Alinea

I don't really recall what made me do it, but earlier this year, I decided that I was finally making the trip to Chicago and get a ticket to Alinea. I think I just had the sudden desire to treat myself, and treat myself big! So, I invited my fellow foodie cousin along, booked our tickets and flew to Chicago. It wasn't really as simple as what it might have sounded. Really, what we had to do was go to Alinea's ticketing website, pick out our dates around a month in advance, and pay for our meals before we even had a taste of the food. Also, only tables for 2, 4 and 6 were available and since my sister wanted to join us, we had to find a fourth person for the fourth seat on our table. M, who also felt like treating herself because she just graduated from university (yay!), became our fourth person. So, there we were, four extremely excited and food-loving ladies, having the time of our lives for two hours of what I would say was the most fun dining experience of my life.

Here's what the interior looked like. We were seated on the second floor. The tables were very well spaced out, giving diners just enough privacy to enjoy their meals and providing waiters just enough space to bring in the food without crowding the area.

The first six dishes came as a set. They were all brought together in glassware that looked like vases in various forms and sizes and arranged on our table. 

Butternut - muscovado, finger lime, West Indies

All the ingredients for this dish came in a straw inserted into a block of ice. We were instructed to sip quick and hard so we can get everything into our mouth. I didn't sip hard or quickly enough so I had to poke through the straw to get the bits of lime that remained.

Shrimp Head - togarashi, pincage

You can never go wrong with fried shrimp head. Crispy, not oily, definitely tasty.

Mongchong - lemongrass, star anise

If I remember correctly, I think the instruction for this dish was to dip the raw fish into the broth to cook it before eating.

Opaka Paka - white soy, ginger

Just like sashimi! Refreshing and delicious!

Scallop - mirin, bonito

The scallop came in a scallop shell. The instruction was to cook the scallop on the hot rock as seen in the picture. 

Pineapple - slush, shot (not pictured)

I don't remember why I didn't take a picture of this. Maybe I was too overwhelmed by everything on the table. Or maybe I was afraid the slush might melt quickly. However, I do remember that this was a nice end to the start of our meal. I think this was supposed to act as a palate cleanser? 

Halibut - mole, avocado, escabeche
I love love love mole, so this dish was one of my favorites. My dining companions probably won't agree. One thing I really liked about the food so far was that the flavors were not too overpowering. 

Maitake - pumpernickel, black garlic, blis elixer
Very interesting - I didn't really know what I was eating even though it was explained to me (though I do have a tendency to be in my own bubble and not listen), but I still enjoyed every bite of it. It was fun to see the whole dish come together as we waited for the broth to cook and then poured onto our plates.

Hot Potato - cold potato, black truffle, butter
a.k.a. one perfect bite. The instruction was to pull the "toothpick" out of the shell for the potato to dip into the creamy sauce and spoon them all into your mouth. I couldn't help but close my eyes and savor the buttery goodness. Can I have more please?

Duck - ..........?????...................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All the punctuation marks on this menu item were meant for the side dish that came with the duck. This flat glass plate with a grid of ???????? !!!!!!!!!! was so exciting just because the whole time, we just played the guessing game, trying to figure out what we were eating. There were items in all sorts of shapes, texture and taste. They can be gelatinous, powdery, crispy, soft. Some were obvious like blueberry or olive, yet there were others that we really couldn't guess. The instruction was to have two items on the board after every piece of duck, which was cooked five ways.

Black Truffle - explosion, romaine, parmesan
a.k.a. another perfect bite! My cousin K would probably laugh when she sees this picture because apparently, when they showed us the plate, I was so in awe I had my mouth hanging open. This small plate had a hole at the bottom where you can poke the spoon through. I don't know what for, but it was fun nonetheless. The instruction for this dish was to put this whole piece of pasta into your mouth and chew. Once you chew, liquid truffle explodes in your mouth. 

Pork - pain d'epices, turnip, orange
Not my favorite, but still very satisfying.

Ginger - five other flavors
Look how this was presented to us! Pull out a stick and put a ginger in your mouth. Chew. Simple as that, but oh so fun!

Carrot - coconut, white sesame, caramelized honey
The idea here is to eat everything on top of the vase and sip the tea. This dish also came with a metal straw. All the flavors were light and subtle, very soothing.

Balloon - helium, green apple
Make no mistake, this was a dish. Yep, I ate a balloon! I love telling people that. Whenever someone asks me about Alinea, I respond with, "I ate a balloon!!!" This balloon is green apple flavored, The balloon itself tasted like green apple and felt sticky like candy. The string was also green apple. The helium also tasted like green apple. The fun part was you get to inhale the helium and talk like a chipmunk.

Dark Chocolate - chestnut, rye, birch, syrup
Finally, dessert! Inside that ball of chocolate in the top picture is cotton candy, candied orange peels (?) and frozen waffles. Before they broke the chocolate ball, they painted on our table with syrup in 3 different flavors and added malted brownie bits to the scene. Watch how they prepared the dessert on our table below.



Well, that was everything. Each of us spent around 325$ for our meal if you include tax and tip. It's definitely an experience I would recommend, if you have the budget and the time for it. We went during the Easter weekend, so Grant Achatz unfortunately wasn't around. Maybe that's reason for me to go back for another visit :)

Alinea
1723 N Halsted St
Chicago, IL
(312) 867-0110