Warm salad of calamari and Asian pear with pumpkin-citrus coulis
-Las Brisas Rueda 2007 ( Spain ) Verdejo, Sauv Blanc, Viura
- Umm... the pears were good but I prefer my calamari battered and fried
- This was my favorite wine
Steamed mahi-mahi with lemon-scallion nage
-Terra Andina Chardonnay 2007 ( Chile )
- We decided "nage" was french for water or perhaps ramen. It's been a really long times since we've had fully cooked tuna but it was pretty good.
Grilled fennel sausage with white bean and kale ragout
-Avignonesi Rosso 2005 ( Italy )
- When I read this I anticipated something along the lines if sliced Italian sausage but what we got was a huge sausage patty the size of a decent hamburger on a bed of beans and kale. The sausage was made in house and pretty delicious - this was probably my favorite course. Had I know that it was going to be my favorite I would have had more of it and not saved as much room for the other two courses.
Hoisin-braised beef with carrot pudding
-Torremoron Ribera del Duero 2006 ( Spain )
- Not nearly what I expected. The beef was very tender and a little sweet. The carrot pudding was not exactly what I expected... it was worse! I was expecting carrot puree but what we had was carrot shavings in more of a baked square... Have I mentioned how much I don't like cooked carrots?
- Eron on the other hand thought the carrots "really added to the beef."
- This was Eron's favorite wine.
Honey-walnut cake with jujube preserves
-Quinta Do Noval Tawny NV ( Portugal )
- Tasty but not as sweet as I expected... probably healthier. :)
- Port wine... hmmm... not my favorite. Really, really sweet.
