Whole Beast

Last night was the Whole Beast dinner at Lark. The (mostly) annual dinner is focused on often lesser used parts of the animal. This one was also a game dinner and that is what really drew me in.

We dined on elk liver, bison heart, duck feet and trotter fritters to mention just a few items on the 18 course menu. There were a couple items that didn't wow me but most of the dishes were wonderful.
They served a pheasant pie that was very much in the style of the game pie I wanted to make when I made my ill fated trip in search of exotic meats some weeks ago. I'm not giving up on that yet though. I still have a couple weeks until Thanksgiving.
But I digress ....

I had a bottle of the Terra d'Oro Zinfandel with dinner. It's a reasonably priced wine but is a delicious accompaniment to a rich, autumn diner. Oh and I mean I had The Bottle. My lovely date doesn't drink. It's ok though. I behave myself most of the time so I can afford to indulge in extra calories like that without doing undo damage to my waistline. Or more simply put, I work out so I can go out.

It was nice to make it out to a food event like that. I miss far too many of them because I only hear about them at the last minute if not after the fact. I have my head too buried in my own cooking and running the business. I'm making an effort to be more "out there" and enjoy some of the more social aspects of the Seattle food scene. Not that there is anything wrong with enjoying a quiet, elegant dinner out with a beautiful companion. I intend to keep up that past time for sure. :) In fact I have a date to go out to ART in the Four Seasons next Monday evening. I haven't been there yet and I'm really looking forward to it.
I just also what to start expanding my dining out to include events and group oriented dining. Let's see how I do at that.

One thing I've been noticing lately is that the more I've been exploring food photography the more tempted I am to bring my camera into the dining room and grab images of the food. Of course one generally doesn't want to do that in a nice restaurant. It's usually a tacky move. Still I would have loved to have gotten a shot of that pheasant pie.
I love my iPhone but the camera on there doesn't quite compare to my SLR with a macro lens on it. *sigh*

I did get an image of the menu from Whole Beast to share with you. Check it out.