Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Dan’s Dinner at 105 degrees

As I mentioned in an earlier post Dan was texting me during dinner and sending photos so I could experience dinner with him. I asked many questions as he was eating (I am such a pest) and he was nice enough to follow up with the waiter. Dan reported that dinner exceeded his expectations for raw vegan food. On his way out of the restaurant he picked me up the chef’s book on raw entertaining. You will be seeing my variations of those ideas soon.



Here is what he had last night for dinner. His first course was kim chi vegetable dumplings with sesame foam. He described the wrapper as being some sort of spinach leather which I imagine had ground flaxseeds. The filling was pureed and had the texture of okara but the flavor of kim chi. We are both guessing they made kim chi and then pureed it and strained it. The foam he said was bland. I imagine they made it with powdered soy lecithin like they do at the MiniBar at Cafe Atlantico in DC. The black seeds on the foam were sesame.



The next course was a cacao pear lassi sweetened with date. Lassi is traditionally a sweetened yogurt drink that you find in Indian restaurants. Mango is the most common Indian version I see here. I didn’t ask what the dairy substitute was but I would assume it was raw cashew based. Dan said it had a nice pear background and it wasn’t too sweet.



Next he decided to try the aged tree nut cheese plate. It contained cashew cheese, macadamia cheese and pumpkin seed cheese served with pomegranate arils, walnuts and dark agave bread. According to Dan the pumpkin seed cheese had the creamiest texture. The macadamia nut cheese was very similar to the one I made a few days ago, only my texture was firmer which he preferred. He liked the cashew cheese but thinks that was due to the agave that was drizzled on top. He is probably right about the agave making the difference for him; he has a vicious sweet tooth. When I asked about the raw bread he said that plain it wasn’t his favorite but when it had cheese and pomegranate on top it was good. He felt certain the bread was ground flax seed based. Looks like I will be trying some pumpkin seed cheese next since he liked the texture of that one the most.



With his cheese plate he ordered a pot of green tea to wash it down. See, we really do drink green tea all day. I was happy to see him order it. You can’t have too much green tea in my opinion.



For his entree he ordered the cannelloni with pignoli ricotta, sun-dried tomato marinara, with pistachio pesto. The exterior is thinly sliced zucchini, no problem since I have a mandoline. Dan really loved the sun-dried tomato marinara so I need to make that soon too. According to him the pignoli ricotta was overwhelmed by the marinara but added a nice mouth feel to the dish. He said the pesto was very herbaceous. He didn’t taste pistachios but they did add a little textural variation.



When he sent the picture I couldn’t see the pesto so I sent him a text asking if they forgot the pesto. Here is the picture he sent me. Cute isn’t he?

After dinner we went over the gift shop. I know he bought me a cookbook. Can’t wait to see what else I am getting. I will let you all know.

We had a chance to talk after dinner and told me he was stuffed. He intentionally ordered a number of dishes with nut cheese to up the calories since he hadn’t had much to eat during the day. He said his favorite was the cheese platter. It is amazing to me how much his taste buds have changed. It wasn’t that long ago that his favorite food was a dairy cheese platter.

15 comments:

  1. It all looks wonderful...but I'm just stunned by those canneloni; I want those so bad :)

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  2. Rose,

    I think I may have to make them soon. I don't think they will be too difficult.

    Alicia

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  3. Oh I can't wait to get to OKC. I already sent my hubby the link to the restaurant. I think it's soooo nice that he bought you a cookbook!!

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  4. Heather,

    It looks great doesn't it? Dan was really shocked and now you can see why.

    I will definitely let you know more about the book once I see it and try out a few recipes.

    Dan always says we are made for each other because I love to cook and he loves to eat. Each time he buys me a cooking gadget or book he says it is for both of us.

    Alicia

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  5. I'm curious what the tab was for that dinner! :-)

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  6. Cindy,

    I don't know since I wasn't there. But I will ask if he has the receipt when he gets home tonight. He did say he would happily go back so I know what ever it was he thought it was worth it.

    Alicia

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  7. amazing! thank you so much for sharing. wow!

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  8. Debra,

    You are very welcome. It really looked great didn't it? This is one business trip I am sorry that I missed.

    Alicia

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  9. Everything looks great. There seem to be so many advancements in the vegan cheese department. I really need to get my hands on some nut and seed cheese like that! Everything looks amazing!!! The cacao pear lassi sweetened with dates sounds sooooo tasty!

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  10. Jill,

    There are at least two nut cheeses posted on my blog. A macadamia nut cheese posted a few days ago and an almond feta from months ago. They are both easy, you may want to take a look.

    thanks for commenting,
    Alicia

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  11. Everything looks fantastic! That sounds like a lot of food though, and the kim chi dumplings look so yummy. That was so sweet and thoughtful of him to take all these great pics and get you a cookbook too. How wonderful!!!

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  12. This looks amazingly wonderful and healthy.Do visit my blog when time permits.http://shanthisthaligai.blogspot.com/

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  13. Oraphan,

    He said it was a lot of food, he was stuffed after dinner. Since he loved the nut cheeses I started soaking raw pumpkin seeds yesterday so I could make that nut cheese. It should be ready by tomorrow.

    I skimmed the book last night, it looks great. I will do a proper review later today.

    Shanti,

    The hubby really liked it. I will check out your blog after I catch up on my email from last night.

    Alicia

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  14. that is so sweet that he picked up that book for you. the cheese platter did look good. i would have never thought you could slice zucchini(sp?) that thin. everything looked great

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  15. Michelle,

    They had to have used a mandoline the slice the zucchini, otherwise I agree with you.

    I was reading the new book when your comment came in. The cannelloni recipe is in the book, so I wil need to make this soon.

    I have raw pumpkin nut seeds culturing now. It should be ready tomorrow. I will post the recipe once we have tasted it.

    Alicia

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