A little step back in time: The Thistle in McMinnville

I have been meaning to write about The Thistle in McMinnville since we left. We ate there our last night in town, and it was really quite an adventure.

It didn't really start that well, as Doreen had tried to get a reservation while we were still in Houston. She never spoke to a real person, but left our information. We called once we got to town, but were told that they had no reservation in our name. Oh well. We said that was fine (We had been eating quite a bit anyway) and we would try to come by (late) to see if a table had opened up.

The did let us know that we could probably sit in the Kitchen, and eat at the Chef's Table (though I don't really remember what they called it). We thought that might be interesting, but little did we know.

We showed up about 8:00 PM, and indeed they had a couple of seats at the kitchen. Now, you have to understand that in this restaurant, the kitchen was in the window facing the street. The seats were facing the kitchen, so you could see everything that was going on. IT was only about 3' deep and 9' long. It was a tiny kitchen.

The other thing about sitting in the Kitchen is that you don't get to pick your own dinner. You get to pick your wine, and as is the world these days, they asked you if you had any food allergies, but other than that, you were at the mercy of Chef Eric (shown above).

We love places like this. First of all, you don't have to make any decisions, so you don't end up with Food Envy. Second, you know that the Chef is giving you his best shot (unless he is just trying to get rid of the losers of the evening) so it should be good.

And it was delicious.

They recommended that instead of getting one bottle of wine, we get two splits, one white and one red. That made sense, so we started with a Riesling. (I can't recall exactly which one, but I think it was a Joseph Cristoffel. In any case, it was dry and fruity, the way you like 'em)

As a starter, we had Oregon Oysters. Much different than our Gulf Coast Oysters (which the chef called an "acquired taste". Me? I love 'em), they were served with pickled shallots and a champagne vinaigrette. The only problem was that there were not enough of them.

Following the oysters, we had two salads. One was Baby Gem Lettuce (surprisingly common in the Northwest) with Green Goddess dressing, and Beets with sauce. Both outstanding.

After that, we had two fish courses: Raw Tuna with Radishes, and Crawfish (!) with a dipping sauce. the crawfish were local, and HUGH by Texas standards. The chef called them a traditional Scandinavian  Solstice meal. They were good (but surprising) no matter where he got the idea.

We had one more course before switching to a red wine, and that was gnocchi with wild foraged mushrooms, potatoes, and caramelized onions. Gnocchi are in right now, and when done right can be delicious. These were delicious.

For our red wine, we chose a Willamette Valley Pinot Noir (no surprise there), the Domaine Drohin 2008. We had been to that vineyard earlier in the day.

The first thing we had with the Pinot was Soft Egg with Mushroom. It was a very gently scrambled egg with more delicious mushrooms. Sometimes you don't remember how good eggs can be.

To keep up the egg theme, we then had Steak Tartar, so of do it yourself. The egg yolk was piled in the middle of the meat. You mushed it all together and ate it. Greedily.

Then we got to some dishes that I doubt either of us would have ever ordered. Duck hearts with kale in a cherry reduction, and lamb kidneys with coral mushrooms. The duck hearts were tasty little nubbins, and the kidneys had none of that ammonia taste you sometimes get from older kidneys. (OK, I am being kind. Sometimes they taste of urine. These were wonderful)

By now we could barely move. But there was one more dish - Cherry Tartuffe. We ate it with an Aged Vermouth as a digestive.

A truly delightful meal.