1/30/10 How To Cook A Wolf

tonight we joined our friend Jeff who had yet to dine here, and one of his friends from high school who also had never been. it was a fun night. lots of good food was eaten.

but the night didn't start out too great. there were cars pulled over to the side of the freeway just north of the i90 merge on i5, as well as several cars pulled over onto the shoulder of the mercer street exit. we were about 20 minutes late. matt pulled up and i hopped out since we didn't know if jeff was there yet, he went to park the car. i didn't see him and the hostess came up i was saying "angela said she left a note - i'm libby". at the same time i hear this blond on my left telling 1 of the chefs "i'm supposed to meet jeff [last name omitted]" i turned around and said "you're with us!" we laughed, introduced ourselves, and were led to the table. apparently she, anna, had called and told them she was running late, but didn't really know whose name the reservation was under. our hostess told me jeff had called and he was stuck in traffic - the opera traffic from closing night. matt and i were for a block, then took a shortcut to avoid about 4 blocks of that traffic. what, you think i would actually say what that is? sorry! i thought about calling but matt had left his cell at home. oh well. it didn't take jeff too long to get there.

it was fairly low key night. matt and i had a glass of wine each, while jeff and anna split a pellegrino.

Spicy Coppa with pear, chestnut honey, pine nut

the sweetness of the honey really set off the spicy of the coppa. thumbs up!

Beef Carpacio with white anchovy, celery, pangratatto, lemon

Columbia City Bakery Demi Baguette with sicilian olive oil, arbequina olives

Escolar Crudo with chili, avocado, lime

i liked the flavor of this, but i had a slight issue with texture. (a common theme among a lot of fish dishes)

Roasted Sardine with fingerling potato, bacon, aioli

ok, here's a question. eat the bones or no? that was discussed when this arrived. yes it had head and tail on and was looking at me when our server set it on the table. but i 'nut uped' (watch zombieland) and anna cut a small piece of the belly for me to try. wasn't really my thing. to me it was pretty fishy tasting, but the others seemed to like it, so who am i to say anything?

Arctic Char with farro, sultana, arugula pesto

now this was pretty darn good! as you've come to realize i'm not a huge fish person, but this i liked. i wouldn't have wanted the entire plate to myself, but divided into 4 it was just the right amount.

Bruschetta with chicken liver mousse, sultana, saba

i think chef's trying to get creative with plating the bruschetta LOL. i mean it's 'toast' with a liver mousse on top. doesn't lend itself to the most creative or colorful, but this was nice. and if you haven't had Chef Ethan's bruschetta, get some today!

Semolina Gnocci with butter, sage, parmesan

YUM!

Beef Tongue with ceci bean, aioli, horseradish

i skipped this one. i decided i've had tongue served both hot and cold, and it just doesn't do it for me. but every last morsel of this dish was gobbled up so it must've been good.

Strozzapretti with pancetta, onion, egg

Chef Ethan's known for his pasta, and this one was fantastic, as always.











then on to dessert and coffee

Matt had the

Pear Almond Cake with cream, caramel

it wasn't bad, but i liked what i had better...

Lemon Mascarpone Cheesecake with blackberry sauce