Today is the launch of my new food blog. My trip to Chicago this past Memorial Day Weekend inspired me to finally dive into the world of food blogging. I can’t think of a better way to start than with Alinea, which should require no introduction.

I was trying to figure out where to go for Memorial Day Weekend several months ago, and I was considering a range of options, from attempting to book a quick weekend trip to Bermuda, the Caribbean, or Mexico or being boring and staying home in Los Angeles (my city) or New York City (my boyfriend’s city). I ultimately settled on Chicago, and I’m so glad that I did. I justified it with, “It’s halfway in between Los Angeles and New York, so it will be convenient as a long-weekend destination”, but really, I just wanted to go to Alinea.

Overall judgment: 5 of 5 stars

Like five fat stars. Every course was executed to perfection. There was no cause for any complaint. I felt like a little kid, waiting in anticipation for every course to come out next. The meal played out like a movie script, and I kept on glancing over to the tables next to me, hoping for spoilers. So without further ado, here is the synopsis of my meal:

Floating rhubarb. The first food item that greeted us as we sat down was this floating rhubarb. I immediately thought that this was going to be a part of one of our courses, so I took the obligatory picture.

Salsify (branch camouflage). I missed taking a picture of the potato course that was in between. The servers were militant in insisting that we only had one minute to remove the metal pin from our potato and eat it in one big gulp. This branch camouflage course, however, was challenging in other ways. We had to find our very well camouflaged beef jerky-like course in this gigantic nest. It took us a minute, but we were successful! The table next to us was giggling and confirmed that we had stumbled onto our edible twigs.

Lobster (curry, earl grey, grapefruit). This was one of my favorite courses. The flavors blended together very nicely, as the earl grey and grapefruit flavors were refreshing against the curry. I even enjoyed the fish roe, which is normally one of the items that I am least enthusiastic about at sushi restaurants.

Expensive rocks (charred, sulfur). I’m kidding, of course. Server: “This will be your table centerpiece”. Yea, right. We knew better.

Sweetbreads (orange, ginko nut, cinnamon chop sticks). This was a playful take on the orange chicken dish that has become such a staple of Chinese-American fare. Except much, much better. The sweetbreads were tender and juicy, and the rest of the dish provided excellent complementary flavors. It made me wonder why the Chinese Modern menu at Next didn’t include something like this. In fact, I wouldn’t have minded if it included this exact same dish, and I ate it two nights in a row.

Below is another picture of the sweetbreads with the cinnamon chop sticks laid out on top of the takeout box. They even brought over a plastic takeout bag!

Once they lit our “centerpiece”, we knew we were in for some fun:

Ebi (broccoli stem, yuzu, sea grape). But first, we had a quick bite. The ebi was my least favorite dish, probably because I was still recovering from nightmares of my decapitated shrimp head flailing and grasping for life just a few days ago at Kiyokawa in Los Angeles. Nevertheless, the sea grape was refreshing.

Now, back to our centerpiece. Our friendly and humorous server prepared our wagyu beef course. Me: “Do you mind if I take a picture of you?” Response: “Oh, I’m not very photogenic.” Just when I thought he might actually be serious, he laughed and said, “Just kidding. I’m really photogenic.”

Wagyu (parsnip, black trumpet, kombu). The wagyu beef was perfectly tender and sumptuous. By this point in tasting menus, I typically start to slow down (especially on beef / duck courses), but this was so delicious and suitably portioned that I had no trouble continuing to indulge.

Lily bulb (rambutan, distillation of caviar lime). The lily bulb was a refreshing palate cleanser after the wagyu. I really enjoyed the white caviar (it was my first time trying it).

Rhubarb (celery root, celery branch, licorice). Our server came over to us and began to disentangle the floating rhubarb above our table. He then shaved some slices of fresh rhubarb into our dishes as accents. The braised rhubarb was especially memorable.

Wood ear (pig ear, allium, black garlic). My favorite part of the dish was the pear.

Black truffle (explosion, asparagus, parmesan). When they say explosion, they really mean it! This must be taken in one bite to avoid inundating your dinner date with truffle juices.

This scented “dragon’s breath” smoke, intended to smell like Chinese stir fry, was paired with our next course. Leave it to Alinea to make stir fry smell good.

Duck (foie gras, morel, dragon’s breath). I was afraid that the foie gras would be too heavy for me at this point in the course, but it was delightfully light and had an airy quality to it.

Blueberry (bubblegum, lilac, sorrel). This blueberry course was incredible, with the interesting use of different textures and flavors. (In case you were wondering…yes, the bubblegum was edible.)

Balloon (green apple, helium). I had been waiting patiently all meal long for my very own edible green apple balloon, and it finally came. Some of the diners kissed the balloon, sucked in the helium, and serenaded the other tables. I was treated to a particularly hilarious version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”.

Boyfriend was happy with his balloon too.

Ingredients for the final dessert course. Several months back, I looked at pictures of Alinea on Yelp and practically orgasmed when I flipped through the pictures of the final dessert courses.

Milk chocolate (pate sucree, violet, hazelnut). They threw a vinyl cloth onto the table, and Grant Achatz came over to create this dessert masterpiece. He didn’t stop by every table, so we must have done something right to please the food gods.

At the end of our meal, we asked the server where we could take a picture to remember the occasion. He suggested the Alinea kitchen, and we responded emphatically. Then he said, “Do you want us to ask Chef to take a picture with you?” (Eyes going wide.) Yes, of course! This was the best moment of my Chicago trip.

Alinea, 1723 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60614