Friday, March 04, 2011

Baltimore Winter Restaurant Week


Apologies for this belated post. Baltimore Restaurant week was at the end of January, and I went to two places: lunch at the The Wine Market in Locust Point, and back to Bluegrass Tavern in Federal Hill.






At The Wine Market, I started with some cornmeal fried oysters with a bacon buerre blanc. Pretty good.
My main was a seared tuna wrap with kimchee, baby corn, avocado, and soy aioli. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of wraps, but it was lunch, and I liked the idea of kimchee. It came with fried wonton chips and a wasabi dip.
The main reason I went was for dessert, the chocolate pretzel pavé with caramel, topped with malt powder and caramel ice cream. It was a great combination of salty & sweet.







For the dinner restaurant week menu at Bluegrass, chef decided on three savory courses instead of a dessert. No complaints here as I am a fan of Chef Morrow's skill with meat.
I started with a rutabaga bisque drizzled with pomegranate syrup. It was surprisingly light and tasted very fresh.
Second course was a braised veal cheek topped with almonds and mint served over a cauliflower porridge. The cheek was beautifully braised and incredibly tender, and the cauliflower was a pleasant surrogate for the usual mash.


The third course was a sous vide duroc pork loin, with mashed white yams, a sherry & raisin puree, & baconnaise. Chef really excels with the sous vide technique.


The Wine Market
921 East Fort Avenue
Baltimore, MD
(410)244-6166

Bluegrass
1500 S. Hanover Street
Baltimore, MD
(410)244-5101

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