culinary adventures

David Burke's Primehouse

we went for restaurant week because i'm pretty sure they offered the best deal, so to speak, of all the restaurants that participated in restaurant week. david burke's is famous for the SALT CAVE and the unbelievable aging process, whereby they let the meat sit and basically rot, infusing more flavor into the meat, and then chop off the bad parts, and serve a most perfect steak. for $32, we had a pre-fixe meal with a few options for each course. i chose the lobster bisque, the 28-day aged delmonico, and the prime dessert chocolate cake. mmmmmmmmmmmm. every thing i ate there was lovely. the lobster bisque was so full of fresh lobster taste. the 28-day aged steak was melt-in-your-mouth. and the chocolate cake was rich and decadent.

The Publican

oh wow. this was our third time at the publican and i'm really going to miss it when we move. we went for the brew masters series with three floyds, during which the publican introduced their very own beer! banana split 7". i didn't have the beer pairing but i pretty much tasted each one anyway. we started out with the yellowtail crudo with intense candied orange zest and celery. mmmmmmmmm, anyone who loves sushi, or sashimi rather, would have loved this starter. i couldn't get enough. then... we had the duck heart. yes. you read that right. DUCK HEART, with oyster mushrooms and fried polenta. first of all. none of us, except Dan, knew they would be serving duck heart. in fact, when Dan sent out the email about this dinner, he purposely deleted the "heart" part so we all thought we were getting duck. but it was too late to back out once we realized. this is how i felt:
but really...? it was sort of like eating pork rinds... if you think about it, it will totally gross you out. but if you don't think about it, it's DELISH. and the duck heart was the perfect texture to go along with the mushrooms. you could almost convince yourself it was just another mushroom with the most intense duck flavor. :) after surviving that experience, we had the pot au feu with baby chicken (mild in flavor but very tender), morteau sausage (the best sausage i've had), and pot roast (the highlight of the entire meal). the pot roast just about melted in your mouth. SO GOOD. and the meal ended with a very tart yogurt panna cotta with passion fruit and granola. i was practically licking my plate.