Tag Archives: red wine

CW’s Chops ‘n Catch: Lamb & Wine Dinner

3 May

Firstly, I know it’s not Wednesday anymore (thank God), but happy belated Wonky Wednesday – please head over to Heather’s blog to see what I mean, and see me making a fool of myself. You’re welcome.

Secondly, tonight is my last day of night school for the semester. Hallelujah! I am taking summer classes but that doesn’t start until mid-June, so I’m going to enjoy the upcoming 1.5 months of not having to go to class after work. It really, really sucks.

And thirdly, I attended yet another wine and food pairing dinner at CW’s Chops n Catch two Mondays ago (and one Monday ago, but that recap will have to wait). You can read about the last two I attended here and here.

A fellow Glastonbury blogger and foodie, Kevin, joined me for an evening of lamb paired with Cameron Hughes wines. Being a Greek food lover, the over-abundance of lamb didn’t bother me one bit.

First fashion, then food.

Sweater: Forever 21

Earrings/Bracelet: Charlotte Russe

Jeggings: American Eagle

Watch: Fossil

Boots: some really cheap store in Buckland Hills Mall (across from Express, for locals)

Passed appetizer course on my favorite CW’s cutting board

Kevin was kind enough to put up with me being 15 minutes late because I had to shower after sneaking in 30 minutes of Spin! Not bad post-workout-fuel, eh? Homemade tzatziki sauce with warm pita and beer-braised lamb sausage with a brown mustard! I don’t think this pita was homemade, it tasted very store-bought, but the tzatziki was unique and unlike any kind I’ve purchased in a grocery store. Sausage was cooked to perfection, you may see that phrase a lot in this review.

First course

Next up was a pulled lamb shank slider on a house-made Parker House roll with feta fondue, preserved lemon (on the left) and harissa aioli (on the right).  The small plate was paired with Cameron Hughes Lot 266 Los Carneros Pinot Noir (2009), which was quite good but a little lighter than what I was craving with such a hearty course.

The aioli was dynamite and the lemon was a unique accent but the real star of the show was of course the pulled lamb. We were served mint jelly with this course, to be used throughout the meal, and I tried it on a few bites. Quite interesting – not sure if it’s my thing, though I was glad to finally sample the epic lamb and mint pairing I’ve heard so much about. Despite the fact that the roll was freshly baked, crispy on the outside, and not too much bread that it overpowered the lamb, I didn’t finish it all because I wanted to save room for what I figured was coming next…

Between courses

Even with all this food, there is usually bread served at these Chops n Catch dinners to help space out the courses. What I like about the bread is that it and the butter often change with each visit, so you never know what you’ll get. The above crispy sourdough was new, but the butter was not – just plain, though served nice and warm for easy spreading. Kevin and I got into a very long discussion about our pet peeve, cold butter. This was probably fueled by the fact that earlier that day I had written about that very annoyance. Anyways, I had one piece.

Second course

The most unique dish of the evening was the above leg of lamb satay with a green goddess dressing and tempura asparagus. Not exactly sure what was in that dressing (and hearing the name reminded me of Annie’s Goddess dressing, a blog world gem) but it was AMAZING! As you can probably see above, the lamb satay was drizzled with balsamic, which was an amazing flavor combo with every other component of the plate. I adored the crispy exterior of the lamb too – but it was still so nice, pink, and juicy inside. Finally, the asparagus impressed me the most because though it was fried, I could still TELL that I was eating asparagus. So often with fried food, the taste of the food itself is drowned out by oil and breading. Not here!

The course was paired with Cameron Hughes Lot 261 Alexander Valley Cabernet (2009). This vineyard’s bottle prices start at $35, but through Cameron Hughes one can purchase it for $13! I loved this cab far more than others I’ve tried because it had such a strong flavor and wasn’t too light.

Main course

Compared to the other dishes, the presentation of the main course of a simply grilled lamb loin and chop duo with Manchego and potato croquettes looks a bit sad, doesn’t it? But it tasted anything but. Firstly, you can see that the lamb was once again cooked very well – nice and juicy with a slightly charred exterior, just the way I like it. I honestly couldn’t taste a huge difference between the chop and the loin, but it was fun to have a couple of different “forms” of lamb on my plate in one dish anyway. The croquettes were so out of this world…think a gourmet tater-tot filled with fancy cheese. And crispier than a normal tater tot. Yeah, that’s heaven.

This course’s wine pairing, a Cameron Hughes Lot 245 North Coast Zinfandel (2009), had me weary. Typically I don’t like red zin because a) I can’t get white zin out of my head and I openly admit that negatively biases me and b) it’s usually too light. Again, the hearty lamb seemed destined to be paired with a full-bodied red. However, I was pleasantly surprised. It was actually my favorite wine of the evening, and it paired well with both the lamb and the croquettes.

Dessert course

Finally, we have dessert. I didn’t find out what kind of wine was served with it specifically, but there’s not much to talk about because it was a Cameron Hughes Moscato that I did not enjoy at ALL. Not their fault…moscato is far too sweet and far too carbonated for my taste. Bleh! I only took a couple sips, paired with a bite of each part of the above dessert plate, to see how the flavor combos were. Alas, the wine and my dislike for it crowded my judgement of the pairings.

I was wined out by that point anyway (the rep was VERY generous about topping off glasses between courses) and was fine with focusing on the food. And oh man, what a good batch of food it was! On the top is a Greek dessert galaktoboureko and home-made whipped cream. The latter was soo rich, like the Starbucks whipped cream. The Greek pastry was made with the classic phyllo dough of Greek desserts, filled with a tasty custard. Amazing! On the lower part of the plate is Easter bread with yogurt, sprinkled with powdered sugar. The yogurt was plain Greek, my favorite kind! The bread was not too sweet, which is good because the powdered sugar would have been too much.

And we capped off the whole meal with a shooter of ouzo. OPA!!!

Thanks to the always-magnificent Chef Corey Wry for designing and cooking up a fantastic menu!

Do you like lamb? Have you ever tried ouzo? Which of these courses would you want to try most?

FitFluential Hits Mohegan!

24 Apr

Blogging just continues to bring me new friends! Saturday night I had a long-awaited meetup with two fellow FitFluential Ambassadors, Samantha of Running and Cupcakes and Jennifer of Savor the Thyme. They’re both from RI and after we realized we were all a reasonable distance from Mohegan Sun Casino, we planned a get-together at a couple of the restaurants I interact with regularly on Twitter, Michael Jordan’s Steak House and Michael Jordan’s 23 Sport Cafe (I also like chatting with SolToro, where I ate on St. Patty’s day).

Before I hit the road!

Sweater: Urban Outfitters

Halter: Ann Taylor Loft

Jeggings: American Eagle

Boots: Payless

Watch: Fossil

I arrived first at Michael Jordan’s Steak House, a very good thing because I had an amazing drink menu to peruse! I finally decided on the French Mojito: Bacardi, mint, lime, prosecco, and St. Germain elderflower. 

It was so delicious, especially with the addition of the prosecco, but I was a little bummed out by the presentation! I was hoping for a sleeker glass at such a fancy place, with such pricey drinks. Taste is most important though, and they nailed that one.

Samantha and Jennifer arrived and the three of us hit it off immediately. We found so much that we all had in common – no surprise, right? Jennifer even used to be a manager at one of my favorite places I used to go to as a UConn student, Willimantic Brewery. Samantha and I share a skill too – a skill we like to call, how to go to the beach the right way. It was hilarious to bond over the fact that we both shake our heads at the people who show up at the beach in the summer at 11AM and are shocked that they can’t find a parking spot. Helloooo, we are there by 9AM! I could tell we were both raised near the beach (she in RI, me in FL).

Samantha and her drink!

Samantha’s drink’s presentation definitely trumped mine! She got the Caramel Apple Martini: Van Gogh Dutch caramel vodka, apple pucker, and caramel drizzle. As you can see, it came with a bonus cherry! She said it was really delicious.

Of course we had to tweet the above picture to our favorite lady Kelly Olexa! Our Twitter feeds were blowing up with #fitfluential love!

After several unsuccessful attempts to make reservations at already-booked restaurants, 23 Sport Cafe was kind enough to make an exception to their “no reservations” policy for us and set aside a table for three for our dinner. The gracious staff even put up with us being about 10 minutes late for said reservation. I can’t say enough good things about everyone we encountered at that restaurant – our waitress was really nice about taking pictures of the three of us!

Jennifer, me, and Samantha at our reserved table!

23 Sport Cafe also boasts a cool cocktail menu, but none of them were my thing AKA they all seemed too sweet.

Never fear - there is always wine! I of course had to choose one I’d never tried, Razor’s Edge Shiraz. It was wonderful!

Samantha recommended the Garlic “Go-Go” Bread with bleu cheese fondue (she’s dined at 23 Sport Cafe before). I wasn’t sure if I wanted any for fear of spoiling my dinner, but as soon as this tower of tastiness arrived, I was sold and had to have a couple pieces.

Oh YUM. Is there anything better than crispy bread? Why yes, there is – crispy bread in bleu cheese sauce. Jennifer the recipe expert tasted some of the sauce and she detected mostly cheddar, but I was sure to select two pieces of bread with the most bleu cheese crumbles! More bleu for my buck.

The appetizer steals the show in this photo. And Samantha's 23oz Blue Moon!

Unfortunately Jennifer’s stomach was not feeling too good that evening, so she had to opt out of any adult beverages or heavier foods. Talk about bad timing! She played it safe for dinner and ordered the house salad with a side of mashed potatoes. When your stomach is off, something there is NOTHING better than potato!

No, that is not ice cream!

I was quite impressed by this house salad. At most restaurants it comes as a plate of dinky iceberg lettuce with one or two cucumber slices. But look at those greens and those tomatoes!

I immediately honed in on the Spinach Steak Salad listed above. Samantha and I wondered what tobacco onions were, but my question was answered as soon as I caught a glimpse of the plate.

Crispy onion straws! I didn’t finish all of them but the ones I had sure were excellent. So was the entire salad. The filet was cooked medium just as I asked for – nice and pink. I loved the red and yellow tomatoes. They tasted extremely fresh. It’s hard for me to be intrigued enough by a restaurant salad to actually order it, because I am spoiled by the ones I make at home, but this was a winner.

Samantha ordered a sandwich called the Tall Guy: open-faced prime rib steak on ciabatta with garlic aioli, lettuce, tomato, swiss cheese, and those tobacco onions. She opted for a side of sweet potato fries. Her meal looked so good and she confirmed – it was! Samantha doesn’t eat red meat often but she said she was glad she opted to with this dish. No regrets!

Jennifer gives her meal a photoshoot.

The three of us loved that we were able to take photos and tweet to our heart’s content without seeming like total weirdos! Dining with other bloggers felt like dining with “my own kind”, ha.

Come on salad, work it!

Overall it was an amazing evening. I loved meeting Samantha and Jennifer, even though it didn’t seem like we were meeting, just meeting up to hang out like girls who are already friends! Again, thank you to 23 Sport Cafe for being so accommodating and helping us out with getting a table!

Make sure to check out Jennifer’s recap of the evening on her blog too!

What did you do on Saturday night?

Do your dining companions ever call you out on doing “blogging activities” like tweeting or taking photos during meals?

Taste of the Nation New Haven: Sweets and Drinks

26 Mar

So continues my recap of Taste of the Nation: New Haven - check out my first recap of the savory food, and an explanation of what the organization that threw the event, Share Our Strength, is all about.

The above delectable treats are from The SoNo Baking Company & Cafe, a South Norwalk small business that takes the time to visit farmer’s markets and sell their specialty cupcakes, biscotti, tarts, and other desserts.

I didn’t sample any of these because I passed by this table at the very beginning of the evening when I was searching for savory food for dinner, but aren’t they beautiful?

I was going to bypass these cupcakes from Sugar Bakery & Sweet Shop – until I learned that they were filled with cannoli filling. OK, had to have a couple bites of one after hearing that!

Passed on a sample from Karma Tequila since I mostly wanted to sample wines instead, and when I mix wine with liquor it often results in…unpleasant feelings. But I was pretty impressed with their table display.

Similar to Blue Bottle Coffee in Williamsburg, Willoughby’s Coffee & Tea was serving up individually brewed cups of joe. I didn’t have any (not a fan of coffee with dinner food!) but did grab one of those bags of chocolate covered coffee beans in the basket. I really want to try them stirred into plain Chobani for a healthy dessert – how amazing would that be?!

The Farmer’s Cow (I’m a big fan, and have visited them at a couple other events) was serving their freshly-made ice cream in between two delectable, fresh-baked cookies. I tried the coffee ice cream in between two oatmeal cookies (not the one pictured above). They are thinking about selling these ice cream cookie sandwiches – Marissa and I gave them VERY positive feedback in hopes that we would convince them to do so. If you think it’s a good idea, tell them!

I don’t usually drink champagne, but really enjoyed the Mionetto champagne, my first beverage of the evening. I had the Prosecco Brut – it was nice and dry. Marissa really liked the Moscato Dolce.

These gorgeous lemon desserts from La Cuisine Cafe didn’t taste as good as they looked. I think we hyped them up a bit too much – we passed the table in the beginning of the evening, and waited til the end to actually revisit and sample one. We were hoping for a more subtle lemon flavor among other flavors, but all we tasted was lemon. A bit of a bummer!

Gia Cellars poured me a red made with a grape I’d never tried before – Lagar do Castelo Albarino 2009. Very good!

The Henriot table was concentrating mostly on their champagnes, but I was way more interested in the wine! In particular, the Bouchard Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2009, pictured above left.

Cline Cellars had a lot of tasty wine options. I adored the Cashmere 2010, a silky red blend. Also sampled and enjoyed the Mourvedre Ancient Vines 2010.

Slocum & Sons didn’t have too much left by the time we made it to their table, but Marissa and I still tried one of our favorite wines of the entire evening, Johanesshof-Reinisch Pinot Noir vom Steinfeld 2008. One of the most unique Pinot Noirs I’ve ever tasted, from Germany!

This crispy rice pudding was really unique! I was impressed. The rice pudding itself wasn’t the most flavorful thing in the world, but kept my tastebuds interested. I mostly enjoyed how the crispy Triscuit-like shavings on top and how they contrasted so well with the texture of the pudding.

Don’t those look so cute?! They were being served up by a New Haven Public Schools “lunch lady” Cheryl Barbara, who actually was crowned champion on an episode of Food Network’s “Chopped”!

I don’t know what this is. I never found out. I never got to try it – when we came back to do so, these were gone. But I want them.

Hooker Brewery is located in Bloomfield, fairly close to my office, so a lot of my co-workers will get together on the first and third Fridays of each month to take a tour, because on these Fridays, they offer beer tasting. I tried the less hoppy beer on tap, Irish Red. Still too hoppy for me…carbonation isn’t my friend.

I’ve seen one of the reps (on the left in the photo below) from Ripe Cocktail Mixers doing a sampling at Sonoma, but I was in a hurry that day and ran right by him with a quick “no thanks” (he totally called me on it). I don’t like a lot of juice in my cocktails, and part of the reason is because so many juices used at bars and restaurants are pure added sugar and other artificial ingredients. I was curious to see if I could taste the difference between those juices and Ripe juices, made with ingredients like pure fruit and veggie juices, spices, and agave.

I opted for a gin cocktail. Still was too sweet for my tastes, but not in a fake-tasting way. Just too sweet because I like my drinks strong, like an old man (or a cougar?) But for someone who likes juicy drinks, Ripe’s mixers are a healthier mixing option that would surely leave the drinker less prone to the pounding headaches that mixers like added-sugar juices and diet sodas can cause. Trust me, I know. Since kicking my rum-and-diet go-to bar drink to the curb, I’ve been way less headache-y after a night out.

Aside from a really cool carved fruit display, Thali also sampled a unique-sounding Indian dessert, Gulab Jamun. Unfortunately, it tasted a lot like what it looked like – a doughnut ball. Don’t get me wrong, it was really yummy! But I was hoping for a bit of flair that would set it apart from other desserts I’ve tried.

Not a root beer fan, but aren’t these mini root beer floats from Box 63 insanely cute? They would be SO adorable at a summer party.

Westford Hill Distillers is a Connecticut distillery founded in 1997. The founders were inspired by the orchards of the region, and they produce tasty spirits like apple brandy. Marissa and I sampled one of their cocktail offerings.

This was a drink for me, not so much for Marissa. It was strong!!! But also very smooth. I can tell Westford Hill offers quality products.

No, the above photo is not here in error. It’s actually the display from Fig Cooking School, a place in Hamden for students of all skill levels to come and learn the culinary arts and sciences! The “solution” in the beakers and test tubes is actually a lemonade beverage. Way cooler than a pitcher!

It’s true, after all, that cooking IS all about science and chemical reactions!

The student responsible for creating, preparing, and serving the drink recipe did a great job and was nice enough to pose with her display for Marissa and I :)

Another student was sampling different kinds of dark chocolate bark – yum! I went straight for the potato chip and pretzel crusted variety. Obviously, right?

I was excited to speak with the rep from Jonathan Edwards, a Connecticut vineyard that has been mentioned on this blog before by contributor Richard, the Editor of CTFoodAndWine.com. I learned a lot about events the vineyard has coming up too, including a Culinary Showdown between CT and RI chefs in May that I hope to attend. I was not only impressed by the activities offered at Jonathan Edwards, but by their wine as well. I really enjoyed the Stone Table Red and am anxious to try the 2008 Napa Valley Dark, a port-style wine (I LOVE PORT).

Timothy Cipriano, Event Director (and man responsible for me being able to attend the event) told Marissa and I when we met him in person that we absolutely HAD to check out the Copper Beech Inn table. By the time we got there, the above tray was all that was left, but MAN was Tim right. Those PB & Jelly Bites blew us away. I popped one into my mouth and felt like I was eating a mom-made PB&J. The entire experience reminded me of the scene in Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (the older, amazing one) when Violet eats the gum that tastes like an entire meal. Anyone else remember that?

There used to be a Gelato Giuliana in my town. I only went once or twice, and have to admit that I prefer the TCBY that has since taken its place, especially since our Whole Foods offers a ton of delicious gelato flavors within walking distance of the old location. But I do love me some gelato, and even though I was just quite full at this point, I had to have some. This was the only line Marissa and I waited in all evening, but was very worth it! I had half PB chocolate and half coffee. I definitely finished more of it than I had initially intended to! Mmm.

Ha, finally you see me in a photo. This was the only one I was in all night!

Thanks again to Timothy for giving me the chance to attend this event. It was truly a dream come true!

Which of the desserts that I sampled would you want to try the most?

How I Spent My 23rd Birthday!

23 Mar

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday! I ended up having a great day (so great that I didn’t have time to blog :-P ) and want to thank all of you that wished me happy birthday on Twitter and/or Facebook! So how did I spend my special day? Haven’t had time to upload cam pics yet, but I was tweeting a play-by-play of life, as per usual.

The day got off to a great start when I woke up to this. I love my mom!

My co-workers continued to make the day fabulous. My friend Steve got me these gorgeous tulips. The bow matches my St. Patty’s Day nails!

The fellow ladies of our sales row (of cubicles, ha) know me well. They gave me a bottle of local CT red wine from Sharpe Hill Vineyards! I haven’t had their wine yet and am super excited to try it.

Holy moly, look at this gem! It’s from Jim, a co-worker who has access to a pretty awesome bakery (he got another co-worker an equally awesome cupcake for her birthday last month). That chocolate-cake looking part is actually ALL icing. I am an icing freak. So let’s just say I’m gonna enjoy this. Saving it for tonight after dinner maybe!

I'm a lucky girl!

My boss was kind enough to give me a half day on my birthday, and good thing, because it was about 80 degrees without a cloud in the sky yesterday. Is this the new CT March? I’ll TAKE IT!

Obsessed with Vera towels.

No, this is not a summer ’11 photo, this is YESTERDAY. Amazing! I chilled with my best friend Lidia as we drank iced beverages (coffee for me, green tea for her), read magazines/books, and chatted. She was also kind enough to use my Goodreads to-read list to pick out a couple of new books for me as a gift – it used to be we were gifting each other off our Forever 21 wish lists, and now it’s Goodreads! Oh, how adult we are!

Source

Now I can see what all that hype is about!

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A classic that I’ve been curious about.

Call me weird, but I wanted to go to the gym despite the fact that it was my birthday. I completed 4.08 miles on the StepMill, Level 16, speed intervals AKA some kick-butt HIIT. Felt FABULOUS after! Read the issue of SHAPE with Kate Walsh on the cover. She is one amazing lady.

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I wrapped things up with the below workout created by the amazing Heather of For the Love of Kale (who gave me a birthday shoutout yesterday, THANKS LOVE). I’m not doing any upper body today so wanted to get some in yesterday. Quick and effective!

After showering my sweaty self off, I went to meet my friend Colin (of Taste of New Haven) at Mustard Seed Cafe, a cute local breakfast-and-lunch place, for a French Wine Tasting Class event put on by my favorite liquor store EVER, Sonoma Wines & Spirits. Apps were served to start and I put together a little tasting plate, but kept it light because I wanted to go out to a late dinner afterward.

Went back for seconds on the veg (obviously).

For a wine lover like myself, this was definitely an informative event, in terms of both tasting wine and its origins. I have to admit I found myself drifting a bit during the historical parts of the presentation, but I think that was because I was so excited to get-to-sippin…

Flight #1 (three total).

The most fascinating part for me was learning how to both properly smell and taste wine. Did you know that you’re supposed to cover the glass with your hand, swirl the wine around, and then just take a slight sniff from under your hand when smelling a wine? The whole swirl and stick my nose in the glass thing that I’ve had going on is NOT correct. Too bad I put on hand lotion right before the event!

The proper method of tasting wine is really cool and made a HUGE difference. I’m having no luck finding a video or series of photos on Google (I know, what?) demonstrating the method, but it involves taking a sip, tilting your head forward and letting the wine rest in the front of your “palate”, and then tilting your head back (it reminded me of taking a shot…) and letting the wine slide over the middle and back parts of your tongue before swallowing (or spitting, something I am not fond of, and I know, that’s what she said). The taste was SO much more intense. I kinda loved it.

My favorite flight obviously - three reds, how can you go wrong?

I had a few favorites, which I marked with stars on our info/ordering sheets, and ended up decided to purchase the Chateau Picque Caillou Graves Pessac-Leognan. I know – what?? Just know that it tasted sooo oak-y and fabulous. I also received a $25 credit with my admission, and the bottle was $30.59. How often do I have a chance to buy a $30 bottle of wine for $5?! Answer: never, so I leapt at it. I’m going to save this bottle for something very special!

After the tasting wrapped up, Colin and I headed out to get some FOOD. It was almost 9pm, so we hit up the late night happy hour at Max Fish! I love going to these kinds of happy hours at nice restaurants because I get the chance to order and sample food that would normally be out of my price range.

Recycled image from my last visit but obviously I had to get the cheese plate again.

Colin offers a useful hand-size comparison for this ahi tuna with jasmine rice and lemongrass sauce.

Frozen not fresh (as our waitress honestly told us when we asked), but still so good.

Does anyone else dip fries into their ice cream and/or milkshakes? Colin thought I was a weirdo for that one!

I’m asking about ice cream because Colin not-so-secretly (I noticed immediately…) approached our waitress and asked her to send over a birthday dessert for me. I was still surprised because I had no clue what it’d be! I wish this picture hadn’t come out so blurry:

CARAMELIZED BANANA SPLIT

SO DELICIOUS. I realized it had been too long since I last had ice cream. And it had been way WAY too long since I’d made that an ice cream SUNDAE. The caramelized bananas and slightly-salty nuts on that whipped cream made it extra special.

Fabulous, fabulous birthday. And it doesn’t stop there – off to J. Gilbert’s with my family tonight!

How did you celebrate your last birthday? Do you have any go-to traditions?

CW’s Chops ‘n Catch: Gerard Bertrand Wine Dinner

20 Mar

I had such a great experience at the first special Chops n Catch Dinner last month! I definitely knew I wanted to attend the next one, and was excited to find out that there would be another held in March, this time with focus on wine – sign me up! The wines were provided by Gerard Bertrand, a French winemaker that was recently voted European Winery of the Year.

Evan did not join in this time, but Jeff still was up for some wining and dining, even though he is not the biggest wine fan. Kudos to him for being adventurous!

With the dessert course...be patient, we'll get there.

I was running late but it was still “cocktail hour” time when I arrived. Jeff was a loyal foodie and waited for me before digging into, and by that I mean eating-in-one-bite, the first passed appetizer, the shiraz-braised shortrib.  I definitely suck because I didn’t take a photo. My camera was taking forever to get into the correct settings (I don’t even think I ever got it there) and I was impatient and wanted to dig in!

Just picture a bite of beautiful brown shortrib sitting on a silver spoon – at first I was confused as to why it was served that way, but got the reasoning once I finished the bite of meat and saw shiraz left pooled in the spoon. The app was VERY shiraz-braised, and I loved it. The presentation showed, along with the taste, just how much wine was used in the recipe. It was definitely the fruitiest shiraz I have EVER tried. I don’t think I would like drinking a glass of it, but with the meat, it tasted wonderful. I’m also sure there were other ingredients mixed in with it that made it taste fruitier than it would as a glass of wine alone.

We were soon poured our first glasses of wine (paired with that ever-important H2O) that were meant to be paired with the first course, but there was quite a delay between the pouring of the wine and that course being served, signaling the end of the “cocktail hour”. It was a little tough to hold back from drinking our wine, but we wanted to save it to have with the food, as it was meant to be drank. I would hope that at future Chops ‘n Catch dinners, the time period of passed appetizers would not be so long.

We also never received the second passed app, the blackened ahi tuna with cucumber relish. I mentioned this to our waiter, and after checking in the kitchen, he returned with a promise that he would bring one out to us after the first course, asparagus and goat cheese bisque with tri-colored cherry tomatoes, was served. Fine with me!

The bisque was really excellent, but Jeff and I both agreed it could have been presented better. I would have liked to see the tomatoes and asparagus stalk less “buried”, especially since the tomatoes’ interesting colors were essentially hidden under the thick soup. The taste was very impressive though. The goat cheese could have easily overpowered the asparagus, but both flavors were very well balanced and the soup was not too heavy like some bisques are.

It paired pretty well with the white wine pictured above, the Reserve Speciale Viognier. The hostesses from Gerard Bertrand called it fresh and floral. I liked this white because it was very dry. I’m not usually a white person but I was able to enjoy this one, it had notes of apricot but was not too sweet.

After the first course, just as the waiter promised, we were delivered the second pass appetizer, the blackened ahi tuna with cucumber relish. WOW. It was cooked perfectly, slight crispiness on the outside and nice and rare in the middle. The relish was so fresh!

The next wine was a red – yay! And a Pinot Noir too – double yay! The Reserve Speciale Pinot Noir is Gerard Bertrand’s best-seller in New England. It had a lot of soft fruit notes and though it wasn’t as robust or dry as I usually like my reds, I did enjoy it.

I definitely enjoyed the second course’s food component more though – BBQ pork belly with vinegar slaw and fried hot peppers. I LOVE PORK BELLY. It cut like butter and had nice crispy corners – those were my favorite bites. The slaw tasted just like the classic slaw that comes with all the burgers at Catsup & Mustard, one of Corey Wry’s other restaurants. The fried hot peppers were so good, but then again what fried anything isn’t good?

For the entree, we were given a choice of two entrees - housemade salt ‘n vinegar potato chip crusted crab cakes with sweet ‘n spicy broth or herb-seared boneless lamb loin with manchego cheese and potato croquette. For Jeff and I it was a no brainer - crab cakes all the way! The crab cake was served with the white pictured above, the Cremant de Limoux, a sparkling wine similar to champagne. Cremant is actually the original sparkling wine of France, and preceded champagne! The lamb was served with the above-pictured red, the Grand Terroir Tautavel, a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan grapes. I love red blends because every one tastes unique and they often contain some of the less common grapes (I had only heard of Syrah in this blend, for example).

I actually ended up requesting that my crab cake entree be served with the red wine, because not only am I not a white wine person, but I am REALLY not a sparkling wine person. I have issues with carbonation (as in I usually can’t stand it). I know that may have “thrown off” the pairing, but I often drink red wine with my seafood. Jeff the not-wine-lover however, jumped at the chance to try a sparkling wine. He liked it, and I liked my red as well. Not so sure about how well it paired with the crab cake – didn’t pair badly, but just didn’t strike me as an interesting combination of flavors.

The crab cakes were so good though. While we were a little bummed that the crab cake was not completely encrusted in potato chips, as the entree’s title led us to believe, we were both extremely impressed by the abundance of crab (and subsequently, lack of filler, a good thing). The sweet ‘n spicy broth was indeed both sweet and spicy and had a great balance of the two flavors. I wish I had gotten to take a big potato chip encrusted bite of crab cake, but I got a similar effect when I had some of it with the potato chips at the same time, perched on top. Yummy!

Our favorite pairing was yet to come though! Dessert was a pistachio souffle and vanilla bean sauce served with vanilla ice cream, along with a glass of port-style dessert wine, Banyuls. I ADORE ports, and was so excited that the dessert wine wasn’t a sparkling white. It was so, so amazing with the ice cream. I just wanted to take a scoop of it, drown it in port, and eat that out of a bowl. The souffle was pretty awesome as well, but the port-ice cream combo stole the show. I didn’t want it to end!

It was another tasty experience at CW’s Chops ‘n Catch, and my calendar is already marked for their next event on Monday, April 30. I await the menu with bated breath!

Which course would you have wanted to try most?

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