My friends and I decided to cap off our conference with a steak dinner at F. X. Buckley.
The moment I saw the dry-aging meat I knew that we were in for a treat. It wasn't until we sat down that I saw the James Joyce reference to his character's dinner here almost a century ago.
Buttery is a cliche for steak but I can find no other word to describe its tenderness. The medium rare steak was perfectly cooked and yielded to a gentle knife. The texture continued to contribute in my mouth as it blended perfectly with the umami and fat.
The menu listed these as chips, which I forgot meant fries. They were cooked in beef fat and the beefy flavor came through nicely. They were wonderfully crispy at the edges and tender in the middle.
My dessert, a sort of deconstructed Black Forest cake, was similarly excellent. The cake was dense and moist. The chocolate was balanced with whipped cream and cherry.
Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course) ...
Comments
Post a Comment