It's taken me approximately forever to post about this, but last Thursday I went to what turned out to be a pretty awesome dinner with a friend from work. The good people at Watch City Brewing Company (conveniently located ~1/2 mile from my apartment) had the brilliant idea of doing a prix fixe beer-pairing menu using locally farmed/raised/produced ingredients. Each of 3 courses was paired with one of their beers, all for a grand total of $30. Not too shabby if you ask me... The first course was Crispy Citrus Atlantic Cod with Spicy Aioli served with a spicy pickled vegetable medley (paired with Old School Totem Pale Ale). The first thing we noticed was that this was a huge portion for being the first of 3 affordably-priced courses. This was quickly followed by the observation that the fish was perfectly cooked (incredibly moist flesh, super-crispy crust, and not a drop of grease to be found). I never order fish in restaurants (especially brew pubs) because I assume they're going to screw it up. This was delicious, though, and I would definitely order it again. Extremely yummy...
Next up was the Braised Kurobuta Pork Osso Buco served with steamed spinach and roasted parsnips (paired with Brilliant Brewnette). One of my (many) pet peeves is allegedly "braised" meat that requires the use of a knife to eat. This pork was tender and flavorful, though, and the bone could be easily pulled out without a shred of meat stuck to it (as should be the case). It was different than any other preparation of pork I've had (typically when I make braised pork it ends up in pulled pork sandwiches) and I really enjoyed it.
Finally came the dessert. The on-line menu promised us Chocolate and Hazelnut Gelato, but instead we got Chocolate Cake. (The menu was available for 3 nights, so some changes were to be expected, I suppose...) I am not a fan of cake, but I suppose this was about as good as a cake can be: extremely moist, layered with chocolate mouse, and topped with ganache... (And I guess it was good enough to make me forget to take a picture until both of our slices were gone...) This was paired with my favorite beer of the night, which was the Chocolate Thunder Porter. Despite the hype about brewing it with chocolate, it tasted much more smoky than chocolatey, but it paired nicely with the cake and was quite tasty.
I didn't mention much about the beers here because, with the exception of the porter, they weren't particularly exciting (especially relative to the food). I feel like growing up in the Pacific Northwest made me a bit of a beer snob, and sometimes I'm hard to impress on that front. Ah, well. I'm quickly becoming a fan of the Watch City BrewCo now, after a couple delicious meals there. I'll definitely be back, and will hopefully find more beers that suit my taste...
Summer seemed to come early this last weekend, with temperatures in the mid- to high-90s. I'm a bit of a weirdo in that mid-60s-and-overcast is pretty much my ideal weather. I am a big fan of autumn and have found that spring can be pretty nice, too, particularly following a hard winter. Summer, however, I could really do without. I find the sun oppressive and the heat stifling. Ugh. On the third day of this heat wave I went out and bought a couple window air conditioner units, which improved my disposition considerably. Last night the heat broke with a pretty sweet rainstorm and temperatures are expected to be pleasantly springtimey for the foreseeable future.
I'm definitely looking forward to more produce coming into season. I noticed at Russo's this weekend that dandelion greens are most certainly in season at the moment. A few weeks ago I was buying sad little bundles, but this is what my $3 of dandelion greens (for the bunnies, not for me) looked like this week:
Even though I occasionally feel cranky about how much shorter growing seasons are here than they are in Santa Barbara, I think it will be fun to get used to the seasonality of things here. I guess it should give me more appreciation for produce when it is in season, although I didn't need absence to make my heart grow fonder of things like fava beans... Sigh. Not much longer now, I suppose...
Next up was the Braised Kurobuta Pork Osso Buco served with steamed spinach and roasted parsnips (paired with Brilliant Brewnette). One of my (many) pet peeves is allegedly "braised" meat that requires the use of a knife to eat. This pork was tender and flavorful, though, and the bone could be easily pulled out without a shred of meat stuck to it (as should be the case). It was different than any other preparation of pork I've had (typically when I make braised pork it ends up in pulled pork sandwiches) and I really enjoyed it.
Finally came the dessert. The on-line menu promised us Chocolate and Hazelnut Gelato, but instead we got Chocolate Cake. (The menu was available for 3 nights, so some changes were to be expected, I suppose...) I am not a fan of cake, but I suppose this was about as good as a cake can be: extremely moist, layered with chocolate mouse, and topped with ganache... (And I guess it was good enough to make me forget to take a picture until both of our slices were gone...) This was paired with my favorite beer of the night, which was the Chocolate Thunder Porter. Despite the hype about brewing it with chocolate, it tasted much more smoky than chocolatey, but it paired nicely with the cake and was quite tasty.
I didn't mention much about the beers here because, with the exception of the porter, they weren't particularly exciting (especially relative to the food). I feel like growing up in the Pacific Northwest made me a bit of a beer snob, and sometimes I'm hard to impress on that front. Ah, well. I'm quickly becoming a fan of the Watch City BrewCo now, after a couple delicious meals there. I'll definitely be back, and will hopefully find more beers that suit my taste...
Summer seemed to come early this last weekend, with temperatures in the mid- to high-90s. I'm a bit of a weirdo in that mid-60s-and-overcast is pretty much my ideal weather. I am a big fan of autumn and have found that spring can be pretty nice, too, particularly following a hard winter. Summer, however, I could really do without. I find the sun oppressive and the heat stifling. Ugh. On the third day of this heat wave I went out and bought a couple window air conditioner units, which improved my disposition considerably. Last night the heat broke with a pretty sweet rainstorm and temperatures are expected to be pleasantly springtimey for the foreseeable future.
I'm definitely looking forward to more produce coming into season. I noticed at Russo's this weekend that dandelion greens are most certainly in season at the moment. A few weeks ago I was buying sad little bundles, but this is what my $3 of dandelion greens (for the bunnies, not for me) looked like this week:
Even though I occasionally feel cranky about how much shorter growing seasons are here than they are in Santa Barbara, I think it will be fun to get used to the seasonality of things here. I guess it should give me more appreciation for produce when it is in season, although I didn't need absence to make my heart grow fonder of things like fava beans... Sigh. Not much longer now, I suppose...
2 comments:
You don't like cake? What a weirdo. I suppose you don't like rainbows, puppies, or anything else wonderful either?
ps. Now that I think about it, I don't care for puppies.
Heh. =)
I like intense flavors, and cake (traditional cake, anyway) is mostly made of air, which isn't particularly delicious...I don't mind a good dense flourless chocolate cake or molten chocolate cake, etc... but lame airy stuff? There are so many better things to do with chocolate...
And, yeah... I could do without rainbows and puppies. =)
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