Rare

[Daddy-A]

( disclosure - I am Brian's hairy chef lover ).

Damn you Wyles! I just spit coffee all over my keyboard!

I was in my " I am never going to drink again " ( Post Wine festival )  mode so I passed on the wine but drank all of the glasses of water at the table

Yeah, and I made up for your lack of drinking!

The cheeks are a natural product so there might have been one in the bunch not as good as the rest because I certainly enjoyed mine.

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I'm glad you said that. I wasn't disputing what LB said, just contrasting it to my experience.

A.

[lauraf]

I am sitting at my compueter eating Rare's beef cheeks right now. We went in for dinner last night and had a special pre-arranged tasting beforehand, so I couldn't finish all of my main courses but decided to be tacky/greedy and ask for takeaways

They were, and currently are, tender, flavourful, falling apart mouthfuls of unctuous goodness. Whatever they did with them last night, they got it right.

[f*angela]

Rare opened just in time for me to turn 30!

My question of where to go for dinner has suddenly been solved. I look forward to reporting back - when is Ling next in the kitchen for dessert?

[Daddy-A]

Rare opened just in time for me to turn 30! 

My question of where to go for dinner has suddenly been solved. I look forward to reporting back - when is Ling next in the kitchen for dessert? 

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If you want a really special 30th birthday dinner, how about THIS Black Box dinner? A surprise for both you AND the chef!

A.

[fud]

Rare opened just in time for me to turn 30! 

My question of where to go for dinner has suddenly been solved. I look forward to reporting back - when is Ling next in the kitchen for dessert? 

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If you want a really special 30th birthday dinner, how about THIS Black Box dinner? A surprise for both you AND the chef!

A.

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I don't think I can post in the calender thread but is the $62.50 per person on top of the ingredients brought to the restaurant? Just double checking!

[Daddy-A]

If you want a really special 30th birthday dinner, how about THIS Black Box dinner?  A surprise for both you AND the chef!

I don't think I can post in the calender thread but is the $62.50 per person on top of the ingredients brought to the restaurant? Just double checking!

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fud,

You're right, you can't post in the calendar.

The cost of the food for the "black box" is in addition to the $62.50. The $62.50 does include all the wine, one cocktail and coffee/tea. A steal really!

A.

[Ling]

Rare opened just in time for me to turn 30! 

My question of where to go for dinner has suddenly been solved. I look forward to reporting back - when is Ling next in the kitchen for dessert? 

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I was in on Wednesday to help the chefs plan out the new dessert menu. Chef Fowke wants to run four solid desserts, as we don't have a separate pastry kitchen and the kitchen itself is not that big.

The desserts will be:

a) fruit-based

b) dairy/egg-based

c) chocolate

d) classic/fun/show-stopper

This is what we came up with...we still have to test recipes so this is just a working draft.

a) banana crepes with lime, Chantilly cream

b) blood orange foam panna cotta foam piped into madelaine (these shell-shaped French cookies), with chocolate fondue (this was the two chef's idea and I think it's super cool to have cream-filled madelaine!)

c) This is MY dessert--they are letting me do whatever I want! ...I am going to run a chocolate and black sesame sable with Michel Cluizel ganache, shards of black sesame brittle (anchored into the side of the ganache tart to provide height and dimension) with cardamom cream.

d) I wanted a beet and dark chocolate dessert and Chef Fowke is considering a beet ice-cream/chocolate ice-cream bombe.

Originally, I wanted to serve the goat milk caramel with my dark chocolate tart, but then I thought there were too many flavours going on and the goat milk caramel is kind of tangy so I wanted to save that for another dessert.

We were supposed to run through some recipes yesterday, but I made some black sesame brittle and Chef Fowke taught me his sourdough bread recipe, the thyme beignet recipe, and then we did pasta dough and rolled out some mini brioche.

I got to taste this amazing sunchoke puree that was to be served with the salmon...omg...that was so rich and creamy and utterly too delicious for words!

I'll be in the kitchen for an hour or two making up some black sesame tart dough tomorrow afternoon (Friday). Then I have a cooking class to teach and then a date, so I won't be in at Rare Friday night.

I might pop in on Saturday evening b/c I know a certain special Egullet VIP customer (*cough* FUD *cough*) will be in with his fiance and wants me to serve them dessert. If you can get a reservation for Saturday night, let me know and I'll make sure to save a tart for you too.

[Ling]

My wife and I were greatly looking forward to our entrees, the marrow-studded beef cheek served with a lentil puree (alas, not the trotters from its original inception), but were ultimately disappointed.  The cheek on this occasion was overcooked, surprisingly lean and stringy.

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I don't know about lean and stringy...but the cheeks are cooked for 36 hours as they are customarily a tough cut of meat. Most recipes I've seen ask for at least a four hour braising time.

[Ling]

I also posted an extended version about the desserts in THIS THREAD.

If you scroll down, you will see how some of the more experienced bakers in the Baking forum have offered suggestions about flavour combinations. I really like the banana/lime/ginger suggestion so I'll going to ask the chefs about that tomorrow.

(And I doubt I'm going to do a "Ling Goes PRO" thread like Megan suggested... But I will try to remember to take a picture of my first real "plated" restaurant dessert and post it on EG if you'd like. )

Edited March 9, 2006 by Ling (log)

[Fat Guy]

Arne Salvesen ("Daddy-A") interviews Chef Brian Fowke ("Chef Fowke") in the latest eG Radio foodcast. Please follow this link to listen.

Please note: eG Forums discussion of the Chef Fowke eG Radio foodcast should be limited to substantive discussion of the content of the foodcast. Suggestions, comments or questions about foodcasting in general should be submitted to me or Arne via the personal messenger (PM) system. Many thanks.

[fud]

Black Box and Blind

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I wanted to thank Chef Brian, Tim and Eric for a very memorable evening. I think there were 22 of us mad people in Rare One last night (Sunday March 12th) to try one of Eric's little experiment.

- 22 people were broken into 11 pairs.

- Each pair was tasked with bringing a BC sourced ingredient

- Chef Brian and his staff have NO idea what we're bringing

- At 6 we all show up and "surprise!" look Chef Fowke, have fun!

- With each course, Eric poured us a BC wine and a non-BC wine blind

- We were surveyed on which one we liked better AND which one we thoguh was BC sourced.

The dinner was wodnerful! I can't believe you guys pulled off what you did with literally no warning on what was being brought to you. I have pictures which will be posted later but Ijust wanted to say a big thanks to everyone involved. It was nice to see and meet some fellow egulleters!

I'm sure others will post as well but I'm going to keep the dinner writeup till i can post the pretty pictures.

Bottom line

- Food was a showstealer. Wow. amazing. And in such timely fashion. I never expected such a well oiled kitchen machine in such a virgin restaurant PLUS the fact that the kitchen is tiny! You guys do amazing things in such small spaces!

- Wine was very surprising! We had some wines (some from Eric's personal collection) which were pegged as much more expensive international wines but ended up being very reasonably priced BC wines!

Look for the writeup with pictures shortly ...

[Chef Fowke]

What a blurrrrr....

I did not have anytime to take any pictures. I cannot wait to see what the food looked liked, we were so busy cleaning rabbits, venison, halibut and salmons that the actual plating was secondary! We were, as they say in the business 'in the shits' for the full 4 hours!

[fud]

Pictures are up!

[Link]

I wrote some comments with each picture so if you actually click into one it will bring up some text. I was going to link them here but I already wrote the text into my album so I'll be lazy.

We missed pictures of several wines and one dish (the salmon). If anyone has more pics feel free to post em.

P.S. I really am not a wine expert so apologies if I got some of the wine names/years/etc wrong!

Edited March 14, 2006 by fud (log)

[peppyre]

Brian, how was it doing a dinner like this when you've only been open for 2 weeks? The food looks fantastic.

(And that was a Watermelon Radish, not a relish.)

[Ling]

Food looks amazing! Thanks for the pictures! Could you fill us in on which ingredients were the ones that were brought in by the diners...(I know you told me about the rabbits and the bacon from the Joie cooking school...)

[fud]

Brian, how was it doing a dinner like this when you've only been open for 2 weeks?  The food looks fantastic. 

(And that was a Watermelon Radish, not a relish.)

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Ok what the heck is a watermellon radish?? That explains why I couldn't find any watermellon in the dish!

(wait i just found the link...you already answered my question)

Edited March 14, 2006 by fud (log)

[Edible Vancouver]

Here are some more photos from the BB&B dinner...

Many thanks to Brian, Tim and all the staff at Rare for a fabulous evening that exceeded all my expectations!

I can't wait to do it again!!!

Cheers,

Eric

PS. I am working on getting all the details on the wine pairings and will post them as soon as I have them.

[appreciator]

Wow! Great photos..... this looks and reads like a totally fantatic evening. Hope it happens again.

[Edible Vancouver]

Here is a listing of the wines that were poured with the various courses.

The surprise wine of thenight had to go to the Orofino Cabernet Merlot - almost everyone in the room said there was no way it was a BC wine and those that did compared it to the famous Black Hills Nota Bene - quite an accomplishment for a small winery in the Similkameen Valley.

Mission Hill Five Vineyards 2004 Pinot Noir

Tommasi Pinot Grigio Italy

Alderlea Pinot Gris

Smoking Loon Viognier California

Alderlea Viognier

Grant Burge Un-oaked Chardonnay Australia

Crowsnest Stahltank 2003 Un-oaked Chardonnay

Peter Lehmann Shiraz

Mission Hill Reserve Shiraz 2003

Redbank Cab Shiraz "the long paddock"

Orofino Cabernet Merlot

Yalumba Museum Muscat

Cedar Creek "M" Madeira Style

Grahams 10 yr old Tawny

We will be hosting another dinner like this in a couple of months so keep checking the Edible BC site for details.

Cheers,

Eric

[SBonner]

ERic,

Helen and I enjoyed the dinner very much. Here are my comments on the wines in red. Blind tastings are fun but alot of work. I think my batting average this time round was about 75% in guessing the B.C. from the rest of the world.

Here is a listing of the wines that were poured with the various courses.

The surprise wine of thenight had to go to the Orofino Cabernet Merlot - almost everyone in the room said there was no way it was a BC wine and those that did compared it to the famous Black Hills Nota Bene - quite an accomplishment for a small winery in the Similkameen Valley.

Mission Hill Five Vineyards 2004 Pinot Noir

Tommasi Pinot Grigio Italy

Alderlea Pinot Gris

The Alderlea Pinot Gris yelled out B.C. to me once I saw the coppery-pink colouration. It's rare to see that much colour extraction from the old world. I guessed the Italian Pinot Grigio based on the pear salad like aromas and flavour notes. Nice pairing with the food for both wines.

Smoking Loon Viognier California

Alderlea Viognier

Big surprise here for me. The Alderlea was very extracted and rich in malo like notes with lots of apricot, honeysuckle and hints of ginger (I thought Californian or Australian). The Smoking Loon was very high in acidity and more floral making me think it was the B.C. Viognier. The Alderlea was a great buy!

Grant Burge Un-oaked Chardonnay Australia

Crowsnest Stahltank 2003 Un-oaked Chardonnay

Another big surprise. I've never liked the unoaked Crowsnest Chardonnay...until tonight . Much more complex than the Grant Burge from Australia. Well done Eric!!

Peter Lehmann Shiraz

Mission Hill Reserve Shiraz 2003

I guessed these two and prefered the upfront typical Shiraz flavours of the Australian Shiraz. The Mission Hill is good and in the French style but I was put off by the overly smokey burnt earth notes in this wine. 

Redbank Cab Shiraz "the long paddock"

Orofino Cabernet Merlot

The Orofino was stellar!!!! Big, concentrated, and full of  high quality Napa notes of cedar, chocolate box, blackcurrant and subtle herbal notes. Great wine for $30! I would never have guessed that this was from B.C. Great wine find by Eric.

Yalumba Museum Muscat

Cedar Creek "M" Madeira Style   

Now we are well into the evening and the palate is tiring. Completely confused by these two. The Cedar Creek "M" had those typical Madeira flavours and structure so I guessed it as a European dessert wine WRONG   Both were great wines but very different in style.

Grahams 10 yr old Tawny

We will be hosting another dinner like this in a couple of months so keep checking the Edible BC site for details.

Cheers,

Eric

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Great concept Eric and nice wine finds. I was sitting with another sommelier (student) who was having an off night in the wine guessing game (no names mentioned)

Cheers,

Stephen Bonner

Edited March 16, 2006 by SBonner (log)

[SBonner]

Food looks amazing! Thanks for the pictures! Could you fill us in on which ingredients were the ones that were brought in by the diners...(I know you told me about the rabbits and the bacon from the Joie cooking school...) 

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The bacon came from Michael and Heidi's Joie Cooking School, the rabbit was from the Crannog Organic Brewery in Sorrentino, and Helen and I brought the three types of oysters. Eric and Gael suppplied the wonderful farmhouse cheeses. "Fud" I believe supplied the lamb? They rest of guests items are now a faded memory

Cheers,

Stephen

[fud]

^ The Halibut cheeks and Filet I believe came from the seafood vendor on Granville Island. The Lamb shanks came from Armando's.

Sandy referred to the rabbit at "bunnies" but did not succeed in deterring me from eating them

[paul mitchell]

.......ok, so with all the fanfare........can I drop in here tomorrow and have some dinner? - haven't heard anything beyond the special dinners.

[Chef Fowke]

.......ok, so with all the fanfare........can I drop in here tomorrow and have some dinner? - haven't heard anything beyond the special dinners.

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yes~reservations

Working on a new cocktail for tomorrow night: the Dubliner: 1 oz Irish whiskey,

1 oz Irish Mist® herbal liqueur and 1 oz light whipped cream. See Jesse in the lounge for more information.

[Abra]

I too had the beef cheeks on the same night.

I found them to be very tender and flavourful ( disclosure - I am Brian's hairy chef lover ).

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This has got to be about the funniest thing I have ever read on eGullet! Honest, Neil, I had tears running down my cheeks when I read that.

This thread is wonderful to read through. Moosh, that salmon and blood orange photo was so enticing. Ling's desserts, the seriousness of the kitchen, I just can't wait. Those photos of the recent special dinner were great.

Please, guys, promise that next time we're in town we can go to Rare!