My first meat...er...gastronauts outting

So here it is. My first Gastronauts experience. May 5th, 2009. La Fusta (The Whip), an Argentinian restaurant in Elmhurst, Queens. On the menu is calf's tongue, grilled calf's liver and calf's liver 3 ways including sweetbreads (Don't know what sweetbreads are? click on the link).

I get there early, have a glass of wine and introduce myself to Ben and Curtiss, the two organizers. More and more people came and pretty soon we sat down to what wound up being a meat lover's dream meal.



First, out came the sangria and wine. So far so good. The wine, a Malbec was very drinkable and wound up going very well with the meal. The sangria was as a sangria should be, fruity and smooth with a punch that knocks you on your ass.

Out came the first couple of dishes. The calf's tongue was amazing. Flavored nicely by grilling and the herbs on top, nicely textured and not chewy (tongue shouldn't be) and still beef-y. I grew up having tongue constantly in the fridge, in the bottle and mostly pickled. This was nothing like that. This is how tongue should be.

Then out came the main meal. Calf's liver done 3 ways with sweetbreads. How can you make liver 3 ways you ask? Well, they were grilled, sauteed and made in to a sausage. The fries also accompanied the livers as a way to break up the taste and get a little carbs to help the stomach handle all of the meat. I have never been a big fan of liver. The sauteed was my least favorite and the grilled was only a little more palatable. But the sausage (essentially a black sausage) was very tasty and didn't have much of that "iron-y", metallic taste to it.

The sweetbreads though were the star. Grilled until slightly charred, the sweetbreads
were braids of goodness. They had a crispy, slightly chewy exterior and a soft center. Almost like a nice piece of bread, but meat of course.

The wine poured, the meat slowly disappeared (there was a LOT of it) but the conversation continued. The one thing I realized quickly was that the Gastronauts wasn't really about the food, it was about socializing and camaraderie. The exotic food brought everyone together but it was the conversation that was the highlight.

I think I'm going to like the Gastronauts. I already can't wait for next month.

I always wanted to go to space camp..well becoming a Gastronaut is just as good.

It all started about 5-6 years ago when a friend and I went to Babbo in NYC. Mario Batali's restaurant was a prime destination as we both were on our way to become "gourmands".

She is a vegetarian and I grew up with pigs feet and cow tongue. So after getting recommendations from the waiter and sommelier (which were both excellent) I did a little menu exploring. On the appetizer list was a Warm Tripe "Alla Parmigiana". I've never had tripe before and was really curious. The texture was kinda like linguine and didn't have much of a taste besides the sauce. I thought to myself, this isn't too bad. I could probably do something even weirder.

My new obsession was born. Not just food (I've been obsessed with that for years) but weird and different foods. Starting then I would be "that one" who would try the weirdest thing on the menu, at any restaurant. But something was still missing. As i was to find out, I was just going to the wrong places.

A street hockey friend of mine and I were talking about food, probably one drunk evening. She said she belonged to this group called the Gastronauts. They are a foodie group that meets once a month at a restaurant around the 5 boroughs and eats weird food. It was free to join, you just needed to explain why you think you should be a part of it.

Easy enough, so I went to the website and explained that I grew up on pigs feet, cow tongue and every kind of game you can think of (my family were/are hunters). They gladly accepted me with open mouths and I went to my first "meeting" at La Fusta in Elmhurst on May 5th. (follow up post on that)

My life hasn't been the same since. It's something I look forward to all month and do get upset when i can't make one. It has since encouraged me to consider setting up a brooklyn foodie club.

We'll see.


For more about the Gastronauts, go to http://www.gastronauts.net/index2.html