Not that I haven’t tried to enjoy fine dining.
On a trip to the California’s Napa Valley, for instance, we made plans to take two of our kids to a highly-regarded restaurant for dinner. When we discovered that the prix fixe was $250 — each — we made other plans.
In New York, we stopped a famous restaurant on the off-chance we might get a table even without a reservation. The maitre d’ conceded that a table might open up later and suggested that we have drinks at the bar while we waited. The second round of drinks maxxed out my Visa card, so we left and dined at a hot dog stand.
But, I did eat at a renowned restaurant in Paris that annually received three stars from Michelin, although on the same day I ate there, it lost one of them. I don’t know if there was a connection.
While cities such as New York, San Francisco and Paris traditionally hog the Michelin awards, the big buzz this year concerns Chicago, which now has a pair of three-star restaurants, the guide’s highest award.
One of them is called Alinea, which serves what the restaurant critic for The New York Times described as “mischievous science project cooking.” I have no idea what that means, but when you’re a big-time restaurant critic I suppose you can’t just describe the food with phrases such as “tastes real good.”
The meal, he explained, began with a waiter placing smoldering oak leaves on the table, which filled the dining room with smoke that was supposed to help people experience the pleasures of a Midwestern autumn. That sounds sort of cool, although I don’t really need to drive 300 miles to help me experience the pleasures of a Midwestern autumn. And if I want to smell smoke, I don’t necessarily even need to leave my kitchen.
Once the smoke cleared, the meal itself consisted of 21 courses, including tempura fried pheasant breast with green grapes and walnuts, a rabbit parfait, rabbit rillettes, cinnamon-scented rabbit consommé and a demi-glace made with bubble gum that you suck out of a glass tube.
Including matching wines, the bill came to $788.10, plus tip.
Or, to put it another way, 316 Arby’s Jamocha shakes.
Contact D.L. Stewart at dlstew_2000@yahoo.com.
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