Monday, April 19, 2010 at 2:42 AM Twitter, Rabbits and Wine
Update: I forgot to mention that the fried twisty item you see as garnish in the rabbit rillette dish, is fried rabbit stomach. Actually very tasty.
As mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to highlight some events from my day-to-day life. I recently had the pleasure to dine at Oliver & Bonacini Café Grill's Waterloo location, where my experience was far from ordinary. I've always enjoyed my experience at O & B and regularly visit after a stressful day of classes. However, this time was different, I was presented with the opportunity of having Chef Markus Bestig prepare a tasting dinner for my self and a guest.
Chef Bestig is the Corporate Concept Chef for all the Oliver & Bonacini Café Grills (Bayview Village, Oakville, Blue Mountain and Waterloo). He has risen through the ranks of Oliver & Bonacini's family of restaurants, serving as a sous chef at Canoe and at Auberge du Pommier, and mentored by individuals like Chef Anthony Walsh.
My first introduction to rabbit was back in 2006, when I had my birthday dinner at Canoe. It was only one dish out of seven, a soup to be exact, but that one dish left me wanting to try rabbit again. However, I never got a chance to have it again, and it slowly fell off my radar of things to try. It wasn't until recently when I came across an issue of Meat Paper magazine where they had a feature on rabbit.
I first 'met' Chef Bestig on Twitter during the announcement from Oliver & Bonacini about their new Waterloo location.
With rabbit fresh in mind, I decided to message Chef Bestig on Twitter hoping to see if he knew of a place in Waterloo I could buy rabbit from. But there no luck in sourcing the ingredient, so he offered to prepare a something for me so I could try rabbit again.
This was an enormous surprise to me. I don't think I can explain how excited I felt in the days leading up to the dinner, let alone the day of. As many of my friends know, I love food, I love the chance to dine out as often as I can. Not to chain restaurants, but places I can get not only good food, but a great experience. Some of my favourites and most visited include: Canoe, Nota Bene, Reds, Ten, Gilead, Ame, Buca, and recently Ruby Watcho.
While all of the above restaurants provide great food and a good experience, I have never experience anything quite like having an amazing chef prepare me something off menu and special.
Almost like 'Iron Chef', there was one main ingredient for the night, and with the exception of the amuse bouche, palette cleanser and dessert, rabbit was used in each dish.
We began the night with a glass of 2008 O & B Sparkle Buzz, which is a special label of the 2008 Cave Spring CSV Brut Sparkling Wine. Our first course was the amuse bouche, which was cured arctic char, with arctic char tar tar and scallop with pickled ramps and some fruit on the inside.
The arctic char is similar to salmon in texture but much leaner, kind of like a salmon and trout mixed together (if I know my fishes). The entire dish was very light while having a nice mix of flavours and textures. The lemon juice brought a tart flavour which tied everything together nicely. While this didn't contain any rabbit, I have to say that this was one of my favourite dishes, and I'm going to keep an eye out for this on the menu at my next visit to the O & B family of restaurants. if its on the menu that is.
Following that, we had rabbit rillette with muscat raisin and almond compote, rabbit flank schnitzel sandwich and pickled ramps, paired with a glass of 2008 Canoe Riesling, another special label for Oliver & Bonacini named after the Canoe restaurant, commonly known as the 2008 Cave Spring CSV Riesling.
The wine pairings throughout the night were done absolutely beautifully. Everything was nicely balanced and grew heavier with each course. Until this meal, I can't recall ever enjoying white wines. There's always been something about the ones have tasted that didn't sit well with my palette, maybe it was just a bad pairing. Never the less, I absolutely loved each wine that was paired, and I'll definitely give whites a second look.
This dish was probably another of my favourites of the night. The mix of hard n soft textures from the raisin and the almonds, to the schnitzel and rillette, and the mix of flavours all worked very well with each other and each flavour just comes out in your mouth one at a time.
The next two dishes were paired with a 2008 Henry of Pelham Sibling Rivalry White, which is a blend of Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay and Riesling.
The third dish was a well done rabbit "pho" with enoki, edamame and vermicelli noodles garnished with mint, basil, lime and hoisin. This dish put a nice twist on traditional vietnamese pho and nicely incorporated rabbit into it. Thinking back on the dish, I wish I had added a little less hot sauce as it over powered much if the flavours in the dish. I guess when I heard "pho" I did what I normally do and add a bunch of hot sauce and hoisin, probably should have pulled back a bit this time.
At this point dishes began to get a bit on the heavier side of things, following the pho we had a hand made pappardelle with shredded rabbit, crispy pancetta and wild leek cream. This dish is another one I would say was my favourite. While it was heavier compared to the previous dishes, it was surprising light for a pasta with a cream sauce. There was something about the pappardelle that struck a cord with me, it was light and delicate, but cooked perfectly. The soft pasta and rabbit worked in conjunction with the crispy pancetta and almond flakes to change up the texture and really made the dish comforting.
Before the main, we had the pallet cleanser, which was paired with the same 2008 O & B Sparkle Buzz. The pallet cleanser was a Muddled minted vodka, pear, ginger and lemon sorbet with the sparkling wine to top it all off. I need to apologize for this one, I finished it before I remembered to take a photo. Well here's what was left :p
The main dish consisted of a roasted rabbit loin and Niagara Berkshire Prosciutto wrapped confited leg, roasted heirloom carrots, onion soubise and vanilla pan juices. Paired wonderfully with the 2007 Henry of Pelham Pinot Noir. The earthiness of the dish were enhanced by the wine from the fabulous summer of 2007. The various elements on the plate each with its own flavour all worked together to give a real rich flavour that didn't over whelm the rabbit leg.
The night was finished off with a vintage port wine sabayon with fresh berries and the tiniest milk chocolate mouse with ganache, paired with a 2005 #99 Wayne Gretzky Vidal Icewine. A prefect light dessert to wrap everything together! I don't think I could have asked for a better dessert, anything with berries in it, I will absolutely love.
Though I'm not sure if rabbit has gained "mainstream" acceptance as an item on the menu, I would definitely want to urge the Oliver & Bonacini family of restaurants, and any other restaurants for that matter, to serve more rabbit. It's not only a very versatile meat, "its almost like chicken if you know how to use it" says Chef Bestig, but its also a very sustainable meat to grow.
Rabbits are much more sustainable than beef, chicken or lamb, they require less resources and energy and are usually easier to care for as well. Once you get past the "cute" factor of the animal, and just think of it as another ingredient, the possibilities are endless for what you can do with such a small creature.
Lastly I would just like to thank Chef Markus Bestig for an amazing meal, far surpassing what I was expecting or even what I had imagined. I can't really explain how happy and privileged I was for Chef Bestig to do this for me, so I'll simply end with a thank you.
ps. In my opinion, my photos really don't do justice to the art that Chef Bestig created. With this kind of food, I really would have loved the opportunity to properly light and photograph each dish. Maybe some day in the future I'll have an opportunity for proper food photography :)
Reader Comments (3)
OMG andrew it looks soooo good! but the poor bunnies!!! how could you! *tear*
but it sounded deish! when r u going to take me? HMMM!?!!? take me next time kk?? :)
Yum! Looks so good and yummy huh?! I seem to imagine what it taste like.
Thanks and All the Best
Maria Zarabia
Sup?