What courses would you prepare for an all-port dinner?

[Jenise]

We attended an anniversary dinner for a favorite Spanish-Portugese restaurant in Vancouver last night with two other couples. Six courses, all paired with wines, and five out of the six were ports. The non-port was a yummy Quinta do Ameal 2003 verdejo and it was paired with the first course of sardines on toast, salt cod fritters and prawns with piri-piri aioli.

I was very excited about going to this dinner since, even though I'm not the world's biggest port fan, pairing savory foods with port presented an intriguing culinary challenge and I wanted to see how someone would pull that off. The sad day-after report is that none of us thought they did.

Here are the pairings, with my comments:

Chilled cantaloupe soup with mint, Taylor Fladgate Fine White
The wine was the best white port I've ever tasted, lots of flavor and acidity to balance the sweetness (always lacking in others I've had). It was so faceted that the soup, with just two flavors, missed by a mile. Had the cantaloupe been riper and more concentrated, had another element like mango been introduced, all would have been to the good but the light-bodied simple soup was a complete mismatch.

Tomato stuffed with smoked salmon, feta cheese, tarragon vinaigrette with Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Old Tawny
The tomatoes were pale winter roma tomatoes (I bought beautiful deep red Mexican romas a week ago, there's no excuse for this.) And the feta seemed to make the salmon taste fishy. There was nothing the least bit sweet or caramelly on the plate to build a bridge to the Tawny. What were they thinking?

Smoked Duck and Apple Salad with Apple Cider Vinaigrette and Kopke Ruby Port
The apple salad was comprised of diced apples, chopped fresh jalapeno and red bell pepper, and the dressing tasted like just vinegar. There was no seasoning, no nuance, and the other elements killed what might have been a sweet apple flavor. The slices of smoked duck were delicious, though not a match, and the salad that should have somehow have closed the gap between the duck and the wine a little only widened it.

Veal Tenderloin with Chestnut Puree and port reduction, Smith Woodhouse 1994 LBV
The meat and chestnut puree were delicious, but the port was too hot and rough to make the match. Much better would have been the port served with the last course:

Chocolate Mousse in puff pastry with mocha cream and Dow's Vintage 1989
This had us all going "81, 83, 85, 91...EIGHTY NINE?" Who knew? Anyway, the mousse was expert, almost solid chocolate in flavor but lighter than air, and more dry than wet. The port was delish too, but it was rather savoury for a port and had it been served with the veal, it probably would have been the one working match of the night.

Still love the restaurant, but this won't encourage me to start cooking for port.

You are right... This is a stupid concept. One should not try to build a dinner around port. The alcohol is just too high to go with food, except dessert and a few cheeses. I would BYO rather than suffer the onslaught of bad wine pairings.

[Jenise]

Bernie, I now agree. It probably can't be done. What was particularly surprising here was that the matches weren't a little closer. Most of them wouldn't even have paired well with an off dry wine, and the assists one can do employ culinarily to tip the scale weren't done.

I once prepared an entire meal around Madeira, which worked quite well. Some of the dishes were lobster, cherry compote with chevre cheese, apricot-stuffed capon--as long as there was some tang and at least a suggestion of sweet to play off of, the food and wine fit together. Port's just too extreme.

[Robin Garr]

this won't encourage me to start cooking for port.

I like Port, and I love Iberian food, but I'm with you (and Bernie): This is, if not a stupid idea, at least not well executed here. I think it might be possible - and an intriguing challenge - to match savory dishes with Port, but reading your notes, it just doesn't seem like they really tried. It's more like they just took some good dishes, put down Ports, and said, "There! Enjoy!"

[Jenise]

It's more like they just took some good dishes, put down Ports, and said, "There! Enjoy!"

Exactly! And it's not like the food wasn't mostly competent, though I didn't find it up to this restaurant's usual standards.

Thinking about all the reasons chocolate chip cookies go well with port, one could probably pull off some rich/sweet/salty dishes that would, at least, get closer. Like, what about foie gras on toasted fruit bread with a little vinaigretted frisee and topped with maple syrup to go with the tawny? And, say, a fruit salad with the white port, like watermelon chunks tossed with sliced red onions soaked in a red wine vinegar dressing, and topped with feta cheese? That would at least have matched tang for tang, even if the wine was sweeter than the food.

[Robin Garr]

Thinking about all the reasons chocolate chip cookies go well with port, one could probably pull off some rich/sweet/salty dishes that would, at least, get closer. Like, what about foie gras on toasted fruit bread with a little vinaigretted frisee and topped with maple syrup to go with the tawny? And, say, a fruit salad with the white port, like watermelon chunks tossed with sliced red onions soaked in a red wine vinegar dressing, and topped with feta cheese? That would at least have matched tang for tang, even if the wine was sweeter than the food.

Now you're talking! Or maybe rare roast beef, or even venison, with some kind of a sweet-tangy balsamic glaze? Or to go even more wacky, a lightly spicy and very robust turkey mole?

I'll disagree with Bernie to the extent of thinking it would certainly be possible to come up with good savory/Port matches, but this restaurant just didn't ring the bell with this menu.

Robin, start with 22% alcohol and decide after you make some pairings whether you disagree!

[Robin Garr]

Robin, start with 22% alcohol and decide after you make some pairings whether you disagree!

Well, a lot of Ports are "only" 20%, but your point is certainly well-taken. I think that's why we all agree that Port'n'savory is an, er, <i>interesting</i> combination.

I'll still say, though, that it's a challenge and one that this restaurant didn't apparently take too seriously.

[Jenise]

Robin, Bernie's right, the high alcohol certainly affects one's proclivity to enjoy six courses of port, but really, that's almost a secondary issue since the food was poorly designed for the wine anyway. But your comment about the restaurant not taking it seriously? You're assuming that it was some kind of collaboration between a distributor and some restaurant based on these results, but in fact the restaurant was throwing this dinner for itself. Wine and food are both taken very seriously there--that's why it's so mindboggling that the pairings were so off.

I would disagree with many of the sentiments here. Madiera dinners can be fabulous. There are madieras with different degrees of residual sweetness, but all are fortified to a relatively high degree. Sherry is another high degree, fortified wine which matches all sorts of food.

[Robin Garr]

Wine and food are both taken very seriously there--that's why it's so mindboggling that the pairings were so off.

You're right! That is even more mind-boggling. Those pairings just plain didn't sound like very good ideas.

Good point about six glasses of Port with a meal, too ... by No. 6, you probably wouldn't care HOW the match went.

I wasn't really thinking along those lines at all in my response to Bernie, though; my point there was simply that I think it would be possible to come up with individual savory-and-Port matches that work.

But now that you mention it, six in a row? No, I don't think so ... not unless Course No. 7 is Alka-Seltzer, PRN.

I've also had a chance to think about high alcohol food accompaniments. Consider mixed drinks, like martini or gin & tonic. What allows these drinks to go with food is that the beverages are iced, which diminishes the impact that the alcohol has on the palate.

So, if one is serving port on ice, maybe the tolerance for food would be higher.

re: Jerez... The typical Jerez served with food is Manzanilla or Fino, served chilled.

I did an all-port dinner a few years ago that had a number of very good pairings. I would have to look up the exact menu I did, but I think it went something like:

bacon, almond, and date appetizer

walnut and wild mushroom "tarte tatin"

chinese 5 spice duck confit, roasted sweet potatoes, and a chestnut/cornbread "bread pudding"

cheese course (natch)

chocolate caramel tartlets

We did frequently remind guests to use moderation in their port consumption, but the evening was a great success.

[Robin Garr]

Welcome back, Eden! It's great to see you here.

Thanks, Robin! I'll try to pop in from time to time.