Cooking, underground

Over the weekend, I attended a very zany dinner. (It was scrumptious, too. But that is only part of the story.) How zany? I'm glad you asked. It was so zany that there was, I kid you not, a Japanese film crew there to videotape it. They were airing footage of the dinner for some television show in Japan.

See? Japanese film crew.

Where was this dinner? Another good question. It was hosted by the culinary genius-men, Michael Cirino and Daniel Castano, of the "underground supper club," A Razor, A Shiny Knife. (You may recall my previous post...) A Razor, A Shiny Knife is founded on the (brilliant) idea that food and its preparation are awesomer when experienced with others. Lots of (sometimes really random) others (see photo above)... From the "invite" to the event:

"As always these events are not only for professional chefs or foodies, but for anyone with a love of food at any level of skill. Our goal is to create a communal environment of social interaction, education and fun with food where people can arrive early to learn and get dirty, while meeting the people they will be dining with that evening."

The place: An apartment in Brooklyn. Michael emailed confirmed guests the address a couple days before the dinner. Then, you just arrive, ring the doorbell, and hope. (I knew I had the right place because it smelled delicious. Like, more delicious than any Brooklyn apartment has any business being.)

The menu: I don't know if I would actually call it a "menu," but we nommed some of the following:

- homemade baguettes with homemade butter
- fresh lobster over homemade linguine
- custard-coated cherries
- pork belly custard (first you have your sweet custard, now you get your savory custard... everyone wins)
- pickles (this is hard to explain but it involved a vacuum machine, some fresh vegetables, and science)
- mashed potatoes with eggs, powdered smoke, and probably other stuff I did not see go in...
- an assortment of cocktails and Miller High Lifes (ohhh yeahh...)

I have not had this much fun in a kitchen since that time, in 4th grade, when a neighbor and I decided to combine all the ingredients of two kiddie chemistry sets and then boil everything in a pot. We got grounded, but we also made a satisfying mess that (score!) was highly flammable and pretty stinky...

Thanks, Mike and Daniel!

First, tell Mr. Lobster you are very, very sorry. Mr. Lobster, you are just too tasty.

In he goes.

Out he comes. Poor (scrumptious) Mr. Lobster...