Life is good

I was lucky enough to attend a party sponsored by Food & Wine on Wednesday night. I was covering the party for Chicagoist with Caroline, and if I do say so, we did it well. All the heavy hitters were there — Alinea, Moto, Avenues, Spring/Green Zebra/Custom House/Charlie Trotters — if I ever make some dollars, I know where to head.

Because this is haute cuisine, I thought pictures with descriptions would do more than verbiage. So here are some of the highlights.

Alinea

They served bacon, wrapped in caramel, with an apple butter. Unfortunetly, it looked way better than it tasted. Granted, I haven't eaten bacon in probably 15 years. But it just wasn't that awesome. The caramel got stuck in mine (and Caroline's) teeth, and the apple butter didn't really hold up its end of the bargain. That being said, the presentation was Amazing (see the capital A).

Avenues

Pictured here is a smoked vichyssoise with a chive marshmallow, served in a shooter. This was one of my favorites of the evening. I dislike food that is more innovative than good, or pretty than tasty. This was both. The soup was delicious; just smoky enough to give it an edge on a traditional vichyssoise. The marshmallow was the pleasant surprise at the end. Though it was sweet, it matched the tangy soup well, and the texture was to do for.

Blackbird

The Blackbird chef wasn't the nicest. As snapped my picture, he looked up at me and asked "Is this for you blog?," with a smirk. I didn't really know how to respond, so I took the picture, grabbed the snack and moved on. This was, to put it simply, delicious. Cured salmon with persimmon and yogurt, with a dill garnish. As I ate it, flavor after flavor emerged. First the salty fish, then the sweet persimmon muted by the tangy yogurt, and finally the dill to add the green essence that was missing.

That is all I have for pictures — Caroline was the photographer for the night, so she was doing most of the photo taking, and I was doing.... well, a lot of eating. Check out Chicagoist tomorrow for more pictures and a better wrap up.