March Bocado Wine Dinner (food porn)

Where: Bocado, Worcester MA

When: Last Monday of the month

Price: $45

I'm just going to get right to it, because frankly I have a headache from the 5 drinks I consumed with this delightful dinner and I'm cranky. Hopefully a recap of the good parts will bring me back to a less hostile place.

"Greeting" (served with sangria):

Assorted meats, cheeses and risotto balls (ohhhhh the balls).
 

My take: No picture because it's tough to take a picture of any object flying into your mouth at such a high speed. My favorite part of the whole dinner. I will say that the sangria is superb...not too sweet, not too winey.

1st Course (served with an amazingly crisp white Viura): Roasted beet carpaccio with smoked duck, Maytag bleu cheese, spicy Marona almonds, basil, and malt vinegar cream.

My take: This was the kind of white wine you could sit out in the yard with and be quite content finishing the bottle by yourself, alone. (Not that I've ever done that...yes, I have) The beets were beets (I've never seen orange beets before...they were milder than the red ones), the bleu was appropriately footy, and the almonds had a nice kick to them. My favorite part was the duck...it didn't taste smoky at all, but rather like a perfectly cooked pork tenderloin.

2nd Course (served with a Garnacha/Syrah/Carinena/Tempranillo/Merlot mix) : Dry herb seared salmon, topped with black olive pistachio pesto and served over asparagus stew.


My take: I am normally not a fan of salmon, but this was delicious. Not too fishy with a perfectly seared herb crust. The pesto...well, let's just say I wanted to do inappropriate things with that pesto. The asparagus stew it was served over? Meh. It was heavy on the red/green pepper flavor, which I don't like. Everyone else seemed to love it. The wine had a lot going on seeing as it was a mix of 5 different kinds, but it worked well with the salmon.

3rd Course (served with a Garnacha/Cabernet Sauvignon) : Boneless, skinless chicken thigh with a burnt orange-vanilla glaze, served over chick peas with a blistered tomato rosemary sauce.

My take: No. Burnt orange flavor is not for me...too burnt, too orange. And while I normally love chick peas, you couldn't even enjoy them through the orange flavor. That is all I'll say about that. The wine, however, was incredible. Favorite red by far.
4th Course (served with a Tempranillo): Beef tenderloin with saffron mustard sauce, served next to a black-barley and bacon risotto cake which was topped with toasted pinenut lemon aioli and a fried lobster ravioli.

My take: I would have been content with someone removing the risotto cake, lobster ravioli, all of the other food from the dinner and 3 of my toes in order to have 100 times more of that beef tenderloin. YES. Like I need a minute just to remember it....(eyes closed, trancelike rocking in effect)...ok. I'm back. Blahblahblah beef tenderloin.

 Dessert: Mango flan with mixed fruit and berries.

My take: Girls just wanna have flan.