862 replies to this topic

[Tony]

let me preface this post with 3 thoughts:
1) i know there are shizz foodies on here. i've met you. i want to know what is giving you a culinary boner.
2) i had a lot of wine at dinner.
3) my dad likes me to email him about memorable dinner's we've eaten. the attached is the latest email to dad. i thought other people might be down to share food items (either from restaurants or from home). i've seen other recipe/restaurant threads - this one isn't genre specific. just about awesome shit you just consumed.

2/13/09 at binkleys in cave creek, az -

the evening starts simply enough with a sherry scented duck consomme, served warm in an espresso cup. it's like drinking a very nice chicken broth. the next amuse is a skewer of sweet potato, seared pancetta, and ginger. which is pretty rad on it's own, but it's served in a sasparilla foam. yeah. i said it. sasparilla foam.

next up is a balsamic gelee served in a bacon puff pastry. it's small, and the way it sits on your plate looks like a miniature steak - the balsamic is the "red meat" in the center, and the puff pastry is the "fat" around the edges. it's maybe 1 cm across. oh, and it's served with a dollop of tomato puree and a parmesan foam. it looks like somebody put a steak in the de-bigulator, but it tastes almost like dessert. CRAZY. the final amuse is a frozen BLT - it's basically dippin dots ice cream, except the dippin dots taste like lettuce, tomato, and bread. and there's a bacon "dust" on top of it all.

we've been drinking champagne this whole time, because as the sommelier says, "it bridges the beverage gap for our guest who are doing a wine pairing with dinner." oh, okay.

my first course is a steak tartare. it's deconstructed, so you get a minced pile of raw meat in the center of a giant plate, and on the side are all the available condiments, including whole grain mustard, some sort of sherry gelee, an anchovie, fried capers (? i think), pickled red onions, and some sort of salad. it is paired with a bergman (?) pinot noir from oregon's willamette valley. i am immediately aware that this is an amazing wine pairing.

the palatte cleanser is a pear juice cocktail with "mock caviar" of fruit. it's pear juice, and little tiny globules of fruit are floating in it. they've chemically altered it in some way that i can't describe. it's like gelatin, but different. the cocktail glass is dusted with pistachio. of course.

course two (duex) is a grouping of baby scallops in what can only be described as a sauce made of heaven. it's a tomato broth with bacon and herbs. if god cried, his tears would be distilled and made into this sauce. that wasn't enough, though, and they made some sort of lime foam and sprayed it on the side of the bowl. i'm served this bowl with a glass of pouilly fusee - which i guess is sort of like chardonnay, but not really. it's decent on it's own. with the scallops, it's maybe the best wine ever. i make a mental note to find out what type of wine this is, and then it gets completely erased because of the next course.

a palatte cleanser arrives next - mine is a passion fruit sorbet. sherry's is guava. you'll note i haven't mentioned her dishes yet. that's not because they weren't good - but her salad wasn't terribly exciting, and while her broccoli soup was fantastic, it paled in comparison to her main entree.

i am served dover sole in a lemon and olive oil sauce with a cheesy orzo (kind of like risotto). yeah, i know. fish? tony? totally. this fish was like if fish was made out of chicken, but tasted like butter. i'm drinking some sort of chardonnay - it's sublime.

sherry's on the next level. her "ribeye" is the most tender cut of red meat i've ever eaten. i put ribeye in quotes because ribeyes are big robust pieces of steak, and this was the opposite. flavorful like a ribeye, but tender like a filet. what the F*$K are they doing at binkleys??? it prompted sherry to say "this is the best steak i've ever had ever". which is disappointing to me, as a steak master, but i tried it and i'm totally cool with her assessment. the best part? 2005 ZD cabernet. it's so good it made me angry.

what's that? you need a ridiculous dessert? okay, let me see what i can do.

first, an apple soda with vanilla custard, then an orange creme milkshake. these might seem like full on desserts, but they're just small shots. yeah, that's right. shots. our desserts haven't arrived yet.

oh, and did you ask for a root beer merangue with pop rocks in it? you did? good, because you're getting one of those too.

for the "real" dessert, sherry gets some sort of carrot cake. not what i would have ordered, only because carrot cake is something that old ladies serve. this is pretty f'ing awesome, however. it's served with pineapple, coconut, and ginger foam. no, not the actual fruits, but custardy foamy representations. gooooooooooooood times. her beverage is a dessert sherry (how appropriate). she doesn't enjoy it, mostly because it's incredibly sweet. but i like it a lot.

rather than dessert, i opt for the cheese course. i'm served a blue cheese, a soft sheeps milk cheese, and a hard cheese thats sort of like parmesan but 100,000 times better. my beverage is a zinfandel port. by this point, my brain has been destroyed and i no longer can tell the difference between basic flavors.

done? no. we get a plate with some final thoughts from binkley's, which include a chocolate and coconut truffle, a sugar cooke (which is infused with something crazy i can't put my finger on - black licorice???), and a raspberry gelatin covered in sugar.

2,000 calories later i'm sitting on the couch in my hotel room drinking scotch and typing this note to you. just know that whatever you ate tonight, ours was better.

[Jacki O.]

OMG. Is that meal for realz? It sounds like something you'd eat on another fucking planet.

You should be a food critic. That was an amazing write up and meal.


I had spaghetti at my mom's house last night
Nothing beats mom's spaghetti.....except maybe that bacon dust.

[donald]

I generally love very spicy food, so I will apologize before hand to anyone who cannot handle burning the candle at both ends, since most of what I will post will probably be stuff that you will be unable to eat.


Beth and I found some amazing gourmet spaghetti at AJ's Fine Foods, we normally only go there for specific things because their prices are pretty steep. They are one of the few places that Beth can get her Ace Pear Cider, and her favorite flavored Jelly Beans.

We found this great spaghetti made with Habeneros, they have other flavors as well such as wild mushroom which we have also tried and love as well as others I can't think of at the moment. We have found the best is to go half habanero and half regular spaghetti. We get plenty of heat, but it doesn't completely destroy our digestive tract. I am probably going to scare some people away by saying this, but the first time we tried the habanero spaghetti we both could feel the burn, not only as it sat in our stomach but the entire way down. As much as I am into the spicy, I actually thought this was a little too much and now dilute it with regular spaghetti. Now that we do half and half it is a pleasure to eat.

I forgot the name of it, but next time we buy it, I will post the name of it on here, it's great stuff and there are other flavors as well, plus the company that makes it is locally owned.

[weener]

I am currently eating half of a leftover "Where's the Beef?" sandwich from Duck and Decanter. It features such fillings as lettuce, tomato, avocado, sprouts, cucumber, swiss cheese, and pine nuts. It is very tasty.

[SomethingElse]

crispix straight outta the box. i like it.

[fatguyaz]

You totally won this round, Tony.

Sharon almost took a job at Binkleys a long time ago. It sounds like a real fancy joint. One i would not be allowed in, often.

They got Ramen there?

[Quezo]

let me preface this post with 3 thoughts:
1) i know there are shizz foodies on here. i've met you. i want to know what is giving you a culinary boner.
2) i had a lot of wine at dinner.
3) my dad likes me to email him about memorable dinner's we've eaten. the attached is the latest email to dad. i thought other people might be down to share food items (either from restaurants or from home). i've seen other recipe/restaurant threads - this one isn't genre specific. just about awesome shit you just consumed.

2/13/09 at binkleys in cave creek, az -

the evening starts simply enough with a sherry scented duck consomme, served warm in an espresso cup. it's like drinking a very nice chicken broth. the next amuse is a skewer of sweet potato, seared pancetta, and ginger. which is pretty rad on it's own, but it's served in a sasparilla foam. yeah. i said it. sasparilla foam.

next up is a balsamic gelee served in a bacon puff pastry. it's small, and the way it sits on your plate looks like a miniature steak - the balsamic is the "red meat" in the center, and the puff pastry is the "fat" around the edges. it's maybe 1 cm across. oh, and it's served with a dollop of tomato puree and a parmesan foam. it looks like somebody put a steak in the de-bigulator, but it tastes almost like dessert. CRAZY. the final amuse is a frozen BLT - it's basically dippin dots ice cream, except the dippin dots taste like lettuce, tomato, and bread. and there's a bacon "dust" on top of it all.

we've been drinking champagne this whole time, because as the sommelier says, "it bridges the beverage gap for our guest who are doing a wine pairing with dinner." oh, okay.

my first course is a steak tartare. it's deconstructed, so you get a minced pile of raw meat in the center of a giant plate, and on the side are all the available condiments, including whole grain mustard, some sort of sherry gelee, an anchovie, fried capers (? i think), pickled red onions, and some sort of salad. it is paired with a bergman (?) pinot noir from oregon's willamette valley. i am immediately aware that this is an amazing wine pairing.

the palatte cleanser is a pear juice cocktail with "mock caviar" of fruit. it's pear juice, and little tiny globules of fruit are floating in it. they've chemically altered it in some way that i can't describe. it's like gelatin, but different. the cocktail glass is dusted with pistachio. of course.

course two (duex) is a grouping of baby scallops in what can only be described as a sauce made of heaven. it's a tomato broth with bacon and herbs. if god cried, his tears would be distilled and made into this sauce. that wasn't enough, though, and they made some sort of lime foam and sprayed it on the side of the bowl. i'm served this bowl with a glass of pouilly fusee - which i guess is sort of like chardonnay, but not really. it's decent on it's own. with the scallops, it's maybe the best wine ever. i make a mental note to find out what type of wine this is, and then it gets completely erased because of the next course.

a palatte cleanser arrives next - mine is a passion fruit sorbet. sherry's is guava. you'll note i haven't mentioned her dishes yet. that's not because they weren't good - but her salad wasn't terribly exciting, and while her broccoli soup was fantastic, it paled in comparison to her main entree.

i am served dover sole in a lemon and olive oil sauce with a cheesy orzo (kind of like risotto). yeah, i know. fish? tony? totally. this fish was like if fish was made out of chicken, but tasted like butter. i'm drinking some sort of chardonnay - it's sublime.

sherry's on the next level. her "ribeye" is the most tender cut of red meat i've ever eaten. i put ribeye in quotes because ribeyes are big robust pieces of steak, and this was the opposite. flavorful like a ribeye, but tender like a filet. what the F*$K are they doing at binkleys??? it prompted sherry to say "this is the best steak i've ever had ever". which is disappointing to me, as a steak master, but i tried it and i'm totally cool with her assessment. the best part? 2005 ZD cabernet. it's so good it made me angry.

what's that? you need a ridiculous dessert? okay, let me see what i can do.

first, an apple soda with vanilla custard, then an orange creme milkshake. these might seem like full on desserts, but they're just small shots. yeah, that's right. shots. our desserts haven't arrived yet.

oh, and did you ask for a root beer merangue with pop rocks in it? you did? good, because you're getting one of those too.

for the "real" dessert, sherry gets some sort of carrot cake. not what i would have ordered, only because carrot cake is something that old ladies serve. this is pretty f'ing awesome, however. it's served with pineapple, coconut, and ginger foam. no, not the actual fruits, but custardy foamy representations. gooooooooooooood times. her beverage is a dessert sherry (how appropriate). she doesn't enjoy it, mostly because it's incredibly sweet. but i like it a lot.

rather than dessert, i opt for the cheese course. i'm served a blue cheese, a soft sheeps milk cheese, and a hard cheese thats sort of like parmesan but 100,000 times better. my beverage is a zinfandel port. by this point, my brain has been destroyed and i no longer can tell the difference between basic flavors.

done? no. we get a plate with some final thoughts from binkley's, which include a chocolate and coconut truffle, a sugar cooke (which is infused with something crazy i can't put my finger on - black licorice???), and a raspberry gelatin covered in sugar.

2,000 calories later i'm sitting on the couch in my hotel room drinking scotch and typing this note to you. just know that whatever you ate tonight, ours was better.

FAP FAP FAP FAP FAP FAP FAP

[chadk]

last night we had fresh spinach salad(not out of a bag), with cucumbers, tomatos, a bit of chedder cheese, and ranch dressing. then fresh green beans (not out of a can) in melted butter, and t-bone steaks, that were marinated for about 5 hours in a mix that i like. (sea salt pepper, garlic powder, and some season packets i got from my aunt water and olive oil. rubbed in),

we was very satisfied.

[capharnaum]

nice write up tony, making me wish i could go out
to nice dinners a little more often. to answer one of your questions
i get culinary boners from anything pork related, roasted bone marrow,
fiddlehead ferns lightly sautéed in some butter and foie gras in any form really.

i'm not real big on white wines but pouilly-fuisée is my favorite of all time.
i have a hard time getting into the new school molecular
culinary thing tho, don't get me wrong it's cool
to make a foam out of everything but is it really necessary?
anyways last night i made some gluten free pizza for the kid
and i hooked it up with some baked red potatoes with balsamic,
fresh rosemary, red onions and garlic for the wife and i.
Now i'm trying to come up with some recipes for 2 wheels
of gouda (one smoked) i've got at work. we've got a beer and cider
tasting on wed (free) and i have to come up with something to pair
the beer and the cheese together or fuck pairing and make something
edible by getting rid of some extra stuff i have in the walk-in fridge.

[The Real Jeffrey Lebowski]

Kung Pao Chicken & crab puffs.

"George likes spicy chicken."

[Tony]

OMG. Is that meal for realz? It sounds like something you'd eat on another fucking planet.

You should be a food critic. That was an amazing write up and meal.

very for real. and i'd love to be a food critic, but it would likely require me to start paying attention to grammar and spelling. and capitalization. and i'm not down with that.

i have a hard time getting into the new school molecular
culinary thing tho, don't get me wrong it's cool
to make a foam out of everything but is it really necessary?

capharnaum, i feel the same way. it's a novelty. sometimes interesting, sometimes self-indulgent. i guess to add to my original post (because it wasn't quite long enough), i was glad that the molecular gastronomy was used primarily for the amuses and the palatte cleansers. the main dishes that were part of the tasting menu were all fairly traditional. the MG made for an interesting detour between those dishes. in fact, when they brought the sorbet out between course 2 and 3, my thought was "wow, just a sorbet?"

[mancopter]

i like hot dogs.

[Jacki O.]

i had a BLT for lunch today. Microwave bacon.

and these chips:




which i am obsessed with right now

[donald]

I had chef boyardee lasagna for lunch


it was good

[mig50]

i am eating a granny smith apple.

it is surprisingly tasty.