(May, 2013) I don't often talk about the Duke City dining scene nor Santa Fe's Gastronomy, but that might be because I'm so rarely here due to all of my travel. Spring and early summer were a slight renaissance for me...staying home in New Mexico for the most part (with only a trip per month or so). I had originally thought to title this post a tale of two tastings, but the Dickensian comparisons don't seem very apt. Nevertheless, that's what this post will be about.
The first tasting was during Albuquerque's Beer Week at Chama River Brewery. Outside of staples such as Portland and Fort Collins/Boulder, Albuquerque has one of the highest number of craft breweries per person as you'll find anywhere in the nation. And some of the breweries are starting to become recognized outside of New Mexico as top notch. The talk of New Mexican breweries starts with Santa Fe Brewery, but after that, La Cumbre, Marble, Chama, Monk's, Nexus, local favorites Bosque, Tractor, Il Vicino, and slightly farther afield, Rio Grande and Sierra Blanca. The list really keeps going on, but don't take my word for it, visit the New Mexico Brewers Guild website. (and this is to say nothing of the ultra locals such as Kelly's, Broken Bottle, Turtle Mountain, etc, etc, etc.).
For the beer week collaboration dinner, there was an interesting mix of beers and meals. They didn't go together quite as well as the executive chef might have liked, though. Some beers Kim had to finish for me, others I had to finish for her. And others, still, we figured were best left unfinished. That's nothing bad to say about the diverse collection of beers, but at some point over the last ten years American beers have tended to become too hoppy. There seems to have been some unmentioned hops-arms race that led to brewers coming up with hoppier and hoppier beers with IBU's that exceed the average American's IQ score. Being one that's not that into hops, this often means that half the craft beers on a menu are just unappealing to me. Give me an Ayinger any day. The food was interesting enough, though...
Gnocchi in Brodo: parmesan broth, peas, crispy ham, pea greens, and gnocchi. Paired with Nexus' Cream Ale. Good beer. As for the Gnocchi in Brodo - pea greens. They were fan-frickin'-tastic. Who knew?
Roasted Beet Carpaccio: green chile goat cheese (green chiles are a staple ingredient in true New Mexican food, unless it calls for red chiles), mizuna, pinon gremolata, and olive oil. Paired with La Cumbre's Hefeweizen. As this was getting into the end of spring, the Hefeweizen proved to be my favorite beer of the night. The beets just caused our mouths to water in anticipation of what our garden might yield this year.
Tea Smoked Cobia: served with bamboo rice, ratatouille, and a ginger lemon sauce, then paired with Chama's Noble Session Ale. The cobia was a light fish, and it had been smoked on a bed of jasmine tea leaves. This gave it a pleasant, though subtle flavor. The bamboo rice, similarly, was a very underwhelmingly subtle taste.
Shepherd's Pie: lamb loin, lamb ragu, caramelized carrot puree, crispy potatoes, faux marrow. Paired with Chama's Big Lebrewski (a hoppy hopped up beer). Not quite what I envision a shepherd's pie to be. And, while I'm a big fan of bone marrow, the faux marrow doesn't have me sold yet.
Last course - Chocolate Bouchon: burnt marshmallow semifreddo, graham crumble, chocolate pearls, dried cherry compote, and Marble's Irish Porter on the side. The semifreddo (ice cream) tasted like marshmallows, and the chocolate pearls were fantastic, though strange. The one thing that I remember most after finishing this dish, though, was wanting a basket of bread as I was still famished. True to fine dining styles, the above dishes were all quite meager in size. And, as the meal was spread out over 3 hours, it didn't do much to curb my appetite.
So, maybe I should have stuck with the tale of two cities comparison as my recollections of the second tasting fair far brighter...
For my birthday, we headed to Farm and Table's Wines of Argentina tasting. Regular readers of this blog already know of my infatuation with Farm and Table, so it shouldn't be much surprise that I'm going to glow on about them over the next few paragraphs. The tasting was just thoroughly well done, leaving us satiated, and wanting to buy the wines that we tried. As a very important side, this meal marked a turning point for my fancy meals - I started recording diligent notes to have on hand for when, many months later, I go to write about the experience...
First course was a Strawberry Sorbet, served with pecorino, white balsamic, and black pepper. At first, flashbacks to the blt sorbet from the North Pond passed through my mind, a rather bad memory. The pepper proved to be a bit reminiscent of the North Pond's savory dessert approach, but only a little. The white balsamic was in powder form - how neat is that? The wine paired with this was a Crios Rose of Malbec. This was sweet, but less so after the sorbet. The wine itself came from Salta, the highest vineyard in the world at 10,000 feet.
Second was a Wild Sockeye Salmon, served with peaches, chipotle, pecans, and butter. The peaches proved to be where the butter was hiding, and the chipotle and salt rub on the salmon - c'est magnifique. The paired wine, Hermanos Torrontes, was dry, but became crisp after tasting the peaches. Each of the wines had a character that evolved dramatically with the food pairing (the first went from sweet to mellow, the second from dry to crisp, etc). Someone in the kitchen knew what they were doing.
Third: Grilled Chicekn with corn, parsley, garlic, lemon, and mint. The garlic, lemon, parsley, and mint formed a dressing over the grilled chicken. Served with this was something resembling a warm chicken terrine, and a corn croquet. The dressing was a great compliment to the grilled chicken, and the corn croquet was delicious. The terrine, well, it was as most terrines are. For the wines, this and the rest all came from Susan Balbo. This one was a Crios Syrah/Bonarda, which had a big, big taste to it.
Intermission: Avocaddo with jicama (a southwestern root that's usually pretty juicy), and sugar. The jicama was pickled, which made the dish in my opinion.
Round four: Beef Short Ribs, served with spring onions, quinoa, cinnamon, currants, and corriander. The demi-glace was sweetened with the cinnamon and currants (an underused ingredient in my opinion). In the back was the quinoa crisp, and on top the green onion tied in a knot. Somehow, the green onions were mild, which went great with the super-tender beef sort ribs. Paired with this was a Ben Marco Malbec (again, by Susana Balbo).
Last: Crispy Crepe Napoleon, served with dark chocolate and blackberries. Despite the name, this wasn't very crispy. The chocolate and blackberry ganache combination was delicious as one might expect, but the sugar on top would've been better if it was salt (though I'm slightly biased...). Overall, very sweet...too much with the sugar on top. The Susana Balbo Late Harvest Malbec was paired with this. By comparison, it tasted like a normal wine, not a sweet or fortified dessert wine.
Okay, next post won't be about food, I promise.
The first tasting was during Albuquerque's Beer Week at Chama River Brewery. Outside of staples such as Portland and Fort Collins/Boulder, Albuquerque has one of the highest number of craft breweries per person as you'll find anywhere in the nation. And some of the breweries are starting to become recognized outside of New Mexico as top notch. The talk of New Mexican breweries starts with Santa Fe Brewery, but after that, La Cumbre, Marble, Chama, Monk's, Nexus, local favorites Bosque, Tractor, Il Vicino, and slightly farther afield, Rio Grande and Sierra Blanca. The list really keeps going on, but don't take my word for it, visit the New Mexico Brewers Guild website. (and this is to say nothing of the ultra locals such as Kelly's, Broken Bottle, Turtle Mountain, etc, etc, etc.).
For the beer week collaboration dinner, there was an interesting mix of beers and meals. They didn't go together quite as well as the executive chef might have liked, though. Some beers Kim had to finish for me, others I had to finish for her. And others, still, we figured were best left unfinished. That's nothing bad to say about the diverse collection of beers, but at some point over the last ten years American beers have tended to become too hoppy. There seems to have been some unmentioned hops-arms race that led to brewers coming up with hoppier and hoppier beers with IBU's that exceed the average American's IQ score. Being one that's not that into hops, this often means that half the craft beers on a menu are just unappealing to me. Give me an Ayinger any day. The food was interesting enough, though...
Gnocchi in Brodo: parmesan broth, peas, crispy ham, pea greens, and gnocchi. Paired with Nexus' Cream Ale. Good beer. As for the Gnocchi in Brodo - pea greens. They were fan-frickin'-tastic. Who knew?
Roasted Beet Carpaccio: green chile goat cheese (green chiles are a staple ingredient in true New Mexican food, unless it calls for red chiles), mizuna, pinon gremolata, and olive oil. Paired with La Cumbre's Hefeweizen. As this was getting into the end of spring, the Hefeweizen proved to be my favorite beer of the night. The beets just caused our mouths to water in anticipation of what our garden might yield this year.
Tea Smoked Cobia: served with bamboo rice, ratatouille, and a ginger lemon sauce, then paired with Chama's Noble Session Ale. The cobia was a light fish, and it had been smoked on a bed of jasmine tea leaves. This gave it a pleasant, though subtle flavor. The bamboo rice, similarly, was a very underwhelmingly subtle taste.
Shepherd's Pie: lamb loin, lamb ragu, caramelized carrot puree, crispy potatoes, faux marrow. Paired with Chama's Big Lebrewski (a hoppy hopped up beer). Not quite what I envision a shepherd's pie to be. And, while I'm a big fan of bone marrow, the faux marrow doesn't have me sold yet.
Last course - Chocolate Bouchon: burnt marshmallow semifreddo, graham crumble, chocolate pearls, dried cherry compote, and Marble's Irish Porter on the side. The semifreddo (ice cream) tasted like marshmallows, and the chocolate pearls were fantastic, though strange. The one thing that I remember most after finishing this dish, though, was wanting a basket of bread as I was still famished. True to fine dining styles, the above dishes were all quite meager in size. And, as the meal was spread out over 3 hours, it didn't do much to curb my appetite.
So, maybe I should have stuck with the tale of two cities comparison as my recollections of the second tasting fair far brighter...
For my birthday, we headed to Farm and Table's Wines of Argentina tasting. Regular readers of this blog already know of my infatuation with Farm and Table, so it shouldn't be much surprise that I'm going to glow on about them over the next few paragraphs. The tasting was just thoroughly well done, leaving us satiated, and wanting to buy the wines that we tried. As a very important side, this meal marked a turning point for my fancy meals - I started recording diligent notes to have on hand for when, many months later, I go to write about the experience...
First course was a Strawberry Sorbet, served with pecorino, white balsamic, and black pepper. At first, flashbacks to the blt sorbet from the North Pond passed through my mind, a rather bad memory. The pepper proved to be a bit reminiscent of the North Pond's savory dessert approach, but only a little. The white balsamic was in powder form - how neat is that? The wine paired with this was a Crios Rose of Malbec. This was sweet, but less so after the sorbet. The wine itself came from Salta, the highest vineyard in the world at 10,000 feet.
Second was a Wild Sockeye Salmon, served with peaches, chipotle, pecans, and butter. The peaches proved to be where the butter was hiding, and the chipotle and salt rub on the salmon - c'est magnifique. The paired wine, Hermanos Torrontes, was dry, but became crisp after tasting the peaches. Each of the wines had a character that evolved dramatically with the food pairing (the first went from sweet to mellow, the second from dry to crisp, etc). Someone in the kitchen knew what they were doing.
Third: Grilled Chicekn with corn, parsley, garlic, lemon, and mint. The garlic, lemon, parsley, and mint formed a dressing over the grilled chicken. Served with this was something resembling a warm chicken terrine, and a corn croquet. The dressing was a great compliment to the grilled chicken, and the corn croquet was delicious. The terrine, well, it was as most terrines are. For the wines, this and the rest all came from Susan Balbo. This one was a Crios Syrah/Bonarda, which had a big, big taste to it.
Intermission: Avocaddo with jicama (a southwestern root that's usually pretty juicy), and sugar. The jicama was pickled, which made the dish in my opinion.
Round four: Beef Short Ribs, served with spring onions, quinoa, cinnamon, currants, and corriander. The demi-glace was sweetened with the cinnamon and currants (an underused ingredient in my opinion). In the back was the quinoa crisp, and on top the green onion tied in a knot. Somehow, the green onions were mild, which went great with the super-tender beef sort ribs. Paired with this was a Ben Marco Malbec (again, by Susana Balbo).
Last: Crispy Crepe Napoleon, served with dark chocolate and blackberries. Despite the name, this wasn't very crispy. The chocolate and blackberry ganache combination was delicious as one might expect, but the sugar on top would've been better if it was salt (though I'm slightly biased...). Overall, very sweet...too much with the sugar on top. The Susana Balbo Late Harvest Malbec was paired with this. By comparison, it tasted like a normal wine, not a sweet or fortified dessert wine.
Okay, next post won't be about food, I promise.
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