This is another awesome Tasting Collective dining club event we attended. (You can read about the previous posts about Tasting Collective events here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/fish-cheeks/ http://www.foodlovergirl.com/win-son/ http://www.foodlovergirl.com/f-o-b/ http://www.foodlovergirl.com/xixa/ http://www.foodlovergirl.com/huertas/ http://www.foodlovergirl.com/bessou/ and http://www.foodlovergirl.com/maharlika/). Tasting Collective is a dining club for food lovers, and they offer brunch and dinner at great NYC restaurants. They close off the restaurants for the club, so we get to have the entire restaurant and chef(s) all to ourselves. So, this is more than just eating food at a restaurant, but you get to have the background story and its passion from the chef(s), eating 8- to 12-course brunch/dinner created specifically for Tasting Collectives.
This event was held at Traif, 10-Course Globally Inspired Feast. Ever since I joined Tasting Collective, the name Traif kept coming up as everyone’s favorite restaurant event. And this is a diners club of food lovers, I was so curious… We did get to visit their sister restaurant Xixa for brunch event, but that in a way limits what the chef can do…so, when they were going to offer a dinner event at Traif, we jumped on it!
The owner and chef, Jason Marcus, who is Jewish shows his own, unique desire for food and rebellious nature with this restaurant. Its name, Traif means “non-kosher” in Yiddish, and yes they do serve everything non-kosher from pork to shellfish. And as an alumni of Eleven Madison Park and Le Bernardin, his talent, creativity and imagination simply cannot be limited or restricted by kosher law…at least, his customers are delighted that he didn’t limit himself in that way.
The interior is much more simple than that of Xixa which had more elaborate design. This one was more industrial, chilled, and with very cool, modern, abstract art decor throughout. I liked the mix of straight and curved lines, minimal but yet distinctive colors, simple furniture and warm, soft light inviting customers in.
They had a very lovely patio in the back, and this is where we sat for the event. I really liked it here, it had more natural light coming in before the Sun went down, and then lit up with festive string lights. They had good amount of greenery around it that made the space even more relaxing.
Once everyone arrived, we were ready to get this event started! Chef Marcus had a very successful events two nights in a row, to a sold out crowed. He was very gracious, humble and grateful, said that it made him feel like a rock star. He is such a personable, warm-hearted and funny person, no wonder he is adored by many of the Tasting Collective members and all other royal customers.
We started off with a couple of drinks. We chose Yuzu Kosho and Drink Like its Spring. They had good wine selections as well, but we love cocktails, so we went with just these.
Yuzu Kosho is made with bourbon, spicy yuzu-honey cordial lemon, and sesame-black peper salt rim. It was very strong, high quality and a totally “adult” drink. It gets you to be in that relaxing mode from the first sip, but yet has that refreshing flavor from yuzu, and wake you up with spices. Complicated but mellow, sophisticated drink.
Drink Like its Spring (love the name!) is made with gin, crème de lavendar, lime, cucumber, rasberry and soda. It certainly was a great drink for Spring, or anytime when you want to feel like Spring. It was very refreshing, easy to drink, classy drink. It had right amount of fruity-ness without being too sweet. I really liked it.
For this event, they had cute little wooden serving utensils. As it is not made of metal, it was not strong enough for some items, but it is always good to have extra serving utensils for family-style meals.
Now, let’s get to the food! The first course was Roasted Rainbow Carrots with black jewel grapes, green goddess yogurt, dukkah, and feta. Now, by looking at the menu, I thought it was just some kind of salad-type dish. Just some greens, right? Wrong! This dish was amazing! It was refreshing, full of flavor that was mild and comforting. Feta added great pop of strong flavor and it was really tasty. I loved it!
The second course was Cured Fluke Sashimi with pickled green tomatoes, cucumber, lime radish, and wasabi. It was super fresh, with nice thick slices of fluke. Loved the spicy-ness to it. I could have had the whole plateful all on my own… The lime radish was refreshing and went great with sashimi. It was really lovely!
Third course was Salt & Pepper Hamachi Collar Wraps. This one was pretty interesting. It is cooked Vietnamese-style with nuoc cham, chilis, and garlic herbs. The meat was still on the bone, and it was not so easy to get the fish meat off the bone, especially when you are supposed to share the dish among four people… But, the hard work did pay off. We wrapped the shredded hamachi on the lettuce, dip it in the sauce, and into my mouth! Very tasty and interesting. Crunchy outside with juicy inside, addition of lettuce gave extra freshness its crunchy texture.
Then we moved onto Crispy Sweetbreads with pencil asparagus, mushrooms, white wine, and chicken jus. One of the Tasting Collective member, an older lady, said that this is the only place she can enjoy the Crispy Sweetbreads, because “they know how to do it NOT disgusting” which was kind of funny. It was very tasty, juicy and packed with flavor. It was like super delicious little fried chicken. The asparagus and the rest was really tasty too. Well done!
Then we had Roasted Berkshire Pork Belly with jumbo lump crab, sea urchin-saffron butter, and creamy polenta. I realized that I wasn’t taking much pictures after they first come out to the table, because each dish was so tasty and amazing, I couldn’t think about anything other than eating them! This one was so creamy and awesome! Polenta was so flavorful and had depth to it, and the meat was so juicy and tender, melted in my mouth!
The sixth course was Smoked Lamb Puttanesca Cavatelli with tomatoes, saffron, olives, and mint. As you can tell, it was getting pretty dark out, so the photo quality suffers… but not the quality of the dishes! The pasta was super plump, like how a fresh homemade pasta would be… It was packed with flavor, and had nice kick to it. I really enjoyed the spicy-ness of the dish. A great comfort food that is at the highest level!
The lucky number seven was Seared Scallops & Risotto with snap pea risotto, shallot, and lemon-caper brown butter. We each got one scallop, but it was a good size and plump, and super tasty! The chef told us that the best way to cook the scallop is to sear it only on one side, otherwise, the natural flavor of the scallop can be overrun by the flavor of the sauce/seasoning. Interesting! The Risotto was velvety, satisfying and addictive. My goodness he knows how to cool so darn well!
The last savoring part of the course was coming to an end. The course number eight was Dry-Aged Venison with whipped blue cheese and huckleberries. The red liquid seen here is from the huckleberries. It was great mix and texture of flavors with berry, blue cheese, and sweet potato. The meat was tender and cooked just right, a great ending to the savory part of the course.
Then we go into the desserts… First up was Warm Sugar Maple Pie with rhubarb-buttermilk ice cream. This pie was heavenly! I sooo wished if we each have gotten this pie…sharing was so hard when something taste this good!
It was warm, sweet, decadent and just makes your tummy smile. My taste buds were having the best party ever! I don’t how this very simple looking pie, and a simple name liek Sugar Maple Pie can be so extremely tasty, but it certainly was amazing!
The last course was Toasted Pistachio Budino with salted caramel, dark chocolate, and olive oil. First of all, sharing a dessert like this among four people…really…? It was already a small glass, and to share something that is kind of a creamy pudding in a small glass with four people! Well, we were not going to let this stop us, so we did it with difficulty. I am glad we sat with great people who were great about sharing. And it was great too, very smooth, creamy and velvety. Great ending to the great dinner.
The staffs here were great, friendly, efficient and made us feel welcomed. We got a new small plates with almost every course, which doesn’t happen at most other places. We were super happy that we got to try Traif, I now know the reason why this is the most popular spot among the Tasting Collective members. My taste buds were having the time of their lives the entire night! I would love to go back again for more of their amazing dishes!
For those of you who are interested in joining this great dining club, Tasting Collective, you can use this link to get a discounted annual rate of $115 (over 30% off the normal $165/year) for the first year: https://tastingcollective.com/?invite_code=JUN4346
Traif – 229 S 4th St, Brooklyn, NY 11211