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I’d been curious about The Melting Pot. Yeah, it’s a chain, but it’s new to Austin and I’ve actually gotten to 37 and never had fondue before. So we went, and even stayed after seeing the prices. Like I said, Gordon was feeling generous, but this is definitely a impress-your-date kind of place. The table has a flat burner (like a flat top stove) on it with warnings all over it and the waiter explained how things worked. We decided to do a big meal-deal thing that was one price and included 4 courses.
First was cheese, and we decided from the four options there. After turning the burner on, he plopped a double-boiler pan on it and left it there for a few minutes while we sipped our fancy-ass drinks. Then he brought his ingredients and started cooking it for us; white wine, spices, garlic, and an assload of swiss cheese. We had our little color-coded forks and platters of bread chunks, apple chunks and veggies. The chunks of stuff didn’t quite take care of all the cheese, and we considered asking for more chunks but knew there was a lot more food on the way and held off. The cheese was divine, however, and it was a difficult parting.
Next a fairly simple salad. We each got to pick one of four, and I got the mushroom salad. They had sliced a lot of mushrooms very, very finely, almost paper thin, so that there was a lot of surface-to-mass ratio and that made the mushrooms taste a lot stronger than they usually do on a salad, which made me very happy.
Then the main course. We agreed on a ‘cooking style’ (Coq au Vin, IIRC) which just means what sort of stuff we’re going to be cooking our food in. The waiter dropped off a pot of what looked like broth and cranked up the burner to high, and let it boil for awhile. Then he brought some red wine, more spices, fresh garlic, scallions, and mushrooms, and added those. We were given a variety of sauces and dips (let’s see how many I remember: green goddess, garlic butter, cocktail sauce, horseradishy steak dip stuff, curry sauce, teriyaki sauce, and a barbecue sauce) and the chunks (a few shrimp, bite-sized chunks of chicken, pork, and 2 varieties of beef steak (little strips and little cubes; I'm obviously ignorant in the ways of cow), mushroom caps, portabella chunks, tofu, broccoli, yellow squash, potato slices, and artichoke hearts) as well as a tutorial on how to cook everything. We set to, and it was delicious. My favorites were mushroom caps with green goddess, artichoke with garlic butter, beef with horseradishy stuff, and chicken with teriyaki. The potatoes did not cook very well- they either needed to be sliced thinner or pre-cooked a bit more. But it was wonderful overall.
And finally, the dessert. After a bit of negotiation and discussion with the waiter, he brought us a custom blend. Half milk chocolate, half dark chocolate, and a shot of Kahlua (which doesn’t add much flavor of it’s own, but somehow I’ve noticed that it makes chocolate taste better, like MSG or something). He brought the chocolate out in a pot already melted, and added the booze at the table. And the chunks included a couple of marshmallows, a slice of cheesecake, a few chunks of brownies, and chunks of pineapple, banana, and strawberry. Again, it was sad to leave the pot only half-emptied; either they need to provide more chunks (probably a bad idea for the waistline) or give you smaller pots of food (looks less impressive and probably screws with the cooking times and would involve buying different sized pots et cetera). Or let you take it home! That would probably be a real pain in the ass, but it just irks me to see food wasted.
In any event, it was a divine meal and I hope I can do it again, though not any time in the near future. I snuck a peek at the bill and saw that Gordon paid over $150 for the whole thing and I was fawningly grateful. It was truly decadent.
First was cheese, and we decided from the four options there. After turning the burner on, he plopped a double-boiler pan on it and left it there for a few minutes while we sipped our fancy-ass drinks. Then he brought his ingredients and started cooking it for us; white wine, spices, garlic, and an assload of swiss cheese. We had our little color-coded forks and platters of bread chunks, apple chunks and veggies. The chunks of stuff didn’t quite take care of all the cheese, and we considered asking for more chunks but knew there was a lot more food on the way and held off. The cheese was divine, however, and it was a difficult parting.
Next a fairly simple salad. We each got to pick one of four, and I got the mushroom salad. They had sliced a lot of mushrooms very, very finely, almost paper thin, so that there was a lot of surface-to-mass ratio and that made the mushrooms taste a lot stronger than they usually do on a salad, which made me very happy.
Then the main course. We agreed on a ‘cooking style’ (Coq au Vin, IIRC) which just means what sort of stuff we’re going to be cooking our food in. The waiter dropped off a pot of what looked like broth and cranked up the burner to high, and let it boil for awhile. Then he brought some red wine, more spices, fresh garlic, scallions, and mushrooms, and added those. We were given a variety of sauces and dips (let’s see how many I remember: green goddess, garlic butter, cocktail sauce, horseradishy steak dip stuff, curry sauce, teriyaki sauce, and a barbecue sauce) and the chunks (a few shrimp, bite-sized chunks of chicken, pork, and 2 varieties of beef steak (little strips and little cubes; I'm obviously ignorant in the ways of cow), mushroom caps, portabella chunks, tofu, broccoli, yellow squash, potato slices, and artichoke hearts) as well as a tutorial on how to cook everything. We set to, and it was delicious. My favorites were mushroom caps with green goddess, artichoke with garlic butter, beef with horseradishy stuff, and chicken with teriyaki. The potatoes did not cook very well- they either needed to be sliced thinner or pre-cooked a bit more. But it was wonderful overall.
And finally, the dessert. After a bit of negotiation and discussion with the waiter, he brought us a custom blend. Half milk chocolate, half dark chocolate, and a shot of Kahlua (which doesn’t add much flavor of it’s own, but somehow I’ve noticed that it makes chocolate taste better, like MSG or something). He brought the chocolate out in a pot already melted, and added the booze at the table. And the chunks included a couple of marshmallows, a slice of cheesecake, a few chunks of brownies, and chunks of pineapple, banana, and strawberry. Again, it was sad to leave the pot only half-emptied; either they need to provide more chunks (probably a bad idea for the waistline) or give you smaller pots of food (looks less impressive and probably screws with the cooking times and would involve buying different sized pots et cetera). Or let you take it home! That would probably be a real pain in the ass, but it just irks me to see food wasted.
In any event, it was a divine meal and I hope I can do it again, though not any time in the near future. I snuck a peek at the bill and saw that Gordon paid over $150 for the whole thing and I was fawningly grateful. It was truly decadent.
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no subject
Date: Jan. 13th, 2005 11:32 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Jan. 13th, 2005 11:48 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Jan. 13th, 2005 12:20 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: Jan. 13th, 2005 12:33 pm (UTC)From:I t was actually pretty good, like you said... We had the same cheese fondue and Coq a Vin as you, but I had the Mediterranean salad (Greek stuff -- pretty good) and the milk chocolate + Bailey's Irish Cream, mmmm..... I loved the tuna and tuna... the lobster was alright... but I didn't eat the beef stuff.
Overall, it was a pretty good experience, even if it did last 3 hours for only 2 people. :p
no subject
Date: Jan. 13th, 2005 08:40 pm (UTC)From: