What did you eat last night for dinner?

[constant struggle]

moar food lol

 

[madmadigan]

Baby lettuces, fennel, French bread croutons, tomato vinaigrette.

Autumn vegetable lasagna, kale, wild mushrooms, pumpkin, sheep milk ricotta, Mornay sauce.

Wild rice pudding-honeyed cornmeal torte, apple cider-maple syrup reduction, apple compote.

 

[madmadigan]

Duroc pork broth, kale, smoked chili oil.

Tagliatelle pasta, golden chanterelle mushroom ragout, parmesan cheese.

Chocolate mousse-hazelnut praline dacquoise, rasberry coulis, espresso sabayon.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Benu has a good sommelier.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Unfortunately, they also have awful food. We went last night, and since I know that everybody loves my bitterness, here is what I thought... course by freaking course:

1- Thousand year old quail egg, ginger, citrus, star anise - I didn't like the egg, my wife did. I thought it was grainy and it seemed to be seasoned only on one spot, so bland and then really salty. The rest of the dish, basically a sphere of ginger juice, was wretched. I love ginger, but a liquid ball of ginger juice is just too much.

2- Pistachio, caviar, butter - This was good. It was basically a little caviar and butter on top of a small cake. Hard to go wrong.

3 - Sea urchin, sunchoke, green apple ice - No idea what they were thinking. The ice was so cold that it numbed the palate and they made the sunchoke puree have the same texture as the urchin. So, no taste, no texture.

4- sesame tofu, salmon roe, radish - the tofu basically tasted like eating cotton balls. there was a sphere of something (maybe dashi) inside. the salmon roe was of incredibly good quality. that shocked me.

5 - Abalone grenobloise etc. - Should have been good, but it was badly cooked. Really greasy. It is one thing to have a brown butter sauce, another to bread something and have the crust be soggy. Disappointing.

6 - eel, feuille de brik, creme fraiche, caramelized anchovy, peanut, lily bulb, mountain yam and shrimp soufflÃ

- So, this was three parts. The eel wrapped in brik was quite good. Its sauce was way too salty. The caramelized anchovy part (basically anchovy gel) was cool looking, but unremarkable tasting and the souffle just wasn't good at all.

7 - monkfish liver torchon, cucumber, turnip, salted plum, brioche - The brioche was really tasty. The torchon suffered from the same problem as the one at the french laundry. It was a molded puree, which is not what a torchon is supposed to be. Bad texture.

8 - crispy cod milt, pickles, mizuna, green yuzu - This dish was quite nice. I like cod milt a lot, and the pickles were excellent.

9 - "shark's fin" soup, crab, ham, black truffle custard - This is where things took a turn for the worse. Three of the next four dishes all had the taste of "au jus" sauce on a French dip from mediocre hotel room service. The texture of the truffle custard was good.

10 - pumpkin porridge, lobster, black truffle - I loved this. My wife hated it. Basically tasted of lobster stock only, which I like. She disliked the texture which she compared to scrambled eggs before they go in the pan.

11 - chicken Cecilia - more "au jus" taste. The garnish was sauteed iceberg lettuce, and it was great. The chicken was standard sous vide chicken. Fine.

12 - beef rib cap, mushroom, honey, pear, mitsuba - again, that flavor. The beef was also tough and not very good. Nothing good on this plate.

Then came desserts which were fine. Then home to sleep. I was disappointed. It was pretty badly done.

 

[kwilkinson]

I thought you liked my molded puree torchon.

 

[ChicagoRon]

Wow - I ordered ala carte when I was there, which were primarily different courses from the degustation, but I loved almost everything they put in front of me. I believe I threw a review in this threak somewhere.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

I thought you liked my molded puree torchon.

You are so sensitive, young padawan. I did like it. I think torchon means something else.

Originally Posted by ChicagoRon

Wow - I ordered ala carte when I was there, which were primarily different courses from the degustation, but I loved almost everything they put in front of me. I believe I threw a review in this threak somewhere.

I'm sure I'll go again, and I hope it is better. I have to say that outside one major exception, Alinea, I basically detest this very modern cuisine. I like things to actually taste good, and to have some reference to experience. I think Benu fails on both accounts, or at least it did last night.

 

[impolyt_one]

what is cod milt? shirako?

 

[itsstillmatt]

Originally Posted by impolyt_one

what is cod milt? shirako?
sperm sack. I don't know what shirako is, but isn't it salted or pickled? This was fresh fried. I'd love to be able to find it fresh around here. One of the best things I ever ate was herring milt in Paris.

 

[SField]

Wouldn't think black egg would need much seasoning... it tends to be incredibly salty.

 

[impolyt_one]

Originally Posted by iammatt

sperm sack. I don't know what shirako is, but isn't it salted or pickled? This was fresh fried. I'd love to be able to find it fresh around here. One of the best things I ever ate was herring milt in Paris.

was too lazy to google 'cod milt' before asking

but tara shirako (cod milt) is eaten straight up raw in sushi (like a gunkanzushi, i.e. like how ikura or uni come) or in ponzu sauce, and it can also be grilled, or boiled in a nabe.

 

[Rambo]

My god that looks horrid

 

[Baron]

We had another couple over for dinner last night and I made a kurobota pork rack roast. It was an expensive piece of meat but, holy crap, that was some good pig. It was really worth the price - incredibly well marbled and full of flavor. I prepared it very simply - I rubbed it with salt and pepper, seared it all over in a cast iron pan then roasted it at 325 on a bed of mirepoix with some rosemary and chopped apples to an internal temp of 145. Served with a fennel arugula salad and roasted potatoes.

 

[Wires]

Not last night but I recently tried Ethiopian food. The food itself wasn't outstanding but people probably flocked to the restaurant for the novelty of and the permission to use fingers to eat and be messy. The sauce from the meats made the flatbread so soggy, I wondered if I needed to cup my hands to slurp the soup.