A memorable dinner

[David M. Bueker]

Last Wednesday Kriss Reed and I dined at a restaurant called Old Vine Cafe in Costa Mesa, California. We were planning a BYO dinner, but the wine list was so inventive and reasonably priced that we only opened one of our own bottles (a dry Portuguese red I had brought & didn't want ot lug home on the plane), and dipped into their wonderful by-the-glass list for our whites.

We started with some salads. Kriss had the baby spinach & I had the "Crispy" Blue. The crispy was home fried onions that, if they were placed on green bean casserole, would make me love that much-maligned dish. Both salads were outstanding & gone in a flash. With our salads we split (through very generous half-pours) two whites by the glass, a 2006 Domaine Salvarde Cheverny and a 2005 Licia Albarino. The Albarino was a bit lusher than expected, but both wines worked well with our food, and it was a true pleasure to spend a grand total of $16 for what amounted to 4 good glasses of wine.

The dinner menu is made up of a large number of "small plates" to encourage mixing, matching and sharing. We had been observing what was coming out of the kitchen, and just had to order the Eggplant Buratta for our first course. It was the dish of the year for me. I can't explain any more than that. We finished the whites by the glass with the eggplant.

Kriss then ordered the lamb chops & I chose the Porcini Mac & Cheese. Both were spot on delicious. We drank the bottle that I had brought, the Quinta Do Manuela 2000 which I had bought at Hi-Time Wines earlier in the day. (A quick side note - Hi Times had advertised this as a very high scoring wine from the Wine Advocate (not my usual method of buying wine, but I know nothing about Portuguese reds), and a subsequent search shows no review ever being done of the wine - luckily it was quite enjoyable.) We concluded with some pecan "tartlets" and a lengthy conversation wit hone of the co-owners about wine, restaurant philosophy & good food/wine in general.

All in all it was nothing short of a great evening! A BIG THUMBS UP to the Old Vine Cafe.

All right, quit with the teasing!!! What was the Eggplant Burrata?? (You can't just leave it at that.)

I've eaten burrata maybe a half dozen times, it's made from mozzarella and cream, hard shell of mozzarella on the outside and the center is both mozzarella and cream.
So although I've never had it, gotta presume that eggplant burrata is eggplant mozzarella using the burrata and probably making it a superior dish. Well it's worth a try anyhow!

[David M. Bueker]

It's descibed on the web site as panko crusted eggplant with mozzarela burrata (plus some grape tomatoes & basil). All I can say is that it was heaven on a plate.

http://sexandthekitchen.typepad.com/pho ... index.html

http://sexandthekitchen.typepad.com/photos/stepbystep_guide_to_makin/index.html

I was almost afraid to click on the link but did and it was innocuous.
What kind of cheese is that they start with when separating the curds and whey? Doesn't look like Moz.

Lucky you lucky you.

Having an emotional response to eggplant and buratta is surely a sign of superior sensibilities (they are two of my favorite ingredients as well), and as always getting high quality specimens is a treat.

[David M. Bueker]

Rahsaan,

You know what's odd - I didn't realize until you posted that I had ordered a completely vegetarian meal (as long as we don't get all stuffy about cheese). Granted I had 1 slide of Kriss' lamb, but all my dishes were meat-free & I never even noticed.

That can't be right. Maybe the eggplant was fried in beef tallow or something.

Rahsaan,

You know what's odd - I didn't realize until you posted that I had ordered a completely vegetarian meal (as long as we don't get all stuffy about cheese). Granted I had 1 slide of Kriss' lamb, but all my dishes were meat-free & I never even noticed.

That can't be right. Maybe the eggplant was fried in beef tallow or something.

Hey, it doesn't have to seem strange, it's normal food for a normal diet..