Text 21210, 66 rader
Skriven 2012-02-12 19:56:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: dinner w/ friends 218
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Dinner with my friends Beth and Nicholas, Irene and John,
and Gunther. Nicholas was under the weather and didn't show
up, which had a domino effect, as Gunther doesn't drive, so
Irene and John had to pick him up, and they got lost, and
dinner ended up half an hour late. Luckily, Beth cooks her
lamb rare.

We started with salmon canapes of the old school, lots of
dill (I don't care for this herb and think it goes
exceedingly badly with wine) and Cheddar shortbreads,
which were made by a friend and which I ate several of, as
they didn't go to war with the Champers, which was
Deutz Rose n.v. - an old bottle, slightly maderized, very
pleasant, with just that tiny touch of sweetness that I
find pleasant now and again.

Our starter: Maine red shrimp on endive/romaine vinaigrette,
remoulade for the shrimp. Nicely done, the tender little
crustaceans individually and lovingly peeled by hand.

Louis Latour Grand Ardeche 09 - pleasant, very grapy, a
touch of sweetness, nothing exciting, good and emphasized
a similar grapy quality (source unknown) in the shrimp.

Roast lamb (rare to medium rare) with fingerling potatoes
and ratatouille-stuffed delicata squash. When I'd walked in
I noted that the atmosphere was "ratatouillish," and so it
was. At table John and I analyzed how Beth's version was
so superior to ours - turns out John cooks his faster, and
Beth does hers lower and slower; the quality of the olive
oil might have something to do with it as well. I overload
mine with garlic, and she has a more balanced hand; also,
she uses more zucchini in it than I do (which is zero). The
lamb, rubbed with Provencal herbs, was blushing perfect,
i.e. two notches too well done for me, but the timing had
something to do with that.

Pichon-Lalande (Pauillac) 78 - when I opened this: scents
of rot and TCA, which partially blew off after a while,
leaving a very deep, still fairly youthful wine with lots of
currant and herbs, lots of acid and tannin, ready to go
another decade. But there was still a bit of cork that
naggingly remained throughout. Gunther didn't like it, which
increases his luster in my eyes.

I didn't taste the Rogue River blue, because I totally abhor
blue cheese - one of the few blue foods I don't like; the
Monte Enebro (Montenebro, queso de Teitar) was goaty (really
unpleasant to me) but obviously a very well made substance.

Lascombes (Margaux) 78 came in a ratty-looking bottle with a
damaged capsule and a deteriorated cork. John, who had
brought it, speculated that it was kaput, which it wasn't -
it had a whiff of the corkedness of the Pichon, but that
blew off rapidly, revealing a thinning, acidy, cherryish
old lady that was very drinkable with the cheese, though
not so complex and interesting as the Pichon.

Homemade meringues (actually not all that hard to do, if you
have a lot of time and an oven that goes really low) filled
with strawberries, with persimmon puree as the sauce and and
pomegranate seeds as garnish - a nice ending.

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