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Can't live without art, and my favorite form of art is the yummiest... food! What's your favorite?
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生命是無盡的學習: 現在的我要學習找尋自我
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Alinea Molecular
Saturday, Jun 28, 2008 9:21AM / Standard Entry / Members only
12 commentsContinue.
On Friday, I took the day off... Actually I had a morning conference call with Netherlands, so I told Fafa and David to go to Merchandise Mart to go window shopping and eat breakfast. At around noon, we joined again and went to Macy's and walked around the Loop a bit. We were talking more than sight-seeing, because I was actually very very glad to see how good David is to Fafa and I want them to get married! I think they should get married! What's missing is just that 4-karat rock. haha~
Why 4-karat? The story goes like this... last Tue night I left my wedding in the bathroom after shower. When I went back to get it, it slipped from my hand into the sink! I caught it right before it when through the drain...
I cried out for help but WHH and his mom could not get it out neither. The drain was too small and I just kept holding the ring for like 30min with all my energy! Finally, I asked to have the building's repairman to come help. He tried to unscrew the pipeline but he had no tool (it was close to midnight already). But lastly we figured out a way and i got back my ring successfully. Hence, i told David to buy a 4-karat or above rock for Fafa so that it'll never fall through the drain.
And then we also talked about my dream honeymoon at Bora Bora. WHH did all the research because he knows that i really really want to go to Bora Bora and stay in an above-water bungalow, one that has a glass floor... And that's why he needs to save money as it costs ~20,000 USD for a 7-day trip for 2 ppl! yea NO kidding 20,000USD it is!!
And Fafa had no idea where Bora Bora was, as i was trying to persuade maybe she and David should come with us... double-honeymoon... hahaha~
Finally, when it's time, we went to Lincoln Park again, for the long-waited molecular gastronomy dinner at Alinea... Chicago is known for its deep-dish pizza, but a lot of foodies also know that we probably have the best chefs in molecular gastronomy here. Among that, Alinea is the best in this arena, and so David really wanted to try it out in this Chicago trip.
First of all, look at this guy's hair. i noticed that all servers at Alinea had unique hairstyles, and i like this guy's exploded hair the most. He's also very professional. See the bottle of apple cider in his hand? I order the apple cider and i feel that a guy like him, with such hair and professionalism and in suit, can sell any bottle as if it's the last bottle of heaven's juice.
This is the beginning, when everything looked normal and we had the leisure to take a group pic.
1st: KING CRAB - sudachi, avocado, bay branch
This was my favorite out of the 12 courses. It was truly an amazing journey, even though the size was just one bite! The feeling and tastes in my mouth evolved every 2 seconds and there was a climax and an ending, no kidding. What a perfect start!
2nd: FAVA BEANS - lavender, banana, pecorino
After the 1st course, the servers brought out a gigantic pillow for each of us. Yes, pillow! Then, on top of the pillow, they placed the dish of salty parfait. At first it really smelled so good as the pillow was filled with lavender fume that slowly came out as the dish pressed on it. However, the parfait was really... weird. A salty scoop followed by a sweet scoop followed by a warm scoop followed by a cold scoop. We were very confused and argg... WHH and i had salty parfait at Bouley NYC before and it was not good, so i guess next time i'll ask the restaurant to switch the salty parfait dish for something else.
Luckily, they made up for the salty parfait with an ultra-delicious bacon muffin! ULTRA-DELICIOUS!!!
3rd: ROUGET - artichoke, garlic, bottarga
This was the only fish dish in the 12 dishes. I've never had the fish Rouget before, but i can tell u that it tasted like fish. We took the most pics of this dish because it's the prettiest of all. It looked like a picture of a little garden with a pond... filled with some very special olive oil. The thingy wrapping around the fish was the artichoke "leather", which was more chewy than crunchy and WHH liked it while i did not. The green sauce was probably basil, and then the small cubes were highly-pressurized and quick-frozen vegetables covered with quick-frozen Rouget roes. You can't tell right? They were very tasty, but i couldn't tell the vegetables from the roes, or more accurately i wasn't sure what i was eating. I don't remember what was in the white sauce. Overall, this dish was tasty with everything added together.
4th: LOBSER - peas, ramps, mint vapor
This was David's favorite dish. The server first brought out the lobster bowl sitting on top of a larger dish with some mint leaves, and then he poured warm water into the dish to release the mint vapor. It smelled really enticing~ The lobster foam, though it was just foam, was very fulfilling. In the middle was this green jelly thing that was actually made with the green bittersweet roe stuffs in lobsters. Very YUMMY! We all wanted to lick the bowl...
5th: SHORT RIB - Guinness, peanut, fried broccoli
I don't know what were in this dish. The semi-transparent square piece of glass here was the Guinness sauce, which would melt with the food in your mouth. The peanuts and the Guinness sauce and the short rib (perfectly done) were the best combination, but the problem was with the EXTREMELY salty fried broccoli! The short rib already had its saltiness, so together with the fried broccoli it become somewhat unbearable. A great idea fell short of execution.
6th WAGYU BEEF - morel, smoked date, Blis Elixir
This was Fafa's favorite dish. Before we got the lobster dish (#4), the server gave each of us a piece of thinly-sliced frozen wagyu beef clamped between a pair of particularly large chopsticks, which was strategically placed on the table as a piece of "organic decoration" . As we were savoring through the lobster foam and the short rib, the wagyu beef slice became ready to eat. So, finally, the server brought out the dish with morel, smoked date and blis elixir, covered them with the slice of wagyu beef, and then added some sauce on top. This was my 2nd favorite!! IT was MARVELOUS! The morel (mushroom) and the blis elixir together were so spongy and smooth and sweet and the wagyu beef brought some spiciness and freshness to it. Can't describe how tasty that BITE of food was.
7th: DUCK - chocolate, blueberry, Thai pepper
After the marvelous waygu beef, the server brought us the chocolate-wrapped duck. Seriously, it was real warm + salty duck confit in a cool + sweet chocolate bar! I've had extremely delicious chocolate sauce for steak before, so i had high hope for this one... Argg, maybe too high. Though the chocolate and the blueberry jelly cubes were tasty, the duck was WAY TOO salty even when eaten with all the sauce and the blueberry thingy. Another great idea fell short during execution...
Desserts finally came - three together!
Here you can also see the server placed all the "utensil pillows" in the middle of the table. The utensil pillows were specifically designed by the chef to serve as a piece of decor and to hold our utensils. Before each dish, the server spent much time trying to place the forks and knives artistically, so i dared not move any of them otherwise he had to replace them.
8th: BACON - butterscotch, apple, thyme
Bacon does not sound like dessert, and yes this was sweet. I wouldn't say i loved it but it was quite good, except again for the leather thing.
9th: STRAWBERRY - violet, nicoise, olive
i was glad that we had some strawberry, and this was tasty. It's almost like a white chocolate truffle, except that it's not chocolate and the inside was like liquid. Very refreshing very tasty.
10th: RHUBARB - ginger, basil
We were told to swallow this ball in a shot and close our mouths when it exploded. It was very challenging to swallow it, and then when i realized that it did not explode i opened my mouth, and it exploded!
David wanted to laugh at me but he's keeping his mouth shut for the "explosion", so he laughed totally like a girl from the ancient time -- mouth shut and volume low. it's probably made in a balloon and quick frozen and then they pilled the balloon away. Very interesting but taste-wise was not that special.
11th: SORREL - butterscotch, fennel, poppy seeds
This does not look like food, right. This picture actually cannot show that the dish was landscaped. Very interesting, it just looked like a ski mountain, and there was vanilla foam and a clear plastic of sugar. Quite tasty but i wouldn't say it's heavenly as a dessert should be.
12th: WHOLE WHEAT - almond, apricot, chervil
Last dish of the night was a whole wheat sponge cake?! First, i laughed at the shape of the bowl because with this size it really looked like those pee containers that Chinese used a century ago. Second, the whole wheat sponge cake kinda tasted like bread, even after they'd poured in the almond whatever milk. argg.. i'd be much more satisfied having a regular bread-pudding.
The night was wrapped up by a shot of chocolate powder (right they must had ran out of milk), a certificate / menu, and a bill of $900.
Fafa and David were kinda disappointed by Alinea, particularly because they just went to Babbo NYC and Gary Danko SF. Babbo NYC was good but they really really loved Gary Danko in SF. Yep! All the Bay Area people should go try out Gary Danko. It's one of those restaurants where u walk out having spent a few hundred bucks and still want to go back next week. The menu, food and service are just that wonderful!!
So Alinea was Fafa and David's last stop, and they returned to HK on Friday.
It's only been a week since they left but i really miss them now...
I wish they could move to Chicago (from HK? not very likely)...
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