Saturday, October 12, 2013

Anniversary Cavalcade Of Flavors


Anniversary week!

I suggest taking time off work, plan to do nothing and do that, take naps, set aside entire blocks of time and fill it with no plans whatsoever. Do. Nothing.

In other words, we crushed it.

Eat good food. Eat Szechuan tuna, Moroccan rabbit loin, souped-up hanger steak, anchovies and mint pasta, Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce with linguine, fattoush with pita and hummus. Make your tummy happy. Happier than people in my world that I KNOW had buffalo wings twice this week and washed it down with a bag of red-hot Cheetos and Monster energy drink. Do you know why you're crabby, on edge and staring out into a dark abyss? That's why.

And drink good wine with good food. It makes life happier, longer, broader, prettier, even more evocative. Better than stuffing grub in your craw in order to merely fill a hole.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Lamb & Farro-Pomegranate-Fava Salad, Two Rosés, & A Chicago Restaurant

In our world, a couple of grains of cumin on a dish that lists cumin as a key ingredient isn't going to cut it. Two consecutive dishes in a 12-course tasting menu that come off creamy first, both containing parmesan, is weird, especially when it defines the lead-in to the proteins. Using filet, a cut defined more by its delicate and luxurious texture than punch of flavor, makes for a finish to the middle of the meal that was way too quiet. And a bit gray. Orchard fruits diced the same way in consecutive courses and a trail of preciousness on at least three courses led to a lot of sameness.

Two impressions stand out - sameness and lack of punch. We just passed the 10-year mark in Chicago. If you would have told me seven years ago that we'd be sick of the higher-end Chicago food scene, I'd have said, "You're cuckoo." We are. We're sick of the sameness; what has become the Chicago flavor, a flavor that comes off...timid. Not refined, technique-driven or local farm-showcased.

Timid.