Susan Troller of 77 Square introduces readers today to Old Market Bistro, the newest restaurant of Forrest "Kipp" Thomas. One of the signature dishes on the new menu is "a French medieval beer-battered turkey leg". Huh?
I have dabbled in medieval cooking and have yet to run across a dish that a KFC of the Middle Ages in Paris would have served. Secondly, and this is the important bit:
NO FRENCHMAN OF THE MIDDLE AGES HAD EVER HEARD OF A TURKEY MUCH LESS WAS GOING AROUND DIPPING THEIR LEGS IN BEER BATTER.
Turkeys were not native to Europe so the French, like everyone else on the continent, had to wait for the Spanish to bring them over from their colonies in the New World. This took a while as there were things like gold and slaves which had higher priority back then.
I don't know exactly what "a French medieval beer-battered turkey leg" is supposed to be like and it is probably has as much to do with the Middle Ages as an iPod but it sounds rather tasty.
I wonder if the turkey leg was either inspired by or compared in the interview to the roasted legs at Ren Faires, and something got lost in translation.
ReplyDeleteThat is very possible. Still, turkey legs are not a period food at Ren fairs either. Funnel cakes are a different story...
ReplyDeleteHad he attended Gen Con a few years ago he would never had made that mistake.
ReplyDeleteHow ironic that you should comment, Aaron. Mr. Murphy asked me yesterday if I was keeping you in line.
ReplyDeleteLast night, I had the worst dining experience of the 6 years I have lived in Madison. Old Market Bistro, which opened at the former site of Cafe Porta Alba, is an embarassment at best and a potential danger at worst.
ReplyDeleteWe were seated at an outdoor table and given menus. There were no drinks included in the menu, and the waitress returned 10 minutes later to ask if we would like drink menus. There were no tap beers available (Ale Asylum was the only beer priced $.50 above anything else), and the white wine ordered by my companion was served at room temperature.
The menu is an awkward mixture of bar food and seemingly typical Italian fare. As vegetarians, our only option was to choose from the confusing create-your-own pasta/pizza menu. Several of my party were hoping to order the pesto sauce, but were told it had already run out.
One person in my party ordered a caesar salad, which was served at the same time as the entrees...well, everyone's but mine, that is. I had assumed the waitress was unable to carry all the food out at once, but when she returned with my pizza 15 minutes later, I was told that she had omitted the mushrooms and had the kitchen remake it. It would have been helpful to know this while everyone else was eating.
Once the "Alfredo" topped pasta was put on the table, it's synthetic greenish-yellow hue and chicken-like scent betrayed it's low quality animal boullion base. I have had better quality brand-name dehydrated sauce (which this may have been). The pizzas came topped only with the stems of portabella mushrooms, the meat of which must have been scattered throughout the pasta dishes. The marinara sauce had clearly been "extended" with an addition of the chicken-based "alfredo", which would obviously prove unexpectedly problematic to vegan, vegetarian, and lactose-intolerant diners.
The worst infraction of all may have been the cracker-like, pre-frozen, burnt pizza "crust." What a sad replacement for Porta Alba this has proven to be. Were it not for the introverted nature of my guests, I would have refused to pay a dime for such a literally disgusting meal. The frozen pizza at the Crystal Corner Bar would have been vast improvement over this disappointing experience.
Anon - I'm sorry you had such a heinous experience there. I will have to rethink a visit to try the turkey leg.
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