Food Wine & Friends Page 227
Kareasa and Ralph invited us to their new digs near San
Antonio Road in Mountain View, a short distance from The Milk Pail and soon,
Dittmer's Wursthaus.
We arrived on a nice, quiet Summer Sunday in July...
...and there was Raider Ralph, in his finest Silver & Black & Blue
outside with the grill.
He'd been babysitting a savory brisket for the past 7 hours!
Meanwhile, inside we had some little nibbles to accompany a couple of bottles of
Champagne.
Ellen prepared a big platter of crudités and made a lovely aioli.
We had tasted the 2002 Moutard a few days earlier and found it to be pretty
good, so we bought a bottle from the importer to re-taste it.
Very lively, to be sure, but it had a faintly oxidized note to it...
Mark poured a flute for Mrs. Mark and himself.
The next bottle was a Michel Gonet Rose.
Another nice bottle, but it didn't show great "Champagne" character,
nor does it have great "Rose" character.
Perfectly good, though, on a hot day.
Mark and Connie brought a salad, one designed to pair with Kareasa's bottle of
Chappellet Chenin Blanc.
Arugula, nectarines and some candied walnuts...
The Chappellet winery used to make a rather profound Chenin Blanc. This
new vintage was a perfectly pleasant white wine, but I didn't find it to be as
distinctive as the wines they made many years ago, nor did I find a wine to
replace my favorite Chenins from France's Loire Valley.
After the salad, Kareasa got up to check on the veggies in the
oven.
Ralph took care of the brisket and made an official Gorman-esque
presentation of this platter.
The Platter O'Brisket.
Ralph did a great job turning a humble brisket into a Noble Meat.
And Marked served everyone.
Connie was impressed to see Bob Gorman's book in Kareasa's library of wine
literature.
Meanwhile, Kareasa's cookbook collection is lovely, especially when it yields
results such as this:
A Raspberry Tarte with Chocolate Ganache.
Kareasa attempted to follow in Ralph's footsteps with showing
off her kitchen artistry...
But it really takes Bob Gorman to properly display culinary handiwork.
We opened a bottle of Moscato d'Asti from Borgo Maragliano...
The Moscato was moderately fizzy and beautifully balanced...perfect with the raspberries...
It is not a great match for chocolate, so having a sip of the wine BEFORE the
chocolate was the proper protocol.
We then opened another bottle...a Schloss Vollrads Spatlese Riesling...
This was nicely sweet and seemed to rely a lot on the sugar for its flavor...
Enjoyable, nonetheless.
Kareasa made a bit of coffee for those who required a 'boost'.
And with that...we adjourned this lovely session of Vittles
& Vino with Kareasa and Ralph.
Thanks to everyone for the great Sunday Supper!
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