Things got off to a creamy start with Boozy Creamsicles to drink: a creamy, frothy drink as orange as its namesake and amped up with vodka and mango liqueur but barely any perceptible alcohol. It would be far, far too easy to drink too many of these at one go!
These were followed up by the first food course, which you might mistake for garden-variety potato skins. These were in fact individually hollowed out and deep fried tiny potatoes which not only cooked them to a perfectly fluffy consistency but added a delicious crispiness to the edges. The cheese, bacon, scallion and sour cream fillings completed them delightfully and the dash of salt on the skins was the perfect accent. And you could theoretically fill these with anything...
This was followed by a dish inspired by a classic/infamous Seinfeld bit, the Soup Nazi's Crab Bisque soup. This was really the star of the show in my opinion, and represented a tremendous exertion of effort on part of the cook, who had been prepping it since Thursday. Diced vegetables, then sautéed, then added to a scratch-made stock and then finally adding braised crabmeat - it was absolutely astonishing. Truth be told, it was too tasty for me to savour it appropriately and try to discern the multiple tastes and textures upon my palette, such was my zeal for reaching the bottom of my bowl. Pete's crab bisque has become the dish to which all future soups shall be measured against - bravo sir!
The Duck Hunt cocktail that followed the soup had a similar bill of exertion applied to it. The base of the drink is duck-fat washed bourbon, which involves heating liquefied duck fat with bourbon, freezing it, then skimming away the fat, repeatedly. Similarly to milk-washing spirits (which sounds kind of like creatures from a Japanse horror movie), this imparts a savory quality to the spirit, but less up front and more perceptible in the aftertaste.
Pete was disappointed he didn't have time for subsequent freezings and skimmings which would have clarified the liquor, but it hardly made for an unappealing presentation, especially accompanied by an immense, crystal clear ice cube.
Taste-wise it was really something - the tanginess of the bourbon complemented by citrus and bitters, then followed by a savoury richness - umami, maybe? - from the fat-washing. Anyone who has cooked potatoes in duck fat probably has a sense of what I am talking about, but this was an unconventional and delicious cocktail.
The green beans and cream dish was skipped for time (and to make room), so the next dish was the butter chicken, which I neglected to get a picture of, but you've all seen this ubiquitous dish, and Pete's scratch made variety looks pretty similar.
But. There is a decidedly discernible difference in both taste and texture!
Now, I love getting a jar of sauce, frying some chicken in the wok, simmering it all together and serving it over some rice, a Venn diagram of convenience and tastiness that overlaps nearly completely. Pete will be the first to admit that his additional efforts - which includes but is not limited to toasting his own spices before grinding them and preparing the sauce, plus marinating and broiling the chicken to get some crispiness - do not increase the taste of the end product by a sufficient enough degree to make it a worthwhile tradeoff in all cases. But is it significantly better? Oh, believe it.
Aromatic, faintly piquant, criminally rich and completely delicious. Even if I had Pete's culinary skills, I would be unlikely to expend this degree of exertion on a dish I can obtain by such easier means and which is completely palatable, but I am so, so grateful to be friends with someone who not only can, but does!
The next beverage, limonada Suiça or Swiss lemonade, is actually a Brazilian recipe using limes - the first batch ended up being unstrained, leaving a fair bit of pulped zest in the mix. It was still a tasty tipple, using condensed milk to add both sweetness and creaminess but requiring delicate straining through one's dentition.
The final dish of the night was the fluffiest cheesecake I have ever had, raising far higher than you might expect and topped with sweet, tangy raspberries in a thick compote.
The cheesecake was far more rich than it was sweet, and you could feel the richness around the base of your tongue, by the sides. Whether this was due to the orange blossom water or the goat cheese, I cannot say. Absolutely magnificent, and the perfect capper to almost ten hours of eating, drinking, and fellowship!
No comments:
Post a Comment