Foodie-tails
Sep. 12th, 2011 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So let me tell you about my dining experience this Sunday.
People have been raving about Journeyman for a while and I've been meaning to go for a long time, but never quite made it for one reason or another. Well, it was my birthday so it seemed high time. My friend V joined me for the excursion.
We arrived a little early, but there were plenty of open seats so we grabbed a spot where we could look in on the kitchen. It was fun watching the chefs bustling about in the kitchen prepping the next course. The space is high-ceilinged and the decor is pretty muted. Obviously a focus on simplicity since it's the food you came for. Oh, they have that thing where they're always replacing your silverware each course. I understand why they do that, but I always feel a little bad for the guy who has to wash up all these utensils. That reset mentality extends to the napkins. If you leave for the bathroom, your napkin is getting replaced so just live with it. Which, I suppose, is another way of saying that the wait staff was very attentive (especially so at the beginning when there were only three parties in the place -- later on when the place filled up, it became excellent as opposed to omnipresent).
I'd already decided that if I was going to do this, I might as well do it all the way, so I ordered the seven-course meal along with the drink pairings. Initially, V wasn't quite sure she was that hungry, but with Foie Gras on the seven-course meal, she decided to give it a shot.
Before our meal proper showed up, we first got these:
They're gelatin spheres filled with spiced blueberry juice. You plop them in your mouth and then break them open for a flavor blast. It was fun. Sort of a haute cuisine jello shooter. Later on, I remarked that it was sort of a litmus test for the patron. The restaurant sets down this alien pod and says "eat up! trust me it's good!". If you're the kind of person who will take it on faith that swallowing a blue ball is a good idea, then you're probably going to enjoy the rest of your meal. My dad, by way of example, would be heading for the door now.
Our first course was the salad. Here's what we got:
There's tomatoes, green beans, cucumber, a stone cherry and probably the most delicious carrot I've ever eaten in my life. The dressings were varied, the only one I remember was a pea-pod juice/mint combo (the little green dots), but the others were really tasty too. Lots of fun little flavors swirling around. Our wine pairing was Ochchipinti sp68 Blanco 2010 -- a white wine. It turns out that V wasn't a big fan of white wines. However, in what became a running theme for the night, Journeyman constantly presented her with stuff she loved that she normally disliked. It was a good wine with lots of little notes -- and I'm not the kind of guy who's skilled at noticing notes in my wine.
We'd actually gone ahead and ordered a Charcuterie -- a lamb terrine. I think we were concerned that the portions would leave us a little underfed. So now that arrived. Sadly we didn't think to get pictures before it was demolished. The dish was shot through with pistachios and a couple other enhancements and came with a two smears of a very zesty mustard. Tasty stuff. Probably a bit overkill, but you only live once, eh?
Anyway, back to our serious meal. Next up we had this:
It's a corn custard. I can see you quirking your eyebrow even now over the Internet. So let me amend, it's a corn custard with a buttermilk froth on top, with blueberries, shamrocks and, on the side, a piece of pork crackling for dipping. Yeah. It was amazing. The custard was sweet, the buttermilk and blueberries added a yogurt-y tartness to it and the crackling wrapped it up in a bacon-y goodness. Absolutely heavenly. The wine we got for this was another white, a Chidaine Clos Baudoin Vouvray 2009 . Another fabulous wine, this one a little dryer.
After finishing off the custard, V. and I were sitting there in food bliss when the next course arrives.
This is the squid. It's squid flavored with chilles, plum, and peanuts sitting atop these near-transparent noodles and garnished with a leaf. V had announced at the outset that squid was really low on her list of favorite foods, but she might be willing to give it a try. She tucked in almost as soon as the plate hit the table and although she gifted me with the more obviously-tentacle parts of her plate, she had no trouble enjoying it. She mentioned later that once she could smell the dish, any resistance vanished. It was a really tasty course -- a little hard to come to grips with though. The squid and the noodles were rather slippery and unwilling to cling to the fork, but the effort was worthwhile. The squid provided the taste and texture and the noodles sort of surrounded the whole thing. The leaf could be nibbled on and added a sharp note to the whole affair.
The pairing for this was a beer, an Indian Porter. Neither V nor I are big fans of beer and while I do like darker beers, I'm not super partial to them. Still, it did make for a nice pairing.
So that's the squid come and gone. Now it was time for:
The Foie Gras. I'm pretty sure I've had foie gras at some point, but I can't actually remember when so it was pretty much a brand-new encounter for me. So we had foie gras with mushrooms and blackberries and those smears are made from plum. I don't remember what kind of bread bits are there. It was tasty. V preferred the lamb terrine from earlier, I was a little more partial to the foie gras, but it was a bit sweeter so that's my bias talking.
Paired with this we had a plum-infused gin and tonic. A really odd pairing, I thought, but the drink was tasty and it helped bulk up the sweetness against the richness of the foie gras. A fun drink on it's own though.
After that, we got this:
Here's the beef. Slices of prime rib with a slice of eggplant, some tomato smears, a puffy swirl of baked cheese and a couple pieces of asian pear. The prime rib was good, but you stick a piece of asian pear on it and it was amazing. I wish I'd paid more attention to how the eggplant was prepared. Normally I'm not a big fan of eggplant -- this was delicious (I think Journeyman should use the tagline "Journeyman Restaurant -- Where your food prejudices go to die"). It was sweet and creamy and I wish there'd been a few more slices.
For this course we got a red wine a Grifalco Bosco Del Falco. Here, V. and I switched places. I'm only so-so on reds, but she loves them. We both agreed that this was an excellent red. For me, most reds have so much tannin in them that they get too bitter for me. This red was strong, but not overwhelming and you could really taste the flavor of it. It also stood shoulder to shoulder with the beef and really perked it up.
So out goes the beef and in comes this:
This isn't a course, it's a palate cleanser. It's a gin-flavored gelati along with a dab of cucumber sorbet. In other words it's like an ice cream gin and tonic (that's not quite right, but you know what I mean). A scoop of the cucumber sorbet alone would've been a full on dessert, here you could sort of swirl it all together and get an icy G&T. V wasn't keen on the gelati, but I really liked it.
So with palates cleansed we move onto the cheese plate:
Shavings of a sheep's cheese (didn't jot down exactly what it was). It was pretty good, but the best part was that it came with chunks of cantaloupe….
…soaked in ABSINTHE!
Every bit as good as you'd imagine that to be. Our drink pairing was a sweetish vermouth. Not much of a vermouth drinker so I couldn't say much about it other than it was tasty. Kind of sweet and herbal at the same time.
And now, the dessert:
It's plums three ways. You've got a plum mousse next to a long slice of hazelnut cake, then there's the two halves of bruleed plums and finally a scoop of plum sorbet. All sitting atop a smear of chocolate and rosemary-dusted rice crisps. The mouse and the hazelnut cake were pretty tasty and the bruleed plums were interesting, but I think the sorbet pretty much ran away with the prize on this course. It was sweet and tart and finished off everything nicely.
We had some sort of sparkling wine with this and it was good, but pretty much unremarkable next to the dessert.
It was also at this point that V had to give up the fight so I got a little extra sorbet. Yum. :)
So that's…oh…wait…
An after-dessert dessert. A shortbread cookie, homemade marshmallow and two spoons worth of Bergamont cream. As V loves shortbread and it was a "wafer-thin" piece, I made up a little s'more for her and we both melted with joy. It had this fruity s'more quality to it, with the Bergamont taking the place of the chocolate and it was a wonderful finisher.
Well…not quite finished. Journeyman has a selection of chiantos which is a kind of fortified wine I was introduced to last summer and fell in love with. Sadly I can't seem to find any place that stocks the stuff. So I was hoping they had a bottle of the stuff I tried first (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coraline do you remember what it was? Bright yellow label? Any idea where I find it?). Anyway, they didn't have what I was looking for so I decided to get the flight of three chiantos to get a feel for what's out there.
The first one was a real disappointment. It was…just not right. It was trying too hard and the tastes were all over the place. The second one was much better put together, but it was also very strong. But, like Goldilocks, the third glass was just right. It had the same great flavors as the second glass, but it was much more restrained and extremely drinkable. It was Roagna Barolo Chinato and I've got to see if I can find it anywhere.
That really was it. We both got up and tottered outside and then sat down for a bit in the cool night air to let things settle a bit and enjoy the moon. It was a sublime dining experience. Probably the best meal I've ever had (if my mom is reading this -- it was the best restaurant meal I ever had -- honest!). Save your pennies cause it's pricey, but you totally get what you pay for and I left very, very happy.
So yeah, Journeyman Restaurant. Seriously good food.
later
Tom
ps. Photo's courtesy of V's iPhone (that's her finger you see occasionally).
So let me tell you about my dining experience this Sunday.
People have been raving about Journeyman for a while and I've been meaning to go for a long time, but never quite made it for one reason or another. Well, it was my birthday so it seemed high time. My friend V joined me for the excursion.
We arrived a little early, but there were plenty of open seats so we grabbed a spot where we could look in on the kitchen. It was fun watching the chefs bustling about in the kitchen prepping the next course. The space is high-ceilinged and the decor is pretty muted. Obviously a focus on simplicity since it's the food you came for. Oh, they have that thing where they're always replacing your silverware each course. I understand why they do that, but I always feel a little bad for the guy who has to wash up all these utensils. That reset mentality extends to the napkins. If you leave for the bathroom, your napkin is getting replaced so just live with it. Which, I suppose, is another way of saying that the wait staff was very attentive (especially so at the beginning when there were only three parties in the place -- later on when the place filled up, it became excellent as opposed to omnipresent).
I'd already decided that if I was going to do this, I might as well do it all the way, so I ordered the seven-course meal along with the drink pairings. Initially, V wasn't quite sure she was that hungry, but with Foie Gras on the seven-course meal, she decided to give it a shot.
Before our meal proper showed up, we first got these:
They're gelatin spheres filled with spiced blueberry juice. You plop them in your mouth and then break them open for a flavor blast. It was fun. Sort of a haute cuisine jello shooter. Later on, I remarked that it was sort of a litmus test for the patron. The restaurant sets down this alien pod and says "eat up! trust me it's good!". If you're the kind of person who will take it on faith that swallowing a blue ball is a good idea, then you're probably going to enjoy the rest of your meal. My dad, by way of example, would be heading for the door now.
Our first course was the salad. Here's what we got:
There's tomatoes, green beans, cucumber, a stone cherry and probably the most delicious carrot I've ever eaten in my life. The dressings were varied, the only one I remember was a pea-pod juice/mint combo (the little green dots), but the others were really tasty too. Lots of fun little flavors swirling around. Our wine pairing was Ochchipinti sp68 Blanco 2010 -- a white wine. It turns out that V wasn't a big fan of white wines. However, in what became a running theme for the night, Journeyman constantly presented her with stuff she loved that she normally disliked. It was a good wine with lots of little notes -- and I'm not the kind of guy who's skilled at noticing notes in my wine.
We'd actually gone ahead and ordered a Charcuterie -- a lamb terrine. I think we were concerned that the portions would leave us a little underfed. So now that arrived. Sadly we didn't think to get pictures before it was demolished. The dish was shot through with pistachios and a couple other enhancements and came with a two smears of a very zesty mustard. Tasty stuff. Probably a bit overkill, but you only live once, eh?
Anyway, back to our serious meal. Next up we had this:
It's a corn custard. I can see you quirking your eyebrow even now over the Internet. So let me amend, it's a corn custard with a buttermilk froth on top, with blueberries, shamrocks and, on the side, a piece of pork crackling for dipping. Yeah. It was amazing. The custard was sweet, the buttermilk and blueberries added a yogurt-y tartness to it and the crackling wrapped it up in a bacon-y goodness. Absolutely heavenly. The wine we got for this was another white, a Chidaine Clos Baudoin Vouvray 2009 . Another fabulous wine, this one a little dryer.
After finishing off the custard, V. and I were sitting there in food bliss when the next course arrives.
This is the squid. It's squid flavored with chilles, plum, and peanuts sitting atop these near-transparent noodles and garnished with a leaf. V had announced at the outset that squid was really low on her list of favorite foods, but she might be willing to give it a try. She tucked in almost as soon as the plate hit the table and although she gifted me with the more obviously-tentacle parts of her plate, she had no trouble enjoying it. She mentioned later that once she could smell the dish, any resistance vanished. It was a really tasty course -- a little hard to come to grips with though. The squid and the noodles were rather slippery and unwilling to cling to the fork, but the effort was worthwhile. The squid provided the taste and texture and the noodles sort of surrounded the whole thing. The leaf could be nibbled on and added a sharp note to the whole affair.
The pairing for this was a beer, an Indian Porter. Neither V nor I are big fans of beer and while I do like darker beers, I'm not super partial to them. Still, it did make for a nice pairing.
So that's the squid come and gone. Now it was time for:
The Foie Gras. I'm pretty sure I've had foie gras at some point, but I can't actually remember when so it was pretty much a brand-new encounter for me. So we had foie gras with mushrooms and blackberries and those smears are made from plum. I don't remember what kind of bread bits are there. It was tasty. V preferred the lamb terrine from earlier, I was a little more partial to the foie gras, but it was a bit sweeter so that's my bias talking.
Paired with this we had a plum-infused gin and tonic. A really odd pairing, I thought, but the drink was tasty and it helped bulk up the sweetness against the richness of the foie gras. A fun drink on it's own though.
After that, we got this:
Here's the beef. Slices of prime rib with a slice of eggplant, some tomato smears, a puffy swirl of baked cheese and a couple pieces of asian pear. The prime rib was good, but you stick a piece of asian pear on it and it was amazing. I wish I'd paid more attention to how the eggplant was prepared. Normally I'm not a big fan of eggplant -- this was delicious (I think Journeyman should use the tagline "Journeyman Restaurant -- Where your food prejudices go to die"). It was sweet and creamy and I wish there'd been a few more slices.
For this course we got a red wine a Grifalco Bosco Del Falco. Here, V. and I switched places. I'm only so-so on reds, but she loves them. We both agreed that this was an excellent red. For me, most reds have so much tannin in them that they get too bitter for me. This red was strong, but not overwhelming and you could really taste the flavor of it. It also stood shoulder to shoulder with the beef and really perked it up.
So out goes the beef and in comes this:
This isn't a course, it's a palate cleanser. It's a gin-flavored gelati along with a dab of cucumber sorbet. In other words it's like an ice cream gin and tonic (that's not quite right, but you know what I mean). A scoop of the cucumber sorbet alone would've been a full on dessert, here you could sort of swirl it all together and get an icy G&T. V wasn't keen on the gelati, but I really liked it.
So with palates cleansed we move onto the cheese plate:
Shavings of a sheep's cheese (didn't jot down exactly what it was). It was pretty good, but the best part was that it came with chunks of cantaloupe….
…soaked in ABSINTHE!
Every bit as good as you'd imagine that to be. Our drink pairing was a sweetish vermouth. Not much of a vermouth drinker so I couldn't say much about it other than it was tasty. Kind of sweet and herbal at the same time.
And now, the dessert:
It's plums three ways. You've got a plum mousse next to a long slice of hazelnut cake, then there's the two halves of bruleed plums and finally a scoop of plum sorbet. All sitting atop a smear of chocolate and rosemary-dusted rice crisps. The mouse and the hazelnut cake were pretty tasty and the bruleed plums were interesting, but I think the sorbet pretty much ran away with the prize on this course. It was sweet and tart and finished off everything nicely.
We had some sort of sparkling wine with this and it was good, but pretty much unremarkable next to the dessert.
It was also at this point that V had to give up the fight so I got a little extra sorbet. Yum. :)
So that's…oh…wait…
An after-dessert dessert. A shortbread cookie, homemade marshmallow and two spoons worth of Bergamont cream. As V loves shortbread and it was a "wafer-thin" piece, I made up a little s'more for her and we both melted with joy. It had this fruity s'more quality to it, with the Bergamont taking the place of the chocolate and it was a wonderful finisher.
Well…not quite finished. Journeyman has a selection of chiantos which is a kind of fortified wine I was introduced to last summer and fell in love with. Sadly I can't seem to find any place that stocks the stuff. So I was hoping they had a bottle of the stuff I tried first (
coraline do you remember what it was? Bright yellow label? Any idea where I find it?). Anyway, they didn't have what I was looking for so I decided to get the flight of three chiantos to get a feel for what's out there.The first one was a real disappointment. It was…just not right. It was trying too hard and the tastes were all over the place. The second one was much better put together, but it was also very strong. But, like Goldilocks, the third glass was just right. It had the same great flavors as the second glass, but it was much more restrained and extremely drinkable. It was Roagna Barolo Chinato and I've got to see if I can find it anywhere.
That really was it. We both got up and tottered outside and then sat down for a bit in the cool night air to let things settle a bit and enjoy the moon. It was a sublime dining experience. Probably the best meal I've ever had (if my mom is reading this -- it was the best restaurant meal I ever had -- honest!). Save your pennies cause it's pricey, but you totally get what you pay for and I left very, very happy.
So yeah, Journeyman Restaurant. Seriously good food.
later
Tom
ps. Photo's courtesy of V's iPhone (that's her finger you see occasionally).
