Ok, I'm back. This was not your average beer dinner. It was a battle, a duel betwen Chef Jonathan Gelman of The Driskill Grill vs. Chef Rob Snow of Judges' Hill Restaurant. And it all benefited the Sustainable Food Center. All the food was Wild Game supplied by Broken Arrow Ranch. The dinner consisted of three rounds with a dish from each chef — each paired with an Independence beer. We voted on our favorite dishes/pairings. It was blind, RED plates vs. BLACK plates.
ROUND 1
Wild Boar Belly w/ Risotto Cakes, Smoked Walnut Vinaigrette, Pickled Local Vegetables and Bootlegger Brown
That belly was great. I really enjoyed the pickled vegetables except they were too small, diced beyond belief, annoying. Overall the food overpowered the beer, not a great pairing.
Buttermilk Fried Quail, "Stash" BBQ Sauce and Stash IPA
The fried quail was perfect, the egg on top a bit too decadent. BBQ was tasty. With the Stash, this was a better pairing than first plate.
My Stash. You think as a beer blogger I would have taken more photos of the beer. Sorry. But this one was just so pretty.
ROUND 2
Venison Steak, Jalapeno Cotija Potato Croquette, Raspberry Jasperilla Demi-glace and Jasperilla Old Ale.
Venison was venisony and cooked well. Reminded me of my childhood (I was raised by wolves). The croquette was light and fluffy or as I wrote in my notes - NICE. All paired nicely with Jasperilla.
Antelope Grilled, Chilled & Rood Awakenings and Rood.
Saying grilled antelope is not enough for this plate, it had three kinds of antelope meat. It was a meat orgy. The jerky was my favorite part. Again, second dish was a better pairing in this round.
ROUND 3
Gold Deluxe Angel Food Cake with Grilled Fredericksburg Peaches & Merlitons and Gold Deluxe.
Merlitons? I had to bing that. This may be the worst photo I've ever taken, my apologies. I liked the fruit, hated the angel food cake, but I've always hated angel food cake.
Wild Boar Smores and Gold Deluxe.
This was easily the most anticipated plate of the night after everyone read the menus. And it was good, really good. Made with boar bacon. I did not vote for it though. Putting bacon on something is cheating, everyone is gonna vote for bacon.
Overall, I enjoyed the food from the RED chef better and the pairings from the BLACK chef. Guess what, I forgot who was red and who was black and who won. So, bing that if you really want to know the results.
Thanks to Independence Brewing for having us out and also to Adam for giving Austin Beer Guide a nice shout out during the dinner (unexpected and appreciated)!
