Sunday, February 15, 2009

MiniBar!!

This post should explain the reason for the lack of cooking last week. Carlos and I went to MiniBar, the 6-seater bar/restaurants at in the third floor of Jose Andres's Cafe Atlantico in DC. In short two chefs go crazy for about three hours creating 27 exquisite bitesize dishes cooked, assembled, and served in front of you. Its dinner and a show. The technique and style of food is called molecular gastronomy and as a chemist/biologist (hello! its has the word molecule in it!) and foodie in reallife, I was totally in awe. Believe me when I say this shit was The Shit! The following is a photo and caption of each course and btw after eating this insanity it took me a few days and a frozen pizza (at least I topped it with anchovies!) to get back in the saddle.



Our PreDinner Drinks (BloodOrange Obama Vodka some or other and a Mojito)



Course 1: Pisco Sour (served warm with eggwhite frothy stuff)



Course 2: Olive Oil Bon-Bon (the white stuff is powdered vinegar)



Course 3: Beet Tumbleweed (just beautiful)



Course 4: Mojito (in a gel that exploded in your mouth)



Course 5: Bagel and Lox (tasted just like it!)



Course 6: Dragon's Breath Curry Popcorn (made with liquid nitrogen - when you breath out while eating it you look like you're breathing smoke...hah love it)



Course 7: CornBread (it was made of some crazy stuff that evaporated before you got a chance to swallow it)



Course 8: Steamed Bun with Caviar (best caviar I've ever had...from Uraguay and my mom makes those buns at home...very standard chinese breakfast bun, cant complain)



Course 9: Curry Chicken Wing (the middle wing segment was completely intact but had no bones...genius!)



Course 10: BlueCheese Almond (I hate bluecheese so I hate myself for loving it and the cup melted into a almond ice cream)



Course 11: Cotton Candy Eel (shiso was strong but definitely the most dramatic plus cotton candy? yes, please)



Course 12: SunDried Tomato Salad (made of campbells's soup! delicious olive thing and one of my favorite dishes)



Course 13: Zucchini in Textures (some gel, seeds, and a paste...so goooood and I dont even like zucchini)



Course 14: Caesar Salad (completely deconstructed which is awesome but it need a big anchovy fillet on top)



Course 15: Parmesan Egg with Migas (the egg looking thing was actually made of cheese with a quail yoke inside)



Course 16: Oyster with Apples and Juniper (Oyster...love it...nuff said)



Course 17: Guacamole (deconstructed and with tomato sorbet in side and yes those are Fritos on top...awesome)



Course 18: Salmon-Pineapple Ravioli (cooked to perfection)



Course 19: New New England Clam Chowder (wow this was probably my favorite dish, the potato puree was sooo savory and the clams were perfectly steamed)



Course 20: Breaded Cegala with Sea Salad (New Zealand lobster with cute seabean ... seabeans make any seafood better)



Course 21: Philly Cheese Steak (rare kobe beef on top of a drippy cheese filled bread cigar)



PreDessert Course 22: Kumquats and Pumpkin Seed Oil (most beautiful of all the dishes and so delish)



Dessert Course 23: All the Flavors of Tailand (it was spicy, peanutty, banana, lemon grass...basically covered everything)



Dessert Course 24: Frozen Yogurt Honey (made with liquid nitrogen so everything was powdered except for the olive oil around the side...sounds weird but the olive oil made it creamy and reminded me of the mediterranean with the fresh mint)



Dessert Course 25, 26, & 27: Chocolate Covered Corn Nuts, Saffron Gum Drop with Edible Wrapper, & Mango Box (the mango box was my favorite desserts of the night)



Our two personal Chefs of the night. They created all the dished with input from a team of 4 others and Chef Andres (on the TV screen in the background). Could they be more adorable? Didn't think so.

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