Tröegs Beer Tasting Menu at Bluegrass Tavern, Baltimore

After attending a Dogfish Head beer dinner at Bluegrass Tavern last year, I was excited when they announced a Tröegs beer dinner held a few weeks ago.
Even better, Chef Patrick Morrow planned a nose to tail meal using a heritage pig he recently acquired. The breed he used was a Large Black, sourced nearby, which was over 300 pounds.

We started with an assortment of piggy snacks at the bar while enjoying a pint of Tröegs Pale Ale.
Already on the bar were bowls of housemade pork rinds.
Chef then brought a plate of sous vide pork with mustard. I've always been a fan of Chef's skill with sous vide technique, and this pork was exactly why. It was juicy and flavorful, really celebrating the pure taste of the pig. Will a small dollop of mustard, it was just wonderful.

I then tried a few dishes made with the more "nasty bits". On small toothpicks sticking from a small pig, there were chunks of kidney with a pearl onion. I'm still a little neutral to kidney, but these were good.
He also brought out yummy pig heart tacos, using sliced beets in place of the tortilla. This lightened the dish, and good thing, as dinner was really yet to start.


The last bar snack was pork skirt steak marinated in Dr. Pepper. It had a similar consistency to beef, and with the marinade, it was delicious.
We then made it to our tables, and started with a massive charcuterie plate accompanied by some housemade pickles and whole grain mustard.
It included chicken liver mousse, pork rillette, bockwurst, andouille, sopressata, speck ham, tasso ham, bacon jam, and trotter terrine.

My favorite was the chicken liver.
The second course was hog's head ragu with spinach parpadelle, shaved gran queso, and preserved lemon gremolata and accompanied by a glass of Dreamweaver Wheat beer. The lemon contributed a sourness that really elevated the dish.

Course three was a massive slab of crispy pork belly on a bed of Anson Mills blue grits, pickled pear and sauce foyot. Foyot sauce is hollandaise sauce with a meat glaze, which was in this case, bacon. We drank the Hopback Amber with this dish. Chef noted that this breed of pig was particularly fatty, and it showed in the pork belly's marbling.

The fourth course was a sous vide pork loin wrapped in bacon with sunchoke puree, sunchoke chips and a rosemary bruised pineapple. It reminded me of ham with pineapple. We drank Tröeg's Nugget Nectar, which was my favorite beer of the night.

For dessert, we had a Tommenator cheese souffle with brown butter ice cream. This was accomanied by a glass of Tröegenator which was made for this course as the cheese is made using Tröegenator beer's yeast and sediment.

Dogfish Head Brewery Dinner at Bluegrass Tavern

Last week, Bluegrass Tavern and Chef Patrick Morrow hosted a dinner with beer pairings supplied by Delaware's Dogfish Head Brewery. It was my first time having a dinner with beer pairings. My friend Coprock from LA was in town and he came along. It was his first exposure to beers by Dogfish Head.
Our first course, paired with Midas Touch, was a North Carolina Shrimp Presse with a kimchee puree. Chef Patrick described it as "salami" because of it's appearance.

Course 2 might have been the most perfect pairing of food and drink. We tried the Sah'tea, a brew with strong flavors of juniper and black tea. The food item was a generous piece of foie gras tourchon that was cured in the Sah'tea served with plum sorbet and a pecan praline. The spicy flavor of the beer went perfectly with the fatty goodness of the foie.

The third course was a beautifully cooked duck breast with duck fat fried potatoes and a rhubarb pudding. We drank with this course, the Raison D'Etre, a Belgian style brown ale.
The fourth course came with Dogfish's Palo Santo Marron, a rich brew that takes a lot of flavor from the resinous Palo Santo wood it is aged in. The flavor is reminiscent of Guinness, but with an ABV of 12%. Chef Patrick prepared a sous vide hanger steak with Anson Mills cheddar grits and a veal Bordelaise sauce. It was an amazing course.

We finished with Dogfish's famous 90 Minute IPA, and a piece of blue cheesecake with a little bacon jam.
It was a great meal and I was happy to see the versatility of these beers with fine dining.

B & O American Brasserie, Baltimore

In downtown Baltimore, inside the recently opened Hotel Monaco, there is a restaurant. the B & O American Brasserie, which while not very conspicuous when you drive or walk by, has a pretty talented chef who is making some good food.
Chef E. Michael Reidt was named one of Food & Wines best new chefs in 2001, a class that included Wiley Dufresne and Anita Lo, so having him in Baltimore is pretty fortunate.
I went for dinner with Kwan and Bigfatlar, and we ended up with a humongous meal. For starters, the bread at the table was delicious- very crusty, and it was served with butter sprinkled with basil sea salt.
We ordered several appetizers to start. Kwan's favorite was the chicken liver mousse served with fig jam and toat.
My favorite was the smoked pork belly, especially because it came with a banana-lentil salad with pig ear. The combination of the salty pork with the sweet of the banana all topped with a chili caramel sauce was wonderful.


We also got the Market Flatbread, basically a small crispy crusted pizza topped with ricotta cheese, potato, arugula and an egg.
I also really liked the chef's "Kentoocky Fried" sweetbreads, served on a bed of bacon, capers, and golden raisins. The "skin" was crunchy, chock full of 11 herbs and spices.
In contrast, the small order of the ricotta gnocchi with arugula pesto sauce was light and pleasant.



Our table also order three entrees that we shared. Kwan's rosemary skewered scallops were amazing. They came covered with couscous which added a crispiness, and the scallops themselves were so sweet and plump. They were served on a bed of parsnip puree with braised oxtail and foie gras emulsion.

Bigfatlar ordered the adobo braise pork shank that was the size of his fist. It reminded me of my mom's soy braised pork leg in that the meat just slid off the bone.
I ordered the duck two ways- crispy duck leg confit & sous vide style duck breast. It came with a white beans, cassoulet style.
We made sure not to overstuff ourselves because we were planning on getting dessert as well.

This time we only ordered two plates: Meyer lemon bars with blueberry compote and sorbet and his take on strawberry shortcake- scones in a rhubarb soup with whipped cream and strawberry sorbet.

2 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
(443) 692-6172

Tasting Menu at Providence, LA

I was lucky that for my birthday, my friends got us a reservation at LA's Michelin two star restaurant, Providence for dinner.
We decided to try the full tasting menu that evening.
The meal started with a trio of amuse-bouches, two of which were alcohol based. The first was a gin & tonic gelée. You sprinkled some lemon juice on it and it would start fizzing as you put it into your mouth.
The second was a spherical mojito. Coprock told me that alcohol is very difficult to make into the spherical form.
The third item was a small cardomon carrot soup.

The first course was Japanese kanpachi, or amberjack fish, served with rice crackers and soy crème fraîche. This was my first time trying this fish. It was light and lovely especially with the crème fraîche.

The second course was an absolute decadent dish. It was Santa Barbara sea urchin served in an egg with champagne beurre blanc and American caviar. Egg sacks within an egg, topped with little eggs, and then butter! It was so rich and delicious.

The third course was a massive Hokkaido diver scallop perfectly cooked in white wine with chanterelle mushrooms and applewood bacon.





Course four was wild striped bass from Virginia with burdock, shiso and lemon. I was really impressed with the simplicity of this course as it really allowed the subtle flavor and light texture of the bass shine.

This was followed by a course of wild Coho salmon belly served with spinach on a bed of buckwheat and accompanied by a red wine gastrique. The salmon belly was so nice and fatty.

Our final main course was a veal tenderloin, cooked sous vide style, served with hazelnuts, onions, and crushed potatoes. I liked the tenderness of the veal, but despite the dish being really good, I think it paled in the light of all the great seafood courses.


This was then followed by one of the best cheese courses I've ever had. Sorry readers, I was really full and I did not recall any of the 6 cheeses we were given. Needless to say, my favorites were stinky and soft.


We had several courses for dessert. Things started with a nice palate cleansing cucumber, lime and juniper berry sorbet with some yogurt.
The main dessert was a Mexican chocolate bread pudding with avocado-banana puree and corn tortilla ice cream. These flavors went really well all together.

After feeling so stuffed from our meal, I made sure to try some of the candy at the end. The caramel was amazing. All in all, it was an unforgettable dining experience at Providence for my birthday.

5955 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90038
(323) 460-4170