Last night I went to an underground dinner party. It’s hosted by this organisation called The Ghetto Gourmet. I can never remember if it’s the gourmet ghetto or the ghetto gourmet, due to that block o’ restaurants in Berkeley, but I have looked it up and am reporting correctly. Ghetto Gourmet.
Anyway.
So it’s this thing where you sign up and pay via PayPal and then you show up at someone’s apartment where a chef and volunteers have taken over the kitchen. They cram in a bunch of tables and you sit at one and they serve you this fabulous meal. It’s like going to a restaurant, except it’s an apartment and you sit at tables with strangers.
This was my second time and I think it was even better than my first dinner. I really only remember the beignets from that one and that may be just because my mom used to make those for us when I was a kid type person. I developed a love for deep fried doughy goodness early.
So last night’s dinner was just stellar. There was a duck proscuitto-esque thing with some green garlic flan, which really sort of custard-y. And then this lovely, light clear brothed vegetable soup with fava beans, peas and asparagus. And then there was oxtail with a seared scallop and a meyer lemon leek bit. The oxtail was shreddy and god damned delicious. The leek mixture was so uber good I couldn’t deal. And for desert, there was a bourbon fruit mixture of cherries, strawberries and rhubarb with this brioche/biscuit thing called a baba. And that was wonderful, especially when baba got a bit soaky with the berry juices. Mmm.
I want to eat it again! Right now!
margaret edith 