Wedding Food Tasting at Minnesota Science Museum
Mmm, wedding food. chesh and malcubed are getting married at the Minnesota Science Museum in St. Paul, but they are now living out-of-state, so they sent us lucky slobs (me, elfdope, xcorvis, and Katie) in their place. Me for the photographs and general "I can talk about food for a long time," Katie for the "she's a chef and will know what things should taste like." The men were drivers and heartily approve of this arrangement.
There must be a market for this somehow. Surely there must be other out-of-state couples getting married who want somebody to go to the venues and taste and photograph and report back to them? If you know somebody who needs such a service, let me know!
Tables and chairs and whatnot
The tables looked pretty nice. They gave us some silverware that we didn't need to use, which was more than slightly confusing. They had a number of tables displayed, with different tablecloths and settings. None of the tablecloths appeared to be ironed, which was...noticeable and unfortunate. I thought the satin ones looked nicest, but Phil said the cotton ones were cheaper and just fine--if they'd been ironed. The flowers floating in bowls are, for the most part, fake, and they have lights inside them. The chair coverings were ok, nothing special, but were somewhat awkward. Of course, I don't really understand the whole "pretending the chair is a conservative Muslim female" thing anyway. There were supposedly two tablecloth lengths on display, but the "floor length" tablecloths were of different lengths, though theoretically they were supposed to be the same. The triangle ones are the standard tablecloths and the others are all supposed to be floor-length.
Candy Bar
The candy bar was arranged enticingly. They had to restock it several times, as it was pillaged quite thoroughly by the time everybody left. It also got lots of oohs and aahs as people came into the room and saw it.
Adornment Displays
Pictures can't quite adequately capture the interesting four-tier bowl presentation that they used, because the lighting was incredibly poor in that corner. It looked nifty and ornamental.
I'm not fond of peppers, so I didn't try the "sweet peppers and white beans" bruschetta--Katy & Adam should handle that one fine!
The fresh tomato and basil bruschetta was delicious. Everything was fresh, the flavors were balanced, it was tart and fresh and tangy and yummy. And pretty.
The sun-dried tomatoes and olives bruschetta was pretty good but strongly flavored. It was almost overpowering. It was also quite salty, which isn't a huge problem for me personally, but might be annoying for others.
The BLT cheesecake had good presentation before people cut into it, but it looked less impressive once it had been touched and was one's plate. The texture was a little mushy, but the taste was good and entirely what one would expect from something called "BLT Cheesecake." Bacon. Bacon-bacon-bacon-bacon! Tasted much better when eaten on top of the bread that was put out for the bruschetta.
Hors D'Oeuvre
The gourmet mini-burgers were not good. They photograph prettily, but they were bland and overly sweet. They did not taste much like mini-burgers, more like a not-very-good recipe for those sweet meatballs that always show up at family gatherings.
The smoked salmon canape was, um...I left half of mine on the tray because I didn't want to finish eating it. The salmon wasn't very smoked, so it tasted a lot rawer than I'd like if I'm not eating sushi, and just in general the combination wasn't something I was interested in. Others may disagree.
The ginger raspberry cups were good, and interesting. It was a great texture combination, with soft cream cheese and crumbly-crisp phyllo shells and juicy berries. It wasn't very flavorful, though the ginger gave it a nice subtle kick. When the berries are actually in season, it will probably taste better. It's also not really sweet, which the appearance makes one expect.
The kung pao chicken was good, but not very kung pao. They lie when they say it's in a spicy hoisin sauce. The sauce was not very spicy, though it was zesty and had a good flavor. Really, it tasted more like chicken satay. Eating it was kind of messy because it was a bit on the greasy side of food!
Bread basket
I know I shouldn't get so excited over a bread basket, but theirs was really, really delicious! We devoured the entire bread basket. The berry bread in particular was a cut above.
Salads
The garden salad was a lot better than I was expecting; usually the garden salad is what gets short shrift. It was a pretty standard salad with nice, fresh produce and fresh and "chewier than normal" croutons. What set it apart was the sweet basil vinaigrette, which was more of a dressing than a light vinaigrette. It was very tasty, tangy and fresh with a strong but not unpleasant basil/garlic/onion taste.
The epicurean salad...wasn't. It was alright, nothing special. It is an upgrade in cost over the other two salads, and I'd say it isn't worth it. It had a strongly vinegary vinaigrette but not much other flavor.
The berry bliss salad was endearing, sweet, and delicious. It was very pretty. It was sweet, but not overpoweringly so, and tasty. It was like eating candy...but it was a salad.
Entrees
The duet plate was odd. The chicken was thoroughly cooked but not dried out, the breading was good, but it was drenched in a decidedly sweet creamy sauce that was a peculiar choice for a main entree. It tasted like a desert sauce. The steak had been tenderized to the texture of Salisbury steak (you could cut it with your fork), but the flavor was very good. It was peppery and had the smoky taste of the grill. Also, grill marks. The mashed potatoes were really buttery. The green beans Amandine were the best that I've ever eaten at a wedding, cooked to the perfect point between soft and raw, and neither drowned nor scanted by the sauce.
The grilled North Atlantic Salmon was pretty good. It had a nice seasoned crust from grilling, but was still tender inside. It tasted like good salmon. The potatoes were unfortunate; they were cold, somewhat soggy, and altogether unimpressive. The corn and jumbo lump crab sautee tasted and looked a lot like plain old corn chowder. There were small lumps of crab in it somewhere.
Dessert Station
The desert station looked very appealing. They arranged the trays in diagonal triangles and laid out the tiny little deserts like jewels. The Desert Trio looked particularly impressive (but there was a little problem with one of the flavors). Between us, we tasted all the different offerings (many!), but I can only comment on the ones I tasted.
The petite cheesecakes tasted like...cheesecake. Surprise, surprise. The regular ones were good, but not surprisingly so. The lemon cheesecake (I think that's what it was--it certainly wasn't a tartlet) was tart and sweet and delicious and colorful.
The chocolate-coated fruit was good. The fruit was ripe and juicy. The chocolate used was of acceptable quality and not as waxy as I've seen elsewhere. The garnish for the tray--an entire bunch of grapes dipped in chocolate--was impressive!
The key lime mousse was unpleasantly sour. Not sweet and sour, not tangy, just sour. Seriously, I wondered if somebody had forgotten to add the sweetener. I did not finish this.
The luxurious chocolate cappuccino custard was as advertised. It was very tasty, and not as heavy as I'd feared. Yum.
Miscellaneous Notes
Alcoholic beverages
The house champagne, which they gave us a glass of as we arrived, was acceptable. It was sweet and inoffensive, somewhat lacking in character. Not great, but not awful.
Their white house wine, Pebble Creek Chardonnay (retail: $5.70), was not very good. It mostly tasted sour (not dry, just sour), with an unpleasant undertone. It took Phil to the bottom of his glass to decide it wasn't that bad.
Their house red wine, Pebble Creek Cabernet Sauvignon, was acceptable. It was a sweet, mild red, entirely inoffensive. It had faint perfume and rose flavors. Mostly harmless.
Vegetarian Food
I really didn't taste enough to be able to tell how well they might be able to handle such things. It was very much a Meat! wedding tasting. The bruschetta was good, they did the best green beans almondine I've tasted at a wedding, but that's not much to go on.
They have a page with four vegetarian options in the menu, and the stir-fry can be made vegan by omitting the wonton crisps. She said that they'd have no problem setting aside a portion of that to be vegan and keeping the rest of it just vegetarian (with the wonton crisps).
Balcony
The balcony will be open, but they don't serve out there, though they will "butler pass" if people would like. That will be a *great* place for taking photos, too.
The full set of photos I took can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aswiebe/sets/72157605338925696/
Oh, and chesh? Let me know if you need any other wedding food tasted! Wedding cake, maybe? The wedding coordinator handed over the info for the location they source that from.