After walking around NE all day on Saturday looking at art, all I really wanted to do was take a nap. But of course I procrastinated and by the time I was really ready to jump back into bed, I had to get ready to go to Paired.
When I received the email the day prior telling me the location of the upcoming underground restaurant I was really confused about the location. It was pretty close to my house and the address sounded really familiar. A few minutes later it dawned on me that it was actually at Claudia's new house. Awesome! Claudia just bought a HUD owned foreclosed house about a month ago and won't be moving in until about a month from now so it lended itself as a great location (especially since Chris had all the amenities of cooking in an actual kitchen).
The featured artist was Gudrun Lock. The photographs displayed were both grotesque and beautiful representations of women performing their least favorite chores with their feet. We also watched a short film she created about a friends childhood encounter with a pig slaughter. She herself wore a necklace made of maraschino cherries and had cocktail wienies as a hair piece. Totally wild!
We heard a few words from Claudia about her house buying experience, from Gudrun about her art, and from Chris about his meal choices. Incorporating the theme of Gudrun's Art, the meal included the feet of chickens as well as dishes that he least likes making.
The food was great. The first course was a leek soup with chicken feet and crostini(I think I would prefer a crunchy version of Chicken feet... it mostly just reminded me of a chicken wing in flavor) and regardless of how little creativity is involved in a beet and goat cheese salad, it's still a winning combination.
I had the pleasure of meeting Andy Sturdevant
It's okay to play with your food if you're an adult... right?
For the entree we had roasted pheasant with potato gratin, grilled asparagus and a lemon beurre blanc. All was delicious, but I could lick the plate clean of that beurre blanc. Mmm.
Dessert was a thin orange mousse dotted with a ginger gelee and poached rhubarb served with Sake. Quite tasty.
As usual with Paired, the food and wine are great but the company can't be beat. We had a great time chatting with our neighbors at the table, and socialized into the early morning hours.
(The blurred motion in this picture is actually a toe falling off of the chicken foot)
The aftermath
If you're interested in attending Paired there are two dates remaining until the Underground restaurant retires. Email pairedmn (at)gmail.com to get on their mailing list.
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2 comments:
I'm a pretty daring food guy, but somehow I find those chicken feet terribly upsetting. Thanks for a great recap of the meal and fantastic photos. I hope to make it to the next Paired event.
Lee, you're lucky you weren't there in person. It's the claws. They look like horribly demented human hands. Your natural repellent to cannibalism is strong. It was kind of challenging to eat them, but I liken myself to being able to try almost anything. I really think I would have actually really enjoyed them if they were crispy... and didn't have nails.
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