Haute Dish, err Wok - January 4, 2016
A lot of restaurants will do a limited menu for the various restaurant weeks throughout the year, highlighting some of their easy to prepare, but very popular, items hoping to attract a new cadre of diners to their restaurant. Even if the conversion rate on those restaurant week deal seekers is low, if word gets out about good food, it’s great publicity. Plus restaurant week means guaranteed covers, and restaurants like covers.
Most restaurants that aren’t chains try to change their menus seasonally, keeping a few favorites, but mostly following the available produce.
Some restaurants, mostly those with tasting menus, completely redefine themselves every few months, changing every item on the menu, trying to push the envelope. Some of the famous Chicago ones, like Next and Alinea, are notorious for this. Locally Birdie, Travail, and Corner Table are some that immediately come to mind.
Then there’s the oddball restaurants that pause everything for a week, do something zany akin to a pop-up, then return to regularly scheduled programming. That’s what Haute Dish does. Mid year they do a barbecue themed menu for a week, but in January they do what our server referred to as “a bastardized version of an already Americanized Chinese food.”
I went last year and it besides a great meal it was a fiasco. I took one of the Car2Go car shares because I didn’t want to pay for parking again after parking in the ramp and there were no nearby share cars available when I was finished so I had to walk back to the Grain Exchange. It was a bit chilly. To add insult to injury I lost my sunglasses.
This year, driving my own car, new sunglasses in tow, a bunch of us decided to go and eat the whole menu* minus the soups, those are hard to share.
*If you’re going to do this next year, or ever really, ask your server to course the meal into ~4 courses, the food came really fast.
Chicken Wings with XO sauce: Good flavors and nice crisp on the skin. Sharing these among the seven of us required a little surgery to transform the full wings into flats and drums. Totally worth donning the scrubs and whipping out the scalpel for.
Dan Dan Noodles with pickled mustard greens, chili oil, and Spam: A table favorite. Andrea, the one who unwittingly ate and enjoyed calf tongue at Scena, unwittingly ate and enjoyed the Spam in this dish. (I’m sensing a pattern.) I’m going to figure out how to make these.
Charred Long Beans with black bean, salted cabbage, sesame seeds, and chili oil: A tasty and much needed infusion of vegetables after the past few days if you’ve been reading these.
(Pics: Shawn’s)
Egg Rolls with pastrami, pickles, glass noodles, and Chinese mustard: An interesting combination of flavors and textures. Chinese mustard is probably in my top 3 condiments of all time.
(Pics: Shawn’s)
Duck Leg with kimchi pancake, scrambled egg, and homemade hoisin: Another difficult one to share among a bunch of people, perfect for a single diner’s entree though. Very tasty and well prepared.
Foietons with cream cheese, fresno peppers, and pickled apricot dipping sauce: (The reason I call Nighthawks Foie Omelette a Foiemelette.) Last year my server warned me off these saying these didn’t have a lot of foie flavor, I think he may have steered me wrong. These were great. The flavor was subtle, but present and welcome. The dipping sauce paired really well.
Szechuan Wontons with pork, shrimp, garlic sauce, and charred scallions: Another table favorite, and rightfully so. Great sauce, good skins on the wontons. I wish these were a permanent fixture at one of Landon’s establishments.
Kimchi Pancakes with asparagus and sunny side up egg: Good. While not my favorite pancake variety at Nighthawks, it’s still really good. The combination of sour funk from the fermented veg and sweetness from the pancake really work.
(Pics: Shawn’s)
Beef & Broccoli with gai lan, brisket, and smoked oyster sauce: Really, really good. The integrity of the thinly sliced brisket made it seem almost noodle like. The Chinese broccoli was great, and the sauce made everything come together. Another dish I would gladly order any time I’m at Haute Dish.
(Pics: Shawn’s)
Steamed Fat Rice with chicken fat, scallion, and ginger: Sounds wrong, tastes alright. I could have used a touch more salt to cut the fat a little, but tasty regardless. (There’s another fowl fat and grain coming in a future post that was amazing.)
Ma Po Tofu with shiitake mushroom, gochujang, and Szechuan pepper: A good tofu dish. I know Landon is a big proponent of occasional meatless meals and this is definitely a really solid argument that those dishes are enjoyable and can stand on their own.
Kung Pao Chicken with peanuts, water chestnuts, hearts of palm, and dried chilis: My favorite dish from last year’s Haute Wok, and it’s still great. I have the weird tradition of eating the dried chilies to build up my tolerance to capsaicin.
General Tso’s Sweetbreads with foie fried rice: A staple menu item that is included in the Haute Wok week’s menu, makes sense as it fits the theme. Really tasty, if you’re not a fan of offal, this dish could change that.
(Pics: Shawn’s)
Fried Whitefish with black beans, shishito peppers, and cashews: Really tasty. I didn’t manage to bite into one of the hot peppers, even though I had several, I had to settle for heat from a previous dish’s chilies.
What’s dinner without dessert though? Incomplete. Since it’s only a couple blocks away I suggested we head to Spoon and Stable. A few of the dining party had to go, but four of us made the trek.
Lime Curd with mandarin sorbet, kumquat, & thyme: After the meal I wanted something light and acidic that would help cut through the fat. This definitely fit the bill.
Other desserts that night:
Honey & Cream Cake Pics: Kat’s, Shawn’s, Andrea’s
Amaretto Créme Caramel Pics: Kat’s, Shawn’s
Petit Fours: We were also lucky to be treated to some Petit Fours. I passed on the brittle the last time I was here, so I opted for that this time. Excellent.