Today is my mother's 80th birthday, so I flew to Oklahoma and then drove up to my parents' house to surprise them.
We went to dinner tonight at Sterling's, which is one of the two or three only "nice" places in town, and it's where my parents usually end up for special occasions, since they don't like Copper at the Price Tower and I don't have a membership at the country club anymore. My parents both had ribeye steaks and I had the evening special, which was a rather large filet mignon pepper steak done up with a shallot wine reduction sauce. Salads and baked potatoes came with the meal, as is pretty much traditional around here. With dinner, we drank a bottle of Kendall Jackson Vintner's Reserve Merlot (I forgot the month), which was an innocuous little wine that paired satisfactorily enough with the steaks. Dessert was strawberry cheesecake with a candle stuck in it, and I ordered the apple cranberry pie, which was good, but which would have benefitted greatly from being warmed.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Namaste, Lakewood, CO
I had an interesting dining experience Tuesday during my Denver business trip at a place called Namaste in Lakewood. Namaste is an Indian and Nepali restaurant. I've never been to Nepal before, and for those of you who are geographically challenged, Nepal is that little tiny nation north of India up in the Himalayas where Mount Everest is located. My waiter was very nice! He is from Nepal, and has lived in the Denver area for three years. He was almost tall, had features that resembled Chinese, had a big beautiful smile, and the most unusual light brown eyes. We chatted a bit during the meal, and I discovered that he is single, he has a college degree in humanities from back in Nepal and he does volunteer work with the children's hospital in Denver helping out with wheelchair sports.
I had him pick a traditional Nepal dish from the menu, since I've had tons of Indian food before. He selected the chilli chicken, which was a stewed dish with bite-sized chunks of chicken, sliced rings of onion, horizontal slices of a meaty pepper of some sort (authentic?? I didn't recognize it as one of the standard Mexican peppers), and a little bit of diced potato-like root, all enriched with a bit of tomato paste, and served with a big mound of a basmati-type rice. He also selected a parantha bread, which is a large, round, leavened, pita-like, flat bread which had been quartered, and which he encouraged me to tear into pieces and use to eat the food, instead of using silverware. I really liked the chicken. I'd ordered it with "medium" spice, not knowing how hot their hot was, and I could easily have kicked the heat up another notch. The thing I liked about the dish, though, was that the spice combinations had far fewer ingredients than are used in India, and I didn't have the feeling of being overwhelmed with spices as I often do in Indian establishments. This was much simpler, much cleaner, if you will, while still being complex.
Even though the classic Indian dessert, kulfi, was invented in the Himalayas (kulfi is the original ice cream, first made with Himalayan snow and flavored with pistacchio nuts), the waiter informed me that it isn't eaten in Nepal unless one goes to an Indian restaurant, and that desserts are not common at all, especially since no fruits can be grown in the country. I drank a Nepalese version of chai with Nepalese tea, milk, and only a very light hint of spice, throughtout the meal.
I had him pick a traditional Nepal dish from the menu, since I've had tons of Indian food before. He selected the chilli chicken, which was a stewed dish with bite-sized chunks of chicken, sliced rings of onion, horizontal slices of a meaty pepper of some sort (authentic?? I didn't recognize it as one of the standard Mexican peppers), and a little bit of diced potato-like root, all enriched with a bit of tomato paste, and served with a big mound of a basmati-type rice. He also selected a parantha bread, which is a large, round, leavened, pita-like, flat bread which had been quartered, and which he encouraged me to tear into pieces and use to eat the food, instead of using silverware. I really liked the chicken. I'd ordered it with "medium" spice, not knowing how hot their hot was, and I could easily have kicked the heat up another notch. The thing I liked about the dish, though, was that the spice combinations had far fewer ingredients than are used in India, and I didn't have the feeling of being overwhelmed with spices as I often do in Indian establishments. This was much simpler, much cleaner, if you will, while still being complex.
Even though the classic Indian dessert, kulfi, was invented in the Himalayas (kulfi is the original ice cream, first made with Himalayan snow and flavored with pistacchio nuts), the waiter informed me that it isn't eaten in Nepal unless one goes to an Indian restaurant, and that desserts are not common at all, especially since no fruits can be grown in the country. I drank a Nepalese version of chai with Nepalese tea, milk, and only a very light hint of spice, throughtout the meal.
Sunday, March 06, 2005
Grand Marnier and Cigar Dinner, Washington, D.C.
Last night I had a lovely time at a "Grand Marnier and Cigar Dinner" at a restaurant downtown called McCormick and Schmick's, as the guest of a priest friend of mine who, as it turned out, was their guest expert on the history of Grand Marnier. Also at our table was Lee, the cigar expert; Carrie, the Grand Marnier sales representative; and Carrie's friend Kathryn, who turned out to be quite fascinating. She's a biological researcher working on the human genome project up in Rockville and she's also simultaneously doing another graduate degree at Johns Hopkins. She invited me out to Herndon this afternoon to watch her play field hockey, but it's in a place that requires a car, so I'm not going to go. Coincidentally, Fr. Declan and I were the only men at the dinner wearing bowties.
Since we were a little early, while we waited for the restaurant's guests, we had a couple of rounds of cocktails with the girls drinking wildly flavored martinis (I remember one was a strawberry lemonade something), Fr. Declan drinking his standard Tanqueray No. 10 martini, and I sipped on kir royales. We were also given little miniature snifters with tastes of a new Grand Marnier product called Navan, which is a premium vanilla flavored cognac that was actually pretty tasty.
At this point, the cigars began to arrive. I didn't actually sample them myself (everyone else at the table, including the girls, was puffing away), but I did bring them home. We got free cigar cutters that look kinda dangerous to me. Along with the first cigar, they also brought a small snifter of Grand Marnier--some people dipped the end of their cigar in the GM before putting it in their mouth. There were three cigars presented, in increasing order of heaviness and flavor. The first two were from the Ashton house in the Dominican Republic. The third was a Honduran cigar "La Aroma de Cuba" from the Marquis house. Lee talked about them all at length and gave better names and identifications, but not being a smoker, that all went in one ear and out the other. The one interesting thing that I remember, though, is that the very best tobacco leaves for cigar wrappers are not from Cuba, but from Connecticut!
When the hors d'oeuvres arrived from the kitchen, we were served GMTs—Grand Marniers and tonics, a remake of the classic gin and tonic. The hors d'oeuvres were yummy. My favorite were these great big sea scallops wrapped in bacon. They also did chicken firecrackers (think spicy chicken-stuffed egg roll, cut on the bias) which were tasty and some very nicely done Rhode Island calamari. There were three choices for salads, a house salad (mixed greens, blue cheese crumbles, balsamic vinaigrette), Caesar salad, or a wedge salad (iceberg wedge with tomato slice, cheese crumbles, and blue cheese dressing). The wine was a 2002 Green Point Yarra Valley Chardonnay, from Australia. The wine was okay, but a little too light for that stage of the evening after all the cocktailing and heavy appetizers.
There were several entree choices. I had the 18 oz ribeye with mashed potatoes and asparagus, but they also offered a New York strip, New Zealand rack of lamb, swordfish picatta, and a rock fish filet. My steak was huge and very tasty....I wanted to gnaw on the bone! With dinner, we had a 2001 Sterling Diamond Mountain Ranch Cabernet that was a very good choice for the steaks, and the bar manager also brought around tastes of a 1997 Beringer Cabernet. For dessert, I had the upside down apple pie with cinnamon ice cream, and there was also a choice of a chocolate bomb, and the wine was an Inniskillin Eiswein.
In between the entree and dessert, we began sampling the special Grand Marnier reserves. First was the Cuvee du Centenaire, which was bottled in honor of the 100th anniversary of the House of Grand Marnier. After dessert, we got the Cuvee du Cent Cinquantenaire, which had been bottled in honor of the 150th anniversary. The 150 came in a gorgeously hand painted bottle, but I really think I liked the 100 better....it had better balance and harmony, and the dried bitter orange peel taste was much crisper and more enjoyable. Not that the 150 was bad, mind you!
So, that was dinner. Now I just have to figure out what to do with these three expensive cigars! Two of them are in cute little tubes, too.
Since we were a little early, while we waited for the restaurant's guests, we had a couple of rounds of cocktails with the girls drinking wildly flavored martinis (I remember one was a strawberry lemonade something), Fr. Declan drinking his standard Tanqueray No. 10 martini, and I sipped on kir royales. We were also given little miniature snifters with tastes of a new Grand Marnier product called Navan, which is a premium vanilla flavored cognac that was actually pretty tasty.
At this point, the cigars began to arrive. I didn't actually sample them myself (everyone else at the table, including the girls, was puffing away), but I did bring them home. We got free cigar cutters that look kinda dangerous to me. Along with the first cigar, they also brought a small snifter of Grand Marnier--some people dipped the end of their cigar in the GM before putting it in their mouth. There were three cigars presented, in increasing order of heaviness and flavor. The first two were from the Ashton house in the Dominican Republic. The third was a Honduran cigar "La Aroma de Cuba" from the Marquis house. Lee talked about them all at length and gave better names and identifications, but not being a smoker, that all went in one ear and out the other. The one interesting thing that I remember, though, is that the very best tobacco leaves for cigar wrappers are not from Cuba, but from Connecticut!
When the hors d'oeuvres arrived from the kitchen, we were served GMTs—Grand Marniers and tonics, a remake of the classic gin and tonic. The hors d'oeuvres were yummy. My favorite were these great big sea scallops wrapped in bacon. They also did chicken firecrackers (think spicy chicken-stuffed egg roll, cut on the bias) which were tasty and some very nicely done Rhode Island calamari. There were three choices for salads, a house salad (mixed greens, blue cheese crumbles, balsamic vinaigrette), Caesar salad, or a wedge salad (iceberg wedge with tomato slice, cheese crumbles, and blue cheese dressing). The wine was a 2002 Green Point Yarra Valley Chardonnay, from Australia. The wine was okay, but a little too light for that stage of the evening after all the cocktailing and heavy appetizers.
There were several entree choices. I had the 18 oz ribeye with mashed potatoes and asparagus, but they also offered a New York strip, New Zealand rack of lamb, swordfish picatta, and a rock fish filet. My steak was huge and very tasty....I wanted to gnaw on the bone! With dinner, we had a 2001 Sterling Diamond Mountain Ranch Cabernet that was a very good choice for the steaks, and the bar manager also brought around tastes of a 1997 Beringer Cabernet. For dessert, I had the upside down apple pie with cinnamon ice cream, and there was also a choice of a chocolate bomb, and the wine was an Inniskillin Eiswein.
In between the entree and dessert, we began sampling the special Grand Marnier reserves. First was the Cuvee du Centenaire, which was bottled in honor of the 100th anniversary of the House of Grand Marnier. After dessert, we got the Cuvee du Cent Cinquantenaire, which had been bottled in honor of the 150th anniversary. The 150 came in a gorgeously hand painted bottle, but I really think I liked the 100 better....it had better balance and harmony, and the dried bitter orange peel taste was much crisper and more enjoyable. Not that the 150 was bad, mind you!
So, that was dinner. Now I just have to figure out what to do with these three expensive cigars! Two of them are in cute little tubes, too.
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