I love putting together beer dinners.  They’re fun to put organize, to plan, to collaborate, but when it comes to the actual execution – they’re phenomenal.  Writing a blog is often just a lot of talk and hot air, so I relish the opportunity to collaborate with these amazing talented cooks and brewers, and create something new, something special. Chef Eddie Lau and his team knocked it out of the park at The Summit, a great space that feels like it was made for these sort of events. The local brewers really delivered as well – literally.  I’ve never had all of my kegs show up on time for a dinner, with so little drama.

Of course, I was a little busy hosting the dinner to break out my camera, so I am extremely to David of beer47.com who not only attended the dinner, but picked up my slack as the “guy who won’t put his camera away.”  He was also kind enough to let me use his pictures here, but you should check out his own thoughts, as well as more pictures at his website.

The whole dinner was great, but a few pairing really stand out for me: The scallop ceviche was perfectly balanced, and Eddie and I collaborated to make the carbonated citrus, which really took to the the Almanac beer’s flavors and tied the plate together.  I’m also totally biased, since this was the first pairing we’ve ever served with our fledgling new brewery.  Another highlight was our “cheese course” which was put together with the help of Maison Mitchell tackled both pairing with a double IPA and creating a sauce from it. The funky taleggio was nicely balanced with the floral Double IPA, and stood up to the bitterness of a very tricky style to pair with food.  The spiced pineapple sauce gave the right balance of sweetness, and his agar-agar thicken sauce of the hoppy beer was one of the best examples of cooking with hops I’ve had.

All told, it was a great evening, creating a unique time and place where great beer and food are enjoyed with great company.  It feels alittle odd to try to write color commentary on my own dinner, so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Here is a photoessay of what it looked like, courtesy of beer47.com.

 

Scallop and Citrus Ceviche
sweet lime and coconut vin, ale carbonated orange, tangerine agrumato,turnip, jasmine citrus syrup
Almanac Beer Co. Summer 2010 Blackberry Ale

Uni with Soup Dumpling
house soy broth, elderflower mint gelee, sweet tea cornichon
Drake’s Brett Butler Barrel Aged Triple

Espresso Mole Pancetta in Edible Garden
espresso mole “soil”, baby radish, minutina
Dogfish Head Bitches Brew

Vadouvan Braised Shortrib
vadouvan coconut curry, lentils de puy, hedgehog mushrooms, baby carrots
SF Beer Week Collaborative Bourbon Barrel Imperial Common

Taleggio Mousse in Choux
madras curried pineapple compote, IPA sauce
Highwater Brewing Retribution Double IPA

Foie Torchon with Candied Mandarinquat
brioche, lavender vanilla duck egg sabayon
Firehouse Brewing Pete Support Belgian IPA

Finally, dessert: (not pictured) Humphry Slocombe Espresso Balsamic Ice Cream
floating in Speakeasy Porter infused with TCHO Chocolate

 

 

Tags: beer and nosh dinner, summit beer dinner, the summit sf

This entry was posted on Friday, February 25th, 2011 at 9:43 am and is filed under beer dinner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.