To good to be TRU?

A free dinner at TRU? Really?! I am so there. Thanks Visa Signature and FoodBuzz! And thanks Dave for snagging me an invite.

On Monday night, I was lucky enough to enjoy a five-course dinner in a private room at TRU, with 20 other food bloggers and FoodBuzz employees—everyone as unabashed as myself about whipping out a camera at the dinner table. The whole scene was awesomely geeky, with the conversation focused almost entirely on restaurants, celebrity chefs and food blogging anecdotes. We “Mmmm”ed, “Ahhhh”ed and snapped away with each new dish. The wine flowed liberally. Oh, did I mention this was free?? Talk about foodie heaven.

First came the amuse bouche, which I believe was salmon—things got a little fuzzy in my subsequent food coma, and it’s the only item that wasn’t described on the menu.

To put this into perspective, it was the size of a walnut, the edible flowers the size of my pinky nail.

Then came the first course, peeky toe crab with prosciutto and pequillo. Here’s the dish before it was carefully drenched in a cantaloupe-cava consomme:

It was a little lonely until …

Ahhh … much better.

Onto the second course—a tempura frog leg with roasted garlic, carrot and watercress. My first time eating frog legs, and I probably couldn’t have had a better dish to cut my teeth on (no pun intended):

That sauce was delicious. Savory, garlic-y, good enough to eat by itself.

**BEEP** **BEEP** We interrupt this dinner to bring you a very special guest:

Rick Tramonto! Holy crap, this is my fourth celebrity chef sighting in as many days!

Rick came to our room and graciously thanked us for coming, signed a copy of his cookbook and went on his way. Nice guy. Must be something about chefs named Rick.

OK, back to the food.

The third course was olive-oil poached scottish salmon with granny smith apple, coconut and thai long peppercorn:

Then came the decided favorite of the night, braised beef short ribs with unagi (eel), scallion pistou and miso emulsion:

I avoid unagi at sushi restaurants. Every time I’ve had it it’s tough and has an unappealing flavor.

This is not the true nature of Unagi. Apparently, eel is DELICIOUS; if done right, that is, as evidenced by this flaky, melt-in-your-mouth, perfectly cooked piece on top of an equally tender short rib. What a killer combination. My compliments to the chef.

The dessert course came next—an interesting medley of plums and plum granita, sarsaparilla cream, milk chocolate and ginger-lime meringue. Don’t ask me how it works together, it just does.

And of course, a dinner at TRU would not be complete without the adorable little after-dessert desserts, more formally known as mignardises (I can’t help you with the pronunciation):

We were sufficiently lubricated thanks to several bottles of Alma de Blanco Godello Monterrei 2008 and Niepoort Twisted Douro 2006. I highly recommend both.

Just when I thought the night couldn’t get better, we took a private tour of the kitchen.

And to think, I was going to spend my Monday night watching Real Chance of Love II and eating grilled cheese sandwiches.

Infinite thanks to Ryan at FoodBuzz!!