Text 9704, 99 rader
Skriven 2014-02-09 19:08:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: LAS trip 180
====================
Our meal. Alex ordered his rare, mine rare-to-blue.
The meat came underdone even by my standards. The
menu descriptions are copied off the Website.

  First Course
  Tuscan salad Wild Rocket/Buffalo Mozzarella/Balsamic Vinaigrette

An expert, quite tart but tasty dressing, closely
obeying Brillat-Savarin's edict, who said that you
need four men to make a vinaigrette - a spendthrift
for the oil, a miser for the vinegar, a judge for
the salt, and a madman for the pepper. The arugula
was about as tame as can be, for which one thanked
the gods. One thing not to be thankful for was the
cheese, which was overkneaded and both bland and
rubbery. Not worth the half pill that I ingested
with the first experimental bite.

  Mulderbosch/Steen op Hout/Western Cape/South Africa/2011

I thought that this very smooth and low-acid Chenin
would be trodden on by the salad, but in fact it
went quite well in an unassuming way. Sort of like
Smithers to the vinaigrette's whatever that warty
guy's name was - heck, I try to put in a pop culture
reference, and I screw it up ... Montgomery Burns
(edited half an hour later).

  Main Course
  Marinated Flat Iron Steak Rapini/Salsa Rossa

Salsa rossa is an unbelievable stupidity with red
meat and wine, because of the tomatoey acidity, so
I asked for it on the side. Good choice. Alex,
on tasting the sauce, immediately scraped it off
his serving. The stuff might have gone okay for
dipping onion rings or French fries into, but
not on something that you actually want to taste.

The steak was a good 3/4 lb, cut from frozen into
a completely rectangular solid. Mine was barely
seared outside and almost frozen on the inside,
which bothered me not at all. It had, sadly, been
rubbed in a salty rub that had lots of rosemary in
it, but the meat, sashimilike as it was, was of high
quality and good flavor. Also pretty tender. If I'd
known it was going to be cooked like that I might
have ordered it rare. Alex's was just seared outside
and raw but cellar temperature inside, i.e., a notch
below how he liked it, as mine was for me. He
offered Kevin a trade, but it was way underdone for
the kid, and he refused the offer quickly.

I ate half of my meat, and it went into the styro
along with the rest of the sirloin.

  Torbreck/Shiraz/Woodcutter's/Barossa Valley/South Australia/2012

A rather nice wine, and on many wine lists this
would be the price charged for the whole meal.
It reminds me, if comparing with the wines I
am most familiar with, of a slightly better and
leaner Clancy's or a slighter less concentrated
Eight Songs. Lots of berries, a bit of leather,
a tiny bit of herbs that might have been magnified
by the rosemary on the steak. When Alex had pulled
up the menu on his phone, this is what sealed the
deal, as I said oh, I can drink the cost of the
whole meal in red wine alone. And I did, as it
kept coming.

  Sides
  Babe Kale with Prosciutto
  Sweet Basil Pomme Puree

The "babe kale" was delicious; as Alex pointed out,
ham (well, he said bacon) makes everything better.
Basil mashed potatoes, however, is an abomination.
He liked it reasonably well, not well enough to eat
my half, though.

  Dessert
  Honey Infused Creme Brulee Grand Marnier Cream/Pistachio

This looked pretty normal, with only the tiniest
bit of cream on top, which I gave away, and no
discernible nuts. The flavor was pretty honeyish,
but I'd way prefer vanilla in this kind of dish. The
texture betrayed some cheating - I suspect a few
tablespoons of flour made its way into the batch at
some point. Worth the pills but not by much.

  $48 per person

Actually, given that we could have all the wine we
wanted, and that it was a respectable piece of meat,
the meal was well worth the price.
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