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

Bachi Grill

Haven't posted in a while because I was in Connecticut for an ice hockey tournament, but here is a meal I ate while I was gone at Bachi Grill in Cromwell, Connecticut.

Started off the meal with bread, and olive oil with spices and a garlic clove. It was really good, the bread had like some cheese baked into it. Super tasty. 

Then I had some caesar salad, which was good, it had a different dressing, but it was still really good. 

I got broccoli rabe and chicken sausage with tomatoes and penne pasta. It was alright. It looked fresh, but the problem with it was that it lacked any real seasoning. It didn't even have enough salt or pepper. 

Someone I was dining with had the puttanesca, and it was a lot better than mine. It actually had flavor, and good flavor at that.

This place was alright, but certainly not one of my favorites. When the highlight of the meal is the bread, and the salad instead of the entree, you know something isn't right. 

Two - two and a half stars.