{"id":11021,"date":"2013-09-11T22:12:20","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T02:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=11021"},"modified":"2013-09-11T22:12:20","modified_gmt":"2013-09-12T02:12:20","slug":"bliss-restaurant-was-well-bliss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/11\/bliss-restaurant-was-well-bliss\/","title":{"rendered":"Bliss restaurant was … well … bliss"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the first things I do after deciding I’ll be attending a convention is to research the local food scene so that I don’t end up having to settle for hotel restaurants. Not that hotel restaurants aren’t capable of delivering peak culinary experiences\u2014Lai Wah Heen<\/a> at Toronto’s Metropolitan Hotel and Cafe Bolud<\/a> at Toronto’s Four Seasons are two examples\u2014but those instances are rare. And so, many months ago, knowing I’d be heading to LoneStarCon 3, I began looking into what San Antonio has to offer.<\/p>\n

The first restaurant I decided I needed to hit was Bliss<\/a>. Opened by chef Mark Bliss and his wife Lisa early last year, it was named San Antonio’s best new restaurant of 2012 by Texas Monthly<\/em><\/a>, and seemed to have a menu capable of delivering what I’m always seeking\u2014food that’s more that just sustenance, but capable of leaving me gobsmacked. Not wanting to take a chance I’d miss out, I emailed the restaurant directly and made a reservation long before OpenTable’s online system allowed, and worried about filling the table later.<\/p>\n

\"BlissExterior\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Which is how I found myself the Friday of Worldcon pulling up to Bliss in a cab along with Ellen Datlow, Pat Cadigan, Malcolm Edwards, and Eileen Gunn.<\/p>\n

We knew immediately that we wanted to sample the restaurant’s impressive charcuterie menu …<\/p>\n

\"BlissCharcuterie\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… and so after some (but not too much) deliberation, we chose Jamon Serrano, Duck Salame (which I was campaigning for), Paleta Iberico, Humbolt Fog (Ellen’s idea, I believe), Ubriaco, Honeycomb, Calimyrna Figs, and Castelvetrano Sicilian Olives.<\/p>\n

\"BlissCharcuterie\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The menu was too enticing for us not to order appetizers as well, and so I asked for a dish which had been tempting me ever since I’d seen it on the menu months before: Grilled Spanish octopus, crispy Yukon Gold potatoes, Revilla chorizo, capers, smoked paprika remoulade, arugula, lemon vinaigrette.<\/p>\n

\"BlissOctopus\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Malcolm asked for Oyster sliders: Crispy fried gulf oysters, candied bacon, buttermilk chive biscuits, spinach, brown butter hollandaise, and chives.<\/p>\n

\"BlissSlider\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When it came time for the entrees, it turned out that four of us had fixated on the same dish: Grilled Szechuan peppercorn & five spice crusted duck breast and seared Grade A foie gras, sweet potatoes, pepper, Brussels sprout, Yukon potato, duck confit hash, watercress, black pepper cherry cider sauce.<\/p>\n

\"BlissDuckFoieGras\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pat was the outlier, choosing “Pork and beans” for her entree: Grilled & braised red chile rubbed pork shank, corona beans, brocolini, peach mango glaze pineapple relish, buttermilk onion rings.<\/p>\n

\"BlissPorkandBeans\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When it came time for dessert, there was no repetition, as we each made a different choice, but I fear I was only able to snap photos of two of the desserts before our party began devouring them …<\/p>\n

Chocolate bar: Dark chocolate bar, ganache, chocolate raspberry ice cream, raspberry coulis, vanilla anglaise<\/p>\n

\"BlissChocolate\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Key lime: Key lime mousse, passion fruit coulis, tropical fruit, chocolate pirouette<\/p>\n

\"BlissKeyLime\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bliss was everything I’d heard it would be, and did not disappoint. Excellent food (which would occasionally cause me to emit a moan so primal I’d feel a need to apologize), elegant presentation, attentive service.<\/p>\n

Can I go back to San Antonio so I can work my way through the rest of the Bliss menu, please?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the first things I do after deciding I’ll be attending a convention is to research the local food scene so that I don’t end up having to settle for hotel restaurants. Not that hotel restaurants aren’t capable of delivering peak culinary experiences\u2014Lai Wah Heen at Toronto’s Metropolitan Hotel and Cafe Bolud at Toronto’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[49,16],"class_list":["post-11021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-food","tag-worldcon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}