Having made it a personal mission to go to Maude almost every month since they opened in 2014, when October brings a "Greatest Hits" from the past four years, it should not come as a surprise that the Maude October 2017 menu is the Please The Palate pick of the week. This dinner marked my thirty-seventh meal at Maude (out of a total of forty-six seasonal menus in total). Maude's October 2017 menu offered a fourteen-course tasting of some of their Greatest Hits! With almost 500 dishes to chose from, they whittled it down to the top twelve. Although I am sure that there are many more dishes that could qualify, some dishes could not be included because the featured ingredient is not currently in season. The diverse menu played homage to four years of creative, diverse and distinct menus and it was yet another great meal shared with friends and good wine.
07 October, 2017
Ever since Chef Bruce Kalman opened Union in Old Town Pasadena in 2014, it had been at the top of my list of restaurants to visit. I had tried his fresh, home made, delicate pasta dishes at various food and wine events around town but just could not seem to get myself across town to Pasadena. But finally I did and it was everything I anticipated and more. Union is a 50-seat restaurant and bar located in a stripped-down storefront on Union Street. Brick walls, large windows looking out at the street and minimalist decor create an intimate and casual atmosphere similar to restaurants in San Francisco, Brooklyn and beyond. 
03 October, 2017
I have enjoyed thirty-six meals at Maude over the past four years and while every menu has been very good, with some dishes being great, a few months have just been a home-run with each and every bite being as good, if not better, than the last one. September's melon menu is one of those months. Melon is a quintessential summer ingredient. With the bitter-sweetness of summer ending, the sweetness of the melon was a perfect ingredient to feature. A relative of the cucumber, summer melons include cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon, as well as many others. Maude explained on their website that "summer melons include those with a raised cross-hatched pattern or netting on the rind. The Charentais variety is characterized by the green ribs on the rind. Its tender, apricot-orange interior and gorgeous fragrance, make it the perfect dessert melon. Muskmelons are known as cantaloupe in the U.S. Their pale orange flesh is juicy and sweet. The Galia is a honeydew-cantaloupe cross. Spherical and small, the creamy, light green flesh is spicy-sweet. The Ambrosia is a hybrid muskmelon with a highly-perfumed scent, best enjoyed fresh. The popular Spanish variety, Piel de Sapo, has a rough, dark green exterior and crisp flesh and pairs well with salty, smoked meats. And we'd be remiss to exclude the watermelon, the largest of the melons. Barrel-shaped with bright, pink flesh, which can also be yellow or white." For this menu, we decided to do the wine pairing created by the Maude team. And, like most meals at Maude, we started with champagne - Vazart-Coquart Brut Reserve Blanc de Blancs Champagne.
26 September, 2017
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