Dinner @ Blackbird in Chicago, IL

I ended up in Chicago for an unexpected trip and decided I needed to hit up the Chicago foodie scene while I was in town.  The trip was last minute so I knew that reservations would be hard, but I was able to snag dinner at Blackbird on relatively short notice.  In the last Michelin guide release in Chicago, it was given a Michelin star.  They have an a la carte menu, but I decided to go for the tasting menu.

The tasting menu is made up predominantly of smaller portions of appetizers and entrees from their a la carte menu, however the amuse bouche and an intermezzo towards the end appeared to be unique to the tasting menu.  So if you're looking for something far different than the menu, the tasting menu shouldn't be something you should try.

As an interesting aside, when we got to the restaurant, the hostess gave several of us a black napkin to replace the white napkin on the table.  Others got to keep their white napkin.  We curiously asked the waiter why they did this.  Apparently it's done dependent on the pants the individual is wearing.  They don't want white linen/lint to fall on someone's dark pants and similarly dark linen/lint to fall onto someone's light color pants.  I thought it was interesting.

Anyways, here's a review of the tasting.

1) cinnamon dusted lamb with leek, pickled blueberry, puffed buckwheat, and squash

This might have been my favorite tasting of the night.  It was a mixture of so many flavors and textures (especially the puffed buckwheat) and the lamb was delicious.

2) celery root soup with grilled lobster, preserved lemon, celery, and marigold

I really enjoyed this celery root soup.  My only knock is (what I believe to be) the celery shavings put on top of the lobster.

3) ivory char crudo with smoked char roe, turnip, green grape, pearl onion, and hemp rye

This was an interesting dish, one that all of us were not expecting.  The pearl onions were diced and mixed in with the diced ivory char.  The overall taste was sweet.  Overall, quite nice.  I like it when a restaurant can surprise me with something I've never really had before.

4) oil-poached walleye with parsley root, hazelnut, radish, chickweed, and spicy coppa

This was probably my second favorite dish of the night.  The fish was perfectly cooked and all the sauces matched very well with the fish.

5) smoke-brined chicken breast and black truffle-taleggio sausage with carrots, pecans, and dill

Overall a solid dish.  The chicken was good, but the highlight of the dish was the carrots, with three different kinds of carrots in the dish (atleast 3, guess there could have been more).  On the upper right of the picture you can see a black-ish ingredient on the dish.  I couldn't figure out what it was at first, thinking it was maybe a mushroom.  But the texture wasn't there and the flavor was certainly not mushroom.  It ends up it was an heirloom carrot, something I'd never had before.  The carrot flavor wasn't as strong as normal carrots, really interesting.

6) grilled striploin with charred cabbage, fingerling potatoes, boiled peanuts, and basil

This was a real big miss of the evening in my book.  The striploin and charred cabbage were really good by itself, but I'm not a big fan of peanuts.  I really feel the peanut flavored sauce in this dish drowned out everything else.  But that may be due to just my personal taste of peanuts.  If I knew better, I would have eaten the steak and charred cabbage by itself (as well as the potatoes) and pushed the peanuts and peanut sauce to the side.

7) milton creamery 'prairie breeze' cow's milk white cheddar with toasted sourdough crumpet, horseradish butter, quince, and amaranth

This was the cheese course of the evening.  I've never had a cheese course served sort of "on the side" of the dish while everything else (sourdough crumpet, horseradish butter, and quince) were plated in the center.  I really enjoyed all of the flavors mixed together.  Very tasty.

8) amaro and fennel sorbet with pomegranate and thyme tapioca

If you've read any of my blog entrees before, you'll know I love sorbet.  This was an excellent tasting.  Fennel is not a flavor I would have expected to like, but it was good by itself.  Add in the pomegranate and this was very tasty. 

9) bourbon gooey butter cake with whipped goat cheese, caramelized strudel, pumpkin pie, pecans, sorghum

This was the other miss of the night.  It's just my personal taste, but it was way too sweet for me.  I'm not sure how "gooey butter cake" is made, but it probably involved lots and lots of sweets.  The mixture of textures with the whipped goat cheese and caramelized strudel was quite good though.  I'm glad to have tried it, I'll know that it's probably not my cup of tea to order in the future.

10) mignardise - caramel and chocolate truffle

Overall, it was a good tasting, however I think there were too many misses for me.  It's not a knock against Blackbird itself, as they were off due to my personal dislikes and tastes.

I noticed on their website the tasting menu from a few weeks prior was posted.  On that tasting menu, seared sea scallops were served instead of the ivory char, grilled lamb instead of the sirloin, and a grilled pear dessert instead of the gooey butter cake.  Based on the descriptions of those dishes, those probably would have made the tasting a lot better for me given my particular tastes.  This is very likely due to the fact I love scallops, the scallops would have not made it two fish dishes in a row, the lamb wouldn't have had peanuts, and the grilled pear would have likely been way less sweet.

One additional fun fact, in the restrooms at Blackbird, there's a curtain.

It's sort of fun to peek behind the curtain to see what's there.  There's something different in the men's and ladies restrooms.

Dinner @ Cotogna in San Francisco, CA

I recently went to Cotogna in San Francisco, CA.  It's a pretty well known Italian restaurant run by the folks from Quince.  My understanding is the staff at Quince decided they wanted to make Quince a high end fine dining establishment.  So they created Cotogna next to it to "move" a number of their more casual dishes over to it.  Quince apparently achieved its goal, as it eventually got two Michelin stars.  Cotogna did pretty well too, being awarded Bib Gourmand status from Michelin several years in a row.

Normally, I probably wouldn't write a blog post about Cotogna, as I usually reserve my blog for posts for nicer places or places with tasting menus.  However, Sunday is unique at Cotogna.  Instead of their normal a la carte menu, they offer a four course tasting menu for $55 dollars (which they call "Sunday Supper").  I'm the type of person that dislikes ordering off a large menu, so when a restaurant just serves you the food it feel it wants to serve you that day, I think that's a good thing :-)

Before going onto the food below, I will say that for the price, I thought the portions were very generous.  I honestly would have been just as happy with 1/2 the portion that was actually served.  So if you are looking for a lot of food for a good price, I think the Sunday Supper is great.

1) passatelli in brodo

I will admit, this dish doesn't look that appetizing.  It sort of look like Campbells soup, however it was very tasty.  The broth was particularly good.  The waitress said you could think of this like an Italian chicken noodle soup.  The pasta was a pasta that I'd never tried.  According to wikipedia, passatelli is a pasta made of "bread crumbs, eggs, grated parmesan cheese, lemon, and nutmeg".  The pasta was really interesting.

2) tagliatelle con farina di castagne - chestnut tagliatelle with house made ricotta and sage

Another new thing, this was basically a chestnut pasta.  Something different than what I've had before.  Again, quite interesting and tasty.

3) anatra alla romagnola - duck w/ cabbage, onions agro dolce & potatoes cooked in the coals

I should mention the above was a serving of duck for two people, as it was shared between me and my date.  I was bit disappointed in this main course.  The duck breast was a chewy for my taste.  It appeared the duck breast was cooked a tad rare.  I'm not sure if this is normal and how duck will be when rare, but I wasn't particularly fond of it.  However, flavor wise the duck was tasty.  Off to the left was a small sauce, perhaps cranberry or similar berry-like sauce?  That was quite good, as were the onions and potatoes.

4) gelato di parmigiano reggiano

My date and I were originally trying to figure out what this gelato's flavor was.  When we asked the waitress, she said parmesan cheese.  Not what you'd typically think of for gelato, it was tasty and different.

So overall, a good dining experience.  I wouldn't say that it was a delicious meal, as too many things were presented to me that were quite different and unfamiliar to me.  However, I really enjoyed many of the different types of pasta and flavors presented that you normally won't see at an Italian restaurant.

Update:  I went to Cotogna again.

Shelby Miller for Jason Heyward Trade Analysis

A huge trade was announced today as the Cardinals traded Shelby Miller and a minor leaguer to the Braves for Jason Heyward and a relief pitcher.

This is a really interesting trade on several fronts.

First, it suggests the Braves are in a bit of a re-building mode.  After finishing the season 17 games behind the Nationals and 9 behind a wild card spot, there was no need to be in a win now mode.

For the Cardinals, it is an indication they may be in a win now mode.  Heyward is a free agent after 2015 and there is a strong belief he will be too expensive for the Cardinals to sign.  In order to get him, they had to give up a good young pitcher in Shelby Miller who has 4 years of control left.

So why trade Miller?  I believe there are several reasons.  Having John Lackey for one more year certainly is one reason.  But another major factor is that Miller really regressed in his second season with the Cardinals.  From his rookie year to sophomore year, his strikeout rate fell from 0.97 to 0.69 per inning.  His FIP also went up from 3.67 to 4.55.  I think there was a decent chance the Cardinals just decided to move on from Miller and believe his peak wasn't going to be as good as they hoped for.

However, I think there may be one other major reason.

In 2011 the Cardinals were criticized when they traded Colby Rasmus for players for a playoff run.  Most notably this was for Edwin Jackson and Octavio Dotel.  I absolutely hated the trade.  In 2010 Rasmus looked like he would be a superstar, hitting .276/.361/.498 with 23 home runs at the age of 23.  He was a highly skilled center field player with a high ceiling and 3 more years of control for several mid-tier players for a playoff run.

Why did the Cardinals do it?  GM John Mozeliak said one of the major reasons they did it was because they knew their playoff window was small.  With Albert Pujols about to become a free agent (and unlikely to return), Lance Berkman & Chris Carpenter unknowns for returning (although they both did return), the Cardinals felt they had to make a run.  Well, we know how 2011 worked out for the Cardinals ... really well.

I think there's a chance the Cardinals felt the same way this time.  Matt Holliday had one of his worst seasons in 2014.  He may simply be declining and his best years are behind him.  Yadier Molina was injured part of the season and his overall offense was down too.  His OPS was below 0.800 for the first time since 2010.  His best years may also be behind him.  Jhonny Peralta had a great year in 2014, but how many elite years does he have left in him?

With the death of Oscar Taveras, the Cardinals do not appear to have any superstar prospects to carry the organization for years out.  Players like Matt Adams and Kolten Wong may become quite good, but unlikely to be able to carry an organization.  Michael Wacha could have been in that category until his injury, so now he's a bit more of an unknown.  The Cardinals have solid prospects like Stephen Piscotty, but no one with a high ceiling like Taveras.

So with all the factors above and John Lackey's one year contract, I think the Cardinals may have realized 2015 may be their small window of a chance to win it all before a small rebuild would have to occur.

Dinner @ All Spice in San Mateo, CA

I recently went to All Spice in San Mateo, CA for dinner.  It's a 1 Michelin Starred restaurant offering an Indian fusion a la carte menu.

1) amuse bouche - Eggplant soup with eggplant chip

The soup was tasty.  At first, I thought there was something missing from this dish, only realizing later that it was in my head.  I love baingan bartha, so I think I was initially thinking of that kind of flavor, only afterwards realizing that it was soup and not eggplant itself, hah!

2) Maple and smoked chili pork belly - Hazelnut pink lady apple, green garbanzo succotash, red onion marmalade, thyme chiffon cake

We ordered the pork belly appetizer, which was delicious.  Everything about this dish was great.  The pork belly was very soft and all the accompaniments were awesome.

3) Wagyu beef strip steak - Farro risotto, parsnip chip, wild mushrooms, nasturtium, chestnut-walnut cream

I was disappointed in this dish.  While the beef was very tender and soft, it didn't have the flavor I was expecting.  Perhaps it was a tad under seasoned?  Or perhaps my expectations for beef have been wildly thrown off course after eating at Alexander's Steakhouse?  This was not listed on the menu with a grade, so it's possible it was just not a high grade wagyu and I was unreasonably judging it.

4) Chocolate terrarium - Pink peppercorn chocolate mousse layered with almond-chocolate soil, passion fruit curd, dark chocolate chips and white chocolate

This was delicious.  It was chocolatey, and crunchy, and sweet.  Wonderful.

Overall, it was a good dinner, but the main course brought down the entire meal a bit.  When I go back, I might try a seafood entree instead, as others online have said they are excellent.

What makes someone a legend in sports?

In the wake of Madison Bumgarner's legendary 2014 post season, this gif went around the web (original link)

It actually got me thinking about the question of what makes a player legendary and memorable.

Obviously, Madison Bumgarner and Clayton Kershaw's careers are far from over.  But when you look at their careers so far, what you see is.

Madison Bumgarner, 2 time All Star, 3 time World Series champion, 1 time NLCS MVP, 1 time World Series MVP

Clayton Kershaw, 4 time All star, 2 3 time Cy Young winner, and possibly 1 time MVP after 2014.

So who will be more remembered assuming nothing particular special happens to both players for the rest of their careers?

So what makes a legend?  I think it's a combination of many things, such as:

• Are you a Hall of Famer?
• Are you an award winner?  Multiple time award winner?
• Do you hold any records?
• Do you have any defining career moments? (e.g. perfect game, no hitters)
• Do you have any defining career totals? (e.g. 3000 hits, 300 wins, etc.)
• Do you have any post season accomplishments?

Without multiple of these, it's hard for people to remember you over time.

Lets take the example of Bob Gibson.

• Hall of Famer
• 2 x Cy Young winner
• MVP winner
• Legendary World Series Performance - 1967, 3-0, 3 CG, 1.00 ERA
• World Series Records - 1968, 17K in one game
• Legendary / Record Holding Regular Season - 1968 w/ 1.12 ERA
• 1 career no hitter

My subjective belief is Gibson is known most for that 1.12 ERA in 1968 and the dual Cy Young/MVP award that year.  It's just brought up way to many times in discussions and conversation.  But the combination of all of the above keeps him known in the public eye and remembered for a long time.  Gibson only lacks a few of the "defining" career totals, such as 300 wins.

As a comparison, take Jack Morris, who even has more career wins than Bob Gibson.  With only his World Series legend in 1991, it's not quite enough to keep him well known in the public eye beyond the most serious baseball fans.

So I was trying to think of a pitcher who was a Hall of Famer but didn't quite have all of the other accomplishments such as Bob Gibson, so perhaps wasn't quite as well known in the public.  It didn't take me long when I looked at recent Hall of Fame inductions ... Bert Blyleven.

• Hall of Famer
• No Cy Young Awards, no MVP
• Only 2 All Star appearances
• Didn't crack 300 win barrier
• Good post season performances, but nothing particularly legendary
• 1 career no-hitter

So who will be more of the legend by the time their career is over?  Bumgarner or Kershaw?  We'll wait and see.

Madison Bumgarner 2014 World Series Performance Comparison

Madison Bumgarner's World Series performance in 2014 was epic.

2-0, 1 SV, 0.43 ERA, 21 IP, 17K, 1BB

Included in that was a 5 inning save in game 7 on 2 days rest.

There are two other World Series performances in my life that I recall being as epic, one was Orel Hershiser's in 1988.

2-0, 1.00 ERA, 18 IP, 17K, 6BB

Not quite as epic as Bumgarner's.  Of course, with the Dodgers beating up the A's in just 5 games, there was no opportunity for Orel to have heroics later in the series.

The performance I most compare Bumgarner's to was the duel performance of Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson in 2001.

Curt Schilling, 1-0, 1.69 ERA, 21.2 IP, 26K, 2BB

Randy Johnson, 3-0, 1.04 ERA, 17.1 IP, 19K, 3BB

From the absolute numbers, it looks like Bumgarner has the edge on both of these guys, but I think some of it has to be looked at relative to the era.

In 2001, Schilling and Johnson were pitching against the New York Yankees in the World Series.  It was the 5th World Series the Yankees had been to in 6 years and they were looking for their 5th World Series title in their late 1990s/early 2000s dynasty.

In addition, this was around the peak of the steroids era in baseball.  The 2014 Royals scored 651 runs, good for 9th amongst American League teams.  They hit 95 home runs, good for dead last in Major League baseball.

In 2001, the Yankees scored 804 runs.  Good for only 5th place in the American League in 2001.  By comparison, the Anaheim Angels lead the American League in runs in 2014 with only 773 runs.  That Yankees team also blasted 203 home runs.

It could just be me, but I think holding that Yankees offense to so little in that era was a little more special in my eyes.  Especially when you add in the fact that Randy Johnson won his third game on ZERO days rest.

Dinner @ Commis in Oakland, CA

I recently had the opportunity to have dinner @ Commis in Oakland, CA.  It currently has a 1 Michelin star rating.  They only offer a single tasting menu.  The waiter did say alternate courses were available for those with allergies or are vegetarian.   Here was the dinner.

1) caramelized onion financier w/ bee pollen, buckwheat oyster cracker with lovage and herbs

First the amuse course, which was two small hors 'doeuvre tastings.  The oyster cracker was particularly tasty.  I didn't know what lovage was, but it was a herb of some sort.

Then we got two sashimi like courses.

2) black bream with radish and salsify, potato water with kaffir lime

This was really good.  I had never heard of "potato water", which I later learned is basically potato broth.  Combined with the fish it was a really interesting and good flavor.

3) brined scallop with kohlrabi and frozen sorrel

The scallops were delicious and a little sweet.  I didn't like it with the frozen sorrel though.  I've never had a dish with something "ice" like in the dish, and I felt that it was just too cold for my taste buds.  The "ice" like texture didn't match texture wise with the scallops either.

4) autumn carrots & parsnips, dried apricots steeped with marigold petals

When we got this dish, there was a part of me that thought, "Huh? Carrots?".  Not exactly the fanciest ingredient for a 1 Michelin star tatsing menu.  But it ended up being delicious.

5) smoked trout roe with herbal yogurt, malt vinegar with warm jerusalem artichoke

I think this was the best dish of the night.  The contrasting textures of roe, (what I assume to be) potato chips (not listed in the description), and the yogurt/artichoke/malt vinegar broth/soup was really tasty.

6) red snapper, fennel and cabbage, pear juice with lemon verbena, duck fat

This dish would have been delicious, but the snapper was cooked in a way I've never seen before.  Basically half of it was cooked and the other half was raw.  For me, it didn't quite work out.  I think it'd be better if it was one or the other.  The broth and cabbage were really good though.

7) tisane of button mushrooms

If you've read my blog before, you know I hate mushrooms.  However, this was pretty tasty.  I primarily hate the texture of mushrooms, having only the flavor in this tea/broth was good.

8) grilled guinea hen w/ marjoram, toasted millet and lamb's quarters greens

I had never had guinea hen before, so this was new.  Nothing to say other than it was good.

9) sweet onion pie w/ goat and sheep's milke cheese

My assumption was this was another palate cleanser, quite tasty.

10) asian pear sorbet w/ almonds and honey cream

I'm a big fan of sorbet and asian pear sorbet was something I'd never had before.  Delicious.

11) namelaka of roasted pumpkin with white chocolate, walnut, and sweet milk

An interesting dessert, using pumpkin for the flavoring.  It was good, although somewhat of a let down after the sorbet before it.  I thought it was interesting the ice cream was just "sweet milk" flavored, not a stronger flavor.  I guess a stronger flavor would have knocked out the pumpkin.  I had to look up what "namelaka" was, but it's a technique used to create a creamy dessert.

12) mignardise

And these were the mignardise that followed.

Overall, a wonderful meal.  There were a lot of new and interesting things here.  A few were hits and some were misses, but I can accept that as part of the tasting.  I remember at Saison in San Francisco, one course was amberjack sashimi.  I disliked that course at Saison.  While I'm not a huge fan of sashimi, what I was disappointed about with that course was that it was only sashmi.  I really liked the sea bream course at the beginning with potato water, that extra bit added something different and interesting to the meal.

The portions were a tad tiny.  If the bread had not been brought out, I'm pretty sure I would have left the restaurant not-full.  I left the restaurant satisfied.  I don't need a ton of food to feel full, so please take this with a grain of salt depending on the amount of food you're looking for in a meal like this.

I've asked this question on Quora before but I always wonder how restaurants count courses.  On Commis's website, they say they serve an 8 course menu.  When we arrived at the restaurant the waiter said that it was a 7 course tasting menu for the evening.

However, as you count up the plates above, it's clearly 12 tastings of food.  I assume the financier/oyster cracker, tisane, onion pie, and mignardise are not counted in the courses.  However, that left me confused as to what other dish was not considered a course.  Perhaps the sorbet was supposed to be a palate cleanser too?  Or perhaps our waiter just misspoke.