Andrew Mark Veety

Entre:Underground - A Thanksgiving Feast

In years past my good friend Bob and I would organize a supper club called Bob and Andrew's Restaurant, or Andrew and Bob's Restaurant or just "The Restaurant", depending on who you asked. 

The challenge would be to create an innovative multi course meal for 10 - 15 people that would cost no more than $5.00 a person before a pairing of wine or a beer that I had brewed. We worked on this project for almost a year, meeting a handful of times before it faded into a background of weddings, babies and obligations that dominate our daily lives. 

As I remember its inception, the idea for our club came from a story I was telling about a underground restaurant in Queens. Nestled into a quiet middle class neighborhood in Middle Village an Italian family served traditional family style meals complete with wine for $50.00. As they served a fixed number of people per night and it was not uncommon to knock on the door and be told to try again next weekend, if the door was answered at all. 

"The Restaurant" was great fun but it quickly grew unwieldily and its restriction to charging no more than $5.00 a head, while egalitarian, was restrictive beyond belief. 

Anyway, these were the thoughts that simmered in the back of my mind like the foundation of a good stock as I made my way up a dark street and to the front door of an amazing home in Soulard to attend an event that had all the elements of not only a supper club, but a deliciously secret rave as well.

But how had I ended up here?

I first discovered this roving event a few weeks ago when I got a message on Twitter that led to a web site describing an event that had a few spaces left:

"Interested in going? DM me on twitter. Have too much to say in a tweet about why you'd want to go? Just add your comments below. Don't worry about the cost as it isn't cheap, whatever you can or can't contribute is fine. I'll pick up the rest.  Whether you check the box as male, female, or "other" is fine with me. I'm happily married thank you very much  But you *must* love food. Additional bonus is that you will then be on the invite list for all future dinners."

Sadly the date available happened to be my birthday and friends had organized a dinner long ago so I was unable to go. But over the next week I was added to a list of interested parties and received a tweet that read:

"just ordered hudson valley fois, 6 whole peking ducks, moulard breast, leg and things from pasture 2 plate"

Again I was unable to rsvp as I was scheduled to spend the weekend hanging out and cooking at a lake house in the Ozarks. Each message regarding this cryptic dinner left me wanting to attend more. The tweets continued and soon I was emailed a link and password to a website where I could RSVP to a future meal. 

Jackpot. 

I RSVP'ed for 2 for what was a meal called "Rethinking Thanksgiving", eventually leading a friend and I to this dark doorway in Soulard. What follows is a recap of the meal I enjoyed at a table full of strangers, I hope it inspires you to seek out the clandestine chef. I know I'll be back for more.

For supplemental information I'll link to my tweets and twit-pics from the evening. Yes I took more pictures than this, but really, you don't think I went through all this work to share everything now did you? 

My evening with the Entre:Underground - A Thanksgiving Feast - in seven parts:

Upon entering we were welcomed and given a glass of Cava Carbo, a sparking wine from Spain, and then were left to mingle with the few diners that had already arrived, explore the house and ask questions in the kitchen as a team of chefs and assistants prepped a meal for 30 people, split between two long tables in a cavernous room off the kitchen. As I was as interested in how an evening like this was pulled off, I grabbed seats with a direct view of the action in the kitchen.

First:

A slim plate with crostini and a deconstructed stuffing of turkey braised in cider and cranberry, a celery foam and fried sage and paired with a 2008 Alder Ffeiz Gewurztraminer. A well executed amuse bouche, providing a glimmer of what was ahead and capturing the flavors of perfect stuffing. The braised turkey reminded me of Thanksgiving meals with my family, where my mom lays the neck of the bird over the dressing as it cooks in the oven and we take turns picking at the moist and dark meat throughout the day.

Second:

The chef visits our table to tell us about a green bean casserole with mushrooms that were just hours removed from growing on a tree, topped with crisp slices of garlic in the place of the customary strips of fried onion. Pairing was a delicious 2008 Brampton Sauvignon Blanc. 

I recall wondering if there was any more of that braised turkey...

Third:

A refresh of the Sauvignon Blanc and a request to make conversation and await an off the menu course thats being constructed on the fly, a house made turkey sausage wrapped in dough - pigs in a blanket sitting atop a decadent cranberry sauce.

I grab my phone and snap a picture, tweeting: 

"Secret extra dish - pigs in a blanket! #amazing". I follow this up with a tweet directed at the chef, "I'm sitting here - amazing - bravo. So happy."

Fourth:

Quite possibly my favorite dish of the evening was a playful take on mac and cheese (picture). An amazing combination of cheese crisp sitting in a pasta soup with chives and bacon. Paired with my favorite wine of the night, a 2006 Paraiso Syrah that was full of oak, I could have ended the evening here. 

The soup was smoky from the bacon and a perfect foil for the cheese crisp which I broke off in small pieces with my spoon and savored. For the first time in the evening, I stopped talking and concentrated on the dish. 

It is always a good sign when I turn quiet at a meal, because as my wife will tell you, I never shut up. 

Fifth:

A pallet cleanser of cranberry sorbet sitting on a generous base of honey. I share a story with all in earshot that my parents tell about the first time they had a pallet cleanser with a meal. Long story short they used the sorbet to "butter" their bread. I love that story, but not as much as the heady mixture of cranberry and honey. Just rich.

I direct another tweet at the chef: 

"love that you guys are working so hard and rocking this place - while pounding some PBR's. =D".

Sixth:

The main course of a turkey and duck ballotine, wrapped in bacon and paired with broad sweeps of cream corn, goat cheese polenta and spinach (picture). One of our fellow diners asks what a ballotine is, and I reply with a tweet from earlier in the afternoon:

"Wikipedia's entry for ballotine is short and sweet. Its recommendation? See Also "Turducken". Have to love rolled and stuffed meat."

For the first time I realize that we've been eating for two and a half hours, then I dig in, making sure to gather up each flavor in every bite. A 2008 Dain Savage Juilet Pinot Noir complemented the neapolitanesque combination of bacon, turkey and duck. 

Not to be forgotten is a simple roll dusted with sea salt and sage. Happiness ensued when half of a second roll showed up on my plate, complements of my friend Steph who wrestled an extra helping from the waitstaff. 

Seventh:

A fun play on creme brulee in the form of a pumpkin custard topped with a pumpkin seeded lace cookie. More like a pumpkin flan, the key to this dish was the crunch of the cookie, which takes the place of a traditional caramelization of sugar. A square, yes square, cup of coffee on the side was an excellent ending to this meal.

To wrap the evening, each member of that evenings underground meal took a moment and told us a bit about themselves, brining the meal to an end. As each person explained their story and how they ended up preparing the evenings meal, I could not help but think of the small supper club that my friend Bob and I ran. While backgrounds ranged from bankers to biologist to chefs, it was clear that each was there to be part of something special and for St. Louis, very unique. 

Many thanks for the amazing meal and best of luck to the new friends we met that night. I can't wait to return for seconds.

Amuse Bouche For September 10th, 2009

A collection of items that peeked my interest and raised my dander on this Thursday afternoon.

• Wishing MJB the best of luck as he leaves for TechCrunch50. Very cool stuff, if only I had an iPhone.
• Looking forward to putting up and taking down some O’Fallon Chocolate by the Barrel Cream Stout, which after a long wait has finally arrived. STL Hops via Twitter
• St. Louis' own Dave Nelson provided the bubbly to an overview of sulfates and headaches for The Noble Writ.
• Mark Graban continues the series of posts on Slice that feed my desire to design and build a back yard pizza oven. Permission from the wife, check. Backyard to build one. Nope. Perhaps its time to move.

I'm also preoccupied with being worried about my good friend Dave, formally the sous chef at Morimoto NYC and currently of Marea, who experienced a stroke yesterday morning. I have known Dave, in his early thirties, since college. Dave got me through several hard years when I lived in Queens, stood next to me in my wedding and helped me work out the logistics of my greatest culinary adventure, last years Fakesgiving Tristket, a turkey stuffed inside of a brisket.

The last time I saw Dave was this past spring when we had dinner at Rod's Steakhouse in Morristown, New Jersey. Dave was just back from a 6 month trip around Asia to research street food and ramen shops before attempting to open his own place in New York City. At the time he was not feeling well and did not have health insurance, which worried me greatly.

While his new position in the kitchen at Marea surely will cover his health care needs, (I hope) it highlights the need to provide a safety net for everyone in the United States. This was only highlighted when I heard about Dave a few hours after President Obama's address to congress last night.

"Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes." - Buck Murdock

I'm worried about my friend as he lays in a hospital bed in Brooklyn, and I'm angered that after 40 years, we don't have a public option for health care in this country. I'm distressed that Mr. Obama has to go before both houses of congress and state the following like it's news to the masses:

"Here's what you need to know. First, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits – either now or in the future. Period. And to prove that I'm serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don't materialize. Part of the reason I faced a trillion dollar deficit when I walked in the door of the White House is because too many initiatives over the last decade were not paid for – from the Iraq War to tax breaks for the wealthy. I will not make that same mistake with health care."

Seriously. This is an idea that totally escapes a segment of our population. They complain about the cost of providing for the worst off in our society, yet they allowed the Bush Administration to take a budget surplus and make it deficit. They said nothing as the cost of the war in Iraq, which has already cost over 10 times the anticipated amount, was accounted for via special requests to congress and supplementals to the overall budget process.

As Mr. Obama wrapped up his speech, I took to Facebook and posted a note with the quote above. Then I added my own post script:

"To my Republican friends - that means you lose.

You got your war and your 8 years of lower taxes, now its everyone else's turn. Additionally, in the spirit of fair game, the health care that we want to give to everyone can be enjoyed by you as well."

For more reading, the Citizens for Tax Justice argue that the Bush tax cuts cost almost $2.5 trillion over the decade after they were first enacted (2001-2010).

And while Maureen Dowd encourages President Obama to be "Less Spocky, More Rocky", I'm inclined to borrow a quote from Mr. Spock that fits my mood perfectly:

"Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

Get better soon Dave. Wake up America.

Cayuga Ridge Estate Winery

The Finger Lakes are a chain of eleven lakes in the Upstate New York, dotting the landscape that my wife and I grew up in. The lakes are long and deep and reminded early map-makers of the fingers of a hand. 

Because of the lakes' great depth and geography, the area provides cover to over 100 vineyards that flank the shores of Seneca, Cayuga, Canandaigua, and Keuka Lakes. This "lake effect" retains residual summer warmth in the winter, and winter's cold in the spring. Grape fields are protected from disastrous spring frost during grape formation, and early frost before the harvest. 

I got a chance on a lazy weekday afternoon to visit the Cayuga Ridge Estate Winery and had the pleasure of a tasting and tour given by a family member who happened to be working the tasting bar that day. After generous samples of the entire wine list and clinging to a glass of semi-sweet Riesling, I ventured into the cellar of the winery to poke around.

Residing at the bottom of a great old barn was a home-brewers dream, large jacketed fermenters and brightening tanks, a small bottling line and racks of Missouri Oak casks aging Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. Enjoying a drink in the cellar would normally be the perfect ending to a winery trip, but I ventured out the basement door and face to face with the owner and winemaker at Cayuga Ridge. They were moving recently fermented Cabernet Sauvignon though a hydropress before racking into casks for a long rest and maturation. 

A hydropress is basically a large stainless steel container with a rubber bladder inside that fills with water and acts as a press. The pressure of the bladder presses the recently fermented wine, called lees, to remove residual yeast and precipitate before aging.

The cab was pleasantly cloudy like an unfiltered wine. It also was missing any of the oak flavor and mellowing that a rest in a cask would add. Instead this wine reminded me of the fields it came from. I shared some with family who found the taste harsh and in one case "dirt-like", however I think that is exactly why I enjoyed it. 

When making beer at home I taste and smell all my ingredients before brewing. I take time and sample wort hot from from being sparged, from hydrometer readings and the bottling bucket. Knowing your ingredients and following the path to maturity allows you to get to know where a beer is going and is the reward for crafting a product from scratch. It was exciting to see a sliver of the path that wine takes from grape to bottle. 

Many thanks to Danny Bell for the wine, tour and unique experience.

Blumenhof Winery - Fall 2008

A little known fact about Missouri is that we used to be the wine production capital of the United States, circa 1880. Truth be told, Missouri used to be the capital of many things, but was unable to stop the manifest destiny leading people from the east to the west coast of America in the last half of the 1800's. That is why St. Louis is called the "Gateway to the West", and I often remark that we are the only city in the world that constructed a monument (The Gateway Arch) to people leaving.

Getting back to our wines, Missouri's climate, with its long, hot summers, good sun exposure, and thin rocky soil, is excellent for growing grapes. This combination led European immigrants, Germans and later Italians, to this part of the country where they started a wine making tradition that lives on to this day. 

While Missouri may no longer lay claim to the volume of wines produced, there are still many family vineyards across the countryside creating fine wines using the Cynthiana/Norton, Vignoles, Seyval, and Chambourcin grapes.

With the understanding that fall in Missouri is short and wonderful, we took what might be our last chance at enjoying the sun and fruits of our local producers labors. Loaded down with breads, cheeses, olives, artichoke hearts and San Marzano tomato's that I roasted and covered with Spanish olive oil, we shared food and bottle after bottle of the wines from the Blumenhof Vineyards & Winery.

Of the dozen or so wines they have right now, we really enjoyed the Devil's Den Red and the Vignoles. Both were perfect for an afternoon surrounded by the changing leaves, warm sun and good friends.

While there was more than enough food to go around, I managed to pull together a foraging party to scope out a small barbecue shack positioned near the tasting rooms. With a full stomach and a healthy attitude I ordered a rib eye sandwich, cut thin, grilled and served on a sesame seed hamburger roll.

A quick visit to the fixings bar resulted in an addition of onions, sauerkraut and a spicy German mustard. Upon returning to our table I topped what I will forever call a "travesty on bread" (a recycled line from a sandwich I used to order when I worked in White Plains, New York, and a story for another time) with my aforementioned roasted tomatoes. Delicious indeed, but owing more to the day than a sandwich I would go out of my way to create again.