Yes. I’m back from an extended hiatus. Too much work and not enough blogging. The good news is that I’ve eaten some fabulous food recently, so I have a lot to write about.
This week’s topics include another sign of the apocalypse, a restaurant review from San Francisco, adventurous menu items, the fanciest food I’ve blogged about, mmmmm….. sweetbreads, and duck fat ice cream!
Duck Fat Ice Cream. As you’ve probably guessed by now, I am game for almost any culinary adventure, and I love to try something completely new. If there’s an oddity on the menu, I’m ordering it.
The Red joined me on a recent business trip, and we had dinner at Cowboy Ciao in old town Scottsdale. Fabulous restaurant and the wine list is more like a book. The largest wine list I’ve even seen. After staring at it for 5 minutes or so like an Amish person at Best Buy, I handed it back to the server and ordered a martini.
Yes. The WF tapped out on a wine list. A man must know his own limitations.
We had a great meal and decided to have some dessert. The server says “How about some duck fat ice cream.” I look at the Red as if to say “Did I hear him correctly? Duck fat ice cream?!” Yes, I heard him correctly.
Of course, I had to order it!
First, it did not taste like duck. Rather, they swapped out some of the cream in a normal ice cream with duck fat. The texture was unlike other ice creams. It slowly melted in your mouth and lingered much longer than normal ice cream. Very nice. Well worth trying.
Another Sign of the Apocalypse. During the same trip to Scottsdale, I caught a spring training game. Beautiful day to have a few beers and watch some baseball.
While walking around, I come across this guy drinking what appeared to be a 40 oz Michelob Ultra. Dude. Just give me your man card because you clearly have no use for it!
40 ounces of Michelob Ultra. Why?! Just go get a lemonade and leave the drinking to the grownups.
Restaurant Review – Commonwealth in San Francisco. Recently my work travels took me to San Francisco, which is truly a foodie town if ever there was one! I had a business dinner scheduled and one of my companions (a foodie in his own right) wanted to go the Commonwealth. Here’s a good WF rule: if a self-proclaimed San Francisco foodie makes a restaurant recommendation, just nod your head and take their advice!
So we take a cab to the restaurant and it is most definitely in the hood. Not a little. Not kinda, maybe, sort of... Smack in the middle of the hood. You want to buy some illegal goods and/or services? This is the area. It’s not an area that most people would choose to go to at night, and this fancy restaurant is in the middle of it. As we pull up, I’m thinking that this is my kinda place.
A quick note about the food. I checked out the menu online before dinner. Let’s just say that if you’re not an adventurous eater, this is probably not your kind of restaurant. Stick with Applebees. I am most definitely an adventurous eater, so I was intrigued by the menu, to say the least.
We ordered the Chef’s tasting menu with the wine pairings. Here’s what we had:
1. The first thing they brought us was this huge bowl with this little bitty slice of scallop and some fancy sauce. At this point, I’m thinking “Oh lord. Not this type of restaurant…. Tiny pretentious food.” Fortunately, I was wrong, and this little bite was great, albeit somewhat pretentious.
3. Oat crusted foie gras, rhubarb, brioche soldiers, hearts of fire, and ginger. Yes. I know that foie gras isn’t for everyone. However, I have a food blog, so I must like foie gras! Right? How can I call myself a proper food snob if I don’t like one of the most revered dishes in fine dining?!
4. Shaved carrots and radishes, ash coated goat cheese, quinoa, walnut, and dill. Ok. I freely admit that if I saw this on the menu, I wouldn’t order it. However, it was on the tasting menu, so bring it on. It was quite nice and fresh. Very good after the heaviness of the foie gras. And, yes, I ate every bite, including the edible flowers!
However, you’d be wrong. These were fabulous. The chef put some spicy seasoning on them before they were battered and quick fried. Definitely a dish where you want to eat some of everything in each bite. The balls of horseradish, the favas, … yum. Plus, it was all sitting on the smoked pork jus. Imagine a clear version of jus for a French dip sandwich. Now imagine that it tastes like ham. I love the person who thought of this! You, sir or ma’am, are my hero!
6. Lamb’s tongue, artichokes, little gem lettuce, pistachio, meyer lemon jam, and cardamom 14. Yes. Tongue! This dish was absolutely fabulous. The pistachio cream went well with the tongue, and the meyer lemon sauce cut the richness of the tongue. Wow.
7. Blood orange sorbet and chantilly cream. Very nice, but not worth spending much time on.
We had a wine pairing with each course and the sommelier truly knew what she was doing. Start with light and tart whites and slowly work your way up to the bigger reds with the richer dishes, ending with a tawny port with dessert.
In short, I loved the experience of this restaurant. The food was visually beautiful. You truly ate with your eyes before you ate. I don’t recall the last time I had a meal where so much thought was put into each element of each dish. Everything was meant to be on the plate and had a purpose. One element would offset or accentuate another element. I literally everything on each plate. Everything.
Happy cooking
WF
