Friday, May 20, 2011

Men's Eating Club - Part Deux

The Men's Eating Club had our second meeting and it was a humdinger if I may say. At first, we were going to visit the Cuban standout Coppelia, but our All American QB Porthos saw something at the line of scrimmage and made a last minute audible to Ma Peche. Although we just went there for some beef carnage, it was decided based on their new spring menu this would be perfect for the group and oh boy...it definitely was.

Our Menu
fluke – blood orange, avocado, black rice **
Classic momofuku - awesome combo of flavors and textures and a great palate opener.

warm asparagus – king crab, egg, chili butter ***
The first of the killer WTF asparagus duo. Soft egg was so damn sexy with the sweet crab and asparagus.

mushroom + asparagus – watercress, goat cheese, pistachio ***
The combo of the almost silky mushroom with the asparagus and creamy goat cheese sauce was outstanding.

soft shell crab – pickled lotus root, jicama, sugar snaps **
I love me some soft shell crab and this was hella fun. I'm used to eating the soft shell crab simply with no accompaniments, but the combo of the bright pickles/jicama really amps up the sweetness of the crab.

lentils and duck sausage *
Earthy and tasty dish which is almost an amuse to the onslaught of meats.

meat pie (creekstone farm, ks) – tongue, potato, caramelized onions ***
Maybe the most fun dish I've eaten in years. Pastry provides the perfect back note to the smooth forcemeat of tongue, potato, and caramelized onions. Huge WTF flavors on this bad boy. It was so good I could have eaten this whole thing by myself.
























pork chop (bev eggleston, va) – potato, ramps, green peppercorn **
I love-a tha pork and this was something magical. This basically was the best quality pork chop that honestly looked like pork belly - had tons of melt in your mouth fat...in a good way.


chicken (bell & evans, pa) – maitake, leeks, vin jaune **
Delicious chicken flavor with some amped up umami notes with the maitake.

reserved cheese **
Soft stinky cheese with a ton of condiments - pretty friggin great. I dug the espelette powder and the truffle honey.

homemade chocolate chip cookies ***
I absolutely looooove chocolate cookies and these are out of control delicious. Crisp on the outside, perfect chewy texture, with a ton of melting chocolate chips. Really a WTF cookie and quite delicious with whole milk...or for D'Artagnan - armagnac :)

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way | (no stars - poor to average) | * Good | ** Great | *** What the F – in a good way

2 comments:

patrick said...

I am thoroughly jealous! I've never had a Chang meal. But, don't you think that a meal this good deserves a tablecloth? I just don't get that...

Porthos said...

That's the point. Laid back atmosphere with Dylan to Aerosmith playing. You can actually crack jokes and laugh out loud at any of Chang's places.
In a strange way, Linen Service just doesn't belong there.

Top notch service with a great beverage program to boot.
And the food speaks for itself. The boys in the back can really cook.