Food, Wine & Friends Page 233
We began with a bottle of Marie Courtin Champagne, a bottling
called "Resonance."
We had some nice little nibbles...
Pate Maison from the Fatted Calf on Fell Street in San Francisco...quite good!
Belgian Endive with a bit of Tapenade and topped with a morsel of Smoked
Trout...
...this was a delight with the Champagne!
We then toasted the Birthday Girl...
Kareasa regaled use with the story of a lame Peninsula restaurant at brunch...
We got busy in the kitchen, oven-roasting some Florida Hopper Prawns...
Kareasa brought a wonderful bottle of Donnhoff Kreutznacher Krotenpfuhl Spatlese
Riesling, a 2007...nicely balanced, if a tad sweet, but "just
right" and very showy. We had a bottle of Karthauserhof's 2009
Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg Feinherb Riesling, a lighter wine and nicely
balanced...more showy had it not been in the shadow cast by the Donnhof.
Still, we enjoyed them both!
And the shrimp were marinated in olive oil with fresh thyme and finely chopped
garlic and Serrano peppers.
We were up to our elbows in shrimp, so finger bowls were helpful.
We then decanted a 1996 Barolo of Chiara Boschis' E. Pira winery...
I
was busy in the kitchen preparing the mushroom pasta...
My little helper was hoping I might drop something...
Kareasa had fallen asleep, it seems, waiting for the pasta...
Pasta fresca con Funghi diversi.
Porcini, Morels, Portabellas and some Crimini mushrooms sautéed in olive
oil. I added a small jar of Crema di Funghi which I buy when in Italy's
Piemonte...
We
all hoisted a glass in honor of our late friend and colleague, Bob Gorman...
Bob was a fan of Barolo and he had foraged some of the porcini used in the pasta
sauce.
The Barolo, by the way, was quite good. But it is still young and a bit
tight at 16 years of age! Impressive.
Connie was perusing the next two red wines...being especially enthralled with
the 2009 Michel Gros Vosne-Romanee "Clos des Reas."
We
had Lamb T-Bones and some Fatted Calf "Duck Crepinettes" as our main
plate.
"Say, Uncle Gerald, how about handing me one of those lamb T-bones?"
The 2007 Pontet Canet was a nicely refined Bordeaux...perhaps a shade more
supple than one might expect of a youthful Bordeaux. It was good and got
better as it aired.
The Michel Gros wine was excellent! It shows lovely fruit and bright
cherry notes with some Asian spices and sweet wood. It over-shadowed the
Bordeaux. Showy young, this should become even more impressive with five
to ten years of bottle aging...
The Birthday Babe.
Meanwhile,
the paparazzi lined up the opened wine bottles for a snapshot...
From start to finish...
A Von Beulwitz Kaseler (Besser Spaet alls) Nies'chen 2006 Auslese.
Very fine and nicely sweet and fairly intensely honeyed.
The Maximin Grunhauser was a 2007 from the Abtsberg...Auslese "75."
Nicely fresh, crisp and tangy, balancing the sweetness beautifully.
Meanwhile, we had a pie contest to judge...Both Mark and Kareasa baked Apple
Pies for dessert.
This was a difficult task, but someone had to do it.
And we had a fresh batch of Cinnamon Gelato to accompany the pies...
I think it was a Pie-Tie and they'll simply have to tackle another pie-making
theme next time!
I had a bowl of Nutella Gelato in the freezer, so I brought out this...
And
what's a birthday celebration without presents?
And
with that we adjourned the proceedings until next time!
Thanks to everyone for coming on short notice and bringing some vittles!
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