more food

so it is still the time of year for meeting with friends before the holidays and we have had a number of nice meals over the last week- including - finally catching up with Mary Ann and Gene at Mattison's 41 for some excellent wines and conversation.  We hadn't seen each other since last spring and they had recently returned from China so we had travel stories to swap and ideas to propose for future trips...

  my wedge and snapper

Phil's carpaccio and salmon

our friends brought the dessert wine a black monukka Historic Rotta which was made in much the same way as Madeira (baked in the sun in barrels- just not carried back and forth across the equator) I liked it quite a bit - Phil not so much...

Then we had another terrific meal at Kasa- our favorite sushi place - we keep trying new things and finding lots to like! This time we had the Live Scallop two ways - razor thin slices over lemon and the "tail" seared and served with crab and a fab sauce! We also tried a new roll- fantasy which had four kinds of fresh fish and was wrapped in a translucent seaweed- very yummy!

salmon tuna escolar and yellow tail with avocado- really good....

We made it back to Michael's on East for the first time this season and had a wonderful meal there. I had the Michael's salad and mussels and Phil had giant tempura shrimp and the sea bass... the food there is terrific even if pricey.

Then last night we caught up with Al & Carol to celebrate Carol's birthday.  We dined at Veronica and Phil got to have fried chicken (a favorite)  - we both had crudo choices to start - I thought the gravlax the winner in that pair.... we like that place a lot... a nice laid back atmosphere and good food choices.

We have a fairly open schedule until the holiday weekend when we are headed to Miami for four days/three nights to spend the Christmas holidays with brother Larry... then once the new year arrives it is "off to the races" with school starting (I am taking two classes) and friends John & Stephanie are visiting from Chicago in January!

so we keep ourselves occupied LOL... stay tuned for more fun and games....

friday night dinner and more

so the first event of the big "Forks and Corks" weekend is the wine dinner on Friday featuring wines from Italy and the following fabulous menu from Jamil at MoE (Michael's on East)

On Friday, January 23 – over Forks & Corks weekend! – our Italian Wine Dinner will feature superstar wineries Altesino (with winemaker/manager Guido Oralesi) from Montalcino (Brunello di Montalcino!) and Vittorio Marianecci from Zenato, Valpolicella – famous Amarone producers!

So off we went - and here is the report... passed starters were OK- nothing jumped out at either of us- although I favored the figs (what else is new?)

the room was quite full but oddly- since we go to pretty much every wine dinner Michael's has - we didn't see more than two or three familiar faces...

here are the wines for the evening-

they opened the cellar dining area and as usual - it was magical with all the candle lights and glassware and those fabulous glass chargers which protect your menu from staining or crumpling- could be among the best inventions ever!

wines at my place setting mid dinner- I had finished one of the Trebbianos and the first two reds were poured...

my favorite course- the branzino- every element was perfectly balanced and it showed off the wines very nicely as well- bravo Jamil!!!

I missed getting a photo of the veal loin - which came in a magnificent sauce and had amazing little gnocchi surrounding it- I am so sorry you can't see it- (oh well :-( ) good news I got extra because of the deal we made about the lamb course....

then the lamb course -which Phil and I had agreed he would eat since I am no fan of lamb- Phil felt the wood smoke flavor was too heavy for the dish, even though Jamil usually has such a light touch...

the dessert was exactly the one Phil is always hoping for- too rich for my taste but he loved every bite!

we got to sit at the table where the Altesina wine rep was seated and really enjoyed his company.  Michael and Terri Klauber were also at our table but being the host and hostess of several events the same evening were not able to spend much time there.

Since we are headed to eastern Europe in the fall I asked both Guido and Michael if they knew anything about the wines in Moldova - and while neither of them professed any knowledge Michael did say we should look at the various wine regions in Italy and follow the latitude around to that side of the Adriatic and further to the Black Sea to get an idea of what to expect in macro climate and work from there- which made sense to me.

And just because this post is about dinner at Michael's I am going to post from our Tuesday night dinner at the restaurant-  where Phil ate the Chinese Epicurean menu and I ordered off the regular menu and as usual had a perfectly executed meal. Both our wines showed well and Justin was attentive in an unobtrusive manner... what more can you ask from an evening out? Not a thing!

we shared the seasonal salad with figs and blue cheese and candied pecans!

my starter was the house cured salmon crostini- which - while very good- didn't quite make it to the standard of my very own tequila lime cilantro gravlax which is always such a hit at our Chicago parties-

the incredible sea bass with "lobster broth" - which was a serious understatement- it was really sea bass with lobster- because hidden under the sea bass were hug chunks of lobster-

I gave half of this HUGE HUGE HUGE ice cream cake to Phil but it was still too much! Loved every bite!

Tonight CBGB arrive and we are dining at Harry's with some of our cellar's wines-

and then tomorrow morning - the Main Event! 2015 Forks and Corks Grand Tasting at the Ringling Art Museum.  And just to finish off this post - here is a photo that my dad took of the museum courtyard in 1952 when my parents came down after their November 1951 wedding and visited with my mom's Uncle Bruce who lived on Anna Maria Island... this is the location of the Forks and Corks Grand Tasting. It doesn't look quite the same these days.

but more photos of that after tomorrow- because it is a photo worthy event--- keep your fingers crossed for CLEAR SKIES!  it is supposed to be cool- and that is OK just as long as it is DRY!

we'd been meaning to

go to Michael's on East since we went to our first wine dinner at Michael's Wine Cellar in November.... but just always seemed to have other things to do-

but late last week we got an email about their featured menu for March and thought it sounded good so we snapped into action and reserved for tonight... Baltimore Epicurean Menu was the order for the night- and so we had an excellent meal to go with our last bottle (of the cases we brought down) of burgundy- a 1990 Beaune Theurons from Jadot... showing nicely if not brilliantly...

as you can see I chose the duck confit sliders, the black cod and the chocolate peanut butter dessert- Phil had the same but had the flat iron steak and we shared---

if you bring something form your cellar that is not on their list the corkage is extremely reasonable... so we did! Although our time here is nearing the seasonal end- we will definitely add this to our list of "return to" places.

forks and corks begins

tonight kicked off the Forks and Corks weekend from the Sarasota Manatee Originals organization of locally owned restaurants.

CBGB are coming down for a wine dinner tomorrow night and the Grand Tasting at the Ringling Art Museum on Sunday- where there will be literally hundreds of wines shown at more than a hundred tables along the museum courtyard.  The tickets for the Grand Tasting sold out in EIGHT minutes - and mind you this is not some super restricted event - there were 1200 tickets!!!

so tonight we enjoyed a fabulous French Wine Dinner at Michael's on East (that guy is definitely the alpha male around these parts) - he runs a superb business model in a small enough town to be the kingpin....

our fabulous dinner is listed on the series of scans below- and the wines were all good to great- with my fave being the Cote de Nuits Villages and Phil's being the NSG both 2011- the 09 showed a bit less well to my mind but all were perfectly paired with the menu - which the chef developed FOR these wines---

so the company at our table of eight was fun and convivial and I forgot the photos of most courses- LOL
but I did get a few for illustrative purposes... so you will know the artistry of the whole event - from the table settings through the incredible meal.  This chef really knows how to make a reduction - oh! and he can use butter so that you will swear you have died and gone to heaven- LOL

more event await us and I have to get a good night's sleep so I can have the stamina for the next two days of events- so here is my rushed post of today's wine event-

more to follow- but my favorite course tonight was the dessert which was stupendous- Phil ate my lamb chops which were beautifully prepared but alas - were lamb.... so I passed... the appetizer that won the day were the pork belly sliders (YUM!!!)  will keep you all posted!