Tea Gschwender

I'll say this about doing a tea tasting at 7:30pm in the evening. Especially when you're someone who has tried not to drink more than a cup of caffeine a day after getting massively addicted one summer that culminated in an internship with a major soda manufacturer. You are hopping awake afterwards.

Tea Gschwender was kind enough to host a tea tasting, and I learned a ton about tea. We learned about cupping, which is a method to evaluate and appreciate the quality of tea. We sniffed and slurped the beverage, poked and prodded the leaves.

China Lung Ching- very astringent.

Japan Gyokuro. This was one of my favorites. A great green tea.

Sumatra Oolong Barisan. You only pluck the top 3-5 leaves from the plant at each time.

Darjeeling Phuguri, incredibly aromatic.

China Yunnan Golden Pekoe

Rooibush Cream Caramel. This is a doctored up tea concoction created by the Tea Gschwender people. People loved it as it is highly aromatic with strong sweet notes, but I'm not that keen on the pre-doctored tea experience. I'd rather present the cream and caramel for my guests to doctor themselves.

Alinea - Eggnog

Dish 29: Eggnog with pedro ximenez, benedictine, buffalo trace

We thought were were done, but then the servers came out with one final dish. The eggnog was in a sphere, whose diameter was just under the width of the shot glass. We tilted our heads way back and led the eggnog sphere and the other liquors drop in, at which point the eggnog shell immediately cracked upon contact flooding our mouths with the reach eggnog flavor intermingling with the heady liquors.

Dinner at Alinea was an amazing experience to say the least. We were able to visit the kitchen afterwards and see the staff cleaning up for the night. Seeing trays of fresh produce reminded me that all the food we had just enjoyed still stemmed from many familiar ingredients, which served to highlight the technical feat that these cooks produce every night.

We had started our evening at 6:30 pm, and it would be 1:30 pm before we walked out the door again. Thank you Alinea, for an amazing evening.

Alinea - Kumquat

Dish 20: Kumquat with rye, peychaud's, demerara

Not enough people know about kumquats. They are wonderful pureed with some tarragon, orange juice, and olive oil for salad dressing. My dad used to preserve them in salt in old mayonnaise jars. Whenever I would start to get a tickle in the back of my throat, he would fish out a preserved kumquat and pour hot water over it for a soothing tea.

Alinea - Elixir Vegetal

Dish 19: Elixir Vegetal, sugar cube, fennel, lemon

These "cocktails" came out in a trio of three. Extremely intense, condensed flavors, a good turning point in the meal.

Alinea - Passion Fruit

Dish 18: Passion Fruit with rum, cranberry, orange

Super boozy, a bit of a kick to wake one up two-thirds of the way through.

Bin 36

Bin 36 is a wine bar that I'd like to revisit. It's got a great array of wine flights that are affordably priced, and an enticing menu of savory and sweet dishes that would pair well with many a wine. My only complaint about them is that the establishment is too well-lit. The proper level of lighting for a place that wants to encourage the enjoyable consumption of wine is a level of illumination that makes everyone's skin look smooth and pores look small. That, Bin 36, is called low-lighting. Try it out, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results.

Bin 36, 339 North Dearborn St., Chicago, IL

Going Away Party

In August I decided to hold a going away party for myself, and I cooked up a storm.

I'm always worried that there won't be enough food, and for me, it's the worse thing for someone to leave hungry.

Just looking at all of this food makes me wish I had some of those as leftovers in my fridge right now. Because I have not had much time to cook in the last few days.

My mother's style of Vietnamese spring rolls. They are actually nothing like traditional spring rolls.

I put in fried egg crepe, shrimp, cucumber, bean sprouts (which I painstakingly pulled the ends off of), basil, mint, and vermicelli that I flavored with msg, sugar, salt, and dried Chinese pork.

Roasted fresh corn with feta, roasted tomatoes and cilantro in a simple vinaigrette.

Potato salad with these awesome dill pickles that are so easy to make.

Peach cobbler, this one is mind-numbingly simple. I made it with these white peaches that were a tad juicy. I must say though, I don't understand the addition of warm water to cold butter. I'm with the recipe on the cold butter, just not on the warm water.

Moroccan carrot salad, thank you Mark Bittman. See number 14.

Cool cucumber soup shots. I also had watermelon gazpacho shots.

Caprese skewers. Thank goodness for friends. I called in reinforcements. Both the Bastard Consultant, and someone who I will hereby deem the Dr. Consultant came in to help. They skewered, they peeled, they helped. A lot.

I may have gone a bit overboard on the cream, but I get a little exuberant when making Cajun Shrimp Curry.

All-in-all it was a lot of fun to see people from all the different parts of my life. Stuck out here in the Windy City, I miss all of them dearly.

FoodBuzz Celebrates Millionth Post

We interrupt the scheduled post on Curacao for FoodBuzz's party last night at David Burke Townhouse. The event was in celebration of the millionth post on FoodBuzz, who invited their New York Featured Publishers to attend.


Roomful of people I don't know, time for a drink. I started with this Lychee Martinee that had a heavy sprinkling of thyme leaves.

We won't notice that I actually spent most of the night with the one person I already knew: Chicky*Bits.

Strangely, this is the second time I've eaten at David Burke's gratis. In fact, the only times I've eaten at David Burke's, I have been able to leave the wallet at home. A few years back I went for a client dinner back when the establishment was still called David Burke & Donatella.


A blizzard of passed h'ors d'oeuvres presented a logistical conundrum; there were too many to try with a 45-minute late arrival.


Luckily there was time for a taste of this tuna tartare. Simple and delicious, perfectly balanced flavors, with a hint of pine nuts and a dollop of teriyaki and mango sauce.


Sadly, not all were as successful. This lobster custard had a wonderful richness that was undone by the over salting of the dish.

David Burke certainly tries hard, but the kitchen doesn't seem to be able to exhibit restraint, resulting in ambitious attempts that overwhelm the taste buds. The failure to perfectly calibrate the different flavors and textures lead to a dining experience that until I hear otherwise, will remain what it has been thus far: something I'm happy to partake in when someone else if footing the bill, but not an establishment I'm prepared to book a reservation for myself.

Bay scallops in a light ceviche were pleasant but lacked flavor contrasts and came off as relatively tepid.

David Burke is going to close down the restaurant this summer and renovate the place and plans to relaunch with an increased emphasis on salt. As a NaCl fiend myself, I wish them the best of luck.

But the evening's gustatory offerings did not end with the h'ors d'oeuvres. A seafood station laden with kumamoto oysters, clams, lobster, crab, mussels and shrimp stood opposite a meat carving station.

This lady went for the steak.

Delicious.

Sadly I had to jaunt off just as the desserts began to arrive in order to meet up with a friend for a drink at Terroir (good options to try wines with their "taste" option). All in all I had a good time, and wish I could have stayed longer to meet the other food bloggers. One of the wonderful things about the event is that no one cared as blogger after blogger whisked out their cameras to take photos of the food.

David Burke Townhouse, 133 East 61st St. (b/n Park and Lex), 212-813-2121