Table 21

I am beyond bummed right now. I just called Volt, the restaurant in Frederick, MD that's owned by Bryan Voltaggio who was the runner up on Season 6 of Top Chef, to make a reservation for JUNE for Table 21. Table 21 is located in their kitchen, seats 4 people and serves a 21 course dinner. If you have a few minutes, please click here to read about a guy's experience eating there because you will feel my pain when I tell you that Table 21 is booked through NEXT YEAR. You have no idea how sad I am. I was looking forward to an amazing dinner, a night out with Bill sans Audrey and most importantly, celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary. We are already having to pass on a Hawaiian vacation to see our good friends get married that same month so this was to be our consolation prize. ARGH!

As I'm sitting here thinking of alternatives, maybe we'll head to Cleveland and hit up Michael Symon's (Food Network Iron Chef) restaurant Lola or Chicago for Rick Bayless' (Top Chef Masters winner) Topolobompo or Art Smith's (Top Chef Masters) Table Fifty-Two. It could also be fun to drive down to Kansas City and just pig out on all the BBQ we can handle. *SIGH* I guess we have some time to plan now.....

Top Chef Season 6

Top Chef season 6 in Las Vegas starts tonight!!! 9/8c Watch it!!!

Food Shows

Two food shows that are must sees are Man v. Food on the Travel Channel - Wednesdays at 10 EST (new season starts tonight) and Top Chef on Bravo - Wednesdays at 9 EST - new season starts on 8/19. Set your TIVOs/DVRs!

On Man v. Food, the host (Adam) goes around to different towns and vists two restaurants to showcase their food. At a third restaurant, he takes part in a food challenge - things like, how many burritos can you eat or how quickly can you drink 15 milkshakes. Outrageous challenges that I would not partake in, although he did have to eat 15 dozen oysters in 1 hour which I would have LOVED. It's really a fun show and Adam is really likeable. Plus, you get to see fun restaurants to go visit on your travels.

Bill and I took a roadtrip down South a few weeks ago and one of our stops was to visit a friend in Atlanta. Sadly, we were in town for just a little over 24 hours so we only got to eat 3 meals but we definitely made the most of what we ate. One stop was Vortex (featured on Man v. Food naturally) known for their killer burgers.....literally. One burger is the Double Coronary: Topped with two fried eggs, four slices of American cheese, and 5 slices of bacon, with two grilled cheese sandwiches replacing the buns. GRILLED CHEESE SANDWHICHES FOR THE BUNS!!!! Are you even comprehending this??? No, as (un)appetizing as that sounds, we did not get this burger. Instead we ordered the Blue 'Shroom Burger (blue cheese and shrooms) and....wait for it.....the Elvis Burger. Yep! You guessed it - peanut butter, fried bananas and bacon. It - Was - Awesome! Honestly, it was better than the shroom burger. I won't lie, we're pretty fearless when it comes to our food but even we were thinking we were insane to even consider trying it. But man-oh-man was it good and we can't wait to make it again at home. We think the bananas may have really been plantains but whatever, I'm sure we'll like it either way.

Another Atlanta highlight was cheesy grits which turned into a theme throughout our trip. We're trying to find coarse stone ground grits here up north but no luck so far. We might have to breakdown and order them online which I really don't want to have to do - unless someone knows of a brand to buy and where?

V-Day Top Chef Style

I can't even begin to tell you how much fun we had doing this. It didn't hurt that the food turned out really well too. To recap, Bill and I drew proteins - B drew fish, I drew pork. We kept our dishes a secret until after we were done grocery shopping yesterday. Bill gets credit for coming up with his course on his own, without the help of a recipe. I used a Top Chef recipe (Richard Blais season 4) for inspiration but changed it up a bit with my own greens and some other substitutions. We served Delta Vineyards Pinot Noir.

Bill's course - Three fish three ways at three temperatures: Salmon sashimi over rice with a ginger lime soy sauce, seared yellowfin tuna encrusted in sesame and poppy seeds over a mixed greens salad with a honey ginger balsamic vinegarette and parmigiano-reggiano encrusted baked cod with roasted rosemary squash and zucchini.

My course - Braised BBQ and coffee pork shoulder in an apple cider reduction with bacon and onion brussel sprouts and cilantro, corn and white truffle oil salad.

Course 3 - Toasted coconut and honey pecans over sauteed bananas with ice cream and homemade caramel sauce. And coffee, of course.

Bill wins for creativity. I loved his lime ginger soy sauce and the tuna was my favorite of the three. I definitely think we'll be making that again. Overall, my dish won for it's flavor. It was excellent and the meat was so tender, we couldn't believe it was pork.

We think we're going to start doing this regularly, possibly even once a month. It really forces you to try new things and go outside of your comfort zone. Bill had an idea for next time that we would again draw proteins but that the other person will tell you what dish you're going to make. I like it.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is this Saturday and we actually don't celebrate the holiday but we do use it as an excuse to have an awesome dinner. Last year we did the prix fixe dinner at Atlas and it was actually really, really good. We were very pleasantly surprised and agreed to make it a tradition. That was before we knew what the word "budget" meant. Now, while we'd love to spend $150 for deliciousness, we really shouldn't. Instead, I think we're going to go Top Chef. Bill had the idea to write down proteins (lamb, duck, beef, fish, etc.), put them into a hat and we'll each draw one. We will have to make an entree based on our protein and then we'll collaborate on a dessert. A fun, 3-course meal on the cheap. Or at least cheaper than $150.

We did a similar thing with our good friends Matt and Sara for New Year's Eve this year.

Faced with the prospect of spending around $200/couple for a prix fixe dinner, we decided to stay in instead. Each couple took two courses and it was a blast.

Laura & Bill course #1 - Lemon shrimp over roasted garlic and goat cheese risotto with tomatoes. A slightly modified recipe from the Wine Lover's Cookbook.

Laura & Bill course #2 -Broiled lobster tail over a crab cake and bed of spinach with a spicy remoulade sauce.

Sara & Matt course #3 - Fennel crusted pork chop in an apple cider reduction with apple fennel salad and raisin emulsion paired with artichoke risotto. A Top Chef recipe.

This course was my fave and I am not ashamed.

Sara & Matt course #4 - Molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream paired with Little Death by Hot Chocolate with Godiva liquor and homemade chocolate whipped cream.

I'm excited to see what creations Bill and I come up with this weekend!!