Professor Gourmand — My best dishes of 2023

It’s March. I really screwed up on applying for unemployment compensation so in the meantime, I teased this all through 2023, so without further ado, here they are.

First, from Oy Bar, the G/OG burger. The regular burger is fine but this, with toma, horseradish/chive crème fraiche, garlic, shiso-pickled red onion, lettuce, on a Challah bun, was even more to my taste (horseradish, after all). With that, two Gin& Tawnics, now using one part Las Californias Citrico Gin and two parts yuzu liqueur and tonic. OMG!!!!! Jeff could not be getting closer to my tastes if he knew what they were. There will be one more from Oy Bar, but stuff happened.

Second, from Redbird, the Broken Arrow Ranch wild boar, served in a hibiscus verjus with cherries, (potato) gnocchi romana, chard and hon shimeji mushrooms.About the wild boar. This is something else the Redbird kitchen does exceedingly well, and this is the first of the top ten dishes of 2023. I picked out the 2021 Cameron White Oak Vineyard cider from Ribbon Ridge, Oregon to go with it, and it was terrific. I ate most of the wild boar and took the rest home (it was just as good over rice the following day).