playing catch up

been kind of busy this last week or so-

Last weekend we tried a new burger place for lunch - mixed reviews - I liked it but thought it too messy - Phil didn't even like it (said it had little taste)

Last Sunday we had a terrific dinner with Shari and Kevin at their place where they had oysters two ways (grilled and fresh) some charcuterie and white fish spread for appetizers and outstanding scallops in a smoked bacon broth for mains and several excellent wines-

our house was like Grand Central early in the week with service people catching up on systems maintenance etc... then on Wednesday we went to NT Live nearby at the Music Box where we saw Act one of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead a 50th anniversary production of Stoppard's somewhat Godot-like vision of two dead men figuring out "life" LOL- a number of humorous lines but overall pretty darn tedious...and a first act alone of 90 minutes we decided to cut our losses -

then tonight we headed north to Northlight Theater for Relativity a play about Albert Einstein as a person versus Albert Einstein as a genius (spoiler alert- he was a jerk)  A terrific performance by Mike Nussbaum.... and the two other characters were well played but the totality of the experience was different for Phil than for me... he loved it - I felt the story needed some work- the motivations of the daughter character were either confusing or didn't ring true to me.  I found myself wanting to argue with things she said and did as not making sense and she never seemed, until the final minute of the play, to move toward any resolution of her own issues.

So somewhat of a mixed review from the two of us-

Next season promo included in tonight's program-

I have been busy with the final touches for the garden on the deck (got mulch for tomatoes today). We have also been quite busy with wine tastings for potential buying for the cellar- beefing up the white burg numbers - and we have company coming for the weekend- so zoom zoom -

I did get tomatoes to try this year - they each have blooms and small green tomatoes starting - so far so good---

they are at the sunny end of the deck by the bigger table-

the hanging baskets are all showing pretty well and I am happy to say we have a lot of glorious color-

 
We have travel plans for the next weekend and then off to Ireland the following one - so we are hoping for a lot of good weather between now and then...

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-

a big win!

so tonight we went to try out a new BYOB in the hood- and it was fab! the place is called Bien Me Sabe and it is Venezuelan - with wonderful service and an extensive menu and terrific food... here it is in photos-

We brought a Chassagne Montrachet to try (checking it out for buying) and Mike brought a very nice Rhone (shown below) - and missing from the photos were the shrimp tostones which two of the group ordered and were wonderful and the empanada sampler which we split up four ways - so we each got a taste of the beef,chicken, and cheese empanadas- all good and opinion split on which was best- LOL

winner all around- and we will definitely be back here for sure!