The Girl and The Goat

Kate Cheeseman, a friend and fellow fan of Top Chef, had reservations at the Girl and The Goat for last Friday but could not use them. She sent an email out to a group of us asking if anyone wanted them and I jumped all over it.

The Girl and the Goat is a fairly new restaurant (summer of 2010) that was opened by Top Chef winner from season 4, Stephanie Izard. Honestly, I have heard nothing but good things from everyone who has been there. The reservation was for 4 people so the Ploths decided to go with us and I decided to keep a small running diary of the experience. The italics is exactly what I wrote on Friday night.

Thanks Cheeseman! - A little setup - 6 pm reservation started with a beer at Ploths' house before walking over to the restaurant.

Avery ellie's brown for my cuz! - dog pic on the front. Good tasting beer. Very smooth. - They had a really good beer selection. I was very surprised by the beer selection. This beer is from Boulder, CO and Colorado University has interest in my cousin, Autumn. Soooooo, I decided to order it.

Bridgeport kingpin- oregon oldest craft brewery...who knew? Double red ale - not hoppy... I like it. - The 2nd and last beer of the night for me was a double red ale. I took a gamble and I won! It was not hoppy. Me and hops do not mix! 1st round - Before we get started, here are a few pics.

Alcohol list - Beer list in the middle.


Place setting...


The specials...


Here is the menu. I am bummed this pic ended up blurry. The top is labeled v, f and m for vegetables, fish and meat.


Bread - fat and - liver butter is incredible!!! - I am not a bread guy but I loved this butter!!!
culture club - cheddar sour dough - ok but liver butter blows it away. - We got 2 breads...Yep.

V-
roasted cauliflower - 6th thing to arrive. Really like the jalapeno with it. This is what everyone says to try. Pine nuts good! - Everyone I talked to said try this and it was very good.

Sp gratin- 7th and final is this. Looks like onion rings. Super thin, deep fried sweet potatoe. Yes! Sweet pot casserole underneath with crispy sweet potatoe slices...wow. Blue cheese too, sweet flavor...word pun! - The strange part was we got our veggies last. It was clearly a mistake by someone but it did not matter. The sweet potato gratin was sooo good. Great way to end the meal.

F- escargot ravioli - 3rd out. Like that plates come out 1 at a time - These plates are meant to be shared but instead of 3 or 4 plates coming out and overwhelming you, they came out one at a time (except for dessert). I really like this. The most we ever had was two plates at the table.

Grilled baby octopus - 1st dish out. Really good. Good flavor. Let's be honest. My pallet isn't very good. - Nothing to add.

M - goat pork veal sugo- 2nd - noodle type lasagne with 3 meats. Good as usual. The spice kick is great. - This was my 2nd favorite thing we had.

Roasted pork shank - 5th out- little strange that we didn't get veggies. This looks great. The meat fell off the leg. The sweet sauerkraut with it was really to my liking. - It is always a good sign when you don't need a knife to cut the meat.

2- smoked goat empinadas - 4th out- mmm deep fried spicy yummness! I like! Best dish so far - I would go back for these. We ordered two plates of these since one plate only had two pieces on it. It was a GREAT decision by us.

2nd rd-dessert-



Choc cake and things- The actual dessert was bittersweet chocolate, shiitake gelato, toffee creme fraiche. I really liked it. It was my favorite dessert by far.

Rhubarb-n-lemon - This came in a glass jar. You need to get the spoon down to get a good bite. It was good. Nothing here was bad.

Goat cheese(juliana) - Ploth and I decided to get some goat cheese as well. Why not?

Sidenote: tim burton esque phot is the only art in the place. Creepy. Very creepy. - The only art in the building on our side atleast is a giant pic that looks like a came out of a Tim burton movie (ie Edward Scissor hands). It creeped me out.

In the end, I was glad that we were able to take the reservations (thank you mom and dad for watching Samantha). Dinner was about 2 hours long and I was shocked at how busy the place was even at 6 pm.

I wish I could tell you we went home after dinner but instead we went to the ploths for a chocolate martini, karaoke and Euchre. Good times by all!

Lunch today!

So a couple weeks ago, Rick Bayless won Top Chef Masters. He happens to be a Chicago chef whose specialty is Mexican. April and Michelle met him at the conference they went to about a month ago.

He has two restuarants in Chicago: Topolobampo and Frontera Grill. Well, we heard that after he won Top Chef Masters, he put his winning dishes on the menu at Topolobampo for two weeks. Michelle and I were super excited to hear that. So we made reservations and Michelle, myself and April are going there today for lunch. On a sidenote, dinner reservations were booked until end of September. Yikes!

I love mexican food. I just hope my stomach can handle it. Last weekend, I got some food poisoning (no Chipotle for a long time) and I have slowly been building myself back up.

We are also going to his other restuarant, Frontera grill, with the Mike and April in October. We need to give Rick Bayless some love for bringing home the Top Chef Masters to Chicago!

Top Chef Finale

On my goodness. What was Carla thinking??? The worst part is that she knew she screwed up. Each chef in the finale got the help from another chef (who happened to be from the show from year's past). Well, Carla's helper talked Carla into changing directions of her dishes. What a huge mistake and it cost her the championship. She has no one to blame but herself. The first two dishes she served the judges loved. She was leading. The last dishes were a disaster all because she changed what she was going to do. So frustrating. I really did not like Hosea and Stephan is just a jerk. Stephan was easily the most qualified or the best remaining chef but his dessert was too plain. Never leave the judges with a sub-par dish.

Anyway, it was a good season and I am looking forward to the next one.

What a TEASE!

This is a Top Chef blog. You are warned.

So, at the beginning I picked Jeff to win it all. Well he was recently eliminated and last night was the final four. Well, the show starts off with the last three to be eliminated cooking against each other for a chance to be back in it. Jeff is one of the three and he ends up winning! I AM BACK BABY! Now, we have five chefs and by the end of the show there will be three. The only catch for Jeff is that he must win the competition this week. Yikes.

So, the show is taking place in New Orleans and the cooks are doing a competition revolving around creole food. Since two of the competitors left are from Europe, they are immediately at a disadvantage. They don't know soul food! Well, to make a long story short Jeff rocked the competition but Carla was just a tab bit better and she ended up winning. ARGH! I am gone once again. BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

As predicted the two Europeans (they call themselves team Europe - Stefan and Fabio) were in last place. Stefan has won the most challenges so far but is soooo cocky. Fabio has won some challenges as well but his demeanor is so much better. He is very charismatic.

They eliminated Fabio. I am a little shocked by this for one main reason. Whoever wins is basically an ambassador for the show. Stefan is a cocky, rude but very good chef. If he stays in the kitchen, he is fine. The problem is when you win the show, you do more than cook. For that reason alone, Fabio should have stayed.

Anyway, the three chefs left are Carla, Hosea, and Stefan. Stefan and Hosea are a bit of rivals and both come off on the show as jerks. Carla, I guarantee, is America's choice. She comes off very down to earth, funny, and modest. I think most people think, "I could be friends with her." I am no different. I hope Stefan and Hosea spend all their time and energy bickering as Carla walks in as Champion.

Dear Addison's mom,

THANKS FOR PLAYING!!!! YOU GONE!

Your friend,

Tool

P.S. She got sabotaged last night but it was going to happen sooner or later.