Alinea - Goose

Dish 15: Goose with stuffing, prune, juniper aroma.

The best part of this dish was the aroma. These bowls with a very deep well came with warm branches of juniper. Speared onto one twig was goose tempura . It was deeply satisfying to lean over and deeply inhale the scent of juniper and think of Christmas.

The goose tempura itself did not do it for e. The goose was chewy, and the tempura batter a bit heavy and actually greasy. I don't know how they do things in an Alinea kitchen, but if I were anywhere else, I would have guessed that the oil wasn't at a hot enough temperature. An unfortunate disappointment.

Alinea - Hot Potato

Dish 14: Hot Potato with cold potato, black truffle, butter.

Paired with Bruno Paillard 'Premiere Cuvee' Brut Rose, Reims

A study in temperatures. A hot potato soup rests in a small paraffin wax bowl. Spearing the bowl is a needle with a ball of cold potato topped with a slice of black truffle, and a tiny cube of butter and cheese. One pulls the needle from the bowl, allowing the other elements to drop into the soup. Then tip it towards your mouth and enjoy the different flavors, temperatures, and textures .

Alinea - Foie Gras

Dish 13: Foie Gras with pear, white wine, allspice.

The kitchen dehydrated and rehydrated pear to create a concentrated puree that sat at the bottom of the dish, which was then covered with foie gras carpet, which was essentially foie gras terrine that had been pushed through some sort of sieve to create the tuft-like texture. Topping the dish were three thin slices of candied pear.

Though foie gras is often paired with fruit, I can't remember having it with pear, and it was a delight to try it with the new accompaniment. The foie gras melted in the mouth with the pear puree which retained the granular texture of the fruit.

This was paired with Reinhold Haart 'Piesporter Goldtropfchen' Riesling Auslese, Mosel 2002.

Alinea - Bacon

Dish 12: Bacon with butterscotch, apple, thyme.

Can I say that writing this on an early Sunday morning (I pre-post) shivering in one's nightgown, pre-breakfast, and reliving this dinner is I've decided a special breed of torture? Okay I put on some socks and a robe, you would have thought I would have done that earlier. I may have an adult age, but I certainly haven't managed to attain adult sensibilities fully.

Back to the food, the bacon arrived on one of Alinea's famous serving platforms, and it rested on our table seesawing gentle as the translucent, dehydrated bacon, wrapped in a ribbon of butterscotch, hung from a wire. We pulled the bacon off the wire and ate a caramel sweet bacon bite.

This dish was paired with Vinhos Barbeito/Rare Wine Co. 'Charleston Sercial' Reserve Madeira.

Purple Pig Teaser

Sweet lord, just had dinner, and ate so much, I swear every step home was uncomfortable. aka I just had an amazing gluttonous night.

3 people. Purple Pig in Chicago. 15 dishes.

Don't know when I'll get to blogging it.

But if you get there before I manage to thoroughly talk about it.

If you have any good sense, get the pig's ear salad, the wagyu beef, the mussels.

A lovely lovely evening.

Alinea - Peanut Butter

Dish 11: Peanut Butter - dried and spicy

A study in textures. When the peanut butter arrived it was light, dry, almost airy. One almost got a powdery texture at first encounter, but then the dish changed and became rich and dense and creamy, like the peanut butter we all know and love.

Alinea - Thai Banana

Dish 10: Thai Banana with beer, mustard, pecans.

As you can see, some of our "courses," were rather small, while others were quite generous in portion.

This dish was served on a chilled platform, that the servers presented on little spatulas. The dish was speared with a needle, which we used to pop the item into our mouths. I would say that the kitchen was too successful in keeping the dish cold, as it was a tad too chilled to appreciate the flavors. The banana was very thick and smooth, and really felt almost like a good creamy, cold ice cream.