Read Drink & Be Merry

M and I celebrated our second anniversary last week. For our first we had gone to Lemaire for dinner and had decided that we would make that our tradition. The dilemma, faced with a shaky economy and soaring gas prices, was did we want make that kind of dining investment. The solution soon presented itself. A six-course wine tasting dinner for $100 per person, including tax and gratuity. What better way to enjoy fine dining – subsidized by Orchid Hill Vineyard.

We arrived a few minutes before the start and, after a quick chat with Genevelyn, staked out a couple of seats. The staff soon started pouring wine and brought out a cheese platter. With the exception of a very tasty boursin style cheese the rest were standard and boring (brie, swiss, smoked gouda). The wine paired with this course was Orchid Hill’s 2006 Muscat Canelli. The wine rep made a big point of telling people that this was not a normal sweet Muscat. He was right, it was more reminiscent of a Pinot Gris, a much more crisp wine. It was nice but not a real standout. Not something you order for dinner but it might work well on a porch on a warm afternoon.

After a brief speech about the vineyard we took our seats and the first course quickly arrived – Early Season Soft-Shell Crab with Herbed Orzo, Ramps, & English Peas. The crab was excellent, crispy exterior with sweet crab meat inside. The creaminess of the orzo complimented the bitterness of the ramps and the sweet peas. With the crab came a 2006 Viognier, a perfect match for the Chesapeake Bay inspired appetizer. If your burned out on cookie-cutter chardonnays grab a bottle of viognier from Orchid Hill or any other good vineyard for a nice change of pace.

The next course brought giggles to many throughout the crowd of fifty. Sometimes the chef is looking so close at the details he/she misses the big picture. The Garlic Roasted Georgia Quail on a Maytag Blue Cheese Tart with Apples, Spinach and Bacon looked a bit like someone reclined on a pillow and, quite frankly, a tad pornographic. The quail was excellent. Succulent and moist, people were putting down their silverware to get the last bits off the tiny legs. The tart was wonderful, rich and creamy with big chunks of crisp bacon on top. This course featured Orchid Hill’s 2004 Pinot Noir, a wine that many of us requested more of.

After a palate cleanser of Rhubarb Apple Sorbet came the Grilled New York Strip Loin. A thick slice of medium rare beef over a bed of morels, asparagus, fiddle head ferns and oven cured tomatoes with a painting of lobster cream across the plate. The beef was fantastic and while there was very little of the lobster cream the flavour was intense. The morels were good but had the textured of being re-hydrated but any issue with that was forgotten over the joy that was the fiddle head ferns. These little treats are only available a few weeks in the spring, taste a little nutty with a hint of bitter and are something you must try if you ever see them on a menu. The cooking process is a bit difficult so I don’t recommend trying it at home. The wine, the 2003 Estate Syrah, was chunky. I nearly requested knife for this wine. It was a good wine but was a bit too heavy for my taste, I asked for another glass of the Pinot.

To wrap up we received a House Strawberry Cocktail and a Strawberry Shortcake. This was my least favourite course of the evening. The cocktail was a bit odd, blended strawberries and vodka over ice. While I knew it was fresh it tasted more like a prefab mix. The shortcake was dry and tough and, since we had Lemaire’s expert service, there were no knives from earlier courses left to cut it with. The fresh strawberries with aged balsamic and marscapone were tasty so that was eaten and the cake left behind.

During the course of the evening the restaurant director came by each table and spoke about the future of the restaurant. They are soon closing for a redesign and general overhaul. I heard a lot of buzz words about ‘value’ and making the restaurant more ‘accessible’ to a wider audience. Sounds a little like a down grade to me but I could be wrong. We’ll have to wait and see what the relaunch brings.

The staff, chefs and waiters, did a great job. It is tough for a kitchen to put out a multi-course meal to a group that large without it tasting and feeling like a banquet. They managed to keep it fine dining and if they cut corners for speed you couldn’t tell. If you go to an event like this you should be very aware of your limitations. Bottomless glasses of wine can be fun for some but not everyone can handle it. Just ask the women who threw up all over The Jefferson’s expensive carpet at the end of the evening. People! Know Your Limits!

Our evening ended a bit badly too. Upon getting to M’s car in a light rain it made noises but declined to start. The result was calls to friends getting ready for bed and a long wait for a tow truck. Poor Cy-n-Ide were stuck with Finn till I manged to get to their house at nearly midnight. Looks like we’re going to owe them a few extra babysitting shift once Cy IV arrives…

A couple of weeks ago M and I got ourselves a toddler-sitter and did a very rare thing, dinner out alone. The occasion was V-Day, although we selected the Saturday after to avoid the disaster that is eating in a restaurant on Valentine’s Day. We arrived a little before our 8 o’clock reservation and saddled up to the bar for an aperitif (10 martini for me, Grey Goose Cosmo for M). The dining room was full, not hard since the kitchen is actually larger than the dining area, but the noise level was hushed with most of the discussion we could hear being praise for this dish or that.

To get things started at the table we ordered two bottle of wine. Domaines Schlumberger, Riesling Les Princes Abbés, 2004 (good but not especially memorable), for the white and Chateau de Beaucastel, Chateauneuf du Pape, 2003 (absolutely fabulous), for the red. Two glasses of Sauturnes were also ordered for the first course…. yes, foie gras… but we’ll come back to that later.

Second apps were a cocktail of poached lobster and crabmeat with just a little citrus. Refreshing and complimented by the Riesling.

For entrees M had the entrecote (NY strip) in a green peppercorn sauce while I had the pistachio crusted rack of lamb. Both were excellent, tender a flavourful, but be warned… They cook in the French style at 1NB, I had forgotten this and had ordered my lamb medium rare. What came out was a bit overdone. If memory serves classical French meat temps are slightly different than what we get here and I should have ordered rare just as northerners used to do when they traveled to the southern US. I was just a bit tempted to send it back but one bite changed my mind. The red wine, which had been decanted and breathing for nearly an hour had opened up perfectly and was fantastic.

Our next stop was for the cheese course. I had a craving for morbier (a wonderful cheese made from the morning milking on the bottom and the evening milking on top with a layer of ash in between) but they didn’t have any, whiny moment on my part…. We had the chef select for us and it was wonderful. I would tell you which one’s we had but I was a bit wine-addled at that point and can’t recall the specific varieties…

To finish was a Grand Marnier Souffle, light and foamy, an excellent ending. To add to this I had an enormous snifter of heated Grand Marnier. Sometimes I am tempted to get the special edition Grand Marnier’s (at special edition prices….) but have sworn M to stop me as my taste buds are usually fried at this point of the meal and I might as well be throwing dollar bills out the window.

Service was excellent throughout and once the main rush of the evening was over they paused to chat about dishes and food related things. The price…. bring an extra credit card or your no-limit Amex.

Now, back to the foie gras. The portions here were generous. The liver smooth (better than our last visit to LeMaire). The cherry gastrique was a perfect, adding tang without too much sweet. Whenever M and I see foie gras on the menu we order it and have even served it at home. Dogwood Grille used to always have a foie appetizer on special that was wonderful, except for the Mexican themed atrocity they served us once…

Many people have issues with foie gras and it’s production. Having been to farms I know all our meat production involves quite a bit of cruelty, especially in the large corporate operations. We must also be careful not to over-anthromorphise animals too much though. Having a feeding tube shoved down your throat will hurt but have you ever seen a seagull eat an entire hotdog? Different anatomy at work here.

I see the pictures used by the animal rights groups as no different than those used by the anti-abortion groups. Horrible, but skewed for a specific agenda. PETA says they are force fed 4 pounds a day, the foie industry says it 250 grams and takes less than 30 seconds. The back and forth can go on forever. People are going to continue to eat foie regardless so the goal should not be a ban but to make it as humane as possible. Limited production has started on ‘free-range’ goose foie that takes advantage of their normal eating cycles.

If one is going to eat meat in this day and age then you must always remember that some creature gave his life for your nourishment and enjoyment. I’ll get off my soapbox now, until we talk next about veal or caviar….