Some Wines Last Night

L

Lee Short

Lee Short
We had dinner last night in Bellevue at the home of some friends. Too much wine for the 4 of us, but what's to dump?

1996 Gimmonet Champagne "Fleurons" -- burnished gold. Showing mature, as the color would lead you to expect. Served on the warmer side, and really benefited from it. Rich, lovely wine -- great with the salmon, foie gras, and other miscellaneous appetizers.

1996 Bollinger Grande Annee -- too cold when opened, it was a letdown after the Gimmonet. It did open nicely once warmed up, though. Still, it did not have the richness that I recall from this wine when young.

1996 JJ Confuron Clos Vougeot -- closed, closed, closed. Good material.

1996 Lagrange St Julien -- More open than the Confuron, but still in need of time. A good match with the veal, but not so good a match with the accompanying cepes risotto.

1993 Roumier Chambolle-Musigny -- Opened to match the risotto, it was just perfect in that role. Drinking fabulously.

1996 Baumard Quarts de Chaume, from 750 -- lovely, but has plenty of room for improvement.
 
Not too much fusion -- everything was French, except the risotto. The couple are French; they moved over here about 10 years ago when he got a job with Microsoft. So mostly the food was classic French. Even the "risotto" was not really Italian -- they used regular rice, cooked all the way through. It was quite tasty, just not what I think of as risotto. I wonder if that is what they call risotto in France.
 
originally posted by Lee Short:
Not too much fusion -- everything was French, except the risotto. The couple are French; they moved over here about 10 years ago when he got a job with Microsoft. So mostly the food was classic French. Even the "risotto" was not really Italian -- they used regular rice, cooked all the way through. It was quite tasty, just not what I think of as risotto. I wonder if that is what they call risotto in France.
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Oh, I was alluding in classic WD inside joke mode to another thread where a 'cepe' 'risotto' was evidence of Franco-Italian fusion.

Regular rice cooked through as risotto? [shudder]
 
originally posted by SFJoe:

Regular rice cooked through as risotto? [shudder]
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Sometimes you just gotta work with what you've got.

Hell, I once combined ramen noodles with some canned tomato sauce, hamburger and dried basil and passed it off as "my grandmother's spaghetti Bolognese".

-Eden (disclosure: this really only worked because it was about the ninth food course of the evening, after about eleven bottles of wine, and people were in the mood for pasta mainly because it was too late to order Domino's)(but they ate ALL of it)
 
originally posted by Lee Short:

1996 Bollinger Grande Annee -- too cold when opened, it was a letdown after the Gimmonet. It did open nicely once warmed up, though. Still, it did not have the richness that I recall from this wine when young.
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Uh oh. Premox!
 
Hell, I once combined ramen noodles with some canned tomato sauce, hamburger and dried basil and passed it off as "my grandmother's spaghetti Bolognese".
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I've had this exact dish in Tokyo! And at my Jewish grandmother's! She used noodles from the instant ramen pack. Probably Nissin.
 
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
I've had this exact dish in Tokyo! And at my Jewish grandmother's! She used noodles from the instant ramen pack. Probably Nissin.
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Your grandmother lives in Tokyo? I wonder if she might have come to one of my shows when I was there in 1986? I played in the pit orchestra for a Kabuki version "Fiddler on the Roof".

-Eden (I wanna buy me some some of this Nissin)
 
I have had risotto in Paris (at the TGJP) that was not substantively different from what I eat in Italy. PAB can speak to whether his understanding of risotto is unique in that city, but I would doubt it.

Cole
 
originally posted by Eden Mylunsch:
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
I've had this exact dish in Tokyo! And at my Jewish grandmother's! She used noodles from the instant ramen pack. Probably Nissin.
Click to expand...

Your grandmother lives in Tokyo? I wonder if she might have come to one of my shows when I was there in 1986? I played in the pit orchestra for a Kabuki version "Fiddler on the Roof".

-Eden (I wanna buy me some some of this Nissin)
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I loved that production! Best Tevye evah!
 
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
I have had risotto in Paris (at the TGJP) that was not substantively different from what I eat in Italy. PAB can speak to whether his understanding of risotto is unique in that city, but I would doubt it.

Cole
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Not easy to find a good risotto in Paris. First, most of the risotto are pre-cooked (20' is too long in a restaurant). Second, it's not very easy to buy good italian rice. Most restaurant use low-cost.
Best regards
pierre-alain
ps : the old porto is still sleeping in the cellar...
 
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
originally posted by Eden Mylunsch:
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
I've had this exact dish in Tokyo! And at my Jewish grandmother's! She used noodles from the instant ramen pack. Probably Nissin.
Click to expand...

Your grandmother lives in Tokyo? I wonder if she might have come to one of my shows when I was there in 1986? I played in the pit orchestra for a Kabuki version "Fiddler on the Roof".

-Eden (I wanna buy me some some of this Nissin)
Click to expand...

I loved that production! Best Tevye evah!
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That reminds me of a story I once heard from Theodore Bikel. He was playing Tevyeh in a touring production of Fiddler in Japan, and after the show was over, a couple of elderly Japanese ladies came backstage and asked him how it was that he was able to portray a Japanese person of their generation with such accuracy.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
In truth, it's not easy to find a good risotto in a restaurant anywhere.
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I couldn't agree more, with the exception of my trip to Piedmont in April. I'd have to check my notes on actual restaurants, but I gained 15 pounds at least, that I give credit to the great risotto(and gnocchi).

It sucks, to have high expectations...
 
originally posted by Marty L.:

That reminds me of a story I once heard from Theodore Bikel. He was playing Tevyeh in a touring production of Fiddler in Japan, and after the show was over, a couple of elderly Japanese ladies came backstage and asked him how it was that he was able to portray a Japanese person of their generation with such accuracy.
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There's more than a grain of truth in that. Talk to enough nisei Americans and children of Holocaust survivors and their familial stories take on a remarkably similar ring: shame, guilt, dark secrets hidden. Perhaps, as Tolstoy didn't note, it's all the same story (Amy Tan certainly made it seem so for Chinese-Americans).

Mark Lipton
 
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