The most amazing meal of my life

Last Wednesday Mr. C and I went to The Catbird Seat in Nashville for dinner with good friends. It took us a month to get reservations and we were pretty excited. Catbird Seat has a very cool concept: only 32 seats surround a U shaped kitchen and the chefs prepare the meal as you watch. The two co-chefs, Jeff Habiger and Erik Anderson, have pretty impressive resumes. It's such a unique restaurant and we loved how each plate was served and described by the chef himself. I felt like I was on Food Network.

It was amazing to watch them prepare each course. If you're a foodie this is your heaven.  And I forgot to mention it is a 10 course tasting menu with alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink pairings. I opted for alcoholic (no surprise there) while Mr. C opted for non-alcoholic.

Let's get to the good stuff.

The menu:

Dinner begins and ends with versions of these little guys...

While they may look like oreos, at the start of the meal they are a porcini and parmesan concoction. At the end of the meal they are chocolate and peppermint. Interesting and yummy.

Below, chef's version of a bologna sandwich, an island creek oyster, and his take on a local favorite, hot chicken. Following that was salmon tartare (that word makes me laugh) with rhubarb and curry, then a cold potato soup with white caviar, garlic flowers, crispy potato, and dill (I ate it so fast it is the only plate I didn't get a picture of). Last was monkfish with sea urchin sauce and a bunch of other fancies. It melted in my mouth and was a favorite.

Next up, duck with lavender yogurt, morels, peas, and something I can't pronounce. Then came lamb with red pepper and raspberry (delicious together) and onion and potato. Last, scharfe maxx cheese (a cow's milk cheese from Switzerland) with caraway, rye, onion, and ham.  Thank heaven above they wrote this down for us (although I still had to google).

Finally time for desserts!! The first was a strawberry cornmeal crumb ice cream thingie, then an egg custard with maple, bacon, thyme, and salt, and my favorite, vanilla cake with pineapple something and bourbon beads. See that thing that looks like a marble? It is a teeny little shot of bourbon. How'd they do that?!

I wish I'd taken pictures of the drinks because they were phenomenal, both the non and alcoholic versions. Particularly memorable, a Prosecco drink with orange liqueur and lemon, a 2009 Evening Land Vineyards Chardonnay, and a 2009 Vin des Seigneurs Mayolet (must've been a good year).

Mr. C and I eat like this every night. Just kidding. There will be no Christmas presents for the children after this dinner.  It's true I could have had a Tory Burch handbag instead but it was an experience I'll never forget.  If you're a foodie and you're traveling to Nashville put Catbird Seat on your list:)