Good Evening Crusaders,
Well I’m back and boy do I have a
tale for you. First, let me apologize for taking so long to get this latest
edition out but I’ve been waiting on my pictures. That’s right everyone, your
favorite foodie is gonna be doing a little show and tell.
So a little back story to whet your appetite, last Sunday I was a proud attendant at the Seattle Food and Wine Experience. For those of you not from here or no idea what that is the best way I can describe it is that it’s like going to Willie Wonka’s magical chocolate factory if the Oompa Loompas served 4 star food and lots of booze. Needless to say I was in foodie heaven. With the help of my faithful assistant short stack, my lovely wife Nicole whom without her assistance none of this would be possible, I got some really good pictures of all the deliciousness to share with all of you wonderful people.
If you’re not salivating in
anticipation then you really should be because it was truly an amazing
experience. I can’t wait to see if they do it again next year, and provided
it’s within my financial means I will definitely be attending, camera in hand.
While it saddens me to inform you that I was unable to get pictures of
everything that they had there, It would make this entry a veritable
encyclopedia just based on the amount of wine there. I do assure you that you will not be
disappointed with what you see. Without
further ado I will present you a glimpse into my nirvana.
First stop on the food train was
this delicious house kippered salmon served with a salad of ancient grains,
served by Arnies Restaurant. The salmon was very well smoked, it was so
delicious and creamy, I couldn’t feel any bones at all and it had just the
faintest hint of smoke to offset the delicious citrusy grains in the salad.
Next up we had blini with seafood
salad and saffron craime fraiche. For
those unfamiliar with the term a blini is a small pancake made with yeast and
buckwheat flour that owing its origins to mother Russia. Apparently Vodka isn’t
the only export of this frozen wonderland, because this was amazing. It
could’ve been the delicious seafood salad that while very light was packed with
flavor but the pastry tied it all together and made it a wonderful amuse-bouche
(French for “That which amuses the lips” but essentially is a fancy word for
appetizer).
This little stack of deliciousness
was Maine lobster tempura, sesame asparagus, with a wasabi tobiko aioli
presented by Tulalip Bay. I don’t mean to get all religious on you friends, but
oh my god that was like heaven in your mouth. The lobster was perfectly cooked
so it was so tender it just melted into the aioli (Aioli is a type of
mayonnaise sauce usually made with garlic, egg, lemon juice, and olive oil as a
base and then you can add other flavors as you see fit). Mop it all up with a
tempura (Essentially a vegetable dipped in egg batter and fried most commonly
associated with Japanese cooking, but actually originates with 16th
century Spain and Portugal) and you have a miniature meal fit for a miniature
king. There’s one word to describe it best MMMMMmmmmmmm………….
This is simple, it’s a cheese
imported from the great country of Ireland. Ok, so it’s not exactly simple but
it sure is delicious. You can almost taste the lush green fields and rolling
hills of the Emerald Isle. Very creamy
and delicious, personally I would use it to add some earthiness to a dish. I
don’t think you could use it a lot as it might over power most light faire but
it still tastes good even by itself. I definitely enjoyed it.
This wonderful formation was a
gorgeously scrumptious barbecued beef slider with a type of vegetable medley
that almost borders on a slaw without the added runniness. It was provided to
us by Andaluca Restaurant. The BBQ sauce seeped into the bread just enough to
provide a flavor sponge but not so much that it made it soggy and fell apart.
The beef itself just fell apart making this a wonderful sandwich I could most
assuredly see at a buffet table or at a wedding spread. Very tasty indeed.
These wonderful little bites were
braised short ribs presented by Trellis Restaurant on what seemed to be like a
potato roll of sorts. Not much to say about these that wouldn’t be just copying
what I’ve already said about the beef above, all the same characteristics
without the factor of using shredded beef. I’d provide these at my wedding
buffet right next to the ones above and challenge people to just eat one. Go
ahead and try it, I dare you.
This was a fragrant duck slider
with plum sauce made in the wonderful Asian kitchens at Wild Ginger. For those
of you who are afraid to try duck I say to you, what are you so worried about?
Just think of it as a leaner more flavorful and prettier looking chicken. The
meat was very tender and sandwiched between what I ascertained to be steamed
dough for a chewy doughy biscuit like pocket for the duck, and the plum sauce
provided an incredible sweet, savoriness to compliment the gaminess of the
meat.
Probably one of if not my most
favorite of the different food items available was this Frankenstein’s monster
of delicious and complimentary of flavored foods. This tower of exquisite taste
and amazing culinary prowess is Filet mignon with roasted garlic-pecan crust
and Oregon bleu over scallop potato pie. This decadent treat is brought to us
by the brilliant gastronomy wizards over at Blackfish of Tulalip. There is no
possible way that any of my words could possibly do this dish justice. Anything
I say would just cheapen the experience for you and rob you of imagining it for
yourself. The best I can do is to say WOWZA!! It was truly something I wish I
could taste again and again and again. Thank you to the chefs at Blackfish for
allowing me a glimpse of your world; I wish to return promptly.
Now this may look like a breaded meat ball in hollandaise sauce though I can assure you it’s anything but. It is in fact an Alaskan king crab and rock shrimp fritter with a mango remoulade, made possible by the kitchen at Rays Boathouse. A remoulade is a chilled mayonnaise sauce usually with herbs, capers, mustard, anchovies and pickles sometimes with chopped hard cooked eggs and is typically served cold with meant or fish. In this case the chilled sweetness was the perfect balance to the warm saltiness of the fritter. A delicious blend of a tropical fruitiness and the refreshing taste of the sea would whisk you off to a Caribbean resort that if you closed your eyes and imagined hard enough you could even almost hear the sound of waves lapping against the shore.
There’s really not a whole lot to
say about this one, but please don’t mistake my lack of words for disapproval.
Far from that, I very much thought they were delicious I’m just not a huge
sweets person. For those of you who are endowed with an incisor of the sucrose
variety, or a sweet tooth, then you would most definitely enjoy these
doughnuts. The chocolate one on the left was my favorite as it wasn’t
overpoweringly sweet even when you add the luscious liquid chocolate to the
top. It was light and still delicious enough to be eaten on its own without a
glass of milk. The one on the right was also tasty in that it was a strawberry
pastry with bits of strawberry imbedded throughout with a whipped strawberry
frosting on top. I may not be a sweets person but I found myself humming the
yummy song a few times while trying them.
Next to our friends at Blackfish
this was probably the fanciest dish available at the expo. It also happened to
be another one of my favorites because of the quality of the ingredients put
into it. It may look strange in the picture but it was delicious. It was a
combination of a Lamb bresola on whole wheat crackers with leek butter and
Oregon truffles from The Country Cat Dinner-house and Bar. Wow, try and say
that 5 times fast. Let’s dissect it a little to help everyone try and
understand. Bresola originates in Lombardy, Italy and is an air dried salted
fillet of meat that has been aged about 3 months. Leek butter is just how it
sounds, a delicious soft butter infused with leeks, which are a milder relative
of onions. And lastly the Oregon Truffles which is a soft potato shaped
mushroom that grows underground, the amazing thing being that it takes hardly
any of this wonderful fungus to provide an immense burst of flavor. This was
just an impressive compilation of tastes and ingredients. Very indicative of
what you’d expect from an upscale restaurant to serve as an appetizer. Seems
like anyone could make this one but you need to consider the quality of the
ingredients, truffles are assuredly not cheap. The great thing about this is
that it brought 5 star dining to those of us who live on a 1 star budget
without sacrificing flavor and presentation.
I would be remiss if I didn’t have
at least one healthy and diet option in this whole experience. So here it is, this was a gluten and whey
free blueberry snack bar. I had never actually had anything that was gluten
free before but I was pleasantly surprised with how tasty it was. I’m so
thankful that I do not have an intolerance to any foods, but if I did I would
definitely give this snack company my full business.
I feel it’s always best to go out
on a high note and while I’m not necessarily a fan of sweets I couldn’t help
but be in awe of this. Far and away the most inventive of dishes at the expo,
this was also one of the most imaginative foods I’ve ever eaten in general. It
was a Black Tea custard with candied Meyer lemon and a nitro poached honey sea
foam of Spur Gastropub. This is what those
in the business call an exercise in molecular gastronomy. For those of you
unfamiliar with this practice it combines, my two favorite subjects, science
and food. Think the chemistry of cooking. Now I have to be honest the custard
was not my favorite thing I’ve ever eaten, though the nitro poached honey was
quite possibly the most interesting food I’ve ever had. For those of you who
don’t understand what I’m saying I mean that they pour the honey foam into a
bath of liquid nitrogen until it hardens into a ball and then they pull it out
and serve it. When you have it in your mouth you literally look like you’re
breathing smoke as the nitrogen warms and dissolves. You can eat it and pretend
you’re a dragon, which makes this indulgence enjoyable and entertaining as
well.
I could list all the wine and
ciders and liquors that were there but that would take longer than we already
have. Suffice it to say the selection stretched as far as the eye could see and
spanned all the tastes and colors of the rainbow. I think I’ve made it clear
that I enjoyed my time there and can’t wait to see what they do next year.
There was more food available as well but we just didn’t get pictures of it and
so I thought it best to leave out. I am sorry that this took so long to get out,
I just hope you have stuck with me and are enjoying it now.
Well
crusaders, that wraps up this adventure, I hope I inspired you to try something
new and not be afraid just because the ingredients or techniques might be
foreign to you. I appreciate each and every one of you who read this, so thank
you. I hope my next adventure won’t take so long to get up for your reading
pleasure so be sure to check back soon. You never know what glory you will find
by accident if you’re only willing to try. As always happy eating and bon
appetite.
Indiana Joe
No comments:
Post a Comment