Monday, February 28, 2011

Bourbon syrup beignets (JG Domestic)

Put together

This week's AHT related musings are about JG Domestic... a restaurant that serves only dishes comprised of the freshest ingredients available (in the Mid-Atlantic anyway). It's gimmicky, the farm-to-table concept is played out, and the burger is all sorts of disappointing. You should still read my post over at SE... just because you enjoy supporting my cause (of eating burgers?), but here's a short summary: unless you like playing Russian roulette, I suggest you not seek a burger at JG Domestic. At best, it can be considered good - nothing earth shatteringly great - and at worst, you will have a burger that spills its guts in blood faster than a Rambo movie. It made me sad ಢ_ಢ in a way I can't really describe... so I won't.

Instead, we'll talk about beignets.

Beignets w/bourbon syrup

After finishing my burger - and wiping the tears and snot streaming down my face - dessert seemed like a good idea. I don't believe in doing drugs to run away from my problems, but drowning my sorrows in sugar and boozy syrups? Yeah, that's totally kosher in my book.


For $9 (I don't know what I was thinking) you get three huge-ass beignets, covered in enough confectioners sugar to make anyone look like a crack addict after eating, a side cup of "Maker's Mark Butterscotch," and a dollop of bourbon laced vanilla mousseline. Absolutely... incredible. I would've been perfectly content just eating the mousseline by itself (actually I think I did that first), but I have to say... those beignets were pretty sensual. Yes I rubbed them all over my face... I am slightly ashamed at that, but they were delicious.

Duck fat fries

The duck fat fries also deserve another mention. These things are titillatingly good, forreal. The fries at M2M always tasted awesome to me because they did their frying in the same oil as their tempura shrimp... the result was a slight sweetness to the outer layer that I've never tasted with fries from anywhere else. This is kind of similar. If you've ever found yourself wanting to simultaneously eat fries and fried chicken skin (I do... all the time), this is pretty much it. There's a certain... avian flavor to the crust, if that makes sense.

TL;DR - JG Domestic doesn't suck 100%. It just sucks at cooking burgers. Go there for the fries and the beignets.


Patrick said...

Whoa awesome article on Serious Eats!

Stephanie said...

Mmm... duck fat fries. Come to think of it, that perfectly orange tinge almost reminds me of sweet potato fries...

Want. Chat 'N Chew. Now.

Anonymous said...

For $9.00 those beignets better be the size of Kirstie Alley's ass!

Danny said...

man those fries are awesome and if they remind one of fried chicken skin, that's even better! i dunno how restaurants do french fries so well, it's damn hard at home.

Nicholas said...

Patrick - it was actually one of the few posts I didn't enjoy writing lol

Stephanie - yeahhh they do look like sweet potato fries. I'm not entirely sure where the orange hue comes from. WHAT IS THIS CHAT'N'CHEW?

Anonymous - pre-Jenny Craig? Or post-Jenny Craig, but after she got fat again? I think the latter version is bigger. Uh, they were... robust enough to make me feel kind of sick if that's a good enough description.

Danny - like izakaya chicken skins, that's exactly what they're like. I feel like restaurants can do it better just like Chinese restaurants can cook things better... it's all about high heat. I can't heat a wok to the temperatures they can, nor do I have fresh duck fat to work with :(

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