Saturday, May 17, 2008

The whole hog (or cow, or duck): Deluxe nose-to-tail dining

Joshua M. Bernstein, ForbesTraveler.com Published: Thursday, May 15, 2008

At Portland’s Le Pigeon, diners can opt for “foot and tail” croquettes or duck-duck-pigeon—roast squab with duck confit salad and duck-liver vinaigrette.

Courtesy Le PigeonAt Portland’s Le Pigeon, diners can opt for “foot and tail” croquettes or duck-duck-pigeon—roast squab with duck confit salad and duck-liver vinaigrette.

Colin Alevras, chef at New York City's Tasting Room, recently unveiled a luxury burger that blew diners' minds. While the $23 price tag is chump change compared to the $75 foie gras-stuffed, black-truffle-topped burger at NYC's DB Bistro Moderne, what sets Alevras' meaty masterpiece apart is not decadent toppings but the meat itself.

The Old MacDonald burger, as Alevras dubs it, blends a grass-fed cow's heart, liver, bone marrow, tongue, flatiron, brisket, shank and clod. It's topped with raw cow's-milk cheese and "mushroom ketchup," and it's served on a beer-bread bun. Fries are, incidentally, extra.

"I haven't seen anybody reconsider the burger from the cow up. We don't hide behind its casualness. We are remaking the world's most overlooked food," the chef recently told NYmag.com's food blog, Grub Street.

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