York Street - Cultured Cup Food & Tea Pairing

[Richard Kilgore]

A late note on a wonderful, eye opening, taste-bud teasing dinner at York Street on March 3, 2008. The Cultured Cup and York Street have been doing a food and tea pairing dinner for five years now, but this was my first time.

A collaboration of The Cultured Cup's Kyle Stewart and York Street's James Beard Award four time nominee Chef Sharon Hage, the five course dinner was creatively matched with five rare asian teas. Members of The Cultured Cup sponsored T-Bar Club assisted in the selection and sourcing of teas for the evening.

The evening's experience was as much an informative seminar as a culinary pleasure. For each course Kyle or one of the members of the T-Bar Club facilitated a discussion of the qualities of each tea and the pairing experience, as well as some background on the origin and qualities of each tea. At the end of each course, Chef Hage talked with the group about the aroma, flavor and textural associations involved in the creative process of creating the food pairing. The comments of many of the sophisticated palates present, including James Tidwell, sommelier of the Four Seasons' Café on the Green, added to the experience.

York Street - Cultured Cup T-Bar Food & Tea Dinner Menu

tie guan yin served with jerusalem artichoke with fennel and ripe pear, chive vinaigrette and lavendar twists.

golden phoenix mountain oolong served with poached maine day boat scallop with pomelo, fresh hearts of palm, tangerine-carrot emulsion.

gyokuro served with point judith squid in its ink, jasmine rice and watercress.

keemun mao feng served with osso bucco of berkshire pork, chick pea panisse and carmalized onion. (Our table also received a bowl of diced beets.)

great red robe served with pecan-molasses pie, chocolate sauce, blood orange caramel and quinta da noval 10 year tawny port.

Here also is a piece on the dinner by Tina Danze posted on the Dallas Morning News eatsblog.

[jsmeeker]

I'm not a tea drinker (not because I dislike it, rather because I just haven't gotten into it yet), but I am intriuged by the concept of pairing food with something OTHER than wine. Especially something that doesn't have alcohol. I like wine and booze in all forms, but many people don't want it or may not be able to have it with a meal for a variety of reaons. Things like this could allow the non-drinker to enjoy a meal the same way the drinkers would.

Anyway, interesting that they use tea. How well do you think this works out with the type of food they serve at York Street, Richard? Do you see this as a growing trend? Something that may be a regular option at the restaurant?

[Richard Kilgore]

In this case, Jeff, the tea pairings not only worked out well, they were inspired. Sharon Hage described her process of pairing: she takes her first strongest association to the tea - be it textural, aroma or taste - and decides the first aspect of the course. Then she creates the rest of that course around the other qualities of the tea. I was more than impressed by the pairings, many of which were unexpected if not counter-intuitive.

I believe York Street has fine teas available on a regular basis, including some fine iced teas. I think a couple of the rare teas we drank may be available at York Street, but the others are hard or impossible to find in the US. One was not only rare, but so expensive, that it is unlikely I would ever have the opportunity to drink it in any other setting. As I recall two were brought back from China by a member of the T-Bar Club.

While this food & tea dinner was a special event, I am sure the staff at York Street would be happy to provide some guidance in selecting a fine tea or teas to go with a meal.

[brucesw]

This sounds good to me. I've never been big on alcohol before or with a meal and would love to have a choice of teas.

Maybe someone knows of someplace in Houston that does something similar?