Boar, Pork Belly, and Ragu

Meal eaten at Victoria Country Club in Riverside, California.

Every time I eat at Victoria, I start off the meal in basically the same way. I get an ice water with lemon, a caesar salad with the dressing on the side, and then we get a basket of different kinds of rolls. My favorite roll in particular happens to be the cheese one, but if you look closely in the picture below, you can see a half-eaten piece of a raisin roll. After the salad and the roll, I usually ask for the chef's special. This time was no different.

The picture is a bit messy, but the meal itself seemed to be quite well thought out. Considering the fact that even here in California it's been cold lately, heavier choices of meat make the most sense to serve when you are doing a "seasonal" dish. 

In this case, I had boar with yogurt and bourbon sauce, pork belly, and a tomato ragu. You can make out the bourbon sauce in the left part of the plate, it's sort of a brown color. It was good, however, I liked the yogurt sauce (middle of plate, yellowish color) better. It just stood out more against the boar, and I really like the contrast in texture and taste. 

The boar was good, but I liked the pork belly even better. I have eaten pork belly at Victoria before, and didn't find that I liked it so much, but this time it was really good. It was incredibly tender and juicy. 

The boar was good, the pork belly was good, can't say that the meal could get much better, but, it did. The tomato ragu, though just a mere part of the dish, ended up being the shining star for me. It was delicious. It was tomatoes, onions, and yukon gold potatoes, and it was wonderful, especially all mixed together. It certainly completed the dish for me. 

Boar is not my favorite meat, nor is pork belly, but I enjoyed eating this meal. On a cold day, it warmed me up just right. 

Four stars, I'd say. Would have been a three without the ragu!

On a more personal note, Happy New Years to everyone and I hope you all have a great 2009! I look forward to a lot of good eating, cooking, and reviewing. 

Peace, Love, and Best Dishes

Kayla

Young Pigeon?

Eaten at Victoria Country Club in Riverside, California.

Yet another meal at the Country Club. The Chef usually has specials for dinner, and I usually end up picking one of them (odd as they may sound). This was no different. 

I had never heard the term "squab before" and I'm almost glad, as it turns out it means a young pigeon. You know those things in the park that poop on the benches everywhere, yep, that's them.

Anyway, pictured above is boar with ju, and a squab lasagna with a dehydrated tomato on top. The boar was excellent, moist, juicy, and cooked perfectly. However, the lasagna was nasty. The squab basically tasted like ... blah ... that's the only word that really describes it. It doesn't have a very overwhelming flavor, it's just kind of there. Mostly it taste like really gross chicken, only plainer. It is a very hard thing to describe.

Certainly not my favorite meal. Hated the squab, liked the boar. Three stars, only because the boar was so good.