Just thought I would highlight my annual Winter Warmer Pub Crawl from last Dec. This was our third year hosting it, always held on the first Saturday of Dec. I realize it's now March, but I was scrolling through pictures and found these and decided to blog about it.
What we do is not technically a pub crawl, but more like a 3 stop journey in self destruction. Deep Ellum, Sunset Grill, and what as formerly called the Roadhouse and now called American Craft.
It's a hardcore crawl to drink big winter warming beers. Barleywine's, DIPA's, Imperial Stouts, and anything else that is not considered sessionable. We drink them in abundance and there is no crying about it. There is no wusses allowed either. Anyone who would make the day about themselves and whine that they need to take it easy if they are going to make it all day.
That's another thing, it is only 3 stops, but it goes on all day. Only the strong survive a day like this. Only the awesome show up from start to finish and don't meet us in between the crawl.
Marc Kadish of the Sunset Grill, printed the actual rules I posted on BA about the event.
I had to start my crawl off with some actual shots of liquor. Yes it's a day about big beers, but our dumb ass cab driver took us all the way to Newton, and then back all the way in to Boston and ignoring the exit for Cambridge on the way back like we told him. I nearly cut a bitches face open that's how stupid this fucking guy was. He made us a full hour late to my own pub crawl and I only live 10 minutes away from where we started.
So you see, a couple of shots of bourbon were more than necessary. Not to mention they tasted amazing with Pretty Thing Babayaga. Also a few tastes of some barleywine's I haven't had before.
After chilling for a bit and relaxing with some liquid love, we headed over to the Sunset Grill. Southern Tier's Chokolat Stout was on hand. So was some chocolate ice cream to drop into the beer!!
It was a stout kind of a day. Normally it's DIPA's for me and American-style bitter, super hoppy barleywine's. Not this day. I have to stick with what works, and that happened to be stouts.
Happy Sunset Grill staff being festive.
Mark, Todd and Marc Kadish.
These English gentlemen wanted me to snap a pic of the ginormous plate of nachos some of our crew ordered.
BA fanboys. LOL!
I don't know who these people were. They were part of the pub crawl but not really apart of the crawl. This cool guy on the left with the tattoos was adamant that he got his picture taken while sipping his beer.
Max Toste of Deep Ellum pictured on the right, joined us for one more at Sunset.
The raffle tickets for some Allagash Gear that Marc Kadish was nice enough to hand out to my pub crawl loving heroes.
I didn't end up getting pictures at the Roadhouse, but huge plates of nachos, wings, and other goodies were set up for us. Chris Sheridan had his line up of beers all sorted out for us. They have always taken good care of us.
Good times. Deep Ellum, Sunset Grill, and The Roadhouse, now American Craft, always take good care of us. They always have special beers on for our crawl. Something to think about for the Dec. 2010 crawl.
Clown Shoes Black IPA Hoppy Feet 7% abv from Mercury Brewing Co. in Ipswich, Ma.
A second chance with this beer. I tried it for the first time on NYE at Cambridge Common for their 30 taps, 30 IPA's night. I dismissed it because my palate was shot from drinking heavier hopped beers like Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA. I thought it was light and not note worthy at all. Boy, was I wrong.
Gregg Berman, the creator of this beer, found my quick and rather dismissive blurb about the beer. He sent me an email asking if I would try it again with a fresh palate. Within a few hours that beer was sitting on my door step. Talk about customer service!
I was given two bottles. I tried it that night with my famous meat loaf. The beer and meat loaf were amazing together. It will probably be my go-to beer for my meat loaf in the future. The beer is rich and roasted with big malts, but very hoppy and clean as well. It drinks well, has a nice hop bite, and not cloying from the malts.
This is the style of beer I have been digging a lot lately. It has everything I want in a beer. Rich roasted malts and big hops.
I am glad I got a second chance with this beer. It very tasty and I was wrong to dismiss it that easily.
Back from a five day trip to Anchorage, Alaska. We were invited up for The Great Alaska Beer & Barley Wine Festival. Todd and Jason Alström were asked to be judges for the Barleywine competition. They were also invited to speak at The Great Northern Brewers Club. A massive group of homebrewers from the great state of Alaska.
There is a lot to say about Alaska. I really enjoyed visiting Anchorage even in January. It was pretty chilly outside but we missed the worst of it before we arrived and after we left.
Alaskans love their beer. They love big, bold flavors in their beers and they are not scared one bit of experimentation with their beers or styles be it professionally brewed, or concocted in their kitchens. Alaska has an an amazing beer culture. Everyone knows each other, everyone homebrews, and everyone supports their local beer scene with a protected pride in their home grown offerings.
They should be proud of what they have going on up there. I have never seen such a tight knit community of beer lovers. The people of Alaska are also some of the most generous, friendly, welcoming group of people I have ever met in my life. We were welcomed into their fold and treated like family members. I will forever be grateful for the way we were looked after and treated by the good people of Alaska.
The first thing we did when we landed in Alaska was attend a beer dinner at Sub Zero owned by Billy Opinsky. I am holding off on posting about that here in this post because it deserves it's own post.
The next morning we woke up refreshed and I, myself was finally free from a terrible jet lag induced headache, we decided we need a big hearty breakfast to set the mood right for our beer trek through Anchorage. I heard about this place down the road from where were staying called Snow City Cafe. I saw their menu online before we came up to visit. I had completely forgotten that Alaska is all about halibut, king crab, and salmon. When I saw that they have king crab cake eggs benedict, I would not stop until I tried them.
I had an excellent Almond Joy Mocha to wake myself up. And then I ordered the King Crab Cake Eggs Benedict. Picture came out a little dark, but it gets the message across.
These were awesome except for one thing. The poached eggs were hard boiled. I hate that. I want runny yolks with poached eggs. The king crab cakes made up for it. They were meaty with real king crab. That might sound strange to an Alaskan to say real bits of crab. Everywhere else you go it's faux crab meat. Or real crab meat that's mostly filled with more breading than actual crab meat.
Jason ordered an omelet and got a side of reindeer sausage. This is a very popular side dish for most breakfast joints in Anchorage. It tasted like smoked sausage but spicier and more rich in flavor. I haven't had reindeer meat before, but this was tasty.
We left this place very full and happy. It was snowing and the sun light doesn't come out until 10 or 11 am. It begins to set again around 2 or 3 pm. The best thing you can do for yourself if you are used to sunny situations is eat and drink yourself silly. It's a lot like Las Vegas. You never know what time it is, but who cares as long as there is beer?
We walked back to our hotel to get some last minute BA Magazine work done. While Todd and Jason were sorting that stuff out, I noticed that the hotel we were staying in was mentioned in some articles that it's haunted. Oh goody! Historic Anchorage Hotel.
The bottom picture are actual accounts that some of the guests have made about encounters with so-called spirits. One story reports that a couple came back to their room on the second floor and their door was blocked by a little kid sitting in the doorway. It turns out that there were no kids registered in the hotel at the time. Other stories say that the guests reported kids playing in the hotel when there were no kids registered. Apparently a little girl was shot in the hotel way back in the day and later died of a mysterious illness. Another little boy had drowned in a bathtub in the hotel.
Guest reports of seeing a man in a police uniform walking the hallways. The first police chief of Anchorage was murdered near the hotel in the 20's with his own gun and he refused to say who shot him in the back before he died.
The best story comes from the ghost hunters who came to the hotel armed with a tape recorder. The two ladies were talking in the recording, when you could hear loud breathing in the background. Then
a creepy voice said "don't move that." Then it said "chocolate"
and you could hear a chocolate bar wrapper being opened. Then the voice
said "do her!"
Yeah, I am not quite sure what "do her!" meant either but it's pretty damn hilarious. Hilarious in the sense that it happened to them and not me. I did have a sheer moment of panic however, leaving my room when I saw two little boys in their pj's just staring me from the other end of the hallway. I found their parents down stairs in their pj's too eating a quiet breakfast. The boys came and joined them. I relaxed after that.
This is from the hotel's website:
Our Haunted Hotel – Where Ghosts Are More than Just Stories
Curtains rumbling, shower curtains swaying, pictures flying . . . it’s
all par for the course at the Historic Anchorage Hotel. Stories of
ghostly happenings have been circulating at the hotel for many years,
all thought to be related to the death of the first Chief of Police,
Jack Sturgus. On February 20, 1921 at 9:15 p.m., Anchorage's first
Police Chief John J. "Black Jack" Sturgus was found shot in the back
with a bullet from his own gun, steps away from the Historic Anchorage
Hotel. It is rumored that his ghost returns to the scene of the crime
each year, haunting the location of his untimely death, seeking justice
for a crime still unsolved to this day.
Sightings
are so frequent that we keep a ghost log in which a number of our
guests have shared their encounters. In addition to the ghost of Jack
Sturgus, there are several different specters that past guests have
seen make their way through our halls and facilities. A more detailed
account of some of these ghosts were featured on Today MSNBC.com.
While
an abundance of paranormal activity may scare some, we can assure you
that the rich and interesting history of the Historic Anchorage Hotel
will make for an unforgettable stay.
Awesome, but kind of not. Good thing the people who were working in the hotel were once again some of the kindest and friendliest people. If I had seen a ghost, I don't think they would have minded if I sat in their laps curled up in a ball, sucking my thumb and crying for my mommy.
We tried a ton of good beers here. I found and fell in love with Specialty XXX. A Black Double IPA brewed for their distributors 30th anniversary. It was so hoppy and good. Dry finish, roasted malts still fighting to hang on amidst the onslaught of big hops. The perfect beer for me. I took a couple of the bottles home with me, but the bottles are barrel-aged.
We also tried Gluttony, a triple IPA and theoretical 200 IBU beer. Theoretical in the fact that the human palate can't really taste more than 100 IBU's. But supposedly this beer is about 200 IBU's. I tried the Kodiak Brown Ale as well and many other beers that afternoon.
*For the Midnight Sun crew: Hot Peach Cobbler is the winner for a food pairing with this beer. Peaches braised in tons of butter and brown sugar, a nice crumble on top of the peaches.... Pure vanilla ice cream with it. There is more that can be done. We came up with a few combinations, but I thought I would elaborate on the "I am thinking peaches" comment. I had it in the bottle after we got back and roasted malts were more apparent. Much bigger flavors than when I tasted Kodiak with a shot palate after drinking Specialty XXX.
Visit Midnight Sun's website and scroll through their profile of beers. It's a pretty stunning line up and some of the most creative beers from any brewery I have seen in a long time. Their beers are not just a couple of one off's that don't fit a certain mold. Their whole profile is off the chains.
One of the highlights was Bathtub Gin. A gruit style ale with juniper berries, grains of paradise, and other herbs. This beer was made by lead brewer Ben Johnson in honor of the Phish song Bathtub GIn.
Ben, I didn't know you were such a dirty hippy! That changes everything about our friendship.
If you haven't guessed, that's Ben on the label. Bathtub Gin was very cool. Crisp, dry finish, and big spicy nose and flavor. Again, very Alaskan with big, full flavor and a complete distortion of what is considered to be classic styles. I love it. They do what they want, make whatever beer they want, they don't give a shit about traditionalism because they don't have too.
Alaskans are living in their own quiet little world up there... Only it's not so quiet. They are making some noise up there and when you come into town, you either get on board or get out of town. It isn't hard to get on board with the delicious beers being produced up there. I love that kind of mentality. Who says you have to play by the same old boring rules? Midnight Sun is a perfect example of do what you want. Make the beer you intended to make no matter how big, or obscure, or undefined and the masses will follow you. It's so American, and I love it.
Later that day we made our way back to Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse. Owned by Billy Opinsky and shares the same kitchen with Sub Zero. Billy O had taken such good care of us during the whole time we were there. Taxiing us around, piling good food unto us to try. Like the amazing halibut fish and chips appetizer at Humpy's, and later treating us to sushi where we experienced White King salmon for the first time.
When we got to Humpy's we were in the mood for some beers we have never tried before and appetizers. Smoked Salmon spread, Alaskan oysters, and King Crab bites.
All of these choices were great choices for an afternoon snack. I will say that the salmon spread needed more salmon chunks in it to balance out the cream cheese, but it was very smokey and tasty. And Hallelujah they give you a good amount of bread to go with it. I can't stand places that give you dips or pate and only two pieces of bread or toast points.
The crab bites had good pieces of crab in it. Served piping hot and great with some squeezed lemon. Perfect Alaskan bar food.
Upon further inspection of their menu, we saw this little note on it.
I would like to see someone take this challenge on up close. You can see the challenge on Man v. Food here.
Later that night we went over to the Sleeping Lady Brewery for the Great Northern Homebrewers meeting. Todd and Jason were invited to be guest speakers at their meeting. Todd thought it would be around 40 people. More like 120 people were there. Armed with their homebrews, and fresh imperial stouts pouring from Sleeping lady Brewery, we had a good old drunken night.
Getting a little Double Wit Bier from the tanks at Sleeping Lady. Dennis Sessler, President of the Great Northern Homebrewers Club kicking things off with Dr. Fermento ("Dr. Fermento is the alter ego of Anchorage Press and The Celebrator Beer News beer columnist James Roberts.")
What are those two weirdos doing? Jason and Todd Alström.
That was our downfall right there. Jason and his multiple trips to get the Sleeping Lady Imperial Stout and Smoked Porter from Alaskan Brewing Co. The homemade meads certainly contributed a fair amount to our downfall as well.
Jamie Floyd from Ninkasi Brewing Co. in Eugene, Oregon with his geek tattoo of a D&D dice. You had to be there and hear Jason's reaction when Jamie mentioned his geek passion for D&D.
Uh oh. Here comes trouble. I am just kidding that is Barb Miller of Midnight Sun. She is the main reason we came to Alaska in the first place.
People were getting down to Tom Dalldorf's band the Rolling Boil Blues Band. The older gentleman in the picture was having himself a good old time. He was fun to watch.
There were a lot of homemade meads being tasted out and many homebrews being passed around. All I can say is that it is probably good for everyone including myself that I didn't take anymore pictures after this point. Alaskans throw down. We'll just leave it at that.
Here are a few pictures of the judging for the first round of the Barleywine Competition and the Winter Seasonal category.
Day one, first round Barleywines and Winter Seasonals.
Second day, round two, two tables one for Winter Seasonals and one for Barleywines.
The winner for Winter Seasonals: Glacier Brewhouse, Eisbock
The Winners for the Barleywine: 1st Place Lagunitas, Gnarleywine
2nd Place Midnight Sun, Arctic Devil
3rd Place Pizza Port, Blonde Bombshell Barleywine.
I did not take pictures of the festival itself for the two sessions I attended. It was quite a good time. A bit too crowded (much more room in the connoisseur session) and a bit too much puke on the sidewalks after the fact. But still a good a time. As I said, Alaskans like big, full beers. These people like to get crunked. It's my kind of town.
I also didn't get pictures of the incredible sushi we had at Sushi & Sushi or the tasting of all 18 beers at Moose's Tooth Pizza. That was certainly a good moment. Enjoying 18 different beers with Thai pizza, BBQ chicken pizza, and a McKinley meat pizza. That was heaven.
We ended our 5 day excursion back at Midnight Sun for a relaxing afternoon that spanned into the evening. We drank Good Mojo, Specialty XXX, more Gluttony, and Earth. We drank awesome beers, had good food, and said good-bye to our new found friends of Alaska.
I didn't get pictures with some of my new good friends in Alaska. Julie and Tim McDonald, Billy Opinsky (Humpy's, Sub Zero), Dena and Dennis Sessler, Ken and Shauna Pajak (Cafe Amsterdam), Barb, Mark, Ben, Gabe, Jeremiah, Gary, and Seth (Midnight Sun). All of these people made our trip to Alaska fantastic. The Generosity, the laid back and cool attitudes, the welcoming nature into their worlds. I have said it over and over again, I will forever be grateful for their tremendous hospitality.
Edit: I don't want to forget what a gem Tom Dalldorf is and what a terrific sense of humor he has. I knew we would get along good when he brought up the idea of prank calling Lisa Morrison!
This is my second ever published article. A full feature for the #35 issue of the BeerAdvocate Magazine. The topic is snobbery in the craft beer community with a closing word by Max Toste of Deep Ellum in Allston, Ma.
Last night for NYE I spent a low-key night in the crazy packed Cambridge Common. They were featuring 30 taps with 30 IPA's on. Even though the whole place was slammed, we ended up in a good spot and had a mellow evening with a few good friends around. It was exactly what I was hoping for.
A very solid night for hops. Though I didn't really do any venturing through the hop list. Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA is my session beer. Sometimes you got to stick with what works and be consistent. I did try the Clown Shoes Black IPA. I wasn't feeling it. Big roasted beer with a dry finish but no bitter hop characteristics like an IPA. Then again my palate could have been shot from all the 90 Minute IPA's.
This has been long overdue for a write up. Thankfully I took mad notes during this dinner that even though it's a little over a month after the fact, I still feel like I just came back from this dinner.
It's taken me a little over a month to get this written for a couple of reasons. This beer dinner took place the week of our Belgian Beer Festival. So during the week I had zero time to sit down and write this out. The next week I was off to Las Vegas to celebrate my 30th Birthday. And right after that I was right back out to the west coast to San Francisco for the FoodBuzz Blogger Festival.
Now that I have settled down a bit, I can give this post it's proper dues.
Why was this beer dinner called Gallia Belgica (Gal-ee-ah Bel-gee-ka)?
I had a brave idea to ask one of our favorite restaurants Eastern Standard, to a beer dinner. Word on the street was, it would never happen. But I couldn't imagine why they wouldn't. They feature good beers for a high end restaurant. A slow moving trend for fine dinning is to serve good craft beer. Not only does Eastern Standard serve good beer, but also make mind blowing beer cocktails. Yes actual cocktails with beer as the base and high end bitters and liquors to enhance them. You have to be there to see it and try it.
I ran into a former waiter from Eastern Standard who overheard me talking about this grand plan for a dinner at Eastern Standard. I asked him if it could be done since there hadn't been beer dinner there before. He said "Yes Garrett will do it.... But only if the concept is so HOT." Oh great. The only super awesome concept I had come up with recently was for The American Psycho beer dinner. Yes, based on the movie. "It's a laugh riot." And totally would be a "laugh riot" with all the ideas we came up with for it. But I knew I couldn't bring the "laugh riot" to one of the hottest restaurants in Boston and expect this to fly. And then relaxed knowing that the Belgian Beer Fest was soon upon us and all the amazing brewers that would be in town to woo ES with.
When I approached Garrett Harker and Jackson Cannon of Eastern Standard (the owner and bar manager extraordinaire) to do a beer dinner with BeerAdvocate.com, I needed to make sure I had a good strong concept for the dinner. I almost always do a themed beer dinner or have a main concept that the dinner is following. Since we were going to have a big collection of brewers in town for the BBF, I decided a Belgian theme would be perfect. I did not however, want to do a traditional Belgian beer dinner. No Belgian waffles, or Moules et frites. I know how good they are, but it's so typical that the last thing I wanted for the first beer dinner Eastern Standard has ever had, was to be typical.
Garrett said yes and showed us a new private dining room they had acquired for the restaurant capable of seating up to 75 people. Perfect timing for us.
I came across the name Gallia Belgica while searching for traditional Belgian food. Looking for anything not mussels and waffles. I found a Wikipedia page talking about old Roman history and provinces. A quick passage from Wikipedia:
Gallia Belgica (sometimes given as Belgica Prima[1]) was a Roman province located in what is now the southern part of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northeastern France, and western Germany. The indigenous population of southern Gallia Belgica consisted of a mixture of Celtic and Germanic tribes, often described as the Belgae as well. According to Julius Caesar, the border between Gallia and Belgica was formed by the Marne and the Seine[2] and that with Germania by the Rhine[3] The area is the historical heart of the Low Countries, a region corresponding roughly to the current Benelux group of states, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg as well as the French Flanders and some part of the Rhineland.
I loved the name and thought it sounded cool for this kind of format. It also freed us from rigid borders. We could go an old, rustic route with the food and and add some modern twists. This concept is exactly reflected in our menu for this dinner.
As for the beers, well that was easy. I immediately called Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey after Garrett said yes to the dinner. Then I called Patrick Rue from the Bruery, Will Meyers of Cambridge Brewing Company, Rob Tod of Allagash, Duvel, and Dann Paquette of Pretty Things.
Picking Dann Paquette was an easy choice but I had to go back in and meet with Jackson and Garrett to discuss the beers and we had everyone on board but were still down one beer. Garrett had told me to run with the beer, and I had to call people ASAP to make sure they hadn't booked other dinners for the BBF. When I told the guys that we would have two locals, with Will and Rob Tod, and two well respected Cali brewers who specialize in Belgian beers, plus Duvel we had a well shaped dinner a head of us. But then I said I wanted to talk about bringing in a good friend of mine (Dann) who just came out with a new beer project called Pretty Things. Jackson immediately said "yes!" It was exactly what he was thinking and hoping we could bring to the table. I was very happy and exited that Dann's beers would be part of the dinner. The other brewers are some heavyweights in the industry and Dann deserved some credit for his long standing history. And for how amazing in such a short period of time his new beer project has received good word and accolades all over Boston and the New England area. Now we were ready to go.
Jackson and I hand picked the beers for the dinner. We carefully made sure that each beer was different in style from one and other but was a good representation of classic Belgian styles.
Duvel, Brouwerji Duvel Moortgat (Belgian Strong Pale) Baby Tree, Pretty Things (Belgian Style Quad) Curieux, Allagash (Bourbon Barrel-aged Tripel) Sgt. Pepper, Cambridge Brewing Co. (Saison/ Farmhouse Ale) Red Poppy, Lost Abbey (Flanders Oud Bruin) Barrel-Aged Autumn Maple, The Bruery (Belgian Strong Dark Ale)
*Click on images to enlarge.
Opening Reception:
Duvel with passed appetizers of smoked trout and fried Island Creek oysters.
Perfect bite size appetizers that worked really well with the Duvel. The light sweet taste, the sweet steel-y malts of the beer work well with fish and other sea food. The crisp, cold carbonation cut through the oils of the fried oysters, and the oils in the trout to let the sweet malts and hops play with the flavors of the oyster and trout.
At our tables, Duvel presented with Duvel bottle openers.
A quick look at the menu.
First Course:
Jackson Cannon opened the dinner and welcomed out guests and brewers to the event. Then introduced Dann and Martha Paquette of Pretty Things.
Olive oil poached Arctic Char with Alyson's Apples and Curry Purée paired with Pretty Things Baby Tree.
Jackson enjoying the Baby Tree.
This was a delicate pairing. The beer is a 8.7% abv Belgian style Quad made with dried plums. It's very fresh tasting and crisp for a quad. Most Belgian Quad's are big, alcoholic, and cloying on the palate with big malts. This beer does none of those things. It's one of the most enjoyable quads out there. The plums or prunes are present in the beer to add nice flavor without overpowering and making the beer a fruit beer.
It worked well with the pairing despite being a big quad with a fish pairing. However, it was a bit borderline. The beer was almost too big. But with this pairing, the apples, trout, and the curry purée all needed to be on the fork in one bite. You needed all the flavors to pull this pairing together. The only qualm was that there wasn't enough curry purée on the plate. As someone who isn't a fan of curry, this is one variation of it that I could handle. It was very delicate and light.
Second Course:
Berkshire Pork and Lamb Terrine paired with Allagash Curieux.
The terrine was served with pickled onions, whole grain mustard and sliced of a French baguette. Allagash Curieux is a 11% abv Bourbon Barrel-Aged Tripel.
This was an excellent contrast pairing. The beer is soft around the edges from being aged in Jim Beam bourbon barrels. It has big wood notes on the nose and heavy vanilla. The pickled onions on the plate added a brillaint sharp contrast to the beer. This helped keep the beer at bay from dominating the palate with all the bourbon and vanilla flavors. The salty meats and tartness from the mustard also had this same effect of contrasting with the beer allowing all individual flavors to present themselves.
Third Course:
Hudson Valley Foie Gras Stuffed Vermont Rabbit paired with Cambridge Brewing Company's Sgt. Pepper.
Jackson introducing Will Meyers, Brewmaster of Cambridge Brewing Co.
Hudson Valley Foie Gras stuffed Vermont rabbit with wild mushroom ragout and sparrow arc potatoes paired with Sgt. Pepper. A 6% abv Saison-Style farmhouse ale with peppercorns.
Sgt. Pepper is quite a unique beer. I have had some beers made with pepper and it can be good or it can be bad. Pepper is hard to get right in beer because it has a tendency to completely overwhelm the beer and all other flavors it may have. This was not the case with the beer. The pepper was upfront in the nose and definitely present in as the first thing you taste, but not dominating. It has four different peppercorns in it. Pink, white, green, and black. It had a little bit of a heat kick to it from the peppercorns. It was lightly sweet an delicate underneath the peppercorns.
The rabbit was fantastic. To me this was one of the best pairings of the night. The salty meat and rich fatty foie gras was amazing. The meat was nice and soft. It was as though Sgt. Pepper was made for the meal. Instead adding pepper to season your food, the beer did that for you. The rabbit helped enunciate the sweet characters the beer had. The rich mushrooms and potatoes was more like a stew adding more depth for the plate. There was a lot of flavor going on for this course but mainly it was the game flavors of the rabbit highlighting he sweet flavors of the beer and being rounded out by the big pepper taste. Wonderful pairing!
Fourth Course:
Smoked Venison Saddle paired with Lost Abbey Red Poppy.
Jackson handing the room over to Tomme Arthur, Brewmaster of Lost Abbey.
When we first approached Eastern Standard with doing this beer dinner, I immediately went outside of the restaurant to call Tomme and ask him if he would be apart of the dinner. I had one thing on my mind, Red Poppy! I am not a huge fan of sour beers, but between Supplication from Russian River and Red Poppy from Lost Abbey, they are total conversion beers.
Smoked Venison Saddle with mustard spaetzel and winter greens paired with Red Poppy, a 5.5% Flanders Oud Bruin, a sour brown ale aged in barrels.
The venison was gorgeously smoked. The aroma dominated the table. Big smoke flavor and game taste from the venison. Nice and juicy portions of meat. The greens were earthy and vaguely tasted like beets. Their salty, buttery taste worked well with the beer. Again contrasting with the beer to bring out it's sweetness.
The beer had a big red cherry nose, and sour aroma. The metallic flavors of the meat allowed those big cherry notes to pop rather than subdue them. Soft wood flavors on the beer also help round out a sweet flavor on the beer. The sour character was very palate cleansing instead of cloying. Even for a sour brown ale, that's quite unique.
Another winning course, but very filling. This course nearly sent me over the edge and we still had dessert on the way
Fifth Course:
Pan Perdue paired with Barrel-Aged Autumn Maple.
That's my homie Patrick Rue, Brewmaster of The Bruery. He is fairly new to the world of brewing, but he has already made such a tremendous impact by way of American-Style Belgian beers.
French toast with pears and cinnamon-maple cream paired with Barrel-Aged Autumn Maple. A 10% abv fall seasonal brewed with yams, maple, autumnal spices.
Barrel-Aged Autumn Maple was brought out specially for this event. The only place you can regularly have this beer is at the brewery itself in California. The regular Autumn Maple is bottled and distributed during the time of it's release.
So we had a small emergency for this pairing. Initially it was going to be a waffle course. But 75 waffles without 75 waffle irons is a bit tricky. I am glad that it never happened that way either. Part of the reason for this dinner and it's name was for it not to be typical and what we know of today as traditional Belgian cuisine. Though no one probably would have cared if we did serve waffles, I am still glad it didn't end up being Belgian waffles.
The dessert sounds fairly delicate for this big 10% monster beer. This dessert was like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. Look's pretty, and delicate, but wound up holding it's own next to this big beer.
The beer was aged for one year in rye barrels. The yams gave off big sweet, buttery and baked yam flavors including a burnt sugar taste. Big vanilla flavors giving a butterscotch like taste. The bread and pears acted like a cleanser for the palate leaving the cinnamon and maple to play with the maple and vanilla flavors of the beer, but wasn't overkill on those specific flavors. Warming esters from the beer were balanced by the cool whipped cream. This dessert and beer worked extremely well together.
Simple and delicious and the perfect way to end the meal. After that venison course, if we have presented a big chocolate dessert or anything like that, we would have all needed dolly's to wheel us out of the place.
For my first beer dinner with Eastern Standard, they really did an amazing job. Anyone who has been to Eastern Standard, knew that they would nail it. Garrett and Jackson get huge praise for my demanding emails, and anxious nature in making sure we were all on the same page. Though I slightly blame Garrett for putting the fear of god into me and making sure I could sell out their new 75 seat private dining room. As if that would be hard with their reputation.
Executive Chef Jeremy Sewall.
Garrett Harker.
Tomme Arthur, Will Meyers, Dann Paquette, Patrick Rue, and Rob Tod.
I arrived in San Francisco for the FoodBuzz Bloggers Festival a day early. Checked out the beer scene a little bit and laid low. The next day Chrystal and Amir came in from LA. They run the affable food blog The Duo Dishes. They also happen to be some of my favorite people. Especially after the weekend.
They called me when they got into to town and we were all starving. I got wind on a great Dim Sum place at Rincon Center in SOMA (South of Market st.). The place was called Yank Sing. This came recommended by my friend Anat Baron.
As soon as we got in, the whole place was rocking. We sat down and started ordering before our coats were off.
Immediately they put down in front of us sticky shrimp and candied walnuts.
Then we ordered some stuffed mushrooms.
Fried crab claws with minced shrimp filling.
Spring rolls and pan fried raviolis.
These were probably some of the best sticky BBQ pork buns I have ever had. They were not like traditional Chow Shao Bao with the sticky, steamed dough. But the center was traditional and amazing. These were coated in honey too.
What you need to know about Yank SIng. Its amazing food. And the rounds of food do not stop coming. But you need to caution yourself. It's rich food and you will fill up fast. Also Yank Sing is expensive. We didn't order all that much for 3 starving people and got slapped with a $100 dollar check. But having said that, it was worth it. Best Dim Sum I have had in ages.
After we left Yank Sing we saw a guy named T-Dub right next door at a Taqueria demoing his famous ribs.
Strange place for some ribs at a taqueria. But who cares these ribs were the effing bomb! T-Dub you know what you are talking about!
This was a quick stop for us, but something worth blogging about. We were roaming the strip and went into Planet Hollywood to check on the prices to see Holly Madison in the Peepshow. We skipped it when we found out Aubrey O'Day was in it too.
While there, we stopped by the Strip House for a quick bite to eat. It's just a basic top notch, way overpriced steak house. There isn't anything extraordinary about this menu accept for it's ungodly prices. However, the reason this place is worth mentioning, is the service and the lounge.
The lounge area is completely decked out in vintage images of topless women from the 20's and 30's. It's awesome. The lounge also has couches where you can order off the full menu. Couches and vintage boobies made this place totally worth it. Not to mention this lounge is gorgeous too. Deep reds and dimmed lights with naked vintage women. Our server was also really cool to us and had a laid back attitude. It's exactly what we wanted. The lounge is a perfect place to hide out in, have a great steak and chill out. Even if you are not that hungry, go to the lounge and get a drink and a small appetizer. It's one of the coolest places to hang out. Trust me.
10 oz. Rare Filet Mignon.
16 oz. Rare Smothered Strip Steak.
The steaks were cooked perfectly and tasted amazing. With the prices, they had better be amazing pieces of meat cooked to perfection. But even though my filet was only 10 oz., it was so big I had to take it to go. But that was a good thing. I woke up the next morning on Friday, my birthday to a bottle of wine and left over filet mignon for breakfast. It was AWESOME!! There is something to be said about starting your birthday off crunked and full from expensive leftovers.
Also on each plate was a tiny bread cup of whole cloves of roasted garlic. Nice touch. We also ordered a side of their garlicky green beans, which sadly I did not get a picture of. But they tasted great.
This place also had decent drinks. With the strip being overloaded on crappy overly sweet tourist crap cocktails, this is was a nice change of pace. They made a decent Sidecar. But in typical fashion of the strip, the beer selection was disappointing. Luckily they did have Sierra Nevada. A steak house, a really fancy expensive steak house would be the one place you would expect to see some decent craft beers. Beer and meat kind of go hand in hand. It's not that I am against Budweiser which completely strangles the entire Las Vegas strip, but I am sorry, it wouldn't have cut it for that smothered blue cheese steak Todd had.
When Todd and I got married in Las Vegas 4 years ago, we stopped one morning to grab a bite to eat while walking around the casinos at America in New York New York. We decided to revisit the place while hitting up Las Vegas for my 30th Birthday.
When we got to Vegas 4 years ago on a whim to get married, we arrived late at night, got cocktails and beer ordered to the room, and crashed. We woke up the next morning and visited the surrounding casinos. America at New York New York was cool for us to get a quick bite and an early morning cocktail. Love the 24 hour a day access to booze. It's the way the whole country should work.
Anyway, in going back we made a huge mistake. We ordered too big. I screwed up my whole day, but eating a massive meal, having a giant Pina Colada, and then trying to walk around some more. I ordered ham steak and eggs with a side of bacon. Did I really need that side of bacon? Well, no. But who knew I was getting a whole hog for a piece of ham steak? Another situation where the plate or portion of food was bigger than my two hands fanned out. Unbelievable.
Not even cigarettes, or another cocktail like a lychee martini at the MGM Grand would help settle me. I had to go back to the hotel room and lay down for a bit. Then shower up and hit the strip again.
Don't get me wrong, the meal was great, despite being so big. And I would have been fine had I not had that damn giant Pina Colada.
I have been told over and over by friends that I must check out Hash House A Go Go while in Las Vegas. Well, I went last week and it was the best thing ever. Apparently it is a California chain that has made it's way to Vegas.
This is my kind of place. The portions are insanely massive, and the food is completely amazing.
I started with one of their famous coffee drinks, The Smore's Mocha.
Just look at that sticky mass of coffee and burnt marshmallow mess. It was so delicious.
Then I asked about the Chicken and Waffles. I was told to order this monstrosity from friends who know I am soul food addict. I wasn't scuured until it came out.
As described from their website: Sage Fried Chicken with a hardwood smoked bacon waffle tower, hot maple caramel and fried leeks.It's 4 waffles with bacon cooked inside the waffle. And I am talking about a big crispy strip in each waffle. Two large pieces of fried chicken on top as well. It's unbelievable.
And just in case you are not sure how big this plate is, It's bigger than both of my hands fanned out. I found this image of some guy who looks horrified by the size of the plate while searching for a picture of the building and thought this was a good image to show you just how massive it is. I am in the second picture, a Twitpic my husband took with me in the background. Notice my hands in the second pic.
My husband looked and around and saw pancakes as round as basketballs. He decided to play it a little safer and get the smoked salmon skillet.
He wasn't let off the hook size wise. This thing was massive too and completely loaded with salmon. So many times with salmon you get the shaft on how much they give you. Not at Hash House A Go Go. They also had homemade jam on the table made with pears and strawberries for the biscuit. Nice touch.
And then I finished up with a double shot Bloody Mary. With pickled beans in it as well. I am starting to think that if there are no pickled beans for the Mary's, then they are probably not worth it. I love pickled beans so much and especially in Bloody Mary's.
Hash House also carried Stone. Todd drank a few Pale Ales and I was torn between the Bloody Mary and an Arrogant Bastard. With Las Vegas being a beer wasteland for the most part, any chance to get good craft beer should be taken advantage of. So not only can you get awesome food, but you can have an Arrogant Bastard with it too.
This place is off the beaten path from the strip. It will cost you just over 20 bucks in cab fare if you don't have a car. But there is a cool little brew pub with video poker down the street called Big Dog's. You can eat and then walk 2 blocks down, trust me you will need to walk after this meal, and play some video poker and wash it all down with some fairly decent beers. Big Dog's had a good Pumpkin Ale and a West Coast Style IPA on hand while we were there.
Whatever you do in Las Vegas, take the time out to visit Hash House A Go Go. Trust me.
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