out of the park!

Alright- I figured it was OK to use the baseball analogy because after all - our dinner last night was at Oriole - named for the baseball team from Baltimore... and as noted, they again hit it out of the park with many new and fabulous courses.  We were again WOWed by the flavors and coddled by the service.  With Eden as our lead server, we were led through the culinary journey prepared by Noah and Tim and Genie and all who help make it look "easy" which of course none of it is, EXCEPT the eating part!

So on to the menu - I like to put up as the first photo the favorite new course and it was a toss up this time - but here is the winner by a tiny tiny fraction of whatever measurement we use for favorites.... more on this course and other new ones as we follow along with the meal -

a new presentation for the caviar- which was the best one yet!

the oyster course - and the jamon course with the amazing "stick" of flavors!

a new pork belly - YUM

a new course King crab! with a luscious sauce to dredge it through!

Then on to the next segment of  the salmon (shown above and again in the full presentation below) and the foie gras and the wagyu and various other flavors and tastes! but oops I somehow missed taking a photo of my beloved bone broth which was served as a "side"

the foie gras course was in the running for best new course for sure and only lost out by a teeny bit-

without the truffles shaved over (above) and with them (below)

then on to pre-dessert and dessert courses - first up an incredibly fun palate cleanser of cucumber flavors with a cool meringue on the top and a champagne froth (I'll take the larger one next time LOL)

a side view-

the mind blowing sweet corn mousse with pretzel and chocolate - Genie really is a genie-us!

ice cream sandwich- milk and cookies cookie and the final crunch of the evening !

our take home pie (for breakfast!)

we spent some time at the tail end of the evening in the kitchen hanging out - yes, we closed another place LOL  and for a good reason- this is a fun place to be, with great people all around- we did miss Aaron who was off at a Somm competition in NYC and Tory who has gone on to explore more career options but we already loved Eden and she covered for Aaron in his absence - so all is still good in "bird" land!!!!

tonight Tom Russell concert and tomorrow we leave for a weekend with Steve & Suzanne - so stay tuned!

still going strong!

Well - we knew we would get a fabulous meal at 42 grams (we always have) but I was completely blown away by the continuing creativity of Chef Jake... this was a masterful presentation of incredible subtlety... nuanced flavors and textures in many new courses... a complete and total winner!

here is the menu-

our wine selections both showed really well tonight

following the menu from above- salmon starter-

 uni

foie gras-

asparagus-

toro toro toro ! with snail's eggs from Poland farms...LOL no not kidding...

dulse and crab -

Pig's head in squash blossom tempura fried-

lamb's neck and amazing sauce-

A5 wagyu

the incredible cheese course

 

my dessert - sans coconut and Phil's dessert avec coconut-

and the Sparrow coffee espuma! yum yum yum thank God somethings never change-

and here is an indicator of the day- May 5th yes May 5th and it was freezing out- hence EVERYONE wore coats---

so soon we are off on DART 2017 and we will be indulging in goodies such as this!

so stay tuned- more fun and games coming up!

reasons and excuses

So I know I have been seriously remiss in keeping up the blog... I will try to get completely caught up before we go to NYC mid month... which will be quite the challenge since I and we have been busy... but here goes - have to start somewhere and we will start literally at the top!

The amazing meal we had with Steve and Suzanne when they visited a week ago - at oriole...

here is the menu - and then the dishes -

so off we go with the photos of this amazing meal!

 the take home dessert!

the wines - with the Lafite being the WOE-

so all in all a tremendous evening - the service outstanding the food mind blowing and the ambience so warm and friendly that you would never say to yourself - Michelin two stars are all stuffy because this one definitely breaks that belief down completely!

Next up- my five days down south for various reasons -most of which had to do with closing up the condo but I also managed to squeeze in a ballet and a play - so off we go- stay tuned...