Food, Wine & Friends Page 239
Mid-Winter 2013...San Francisco.
Simone Daubin is visiting and we had a nice, home-cooked meal Chez Neal with our
friend from Montreal du Gers in the southwest of France.
Drea Dedona opened the first bottle of Champagne, a Serge Mathieu 2005 Vintage
Brut.
And soon everyone had a flute of a nice, dry, energetic
bubbly...a good start to the Tuesday evening soiree!
Drea brought along a nice bottle of Champagne, too...
Mildly yeasty and nicely dry...
And there's typically some tunes spinning on the turntable...
Chef Simone prepared a wonderful winter vegetable soup for us...Charles
mentioned it tasted identical to the soup she makes at home in France...
And tasty it was!
Next we had two different takes on Foie Gras...
And we got a lesson in preparing Foie at home.
Nathalie showed off her Foie Cutting Technique...
Drea is still mourning the loss by the 49ers a couple of days ago in the 2013
Superbowl.
The La Magendia wine from France's Jurançon was exceptional in this company!
It's lower alcohol than a heavy hitter Sauternes and fresher, bright and
beautifully balanced.
It's made of the Petit Manseng grape, a variety particular to the southwest of
France, as is Foie Gras.
Charles then decanted a lovely bottle of Saumur-Champigny from our friend
Philippe Vatan.
And Nathalie served some salad greens...
The wine of the Chateau du Hureau was from a special vineyard site called
"Fours a Chaux," an ideal spot for Cabernet Franc.
Charles prepared a phyllo dough 'triangle' stuffed with mushrooms...very good!
The wine showed some dark fruit notes and was a fine expression of ripe Cabernet
Franc.
Chef Charles looking a bit like actor William H. Macy.
There was some talk about photos and the internet and I
suggested Nathalie type in "Simone Daubin" on Google's image search
and see what shows up.
She did.
Oh My Gawd!
Charles had prepared some halibut wrapped in shredded
potatoes...
The fish was superb!
There was some Kale that had been braised with a bit of pancetta to accompany
the fish.
And we opened a bottle of Michel Niellon 2009 Chassagne Montrachet "1er
Cru" Champgains.
The wine was still tight and young, but our bottle was marred, slightly, by a
faulty cork. There was an underlying papery note which was
odd.
We opened a bottle, then, of Niellon's 1er Cru Clos St. Jean and it was a bit
brighter, but still really young and undeveloped.
A 2010 Chassagne Montrachet Rouge of Jean-Marc Morey was quite good...lots of
bright sour cherry notes and no oak to get in the way. It's drinkable now,
too, but might be able to cellar for another 5+ years.
I then headed into the kitchen to see what Chef Simone had up her sleeve...
...and it was some crepe batter!
A nice snapshot of La Reine Simone "flipping out."
Flipped!
She flamed the Armagnac and then poured it, on fire, over the crepes...
Charles then put a bottle of Paulin Dudognon Cognac on the
table...
At about this point in the evening, it was past some folks'
bedtime.
And so Charles flashed his "surrender" hand
signals...
And we adjourned the proceedings!
Many thanks to Charles, Nathalie and Simone for hosting such a lovely soirée!
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