St. James Dinner with Ashbell McElveen

Last Thursday, Lindsay and I attended a dinner at St. James guest chefed by Ashbell McElveen. Chef McElveen's cuisine is his interpretation of African, Caribbean, French, and Southern cuisine all rolled into one. Which when you think about it, sounds exactly like a description of New Orleans.

The food was largely cooked on an outdoor grill and a dual burner propane rig. Despite that, Chef McElveen and his team sent out a wonderful array of appetizing plates. I really hope he gets his own place up and running soon, as I would love to see what he can accomplish with a full arsenal.

First course was a homemade bacon wrapped gulf shrimp with a salad and three cheese croutons. Very good. the bacon was thinner than commercial bacon; it almost crossed into prosciutto land. Could have used a spike more dressing, but as always I would rather a salad be nude as opposed to overly adorned.

These dinners at St. James are BYOB. We started out with a 2005 Justin Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc. This wine is fast becoming one of my favorite white wines for pairing with food. We also had a 2005 Andre Brunel Cote du Rhone Villages Cuvee Sabrine, which is pictured in the photo. Both wines are available at Cork and Bottle. The latter is poured by the glass at Clever.

A plate of grilled vegetables. Quite simply the best dish of the night. I love food like this. Each vegetables was expertly introduced to the flames, charred, and dressed simply with olive oil, salt, vinegar, and pepper. I love how a grill can make a vegetable (ok its not really a vegetable, but you know what I mean) like mushrooms smoky and meaty while at the same time sweetening an onion to unfathomable heights.

Also, served was a curried crab over fried plantains. While the plantains were either undercooked or under ripe or both, the curried crab exploded with rich flavors of cumin and allspice. This dish would have been absolutely a stunner if served over some fluffy white rice as without rice the dish seemed a little thin. A little more retooling of this dish and it could rightly sit beside shrimp creole, gumbo, and trout amandine.

Next, a cheese plate. A tomme crayeuse, a munster, and a laguiole. Served alongside this wonderful selection of cheeses, was a candied apple and these dynamite homemade lemon scented biscuits. The biscuits had more in common with a cookie, but this makes sense, as Chef McElveen previously worked in London where apartments are called flats and cookies are biscuits. The biscuits were the perfect foil for the rich cheeses.

Next a dessert of caramelized peaches over a light and airy cake. Pretty good finish and not overly sweet. Although my favorite part of this dessert was that it came with goat cheese with fresh cracked black pepper, which rounded out a classic pairing of flavors and textures.

Once Chef McElveen gets his place, you can be sure I will be in that number sampling his take on New Orleans cuisine.

All photographs by Lindsay. Usually taken about 3 bites into each dish when we said "Shoot we forgot to take a photograph. Gee Willickers." Thus, the rustic nature of the photos.

Also, seen at this dinner was the St. James Girl, A.K.A. the 5000th Visitor to El Blogo.

Justin Time for Dinner

You know the shakes? When it seems like your body is physically rebelling against your decision to stay up way past your bedtime drinking booze to good to pass up, when the next morning your breath is hot, your palms clammy, and your head pounding? Don't you secretly love that feeling? If you come to that realization one morning chances are you had the distinct pleasure of getting drunk the night before. If feeling like a hungover bum, twittering and shaking as you try to walk down the hall is all the penance for the other night, consider me ready to do it again. Which I guess makes me a recidivist.

Wednesday night, Lindsay and I went to the Justin Vineyards Wine Dinner at Cochon. Now, I like Cochon and think it is great; so it is saying a lot that I found the food to be the third most interesting thing. The company and wines took center stage.

Justin Vineyards is located in Paso Robles. Despite the name, that is in America; in a place called Cal Uh For Knee Uh. In one of the informational brochures we were given, it was revealed to us that the winery has a basset hound named Churchill. That got Lindsay jazzed and caused our two slugs to ask when we got home, "Why don't we get to live on a vineyard in California?"

Master Sommelier (there arent many of them), Joseph Spellman, dined with us. What a treat it was to listen to Joe and Jon Smith, owner of Cork and Bottle, discuss wines, wineries, and the people behind them. Sure at times it was like eavesdropping on the Ruskies, but I have never not had fun doing that.

Sauvignon Blanc-bright, crisp, tart with a lingering, but clean finish. Lindsay's favorite, one of mine as well

Chardonnay- Ok. Little heavy.

Syrah-Was expecting a bigger hit of fruit, but instead flavors were just a tad muddled. However, I could be wrong. Certainly spicy.

Cabernet- This puppy howled. I loved this wine, nice assertive fruit up front, almost chewy. Everything you expect from a Cabernet but with such a smooth finish the polished wood was jealous. I will order some of this jazz.

Port- Ohhh, Ohhhh, Ohhhhh Ohhhh Sweet Child of Wine. Sole purpose of that awfully lame line was to get you ready for the release of Chinese Democracy, and that song stuck in your head. Yes, I am an adult.

Food: Boudin Balls-I have many beliefs but one of them is this: there is no heavenly reward, no weight loss promise nor health benefit, no ethical concern, no reversal of global climates that could make me give up pig, or really meat.

Andouille, sweet potatoes, and marinated mushrooms-this was pretty good, lots of garlic in the andouille. Wood Fired Oysters, small but that sauce is pretty killer, intense red pepper and butter. Reminds me of shucking down an oyster while licking a bowl chicken wings were tossed in; now that is a mental image. Might it be time to put them next to Drago's Chargrilled Ersters?

Fried beef jerky, lemon, and mint salad. Kerplunk. Very salty, hard jerky, and the mint did not refresh the palate as one had hoped. Parsley would work better and the lemon took a leave of absence. Need to retool this dish. Hen and andouille gumboo brought forth a delicious, thick roux, nice pepper level, garlic notes, gelatinous stock. This coupled with cool weather announced the arrival of gumbo season.

Wood fired redfish, Lindsay got this and thought it lacked seasoning and was a "little fishy." When I told her, "well it is fish," she responded with "well you are an ass." I went with the brisket and grits. Good once again. Fatty, tender brisket paired really well with the cabernet.

Dessert was a chocolate gateau with cream cheese frosting and honey. Overall not bad but palate fatigued at this point.

Stayed around drinking and chatting way to late. Finished the night off with 4 Pappy Van Winkle's, because five would have been too much, some Catdaddy Moonshine, and some funny stories. I love this town, don't you?