7th Annual Feast of the Senses: Part 2

The second half of our evening at the 7th annual Feast of the Senses.

The Catherine Edelman Gallery hosted Butter and their Liquid Guacamole and Chips.  This offering was easily the most exciting of the night.  This was a lovely example of a dramatic deconstruction of a common dish that worked perfectly.  The focus was on flavor, temperature, and texture rather than simply presentation.  The top layer, the "chips", consisted of warm milk and cream infused with tortilla chips and then strained creating a liquid corn chip.  The bottom layer was a cool, creamy, and lightly salted guacamole.  The texture of both layers was silky and the temperature difference aided in the delightfully confusing sensation of tasting a familiar dish, while tactilely experiencing something completely different.

In zg Gallery we sampled meads from Wild Blossom Meadery.  Harold and I have at various times frequented the lovely Bev-Art store, a superb home-brew store on the south-side of Chicago, which sells these meads.  If you have any interest in home-brewing yourself I highly suggest the attentive and expert service provided by this supply store.

The Andrew Bae Gallery hosted the ever delicious and generous Goose Island Brewery. Young women gave away full bottle samples of six of their most popular beers. It was perhaps a shame not to find some more exciting offerings than the standards.

Fox & Obel offered Dry Rubbed BBQ Shrimp on Quinoa Salad.  The Shrimp was perhaps salty to a fault though the salad was quite good boasting well balanced flavors and perfectly cooked quinoa.

Across the street at the Martha Schneider Gallery we sampled a truly delicious and delicate Chilled English Pea "Veloute" with Vanilla, Pistachio, and Shallots from Courtrights Restaurant. The fresh flavors bursting from the chilled peas and the palate warming vanilla and pistachio made for a fantastic soup. If I ever find myself out in Willow Springs, I know where to dine.  In this gallery we also sampled Evolution wine from Sokol Blosser, which was nice but unremarkable.

Vie served Caveny Farms Turkey and Sweet Cherries in the Marx-Saunders Gallery.  This house-cured smoked turkey served with sun-dried sweet cherries, wood-grilled chicories, and herbs was quite good. My father spoke with the owner of Caveny Farms for a bit and he was a very sweet man.  I would love to recommend that you order your Thanksgiving turkey from his business, you will not be disappointed.

In this gallery we also sampled Kobrand Spain wines.  Each of us fell in love with Abadia Retuerta Seleccion Especial.  This wine from Sardon de Duero was certainly one of the best I have had the opportunity to taste.  I highly recommend it.

Sadly, this brought us to the end of our night.  As we found last year there are far too many enticing offerings at the Feast of the Senses to get through in the few hours of the event. 

We all had an amazing time and I would like to offer my many thanks to Portia Belloc-Lowndes for inviting me once again.  Check out the fantastic book she co-authored, The Slow Food Guide to Chicago.