{"id":19865,"date":"2015-06-13T19:49:40","date_gmt":"2015-06-13T23:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=19865"},"modified":"2015-06-13T19:49:40","modified_gmt":"2015-06-13T23:49:40","slug":"an-unexpected-return-to-alinea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2015\/06\/13\/an-unexpected-return-to-alinea\/","title":{"rendered":"An unexpected return to Alinea"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’d never expected to return to Alinea. It’s not that repeat visits aren’t worth it, but I don’t get to Chicago often, and even though I had an amazing time there<\/a> during the 2012 Worldcon, when I do get to that city I only have so many free nights, and there are many other intriguing restaurants which I’ve yet to try—Grace<\/a>, Elizabeth<\/a>, Moto<\/a>, Schwa<\/a> … the list goes on. <\/p>\n

But Ellen Datlow<\/a> desperately wanted dinner there during this year’s Nebula Awards weekend, and asked me to use my good karma and Internet-fu to get her a table. I’d assumed that once I snagged the reservation, I’d simply turn the table over to her, but after I had us on the books (within seconds of when reservations began to be taken for the month of June), the temptation of eating again at one of the world’s top restaurants was too great.<\/p>\n

Which is how I found myself stepping through the unmarked front door of Alinea last Thursday night with Ellen, Barry Goldblatt<\/a>, Sam Miller<\/a>, Cat Rambo<\/a>, and Sheila Williams<\/a>. (Yes, unmarked door. Unless you know it’s there, you don’t know it’s there.)<\/p>\n

And here’s what, for the next four hours or so, we ate. (And you’ll have to forgive me for not going into detail on each course, but rather relying on the text from Alinea’s own menu, handed to each diner at the end of the meal. After having posted five other food reports from the Nebula Awards weekend over the past few days, I’m all out of superlatives. Simply assume that everything was wonderful<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Surf Clam<\/strong>
\nsunchoke, cucumber, lilac<\/p>\n

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

Steelhead roe<\/strong>
\nEnglish pea, olive oil, chamomile<\/p>\n

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

Skate<\/strong>
\nbrown butter lemon, herbs<\/p>\n

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

Graffiti<\/strong>
\nspring through the concrete<\/p>\n

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

Eggplant<\/strong>
\nbanana, coca, curry<\/p>\n

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

Crab<\/strong>
\nrice, green curry, cilantro<\/p>\n

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

Tamarind<\/strong>
\nyoung coconut, nam prik num<\/p>\n

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

Siam sunray<\/strong>
\nlemongrass, chili, soda<\/p>\n

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

Anglerfish Jaw<\/strong>
\nxo, coriander, scallion<\/p>\n

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

Percebes<\/strong>
\nsmoke, seawater, ash<\/p>\n

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

Tororo kombu<\/strong>
\nsmoked foie gras, ice fish cracker<\/p>\n

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

Hamachi<\/strong>
\nshisito, bean, pine branch<\/p>\n

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

Pork belly<\/strong>
\nparsnip, black trumpet, kombu<\/p>\n

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

Hot Potato Cold Potato<\/strong>
\nblack truffle, butter<\/p>\n

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

Rabbit<\/strong>
\nmorel, ramp, mastic<\/p>\n

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

Black Truffle Explosion<\/strong>
\nromaine, parmesan<\/p>\n

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

Chocolate<\/strong>
\nfrozen distillation<\/p>\n

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

Cheesecake<\/strong>
\nmatcha, berries, hibiscus<\/p>\n

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

Balloon<\/strong>
\nhelium, green apple<\/p>\n

\"Nebulas2015EllenDatlowSheilaWilliams\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tropical fruit<\/strong>
\nrum, vanilla, kaffir lime<\/p>\n

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

Fancy more details? Then make a reservation!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’d never expected to return to Alinea. It’s not that repeat visits aren’t worth it, but I don’t get to Chicago often, and even though I had an amazing time there during the 2012 Worldcon, when I do get to that city I only have so many free nights, and there are many other intriguing […]<\/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":[239,96,49,395],"class_list":["post-19865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alinea","tag-ellen-datlow","tag-food","tag-sheila-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19865","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=19865"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19902,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19865\/revisions\/19902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}