Austin City Limits Festival and Uchi: Both World Class Acts

October 13, 2009

If Uchi were a rock band, who do you think they would be? Comment and let us know your thoughts!

Last weekend in Austin was a busy one. Rain or Shine, the Keeper Collection Team grooved to the tunes of DMB, Kings of Leon, and Pearl Jam despite the mud and the madness along with 150,000 fans. Come ACL weekend, Austinites are so excited to welcome fans around the world to our favorite city. From Louisiana, our good friend and Martin Wine Cellar Retailer, Ian McCaffery, joined us for two world class acts – ACL Fest and one of Austin’s best culinary venues, Uchi! (Great food and good music…how bad can that be?) If you’re a fan of Austin City Limits, we know you’ve heard the buzz about the Rock Star food creations from Uchi. Uchi uses the freshest possible ingredients and the fish menu board changes daily. On this particular night we were enticed by a myriad of fresh fish options.

To celebrate our dinner with Ian at Uchi, appropriate world-class wine pairings had to be coordinated.

After a long weekend of ACL music, it was such a treat to relax at Uchi and put ourselves in the hands of Uchi’s talented Chefs to feed us whatever they thought was best.

We started our dinner with an amuse bouche – the play on sunchokes in this dish was like revving the engine at the beginning of a race – we knew we had quite the ride ahead of us.

Amuse Bouche 1: Sunchoke Puree with Crispy Sunchoke chips and Evoo with Chives

Our second dish included a Huckleberry Boshi – hmmm – we knew it tasted good, but we were not familiar with the term Boshi. Masa, our Uchi Chef, explained that Boshi is a traditional Japanese base made from salt, vinegar, and sake. Interesting and good!

Course 2: Hawaiian Moon Fish with Beets and Huckleberry Boschi

Our next course of mussels in Heirloom Tomato Water was so refreshing, yet full of light savory flavors!

Course 3: Chilled Heirloom Tomato Water with Sake Steamed Mussels, Celery, Basil Oil, and Garlic

Then, we were spoiled with a fabulous seared Toro dish that made us want more. The accentuating flavors of the dried cranberries, garlic, almonds, and gold jelly worked perfectly in this dish without taking anything away from the beautiful taste and texture of the Toro. The Gold Jelly was new for us and added a dimension to the dish.

Course 4: Seared Toro with Marcona Almonds, Dried Cranberries, Garlic, and Gold Jelly

This Diver Scallop dish was superb- yummy butter and beer reduction!

Course 5: Seared Marine Diver Scallops with Corn, Maple, and Jalapeno Puree with a Brown Butter and Beer Reduction, Parsnips, and Candied Fried Peanuts

You simply cannot go to Uchi without ordering their Shag Roll, with the miso-squid ink sauce!

Course 6: The Famous Uchi Shag Roll

And how about a dish that reminded us of Louisiana Jambalaya with a Japanese twist.

Course 7: Kona Kampachi

And next up – 3 days of ACL, why not Sushi served 3 ways!

Course 8: Pepper Shishito, Mushroom, and Cuttlefish Sushi (from left to right)

The ninth course consisted of Foie Gras Sushi. It was so enticing that we ate it so fast we forgot to take a pic.

Then came more Foie, but Pate Style.

Course 10: Foie Pate with Figs, Pears, and Almonds

After our tenth course, Uchi gave us a special treat. We tasted Brook Trout Roe that came from Michigan on a spoon. Keeper Collection is always up for delicious surprises!

No surprise next – we got an all-time favorite dish -Uchiviche.