Food, Wine & Friends 139
DINNER IN BERKELEY WITH THE SICKY-BRISKY'S
AND THE FITZ-JENSENS
Post Christmas 2007
Jesper called the previous night to invite me to dinner. At nearly 9pm,
I was already having dinner...Friday, though, he called me in the morning and we
made plans for that evening...
I took BART from Millbrae to North Berkeley...they should really rename this
train "BAT" since Bay Area Rapid Transit it is not. A train
departing at 7:15 takes until 8:30 to arrive in Berkeley.
We dined at one of Berkeley's top restaurants, Lalime's.
The kids ordered Lemonades and were surprised that these were very lemony and
rather tart.
Clementine was stunned..."Oh, this is tart!"
Alanna also found it to be startlingly acidic.
The food at Lalime's was terrific. The wine list offers a very fine range
of bottlings, from affordably-priced to luxurious.
We started with a Drusian Prosecco and everyone ordered 'starters.'
Crisped sweetbreads, pappardelle, wild mushroom cream sauce.
Roast beet salad, fromage blanc, frisee and toasted walnuts.
Grilled calamari with white beans and arugula.
Dane enjoyed the calamari...
The Can Feixes dry white wine from Spain's Penedes region was a nice,
modestly-priced bottle on the wine list. It also paired well with the
starters.
Meanwhile, Alanna and Clementine shared a rib-eye steak.
Aviva's Mom enjoyed a sip of Dujac's 2004 Morey-Saint-Denis
Premier Cru...
The Dujac Morey-Saint-Denis was extraordinarily good. It had a fabulous
perfume...very fine sweet strawberry and cherry fruit with just the right accent
from oak. The Duck Confit on a bed of lentils was also exceptional.
Our second bottle of red wine was Luciano Sandrone's 1997 Barolo "Cannubi
Boschis."
This was very fine and nicely developed, though still young. It can
probably be cellared for another ten years, given how this bottle tasted.
It offered a nice perfume of red fruits with hints of leather and a woodsy
tone--not oaky, but a forest-like tone.
Felix.
Alanna the Artiste got busy and sketched her Uncle Gerald...
We then had a massive 'parade' of desserts...Jesper's
friend Bryan is a major "kitchen magician" and specializes in sweets.
Since we were a party of ten, we kept our server hopping all evening!
Amy ordered a vegetarian dessert...
Huguette enjoyed the meal from start to finish...
Clementine got busy practicing her "make-up"
artistry which she is learning in clown college.
After such excitement, we got in the car and motored home
to the Peninsula.
Both Alanna and Dane were knocking out "Z's."
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