Alinea - Part 1 (Chicago, IL)

Alinea. Ranked #1 by Gourmet Magazine in under 2 years of opening. Given 3 Michelin stars in November, and more recently ranked the #6 restaurant in the world and #1 in North America. In terms of Chicago's fine dining, it doesn't get any better than Alinea. And for our second anniversary, we were having dinner there.

Alinea is located in on Halsted St. in Lincoln Park. Chef Grant Achatz serves up progressive, avant garde cuisine, often using molecular gastronomy techniques. There is only one tasting menu option, with two wine pairing options. We opted to simply choose a few wines by the glass. The bubbles on the menu have some significance: the larger the bubble, the larger the course, and the position of the bubble from left to right indicate the move from savory to sweet.

(Sorry in advance, I fully realize that my P&S camera photos are doing absolutely no justice to how beautiful the food is here. My camera doesn't do well with low light and no flash.)

Steelhead Roe | Dijon, Rutabaga, Grapefruit

With only one tasting menu, you are left completely to trust the chef. One concern we had is that with 21 courses, and with such unique flavor combinations, there were bound to be things that we just plain didn't like. And this is how we get eased into the meal? A grapefruit and rutabaga sauce in the bottom of the bowl loaded with the steelhead roe and individual grapefruit sacs (is that what they're called?). Three dijon custards were topped with licorice faux-caviar and razor thin slices of radish. I'm not sure how the flavors all melded so perfectly, since they would seem like discordant, competing flavors. I found myself especially enjoying the textures, popping each of the caviar, grapefruit, and licorice individually. Our concerns with the unique flavor combinations were alleviated after the first course.

Yuba | Shrimp, Miso, Togarashi

This (LINK, courtesy of Ronnie_Surburban from LTH) was one of my favorite courses of the night. Told to eat it like chips and dip, a long piece of yuba tofu skin was fried, and wrapped with shrimp, togarashi, sesame seeds, and pickled onion. It was stuck upright in a miso mayonnaise. The yuba was well fried, as it was greaseless and crisp. The pickled onion lent a bright note to the dish, while the togarashi provided a gentle heat.

(From Right to Left)

Oyster Leaf | Mignonette

Scallop | Hitachino Weizen, Old Bay

Razor Clam | Carrot, Soy, Daikon

These three courses were served together, and played with different types of shellfish. The oyster leaf is an actual leaf with the flavor an oyster. It is dressed with a traditional mignonette and sea salt, and served on the half shell. Pretty cool. The bay scallop was butter poached, topped with an old bay oil and a Hitachino Weizen (Japanese wheat beer) foam. The scallop was buttery, and the foam lent a nice bitterness. Kristen loved this course. The final bite was a razor clam. The menu noted carrot, soy, and daikon, but I'm not sure if there was a change in the final preparation, or if I didn't pick up the carrot and daikon. The waiter said there was Chinese XO sauce, and I also noticed some tapioca pearls for texture. I enjoyed the flavors of this, but the razor clam was slightly overcooked.

Urchin | Green Garlic, Vanilla, Mint

On the fork, sea urchin was encapsuled in a vanilla gel cube , and topped with a natural caviar-shaped seaweed, cilantro, and mint. You eat this bite first, and then drink the green garlic soup that was topped with a butter foam. The initial bite was interesting, first tasting the sea urchin, then following with vanilla, and an herbal finish of the cilantro and mint. This was a trend throughout the meal; a single bite where the flavor continued to change throughout the bite. The soup tasted simply of green garlic and had a buttery finish.

Rabbit | Parfait, Rillette, Consomme

This dish contained three separate courses, which all riffed off rabbit and other similar ingredients, and were all plated within the same service piece. On the top of the spherical dish was a rabbit mousse, which I suspect contained liver. This was topped with fried spaghetti squash, sage, and a butternut squash tuile. Kristen received the same, except with a carrot mousse, since she asked for an offal-free menu. The mousse was rich, but also surprisingly sweet. The toppings make for a nice textural contrast against the mousse.

The top was lifted to remove the first part of the dish, and to reveal the second part. Blood sausage was topped with fried rabbit rillette, black trumpet mushrooms. Dots of squash puree and apple gel surrounded the meats. This was one of the more spectacular courses. The blood sausage was soft, and didn't taste overly iron-like. It had an almost-mole flavor, with notes of cinnamon and clove. The fried rillette was also delicious. Kristen received the same dish, with rabbit boudin blanc replacing the blood sausage.

The final part of the course was in the bottom of the bowl. A hot rock, which had been keeping each of the three courses warm, was sitting in the bowl of consomme along with a cinnamon stick and sage bundle. I found this slightly too salty, and the cinnamon and sage were far too strong for the delicate consomme. This would be the only dish that didn't impress me for the entire meal.

Venison | Cherry, Cocoa Nib, Eucalyptus

The next course course looked to be a simple bowl of aromatic eucalyptus leaves. Our waiter jokingly asked us if we wanted it topped with Ranch or 1000 Island dressing. Upon closer inspection, a pin was sticking out of the bowl of leaves. At the end of the pin was a succulent piece of medium rare venison. Interestingly enough, the spices on the venison reminded me of Chinese BBQ.

Wild Mushrooms | Pine, Sumac, Ramp

The ninth course consisted of morel and oyster mushrooms, pine/sumac powder, onion/mushroom crumble, mini fried onion rings, pickled ramps, and a mushroom sauce. This was a deep, earthy dish, between the pine flavors, mushrooms, and the rich sauce. The pickled ramps were added a nice touch of acidity.

To be continued.........