Text 16965, 160 rader
Skriven 2007-06-19 17:00:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Chesapeake tastes 695
=============================
Carol and I had reservations at Sputnik, the funky restaurant
near Annapolis that I've mentioned, but as I waited at the train
station a huge storm blew up, so when Carol picked me up we
had a quick change of plans and decided to go to a new,
extremely popular place right in Waugh Chapel. We got to The
4 Seasons Grille about 7, and there were just a few places
free on a Tuesday night. We were lucky, as by 7:30 pretty much
everything was full up.

We started with a bottle of the Santa Margherita Prosecco
Conegliano Valdobbiadene, a clean, rather too grapy for my
taste sparkler made by one of the premier Pinot Grigio
producers (I used to get the3 P.G. for $5 or 6, before it was
discovered; it's several times that now). Carol, who is a
sucker for bubbly wine, had a ball with it.

It did go well with her cream of crab, which was a somewhat
refined version, a white soup of just the right texture and not
too little crab flavor, topped with an ounce of blended
crabmeat. A sizable and rich serving, so I expended a couple
pills and helped her out with several spoonfuls of it.

And it went better with her veal with mushrooms and truffle oil,
a modest serving of veal in a rich sauce that tasted strongly of
truffle. But the major reason she got this was that it was sided
with a crunchy potato cake concoction, which was nice.

The waiter had announced a pork shank as the special of the
day, and when he described it as a giant serving of rich food,
I was won, saying, now I don't have to go to Munich for
Schweinshaxe ... wrong. It was a moderately big serving, maybe
12 or 14 oz of meat and about the same amount of bone, almost
fatless and skinless, in a flour-and-broth sauce with lots of
diced vegetables in it. How disappointing is that! The sauce
destroyed the crispness of what little fat and skin remained,
the serving was at most a venial sin, and the meat lacked the
deep flavor of a slow-roasted roast.

I'd asked for a nice Shiraz with this, but they were out, so I
got a glass of Foppiano Zinfandel 04, which was pleasantly
peppery but had a suspiciously cabernetty aspect to it otherwise.
The wine was way too rich for the food.

For dessert I had a Nutty Irishman made with decaf (this is
coffee with Bailey's and Frangelico); I seem to recall Carol
having some insignificant chocolate something, nice presentation,
unmemorable taste.

Low three figures.

==

As my friends Judy and Judy were in town, the Fishers decided
to have a dinner for them. Present: two Jo(h)ns, two Carols,
two Judys, one each Vicki, Robin, Michael, and Michelle.

The menu:
crudites with baba ghanoush and garlic naan
soft-shelled crabs and asparagus
tenderloin with balsamic reduction
ziti with chickpeas
spinach and pear salad
cookies
chocolates
Key lime pie

We got there to find the crudites course in place and Judy 1
quite intoxicated (she'd had half a glass of wine). The
baba needed something, so I suggested a touch of salt, which
improved it remarkably.

With this a Berger Gruner Veltliner 06 (Austria), chosen because
the crab recipe called for it, went well - a quite neutral,
somewhat lemony and spicy wine.

We brought the Albrecht Reserve Gewurztraminer 05 (Alsace),
which was rich with honeysuckle, stone fruit, and lychee flavors.
Didn't go too well with the crudites (too sweet) but would have
gone fine by itself or with the crabs.

When we'd arrived, Carol F. had said that she had never made
soft-shelled crabs before, and could I please take over. I
recoiled in mock surprise, whereupon Carol B. pointed out that we
had sort of hypothesized that this was going to happen. The
proffered recipe was from Gourmet or Epicurious or somesuch, and
I studiously ignored it, ending up making two separate dishes,
see tomorrow's posts. I'm expected to do miracles in that house,
and there were 20 crabs to cook (for 10 people - Carol F. is a
most generous host) and nothing to cook them in - I ended up
using a turkey roaster on top of the stove, covering 2 burners
and working in 3 batches. The result was pretty good, and we drank
the Gruner Veltliner with it.

Carol F. had made the tenderloin ahead of time - it was
roasted blood-rare (good) and served with a Balsamic and soy
reduction flavored with rosemary (less good).

John and Vicki brought the wine for this - the elegant and
nicely priced Chasse-Spleen 98 (Moulis). This wine costs about
30- a bottle but would hold its own against many of the classed
growths of the Bordeaux. It was curranty with a hint of coffee
and wintergreen, nicely balanced, and, as it was 9 years old,
not too tannic. Went well with the tenderloin but would have
gone better but for the Balsamic and soy stuff.

The ziti and chickpeas dish was modestly garlicked and modestly
Parmesaned - a little neutral for my taste, but a polite side
dish for the more flavorful crabs and tenderloin.

And the salad was lightly dressed so as not to interfere with
the wine (it had currants and pignoli as well).

The desserts were pretty good - the pie nice and tart, the
cookies nice and sweet (the only problem being that Judy 2,
who made them, tends to overdo things and put both semisweet
chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in, making them as
much candy as cookies. We had some NewTree chocolates, brought
by my Carol: I distributed them by having each person pick one
out of a bag. Carol and I both got Eternity (a good sign), but
she didn't like the smell of it and put it back (a bad sign).
Vicki had brought Neuhaus chocolates, also Belgian, from her
trip to EU headquarters the day before - about 12 different
kinds, each with a combination of hazelnut ganache, chopped
hazelnuts, caramelized hazelnuts, almond ganache,
chopped almonds, and/or marzipan. In both cases the raw
chocolate material was good and the add-ons underwhelming.

The auxiliary wine was Jezebel Blanc 05 (Oregon), which might
have had a touch of Gewurz or Viognier in it, as it had a
distinct lychee taste and an aroma of flowers, but on the whole
it was kind of spineless. Good for quaffing in vast quantities
out on the porch when it's 90 out.

=

Tastes next day.

Pacific Peak Pinot Grigio nv (California) - this is Golden
State Vintners' answer to Two Buck Chuck. It is probably the
most neutral wine I've ever had - there's maybe a whiff of
Thompson Seedless flavor, but on the whole it is a vaguely
sweet-and-sour yellow liquid with essentially no character.
For $9 for 4 bottles, it's not too bad, and it actually does,
owing to its lack of individuality, go pretty well with various
kinds of food. It was also the equal of the Jezebel above at
about 1/4 the price.

Sheffield Very Dry Sherry - this was $9 for 2 1/2 bottles,
but I got it for to cook with. Light brown, clear, mild
slightly musty acid aroma. On the palate, wood, old cellar, a
bit of mushroom, modestly sweet, lightly acid. If the flavors
were more concentrated, this might be a bad wine. As it was,
Carol noted that it appeared to be a diluted Sherry. I could
not disagree. It will be used mostly to marinate chicken and
pork for Chinese dishes.


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