Thursday March 17, 2011 and after one massive snowstorm that prevented everyone from attending in January, the West Wichita Wine Connection finally made it to Jason Febres' "Taste and See." Formerly at Sabor, Jason has struck out on his own with a new unique restaurant focusing on not only on food but culinary presentation, cooking information and a fully interactive dining experience. Jason focuses on the new and trendy "Fusion Cuisine." That is the focus of blending foods of different regions and cultures to create new exciting gastronomic delights. According the "tasteandseecooking.com" website, Jason has been trained in Latin, French, Italian, Japanese and Mediterranean cuisine. The restaurant is an open kitchen style, replete with several flat panel wide screen video panels, cameras and a huge prep area centered around a huge rectangular dark granite presentation tables with high setting dining tables enough to accommodate about fifty people.
I can't say enough about Jason's laid back, convivial approach to his audience putting them immediately at ease with open air candor about his culinary learning's and philosophy especially in regards to the history of what he had learned from his mother. What I also found refreshing is his approach to wine, in which he insists on trying lots of new wines with the variety of his menus. With that said, as we gathered we were greeted with the Adega Eidos Eidos de Padrinan Albarino 2007 which was actually meant to go with the Ceviche Shot and since I was busy taking notes, actually had some left to try with the first course. On the nose the Padrinan showed great delicate notes of pear shavings with light body and medium acidity. On the palate, the wine possessed pear and quince flavors with subtle hints of citrus on the finish. Albarinos are great to pair with virtually any type of delicate white fish or shrimp and with the Ceviche Shot this proved to be true with a great balance of flavors brought out by the hints of cilantro and passion fruit.
Next we moved on to the Eggs in a Crate which sounded to me like a variation on a Cuban Egg recipe. It was topped with prosciutto, smoked chorizo, baby capers, chives and tomato alioli and romesco foam. It was rich hearty and a great pairing to a very young Duckhorn Decoy Red 2008 Merlot/Cabernet from Napa. The Decoy 2008 had a nice nose of Violets, Plums and Blackberries with the same characteristics following through on the palate also being mildly tannic with hints of currant and oak on the finish, tells me it needs a few years in the cellar. My thoughts on pairings with this dish would have swayed me to look more towards a Spanish red such as a Shiraz/ Tempranillo or a Grenache/ Shiraz from Spain, I am going to buy a few bottles of the Decoy 2008 for aging and see how they turn out.
We moved on to the Mikonos salad consisting of organic greens, smoked almond feta cheese strawberry and a guava emulsion for which I saved some Decoy for the salad, not being really sure if the Ave Malbec 2008 was to go with Mikonos salad based on the menu I read. The Decoy actually did pass but the Ave Malbec with the dark black fruit flavors and notes of Bing cherry and cassis was probably meant for the salad.
The paella was next on the list being served in the wok style bowls which substituted for the traditional paellera bowls due to space and fire limitations. This was a mixed paella consisting of saffron rice, rotisserie chicken, mussels, roasted peppers, petit pois and lobster jus served with Amazon consisting of snap peas, corn, sweet potatoes, mushroom melange, cilantro and sweet lime. To go with the paella, was the Evening Land Pinot Noir 2009 from California. A great classic nose replete with the traditional raspberry, Cola nut, Cherries and medium body with light tannins was a very platable choice given the variety of flavors that the paella and amazon possessed. 2009 was a difficult growing season in California and Evening Land is one of the newer producers of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with both Single-Vineyard are larger area bottlings. If you have a chance I recommend checking them out at eveninglandvineyards.com.
I have started to make it a practice to always save a little of the wines to go with whatever is offered for dessert if a dessert wine is not proffered. I'm glad I did this time as well because the dessert offering of a Belgium Chocolate Ganache Torte replete with an Espresso, cookie and walnut topping was absoluteley breathtaking. I liked the Ave Malbec with it the best with the Black Berry and Bing Cherry exploding off the layers of flavors provided by the Torte. Regrettably Jason would not reveal his recipe, but I did find a good basic one you could modify to his style at razzledazzlerecipes.com or just Google Belgian chocolate ganache torte and it should be the first one listed with the instructions for the ganache option at the bottom.
My overall impression of "Taste and See" is that is was definitely one of the W.W.W.C.'s best tasting events yet. Jason provides his customers with a beautiful open decor for viewing the demonstration, a vibrant atmosphere and outstanding dishes. Simply Google "Taste and See Wichita."
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