100 Favorite Dishes: Charcuterie board from Black Pearl

Suffice it to say that I eat out more than the general population, unless, of course, the general population can catalogue more than 450 restaurant meals in a year -- which is about the number of breakfasts, lunches and dinners that I stomached over the past year. Pathetic, isn't it?...

By Lori Midson

March 17, 2014

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Suffice it to say that I eat out more than the general population, unless, of course, the general population can catalogue more than 450 restaurant meals in a year -- which is about the number of breakfasts, lunches and dinners that I stomached over the past year. Pathetic, isn't it? But all those food dates are worth the gluttony, because it allows us to tell you where you should eat, a little favor that we started in late 2009, when we embarked on a culinary journey that took us through our favorite dishes in the Mile High City -- 100, to be exact. Now we're back with round three, counting down (in no particular order) 100 more of our favorite dishes in Denver (and Boulder). If there's something in particular that you think we need to try, reveal it in the comments section below, or shoot me an e-mail at [email protected].

No. 75: Charcuterie board from Black Pearl

Black Pearl's kitchen, now in the strikingly mature hands of accomplished chef Samir Mohammad, is better than ever, in part because of its ambitious in-house charcuterie program, which proselytizes every scrap, bit, piece and part of whatever beast Mohammad is butchering during his weekly animal breakdown sessions.

The incredible selections are dictated only by the size of your appetite, but I highly suggest splurging on the whole board: Alsatian duck sausage; a sultry duck pâté dusted with duck fat salt crystals and crushed pink peppercorns; slices of duck prosciutto and duck pastrami; triangled wedges of exquisite headcheese; a salty Barolo-cured beef bresaola; and crisp pops of duck chicharrones. All the meats are mounted on rustic wooden slabs re-purposed from wine crates and embellished with a profoundly satisfying spread of heavenly frills, including a trio of housemade mustards; a drift of spicy giardiniera; baked apple chips; bright-hued pickled carrots; and fragments of walnut brittle, which should be packaged, sold and stowed in a safe, just in case you're shacked up with a thief who has a fetish for sugar crack.

Hungry for more? All the dishes in our 2013 countdown are linked below:

No. 100: Foie gras oysters from Sushi Sasa No. 99: Porchetta from Parisi No. 98: chocolate caramel sea salt tart from Spuntino No. 97: Nachos from the Pioneer No. 96: Fried pickles from TAG Burger Bar No. 95: Breakfast burrito from Jalapeños Mexican restaurant No. 94: Jajangmyeon from Yong Gung Dragon Palace Chinese Restaurant No 93: French fries from Jonesy's EatBar No. 92: Fried rice from Benihana No. 91: Lobster macaroni and cheese from Mizuna No. 90: Schezuan beef in numbing chile oil from Chef Liu's Authentic Chinese Cuisine No. 89: lamb tartare from Epernay No. 88: Reuben from the Bagel Deli No 87: Wood-fired chicken from Pizzeria Basta No. 86: Watermelon and frisee salad from EDGE No. 85: Chicken-fried eggs and smoked buffalo hash from Sassafras No. 84: English pea agnolotti from Harman's Eat & Drink No. 83: Sushi - any sushi - from Land of Sushi No. 82: Sopressata pizza from Kaos No. 81: Philly Phanatic from Large Marge's No. 80: Migas tacos from Moontower Tacos No. 79: 100 Favorite Dishes: Pozole from La California Panaderia No. 78: 100 Favorite Dishes: Dan dan noodles from Euclid Hall No. 77: 100 Favorite Dishes: Hot pot from China Jade No. 76: 100 Favorite Dishes: Masala dosa from Chai & Chai

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