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das_elysium about Boston reminded me that I haven't come around to post about the two nights I spend in the Stir test kitchen. I know, I know - posting about restaurant visits from last summer is kind of ... late? Lame? But then again, does it really matter to the readers here when I was in a given restaurant? And I myself love to be reminded of the great food I ate. Mo worries, I do not plan to make detailed posts about every of my restaurant visits, only the fanciest ones, i.e., the "starry" ones or special ones like Stir: one theme for the any given evening, 10 people, wine (or non-alcoholic, but warn them in advance about that) pairings, one table around a cooking station where some of the cooking happens live, accompanied by the cook's explanations about the food and cooking techniques and the sommelier's commentary on the wine and wine pairings.
Visit 1: Cookbook Series: The Basque Book
So this is what the place looks like before the cooking starts.
And here is the menu, all from the above book. I had no idea what basque cuisine is like when we booked it. "Something with seafood" - that sounded interesting and here we were.
It started with a bang - I am picky about fish, especially fish that tastes very, well, fishy. And salted cod does not sounds like something I would fall in love with. But here I was and I could have eaten a second and third portion of it. And yes, I tried to get every last bit of that olive oil that got infused with all the aromas.
Live cooking. Did I mention the wine pairings? Especially the "drink as much as you want" (although for a lightweight like me, a glass of wine with each dish is almost too much already ...).
By now, I have used garlic chives in a dish myself - they are the very thing that gives Chinese dumpling that special taste. I wish they were easier to find (only the Asian store in town carries them) - I would add them to the eggs I make, too.
More live cooking.
I'm not sure you can see it clearly on the pic, but this wine was orange! And an experience of a special kind - the wind itself was interesting but not something I would want to drink a full glass off. Wine and dish combination on the other hand worked just perfectly together - by the end of the meal, we ended up voting the combo the best (one does have three votes: one for the best dish, one for the best wine and one for the best combination - interestingly, both times I've been to Stir, the combo was not the same as the individually best components).
The monkfish was really good but the broth was, for me, a bit on the too quiet side (what a strange thing to say about a garlic-flavored broth!) compared with the strong taste in other dishes on that evening. One of my friends absolutely loved it, though - now that I think of it this is the person who hardly ever uses salt in their own cooking while I use quiet a bit. So it may have been abotu that particular differences in taste, huh ...
The pork was just perfect - ever so slightly pinkish and just melting in your mouth but with nice, spice crust and of course the bits of delicious fat that pork has to have. But we all were absolutely blown away by the roasted okra in tomato sauce. I *so* need to find okra and cook this myself.
Dessert. And desert wine. I just love sweet wines, OK? Give me desert wine at any time.
Oh, and getting the cookbook was also part of the deal. Actually, they had a whole wall full of cookbooks and if you did not want this particular one (for whatever reason and especially if one were there with a partner and did not want to get the same book each), one could just pick another one. I got the basque one because of the okra recipe.
Visit 2: Rosé, Corn and Tomato
The menu for the night! Having taken a look at it, I know I needed to pace myself with the wine because of the last one.
Sitting at another corner of the big table this time. I know some people doubt my introvertedness (I do admit that I can perform extraverted, but it's performance), but I really am. It is, however, surprisingly easy, to have conversation with 10 random people if everyone is on the same page (we all want to have a good evening) and the food and wine we get (together with the commentary by the cook and the sommelier) provides the perfect conversation topic.
I was better at taking photos of food *and* wine this time. Partly because I was more interested in the wine this time around. I mean, rosé! Who ever gets a fancy introduction to rosé? Some interesting facts: rosé is supposed to be drunk fresh, so you will not find a 5 year old rosé, at least not if you did not forget it in a dark corner of your pantry yourself. Also no rosé dessert wines - that one kind of shocked me (the dessert wine we had was delicious and white; I know little about wine, but give me a Moscato d'Asti any time!).
Not so much to say about the salad, it was nice, but not the dish that really impressed me.
The bass steamed in corn husk on the other hand was very much impressive. I love bass and this one was just perfect - juicy and just melting away in your mouth, with a perfect counterweight of fresh tomatoes.
The idea was good, but this was, unfortunately, a tomato based broth. And I just don't like them. (Remember how I complained about throwing away a whole pot of soup I cooked? Yeah, tomato-based broth.)
That miso corn puree! I could kill for it. Or eat it with a giant spoon from a jar (if one could get it in a jar).
A sudden dessert amuse-bouche! Frozen watermelon with salt crystals and some kind of chutney. I was ... tipsy at that moment. And very happy. So forgive me for not remembering exactly. (To my defense: I was not the only one tipsy! And the people I've been to Stir with are quiet a bit bigger people than I am.)
Having two dessert means more time to enjoy the dessert wine. Sooo good! And so was the actual dessert - the perfect combo of crunchy and creamy textures, with sweet-tarn corn and buttermilk punctuated by little flavor explosions of tiny super aromatic blueberries.
I should have taken notes of which dishes were voted best - not necessarily always the ones *I* liked best. But we've been also told that it's by far not always the same dish that wins on nights with the same theme. And even given that there may be differences in the cook's performance from one night to the next (which I do not think to be great, the guys are extreme professionals), in the end it is about the taste of individual people and a group of 10 means small number statistics on any individual night (I know, I out myself as a scientist talking this way, but well ... so I am. And statistics and understanding what small numbers statistics or biases mean is important, even if it comes to food). The voting itself was a lot of fun - while we talked about food all the time at the table, it gave us a chance to stop for a second and consider the meal as a whole, to revisit first impressions and think how they stood up to everything that followed.
Anyway, if you are in Boston and have a chance to plan ahead some 5-6 weeks (the individual evenings/master classes are sold out quickly and far in advance, one usually needs to book within a short time after they are announced), totally go there. And if you have the spare money, of course. But then we are back to the discussion of food as art and the money we are willing to spend for, say, a music festival.
das_elysium about Boston reminded me that I haven't come around to post about the two nights I spend in the Stir test kitchen. I know, I know - posting about restaurant visits from last summer is kind of ... late? Lame? But then again, does it really matter to the readers here when I was in a given restaurant? And I myself love to be reminded of the great food I ate. Mo worries, I do not plan to make detailed posts about every of my restaurant visits, only the fanciest ones, i.e., the "starry" ones or special ones like Stir: one theme for the any given evening, 10 people, wine (or non-alcoholic, but warn them in advance about that) pairings, one table around a cooking station where some of the cooking happens live, accompanied by the cook's explanations about the food and cooking techniques and the sommelier's commentary on the wine and wine pairings.Visit 1: Cookbook Series: The Basque Book
So this is what the place looks like before the cooking starts.
And here is the menu, all from the above book. I had no idea what basque cuisine is like when we booked it. "Something with seafood" - that sounded interesting and here we were.
It started with a bang - I am picky about fish, especially fish that tastes very, well, fishy. And salted cod does not sounds like something I would fall in love with. But here I was and I could have eaten a second and third portion of it. And yes, I tried to get every last bit of that olive oil that got infused with all the aromas.
Live cooking. Did I mention the wine pairings? Especially the "drink as much as you want" (although for a lightweight like me, a glass of wine with each dish is almost too much already ...).
By now, I have used garlic chives in a dish myself - they are the very thing that gives Chinese dumpling that special taste. I wish they were easier to find (only the Asian store in town carries them) - I would add them to the eggs I make, too.
More live cooking.
I'm not sure you can see it clearly on the pic, but this wine was orange! And an experience of a special kind - the wind itself was interesting but not something I would want to drink a full glass off. Wine and dish combination on the other hand worked just perfectly together - by the end of the meal, we ended up voting the combo the best (one does have three votes: one for the best dish, one for the best wine and one for the best combination - interestingly, both times I've been to Stir, the combo was not the same as the individually best components).
The monkfish was really good but the broth was, for me, a bit on the too quiet side (what a strange thing to say about a garlic-flavored broth!) compared with the strong taste in other dishes on that evening. One of my friends absolutely loved it, though - now that I think of it this is the person who hardly ever uses salt in their own cooking while I use quiet a bit. So it may have been abotu that particular differences in taste, huh ...
The pork was just perfect - ever so slightly pinkish and just melting in your mouth but with nice, spice crust and of course the bits of delicious fat that pork has to have. But we all were absolutely blown away by the roasted okra in tomato sauce. I *so* need to find okra and cook this myself.
Dessert. And desert wine. I just love sweet wines, OK? Give me desert wine at any time.
Oh, and getting the cookbook was also part of the deal. Actually, they had a whole wall full of cookbooks and if you did not want this particular one (for whatever reason and especially if one were there with a partner and did not want to get the same book each), one could just pick another one. I got the basque one because of the okra recipe.
Visit 2: Rosé, Corn and Tomato
The menu for the night! Having taken a look at it, I know I needed to pace myself with the wine because of the last one.
Sitting at another corner of the big table this time. I know some people doubt my introvertedness (I do admit that I can perform extraverted, but it's performance), but I really am. It is, however, surprisingly easy, to have conversation with 10 random people if everyone is on the same page (we all want to have a good evening) and the food and wine we get (together with the commentary by the cook and the sommelier) provides the perfect conversation topic.
I was better at taking photos of food *and* wine this time. Partly because I was more interested in the wine this time around. I mean, rosé! Who ever gets a fancy introduction to rosé? Some interesting facts: rosé is supposed to be drunk fresh, so you will not find a 5 year old rosé, at least not if you did not forget it in a dark corner of your pantry yourself. Also no rosé dessert wines - that one kind of shocked me (the dessert wine we had was delicious and white; I know little about wine, but give me a Moscato d'Asti any time!).
Not so much to say about the salad, it was nice, but not the dish that really impressed me.
The bass steamed in corn husk on the other hand was very much impressive. I love bass and this one was just perfect - juicy and just melting away in your mouth, with a perfect counterweight of fresh tomatoes.
The idea was good, but this was, unfortunately, a tomato based broth. And I just don't like them. (Remember how I complained about throwing away a whole pot of soup I cooked? Yeah, tomato-based broth.)
That miso corn puree! I could kill for it. Or eat it with a giant spoon from a jar (if one could get it in a jar).
A sudden dessert amuse-bouche! Frozen watermelon with salt crystals and some kind of chutney. I was ... tipsy at that moment. And very happy. So forgive me for not remembering exactly. (To my defense: I was not the only one tipsy! And the people I've been to Stir with are quiet a bit bigger people than I am.)
Having two dessert means more time to enjoy the dessert wine. Sooo good! And so was the actual dessert - the perfect combo of crunchy and creamy textures, with sweet-tarn corn and buttermilk punctuated by little flavor explosions of tiny super aromatic blueberries.
I should have taken notes of which dishes were voted best - not necessarily always the ones *I* liked best. But we've been also told that it's by far not always the same dish that wins on nights with the same theme. And even given that there may be differences in the cook's performance from one night to the next (which I do not think to be great, the guys are extreme professionals), in the end it is about the taste of individual people and a group of 10 means small number statistics on any individual night (I know, I out myself as a scientist talking this way, but well ... so I am. And statistics and understanding what small numbers statistics or biases mean is important, even if it comes to food). The voting itself was a lot of fun - while we talked about food all the time at the table, it gave us a chance to stop for a second and consider the meal as a whole, to revisit first impressions and think how they stood up to everything that followed.
Anyway, if you are in Boston and have a chance to plan ahead some 5-6 weeks (the individual evenings/master classes are sold out quickly and far in advance, one usually needs to book within a short time after they are announced), totally go there. And if you have the spare money, of course. But then we are back to the discussion of food as art and the money we are willing to spend for, say, a music festival.
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