A while back, my wife and I went to Portland’s infamous Tanuki for dinner. Since the place is only lit by the flicker of video screens showing Japanese tentacle porn, the already deliberately illegible menu is even more impossible to read. The only real option when ordering is the omakase. And while there was some trepidation, we were rewarded for our leap of faith. I lost track of how many dishes we were served, but the one that stood out was the Roasted Phở Bone Marrow – which was served with a shot of sake that you were supposed to use the freshly hollowed out bone as a luge to rinse the last of the juices down with. Fast forward five months later: I was a Providore Foods and saw that they had “canoe cut” beef bone. That’s when I decided it was time to attempt to figure out how to make this.
I did some digging around on the web and found a recipe for roasted bone marrow where they poached the bones in chicken stock first before putting them in the oven. I decided try that with some pre-made phở broth I found at the store. I then coated the bones with a mixture of Turbinado Sugar and Chinese Five Spice and put them in the oven at 450° for 12 minutes. But that is where I made my mistake. The grains of the sugar were too big and I used too much. Even after busting out the culinary torch, I couldn’t get the sugar to caramelize. It was edible, but not very tasty. Next time, I’ll just use some plain brown sugar and maybe try broiling them.
I thought that the best side would be Momofuku’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Fish Sauce Vinaigrette (although I used Johanna Ware’s Fish Sauce Vinaigrette dressing instead) and added some diced Sriracha Bacon Jerky. And, I thought that some sticky rice would be a good idea to sop up the juices and dressing.
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To drink, I went with two recent specialty releases from Logsdon Farmhouse Ales: Portland Farmhouse Fest Saraveza Sour and Diamond Princess (Bailey’s Taproom 10th Anniversary Ale).
Jouer avec le feu. 
