Travail - I love you

We went to Travail again tonight!  We went there last March and I blogged about my undying love for them.  Well they didn't disappoint once again.  We shared the tasting menu - I think it ended up being 8 or 10 courses with palate cleansers in between. Not one thing was repeated that we had last time (if you remember last time we made our own dippin' dots!).   Just a refresher about Travail - its a small restaurant in Robbinsdale (about 15 min from Minneapolis).  It has an open kitchen.  No waitstaff - in fact the chefs making the food bring it to you and tell you all about it.

I didn't get pictures of every course - but here are just a few things - forgive me - I cannot remember every detail of each dish but I'll do my best:

Mushrooms with mushroom bisque soup and a cranberry foam (they're big on foam here) and wild rice on the bottom (that was crunchy like rice krispies).  Honest to baby Jesus this soup tasted like Thanksgiving dinner.

Marlin with carrots, apples, herbs.  

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches toasted with caramelized onions and curry. OMG.  Shut the front door this was awesome.  I couldn't even taste the curry.

Ok this plate is about the size of a child's hand... on it is a quail egg and duck testicle.  So.freaking.good.  Never thought I'd say I ate a duck ball and liked it.

Ok let me remember this one... I think that is chicken and sausage.  There is also a hard boiled egg in there.  And brussels sprouts.   Never thought I would eat brussels sprouts and like it.  This tasted like breakfast, as did another dish we had involving scrambled eggs, pasta and ham.

Our dessert appetizer - on the left mini s'mores sandwiches, in the middle macadamia nut cookies and on the right macaroons with cinnamon buttercream filling.  There are no words....

And finally our dessert - so this was what looked like a strip of meringue - there were some caramelized fruits and peanuts too.  But the chef who brought it over said there were some fillings "hidden in there" that we had to find.....  oh we are up for a challenge...

Yep the plate had holes in it... and we found the fillings - cheesecake and gingerbread.

Not pictured:  candied oranges on sticks dipped in orange jelly and topped with basil dust and Pop Rocks (!!!!), steak tartar and carpaccio, another beef dish, a couple other palate cleaners and our beers.  :-) 

Please go to Travail!  They do such an amazing job.  Tuesdays and Wednesdays they have the tasting menu (which easily feeds 2-3 people) for $65!  That is stupid cheap for the quality of food you're getting.   If you don't think you'd be into the "weird" food - just try it - most people who know me would say they could never see me eating duck testicles.  Well I did and I liked it!  Run, run, run to Travail and thank me later.