My business trip to Seattle last month turned out to be very mactacular. On the same day as the Beecher’s Experience, I went out for dinner at the swanky El Gaucho. For the dinner event, there was a set menu, and much to my surprise they brought out this amazing dish of what looked like, no, could it be!? Was this another top ten candidate?
Being that my top ten list isn’t yet full pretty much every mac that crosses my path is a candidate, but this one looked positively worthy!
Gaucho Mac and Coastal Cheddar Cheese
This tangy little number has enough crunchables on top to soak up excess juices while simultaneously (and magically?) remaining crispy and luscious. It’s got a coastal cheddar cheese sauce that practically leaps off your fork, flies screaming into your mouth and punches your taste buds in the face with FLAVOR! The consistency is perfect–not too soupy and not too spackley. The $12 price tag may scare you away, but the serving is big enough to share with 4 - 6 people, and for a mac this good, the experience alone is worth the price of admission.
I’d like to take this opportunity to lie and say that I put that spoon in the picture in honor of my blog cohort Jesec who eats his mac with a spoon. Even though Jesec was not present, my thoughts were with him as I upheld my membership status in the clean plate club.
Oh, everyone at the table tried it, but I finished it. Trust me on that one.
As a side-note, during the dinner I became friends with some of the other folks at the table who seemed to know a little more about mac and cheese than they had first let on. As I started talking about the shapes of pasta, one of them stopped me in my tracks and using his blackberry, directed me to both the English Wikipedia article on macaroni as well as the Italian article about maccheroni. In these articles, it is revealed that Penne is a TYPE of maccheroni!
Penne. A type of maccheroni.
So, those of you thinking that elbows are the only true macaroni, think again. Jesec, I’m lookin’ at you…
This one is a big ol’ “Winner”.
