food & wine - part X

who knows what blog post this is the series of posts about food and wine -LOL I know there are so many I have lost count but last night we had a wonderful meal with Mike & Leslie at Cafe Marbella. This inconspicuous and unassuming place on Milwaukee just south of Bryn Mawr has a terrific chef and a lovely front of the house in the couple who own and run the place.  We have been here several times before and really liked it so we had no qualms about going back on Friday night.  We had some terrific wines as well (it is BYO with corkage fees)

We started with two special salads - avocado and bacon with goat cheese and a scallop salad- which we paired a Corton Charlemange for trying (to see if we wanted to buy- answer- NO) and a terrific Chablis Montée de Tonnerre that Mike brought from Maison Montille.  We switched off tasting the wine to try with various foods and enjoying the amazing Chablis with each as well...

The Chablis was definitely showing much better than the Corton Charlie last night...

Here is the specials menu for last night (we eventually had 5, 6, and 7 below) and then there were a few unlisted specials as well-

Then we had the grilled calamari - (photo MIA) - then we had the shrimp and garlic- tender shrimp perfectly cooked and seasoned with a zippy garlic and pepper sauce (bring us more bread for dipping please!)

we had a wonderful Dover Sole after the shrimp but somehow that photo too went MIA-

Switching over to the reds- with the garlicky shrimp and then mushrooms - the Bordeaux was the wine of the evening - a "Pichon Baron" from 1989 - drinking perfectly....

We then went for the Cerdo with the sherry cream sauce and followed it with the steak and the sausage of duck and foie gras (yum yum yum)

the Chateauneuf du Pape was also showing well -

a tidbit from the chef- duck sausage with white truffles - top die for (not on the menu - just a taste to tease us with LOL)

so here is the info from the menu cover -

and to top it off they make their own fabulous desserts! a fruit tart (for the guys and the chocolate and espresso for the gals- LOL)

here were notes on how to put in the food orders to go with the wines LOL and then finally a shot of the table underneath the plates - all the spots looked like this - nearly ever dish came with a sauce to dip into!

and thanks Mike for the full wine shot below!

schedule is packed for June so lots to look forward to.... stay tuned-