Alinea Part Two: Meat and Truffles

Did you catch Part One: Lighter Beginnings?

We are getting into heartier territory with the next seven courses. I estimate Tom and I have already been eating for about 2 hours at this point...

COURSE 8: Wild Mushrooms

The service team sets down our plates and I immediately get all squirmy and start saying "Morels, Tom! Look, morels. There are morels!" Before I even taste it, I have an inkling that this dish will join Scallop and English Pea Pt. 1 on my top dishes list: it smells divine. And the taste of the food does not disappoint. The morel flavor is outstanding, and they are joined on the dish by more pretty little woodland mushrooms. The paired flavors include ramps and red wine. This makes perfect sense for the earthy and savory mushrooms on the plate.  Both lend their own savory quality, while also adding a bit of sweetness and acidity to brighten the dish. Also an inspiring choice, are notes of sumac and pine. The whole thing takes me right back to mushroom hunting in the woods of Missouri when I was a kid (where I grew up not realizing that the grocery bags full of morels that we would routinely find each spring would have fetched several hundreds of dollars in the morel bereft parts of the country.)

COURSE 9: Hot Potato Cold Potato

Fuck yeah! I have been dreaming of this dish for years. It's an Achatz signature, and has been one of the few permanent members of his menu for a long while. It also happens to be featured in the Alinea cookbook, which I received for Christmas a few years back. Anyone want to come over some time and try our hand at this dish? Oh, you want to know how it tasted? Okay, the little wax bowl is filled with a cool potato soup. Skewered onto that metal pin are an impressive slice of black truffle, an orb of hot potato, a little chive, a small cube of butter and a bit of parmesean cheese. You pull the pin, which releases the garnishes into the little bowl, and shoot it back. It's so good. No surprise that potato, butter, truffle and cheese would be a divine pairing, but what is really lovely about this dish is the temperature difference between the soup and the orb. I know that is the point, and they nail it. The orb is piping hot on your tongue, and mingles with the cool soup and it is just wonderful. Super YUM.

COURSE 10: Short Rib

Those red, flag like things (which arrived to our table around the time the English Pea was dropped off, and can be also seen in the Hamachi photo) became the wrapper for this next dish. This serving piece was the most intricate of all we saw during our meal, and I think four separate waiters were required (two for each of us). The frosted glass covers the wood base. When a waiter removes the glass, they reveal these two metal supports which we, the diners, had to put together. When connected, the two supports form a little platform system that a waiter then places the tomato pasta flag on top of. Another waiter comes to serve a portion of slow-cooked short rib onto the pasta. Main waiter then tells us to build our own...what, burrito? Cannelloni? with the available garnishes above. Then wrap it up, and eat it with our hands. I am game. So we have tobacco gelee (on the spoon), tomato vinaigrette, nicoise olives, fermented garlic, dried cherries, a fresh black berry, smoked salt and one or two other things I cannot remember. Suffice it to say I used everything except a bit of the tomato vinaigrette and some of the smoked salt. This was lovely. It has been a very long time since I have eaten any red meat, but I opted to do so for this experience, because I see Grant Achatz as an artist, and I wanted to have the full experience he was offering to his guests. Anyhow, it was amazing. The pasta was delicate, the short rib was rich and so tender, the tomato vinaigrette was fresh and bright and very tomatoey, the tobacco gelee a revelation of smooth and woody notes, and the fermented garlic bitter and savory. Olives to add a punch of saltiness, and the fruit add their own sweet counter point to all the goodness. We eat, with gusto, from our own hands, and are then served warm hand towels like we are on a flight to Europe. Very classy.

COURSE 11: Black Truffle Explosion

This, with the potato, is the other signature dish that chef Achatz seems to keep on the menu pretty much permanently. It's another classic from the cook book, but this is a dish I have known about for far longer, as the chef was already making waves with it way back when he was cooking at Trio as early as 2001. But I digress. It is a ravioli, in which the chef has somehow managed to contain a hot liquified truffle essence. On top, you will notice a small garnish of romaine lettuce and parmesan cheese. Oh, and more truffle, in case the inside isn't indulgently truffley for you.  I take my bite and instantly want a plate of 6 of these. The ravioli explodes in your mouth when you bite down, and you can no longer see or hear, all you perceive is truffles. It permeates your senses with its deliciousness.

COURSE 12: Agneau (Fr. for lamb)

Those of you who are foodies may know that Grant Achatz has recently opened a new restaurant called Next, which for the next four months will focus solely on the cuisine of famed French culinary pioneer Escoffier. This dish is the one on our tour menu at Alinea that nods to this style of cooking that chef Achatz has recently been exploring. Our venture into Paris 1906 was quite memorable. The plate features roasted lamb atop a little brioche crouton. This is topped with "sauce choron" which is apparently bearnaise. The plate also had those little pomme de terre noisette which are apparently just potato which have been scooped out into little balls. The dish was quite good, and although I am not by any means a meat expert, for my taste the lamb was cooked really well. The texture was nice, not too chewy, but it was quite rare. There was also jus on the plate, and some extra blobs of the choron, in case you like it saucy, which I do. The dish was highlighted with antique service ware. It was a beautiful presentation, and delicious.

COURSE 13: Venison

This is the point at which I am starting to hit food fatigue. We are closing in on three hours of dining at this point, and while not full, I am feeling pretty sated. This may explain why this dish was just okay for me. I love the idea of pairing meat with something sweet, and in this dish, you have a piece of venison with cherry and cocoa nib.  The little piece of meat is nestled below a bed of eucalyptus leaves.  Chef Achatz loves to play with scent, obviously, and the eucalyptus does match the other flavors nicely. Flavor-wise, I am digging it, but I end up feeling like the venison is sort of mealy in texture.

COURSE 14: Octopus

When the waiter says octopus, I get nervous, as I have never traditionally liked octopus. Turns out this is mostly because other restaurants can't surpass the texture hurdle. The last time I ate it, I chewed for several minutes before giving up and just swallowing the bit. This is not our experience. The octopus itself has a... bouncy... texture, but it is easily chewed and tastes nice with the eggplant and redwine flavors the chef has paired with it.  Dish Fun Fact #1: the bowl it is served in is rounded at the bottom so you can't set it on the table. And if you wanted to try, you cant, because the fork throws off the balance. Dish Fun Fact #2: Our friend Pat ate at Alinea exactly a week before us, and instead of serving this dish at the end of the heartier, more savory dishes, he got his between the razor clam and short rib dishes.

And with that, my friends, we end the salty, earthy, savory and hearty portion of our meal. Follow me to Part Three: Sweets