Food Adventure Team

SO MUCH MEAT.

Ahem.

Recommendations: Don’t eat all day in anticipation of the meal. Skip the salad bar (except to grab a plate and maybe a little rice). Wait for the infinite meat to arrive. It won’t take long. Get a caipirinha, or maybe even a strawberry caipirinha if you’re feeling saucy. Order dessert, even though you don’t have room. Expect to feel as though you have a brick in your stomach for the next three days. At least your wallet will be a little lighter!

Seriously though, next time I will go a bit easier on the meat. I didn’t need that much, and I didn’t even like all of it. The pork tended to be dry and uninteresting. The bacon-wrapped chicken was amazing, but the other chicken wasn’t particularly special. I tried a chicken heart and did not enjoy it; too chewy. The sausage was good but nothing amazing. No, save yourself for the filet mignon. Oh sweet tender filet mignon, I will eat you all night! The sirloin is also fantastic. There were ultra-fatty beef ribs; so rich. And there was some sort of something that I’m pretty sure was still mooing. The red meat is by far and away the best of the meats that they bring to the table. But I had to try them all!

The little appetizers they brought as part of the meal were not to be forgotten! I couldn’t stop eating those cheesy popover things. The fried polenta and the deep fried banana were also wonderful. Especially the banana.

The desserts were to die for. You must order the peanut butter thing. It has a silly name, and it is fantastic. The cheesecake: also delicious. The chocolate mousse was light and fluffy and oh so chocolatey. Too bad we were so full that it took 10 of us to devour only 3 desserts; there were loads of other things on the menu that looked divine.

Expect to spend $50/head, plus $10/drink, plus dessert (most were in the $7 range and could easily be shared by 3 people), plus tip+tax. Our entire bill for 10 people came out to $850, including tip. Ouch.

Photo by Ed

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Leah, Jared and I went to Slow Food Nation the prior weekend and managed to acquire a large quantity of cured meat from the Heritage Foods stand. We got “Surry-ano” ham (lovingly dubbed “buttermeat” by us), a large chunk of some amazing garlic sausage, and a slab of unsliced coppa. We also got a huge half-wheel of mystery cheese for $10. All of it was amazing. Laurie brought 3 cheeses from Bi-Rite: something with a ground coffee rind (what! amazing), something incredibly stinky (grayson), and a third cheese that I can’t remember at the moment. Brendan and Mo brought some prosciutto, some smoked gouda, and a slab of brie which they warmed and topped with strawberry (?) jam. Josh brought some Klinker-Brick shiraz. Jared brought some Cakebread Cellars white wine and bread pudding. Lee made some wonderfully spicy chili. Divine, absolutely divine, all of it. A wonderful evening with friends.

20080903 – Meat & Cheese Party from Ed Hunsinger on Vimeo.