Journeyman: Our Tasting Menu Experience

On Friday night, to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary, Hubby and I went to Journeyman restaurant in Somerville, literally just a stone's throw from where I grew up.  I remember when all you could find down this sometimes creepy alleyway was a couple of mechanics' garages, a greasy pizza/sub joint, and an abandoned lot (in which as kids we used to play before it was rebuilt it into a proper playground).  Nowadays, there is without a doubt a food find in this up and coming and, well....yuppie area of what was once a veritable working class section of the city.

Hubby had picked out seven possible restaurants (7th anniversary) and told me to chose a number.  What came out of the proverbial hat was this wonderful tasting menu experience.  You can read all about the philosophy of this restaurant at the link above....but basically they are very much into locally sourced ingredients, working with whatever's in season, and supporting smaller-scale vendors.

There are a lot of pictures in this post, so rather than bore you with paragraphs of text in between, I will let them speak for themselves via their captions (the only problem being that we can't remember everything that was on each plate -- so I will just do my best to re-cap).  Needless to say, it was all fantastic -- there was not one item that wasn't awesome and of which we didn't lap up every morsel.

On with it....

  

We decided to get the seven course dinner (fitting for the anniversary).  He got the "meat eater" version, and I got the vegetarian version, so that we could try as many dishes as possible.

Here you can see basically the entire restaurant (except for the open kitchen which is off to the right of this shot), and in the background is the greenhouse window in which grow many of the greens and herbs that are used in the cooking.

The amuse-bouche: Egg Foam with Shiitake mushrooms and some herbage.

Homemade bread, and (I'd be willing to bet churned in-house) butter with (hard to see in this photo) a sprinkle of sea salt on top.

Locally brewed beer infused with flavor from a local chocolate company.  OMG yes!

Salad course: There were so many things on this plate that I had never eaten before.  But the most notable was that little yellowish flower near the top.  I don't remember what the waitress said it was, but it had so much flavor (similar to arugula).

My soup course: Cold Pea Soup with a Milk Foam, Mint, and some sort of cookie-ish thing on top.

Hubby's soup course: Razor Clams, Pea Puree, Fennel, Bluefish Roe.

Mine: Asparagus Two Ways (steamed, raw), with some Century Egg, Soft Tofu and two sauces (a garlicky one, and a soy one).

Hubby's: Salmon, Peas, Rhubarb.



Mine: Five-Minute Egg, Smoke, Spring Vegetables, Shortbread crumble, Lavender Flowers, and an incredibly delicious creamy sauce (this was my favorite dish all night).

Hubby's: Bluefish, Black Bean, Rhubarb.

Hubby's: Smoked Foie Gras, Brioche Waffles, and a rhubarb sauce.

Mine: Risotto with Ramps and Morel Mushrooms.

Hubby's: Veal, Sweetbreads fried in Amaranth Flour, Polenta, Onion, Leeks, Almonds.

Mine: Chevre Ravioli, Spinach, Leeks.

A surprise cheese course that they offered to us before dessert.  We chose the sheep's milk one from Italy.  It came with honeycomb and pickled rhubarb.

Another pre-official-dessert surprise: Almond crema with rhubarb sorbet.

Hubby's Dessert: Baba Au Rhum (rum soaked pound cake) with milk chocolate ice cream, dark chocolate tobacco infused ganache, chocolate sorbet, and taza/almond crumbles.

My dessert: The same Baba Au Rhum, except this time on a caramel bed with grapefruit absinthe almond sorbet, coffee infused cream, and taza/almond crumbles.

Surprise finale: Rhubarb Jellies, Salted Caramels, Shortbread Cookies with Almonds, and Lime-something Macarons (all homemade, of course)

  

Who would have thought that down this little alleyway, where all you used to be able to find was the back doors and trash bins of restaurants and other businesses, could be such an incredible place to eat!  Mmmmmm.

BBQ Pulled Pork and Buttery Cornbread

In my last post I mentioned how Hubby and I spent Sunday doing some low and slow bbq style cooking, including the brisket that I talked about there. Well, also whipped up during our lazy, rainy afternoon was some most excellent Slow Cooker Pulled Pork and Buttery Cornbread (as is customary you will find the recipes that we based our adventures on at the links). Both of these were super easy and required little attention. Here are our versions, as usual slightly altered from what we found online:

PULLED PORK

Ingredients

• 4 pounds of pork tenderloin
• 24 fluid ounces of root beer
• Homemade bbq sauce (Hubby’s recipe consisted of approximately 12 ounces ketchup, 6 ounces molasses, 6 ounces Worcestershire sauce, a tablespoon or two of garlic power, a tablespoon or two of onion powder, a half-tablespoon of cayenne pepper, and a half-tablespoon black pepper)

Directions

Place the pork tenderloin in a large crock pot along with the root beer. Cover and cook on low until well done and the pork shreds easily, about 5 to 6 hours.

Shred the meat with two forks and mix it with the bbq sauce.

Like a lot of barbecue that isn’t of a typical Carolina style, this one was all about the sauce. We tasted the meat before mixing it with the sauce, and truthfully, couldn’t quite discern the root beer much, if at all. Therefore, we don’t know that it was necessary to use root beer per se, and perhaps any liquid of your choice would have done. Once it was coated in the sauce, though, damn was it good. All those kudos go to Hubby for the sauce he created. Sauces and rubs are, after all, his forte.

BUTTERY CORNBREAD

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 and 2/3 cups milk
• 2 and 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 4 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 ear of corn, raw, kernels removed

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400-degrees.

In a mixing bowl (we used a stand mixer), cream the butter and sugar.  Combine the eggs and milk in another bowl. In a third bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.

Add the wet and dry ingredients to the creamed butter/suger mixture alternately until everything is incorporated.

Dump in the raw corn kernels and give it one last twirl.

Pour the batter into a greased 13x9 dish and Bake at for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cut into squares and serve warm or cold. 

I'll tell you what -- the name of this cornbread did *not* lie.  It was super-buttery and delicious.  A lot of times I will spread butter onto my cornbread before eating it -- that was wholly unnecessary with this one.  =)