Not Your Average Frenchy Wine Tasting Party: Hospices de Beaune

When we got this invitation from Tim and Francoise to their wine tasting party, we knew it would be something special. (And it wasn't cause of the fancy flyer.)

Check out their collection of the H.de.B glasses. Each year there's a different image. (We used these at the party--a good way to remember which glass belonged to whom.)

Tim has a fetish for Burgundy and has a sick (read: amazing) wine cellar chock-full of the stuff. For this event he pulled out his Hospices de Beaune. For the uninitiated (like myself), the story of the wine is as interesting as its nose.

On hand was Jeanne-Marie de Champs, a celebrity (in the Burgundy aficionado world) importer-exporter of some really quality shtuff (and Tim's primary connection--right, Tim?). Her position is defined under French law as a "negociant en chambre," meaning that, unlike brokers, she buys wines from her producers and, unlike ordinary negociants, she buys finished wines rather than lots to blend herself.

Jeanne-Marie (in ascot and glasses)

About Jeanne-Marie, Michael Franz of WineReviewOnline.com writes:

"Her manner is very light, breezy and funny, with no apparent intention to impress...But ask her a question about one of the wines, and WHAM: she answers comprehensively and in intricate detail, demonstrating a powerful mind that has sought out and mastered every little nuance about the domaine and the wine and the vintage and the growing site."

She's exceptionally knowledgeable and engaging. So when she explained Hospices, everyone was tuned in to the story:

The Hospices de Beaune or Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune, was a XVth century charitable almshouse . It received the first patient on 1 January 1452. Elderly, disabled and sick people, with orphans, women about to give birth and the destitute have all been uninterruptedly welcomed for treatment and refuge, from the Middle Ages until today.

Source

Over the centuries, the hospital expanded, joining similar establishments in the surrounding villages of Pommard, Nolay, Meursault. Many donations - farms, property, woods, works of art and, of course vineyards - were made by grateful families and generous benefactors. The institution has thus become one of the best and oldest examples of an historical, philanthropic, and wine-producing heritage, and has become linked with the economic and cultural life of Burgundy. And in November of every year, there is an important wine auction.

So there we were in Tim and Francoise's home, mingling with the likes of Jeanne-Marie. We had the vintages above as Tim explained to us the characteristics of each...

Nice shirt!

...He also quoted some fancy-pants wine connoisseur friend of his, who made the prediction that we all would guess wrong on the "mystery bottle". (Tim had decanted one of the vintages and had us figure out which it was.)

With dramatic flare that would make Yale Drama proud, Tim showcases the mystery bottle with a spotlight.

As we drank and tried to figure it out, we also savored Madame Francoise's lovely fare, including this Basque cheese:

...Some lovely Gougeres (French cheese puffs, a typical appetizer)--I ate about 20 of these:

And in the kitchen, we found Francoise herself, grilling up the WONDERFUL sausages:

They included Venison, beef and pork with merlot wine and blueberries; Wild Boar with cranberries and Shiraz; and (the best IMHO--that's "in my humble opinion" for you fogies) Smoked Duck Sausage with Apple Jack Brandy. She had a stew of onions and pear (or was it apple?) to accompany the simple but wildly flavorful meat. So smartly done!

Then we had this loooovely pear tart with almond ice cream.

There were some Hospices de Beaune whites around as well (the frumpy younger sister, if you will). But to be honest, though they were good, they were anti-climactic compared to the reds.

So did anyone guess correctly, you ask. Well in fact G did! He was the only one!!! (I'm especially proud of him because there were a lot of people from Tim's wine club there.) The "connoisseur" friend predicted that most of us would think the Volnay in the decanter (the mystery wine) to be the much younger and greener-tasting Pommard (that's what I guessed--but what do I know).

It was a wooonderful evening. As always, they did it up nice, long on authenticity and short on pretense. We learned a good deal about this area of Burgundy and had a great time mingling with Tim and Francoise's neat array of friends!

A Foodie Fest Shower: Suprisingly Nice and Humbling

I should be ashamed of myself. I had low expectations for my bridal shower. As you may know, there was a little bit of tension in the planning of it. I had felt that my BMs weren't into it, and I was over it. So this weekend when I arrived at my mom's house with my friend Michelle (to whom I protested), I was VERY surprised and seriously humbled by the huge effort everyone made on my behalf.



My mother, BM Abby, and my sister pulled together a wonderful and thoughtful event that came together beautifully. My mom cooked up a storm of Vietnamese lunch goodies. Abby made the cutest guest gifts of spatulas and cookie cutters.

And my sister coordinated the whole thing--despite being a busy lawyer commuting between Tel Aviv and New York. I chalked her harried/hapazard planning to not caring. (But seriously, if I had her schedule, a bridal shower would be the last thing on my priority list, for sure. Very perspective-giving.)

Saturday was the warmest day in Washington so far this year; it finally felt like Spring. And it certainly looked it at my mom's house. Everything was blooming, including the tulips she potted for the occasion and the ton of bouquets displayed.

Though there was not a lot of planning (my sister arrived in town the night before on Friday), the details did not betray this. My sister got everything together last minute, and used the leftover ribbon from the ring pillow to tie together the utensils. The table looked beautiful with sparkly glasses, Champagne, china, cutesy napkins. And of course Abby's colorful bouquet of guest gift spatulas added to the fun.

I asked that Vietnamese food be served for the lunch part. Because none of the (pretty international contingent of) guests was Vietnamese, I thought it would be nice to have them taste a little bit of "the homeland"! So my mom obliged with green papaya and shrimp salad, tofu and noodles, spring rolls, and shrimp chips (no those aren't pork rinds!). The most popular item (that I forgot to picture) were the summer rolls--a salad of greens, herbs and shrimp rolled in thin rice paper.

It was such a good time opening up gifts and tasting the food! We didn't do any of the usual shower games, as we apparently didn't need them! The afternoon was chock full of lively conversation that ranged from the wedding, to our significant others, children, then inevitably to travel and ethnic culture. It's funny, food has a way of bringing people together (who doesn't love food?), making them distinct (plenty of culturally diverse food gifts), as well as highlighting commonalities (my mom's yucca cakes that she made for dessert was apparently also something that Brazilian lovely, Desi, makes as well).

Everyone was sooooo creative with the gifts they brought. Since G and I did not register for any gifts, my sister specified in the invitation that people come up with something interesting and food related for "the foodie".

Garlic and garlic baker; fun condiments including Filipino banana catsup, truffle oil, pear vinegar and more; neat spices including Britannian fleur de sel and herbs de provence rub, Bhutanese lemongrass tea; Spanish smoked paprika, Russian spices, herbs Pariesian; fancy shimmering and rose petal sugars; ethnic pantry items: french oyster hot toast spread and English curry beans; fantastic jams and sweetners: Malawian honey, Brittanian caramel; pineapple chutney, sour cherry jam; a sh*tload of salt: lavender, Himalayan, fleur de sel, English sea, and French grey.

There was definitely a salt theme! I love salt! I now have a serious array of the seasoning that spans from French grey, to fleur de sel, to English sea salt, to two varieties of Himalayan pink salt.

One was the large variety rocks that comes with its own grater! I love it!

There was a ton of interesting spices to represent some of the nationalities present.

One gift of spice was particularly neat and appropos! Abby gave this lovely box of various seasonings, along with this very special spice tin. Around the world throughout history, food and spices have been given as wedding charms. In a Chinese chard box (which, unbeknownst to Abby we collect!), there were various charms including Rosemary for rememberance (a la Shakespeare); nutmeg (the German and English give this) for a sound marriage; star anise (given in China to represent all centeredness (or something like that). There were some peppercorns in there too--I'm guessing to keep things hot!

My sister gave a wonderful box of cheese from Artisanal fromagery and bistro in Manhatten. She with the help of the chef hand picked the three different cheeses, along with tomato jam for the gift box. G and I looooove cheese, especially the stinky ones!!! And this box was ripe!!!

There were other thoughtful touches, including a large goody bag from the lovely English belle, Fay! She included things from her homeland like curry beans, a pineapple chutney (that she made), the garlic and garlic baker above (we love spreading roasted garlic on bread!) and something to prep us for our Italian honeymoon: A magazine of Italian gastronomic adventures--the Cucina Italiana!




We joked about all the ethnic stereotypes including being late. We were expecting one more: Miss Cecile, who is French. The French are always fabulously late!


And she blows in an hour and a half later with fabulous gifts, including caramel (which of course contains lovely salt) from her grandmother's hometown of Brittany, a vintage Champagne, and many other things from her travels, including Bhutanese lemon grass tea and an every day favorite of oyster toast spread!

Ever the jokester, my long lost (and recently reacquainted) friend, Eileen, who had been emailing me about her diet trials, gave this bottle of lemon detox (for all the bloat that is inevitable of a high salt diet and any potentially crazy bridal weight loss frenzy)!!!

And as if all the talk and giving of food wasn't enough, we had dessert of cupcakes, tropical fruit, yucca cakes, and Jasmine green tea. It was a little east meets west; the Vietnamese usually have fruit and tea after a meal, and what modern American bride is without cupcakes!!! My sister picked up these red velvet and cream cheese frosted lovelies from Suzannes, one of the new local cupcakeries in the area!!

And after everyone left, my mother, sister and I relaxed on the couch as they opened the hostess gifts I brought: wine glasses for my sister and pinking sheers for my mother (Abby got Chinese coasters that I sent in the mail).

Later that evening, G showed up to get the debrief, some leftovers, and help me pack the car with all the goodies!

It was a fabulous time with so much genuine love and kindness, that I have a renewed sense of gratefulness for my friends and family.

Pork & Pinot Party!

We had another dinner party this weekend! (And will have another this coming one.) Anyhoo, this time around it was pork tenderloin with three types of pinot noir! Our friends brought a lovely salad and peach cobbler.

We started with a bit of Grand Beck Champers before heading out briefly to an opening at Adamson gallery. Then we came back and had some more drinks along with this duck mousse pate (that was NOT good), and some almonds I doctored up with raisins, curry and chili.

The first course was this handmade pasta from Vace, in Cleveland Park. To introduce the pork theme, I made a carbonara to go along with this spinach linguini. I didn't have pancetta, but the bacon worked. I really love the egg in this dish--so easy!

Second course: pork tenderloin on wilted chard. I had seared the tenderloin ahead of time, so when we came back from the gallery, I covered it and popped it in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes. Also made a reduction with the pan searings.

Then wilted some swiss chard in vegetable stock, added some red wine vinegar (but forgot the raisins). Then sliced the pork and topped the vegetables with it.

We had three different types of 2006 pinot noir: Foris, Yamhill Valley Reserve and Benziger.

Benziger was by far the best, followed by Foris.

Third course: Salad. Francoise and Tim brought a delicious blend of greens, blueberries, pinenuts, with shavings of Reggiano and a grapefruit juice vinaigrette. Francoise (who is French) indicated that it's really an American thing to add fruit to a salad. Whatever the country of origin, the salad was very nice!

Fourth course: Cheese. We had a Petit Basque, Comte, and a creamy brie.

For the finale: Peach cobbler! Candy made this lovely cobbler from scratch, with firm yellow peaches and served it hot with Vanilla ice cream! Soooooo good! We had it with this Benzier Port.

Two great things about hosting a dinner party:

1. Cool host gifts, like these tulips (from Sean and Candy) and this great bottle of wine (from Francoise and Tim)--thank you guys!

2. Fun leftovers (more on those latuh!!)

Marriage License, Morons, and Macarons

We were really excited to check "marriage license" off our to-do list today! During lunch, we went to the Arlington county courthouse to get it.

We were happy and felt like we accomplished an important milestone!!!! BUT when we got home and looked closely at the marriage license information, it read that it was good for sixty days. Then the two morons (that's us) counted the days til the wedding: over sixty days away. IDIOTS!!! So we'll have to either go back or get an extension or something. Surely others have made the same mistake!

However, one bit of very nice news came in the way of a surprise gift (with a thank you card) from Lindsey Ryan, our invitation designer: a box of macarons!! They were delivered (still chilled) today! So nice!!! I should be thanking her!

And it was fortuitous, because I was planning on doing another trial run (my third one in about a week and a half) of the macarons (they're going to be favors at my wedding); and the Payards version would be a good comparison. I had left out some egg whites to age...and the results: THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM!!! Success!! (More on those later). Here they are:

I just practiced the cookie part and added some red food coloring. Instead of a real stuffing/center, I just put blackberry jam between the two cookies. Here they are compared to one of the Payard macarons Lindsey gifted. What do you think?

Failures, surprises and success all in one day!

Mendocino Grille: Intimate and casually refined

I am a fan of Mendocino in Georgetown and have posted on them before. Formerly owned by the group that includes Sonoma (one of my all-time favorites in the city), it still retains its character as an intimate and casually refined restaurant.

And when my friend "M" wanted to go to an American restaurant (after just having come back from Spain), I knew just where to go. It's a great place to catch up with a friend. The small restaurant seats about 30 people. The menu changes often, but can be characterized as wine-country cuisine with a lot of fresh, locally sourced ingredients (which is de rigeur these days).

They also have a great wine list comprised primarily of American (California, Washington, and Oregon) producers. We had a rich, but very accessible (not too complex) 2005 Cal-Ital blend by Elyse called Nero Misto and a 2006 Freemark Abby Viognier (one of my favorite varietals).

We had three simple courses. I had a forgettable starter of soup with mushrooms.

The second course was this lovely bibb lettuce salad with a poached egg (I love poached eggs on salads--it's the contrasting warm and cold, crispy and soft).

Then had a main course of a simple striped bass with cripsy skin. It was accompanied by a rich and delicious shrimp, virginia ham and mushroom risotto, with pasta necks, and herbs. Very nice.

"M" had the seared rare hiramasa (a yellow-tail fish, very similar to hamachi, with a light golden flesh). It was done with a bit of Asian tasting notes that included shitakes, long beans, taro root, surf clam, miso broth. The texture was very nice, but the flavors were nothing too exciting. But a great light dish otherwise.

I had forgotten to ask the waiter to bring out a little birthday dessert for "M", as this was ostensibly a birthday pre-dinner. But oh well. He brought us these tasty little dark chocolate chip cookies. They were perfectly quarter-sized and helped me to not indulge too much (just two months til the wedding and all!).

The service is attentive and well-trained (no, no one is going to squat down next to you and try to be your buddy or talk too much--I hate that). It's a white-table cloth restaurant, so they know how to replace utensils (a given, but you'd be surprised!).

Thumbs up!