A 15 Course Celebration

In early June we decided to go out for dinner to celebrate Mike signing his second contract at Minnetonka and my getting a full-time position in Maple Grove.  Feeling adventurous, we decided to head up to Robbinsdale and see what Travail Kitchen and Amusements would have in store for us this time around. 

Though we were mentally prepared for being very patient, we were fortunate enough to have absolutely no wait time to be seated having decided to take our seats at the counter looking into the kitchen.  We had an unobscured view of the chefs working and could wonder at their ingredients.

Like the last time, we opted to go with their ten course tasting menu for two.  Their menu is always changing, so we knew there would be plenty of surprises. 

 

To start, we ordered some prosecco.  It was a celebration after all.

Dinner started with an amuse of white cheddar soup.

Then course number one came:  Beet salad with compressed strawberry.  A variation of our salad from our last dinner and still very delicious.

For course number two we had sugar snap pea agnolotti with crème fraiche, preserved lemon, and carrot on the side.  (Some courses, like the one above, came as one plate to share.  Others, like this and the amuses, came with two individual portions.)

The next dish was a very curious sounding creation:  beef tartare pizza.  It included olives, sweet onions, and arugula amongst other ingredients.  Not necessarily a favorite (the tartare was good, but the crust of the pizza too crispy), but definitely interesting.

Following the pizza came another amuse:  Date and speck relish with sweet potato chip.  Mike was a fan; I, not so much.

Course number four brought amazingly tender octopus to our plates again.  This time our dish was siracha and honey glazed octopus with compressed apple, and Shashiko (twisted) pepper with pickled radish and horseradish puree.

Here is an up-close shot of our yummy friends.

Even the little guy wanted some apple.

Soup at Travail is absolutely amazing.  Our next course consisted of orange, cherry, and pumpkin seed with cauliflower soup. 

Now at course six, we had agnolotti filled with goat cheese with charred cauliflower, capers, olives, pine nuts, tomato broth, and garlic aioli turned into foam.  Both agnolotti were top contenders for my favorite.

Another amuse:  pickled green bean with Pachillo pepper.  Heavy on the pickled.

Mike called course number seven a homage to Top Chef:   pea puree, oyster mushrooms, brussel sprouts, risotto, and scallops.  Three of those components had been the cause of major drama on our beloved show.  

At this point, we already felt satiated.  But the meat courses were still on their way!  The eighth course:  chicken presse with sausage in the middle, zuchini, fried polenta, caper jelee, pickled okra, and lemon.

Thoroughly stuffed at this point, we pressed onward to our next course:  kielbasa with butter whipped potatoes, fried potato skins, leek puree, caramelized onions, and a soft poached egg fried.  This reinterpretation of breakfast was one of Mike's favortie dishes of the evening.

The egg that had been first soft poached and then fried was pretty awesome and impressive.

Mike is enjoying this late breakfast.

We didn't know if we could eat any more.  Full beyond belief, we prepared ourselves for the tenth course:  roasted beef cheek with baby bok choy, ramps, parsnip puree, and Raclette cheese ravioli.

We had decided many courses earlier that we were going to forgo the the dessert sampler.  There simply was not enough room in our bellies.  Perhaps because it was the beginning of the week or maybe they just had extra, the staff decided to treat us to dessert anyway.

Dessert number one (yes, there was more than one):  brownie, lemon bar, and green apple Dippin' Dots with orange broth.

The "Dippin' Dots" were in the shooter glasses with the orange broth.  We took those first.

I have to admit that the second dessert was quite heavenly, even if I could barely squeeze in any more food.  I know I have a weakness for lemon/lime desserts, but doesn't lemon tart with blackberries, blackberry puree, sugar cookie crumble with shattered lemon ice, and lemon segments sound amazing?

Including the three amuse bouche and two desserts, we had fifteen courses to digest.  Some of the dishes were forgettable, but others were wonderfully whimsy and delicious.  We had a great time dining at Travail and were able to make our way home overwhelmingly full and satisfied with our trip.

Raclette

Ever since Mike came home from his 2009 trip to Europe with the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp International Exchange, he has not been able to stop raving about raclette, a traditional Swiss dish of melted cheese with potatoes and assorted accompaniments.  Well, that is, until we got our own modern table-top raclette grill. 

We had often talked about having it in Germany, as that's where Mike had his first experience with raclette.  One of his host families had decided it would be fun for the American to try his hand at the raclette grill and it had left quite the impression.  Unfortunately the opportunity never presented itself when we lived in Wolfsburg.  More often than not, this fun twist on fondue is done for special occasions.  Finally, on a cold winter night in December (though most definitely not as cold as it has been recently) we took our own raclette grill out so that I could finally try it.

The grill itself has a heating implement that cooks or warms food on the platform on top in addition to melting cheese that you place in the personal pans underneath.  It also comes with scrapers for the pans that hearken back to the original way of scraping off melted cheese from the cheese wheel.

Traditional Raclette cheese is very mild in flavor and melts easily.  We were able to find two kinds, although both came from France rather than Germany or Switzerland. 

The cheese is always served with cooked potatoes -- skin on.  We decided to add some thinly sliced steak and peppers to the meal.

Red onions and small pickles also make for great accompaniments.  I also like mushrooms.

We had a very nice set up.

Everything smelled delicious as it cooked on the grill.  You can also see the cheese melting below.

Once everything is cooked and the cheese is melted, you pile the food into the plates and scrape the deliciously melted cheese on top. 

Make sure to grab a bite with all of the components!

Success!

Thus far, we've used the raclette twice... and just talking about it is making my mouth water.  Maybe it will have to make an appearance again soon.  Guten Appetit!

The Second Birthday Dinner

**Note from Vicki -- As you can see, every one of us forgot our cameras that night.  The food, however, is still fresh in Mike's memory :)

After taking Vicki to celebrate her birthday at Travail, my father offered to treat his daughter-in-law (and by extension, his son) at an establishment of her choice in the north-eastern suburbs, provided he and my mother get to tag along.  Vicki, as always, was aglow at the kindness and hadn’t the slightest idea of where we should go (do we go to Acqua again?  Ingredients?  Dock Café?  Look into the authenticity of the Bavarian Gasthaus?).  Thankfully, a new restaurant recently opened in Mahtomedi (okay, technically Willernie) that peaked my father’s curiosity.  My parents wanted to know if this new “Hanger Room” was all that it was cracked up to be, especially since the prices – in my father’s words – made Acqua look affordable.  Nonetheless, the reviews had been positive and we decided to have a fun evening enjoying and exploring fine dining in the northeast.

A small note before we get into the food.  I’m quite certain my parents are astounded that there son is this intrigued about food.  They probably attribute it to V, but I’m sure it still amazes them.  Seriously, I was the kid who ordered a variation of cheeseburger-with-only-ketchup-and-maybe-bacon or pizza-with-meat every time he went out.  Maybe pasta was occasionally allowed at Italian restaurants, but even meatballs were not in my repertoire at the time.  And this was when I was in high school!  No, my interest started much later and I’m sure it is nearly inconceivable that the boy-who-only-ate-meat would be expounding on the balance of ingredients in a tartare or how the cucumbers and caviar where prepared in such a way that they were the spotlight in that dish (not that his opinions are correct in any stretch of the imagination, simply that he would try). 

Anyway, without further ado, The Hanger Room.  Honestly, I do not know much about the genesis of this restaurant beyond that it is located in a former bowling alley and it is unique is its price points for this community.  However, V and I do love food, so we are always open to any suggestion of fine dining.  After settling in and looking at the menu, my dad suggested we all go for the Chef’s five course tasting menu.  No one objected.

Our experience started out with an Oyster shooter with dill and sea salt.  At first we were unsure how to eat this amuse bouche.  To we drink it like a shot?  It is in a shot glass and labeled a ‘shooter’.  But, there’s a spoon that comes with it.  What are we supposed to do with that?  Dad took a small sip and informed us that it was salty.  When the waitress came by with our wine, she let us know that our first opinion was correct – spoons be damned. 

I must say, this was a nice amuse.  When I saw the oyster floating in the glass, I expected to get a lot of that unappealing ‘ocean’ flavor.  I like oysters, but that flavor always accompanies them.  That was not the case here and the oyster shooter had a nice balance of flavors (okay, maybe a little salty for some palates) that reminded me of ocean (the good aspects), smoke, salt, and dill.  Overall, a success in my book.

The wine paired with this course was an Austrian Grüner Veltliner.  It was supposed to be a German semi-sweet Riesling, but the wines from the amuse and second course were accidentally swapped.  The Veltliner wasn’t bad, but I do think the more forward flavor of the Riesling would have stood up to the shooter better.  Oh well.

The first ‘real’ course of the evening was a Salmon Tartare.  I do think that all the flavors of this dish work, but the problem was proportion.  The main part of this dish was a rather large tartare (dad helped mom finish hers) with salty greens on top.  Now, the greens would balance the tartare out well if you could get them together.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.  Trying to get that one ‘perfect’ bite simply eluded me.  If the greens were chopped smaller and would ease onto the fork with the tartare, this could be an entirely different story.  The Greek Assyrtiko wine that came with was fine, but altogether, it seemed like a good starting point in need of a few revisions.

What I really enjoyed about this dish were the cucumbers and sauces on the side.  Normally, I am not a big fan of cucumbers.  This has been an issue in Germany at times, but I am not a big fan of pickles, gürkens, cucumbers, whatever form they take.  I am always willing to try them, but a large plate of cucumber salad with cucumber sauce for lunch is a serious challenge for me.  The cucumbers on this plate, though, were wonderful.  They were subtle, they were clean, they had a texture of squash, and they high quality product.  The caviar on the sauce droplets matched that ‘high quality’ label by having a saltiness that wasn’t overbearing.  It was just what the sauce needed. 

The second course was another winner, like the shooter.  V has often thought that she simply doesn’t like scallops.  The requisite bit of grit aside, she just doesn’t like that slimy nether texture that scallops take on (and this coming from an Asian girl!), but this scallop was another story.  It was meaty.  It was rich.  It had a texture and a flavor that we loved.  The pork belly and foie puree were okay, but didn’t seem to make the scallops any better.   Once again, I wonder what this dish would have been like with the right pairing of wine, but V really liked this Riesling.

For the third course we got to the flagship piece and namesake of the restaurant: the 28-day aged steak.  Now, I have no idea how long or short steak is normally aged, how long you want it to be aged, or how it become better when it is aged, but The Hanger Room touts its horn on their hanger room where they dry-age they steaks in house.  This was the litmus test that my father was looking for, what most patrons from the northeastern suburbs are looking at.  We from the northeast are steak people.  We like are steaks and know what a good steak is.  Unfortunately, this one didn’t measure up.

I suppose it depended on what your first bite was, because mine was delicious.  The dry age had a real depth and sophistication to it, and the steaks were nicely cooked.  But, as I worked my way through my steak (and V had in her first bite), I ran into quite a few tendons.  Talking to my parents afterwards, we all had the same experience.  I guess we didn’t say anything at the table out of Minnesota Nice-ness.  I really am sad to say this, but the inferior cuts of meat really impeded our enjoyment of the supposedly higher quality dry-aged meat.  Too bad, because I’m sure this is fatal blow for many that even the meaty scallops can’t save.

After the steaks we had a cheese course of manchego and house made garnishes paired with some sherry.  Cheese is one of those things that almost always pleases V and me (thank you Germany!) and the garnishes were tasty.

Finally, for dessert we had a cardamon and vanilla Crème Brulee with a Sauternes.  You definitely tasted the cardamon in this dish, which I thought was nice at first.  After a while it got to be a bit much, though I enjoyed this dish.   The Crème Brulee connoisseur was not much of a fan and I know not to disagree with her opinion.

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at The Hanger Room.  It really is a lot of fun to try nice food, talk about its different elements, and enjoy each other’s company, all while celebrating V’s birthday.  At the end of the day, though, we probably will go back to Acqua next time we’re in town.

Happy Birthday to Me

Mike and I had been looking into various restaurants to visit for my birthday dinner for a couple of weeks. We had a found a few that were intriguing, but nothing that immediately shouted, "LET'S GO HERE!"

Then Mike was perusing through articles online a few days before when he came across this article on a restaurant called Travail Kitchen and Amusements.  Molecular gastronomy in a casual bar setting?  How could we pass up such an interesting idea?  So on the third of November, after a long and "special" day, we made our way up Highway 100 to Robbinsdale to see the hubbub Travail's was creating.

We had a vague idea of what we were getting into -- the place didn't take reservations and we were going to a restaurant that had just received rave reviews in the local magazines and papers, but we were still a bit stunned by how crowded it was for a Wednesday evening.  And, when I say crowded, I mean that the wait time was estimated at one and a half hours.

Even so, we decided to stick it out.  There wasn't much sitting room, so we stood near the bar and contemplated some glasses of wine as we watched cooking shows on the televisions over the bar and looked over the dinner menu.

The menu from above is from someone else's camera from a different (more recent) date, but many, though not all, of the dishes are the same.  If anything, it gives you an idea of the place -- certainly casual (the water glasses are mason jars), but some up-scale menu items indeed.  We decided to go all out for the ten course tasting menu. 

Nearing the hour-and-a-half mark, two seats opened up at the bar.  We quickly took possession of them intending to stay until a table was ready for us.  There, we started talking with the couple next to us who were regulars at Travail's and friends of the restaurant owners.  They gave us their recommendations on dishes and suggested we have our dinner at the bar.  There was space enough there and good company.  Plus, we didn't know how much longer the wait would be, so we thought, why not?

And, that kick-started dinner!

A note before we get into the food -- having taken place over a month ago, I have to admit that my memories over the details of the dinner are fuzzy.  I know what the main components are, as well as some of the garnishes, but many of my descriptions are not very detailed nor necessarily 100% accurate.  Sorry!  At least we remembered to bring a camera...

So...

First course:  a simple, but very prettily presented beet salad with blue cheese and some jalapeño peppers for a bit of a kick.  Sweet, refreshing, and delicious.

The second course surprised us both -- and not because of the ingredient themselves, but how they were prepared!  Both of us have had octopus before -- that was no big deal.  However, soft, tender octopus?  Never!  The surprising (and delicious) texture was the result of sous-vide (pronounced "sou-vie") cooking that we had heard about and seen (on Top Chef) again and again. 

That dish was also our first experience with foie gras and having a foam in our dish.  It's been so long that I don't remember what kind of foam it was.  It was very light and dissipated with the touch of our forks.  Nevertheless, the dish was certainly one of our favorites.

Course number three was one of the recommended dishes of the night:  beef tartare.

We've had tartare before -- but that was a tuna tartare.  Raw fish is a rather normal thing if you like sushi.  Raw beef, however...  less normal.   It was, of course, delicious.

On the opposite end of the dish was a home made cracker crisp and capers.  In the center is a bit of pickled onions and carrots, and three gelées:  an olive gelée, a caper gelée, and an anchovy gelée.

The next dish ranks as one of my favorites:  agnolotti pasta with a parmesan foam. 

The filled pasta was so good and the froth made for a very light and airy sauce that really did taste of parmesan!  

A close up of the parmesan bubbles.

Up next for course number five was chicken two ways -- sous-vide chicken and chicken "doughnuts".  The latter was chicken that had been lightly coated with a sweet batter and fried.  They served the two preparings with a tasty sweet potato puree, caramelized onions. 

While interesting to try, the chicken was not a big hit with either of us.  Granted, neither were dry and over done (like a lot of chicken you get when you go out), but the doughnuts didn't leave much of an impression and the texture that we loved with the octopus was not as pleasing with the chicken.

Course number six was another big hit:  the fish and chips.

Everything in the dish was very straightforward and simple -- a scoop of herbed mashed potatoes, hand-cut chips, house-made tartar sauce, and a perfect piece of fried cod.  Ask Mike about the fish -- he could go on for days.  Maybe it was the great quality of the fish, or the fact that it was soaked in beer before battering and then washed again with beer, or both -- but the texture and flavor of the fish was incredible.  Luscious, buttery, melt-in-your mouth...  Mmmm...

The seventh course featured steak.  This was also done sous-vide with some home made pasta and garnished with grapefruit wedges, radishes, and lemon zesty bread crumbs.  Good, but not super memorable.  We were also rather tired of sous-vide proteins at this point.

Yet another first for both us -- rabbit terrine served with fried green tomatoes, onion, celery, and a bit of pesto made up the eighth course. 

Soup constituted our last course of the evening, not including dessert.  The last step of putting the soup together was done in front of us.  We started with a bowl with peanut butter powder, dried cherries, some celery leaf for garnish, and a sweet and nutty paste made up of something that I can't remember. 

Then they poured the celeriac soup on top.

Ants on a log in soup form!  We enjoyed the creative presentation.  It was also very tasty, though in general, I am a huge fan of soup. 

Our final bite of the night was dessert.  We chose to take the tasting version of the dessert plates (why not?), which included some form of chocolate, ice cream, and a deconstructed s'more.  The more memorable part of the dessert platter was its name: "Fire and Ice".

They began by lighting the platter on fire (obviously to toast the marshmallow in the s'more).  Unfortunately I don't have a photograph of that.

Then they poured liquid nitrogen over it.

A bit cheesy, sure, but the spectacle was kind of fun.   

The friendly couple had left just before we had our dessert, but they had surprised us by buying us a can of Sofia champagne in honor of my birthday.  It is surprisingly good for coming from a can.

Overall, we greatly enjoyed our experience at Travail's.  Each dish was a new adventure and we left  pleased and very satisfied with our meal.  If we go again, however, we'll be sure to get there either right when it opens, or after 9 pm, lest we have another crowded wait.