Well Fed Cicerones

Woof. Wednesday's dinner at Foran's was mighty fine, with portions a linebacker would appreciate. 'Twas all splendid; the beer and food matches were very well chosen. Some highlights:

Brasserie Blonde's orange and coriander clicked nicely with the basil and cilantro in the spring roll. The chicken in the roll had been cooked in the beer, and was tender and savory.

Red Snapper ale provided a dark toasty complement to the pair of pork flautas made extra savory by a smoked red pepper coulis. Some spicy black beans over rice, and guacamole, made the course a meal by itself.

The milkshake, made with Faricy Fest Stout and a generous portion of malt extract, clocked an 11 on  a one to ten scale of maltolicious flavor. The bitterness from the beer was noticeable but not too much, something one must watch out for when making beer+ice cream concoctions. Having a glass of the stout on hand to serve as 'tongue Zamboni' was indispensable.

Trained professional on closed track. Do not attempt without proper training.

Bonus: The dinner was actually served upstairs from Foran's at Motor City Wines, who rented space to the pub for several hours. This worked out great, as Wednesday night at MCW is Skeeto's Funhouse, a jazz jam session. Thus, after dinner we hung out with the good folks of MCW, drank some wine, and grooved out the rest of the evening.

Then there was Friday...

Friday night, the venerable Rattlesnake Club had their first beer dinner, featuring the beers of Atwater Block, Motor City Brewing Works, and Detroit Beer Co.

Check this out:

MENU

Bar Snacks
Chef's Selections
Motor City Brewing Works Hard Cider

1st Course
Creole Shrimp with Spiced Tomato Sauce & Crispy Okra
Detroit Beer Co. Detroit Lager

2nd Course
House Smoked Wild Nova Salmon with IPA Buerre Blanc & Toasted Hazelnuts
Detroit Beer Co. Local 1529 IPA
Atwater Mai-Bock (Spring Seasonal Brew)

3rd Course
Braised Pork Barbacoa over Sweet Corn Polenta
Motor City Brewing Works Honey Porter

4th Course
Dark Chocolate & Caramel Crisp with Doppelbock Ice Cream & Salted Caramel Sauce
Atwater VoodooVator Doppelbock

Wow. It was all very good, but I'd like to single out a couple of the high points. The second course, with two beers, showed how important food and beer interactions can be. Mrs. C and I both would prefer the excellent IPA on its own over Atwater's Maibock, but with the food, the hands down favorite was the bock. The IPA was nice, didn't fight with the food, but everything came alive with the lager; the light smokiness of the fish showed nicely against the malt, the richness of the buerre blanc seemed to increase when combined with the equally rich beer, and the toasty nuts clicked with the toasty notes in the Munich malt. The barbacoa, tender and suffused with spice, most notably cumin, on top of some creamy polenta that had some whole kernel corn in it, (almost like a super thick corn chowder,) was topped with sweet red onion cooked in red wine vinegar. This all paired mighty well with Motor City's porter, with its rich, mocha-like flavors. If you've ever enjoyed a barbecue sauce made with coffee, you can believe that this was pretty tasty.

Spicy, melty, porky goodness

Everyone clearly had fun with this, from the Rattlesnake staff to the largely non-beer-geek attendees. We're looking forward to the next one!