|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Saturday April 7, 2001
"Oh
some are fond of Spanish wine, and some are fond of French, John Masefield, Captain Stratton's Fancy
baby in the bluebonnets
dessert as a work of art |
|
spring and wine and food It's customary to take your baby out and take his picture among the Texas Bluebonnets. It's our state flower. You see people risking parking on shoulders and putting their kid in potential fire ant hills to get the pix. The fire ants are a recent import from Mexico or South America. Twenty-five years ago they didn't exist here. Fifteen years ago they hadn't gotten to Dallas. At least I think those are the time frames. In any case, it is customary, so I encourage a dog walk up Shoal Creek to a little green belt. At risk of life and limb from a Shoal Creek with cars and bikes and no sidewalks, we get my baby's picture in the bluebonnets. We signed up to eat a Wine and Food Festival lunch at Four Seasons. And were talked into a dinner. The lunch is lovely. The theme of the festival is Spanish wines. The first course is citrus shrimp on white bean puree with endive and arugula with chrisp olive bread. It wasn't very photogenic but it tasted great. The clear gazpacho consommé which followed was delightful. Light and cool to fight off these balmy days. As the meal progressed we were drinking Spanish wine. Torres Grand Vin del Sol, a chardonnay; a '98 Cap Rock Merlot; a Torres that was a blend of Grenache and Cariogne; a Rioja which is the varietal Tempranillo, I'm told. Roasted pheasant arrived with tortilla and seared watermelon and untraditonal molé sauce. The dessert was a lemon dome of marscepone with a blueberry center and a sugar spring (a pun?) for decoration. It was photogenic. I got its picture. Back home, we watch TV, doze and read and prepare ourselves for dinner. The dinner starts with tapas with a Texas twist. What they described as smoked paprika calamari with cured olives and tomato was a kind of squid lollipop. Very good and innovative. Emmett Fox of Asti was responsible. We saw Stewart Scruggs who is going to open Wink in that little space on Lamar behind the Wilderness Whitewater which was just some Mex place and before was El Rinconcito and some time back, ages ago, Castle Hill. That's how Castle Hill got it's name, because of the Castle Hill behind that spot (really just a house with castle pretentions) but now Castle Hill (the restaurant) is on Fifth at Baylor. We saw John Maxwell, too, and thanked him for the little treat from the night before at Zoot. Dinner got underway. There were too many wines but they took away some glasses to make it somewhat palatable. The crowding caused your bread plate to be in Siberia. We were surrounded by journalists. Including a guy from Esquire, John Mariani, who was the Master of Ceremonies. We sat by Dale Rice, who is a really nice guy and one we always enjoy talking to. Course number one was gazpacho with oysters. A layer of chopped vegies, oysters and fat red roe was engulfed by a steel-nerved waitron in creamy, cool gazpacho. Delicious. Course number two was terrine of piquillo peppers and hake with a squid ink sauce. The terrine was delicious and the jet black sauce ring very tasty. After course number two they gave us our award which was an 'unsung hero' award. They didn't say why or what and it was great because all our buddies were 'yeah, right on!' and the rest of the people were 'who the hell?' Very fun. Course number three was Duck Confit with pears. There was foie gras hiding in there, too. This dish was so good but it had the simplist name. Wow! The name doesn't begin to say it. Then they gave Ron and Peggy Weiss a "Who's Who is Texas Wine and Food" award. And it wasn't just because of 'W' either. Over twenty years of Jeffrey's is well worth such an award. Before dessert, all the journalists at the table, save Dale Rice, burst out and went to Emilia's to have a meal. Hope the place lived up to its expectations and gets the press. Dale, Forrest and I enjoyed a couple of extra glasses of dessert wine poured for the missing guests. I was full but the light Arroz con leche (which appeared to be leche decorated with Rice Krispies) was so good that I ate it all. Upstairs in the bar we wished a happy birthday to friend Gene and listened to Rebecca a bit before going home to a welcome sleep. I hadn't slept well for a couple of nights. It finally caught up with me. It was good.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
