Keepin track of Kezza: September 2009

A couple of weeks ago, I won two tickets to the below Harvest Dinner at Jax Fish House. 5 (+1 extra) courses cooked and personally introduced by Chef Hosea of Top Chef fame. Each course was also paired with two beers from Avery Brewing Company, an awesome local craft brewer of amazing beers.

The play-by-play:

Pre-meal: Adam Avery, the owner of Avery Brewing sat next to Josh at the community table, which was awesome because he's super friendly and knowledgeable about all things beer. It was fun to just sit back and listen to him and Josh geek out about yeast strains and brewing and barrel-aging techniques.
Course 1a: Hosea surprised everyone, including Adam, by announcing a special amuse-bouche of a single Kuushi oyster with an apple and radish mignonette. Because this wasn't a planned course, Adam didn't have beers ready for it, however the two beers for the salad course paired nicely. The 2009 Old Jubilation worked ok, but it was the White Rascal, a Belgian white with coriander, that stole the show. The coriander played off the radish so well, for me it was the pair of the night. I was kind of bummed we only had one oyster to eat. But I guess that's the point of an amuse-bouche!
Course 1b: Heirloom Tomato & Melon Salad paired with the Old Jubliation & White Rascal. This was a fun salad because the tomatoes and melon were the same color, and in the dim lighting it was hard to tell exactly what you were getting until you tasted it. The lactard in me appreciated the use of goat cheese, but my favorite part of this course was the tiny cubes of balsalmic jelly. It tasted like a balsamic reduction that had been gellified and cut into tiiiiny cubes. This was the kind of plate that made me realize I was eating "Top Chef" food.
Course 2: Rainbow Trout with corn macque choux paired with the Piglet Purgatory and 2009 Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest. Oh yeah, and the trout with stuffed with crawfish butter! Need I say more? This was just plain delicious. The macque choux, which is basically creamed corn for grownups, had the perfect amount of spice, and the Kaiser went with this dish especially well. (The Kaiser also just won the gold medal at the Great American Beer Fest.) The Piglet Purgatory was a special brew from Adam's personal celler. "Halfway to Hog Heaven" in his words. It's a low-alcohol hoppy brew for "those times when you just want to have 8 beers" Ah, the life of a brewer...
Course 3: Striped bass with pork belly, and a peach salsa paired with Sixteen Anniversary Ale and Good Sally. Obviously you can't go wrong with pork belly, and the peach salsa here was great - not too sweet and perfectly fresh and ripe. Tasted like the peach was picked that morning, and to be honest, it probably was. The Sixteen Anniversary Ale was brewed with peaches, which obviously paired great with this dish. But the star here for me was the Good Sally. Good Sally is a sour ale that was aged in Ferrari-Carano chardonnay barrels. Apparently sour ales are all the rage in the craft beer world right now, which is awesome since I apparently love sour ales. The sourness of this beer really cut the richness of the fish and fattiness of the pork. So good!
Course 4: Lamb loin with goat cheese gnudi and mushrooms paired with Eagle Rare Reverend and Brabant Oak-Aged Ale. I'm not a big red meat eater, and when I do eat it, I like it cooked medium. So I was appreciative of the varied cooking temps of the lamb (mine was medium, Josh's more med-rare), although I'm sure the other diners were not. I loved the goat cheese gnudi and mushrooms. Gnudi is basically gnocchi made with cheese instead of potatoes. Yay goat cheese! ;-) Eagle Rare Reverend is a Belgian quadrupel ale aged in Eagle Rare whiskey barrels. Pretty strong at 10%, but it was a favorite pairing at the table. I don't know what it was about it that went with the lamb so well, but it was one of the few perfect-matches of the evening. The Brabant is aged in Zinfandel barrels and it was slightly sour, which was good, but I don't think the sourness went with the lamb well. I think I actually still had some of this left for the dessert course, and enjoyed it with the chocolate and cherries much more.
Course 5: Chocolate lava cake with sour cherries and mint chocolate chip gelato, paired with Meloch and Straight Outta Hell. Pretty standard lava cake. Loved the sour cherries, and I even ate the gelato (thank you Lactaid!) The Meloch is a blend of their Reverend and Samael's beers aged in Buffalo Trace Bourbon barrels. At 13.5% alcohol and super bourbon-y, it was a bit much for me, but Josh loves it. Straight Outta Hell is "a one-barrel experiment… 50% Out of Bounds Stout, 50% Mephistopheles’ Stout, aged in a Heaven Hill bourbon barrel for six months." Smelled and tasted like dark chocolate. Yum!!

All in all, it was the most amazing meal I've ever had. I had hoped to take pictures, but being at a community table, I didn't really want to be "that girl" and annoy everyone with my flash. Plus, I doubt I would have done the beautiful presentations much justice. The food and beer were like works of art (hence the "eating A Hosea", like enjoying a fine Bordeaux.) I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to top this, but I'll certainly try!