North Pond: One Michelin Star

North Pond: A One Michelin Star Restaurant
(Shrimp and Corn soup: Course 2)
During the last month of summer, I took a trip to Chicago, Illinois and the overall goal was to eat as much food as possible.  I did succeed at this and you can check out all the other restaurants I ate at on the trip here.  This particular restaurant was one of two Michelin starred dinners I had the privilege to try while I was in Chicago.  The Chef and partner Bruce Sherman, influences for the restaurant came from Paris, Southeast Asia, and London. These influences make for the fantastic production of his contemporary French-American, seasonal modern cuisine.  Just last month Bruce announced his departure from the restaurant at the end of the year.  The new Executive Chef will be Tim Vidrio, previously he held the Chef de Cuisine title from 2016 until the present day, but as Bruce leaves, Tim has been titled Executive Chef for 2020.  I'm excited to see the changes that may be made at North Pond under the new Chef.  
From the moment I arrived at the restaurant, I astounding at its beauty.  The restaurant sits facing North Pond, yes an actual pond.  This gives the restaurant gorgeous views of the water and the city skyline.  I also had a well-timed dinner, that allowed me to watch the sunset during service.  If you notice in the picture below, the windows in front of the building are opened when the weather allows.  I had the great experience of getting to feel the city through these opened windows.   
My dinner was about 2 hours long and consisted of five courses.  Naturally, I got the seasonal tasting menu in order to have the full North Pond experience. Also, I made my reservation right after my 19th birthday so on my reservation I did mention I was celebrating and my menu was personalized and read "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MALLARY" on the top and I got to bring it home!  This was just the beginning of my incredible and intimate experience.  So let's get right into the food!

Potato, Sour Cream
I hate to start with my least favorite thing, however, this was my least favorite course.  I wouldn't say it was bad, it just didn't wow me like some of the other dishes.  The dish was layered with smoked sour cream panna cotta on the bottom, moving up we have a knob onion puree, followed by fig and caviar, topped with a maple foam and russet croissant.  The maple foam and knob onion puree were super good and held a lot of flavors, along with the perfect crisp of the russet croissant, the top layers were splendid.  It was only the smoked panna cotta that I wasn't the biggest fan of.  The texture was too gel-like for me, and the dish overall needed another textural element. 

Shrimp Corn
Moving forward to a dish that wowed my taste buds, we have the shrimp corn dish.  The dish was finished tableside when they poured the soup over all the other detailed elements.  This dish consisted of poached gulf shrimp, popcorn "tamale", olive caramel sauce that creates the line that the ingredients are placed on top of, followed by plums and a Michelada gel.  The whole dish is then completed with the pouring of the sweet corn soup.  This dish was perfectly balanced between the sweet corn and plums and the salty tamale.  The fresh herbs on top added a touch of freshness.  The shrimp were perfectly cooked, and overall the flavors of this dish just worked really well together.

Cauliflower, Sesame
 This was by far my favorite dish of the evening.  The dish consisted of a warm cauliflower- sesame tartelette that was to die for!  The flavor of it was incredible with a perfect amount of saltiness, I would further to say that it held all the umami for the dish.  Continuing to the filling, it had chickpeas, yogurt, and honey.  The yogurt added the touch of acidity and also creaminess that the dish needed.  On the side, it has a piquillo pepper sauce and arugula.  The piquillo sauce was a great balance of spicy and flavorful and the arugula on the side added a touch of brightness to the dish.  This dish had every flavor profile for a perfect balance as well as texturally- it was crunchy, soft and tender.  

Lamb, Apricot
This was the main course of the tasting menu! This dish consisted of grilled lamb leg with a braised meat "kanafah".  Kanafah is a traditional middle eastern dish with noodle-like pastry or semolina dough layered with cheese.  This the darker starch in the center of the plate.  The dish also has apricots and cucumber, herb, pistachio, and sheep's milk feta salad.  I don't typically like lamb due to its gamey flavor, but this was very good! it wasn't super gamey and was cooked well.  The herb salad helped to cut the heaviness of the meat, and the apricot added a touch of sweetness.  Lastly, the sheep's milk added a touch of creaminess to the dish to make it complete.  

Peaches, Almond
Peach Tart- Cherry "pie"  with a cobbler crumb to add texture.  Finished with blueberries and herbs.  The blueberries and herbs worked really well together to make the dish fresh and bright.  The dish was well balanced between sweet and tart.  I've always felt weird about herbs on desserts other than maybe mint, but this dish showed me how herbs can be used to create balance and add flavor even in a pastry course.  I wish I had pictures of this dish but unfortunately, I missed this plate.

Birthday Truffles:
As I said before I did put in my reservation that I was celebrating my birthday, so after my dessert, I received to bite-size dessert snacks.  One was a chocolate truffle and the other was a pate de fruit.  This is essentially a jellied fruit-flavored square.  I also don't have a picture of this, because my phone was almost dead, my apologies for that.

North Pond was the best restaurant I ate at during my 3 days in Chicago, so of course, yes I would recommend this restaurant to all of you.  For anyone that doesn't know me personally a little bit more insight into the review- I do closely know someone who works at North Pond which is why I decided to dine here.  However, please don't assume that means that this was biased!  The food was absolutely incredible, everything had well-developed flavors and it helped me to appreciate the food knowing the number of hours and hard work that goes into each dinner service.  As always thank you so much for reading, please don't forget to share this with a friend or fellow foodie! 

From my kitchen to yours,
MallaryMade


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