USVI-On-Line

Janet, I prefer Modern's also. Not only do they taste better, the line is a heck of a lot shorter!

I was on my own for dinner last night so I made a nice healthy vegetable dinner. Broccoli, carrots, onions, garlic, ginger, scallions, peas, mushrooms, green beans, cashews, cilantro and tomatoes in a curry sauce. It would have been better with brown rice but I did not have any.



<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/3192393107/" title="thai vegetables by liamsaunt, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3403/319 ... b7027f.jpg" width="402" height="500" alt="thai vegetables"></a>

No photos, but a pic of the menu. Christine took me to Jose Andres' Mini Bar for dinner last night - 27 courses of love along with 4 glasses of wine: Mont Marcal Cava, Burgans Rias Baixas Albarino, Emotien de Terroirs Pinot Noir and Don Pedro Ximinez Sherry.

http://www.cafeatlantico.com/miniBar/miniBar.htm

This was a very foodie event. Jose worked with Ferran Adria at El Bulli; Adria is the founder of the the molecular cuisine movement - http://www.elbulli.com/sintesis/index.php?lang=en

There are six people in two seatings per night set at a comfortable sushi bar style seating. We had three chefs working in front of us assembling all of the dishes. Liquid nitrogen, sodium alginate, carageenan and all sorts of substrates were thrown about to make dishes that were supposed to be surprising and visually misleading - you did not know what you were getting - air gels, foams, eel-flavored cotton candy - this was not a meat and potatoes scene.

Brian, the chef who was working three feet in front of us, answered all of our questions as he pulled things together. Once he realized we had a clue to what he was doing he explained how each was made, while his hands were flying.

My favorite individual dish was the reconstructed Caesar Salad - very fine julienne of romaine lettuce, small hollow breadstick and anchovy filet rolled in jicama "paper" that was cut maki sushi style and plated on caesar salad dressing with a quail yolk on one piece and a mound of grated parmesan cheese on another. All of the flavors came together perfectly and the texture was awesome. I'm going to make that one! I'll probably make the quail egg optional. Brian explained how the jicama was shaved and we talked about how to do it home on a mandoline.

Some of the other dishes were for effect - Dragon's Breath Popcorn was a small disk of spiced popcorn pieces that were doused with liquid nitrogen. We were instructed to blow out of our nose as we chewed - steam came shooting out of our noses.

A lot of the dishes had very unfamiliar textures, flavors and were challenging. The ones I liked best were:

• Pisco Sour
  Olive Oil Bon Bon
  Boneless Chicken Wing
  Steamed Brioche Bun with Osetra Caviar
  Cotton Candy Eel
  Fake Sun Dried Tomato Salad - the sun dried tomatoes where actually partially dehydrated port wine
  Parmesan Egg with Migas - Parmesan gel encases a quail yolk
  Smoked Oysters with Apples and Juniper - cold-smoked, uncooked Kumamoto oyster that was still completely raw with an apple smoke foam
  Breaded Cigala with Sea Beans
  Philly Cheesesteak - beef carpaccio over a cream cheese puff with a liquid inside finished with truffle oil (Christine moaned)
  Frozen Yogurt and Honey
  Saffron Gumdrop with Edible Wrapper

This was an extravagance. Was it worth it? We've paid this much for Jimmy Buffet tickets, so yes, it was worth it. Entertainment you can eat.

On Monday January 19 Tony Bourdain's show No Reservations on the Travel Channel will feature Washington, DC. Jose Andres and Tony hit Mini Bar and our chef Brian plays a small part. There's a segment at Mini Bar where Tony says something along the lines of "I really don't like this dish." Brian mentioned that right before this was shot, Jose had Tony lick an enormous menthol crystal, which Brian says kills your taste buds so that every thing tastes bitter. It should be fun.

http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Anthony_Bourdain

Menu:



Cheers, RickG

Rick - Sounds like an amazing experience. Christine must really like you Happy birthday!

Bourdain did a special on El Bulli and it was amazing!!

We've really enjoyed CityZen at the Mandarin. Eric Ziebold is doing some pretty fun stuff there and of course Restaurant Eve's tasting room is a favorite as well.

When I saw the menu on Facebook, I thought the Dragon's breath popcorn sounded interesting and that it probably made your breath stink. The idea is smoke coming out of your nose is so cool! Love it!

That is quite the dinner, Rick! Happy birthday.

What a way to celebrate your birthday! That sounds amazing!!!! Thank you for sharing!

cat wrote:What a way to celebrate your birthday! That sounds amazing!!!! Thank you for sharing!

Thanks!

Cat, we can give this a try the next time you're in town.

Cheers, RickG

not as exciting as Rick's b-day dinner but I made these peppers the other night. Very good. I used brown rice and also added a healthy amount of fresh cilantro. And because it is what I had I used a mix of Cotija and Cheddar cheese.
Recipe here http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2006/ ... ecipe.html

Those look yummmmmay MB!

Marybeth, those look fantastic! And your picture is much better than the blog with the recipe!! You find the greatest cooking blogs!
Lisa

it's a borderline sickness the # of cooking blogs I look at a day. And one leads you to another .. it's never ending! LOL

The peppers were very good and go in the "make again" folder. Recipe makes 6 but I only made 4. I have the extra filling in the fridge and I'm thinking enchiladas over the weekend. We'll see. Gotta do something with it!

Those peppers look really good, MaryBeth.

I made vegetable fried rice and chicken with napa cabbage and cilantro last night. The chicken was marinated in sriacha, sesame oil, white soy, coriander, and sherry. It was much more flavorful than I was expecting it to be.


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/3197642217/" title="chicken napa and rice by liamsaunt, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3518/319 ... 5dd466.jpg" width="500" height="351" alt="chicken napa and rice"></a>

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mbw1024 wrote:it's a borderline sickness the # of cooking blogs I look at a day. And one leads you to another .. it's never ending! LOL

The peppers were very good and go in the "make again" folder. Recipe makes 6 but I only made 4. I have the extra filling in the fridge and I'm thinking enchiladas over the weekend. We'll see. Gotta do something with it!

Ah yeah...I also have that problem.

Hubs is in heaven with all the different stuff I am cooking.