Round Two. Go to The Whole Ox Deli again, specifically to sample that brontosaurus sized pork shank served with crispy fried potatoes. Nani?! How come it's not on the menu? "Wahdya talkin' 'bout Willis?" And I specifically brought a 2008 Capiaux Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir and a 1996 Jobard Mersault-Blagny just for roasted pork...
Oh well! Our server explained that since pigs only come equipped with 2 shanks (and Chef McNee usually purchases the whole animal), they frequently are sold out right after opening for dinner service thus almost necessitating then to remove it from the menu and only serving it as a special on occasion .. and this past Saturday wasn't that occasion. Well, at least they had 2 new items on the menu, a bresaola and arugula salad with grapefruit imperials and a house made pork liver pate with mango mustard and house made pickles. Of course we started with some bubbly, a Billecart-Salmon Blanc de Blanc...
Along with a small order of the Poutine (notice that nice slice of foie gras)...
And a small order of the Beef Shank
I then uncorked the Capiaux - loads of dark red fruit with hints of Asian spice on the nose
We then moved on to the Bresaola and Arugula Salad
The Pork Liver Pate
And the 40 Day Dry Aged Ribeye with local succotash
E then uncorked a 2003 Selene Cabernet Sauvignon. I love Mia Klein's wines! While she doesn't share the same spotlight as Helen Turley and Heidi Barrett Peterson, her wines have more terroir and don't only rely on massive fruit extraction. I believe E uncorked this Cab in anticipation of the... 20 Day Dry Aged Burger with Foie Gras which he split with the Mrs.
We then sampled the 2 dessert specials, chocolate banana mousse thingy (guess I wasn't really paying attention).
And these honeyed donut holes which were THE BOMB! It reminded me of the orange scented donut holes that (the now defunct) Black Cat in North Beach San Francisco once produced.
And of course, since we had no pork shank, we'll be back...
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