My First Wine Dinner

I first became interested in wine in the late 1970s and early 1980s and ended up running a wine club at law school that organized tastings with guest speakers in the rather grand surroundings of the university alma mater society council room – a huge room with an enormous crescent shaped table that sat about twenty (the club was called ‘Les Avocats du Vin’, a bilingual pun as ‘avocat’ means both lawyer and aficionado).

I recently found a menu from the earliest wine dinner I held for some friends (there were six of us), when looking for some old Graham Kerr recipes for another thread (the asterisk beside a course indicates one of those). It was the first wine dinner I had held and was clearly too many courses and too much wine, but one learns by trying things. I certainly wouldn’t attempt such a marathon today!

Several of the wines were obtained in California as I was racing a vintage sports car once a year at Laguna Seca and would come back through either Napa or Sonoma, visiting wineries as I went.

**Gurkas Norge – a savoury hors d’oeuvre made by cutting 2” sections of cucumber, coring them to remove seeds and filling the cavity with a mix of anchovy, dill, chives, cream cheese and sour cream, topped with a spoonful of sour cream and a dab of caviar. Very Danish

Pate in Port aspic

**Abalone Victoria – I was a Scuba instructor at the time and kept a gunny sack full of frozen abalone in the freezer (it was in very limited supply back then and can be almost impossible to find today - wish I still had easy access!). Abalone steaks coated in breadcrumbs and parsley, sautéed and napped with brown butter. Simple and delicious. Served with 1979 Ch. St. Jean Gewurztraminer.

Avocado Veloute – 1978 Mirassou Chardonnay

Huitres en Brioche – west coast oysters in a cream sauce served in a brioche with a 1979 Ch. St. Jean Sauvignon Blanc


Pineapple sorbet with a Cava as a palate cleanser (would never go as sweet today)

**Entrecote Bordelais with tomatoes Provencal and rosemary potatoes – classic porterhouse with a red wine, beef stock, bone marrow sauce. Served with 1972 Delas Freres Hermitage St. Christophe and 1970 Tinto Garoa Reserva Especiale – wanted to compare different styles of wine with the main course.

Barossa Tart and Brie Torte Venus – I recall the latter was a medium sized wheel of Brie, split horizontally and spread with butter and pistachios. Served with 1971 Schloss Schönborn Erbacher Marcobrunn Riesling Auslese and 1976 Morandell Riesling Beerenauslese Ruster

I wanted to also present a Port, so to separate the sweet whites from that, I interjected with a traditional savoury course – anchovy roulades (filet around a caper) and angels on horseback – oysters wrapped with bacon and grilled (you need to partially cook the bacon ahead of time or the grilling will overcook the oysters). An odd palate cleanser, I agree, but....

To finish I served pear halves stuffed with peppered butter and cream cheese with a bit of cognac, whipped together, topped with a half walnut meat, and a 1978 Dow’s Reserve Port (IIRC this was a Colheita).

We finished with coffee (I had a 100 lb. Sack of green Kona coffee at the time and roasted it as needed. Real PITA to remove the bean coating!) and a choice of Courvoisier VSOP and a Macallan 12 year old single malt.

The meal took about four hours or more and the participants staggered to the sofas to attempt recovery afterward. I wouldn’t pack that much into a meal today, but that one was a voyage of discovery.

What a remarkable meal that must have been. And great that you still have the menu.
As you say not to be attempted again, and possibly too much even when young, but doing and learning are a wonderful part of life.

Yeah - I got a few lessons under my belt all from the one event and went on to narrow the focus of later dinners, so it was an accelerated learning process. And subsequent diners didn't end up moaning on the couch saying "No more, please - no more...."

I like this. And all things considered it sounds pretty successful. My first wine dinner was in Japan, centered around Japanese food (wine, beer and sake were accompaniments), but I was 22 and the timing was off, huge gaps between courses, not everything came out, we ate too late, etc etc. I have learned lots over the years!

Bill, there's enough material there for 2-2.5 wine dinners! Very adventurous.

[Jenise]

My god, was there anything better than abalone back in the day? My favorite restaurant of childhood had a dish called abalone filet d'oro. Dipped in an egg batter, as I recall the flavor, and filled with crab meat bound with a bechamel. HEAVENLY. Haven't had anything like that in 40 years, and never will again.

These days, if anyone puports to sell abalone at a restaurant, I'd ask to see one in the shell. Bet a lot of them pass off something else.....

These days, if anyone puports to sell abalone at a restaurant, I'd ask to see one in the shell. Bet a lot of them pass off something else.....

While there's a lot of seafood fraud, there's also a lot of farm raised abalone available. My local HMart pretty much always has a tankful (as well as frozen).

We can buy abalone at our local store, but the farm raised ones are very small - like 4" range, and they don't have the flavour of the wild (which are illegal to catch).

They've been illegal to take from the wild here (we get a different species - Northern Abalone) for the last 30 years, so no large ones are available. We only get California abalone here, and they cost $50+ a piece. Dishes that are supposed to have some abalone in them at Chinese restaurants may or may not have any - I think that a lot of the ab is really a small slice of some other shellfish..

I had heard that some were substituting geoducks, which are local giant clams (pronounced gooey duck). If you aren't familiar with those, they look like a large piece of a horse's private bits or an elephant trunk. Quite common in Japanese sushi places here and quite nice eating, but not much like abalone.

I think I left my old abalone iron (flat bar with a turned up bit at the end, for prying abs off the rocks) behind when I moved three years ago.

[Jenise]

These days, if anyone puports to sell abalone at a restaurant, I'd ask to see one in the shell. Bet a lot of them pass off something else.....

While there's a lot of seafood fraud, there's also a lot of farm raised abalone available. My local HMart pretty much always has a tankful (as well as frozen).

Ditto around here and the numerous Chinese seafood restaurants in the Vancouver area. Nothing, NOTHING AT ALL, like the flavor or texture of the abalone of my childhood.

Also, we had fresh abalone in New Zealand a few years ago. Wild, but strange and again nothing like the abalone of my childhood. Puka, I think they call it.

I think I have eaten real abalone in Hong Kong (in soup, at a famous goose restaurant). Other than that time, not sure any of the chinese dishes really had abalone.

[Jenise]

Canned abalone used to exist, too. My father was a fan--would drain and dice them, then spear the chunks with a toothpick for dunking in soy sauce. I was probably forced to try one once, as my father wouldn't let you not like anything you hadn't tasted. I remember having more issue with the rubbery texture than the taste. I swear, if you dropped a piece, it would bounce.

Same thing happened if you overcooked it - like vulcanizing rubber!

Dishes that are supposed to have some abalone in them at Chinese restaurants may or may not have any - I think that a lot of the ab is really a small slice of some other shellfish.

A similar situation exists here on the east coast regarding scallops. Some of the "scallops" sold here are actually just cylindrical chunks of fish flesh.

-Paul W.

That’s classic here too. Skate wing and a melon baller have created more than a few scallops

[Jenise]

Bill, have you ever knowingly had a skate wing scallop? As someone who eats scallops frequently, I like to think I would know the difference, but maybe not.

Skate is thinner than large scallops are and the flesh isn't as firm, so no, if you are a scallop aficionado, I don't think you would, but if you aren't a regular scallop eater and if the flesh was cut small like bay scallops, someone less familiar could be fooled.

Another fish used under other names is dogfish - small sharks. They make good fish and chips.

[Jenise]

Ah yes, wasn't thinking. I've had skate wing, and no it wouldn't pass in flavor or texture.

For little scallops... it might.

I think the fake scallop issue (historically at NC coast I always heard likely shark) is probably mostly prevalent in fried food places, or mixed seafood stirfry type things. Anyone who knows sea scallops is going to know those cookie cutter scallops - with no abductor muscle- aren't real. For bay scallops, mass market ones probably aren't expensive enough to worry about faking (other than again in fried foods),
The incredibly expensive (but truly delicious) local short season bay scallops would be a target for faking, but don't think you could fool anyone with shark, skate, etc. Usually during season here LI scallops are $30-40/lb, this year warm water destroyed harvest, basically none (my purveyor had for $55/lb, but those were Nantucket).
But I'd bet 75/25 against scallops at a fried food place , mass market Chinese restaurant, etc being real

[Jenise]

Makes perfect sense, Dale.

I once, and only once, got fresh Nantucket bay scallops--at a fish store in Houston of all places while stuck there taking care of the in-laws. Otherwise only frozen bay scallops, which have never impressed and I don't buy. I don't really know anyone who does, though I recall once someone bragging on a wine website before this one about a dish he and his wife made of those scallops in a white sauce with macadamia nuts which he called a "visual pun" because the little orbs were all about the same size. Why that was such a treat kind of lost me, but....

Not sure quite when it became common practice to see 'crab' on menus, with the 'imitation' omitted. I have received dyed pollock twice when I had ordered crab and both times sent it back. At least around here the Japanese restaurants seem to be pretty good about listing the fact that your California roll has the fake stuff in it, although a number of them just call it by the Japanese name (kamaboko) so if you aren't a sushi geek, it might escape notice.

[Jenise]

Dyed pollock? Yuck. In what types of restaurant? I've seen it called Krab, not crab, to infer it's fakeness, but I have never been served the fake stuff. I have been in sushi places that offered both, though.

The California roll is like the gateway drug of sushi. It may have been your first stint, easing your way into the world of a cuisine that first feels exotic to many Western eyes and palates. And while you were comfortable eating that roll, so simple with its perfect balance of crab meat, creamy avocado and seaweed, there's something you might not have known. Here's the truth: The California roll contains no crab meat at all.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/imi ... _n_6464560