And speaking of crepes, that's what I did for dessert: we called it Isadora's Dunkin Donut, and it consisted of a cup with a layer of Belgian dark chocolate sauce on the bottom (best I've ever made, I'm going to post the recipe for my archives) topped with a layer of bitter orange sauce (apricot jam and orange marmalade mixed 50/50, thinned with bitter orange juice, lemon juice and the rind from the bitter orange) and holding a chocolate crepe, representing Isadora's scarf, which was folded around a big spoonful of fresh whipped cream and topped with sliced almonds. Such was the success of that dish that even though I'd been introduced to the crowd for a bow after the last savory course, when I reappeared after the dessert to clear plates the crowd burst into applause all over again. Bob said it was the best dessert I've ever made. The inspiration was the scarf and the word 'dunking', plus the fact that I got the two jars of jam at Deals Only for 99 cents each AND had bitter oranges in the fridge.
At the donations-only wine bar, were individual cellophane bags of 'Chateneuf-du-Pop' guests could help themselves to and take back to their seats, popcorn tossed with black truffle oil and herbs d'Provence. Also, a tray of an idea you guys gave me, including the name: Corn en Releve', olive tapenade-topped triangles of grilled polenta. (Wish I'd done the potatoes after all, I'd have chipped in my own money to spare myself the effort of dealing with the polenta, considering how much work I ended up putting into dessert. 80 crepes takes a little time!)
The first sit-down course was a spicy Asian salad called Top Hats and Tails--marinated strips of shitake mushrooms with ramen noodles, carrot strips, slivered snap peas, cilantro and green onion, garnished with fried chow main noodles and diagonally sliced green onion slivers. The next was The Beat Stroganoff, two side-by-side 'stripes' (modern dance requires modern presentations) of identically diced potato and red beet salads, the potato dressed with white wine, mustard and shallot and the beets dressed with horseradish, cumin adn fennel seed, belted at the waist with a dollop of sour cream topped with chives. And the third was, thank you Frank Deis, pork rillettes called Porc Pirouettes topped with Apricot Green-Peppercorn Pickle. That was served with arugula tossed with olive oil and maldon salt and two thin bread crisps.
Then came dessert.
