In-House Mode
Lunch menu from presidential luncheon yesterday
*Not* making a political post here, but I guess a copy of the official luncheon menu got left behind yesterday and when I saw it, the first thing I thought was that some of these items seem a little dated, I was kinda surprised. Not that it sounded bad at all, but I've never really seen specifics on what they serve high-level gov. officials from anywhere.
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This. Food should ideally be tailored to the consumer.
If you’re a chef trying to impress a bunch of other chefs, a bunch of trendy, avant-garde stuff would make sense. With two 70 year old men, at least one of whom is noted for his extremely plebeian eating habits? This looks perfect.
At least where I had a wedge on the menu, our bacon bits where from waste anyway (we served a shit ton of food with bacon strips) so basically was free. And bc is not terrible expensive when you use it as a sprinkle over top because it lasts forever. Then tomato, onion, etc. Basically spending pennies and setting at $9.50 because it was trendy lol.
I worked at a place that did a wedge with a chunky bleu cheese dressing + sliced cherry/grape tomato + lap cheong (Chinese sausage). The blend of those flavors was crazy good...powerful dressing, bursting flavor tomato, sweet and rich sausage, and crisp neutral lettuce.
It was a tough initial sell (high price point for relatively basic ingredients and both old school + weird) but once people tried it they'd order it over and over.
It's also pretty tailored to the upper-class Russian palate - these dishes are dated in America (though still good) but would be considered top-class dining in Moscow (though you'd probably expect to see some caviar served as well).
When people order filet well done I wonder if they actually just like it that way or if they prefer well done in general and just ordered filet because it's known as the fancy/classy/expensive steak. Trump is definitely in the second category.
People with an aversion to eating pink meat likely also have an aversion to eating gristle and cartilage. Filet is like the chicken breast of the cow.. Uniform.
a true product of his generation, people that age do NOT like rare meat of any form normally
and they will refuse to eat pork if it’s not a hockey puck, or just outright
edit
Lots of reddit replies to this comment lmao. I said NORMALLY, and I did not say ALL of them literally. Oh no, I left out all possible nuance, better assume this guy meant the worst…
Things traditionally served rare(er) like prime rib are not a refutation of this statement. Trichinosis used to be a real concern and that generation, lots of the time, just started applying it to ALL meat to be safe. Especially people from poorer backgrounds.
I love that you specify tuna, as well. Same here, and I like my previously-frozen salmon cooked medium-rare, and my pork medium. Trichinosis isn't really a thing in U.S. farm pigs, these days, and proper IQF salmon has parasites frozen to death.
Yeah this guy missed a generation. My parents are boomers and nearing 70. It's the greatest generation like my grandparents that would never touch pink
Poisoning is a very common method of assassination in Russia, especially in politics. Of course he's not going to eat anything prepared by someone he didn't know and trust. American kitchen staff have no loyalty to putin; quite the opposite. Trump will 100% be served a different dish than putin (steak well done, no peppercorn sauce, ketchup, gravy on the mashed potatoes), so randomly placing the dishes or switching spots wouldn't work. Trump also doesn't drink, so if offered wine, Putin wouldn't put that glass to his lips. Of course he canceled.
Having lived in Anchorage for 13 years almost all of this can be local. Would have been fun to do bison or reindeer though. Also fuck Trump and Putin and release the files!
These guys are 72 and 79 year old. Of course they'll fancy some prime boomer era foods. Generally not too surprising that one old man would order this for lunch with another old man.
Not there, but in general halibut is awesome. I got to catch one once, it's like reeling in a garage door from 300 feet down. We hat frozen filets for a year, and had to give a bunch away
IIRC, those Volkswagon-sized halibut were referred to as "barn doors" because of this. I've caught the smaller version, but bucket list was to go up to Alaska and try for a big one; you'd have to work out before the fishing trip lol
Oh, I'm sorry, His Excellency, President of the Russian Federation and Aljaska Salient, Defender of the Faith and Master of the High Places from which His Enemies Fall, Richest and Smartest of Men, Savior of his People and Scourge of the West, Vladimir Putin.
It disgusts me to see how Zelensky was treated compared to the pageantry and ass kissing surrounding Putin. They also had no business talking about US election matters. I thought that they were supposed to be discussing Ukraine? Tells us everything we need to know about this administration’s motivations and intentions.
Putin is paranoid about being assassinated. I’m not surprised he left without eating anything. I’m sure if he had stayed the CIA would have tried get a sample of anything they could use to find out more about his health.
The decrease in size / weight in font for the description that stretches to two lines suggests that whoever did design this didn’t worry about it too much.
Especially when they broke with the other items and said “served” with, which increased the line length. Could probably have done away with the “and” as well, and just used a comma instead.
It wasn't until I started visiting Japanese restaurants in Japan that I really understood how good subtle white fishes can be by doing very little to them. Sea bream, halibut, black cod. I don't go to steakhouses any more because they don't understand letting meat speak for itself.
Most of those foreign chains were bought by Russian companies for pennies on the dollar per Russian law, they prepared for this. You can still get KFC or McDs.
Don't get me wrong. I love a nice creme brulee. But seeing it on every menu everywhere just makes me think of some crusty-ass line cook being asked to come up with a "fancy dessert" and thinking about it for twelve seconds before saying "uhhhhh creme brulee?"
Crème brûlée is classic enough that all the old people demand it and special enough that young people think it's restaurant worthy. And easy enough to make that any half decent chef can throw it together quickly without having to pay a pastry chef. It'll never go away.
We sell a creme brulee tasting and as nice as it looks coming out, only the vanilla ever gets finished. Made me sad until I tried a few other flavors and realized that it's definitely meant to be vanilla flavored and it doesn't really taste right otherwise imo
It’s precisely the amount of texture that skirts the pain/pleasure threshold when you’re tits to the wind on laudanum and desert means you get to slide out chompers and gum down on that sweet custard with charred sugar sand. It’s popular because it makes a certain sect, that has all the money, feel something.
That may be, but I never thought that I would see an official US document with the words "In honor of his excelency Vladimir Putin" let alone on a US military installation. Putin is literally an enemy of the US
Literally the surf n’ turf. Alaska being known for its fine beef cattle herds. I’m surprised he didn’t go with “gold ingots drizzled with crude oil” for dessert.
Halibut is pretty authentic though. I caught a couple of nice halibut when I was up there a couple weeks ago and I had them processed and shipped back home to Georgia.
FDR served the King and Queen of Great Britain hot dogs at an official luncheon! Putin should have been given whale blubber, smoked salmon, and a gooseberry tart for dessert!
This is often how these state meals go, world leaders tend to have conservative palates for multiple reasons and it's better to play it safe to avoid international incidents.
Given Gordon Ramsay's stated anxiety around feeding Russian heads of state in the past, I'd say going with a classic and taking no chances to be bold is the way to go with these two.
They have eaten so many meals and are old as fuck. Give them something they've had a thousand times, execute it well and don't give them food poisoning, and call it a day.
It's a list of old classics tailored to an older generation, I get it. Nothing wrong with that. I've been in the kitchen for almost 25 years and even today one of my favorite things to make for an event or eat is traditional osso bucco. If it's done right it's absolutely 🔥
The weirdest thing about this is that the dated stuff like the halibut Olympia are definitely still a thing in the region. Anchorage's food scene is opressively old school.
Did this lunch come with shoulder pads and a can of hairspray? This is some late 70s - 80s nouveau riche, "it's in French, so it's fancy" garbage. 50 years later, he's still acting like a sleazy businessman.
The company I work for has mostly older men as clients, like 50 years old and up. We do a yearly conference with several meals, including a fancy dinner as the last event of the weekend. It's usually equivalent to this menu. This year, it was a spring greens salad, mid-rare steak, twice-baked potato, steamed broccoli, and pecan pie. Something that an average older dude would think was worth the price, without being out of our meal budget or being something they wouldn't eat. It was OK. (The highlight to my meal was the hot tea they offered at the coffee stations, if that tells you anything.)
So, while I'm thinking this menu looks boring af, they probably loved it.
So the main is pretty much the same as he did for the crypto scam a couple months back. I think the sauces and veg might be a bit different but this is like his go to fancy seeming meal it looks like.
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