Yes people, I can and do eat that much. Not sure why I feel a need to prove it ever so often. But I did it again! Over a four hour meal at Saul.
Saul was awesome and created two sets of tasting menus for the four of us, each with 7 courses plus an (huge) amuse bouche. So by the end of the meal, each of us had 16 courses. Thanks Saul! You rock!
The first of the two amuses was caramelized berkshire pork belly & charred octopus salad with grilled scallion, roasted butternut squash, toasted almonds, chili-citrus vinaigrette (thanks again Saul for posting the menu!). Never imagined octopus and pork belly could work well together, but they did. The whole dish was bright and happy from the chili-citrus vinaigrette. But it also had weight from the fatty pork and butternut squash.
The other amuse was a yummy and refreshing watermelon salad with goat cheese. I'm a huge fan of the watermelon, onion, and cheese combo.
First course brought us seared Japanese yellowtail with red radish, fava beans, and young ginger. The other dish was seared scallop. Both seafood dishes were amazing with lots of bright and spring-y flavors but none of the flavors overshadowed the expertly cooked seafood, which were definitely the star of the show.
The next course was south american inspired. They were delicious of course, but just caught me off guard since I wasn't expecting such strong chili and cumin flavors. The blood sausage had the flavors of a chorizo but had the textures of a meat loaf. The other plate was a crispy terrine of pork with salsa verde and avocado. I remember liking it but umm.. don't remember anything else about it.
And then we had tagliatelle with poached egg, chili flakes, garlic chips. I've mentioned that I'm a sucker for yolky egginess. Suckered me in, the dish did. The garlic chips were awesome and the thick pasta ribbons were substantial enough to stand up against the egg. The only thing was that the egg was a tiny bit too runny, but it was fine after mixing with the pasta.
We also had a fish dish that I can't recall (sorry!). I think it's the pan seared mackerel with caponata and candied lemon. Yes, that was it. umm. it was tasty but it was also many many glasses of wine into the meal. Memory fizzled.
I really enjoyed the pan roasted squab breast with farro verde and Jerusalem artichoke. I think well cooked squab almost has a foie gras flavor. It was tender and earthy. Chomp.
Then it was on to my favorite dish of the night - aged ribeye steak with slow cooked shortribs and garlic potato puree, spinach, picked onions. The whole thing was then topped of with a generous slab of RED WINE BONE MARROW BUTTER. Yes, bone marrow butter. The two meats were already amazingly cooked. I would have been happy to eat them unadorned. But why do that, when you can slather the richest of all butters and multiply the flavor by 1000%. Do it! eat butter, bone marrow'ed!
I subtly mentioned my love for sweetbreads while perusing the menu at the start of our dinner, or maybe more like announced it to the restaurant. The restaurant heard and answered with sweetbreads. Didn't I tell you they're awesome? Ahh sweetbread, creamy and crunchy all at the same time. It has the most complex flavor that is unmatched by anything but other sweetbreads. mmm... sweetbreads and other sweetbreads....
I think I'm missing a dish, but you've probably already had enough of my not so focused pictures and vague descriptions. So, let's move on to cheeses and desserts! There were two cheeses - ewphoria cheese with cherry compote and something else. Sorry! I suck! Both cheeses were really good. Ewphoria is a over-ripe soft cheese and the other was not. Yep. That's my description. The end.
We shared 4 different desserts - baked alaska, passion fruit panna cotta, chocolate cake, and warm apple brown betty. My favorite was the baked alaska. Ice cream and toasted meringue, what is there not to love. The panna cotta had a good flavor but I would have liked the custard to be less watery. Chocolate cake was good, although I don't remember much about it. The brown betty was a warm spiced apple cake thing. Would be great for the fall.
This was my second visit to Saul. Both times, the service and food had blown me away. I would definitely let Saul blow me away again!
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