Truffle Salt heralds a return!
Hey all,
Sorry I took the summer off - I got carried away with trips to California and cruises to Alaska.
It was my first time on a cruise ship and I was NOT impressed by the food. And don't get me started on the condiments. It was really about quantity, not about dipping sauce. But I do like laying around a boat for a week. And Baby Balsamic made quite a mess of herself with one of the finest condiments in the history of indulgent delights - hot fudge sauce. And we saw a bear. And bear poop - which just might be a condiment to SOME species somewhere.
Anyway, I belong to a delightful foodie group - Memento dining club! Here's our deal - there are six couples (actually 5 couples and 1 delightful woman with enough looks and cooking skills for 2!) We meet up about every 2 months for a night of gastronomic excess - 2 appetizers, 1 salad, 2 entrees, 1 dessert. The person making the dessert course comes up with their dessert and tells the people making entree 2. The person making entree 2 comes up with something that would precede the dessert well, then tells the person making entree 1 what entree 2 is. They do not tell what dessert is going to be. So, you only know what's coming after you, not what's coming before you. And we have themes - asparagus, farmer's market, tropical rainbow, etc.
We've had some amazing dinners. Some highlights that I will blog about in the future:
- cured lemon peel preserve - an amazing salad garnish
- bacon infused old fashioned - nothing takes the sting off whiskey like bacon fat!
- creme fraiche - apply to the thigh via the mouth. Totally worth the tight pants the next day!
However, at our last dinner, we were served a rich pasta dish that had a flavor I hadn't experienced before. It was musky and sophisticated. Salty, but with a range of savory flavor.
Truffle salt. So intense. So different. Putting it on eggs or pasta or a salad is like looking meeting up with an old dear friend and discovering that they also understand the complete mystery of the night skies, that they've seen the seven wonders of the world, peeked under Nefertiti's mask. The truffle flavor has so much depth and complexity and history. It's hard to explain that it tastes old, but it's not old like spoiled or musty. It sparks memories. It's the fourth dimension.
Of course, truffles are incredibly expensive. They were selling them at my favorite high-end market - Metropolitan Market - for $159 a pound. The jar of truffle salt I bought for Mr. Mustard cost about $20. But man, it was worth draining Baby Balsamic's college fund for this!
The brand I've been using is Casina Rossi Truffle & Salt. Their website is down, which allowed me to find a new website name I adore - www.thefrenchybee.com.
Truffle salt is a great way to experience the truffle flavor combined with an everyday flavor (salt).
I highly recommend it. Next time I take a cruise, I want it to be one of those luxury ones where they have it on all the tables. Yum.
Condiment Grrl
Sorry I took the summer off - I got carried away with trips to California and cruises to Alaska.
It was my first time on a cruise ship and I was NOT impressed by the food. And don't get me started on the condiments. It was really about quantity, not about dipping sauce. But I do like laying around a boat for a week. And Baby Balsamic made quite a mess of herself with one of the finest condiments in the history of indulgent delights - hot fudge sauce. And we saw a bear. And bear poop - which just might be a condiment to SOME species somewhere.
Anyway, I belong to a delightful foodie group - Memento dining club! Here's our deal - there are six couples (actually 5 couples and 1 delightful woman with enough looks and cooking skills for 2!) We meet up about every 2 months for a night of gastronomic excess - 2 appetizers, 1 salad, 2 entrees, 1 dessert. The person making the dessert course comes up with their dessert and tells the people making entree 2. The person making entree 2 comes up with something that would precede the dessert well, then tells the person making entree 1 what entree 2 is. They do not tell what dessert is going to be. So, you only know what's coming after you, not what's coming before you. And we have themes - asparagus, farmer's market, tropical rainbow, etc.
We've had some amazing dinners. Some highlights that I will blog about in the future:
- cured lemon peel preserve - an amazing salad garnish
- bacon infused old fashioned - nothing takes the sting off whiskey like bacon fat!
- creme fraiche - apply to the thigh via the mouth. Totally worth the tight pants the next day!
However, at our last dinner, we were served a rich pasta dish that had a flavor I hadn't experienced before. It was musky and sophisticated. Salty, but with a range of savory flavor.
Truffle salt. So intense. So different. Putting it on eggs or pasta or a salad is like looking meeting up with an old dear friend and discovering that they also understand the complete mystery of the night skies, that they've seen the seven wonders of the world, peeked under Nefertiti's mask. The truffle flavor has so much depth and complexity and history. It's hard to explain that it tastes old, but it's not old like spoiled or musty. It sparks memories. It's the fourth dimension.
Of course, truffles are incredibly expensive. They were selling them at my favorite high-end market - Metropolitan Market - for $159 a pound. The jar of truffle salt I bought for Mr. Mustard cost about $20. But man, it was worth draining Baby Balsamic's college fund for this!
The brand I've been using is Casina Rossi Truffle & Salt. Their website is down, which allowed me to find a new website name I adore - www.thefrenchybee.com.
Truffle salt is a great way to experience the truffle flavor combined with an everyday flavor (salt).
I highly recommend it. Next time I take a cruise, I want it to be one of those luxury ones where they have it on all the tables. Yum.
Condiment Grrl
Labels: truffle salt, Truffles
posted by CondimentGrrl at 7:56 PM
1 Comments:
We've totally been putting it on popcorn - though I learned the hard way you have to wait for the air popper to stop before you can sprinkle it on, cuz the air blows all the truffle bits away :(
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