Pagan Fires dinner

[dorchadas]

A month or so ago, my sister wanderluster_kp asked me if I wanted to go to a fancy restaurant for dinner with her on a free weekend. She suggested Alinea, but since I had just gotten an email from Elizabeth, and since I really enjoyed the last time I went there, I suggested going there instead. They were having a dinner called "Pagan Fires" themed after various gods and goddesses and the description sounded really good, so I bought tickets and on Friday, she came down from Michigan and we went out to the restaurant.

Unlike the last time I was there, the restaurant wasn't really decorated extensively, which surprised me. I had expected that there would be themed decor, the way that the Game of Thrones brunch had house banners hanging on the walls, but the only concession to the theme was that our napkins were wrapped around oversized Tarot cards--I got the Devil and wanderluster_kp got the Seven of Cups. I guess I couldn't have expected them to build shrines to the deities named in the menu, but maybe portraits or art? Or maybe that was hard too, since several of the deities were South American or Polynesian and I don't know what kind of art exists of them or how easy it would be to commission.

When the server came, I ordered the vegetarian gods menu and wanderluster_kp ordered the meat-and-seafood goddesses menu. We were thinking about getting a bottle of the one sake that was on the menu, but while there was just enough to get a glass for each of us, that was the last of the sake they had. Oh well.

Pan's Tart: Roasted caulfilower over avocado creme.

This is probably the fanciest avocado toast I've ever eaten, so now I'm definitely contributing to the end of millennials being able to buy houses.

There was also a centerpiece with edible flowers that had been marinated in Amazonian ants which looked really good, but ants are treif, so I passed on it and left it all to wanderluster_kp. She said that the server's statement about the flowers having a lemon-peppery flavor due to the ants was right.

Baldr's Bouquet: Gem lettuce, squash blossom, Midnight Moon cheese.

Spicy flowers over creamy cheese. Delicious.

This was a bit spicier than I expected thanks to the flowers until I did as the server suggested and used the lettuce and flowers to scoop out the cheese and eat it that way. I ended up having to use my fingers to get the last of the cheese out, but that was also something that the server suggested so I didn't feel bad. And Midnight Moon is one of my favorite cheeses in the world--I have a bunch of it in the fridge right now.

Hera's Milk and Honey: Caramelized goats milk and honey sorbet, golden croissants

That's not a god, but the last three items (of six) were all swapped by the servers. I guess they figured that it would be more likely that a woman would be a vegetarian, even though I explicitly emailed the restaurant beforehand and mentioned that I didn't eat pork or non-fish seafood. I would have thought they would be more careful about that, but in this case it seemed deliberate, since they brought it out on a special plate for my birthday (on Monday). wanderluster_kp generously let me keep it as long as I'd give her a bite, and I thought that was fair.


After the meal we went back to my apartment and wanderluster_kp told me about a date she has thanks to a HIPAA violation (on the guy's part, not on hers) and then we both played Breath of the Wild. I have a ton of Zelda amiibo and wanderluster_kp doesn't have any, so she scanned them in hoping to get lucky and get a neat piece of armor or some other reward. Sadly, while she did get the guaranteed Epona from the Smash Bros amiibo, she got nothing else. Maybe next time she visits.

Comments

[helvetica]

Wow such interesting food, it looks like a good time! Even though they messed up your orders! Edible flowers marinated in ants seems like a very terrifying sentence to type out lol but props to her for trying them!

Happy Birthday!!!!

[dorchadas]

Thank you! I certainly wasn't complaining when they messed up the desserts--my sister ceded her dessert to me since it was my birthday, and the other mistakes we just swapped them after the server left.

I am kind of sad I didn't get the roasted bird (including head and feet) or the lamb, though...

[zetetopia]

Wow, what beautiful food!