=" /> The Mile High Eater: Sep 6, 2010

Monday, September 6, 2010

Lets "Dish"

Let’s “Dish”!

We discovered a unique surprise during our recent visit to the Vail area. Located in our hotel room, was a guide to local restaurants and this one stood out for us, so we had to give it a try. It’s actually located in Edwards, which is about 4 exits west of Vail.

The building that Dish is located in, is unique it itself. Its uniqueness intrigued us and we were not disappointed.

We got to the restaurant a little early, so we sat at the bar and had their signature drink, the Greyhound. The Greyhound is vodka and grapefruit juice. We watched as the bartender mixed our drink in front of us, juicing the grapefruit before our eyes. Now, neither one of us is big drinkers, but we both said that this was a drink we’d have over and over again. Ok, Barb said she could have it again, and I went yum. If you are there you need to try this drink along with their evil truffle popcorn. I almost said the heck with the meal and just sat there drinking greyhounds and snacking on the popcorn. I am afraid I may be ruined for all other popcorn forever.
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Don’t let it fool you, this is no normal popcorn. Eat it at your own risk, popcorn may never be the same. Barb was not as enthralled with the popcorn as I but her pop corn savvy is not as finely honed as mine .


Here are a few pictures of the restaurant.
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Jenna in her kitchen talking to a customer.



The Meal
Dish serves “tapas”, which are small plates which are great for everyone getting something different and sharing between you which makes for a great meal and great conversation. We decided to go with the six course chef’s tasting menu.

The first thing out was the “the Original”, which was shaved Spanish Serrano ham, a sliver of artisan manchego, and a splash of alvear dry sherry.
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What you do is wrap up the manchego cheese in the Serrano ham and dip it in the sherry. Afterwards, you can drink the rest of the sherry. This is based on a Spanish tradition.

She said: The Original was good, but it didn’t stand out for me at all. The cheese was delicious, the ham was a little chewy for me, but the flavors were good.

He said: I found this pretty cool, nothing outstanding but tasty and a good start to the meal and the meals conversation, and really when is it a bad thing to get a little bit of sherry!

The second starter was a creamy roasted red beet and ginger soup, with Indian curried yoghurt. dishandkelly0006
She said: The soup was the standout for me. It was delicious. The smell was incredible, and the color of it was gorgeous. The soup was thick and creamy. The yoghurt mixed in created a smooth taste of hot and cool.

He said: When it was coming towards the table and before the waitress started describing it, we both kind of thought it was some sort of sorbet or perhaps a berry based cold soup and I was looking forward to it just based on appearance.


Then she started the description and as soon as she said beets I was "woahh, wait a minute - beets, do I have to?" Probably like a lot of folks the only beets I was really exposed to early on in life were those canned beets that seem to just flop out of the can and sit there on the plate and dare you to touch it, so needless to say I am not a huge beet fan even if some experiences as of late have been proving me wrong.

Well, this is another instance of my initial thought being proved wrong. This hot soup was rich with a great taste. The yoghurt gave a little cooling effect and the mingling of spices from it and the soup made me really take notice. As you ate it, you kind of had a “stick to your ribs” feeling and a little of this soup really made you feel satisfied (of course that could of also been a side effect of me gorging on the popcorn earlier). Beet lover or hater you really, REALLY should give this soup a try.

Our next course was salad. Barb received the Celery salad. It contained celery, black pepper champagne vin, brown butter croutons and artisan goat gouda.
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Jonathan was served rocket greens, local greens, chickpeas, chives, and madras curry vinaigrette.
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She said: My salad was awesome! Who would have thought that celery could taste so good? Once you got all the ingredients on the fork, the tastes just popped in my mouth. As Jonathan says, “Mmmmmmm”. I couldn’t believe how delicious it was and I cleaned my plate.

He said: Barb really liked her salad and so did I. Now for mine - with the mix of chickpeas and the curry vinaigrette which tasted a bit of cumin and other spices, just did not float my boat. It was one of those things where you know it’s not bad and could see that someone else would probably like it but for me it was kind of "meh".

The next course is seafood. Barb is served yellow fin tuna Hawaiian, sashimi salad, pickled cucumbers, sesame avocadoes and crispy wontons.
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Jonathan was served blackened shrimp, chilled, watermelon tomato gazpacho, watercress and avocado vinaigrette.
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At this point in the meal, the chef came out to talk to us. We had mentioned at the start of the meal that we were bloggers and that we’d like to copy the menu down for later. The chef, Jenna Johansen mentioned that she wanted to start a blog, so she asked us questions. She was super friendly and very passionate about her food. She was a treat to talk to. Talking with her you could really hear and see the passion she had about her cooking and food in general and it was a genuine pleasure having the time to talk to her.

She said: At first I didn’t like this course, it just didn’t hit me the way the previous courses had. But in most cases with these types of courses, you need to have every component on your fork. Once I did that, the course improved for me.

He said: With Barb's meal, I actually felt different about it. I thought the tuna by itself had a very nice flavor but once I added in the wontons and everything else it seemed to get a bit muddied, not a bad dish by any means but not a standout. I think in reality for me I only like raw tuna in small doses but I really like those small doses. If I can get a small tasting of tuna I am very happy, but when you get a generous serving I think it just becomes too much. I believe a real tuna lover would of gone nuts over this course.

With my dish was just the opposite when you got a bit of everything on your fork it had a great flavor that I really liked but if you had a bite that did not have each and everything on it, the taste really lost ground. It went from very good to just ok. That being said I did enjoy this dish and the taste combinations you just have to make sure you get a bit of everything on your fork.

Next up for Barb was Crispy chicken breast with chilled glass noodles, carrots, napa cabbage and spiced peanut dressing. dishandkelly0018

Jonathan received Grilled lamb sirloin with Serrano ham and fresh corn vegetable salsa and rancho gordo red quinoa.
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She said: Delish! I’ve never had glass noodles before and they are these thin almost see through noodles. The flavors were strong and bold. The peanut dressing was a perfect combination with the chicken and noodles. Again, I cleaned my plate and was feeling very full and sated.

He said: Barb's dish was very good and I felt really happy that she liked it a lot because there is no way at all I was sharing more than a bite of my lamb. It was MMMMMMMM worthy! Perfectly cooked piece of meat that just melted in your mouth and the corn salsa added a bit of crisp sweetness that made it just scream out yumminess. Even though I was getting pretty full at this point I nearly licked this dish clean. Looking over this review again right before we post it and my mouth still starts to salivate thinking about that lamb. Has me thinking it may be worth the trip back up just for the lamb.

Wow, we still have dessert to get through. Jenna decided to give us one extra dessert to try, so we had three desserts! We were served Chocolate Butterscotch pudding with sea salted toffee sauce and cocoa nibs.
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Next up was Palisade peach rustic crisp with oatmeal crust and vanilla bean gelato.
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Our last dessert was Rocky Road rich chocolate cream pie, with Oreo crust, marshmallow crème and filberts.
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She said: At first I thought, pudding. I can make pudding. Well, guess again. That pudding was my favorite dessert of the three. It was so rich and decadent, that I ate two bites of the peaches and went right back to the pudding. The Rocky Road was very rich, almost too much so for me (believe it or not). I think by the time it came out, I was so stuffed that I couldn’t enjoy it as much.

He said: OK, look back at that pudding see that it’s not really whole, well it got sat down and we both pounced and forgot to get a picture! It looked and tasted that good, yum!. The peach rustic crisp was probably my favorite of the three. Fresh peaches from a local Colorado Farm that alone makes it craveworthy but add the crisp and the art of a great chef = YUMMMMMMMM!

The rocky road was so darn rich it almost kills you to eat it but you can’t put your fork down. What a incredible end to a fantastic dinner.


We would recommend “Dish” very highly to anyone visiting the area, or even for a drive up from the Metro area. It was a wonderful surprise that we happened upon and we would go back again.

For me, the casual relaxed atmosphere and the passionate chef will make it a place I crave, and will be returning to in the future to see what else Jenna can come up with.

Jenna also does cooking classes monthly where she closes down the restaurant and shares her passion for cooking with others. Keep an eye on the restaurants website for details and we will try to list them in our blog when we hear about them. http://www.eatdrinkdish.com/

Some pictures of the outside
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As always thanks for stopping by our Colorado based restaurant review and food blog. If you have any comments or questions please let us know either here or at Jonathan or Barb @milehigheater.com




















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