decades. and i know no one who does a better job of studying the candidates and issues before he votes.

but i sort of thought that when i told him i needed his vote for the batali grilling contest, i might just get it. nope. he studied the field, broke it down, weighed pluses and minuses, and finally came to his conclusion.

here is his report:

I watched the other videos to see your competition. Here's my assessment:

Salmon guy - sort of quirky but the vintage wine since thursday, low-rider capital of the world, and fish-hating granny was funny. decent presentation but not for me.

NASCAR lady - a bit too much energy for this contest. good sound and video effects. Unique idea but it seemed way too much effort for a NASCAR tailgate party. Just throw a pig in the ground and tap a keg!

Jack Daniel's BBQ man - i liked the ingredients flying in and the process through the night but he's too cocky for me. although the food looked good it wasn't original and he didn't discuss anything but the bbq sauce and the duration on the grill. i liked having the gang at the end taste-testing the finished product.

Pigeon killer - i like squab/quail but he was way too boring. nothing but grilled bird with some bbq sauce and wine. i liked the grape wood idea since it was from his vineyard but not much else.

Vince's pork roast - definitely your toughest competition. i liked the ingredients and the way it was wrapped and tied for cooking. the audience was a good background and his presentation skills were really good as was his finished food presentation. hopefully he doesn't have many friends!

father and son butt team - not bad. pretty good looking food although i don't like coleslaw. the jeff gordon look alike was a funny idea too.

PWPSP - oh yeah. i like how you showed the construction, the grilling, the cutting, and the tasting. but the final presentation of the food was the best of show and the idea (3/7 pork) and the name should be a crowd-pleaser. my only critique would be more eye contact. i think you have a winner! everyone will need to vote! good luck!


well, there you have it. after much thought, the considered opinion is pig-wrapped, pig-stuffed pig. ronnie assured me i got his 5-star vote.

whew.

ps: i can't really tell if you can tell how the voting is going, but if i am reading it right, i fell overnight. i really thought i'd gain with all my late-night friends. the quail guy shot out of nowhere, going from (i think) sixth place to (i think) first. then it appears that the guy with the wrapped pork shoulder is close behind (hmmmm, sausage wrapped in pork. know what that needs? bacon.), then the bbq sauce guy. then i'm neck-and-neck with the father-son team. sigh. i'm hoping that the other entrants used up all their friends the first day and that i still have a lot more in the bank. so get out there and vote!

the quarterfinalists

i have the charming title "pork-upload." i pulled this in from the link on mario's site, and i can't make it so i'm not cut off. i am in the top right. you can just click on my photo and it will take you to the video. you'll have to register before you can vote, tho.

voting is open!!!

ok, its a little weird, but as of 10:56 a.m., it appears the voting is open.

if you would like to help me win a fabulous weekend in texas to tailgate with mario batali, go to mariobatali.com/grillingcontest. you will have to register, which involves giving an e-mail address, your age, zip code (if i recall), and setting up a username and password.

then you go to the videos and watch as many as it takes to come to a fair, informed and reasoned decision on whom to vote for. there are seven videos, and "voting" apparently takes place in the form of rating them on a scale of 1-5 stars. for instance, as an example, my video is slugged pork-upload.mov, and my user name is jawj1. so, strictly hypothetically, you could go in and, say, give it, i don't know, pick a number ... five stars. the voting ends on sept 29, and the three highest-rated videos then advance to the next round, from which judges, including mario, will pick a winner.

you can rank as many of the videos as you like, or just go in and rate mine. i mean, or some other. but for the purposes of this blog, mostly mine.

i know the registration is a downer, but i appreciate your effort. thanks in advance.

get ready to vote!

voting in the mario batali grilling contest was to have started by now, but there seems to be a delay. you can view all the quarterfinal videos, if you are still an undecided voter, tho, and i will alert everyone in every way i know how when the voting successfully starts.

to check the videos, go to mariobatali.com/grillingcontest. my video is pork-upload.mov and my user name is jawj1. if i had understood the gravity of the name of the movie file when i uploaded it, i might have adhered to more creative naming conventions. but for now, that's what it is.

pig-palooza!!!!!

ummmm, i don't know what i am allowed to officially say right now, but i think i can tell you that i just received a phone call from mario batali's "people." since i don't have "people," it went to voice mail. but it was a really, really, really cool voicemail. details on your upcoming responsibilities will posted here soon.

square 1 burgers, tampa, aug. 18

the best burger i have ever had was at taylor's refresher in st. helena, calif. it was fairly spectacular. alan, ronnie and i stopped there while we were touring wineries in napa. it was the most expensive burger i've ever had, but it was awesome. and the garlic fries. and the caramel-ginger shake. mmmmmm.

anyway, the burger, fries and shake were almost $20. each of us spent that. none of us complained about it.

fast forward about a year, and alan and i were listening to lawrence talk about going to square 1 burger in tampa, telling us it was really good, but it was pretty expensive. he told us that a burger, fries and tea could run you $17. almost in unison, alan and i were like, "that's almost as much as taylor's." we were skeptical whether it could be as good.

i finally went today. it was ok. it was no taylor's.

pam got the chili cheese burger, and i got the decadent burger. pam's was pretty straight forward. chili, cheese, burger. mine was a bit more complicated. it was kobe beef, allegedly, with caramelized onions and brie. i asked for gruyere instead of brie. we asked for them to be cooked medium. i was glad they asked, because some places won't even serve below well done. well, they asked, we said medium, and it came well done. actually, what's the next thing after well done?

right after the waitress left, pam asked if i should get it under medium, since it was kobe. a) i doubt it was kobe, and b) once it was well done, there was no way to possibly appreciate it if it was. shrug.

i didn't send it back because i can enjoy a well done burger. and it was fine. it was just really, really cooked. ultimately, to its detriment. shrug.

the burger itself was remarkably messy. when i picked it up, the onions just started leaking out all over the place. when i went to put it down, i needed to get a side plate, because i couldn't put it down on the plate again after all the juice was down there. also, it took like three bites before i was getting burger, because it was smaller than the bun and it kept sliding.

it wasn't bad, but for the price, it was a little disappointing. i think i would've been fine with it if i hadn't gotten the kobe, with the kobe price tag. oh well.

anyway, we also got an order of the 50-50, which was two cones of fries, one normal fries and the other sweet potato with cinnamon-sugar. for the regular fries, there was a chipotle ketchup which was the best thing we had. it was amazing. i think i could be talked into going back just to get fries with this ketchup.

it was a nice room. it looks tiny from the street, but it is a pretty big room inside. and it is table service. with china. and its very south tampa chic. to be fair, taylor's is a walk-up roadside stand with picnic tables. of course, those picnic tables are in napa. so, taylor's wins this round, too.

i'd go back, but i'll probably take the build-your-own option. and i would like to try the beer cheese soup. and maybe the orange dreamsicle shake. of course, those two things, without the benefit of a burger and fries, will run $9. (head shaking incredulously.)

and i would ask for medium rare. and stress it.

(postscript: i just went to taylor's web site, and the burger i got there cost less than the burger i got at square 1 ... by $5. the taylor's bill was higher because of the shake i got there -- worth every penny for that. and the fact that pam and i split fries at square 1.)

mise en place, tampa, aug. 9

when we moved to the bay area, lo these many years ago, there were two restaurants i had heard of in tampa and was interested in checking out. one was berns, and we went there sometime the first year we were here. it was good, particularly the dessert room. the other was mise en place. we didn't go there immediately, and somehow it fell off the radar.

well, until i got an e-mail from phil davis saying he wanted to get a group together to celebrate kristen walbolt's birthday. great idea. we're there.

one of the reasons it had fallen off my radar was that i had heard that maybe it was a little overrated, a little overpriced and that the food was a little too precious -- read: tiny. and there was some of that. but truth is, for pam and i, it was not that expensive, and we had plenty of food, cumulatively, even if some of it was tiny.

i started out with the duo of duck, which is under the "first plates" section of the menu. here is the menu description: house smoked duck pastrami; foie gras duck rillettes, violet mustard, orange brandy fig jam. i definitely could've eaten the whole thing faster than i could read that description. the pastrami was really good. i wasn't sure i detected the foie in the rillettes. it tasted like chopped roasted duck. if it was foie, there was something chunky mixed in. it was definitely good, but it wasn't what i was expecting from foie. the figs and the mustard were each very good with the duck. the mustard was almost like caviar. the seeds were whole. liked that.

pam and i were going to share the next two courses, but didn't really work that way. we ordered the wild mushroom salade. yes, salade. precious. it was some mushrooms under a salad, er, salade, of fresh herbs and reggiano cheese. there was a banyuls vinaigrette. banyuls is a fortified french wine. oh, and that was where the black truffles were. i knew they were on something i ordered, but i was looking for them on the duck. they weren't there. i missed them on the salade. i got a couple of shrooms and some cheese, but this was pretty small, and became pam's dish. that was fine. not sure what the variety of mushrooms were. they looked like cremini to me, which are not wild. but that wouldn't be the first time i got cremini when i was told i was getting wild.

we did share the shrimp, tho. is was annatto chipotle grilled shrimp. there were pickled spicy red onions on top and a lime vinaigrette. the onions were awesome. it looked like pickled ginger, but tasted like pickled spicy red onion. the shrimp sat on a slice of watermelon, and the plate had a quenelle of goat cheese, and garnishes of tiny, tiny, tiny dice of jicama and toasted pumpkin seeds. it all worked together really well. pam mentioned how much she liked the goat cheese. good stuff. and three good sized shrimp. no complaints at all.




we also shared an entree, and they split it up for us in the kitchen, plating it as two half orders, which i thought was very cool. the menu description of this one takes forever: barbeque spiced niman ranch pork loin, white cheddar chili grits, fried green tomato, southern comfort honey grilled white peaches, mustard barbeque vinaigrette and cauliflower chowchow. whew. every part of this dish was spectacular (with the exception of the big chunk of gristle in pam's piece which made it hard to cut. but, eh, we can overlook that since everything else was good.) of particular note was the fried green tomato. we had really good fried green tomatoes at paula deen's restaurant in savannah, and pam said this one was better. i wouldn't argue. also, chowchow is a mix of pickled vegetables. i don't like cauliflower. this was good.

for dessert, i saw the word scharffenberger in several places, so i knew i was getting something chocolate. it was the scharffenberger hot chocolate truffle cake with raspberry blood orange sauce and malt ball ice cream. i was looking forward to the malt ball ice cream too. it was good, but my expectation of maltiness was higher. the cake was really good, a nice, soft chocolate.



usually when we go somewhere with others, i try to rundown what everyone else had, but at a table for 12 with most everyone doing 3 or more courses ... no chance. i know that kristen had the vegetarian tasting menu, which included this precious -- yeah, tiny -- course. to be fair, it was an amuse. but wow. nice plate. no, she hadn't eaten it yet.

also, i know that phil had the tenderloin and liked it. and i know that nikki had the shrimp that we had, and she and ellen shared the dessert i had, and jeremy had the pork entree that pam and i split (and seeing his plate made me happy pam and i split one, actually). becky had the duck dish i had. jeremy also had a butter-poached lobster first course, and becky had the lamb chops as an entree. and for dessert, becky and jeremy split a cheese plate, but had trouble deciding which cheeses on the menu to not get. suffice to say, i heard not a negative word. i was totally oblivious to the dishes on the other side of our large, semiprivate table. but there was talk of bowing to the chef if he came out to see us. he didn't.

oh, and we learned they are open for lunch. so we may be back soon.