What’s cooking?

Gourmet dinner menu last night, at a meeting. The theme was Re-imagining American Food.

MUNCHIES
LIQUID OLIVE BAGELS & LOX		R.H. COUTIER Ambonnay Champagne, France N.V.
FLAVORS & TEXTURES
ORGANIZED CAESAR SALAD OYSTER & UNI		ABBAZIA DI NOVACELLA Kerner Alto Adige, Italy 2009
SCALLOP CIGALAS EN BRIOCHE		JEAN-CLAUDE BACHELET Les Macherelles Chassagne Montrachet, France 2007
PHILLY CHEESESTEAK VEAL CHEEK TZATZIKI		ROBERT GROFFIER Les Hauts Doix, Chambolle Musigny France 2007
DESSERT
RUM CAKE		EL DORADO Rum 15 yr, Guyana
SWEET SURPRISES
SAFFRON GUMDROP BACON AND CHOCOLATE

I don’t know what the liquid olive was, but it was a soft, squishy ball, olive coloured and tasting like an olive, served in a spoon.

The bagels & lox was a tiny, thin crêpe rolled into a cone filled with dill crème and salmon eggs, served in a small cup full of poppy and sesame seeds.

The organized Caesar salad was romaine, dressing, and shaved cheese rolled sushi-roll style in slices of jicama, served with a crêpe-like crouton with a quail-egg yolk nestled in it.

The scallop was pan-seared and served with a slice of roasted cauliflower and an aioli, and the cigalas en brioche was a piece of langustino in a coating of a flourless brioche, which amounted to an egg-white coating.

The Philly cheesesteak was a very small baguette filled with a tasty brie-like cheese, with slices of cured beef arranged on top.

The veal cheeks, we were told, were braised for 72 hours (um, that’s three days, isn’t it?

The run cake was relatively normal, and the bacon and chocolate was just what you might think: chocolate-covered bacon strips.

A very unusual and interesting meal.