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Going to Opera

Lady T

By Lady T
in The Heartland: Dining

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awbrig

awbrig

Posted
Posted (edited)

hey suvir buddy,

no kids tomorrow at Opera, babysitter time for the 2 tikes, they might crimp my style at opera! :cool:

I gave your apricot jam to maggie and husband tonight since they were begging to try it! You're quite the celebrity here in Chicago!

Edited by awbrig (log)
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Suvir Saran

Suvir Saran

Posted
Posted
I gave your apricot jam to maggie and husband tonight since they were begging to try it!  You're quite the celebrity here in Chicago!

What was tonight?

Far from celebrity.... I am me... and some might make me a celebrity and others defame me, but the real me is just me... plain and simple.

You are kind.... I am happiest being Suvir....

What was the occasion tonight? Where did you all eat? How did maggie and the husband know of the apricot jam? Did you have any? Or did you share it all? Or did you not like it? Tell all awbrig.

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HungryHoward

HungryHoward

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Posted

Hope you all have a great time tonight at Opera. We went back in early December and enjoyed ourselves. While the food was great, the service wasn't as tight as it could have been. I actually think it was a case of "out of sight, out of mind" as we were sitting in one at one of the vault tables behind curtains. Given the size of your party, you'll be out in the main room.

In the event you don't order the degustation, here are a few items I'd recommend: pork and ginger dumplings (apps), beef and broccoli, and peking duck entree, which comes with three distinct presentations (breast meat with panckages and plum sauce; cherry-glazed leg-thigh portion; and ground duck meat mixed with chow fun noodles).

Can't wait for the report tomorrow...

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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So? Will there be a follow-up report or are we all stuck wondering what happened?

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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awbrig

awbrig

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It was awesome...they treated us like royalty there...

lady T will be giving the official review of everything sometime today and the rest of us will fill in with our own perspective with more information and pics... :smile:

Edited by awbrig (log)
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maggiethecat

maggiethecat

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It was awesome...they treated us like royalty there...

lady T will be giving the official review of everything sometime today and the rest of us will fill in with our own perspective with more information and pics... :smile:

I

On a frigid Monday night in the City of the Big Shoulders, six eGulleteers had a meal that will live in memory for a long, long time. The estimable Lady T, who arranged everything, took notes and, I'm sure will post the details of the food. This may be a long, lonnnnng post, because Lou and I, on the drive home, simply couldn't remember all the courses!

The room(s) are over-the-top opium-dennish and absolutely striking. Jerry Kleiner, the owner, took us on a tour, and introduced us to Paul Wildermuth the immensely talented, charming (and hunky, say Aurora and !) chef. Maybe the crab course was my favourite? Can't decide. Lady T. will Tell All and jog my memory.

But, as all good eGullet writeups end, the very best part was getting to know the Awbrigs better, and meeting Lady T. and Aurora for the first time. Fascinating ladies both. And how often do you get to have dinner with a six time Grammy winner?

Margaret McArthur

"Take it easy, but take it."

Studs Terkel

1912-2008

A sensational tennis blog from freakyfrites

margaretmcarthur.com

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maggiethecat

maggiethecat

Posted
Posted
who's the six time grammy winner?

mike

Awbrig is really Jose Feliciano

Dang, Gordon, you're good! :biggrin:

The Grammy person will revel him/herself if he/she pleases! Maybe if y'all come to a Chicago eGullet event. :biggrin:

But it's true, BTW.

Margaret McArthur

"Take it easy, but take it."

Studs Terkel

1912-2008

A sensational tennis blog from freakyfrites

margaretmcarthur.com

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Aurora

Aurora

Posted
Posted (edited)

We had a great time!

Be patient with Lady T. She has a lot to write as if she didn't do enough writing last night. I lost count of all the courses. Much thanks to Secretary Lady T. Special mention to Treasurer Awbrig.

I caught the tail end of the tour, but Jerry Kleiner, was gracious, accommodating, relaxed, and fun. At one point, he was sporting a red and black fleece ski cap.

Anyhow, more to come later. I just wanted to post a quick comment or two.

Edited by Aurora (log)
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Lady T

Lady T

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Patience, troops. I just wrote this the first time, went over my time limit apparently, and the system has just deleted my entire review. Give me a few moments to catch up with the work I'm not doing here in the office, and I'll re-enter.

GRRRR.

And Mike: I'm a 30-year member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, which group has won nine (not six) Grammy awards.

Edited by Lady T (log)

Me, I vote for the joyride every time.

-- 2/19/2004

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Lady T

Lady T

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AAARRRGGHHH.

Thank you. I feel much better now. I'll re-enter this review course by course; that way I won't spend an hour writing something that gets lost when I hit 'submit'.

In any case:

The Awbrigs and I met at Nine a bit after 6:30 last night, in good time to sip a bit, catch up with New Year and Super Bowl menus and such, and then cab it down to Opera, where Maggiethecat and His Handsomeness had already arrived. Aurora joined us during the delightful tour and conversation with Jerry Kleiner, and at our seating we received two trays (one at each end of our table of six) of nibbles: a very vinegary shredded cabbage, almost kimchee-like; peanuts with a sweet/spicy glaze (these vanished fast!); and cucumbers, sliced thin, with a chile-touched marinade.

After that, each of us received an amuse consisting of a crisp vegetable-stuffed wonton with a bit of Chinese mustard on the side.

To be continued...

:wink:

Me, I vote for the joyride every time.

-- 2/19/2004

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Lady T

Lady T

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At this point, we had chosen individual appetizer and main-course combinations from the menu, intending to share samples and cross-critique. However, our main server (a lady of exemplary patience) arrived right then with an offer no eGulleteer anywhere ever refuses: Chef Paul was offering to cook for the group, a tasting tour that would cover most of the menu. We took about one long collective deep breath to arrive at consensus: "Yes! PLEASE!"

What arrived next for each of us was called a "duet of soups": a creamy ginger-soy on one side and a tomato-black bean on the other, swirled into a yin-yang pattern in each bowl. While we appreciated the subtle use of the ginger, and the way the two soups tasted excellently, both individually and together, none of us felt blown away; it was just a real fine start.

Following the soups was a "trio of dumplings" for each of us: five of us received a lobster/pork siu mai, a chicken and chanterelle dumpling, and a crisp fried pork wonton. The remaining diner, who doesn't do mushrooms, got his own different, and very interesting, trio: a little 1" x 2" (approximately) square of soft tofu topped with red chile sauce, a little lobster meat on a potato tuile with a fried lotus-root garnish, and a nicely sauteed (looked like; couldn't be sure) diver scallop. Universal approval.

Onward...

:raz:

Me, I vote for the joyride every time.

-- 2/19/2004

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Lady T

Lady T

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After this came a crab presentation, presented family-style on two platters: a very interesting jonah crab egg foo yung (so it was called, though it seemed looser in texture than the usual bound and sauteed cakes. That's not a criticism, by the way: I loved it!) on crisp rice noodles; crab cakes with soy and chili pepper sauces, topped with marinated vegetables (I identified thinly-sliced carrots and zucchini during the dang few seconds I had -- the chopsticks and forks were moving fast!); and crab "chopsticks", which appeared to be solid crab leg pieces, sauteed lightly, and trimmed to match and to sit at angles to each other on the platters as real chopsticks would have done. Cute. Also delicious. General raptures.

A momentary digression, and an appeal to the all-knowing eGullet consciousness: what is 'jonah' crab? A different species? Caught from an unusual location?

Thank you. To continue...

:biggrin:

Me, I vote for the joyride every time.

-- 2/19/2004

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Lady T

Lady T

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Next came a "shrimp presentation", also family style: Carolina rock shrimp (very small, very tasty) bound with a chile mayonnaise; a plate of huge, beautifully fresh prawns, lightly breaded and fried, sauced in a sweet-and-sour style with fresh raspberries as a part of the sweet component; and (the platter that emptied first, somehow) Shanghai noodles with rock shrimp in scallion broth.

Wonderful.

A platter of Hunan pork spareribs rubbed with five-spice powder arrived, and we inhaled them promptly.

And then we ate...

:laugh:

Me, I vote for the joyride every time.

-- 2/19/2004

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Lady T

Lady T

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The three platters which followed seem to have acquired the nickname of "THE HOT COURSE" by unanimous consent. They included a red snapper which had been rubbed with spices, steamed (appeared so to me; didn't hear exactly how cooked from the server. Mea culpa!), and placed in a swimming position on the platter for presentation. The server was most prompt and gracious about boning the fish for our convenience, by the way. A second offering was described as ma po tofu, prepared with scallions, ginger, and garlic, and the third was kon pao beef with bok choy.

Everybody at that table is on record as liking heat on their plates...and boy howdy, did we ever get it. If Chef Paul and his crew took a misstep in the entire evening, this in my opinion was it: the fish was nicely, eye-wateringly hot. The tofu was much more seriously so. The beef was not simply spicy/hot, it was head-banging, eye-crossing, I-can't-taste-anything-dammit-my-palate-just-got-blowtorched HOT. It was to the point that nobody (with the stalwart exception of Maggiethecat, who relished the incendiary beef) could take more than a few bites of anything. It was overpowering. It half killed us all to send anything back uneaten to a kitchen which was working so hard to seduce us...and we just didn't have any choice.

As I wrote in my notes: YOWZAA!!

There's still more...

:wacko:

Edited by Lady T (log)

Me, I vote for the joyride every time.

-- 2/19/2004

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Lady T

Lady T

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A digestive pause followed, and so did a most welcome trio of palate-cleansers: a beautiful (both taste and appearance) strawberry granita (think that's what it was: very clear, very clean and granular, no apparent dairy) with sliced strawberries arrayed around; a wonderful mellow coconut ice cream bedded on large-bead tapioca; and a kiwi sorbet beautifully balanced with citrus -- not overly sweet at all.

At this point, two of our number had to go comfort both a baby and his sitter, and the four of us ordered various coffees and decafs to accompany dessert.

Just a bit longer...

:raz:

Me, I vote for the joyride every time.

-- 2/19/2004

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