Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Oliveto Oceanic Dinner 2011 ****

This year Oliveto did two Oceanic dinners one sourced from California and the other from the Mid-Atlantic.  At each dinner we had the majority of the menu.  Here were the highlights:

California Coast

Oyster Shooter nice and briny though bitter finish I still liked the texture.

Halibut crudo great balance texture perfectly seasoned.

Sea Urchin panna cotta crostino w/ vanilla sea salt, awesome creamy texture deep urchin flavor.

Trompetti w/ clams, I liked this very much, the texture of the trompetti very nice and the wheat worked well with the clam.

Steamed petrale sole w spumato a delicious delicate sauce over a great piece of fish.

Sand Dabs stuffed with fregula was also excellent, the savory fregula adding a meatiness to the sand dabs and the heat from Calabrian pepper.

Mid Atlaantic

Crudo of fluke with roasted Gypsy peppers, fried shallots and Piccolo Fino basil - nice though slightly underseasoned.

Lobster roll on house-made brioche - good filling, though the brioche was a bit too sweet and flavorful distracting us from the sweetness of the lobster.

Cold-smoked salt-cured striped bass with horseradish crema, oil-poached Yellow Finn potatoes and arugula - we loved these sashimi sized pieces of fish.

Three large razor clams in a umami packed sauce with octopus tentacles.

Tajarin with butter poached lobster - this was a beautiful pinkish colored sauce with chuncks of lobster on a tender noodle.

Lumache with house-smoked green eel and summer savory crema - the meat in the sauce had a delicate clammy flavor with a clam texture, perhaps we had a clam version of the dish.

Spit-roasted bluefish with creamed corn and crab stuffing - we liked this but it was a little overwhelmed by the bacon wrapping, overall meaty and flavorful.

No comments: