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If you’re any kind of epicure, surely you know about the Bedouin feast for which a camel is stuffed with a sheep which is stuffed with chickens which are stuffed with fish which are stuffed with boiled eggs. It’s the original Turducken. No? Well, perhaps you recall the scene in Fellini’s Satyricon when a chef impresses the assemblage at a banquet by using a sword to slice open the belly of a pig, to free a tumbling mass of “thrushes, fatted hens, bird gizzards, sausage ropes, tender plucked doves, snails, livers, ham and offal.” Ring any bells?
It’s more likely you recall the Seinfeld episode when George lives out his fantasy of eating pastrami mid-coitus, on the kitchen floor.
You can test just how far your culinary debauchery extends by trying an off-the-menu appetizer at Bugatti’s, the Italian steakhouse at Ameristar Casino, they’re calling the “Bone Luge.”
The Bone Luge starts out as a relatively normal bone-marrow appetizer (above). A massive, half-sawed beef shank bone is roasted with an attractive coating of asiago cheese and parsley. It’s served with planks of rosemary-tomato focaccia drizzled in a port reduction, plus a tomato-onion jam on the side.
You can scoop out the rich vein of fatty marrow and spread it on the focaccia with the savory jam. It’s an umami bomb, with the dark notes of juicy fat, sticky port, and concentrated tomato playing off one another.
But it’s what Bugatti’s Restaurant Chef Trenton Thrun and Ameristar Executive Chef Christopher Ipanis (below) want you to try next that’s barmy: you can turn the scooped-out bone into a liquor luge.
By pouring port wine, a big Cabernet, or even bourbon down the chute as you tilt it towards your mouth (above), you can drink and dine like some kinda haute-bourgeoisie caveman on a bender. You might not want to wear a white shirt for this stunt.
The marrow appetizer is available but not listed on the menu, so if you ask for it, tell ‘em you read about it here. It’s $11.99 (luge liquor not included).
Inspired by these marrow games, the chefs have created two condiments that take it to the next level. A bone-marrow compound butter (below left) may be ordered as a sauce for steaks. It’s made with butter, marrow, and herbs, and it’s tasty, but it’s the other condiment that is so damn rich I actually started laughing when I tried it.
Cubes of fried bone marrow, served atop prime rib (above right), are astonishingly flavorful. These are made via a three-day process of multiple soakings to draw out impurities from the marrow. The gelatinous cubes are then dusted in corn starch and flash-fried. They taste like deeply flavorful steak fat with fried crispy edges that have a deeper flavor still. It’s every bit as decadent as it sounds. When eaten with the prime rib, it’s like “steak squared.” The fried marrow itself could be sold at the Texas State Fair fried-food gauntlet and the rancher crowd would knock down the stand from excitement.
Other dishes about to bow on the Bugatti’s menu are similarly beefy and wintry. Porchetta meatballs (above) made with ground pork, veal, lamb, and spinach are simmered in a Bolognese sauce and served atop a parsnip puree. Super-chewy garganelli (below) is formed on a gnocchi board to create flavor-catching grooves; that’s also served in a Bolognese sauce.
House-made tagliatelle (below) is supported by a braised short-rib ragu with Gorgonzola cream, pearl onions, Ozark Forest Mushrooms, and lemon juice. Thrun calls it his Italian version of Beef Stroganoff.
Ameristar is home to no less than nine restaurants. Just down the simulacrum of a boulevard, the Falcon Diner has recently debuted some new goodies, too. “Adult pie milkshakes” are made with a slice of pie and a dollop of booze poured right into the blender. Flavors include coconut cream pie with Malibu rum, chocolate silk pie with Godiva liqueur, banana cream pie with vanilla vodka, and lemon meringue pie with limoncello (right).
About 30 feet away at Pearl’s Oyster Bar, they’re preparing to reveal a fun new beverage option for diners: using various sweet syrups and water in a soda siphon, you can make your own craft soda at the table. Guests will be given three to five syrups in flavors like pineapple-orange-ginger, creamsicle, and even an herbal/savory blend with grapefruit-tarragon-thyme. (Some syrups will use substitutes for sugar like sorghum, said Ipanis.) By controlling the amount of syrup you use, you determine the sweetness of the pop. You’ll get a bunch of glasses full of ice to try multiple sodas, too. The DIY soda fun will be available beginning a week from Friday, said Ipanis. Just don’t drink too much, or bad things might happen.
Bugatti’s Ameristar Casino St. Charles www.ameristar.com
